T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
128
CALEB IN
OLD AGE
By Ruth Paxson
G RAY HAIRS are no guarantee of spirituality. In deed, one of the tragedies of Christian experience is the spiritual slump that sometimes occurs in to begin in youth, as Caleb did, to prepare for old age. As we lay up temporal resources against the physical infirmities of old age, so we need to lay up spiritual reserves against the spiritual exigencies of the twilight years of life. There are two widely divergent viewpoints of old age. Some think of it as a descent. One reaches the highest point of usefulness, nay, even of enjoyment, at middle age, and from then on it is going down hill until death brings release. The aged one is looked upon often as a victim of unescapable circumstances, such as weakness, ill health, infirmity, loss of faculties and loneliness. But there is another totally different aspect of old age given us through Caleb’s life and one which seems far more in conformity with God’s purpose and plan. Should not old age be an ascent, a going up to an ever richer attainment and a higher achievement until death comes more as a reward to the victor than as a release of a victim, as it opens the door into a still more heavenly life and fruitful service? Caleb’s last years were his very best. His supreme achievement came at eighty-five years of age. There was no slump, no shrinkage, no stagnancy in Caleb’s life. We witness no spiritual collapse in his later years. Rather upon his gray head God places the crown of an over comer. In both physical and spiritual strength Caleb held his own up to the very last. His physical strength at eighty-five was undiminished and undecaying. "As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me; as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in” (Josh. 14:11). But an even greater marvel was his super}) spiritual strength. “Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakim were there, and that the cities were great and fenced; if so be the Lord will be with me, then X
shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said” (Josh. 14:12).. How superb the invincible spirit of Caleb the over comer! Caleb at eighty-five asking for the hardest task of all! “Give me this mountain.” Can you not hear him say it? “I know all about those Anakim and how afraid those young spies were of them forty-five years ago. I know their power and the apparent Impregnability of their position in that mountain fastness. Nevertheless, I am as assured of victory over them today as I was forty- five years ago. My faith rests now as it did then upon an unchanging and unchangeable foundation—the pre sence and the promise of God.” ' Was this presumptuous folly on Caleb’s part or was it only proper faith? “By their fruits ye shall know them.” Judging of Caleb’s action by this Scriptural test, what is our conclusion? What was the fruit of Caleb’s faith? It was a twofold achievement. First, there was the possession of his inheritance in Canaan: “And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephuhneh. Hebron for an inheritance" (Josh. 14:13). Then there was the dispossession of all his enemies in Canaan: “And Caleb drove thence the three sons of Anak, Sheshai, and Ahiman, and Talmai, the children of Anak” (Josh. 15:14). “And they gave Hebron unto Caleb, as Moses said: and he expelled thence the three sons of Anak” (Judg. 1:20). The victory was complete. Caleb was the only one who fully dispossessed the enemy. He expelled the sons of Anak from the land. As we face our own failure to possess fully our in heritance and to dispossess wholly our enemy, we are driven to ask, how did Caleb do it? What was the inner spring of such spiritual success? God leaves us in no doubt; He discloses it six times in Scripture. Why did Caleb enter Canaan while tens of thousands of Israelites who, as he, had been redeemed in Egypt and out of Egypt, died in the wilderness? Herein lies the answer. “Surely none of the men that came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land. . . because they have not wholly followed me. Save Caleb.. • and Joshua . . . for they have wholly followed the Lord" (Num. 32:11, 12). Why did Caleb possess his inheritance in Hebron while their carcasses lay whitening on the desert sand?
the declining years of even earnest Christians. We need
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