Caleb -- the Man for the Times

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

Numbers 14:24

But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and has followed me fully…

It is a rough name that — "Caleb." It signifies "a dog." But what matters a man's name? Possibly the man himself was somewhat rough; many of the heartiest of men are so. As the unpolished oyster yet beareth within itself the priceless pearl, so ofttimes a rugged exterior covereth worth. A dog, moreover, is not all badness. It hath this virtue, that it followeth its master; and therein this Caleb was well named, for never dog so followed his master as Caleb followed his God. The name, however, has another signification, and we like it rather better: it means "All heart." Here was a fitting surname for the man whose whole heart followed his God.

I. CALEB'S FAITHFUL FOLLOWING OF HIS GOD. He never went before his God. That is presumption. The highest point to which the true believer ever comes is to walk with God, but never to walk before Him.

1. He followed the Lord wholly; that is, universally, without dividing. Whatever his Master told him to do he did. I wish we could say the same of all professed Christians. You see Caleb was quite as ready to fight the giants as he was to carry the clusters. We have a host who are ready for sweet duties and spiritual engagements which bring joy and peace; but as for the fighting of giants — how many say, "I pray thee have me excused"!

2. Caleb followed the Lord fully; that is, sincerely, without dissembling. He was no hypocrite; he followed the Lord with his whole heart. One of the safest tests of sincerity is found in a willingness to suffer for the cause.

3. Caleb followed the Lord wholly; that is, cheerfully, without disputing. Those who serve God with a sad countenance, because they do what is unpleasant to them, are not His servants at all. Our God requires no slaves to grace His throne; He is the Lord of the empire of love.

4. He followed the Lord constantly — without declining. Having begun when he first started upon the search to exercise a truthful judgment, he persevered during the forty days of his spyship and brought back a true report. Forty-five years he lived in the camp of Israel, but all that time he followed the Lord, and never once consorted with murmuring rebels; and when his time came to claim his heritage, at the age of eighty-five, the good old man is following the Lord fully. Still his speech bewrayeth him; he shows a constant heart. God set His seal upon that man's soul in his youthful days, and he remained his God when grey hairs adorned his brow. How many professors fail in this respect!

II. CALEB'S FAVOURED PORTION.

1. In reward for his faithful following of his Master his life was preserved in the hour of judgment. The ten fell, smitten with plague, but Caleb lived. "Blessed is the man who hath the God of Jacob for his confidence." If any man shall experience special deliverances, Caleb is he. It he follows God fully, God will fully take care of him. When you look to nothing but your Master's honour, your Master will look to your honour. When Queen Elizabeth sent a certain merchant over to Holland he complained to her, "If I do your Majesty's business, my own business will be ruined." "You do my business," said the Queen, "and I will see to your business." It is so with our God. "My servant, serve thou Me, and I will serve thee." Caleb is willing to give his life for his Master, and therefore his Master gives him his life.

2. Caleb was also comforted with a long life of vigour. At eighty-five he was as strong as at forty, and still able to face the giants. If there be a Christian man who shall have in his old age a vigour of faith and courage, it is the man who follows the Lord fully. We gain our old saints from among those faithful young ones.

3. Caleb received as his reward great honour among his brethren. He was at least twenty years older than any other man in the camp except Joshua. "All died, and their carcases were buried in the wilderness, except that man and Joshua the son of Nun." At their council he would be regarded with as much reverence as Nestor in the assemblies of the Greeks; in their camps he would stand like another Achilles in the midst of the armies of Lacedaemon.

4. Caleb had the distinguished reward of being put upon the hardest service. That is always the lot of the most faithful servant of God. There were three huge warriors in Mount Hebron; no one will undertake to kill them except it be our good old friend Caleb. These Anakims, with their six toes on each foot and their six fingers on each hand, are to be upset and driven out. Who is to do it? If nobody else will offer himself, here is Caleb. Nay, he does not merely allow himself to be sent upon the service, but he craves permission to be allowed to take the place, the reason being because it was the worst task of the war, and he panted to have the honour of it. Grand old man! Would God thou hadst left many of thy like behind thee! If there is some pleasant thing to do for Christ, how we scramble after the service; but if there be a front place in the battle, "Oh, let Brother So-and-so do it." Do not you notice the way the most of men decline the honour of special danger? "Our friend So-and-so is much better qualified for that; let him take it." If we were true heroes, we should each of us contend which should undertake the most hopeless, the most difficult, and the most dangerous task.

5. Caleb left a blessing to his children. If I might envy any man, it would be the believer who from his youth up has walked through Divine grace according to his Lord's commandments, and who is able, when his day comes, to scatter benedictions upon his rising sons and daughters, and leave them with godliness which hath the blessing of this life and that which is to come. The blessing of the upper and the nether springs, then, was the reward of good old Caleb.

III. CALEB'S SECRET CHARACTER. The Lord saith of him, "Because he had another spirit with him." He had another spirit — not only a bold, generous, courageous, noble, and heroic spirit, but the Spirit and influence of God which thus raised him above human inquietudes and earthly fears. Therefore he followed God fully — literally he filled after Him. God showed him the way to take, and the line of conduct he must pursue, and he filled up this line, and in all things followed the will of his Master. Everything acts according to the spirit that is in it. Yonder lamp gives no light. Why? It has no oil. Here is another; it cheers the darkness of the cell. Why? It is full of oil, and oil is the mother of light. There are two huge bags of silk. One of them lies heavily upon the ground, the other mounts up towards the stars. The one is filled with carbonic acid gas; it cannot mount — it acts according to the spirit that is in it; it has a heavy gas, and there it lies. There is another full of hydrogen, and it acts according to the spirit that is in it, and up it goes; the light air seeks the lighter regions, and up it mounts. Everything according to its own order. The real way to make a new life is to receive a new spirit. There must be given us, if we would follow the Lord fully, a new heart, and that new heart must be found at the foot of the Cross, where the Holy Spirit works through the bleeding wounds of Jesus.

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