Wednesday, August 6, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Joshua 14-15
Key Verse
Joshua 15:25 — “And Hazor, Hadattah, and Kerioth, and Hezron, which is Hazor,”
Devotional Thought
The book of Joshua opens its final movement not with trumpet blasts but with a surveyor’s line and a ledger of names. Eleazar the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the fathers’ houses gather at Gilgal to divide the land by lot, “as the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses.” Nine tribes and a half receive their portions west of Jordan; Levi receives no tract of ground, only cities and suburbs, for the LORD Himself is their inheritance. It is an ordinary scene—boundaries, towns, villages—yet every line of it is the keeping of a promise made centuries earlier to Abraham.
Then the record pauses for one man. Caleb the son of Jephunneh, the Kenezite, comes to Joshua with a memory. Forty-five years earlier he had stood at Kadeshbarnea, forty years old, and brought back a faithful report while his brethren melted the people’s hearts. Moses swore that day that the land his feet had trodden would be his forever, “because thou hast wholly followed the LORD my God.” Now he is eighty-five. His strength for war is undiminished, and he asks not for an easy valley but for the mountain—Hebron, where the Anakims dwell in great fenced cities. “If so be the LORD will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out.” Joshua blesses him, and the hill becomes his.
There is a quiet rebuke and a quiet hope in the same chapter. Judah “could not drive out” the Jebusites of Jerusalem, and they dwell there “unto this day.” Even in the land of promise, obedience is incomplete, and the story waits for David. Yet over against that unfinished work stands Caleb, still climbing at eighty-five, still trusting the word spoken to him in his youth. The chapter ends with both: a stubborn enemy and a steadfast saint.
We read this in the long, slow days of August, when the year’s first fervor has worn thin and the harvest is not yet in. It is a good season to remember that God’s promises are not always swift, but they are sure. Some of us are waiting on a word given long ago—a prayer for a child, a calling, a healing. Caleb’s mountain reminds us that the waiting is not wasted. The same God who kept him alive forty-five years keeps His word still. And when the time comes, He gives strength to take the hill.
Reflection
- Caleb waited forty-five years for a promise and then asked for the hardest ground in it. What promise has God given you that you are tempted to stop believing because the years have grown long?
- Judah could not drive out the Jebusites, yet Caleb drove out the Anakims. Where in your own life is the difference between partial obedience and wholly following the LORD?
Prayer
LORD God of Israel, who keeps covenant and mercy unto them that love Thee, we thank Thee for Caleb’s witness—a man who wholly followed Thee at forty and still followed at eighty-five. Forgive us for the unbelief that shrinks from mountains and settles for less than Thy promise. Give us his spirit: patient in waiting, bold in asking, strong for the war. Help us to drive out what Thou hast commanded us to drive out, and to trust that where Thy word has gone before us, Thy presence will go with us. Keep us faithful to the end, until we inherit all that Thou hast promised, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.