FEATURES SEEN IN CALEB
Caleb’s history is very interesting. We have read of when he was eighty-five years old, but he was not always an old man. He was one who had come out from Egypt; he must have been a young man then. He had come through the Red Sea, which typically speaks of Christ’s death for me. How wonderful that is! Our brother who we will bury today knew that; he committed himself to the Lord Jesus at a young age. What was Caleb’s secret? His secret was that, in type, he had his faith and trust in the Lord Jesus, he had committed himself to God, and God sustained him through everything. That is a wonderful matter. During his whole life, Caleb was with God and God was with him. There are features that were seen in him – we read of him having another spirit – and I think that we could say that our brother had another spirit in him. What spirit was it? I would suggest that it was the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the One whom he loved, the One whom he knew had died for him on the cross at Calvary, the One in whom he had his faith and trust.
So Caleb had come out of Egypt and went through the Red Sea, then he journeyed through the wilderness for forty years. That speaks of believers’ day to day lives in this world which crucified and rejected the Lord Jesus; it becomes a wilderness to us. During that time, Caleb learned God, he learned the grace that was available. He knew in principle what it was to receive the gift of the Spirit and to move through the wilderness, to walk in newness of life. Our brother knew and exhibited all of these things.
We have read of Caleb as an old man, eighty-five years old, but he was still strong, there was still spiritual strength in him. I think we have seen in our brother that there was a spiritual strength which marked him to the very end. What the Lord Jesus did for our brother, He can do for you. As the old hymn writer put it, ‘What He’s done for others, He can do for you’. Jesus is available today. You can come to know Him as our brother knew Him, you can come under the shelter of His precious blood. In each of the houses of the children of Israel when they were in Egypt, the blood was put on the door posts and the lintel. Come under the shelter of the blood of Jesus and be able to say, ‘Christ died for me’. What a Saviour Christ is, and our brother used to love to speak of Him. Perhaps you have been in his house when he spoke to you, and then when you went away, I have no doubt that he prayed for you.
There were features seen in Caleb which were seen in our brother. Another feature seen in Caleb was that he was not critical. He was eighty-five years old. He had been in the wilderness for forty years. He had been one of those who had spied out the land, who went into the inheritance and saw what it was, and what marked him was that he believed God. God said that He was going to bring His people Israel into the land, and Caleb believed Him. Caleb’s confidence was in God, and he knew that God was able to bring them into the land. The other spies had said that there were giants in the land (Num.13:33), and that the people were not able for it, but Caleb believed God. He was eighty-five years old and he was looking for his inheritance. What does that speak of? It speaks of the purpose of God. Caleb wanted Hebron; it was what God had said that he would have. In the chapter before we read in Numbers, it tells us that “Hebron had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt”, Num.13:22. What does that mean? It means that there was something there before this world, and it was in God’s purpose. God’s purpose is that we are to come into the land and enjoy the inheritance, enjoy Christ where He is. You do not have to wait until you go to heaven to enjoy the inheritance; the inheritance is to be enjoyed now. Our brother enjoyed it – that was the secret of his life. Caleb knew what God’s purpose was during all those forty years when he was not yet in the land, but it was in his heart before he was in it in actuality.
Another feature that marked Caleb was the way in which he was able to present things attractively. Caleb does not represent what is gifted exactly, but he demonstrates what he was himself in the enjoyment of. He could say that whoever took the city, “to him will I gave Achsah my daughter as wife”, Josh.15:16. Caleb was in principle able to set out the truth of the assembly attractively, because, in type, he loved it. The upper springs and the lower springs (v.19) speak of the Spirit and His service in enabling us to enjoy the inheritance and in helping us in our exercises down here.
May each one of us be helped in our commitments. Caleb committed himself as a young man. Our brother committed himself as a young man, and that commitment went right through his life. Now he has been taken. Some of us were speaking here last Lord’s day afternoon about what the Lord does Himself. The Lord Himself is going to come, He is going to wake with an assembling shout those who are fallen asleep. Our brother will have part in that. The Lord Himself has come and has put him to sleep; that is what the Lord Himself has done. What a gracious act of the Lord Jesus.
Another thing that our brother used to love to speak about was the rapture, the Lord’s coming for His own. The hymn writer said:
‘The sky, not the grave, is our goal’ (Hymn 238)
That was really what our brother’s life was; he was looking for the rapture. The Lord has been pleased to take him, and he is at no disadvantage. The dead in Christ are at no disadvantage, because the “dead in Christ shall rise first; then we, the living who remain, shall be caught up together with them”, 1 Thess.4:17.
Scripture does not tell us about the death of Caleb, and in that sense, I think he represents those who wait for the Lord’s coming, who represent the work of God in those who love Him and know Him. These features which marked Caleb were features which in some measure marked our brother, and they are to mark you, they are to mark me. May we be helped in these things, and may we be encouraged, for the Lord’s name’s sake.
Given at a meeting for ministry on the occasion of a burial, Grangemouth
20 December 2018
B.W. Lovie