The Warrior: Caleb

by Francine Rivers

  God assigned the other inheritances, and the areas were marked out on a map. Judah’s allotment was in the heart of Canaan, including the mountain where Abraham had taken Isaac and made ready to offer him to the Lord in obedience to God’s command, but the Lord had called out to him to withhold his hand from the boy and provided the offering Himself.

  “Are you all right, Caleb?”

  “I’m growing old.”

  Joshua’s face softened. “Our day will come, my friend.”

  “Will it?” Caleb bowed his head in shame. Who was he to question God? Forgive me, Lord. It’s only that . . . He stopped the thought. Forgive me! He fought against the despair filling him. He had spent forty years wandering in the wilderness because of the faithlessness of his generation. And now he was spending his last years fighting a war and allotting the land to the sons of the very men whose sin had kept him out of the Promised Land all those years. The Lord would keep His promises, but that did not mean all would be as Caleb had hoped.

  Canaan was a land of mountains and valleys, pasturelands and rippling streams. Blossoms scented the air and hummed with the bees that made honey, as cattle and sheep and goats on a thousand hills grazed and grew fat, providing milk and meat in plenty. The olive trees were loaded with their fruit, as were the apricot, pomegranate, and palm trees. Grapevines spread plentifully across the ground, bearing clusters enough to feed an entire family. The land of milk and honey!

  Everything the Lord had said came true. The richness of Canaan made Caleb’s head spin with dreams and longings he knew he must not dwell upon, for the Lord had not released him from his call to stand at Joshua’s side. He must continue to wage war against the idol worshipers who had polluted the paradise God had created.

  He must not question.

  But sometimes the ache in his heart seemed past enduring. Lord, Lord, help me!

  “The Lord will keep His promise, Caleb.”

  “He already has. The Lord promised that I would enter Canaan. And He has kept that promise.” He looked away so that Joshua would not see the moisture growing in his eyes. Dropping his chin, he cleared his throat softly and waited a moment more before he could trust his voice. “God did not say I would return to farming.”

  * * *

  FIVE

  * * *

  “When do we get our land, Father? How long do we have to fight and place others first before we get our own inheritance?”

  Caleb had struggled with these same questions over the past year. It wouldn’t do to join in his sons’ yearning. Joshua had not released him yet. “Our opportunity will come.”

  “When?”

  “When Joshua says it is time.”

  “Joshua will never say it’s time, Father. He needs you!”

  “Do not speak as a fool. Joshua doesn’t need me. The Lord is with him.”

  “He will never release you, Father. Not until you ask him to let you go.”

  Was that what they thought? “Joshua and I stood together against the unfaithful generation. We stand together now. He speaks for the Lord.” Frowning, he watched his son Hur pour himself another cup of wine. Perhaps it was too much wine that roused their impatience this day. “My sons . . .” Caleb spoke gently, hoping to snuff out the sparks that could so easily take flame. “We may be twelve tribes, but remember, we are all sons of Jacob. We must work together to take the land. Together, we are strong in the Lord. Divided, we weaken.”

  “Yes.” A young voice spoke boldly. “We must wait upon the Lord.”

  “Hush, Hebron!” Jesher glowered. “Who are you to remind us of the Lord?”

  Hebron’s face reddened, but he was wise enough not to pursue the argument. Caleb studied his young grandson. At least one among these young lions had a heart for God. “Hebron speaks wisely.”

  “Hebron speaks as a boy with his whole life ahead of him.” Jesher’s eyes flashed. “What of you, Father?”

  “Ah. So you cry out for my sake?” He mocked them. “Is it a cave you hope to claim? A place to put my bones?”

  “We have waited long enough!” The others called out agreement.

  “Manasseh, the Reubenites, and the Gadites haven’t cleared their land of the enemy. When they do—”

  “When they do?” Mesha rose, impatient. “They never will.”

  Caleb’s face went hot. “Do not speak ill of your brothers.” As each year passed, his own impatience grew. He did not need his sons to fan the blaze of sin.

  “I speak the truth, Father, and well you know it.”

  His other sons joined in the argument. “Those tribes are not eager to aid us.”

  “They gave their word,” Caleb reminded them in a hard voice. “And God will hold them to it.”

  “They long to return to their flocks and herds on the east side of the Jordan.”

  “If Moses hadn’t made them take an oath, they wouldn’t be helping us now. And they took that oath because they knew they’d all die if they didn’t.”

  “They’re half-minded, looking east rather than fully committed to the battle before us.”

  “Judah is like a lion, and you are the greatest lion of all, Father. Why must we be the last tribe to receive an inheritance?”

  “Enough!” His sons fell silent before his anger. Caleb clenched his teeth, and breathed out slowly before speaking again. “You call me a lion, and so I must rule this pride. Listen. All of you!” He waited for their full attention and spoke slowly, fervently. “We must encourage the others to fulfill the Word of the Lord. We must clear the land of every pagan. If we fail in this, the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, and all the rest will be stumbling blocks for generations to come!”

  “We will drive them from our land, Father. We will kill them!”

  “It is these other tribes who do not seem intent on getting the work done.” Mesha leaned toward Caleb, eyes hot. “If we wait, we will have nothing!”

  Caleb grabbed Mesha by the throat. Mesha grabbed his wrist, but could not break free. Caleb dug his fingers in until Mesha’s eyes rolled back, then let him go. Mesha rasped, coughed.

  “If you ever speak rebellion against the Lord again, I’ll kill you.” Caleb turned his face from Mesha and looked at each of his sons, one at a time. “Don’t make the mistake of thinking I’ll spare my own household!”

  There was silence in the tent. No one moved. Not even the women standing by, ready to serve.

  Shobab, ever the peacemaker, spread his hands in a conciliatory gesture. “We ask only that you pray about it, Father. Your heart is pure before the Lord.”

  “Pure?” Caleb sneered. “No man has a pure heart.” Not even Joshua could boast such a thing. Caleb exhaled slowly. They were so quick to battle. Should any man take pleasure in shedding the blood of an enemy? No! Did God take pleasure in killing? Never! Caleb could not help wondering if there would come another day when Israel would be an enemy of God and the judgment would come upon them. These sons of his had only been in the Promised Land four years, and already the bones left in the wilderness were forgotten.

  I will not forget, Lord!

  He would not allow himself to believe he was impervious to sin, that it could not draw him into deceit and bring him down as it had brought down other men better than he. Moses, for one.

  “I have prayed, Shobab. I continue to pray. I see what you all see, and long for our land as much as—if not more than—you do. But we must wait upon the Lord! We must do all according to God’s plan and not our own. If we go after what we want now, we are even less than these brothers you speak against. Without the Lord on our side, we have no hope or future.”

  Caleb felt compassion within his anger. Some of these sons were now older than he had been when he first set foot in Canaan forty-four years ago. They saw the land as he had then, a fulfillment of God’s promise, a place of milk and honey. But it was also a place that ran deep with the corruption of the people who had dwelt upon it. The land must be cleansed first, and then it would become what God meant it
to be: a land and people ruled by the God of heaven and earth. And all the nations of the earth would see the difference between His ways and those of men.

  These sons, so much like him, thought only of land and houses, a place to rest. Surely God’s plan was greater than to sit beneath an olive tree and enjoy the fruit of the land. Caleb was convinced God’s plan was greater than any man could imagine. Judah was like a pride of lions. And Caleb must be the strongest lion among them. He must do battle against them for their sake.

  “I did not wander for forty years in the wilderness and oversee your training so that we would become like a pack of wolves, thinking only of ourselves!” Caleb raised his fist. “We shall lead the other tribes as God bids us lead them. Let them see Judah wait. Let them see Judah fight so that others might claim their inheritance first.”

  Reaching out, he rested his hand gently on Mesha’s shoulder. “Let them see this pride of lions show humility.”

  Caleb dreamed again of the hill country. Hunkering down, he took a handful of soil and rubbed it between his fingers, letting it sift and drop. Above him was Kiriath-arba with its high gates and fierce warriors.

  Let me have them, Lord. Let me vanquish them.

  Go, My servant. Take the land.

  Startled awake, Caleb sat up. His heart drummed. A strange prickling sensation made every hair on his body stand up. “Lord,” he whispered. “So be it.” He stood, dressed, and called for his servant. “Rouse my sons and tell them to gather Judah.”

  The men came and stood waiting for his instructions. “We go to Gilgal.” He did not have to say more. The men cheered.

  Caleb led the sons of Judah up the hill. One of the men standing before Joshua’s tent ducked inside. Joshua came out. He moved toward Caleb, and clasped arms with him. He looked past him to the men and then released Caleb. “Speak, my friend. Why have you come?”

  “Remember what the Lord said to Moses, the man of God, about you and me when we were at Kadesh-barnea. I was forty years old when Moses, the servant of the Lord, sent me from Kadesh-barnea to explore the land of Canaan. I returned and gave from my heart a good report, but my brothers who went with me frightened the people and discouraged them from entering the Promised Land. For my part, I followed the Lord my God completely. So that day Moses promised me, ‘The land of Canaan on which you were just walking will be your special possession and that of your descendants forever, because you wholeheartedly followed the Lord my God.’”

  Joshua nodded gravely. “I remember well.”

  Caleb, too, remembered. The memories came with a rush of sorrow. They had been bound together because of their faith, two men against a nation. Had God not stood as a wall between them and the sons of Israel, he and Joshua would have been stoned to death. He remembered the forty days of traveling with Joshua, how they had entered the towns and pretended to be traders, how they had talked to the people of the land, telling them of the plagues of Egypt, the Red Sea opening, the cloud and pillar of fire that sheltered them. They had given warning. None had listened.

  Joshua had been a young man then, untried, eager to serve Moses, never ambitious for the position God would give him. When it had come and Moses had laid his hands upon Joshua’s shoulders and the burden of the people with it, Caleb had seen the fear in his eyes and wondered at God’s choice. But God had been faithful. God had molded Joshua into the leader He had intended him to be. And God had brought them into the land He had promised them.

  It struck Caleb’s heart how much he would miss this man so many years younger than he. They had stood together over the past forty-five years. Now, they must separate and take possession of the land God had given each of them. They must wipe Canaan clean, build homes, establish their sons. They could no longer sit together and talk or walk through the camps after evening sacrifices. Time was a cruel master. Still, they would see one another when the tribes came together for Passover at the place the Lord would establish. Surely their friendship would stand despite the distance.

  O Lord, watch over and protect Joshua. Keep him strong of heart, mind, soul, and body.

  Israel’s captain had aged in the past five years. How much, troubled Caleb. But he could not turn away from what the Lord had called him to do: Take the hill country.

  “Now, as you can see, the Lord has kept me alive and well as He promised for all these forty-five years since Moses made this promise—even while Israel wandered in the wilderness. Today I am eighty-five years old. I am as strong now as I was when Moses sent me on that journey, and I can still travel and fight as well as I could then. So I’m asking you to give me the hill country that the Lord promised me. You will remember that as scouts we found the Anakites living there in great, walled cities. But if the Lord is with me, I will drive them out of the land, just as the Lord said.”

  Moisture filled Joshua’s eyes. They both had known this day would come. It had to come. Joshua nodded solemnly. “Kiriath-arba is yours, Caleb.”

  Caleb’s heart quickened with joy.

  Joshua grasped Caleb’s arm and turned him to face the sons of Judah. He raised his voice so that all could hear. “Kiriath-arba belongs to Caleb!”

  Caleb’s sons rejoiced, as did the others. They didn’t understand that they’d face the greatest test of their lives, but the Lord would be with them. The Lord would shine His face upon them and give them victory, if only they stood firm in their faith. For without the Lord, they wouldn’t be able to stand against those who dwelt in Kiriath-arba.

  Joshua clasped Caleb’s hand in a hard grip. “That place has always been yours, and so it always shall be.”

  It had been Kiriath-arba who had set fear in the hearts of the other ten spies and made them feel like grasshoppers.

  Kiriath-arba, the city inhabited by giants.

  “For the Lord!” Caleb raised his sword and Mesha blew the shofar. Caleb and his sons led their warriors against the Anakites, who, brash and arrogant, had mocked the Lord God of Israel and come out against Judah.

  “For the Lord!” Caleb felt the strength flow into him even as the words burst from his lips. He ran with the strength of youth, feeling he could soar on eagle’s wings to the top of those hills. His sword rang as it blocked an Anakite’s swing. Turning, Caleb drove his shoulder hard into the man’s stomach, sending him back just enough that he could drive his sword up beneath the chest armor, straight into his heart. Caleb yanked his sword free as the man crumpled. Stepping over him, he shouted the battle cry again and kept going.

  The cave of Machpelah would no longer be in the possession of idol worshipers and blasphemers. He struck down two more Anakites as they came at him. The burial place of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their wives would once more be held by Hebrews! He hacked into an Anakite’s thigh, tumbling him, cleaving his skull as he tried to rise.

  The hillsides reverberated with the cry, “For the Lord!” Caleb and his sons and the men of Judah surged up the hill, driving into the Anakites. The warriors who had once made Israel quake and refuse to enter the Promised Land melted in fear and tried to run. Caleb cried out to his sons. “Don’t let them escape the judgment of the Lord!” The Anakites were pursued and cut down until the four hills on which the city stood were strewn with the dead.

  Arba, the king of Kiriath-arba, was hedged in. One by one, the Anakite warriors fell.

  “The king,” Mesha shouted. “We have the king!”

  Caleb came at a run, bursting through the lines. “There is no king but the Lord our God!” He brushed his son aside.

  Mesha tried to block him. “What are you going to do?”

  Caleb saw the fear in his son’s eyes. “I’m going to kill him.”

  “We’ll do it, Father.”

  “Stand aside.”

  Cornered, Arba glared, teeth bared. He held his mighty sword in huge hands, swinging it back and forth, spitting insults and hissing blasphemies.

  Caleb strode toward him. “Lord, give me strength!” At his cry, his sons lowered their swords. The men
of Judah held their ground and watched.

  “Come to me.” Arba jerked his chin up. “Come to me, you little red dog.”

  And Caleb came in the strength of the Lord. With one swing, he severed Arba’s sword arm. With the second, he sliced along the base of Arba’s chest armor so the Anakite’s innards spilled out. As Arba fell to his knees, Caleb swung one last time, and sent the enemy of God into the dust.

  “Cleanse the city!”

  The men of Judah poured through the gates, killing every citizen, from the oldest to the youngest. They broke down the pagan altars and burned them. Household gods were put through fire, melting down the gold so the images were destroyed. The best of everything was then set aside to be delivered to Joshua for the Lord’s treasury.

  Caleb stood on the highest of the four hills and surveyed the land the Lord had given him. This ground on which he stood was rich in history. During his first visit, he had heard that Kiriath-arba was the oldest city in the hill country, an ancient dwelling place for Canaanite royalty, founded seven years before Tanis in Egypt. Somewhere nearby was the cave of Machpelah that served as the burial place for Abraham, who had been called out of Ur by the Lord. With him were buried his wife, Sarah, who had born the son of promise, Isaac, who married Rebekah and fathered Jacob, who had twelve sons and came to be known as Israel—one who contends with God.

  Heart full, Caleb raised his hands to the Lord like a child asking to be lifted up. The strength that had pulsed through him for the battle had waned, leaving in its wake gratitude and praise.

  “This place shall no longer be called Kiriath-arba.” He thought of Abraham, first in faith, and knew the name it should bear. “It shall be called beloved of God.”

  Hebron. Like his grandson.

  “You look well, my friend.”

  Caleb heard the tremor in Joshua’s voice and could say nothing. He grasped his arms. They kissed both cheeks in greeting. Joshua did not look well. Caleb stood to one side. Joshua reached out, gesturing for him to remain close at his side as he always had.