Lesson 8: “Giants of Faith: Joshua and Caleb”
COLLEEN TINKER | Editor, Proclamation! Magazine |
Who were Caleb and Joshua, and what set them apart and made them famous men from the Old Testament that we still remember today? What makes someone a “good example”—and who is the greatest example of all? And what about God’s promises? What determines whether or not God’s promises are fulfilled? How do we affect the outcome of God’s promises?
Appropriating Caleb and Joshua for Adventist Inspiration
This week’s lesson focusses on the two spies who originally encouraged the nation of Israel to go into Canaan and take the land when their ten compatriots returned with negative messages. When Moses had sent twelve men to spy out the land, ten of them had cited giants, walled cities, and overwhelming obstacles as reasons why the nation should not go into the land God promised to give them.
Only two of them, Caleb and Joshua, had returned with encouragement. Because Israel had resonated with the negative reports, disbelieving that God would actually do what He said and give them the land, God punished that generation with forty years of wandering in the wilderness. The entire generation that left Egypt—with the exception of Caleb and Joshua—would die before entering the Promised Land.
The lesson focusses on these two men and develops an argument that they were examples of faith. It recounts the division of the land among the tribes and makes much of the fact that Caleb received his land grant first, and then, at the end of the division of the land, Joshua received the land he wanted.
In the Bible the stories of these men and of their rewards of land are the bookends of the twelve tribes receiving their allotments. Each of them requested the land he wanted, and in each case, the men’s wishes were granted. Yet the author of the lesson appropriates these men’s faithfulness and their land allotments and uses them as the framework for a week’s studies about good examples and the need to follow good examples in order to grow spiritually.
Yet spiritual growth is not premised upon following good examples—nor were Caleb and Joshua’s defining faith accurately described.
In the process of developing this point of “good example-ing”, Tuesday’s lesson recounts Caleb’s offer of his daughter’s hand in marriage to anyone who would capture the city of Debir. Othniel captured Debir, and Caleb gave him Achsah for his wife. Achsah requested not only a field for her and Othniel’s inheritance but also two springs of water—which Caleb granted. The lesson uses this story to say that Caleb was bequeathing the sample of his own faith and willingness to do the right thing to the next generation. Achsah, therefore, is presented in the lesson as an example that Caleb was successful in preparing the next generation to take up his mantle of faith and fortitude.
Yet the story of Caleb as well as the story of Joshua reveal two men who believed and trusted God in spite of opposition. They were faithful to God, and they personally received the blessings God had promised to give Israel because they trusted God. The lesson, however, uses these stories to teach the Adventist reader to focus on making leaders of the next generation. These words end Tuesday’s lesson:
Passing on the torch of faith to the next generation is crucial to the fulfillment of the mission God has entrusted to us. Think about the challenges of passing on faith to the next generation, on the one hand, and about the opportunities for young people to assume more responsibility in the work of God, on the other. What can we do to facilitate and train youth to assume godly leadership? How crucial is our example in this process?
While helping the next generation trust God and take up their place among the legacy of those who believe and bring glory to God is always an application we can make from applying Scripture to our lives, this account of Caleb, Joshua, and of Israel’s taking possession of their tribal territories is not about being good examples. The lesson is appropriating this part of Israel’s history and using it to imprint Adventism and its goals upon the consciences of the Adventist readers.
Giants and the Simple Life
Caleb received his land first, and Joshua 14:12–14 tells the story:
“So now, give me this hill country about which Yahweh spoke on that day, for you heard on that day that Anakim [were] there, with great fortified cities; perhaps Yahweh will be with me, and I will dispossess them as Yahweh has spoken.” So Joshua blessed him and gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. Therefore, Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite until this day because he fully followed Yahweh, the God of Israel.—Joshua 14:12–14 LSB
Caleb settled the land of the giants—the Anakim—and destroyed them. The rest of the tribes proceeded to receive their allotments by the casting of lots—probably the Urim and the Thummim—and at the end of the accounts of the tribal allotments, Joshua, received his land last:
So they finished [apportioning] the land for inheritance by its borders. Then the sons of Israel gave an inheritance in their midst to Joshua the son of Nun. In accordance with the command of Yahweh they gave him the city for which he asked, Timnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim. So he built the city and settled in it.—Joshua 19:49–50 LSB
Scripture recounts that each of these two men who trusted God received the land they desired, and their personal allotments were the bookends to the nation’s receiving their tribal allotments. The faithful spies—one of whom was Joshua their new leader—bound together the story of the nation as they came into possession of the land. Yet the lesson uses this account to draw a moral lesson for the Adventist reader:
Certainly, after the newly born nation of Israel had been led into the Promised Land, and, with God’s help, secured the inheritance of each tribe and family, it would not have objected to Joshua’s demand for a more impressive inheritance. Yet, Joshua was content to live a simple life with a focus on what is most important…What lessons can you draw for yourself regarding Joshua’s attitude? How might you apply it to yourself now?
This story of Joshua is not a story from which we are expected to draw a lesson about our attitude. It is in the biblical account as a record of what God did and how He led His nation, providing for the men who honored Him in spite of opposition. The accounts in context have authorial intent: these are the historical records of God’s faithfulness to His own covenant promises. These are not stories we can appropriate for ourselves as examples of spiritual disciplines to be more holy. Rather, they reveal the complete faithfulness of God Himself.
Both Caleb and Joshua received the land they wanted, and God gave them His blessing. Caleb was the first “bookend”; Joshua, appropriately, was last. He was not a king nor a warrior but was the servant of God who led Israel exactly as God commissioned him at each juncture as they took the land of Canaan. Joshua led God’s people into the Promised Land, and after His work was done, He received the land he desired.
It is a misuse of Scripture to take these accounts and force them to be examples of how to develop a self-abnegating attitude, of letting go of personal dreams and submitting to a simple life of obedience. In fact, no one is able to develop better attitudes or to apply Joshua’s trust in God to oneself by following an example.
Joshua, like Abraham, believed God and acted on His revelation to him. If there is a lesson in these stories for us, it is that once again we see that God will do what He says He will do—and when we believe and trust what He reveals to us, we experience His provision and blessing. We do not have to make His promises to us happen. We just have to trust Him and walk where He says to walk.
“God’s Promises Are Not Self-Fulfilling”
Monday’s lesson reveals the Adventist teaching that underlies this lesson’s emphasis on developing holiness by following good examples. The last paragraph of the day’s study includes this:
Caleb understood that the territory each tribe would eventually possess was directly proportionate to the extent to which they dared to claim the promises of the Lord and how much land they were willing to tread upon by faith. God’s promises are not self-fulfilling, in the sense that they come true irrespective of our will. Rather, they require faith accompanied by resolute action.
First, the Ellen White-authorized interpretation that the tribes received allotments in proportion to their personal effort to take out the incumbent local kings and appropriate the territory is an inside-out analysis of what the Bible reveals. Second, as an explanation that the tribes’ allocations were dependent upon their own efforts to do the work of taking the land, the author inserts the Adventist teaching that “God’s promises are not self-fulfilling”, that they come about because of our own involvement, our own choices to cooperate with God and to obey His law. God’s promises, within the Adventist worldview, depend on human choices and upon our own decisions t prove ourselves worthy of receiving those promises.
This teaching is anti-biblical.
First, the author never discusses the fact that Israel’s going into the land was under the governance of the Mosaic covenant. The Mosaic Covenant was a CONDITIONAL covenant, a two-way covenant between God and the nation of Israel. From the inception of the covenant on Mt. Sinai, God had promised blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. The entire nation had agreed to do all that God had said.
Overarching the Mosaic Covenant with Israel was the UNCONDITIONAL covenant God had made with Abraham. That covenant was NOT two-way; God had put Abraham to sleep when He ratified that covenant, and Abraham had not made any promises to God to obey or to do anything to ensure that God would bring about His promises to give Abraham seed, land, and blessing. No response from Abraham was involved in God’s covenanting that Abraham’s descendants would be enslaved for 400 years, that the Lord would bring them out of slavery with great wealth and bring them into the Promise Land in the fourth generation after His covenant recorded in Genesis 15.
In the account of Joshua’s leading Israel into Canaan, we see God keeping His covenant promises to Abraham. In spite of the rebellion and unbelief of the nation itself, He led them out of Egypt miraculously. He provided water from a rock in the desert and manna from heaven for 40 years during which the unbelieving first generation died in the wilderness. He led them under Joshua through parted Jordan River into the Promised Land, and He directed the national battles that established Israel as the people of the True God who had the right to give the land to the people He appointed.
God was fulfilling His promises all on His own without any will or obedience or choice or decision of the people. He took them out of slavery, punished their enslavers, provided for them, and brought them into the land He promised.
Concurrently in the accounts of Joshua leading Israel, God was dealing with the nation according to the terms of their national covenant: the Mosaic covenant. This covenant WAS conditional. In this covenant, the people themselves would not experience God’s blessings without their own obedience to the terms of their covenant with God.
The lesson tells us that the tribes of Israel would not possess any more land than they were willing to personally claim and take from the indigenous people. Yet Joshua 13 through 18 recounts the allotment of the land to the different tribes. Each tribe’s portion was decided by the casting of lots—probably the Urim and the Thumim on the high priest’s breastplate.
In Chapter 18–19:51 we learn that there were seven tribes that hadn’t yet received their land assignments, and at Shiloh Joshua cast lots and made the final allotments for the last seven tribes. After that, Joshua received his portion.
The biblical account shows us that God absolutely kept His promises: He directed Joshua’s taking the land for the nation and then his casting of lots to assign the tribal territories. Occupying the territories required surveying the land and assigning fair distributions, but those assignments were non-negotiable.
The land was sovereignly bequeathed and assigned to the nation, but the tribes had to appropriate their God-given assignments. As the NASB95 text note says, “A distinction must therefore be made between the national wars of conquest [the book of ] (Joshua) and the tribal wars of occupation (Judges 1–2).”
The lesson, however, reflects Adventism’s foundation teaching that all of God’s promises are conditional. This teaching ignores God’s unconditional covenants which involved no human promises at all. When God makes covenant promises ratified by His word alone, those promises are not conditional upon human behavior or obedience or participation. Those promises WILL happen.
Only the Mosaic Covenant was a two-way agreement between God and humans—and those humans were only the nation of Israel. The Mosaic Covenant with its laws and commandments cannot be transferred to any other people or applied in any other situation. Adventists, for example, cannot appropriate the Ten Commandments out of the Mosaic Covenant and say they describe Adventist obedience. They cannot claim to be the true “spiritual Israel” who are keeping God’s commandments.
God did not make the Mosaic Covenant nor give the Ten Commandments—the very “words of the covenant” (Exodus 34:27, 28) to any other people and never to gentiles.
Believe God
The lesson’s attempt to appropriate the stories of Caleb and Joshua as examples of men who make good choices so God’s promises can be fulfilled is a misuse of Scripture. Caleb and Joshua were not examples of men who made “good choices” and confirmed the Adventist view of human free will as the ultimate value in the universe. Caleb and Joshua did not enable God to keep His promises, and neither did Israel’s slowness to obey prevent God from keeping His promises.
God’s promises are always being kept; people, however, either receive God’s personal blessings or not based upon whether or not they believe God.
Adventism misunderstands salvation—and this misunderstanding is the reason they use these Old Testament accounts a moral lessons.
First, Adventism does not teach that every human that is born in Adam is born literally—not figuratively—spiritually dead, as Ephesians 2:1–3 tells us. In fact, we are “by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3). We cannot choose to please God or to obey Him. Our wills are dead, not free to seek, choose, or obey God as Romans 3:9–18 explains. We must be made alive through faith in Christ by the grace of God. This spiritual new birth is nothing we initiate or accomplish. Here is what Paul tells us:
But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved– and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly [places] in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God; not of works, so that no one may boast.—Ephesians 2:4–9 LSB
When we finally hear the word of our salvation and believe, we receive God’s guarantee that we are saved:
In Him, you also, after listening to the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation–having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, unto the redemption of [God’s own] possession, to the praise of His glory.—Ephesians 1:13, 14 LSB
When we are born again and indwelled by the Holy Spirit of Promise, we are eternally secure; we pass from death to life, as Jesus Himself said in John 5:24.
The lesson this weeks eclipses God’s eternal, unconditional promises that He had made. His promises to Abraham that He would give him seed, land, and blessing are still being fulfilled. He is still keeping His promises to give the descendants of Israel the land He promised Abraham they would have—and He is still fulfilling His promises to Abraham that His descendants would be more numerous than the stars or the sand—and that all nations—including us gentiles—would be blessed in him!
Gentiles are not the recipients of God’s conditional promises to Israel. We cannot take over their covenant and make it ours; the book of Galatians is explicit that if we put ourselves under the law—any part of it—we fall from grace. That law was only for Israel. But on this side of the cross we become reconciled to God by faith in the finished atonement of the Lord Jesus.
If we believe in the Lord Jesus, we pass from death to life, and are ushered into the new covenant in Jesus’ blood—another UNCONDITIONAL covenant that God has made on the basis of His Son’s becoming a man and taking human sin, dying for it, and breaking its curse for all who believe.
The condition of being counted righteous in God’s eyes has always been the same: BELIEVE GOD. Abraham was our prototype: He believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6). Caleb and Joshua also believed God. They believed that He told the truth when He said He would give Israel the Promised Land, and only they were willing to act on God’s word in spite of the observable “evidence”.
Today, our only proper response to God is to believe what He has revealed in His Son:
Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”—John 6:29 LSB
When God reveals His will and His provision, we are asked to do one thing: BELIEVE. When we believe in His Son, He makes us alive with His own resurrection life, and we are born again and justified before God.
These Old Testament accounts are not examples of good behavior that we are to follow. They are not examples of God intervening in our lives in order to make us good or to give us success. Rather, these accounts reveal the sovereign God who loves us in our sin and provides a rescue from our natural state of death. He reveals Himself as He shows us who we are—and He draws us to Himself and to His own life, taking us out of this domain of darkness and placing us in Himself where we are justified and adopted as children of God.
Adventist, look up. Ask the Lord to remove your Ellen White lenses and to show you what is real and true. Trust the sovereign Lord who is still keeping His eternal promises to Abraham through the death, burial, and resurrection of His own Son who paid the full price for our sin.
Look to Jesus, and live! †
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