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, Yes, they are like people who are halfhearted. I wonder whether their colors may not tell us why they are halfhearted. One is black, reminding us of sin. Sin often accounts for the halfheart ed attitude on the part of many peo ple. Jeremiah 17:9 ' tells us that “ the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” Another heart is yellow. When we speak of a person’s being yellow, we mean that he is afraid. We have all known people who were halfhearted in the Lord’s Service, because they feared their companions. The third heart is green. I have heard people called green when they were ignorant or inexperienced. Cer tainly, the person who is halfhearted in God’s service is unmindful of the great rewards God has for those who faithfully serve Him. Here is a whole heart. It reminds us of those who wholeheartedly serve God. [Place it in the center of the triangle..] Caleb was a man who wholeheartedly served God. In Joshua 14:14, we read, “Hebron therefore be came the inheritance of Caleb . . . be cause that he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel. Let us learn from Caleb and from these hearts that God has special re wards for all those who wholeheart edly serve Him.
were about to go into the land the Lord had promised t<_ them, Caleb and Joshua were among the ones who went in first, to see what the country was like, and to tell the others about it. These two men came back with glad news- They said there were giants in the land, yes; but the Lord would help His people, and there was noth ing to fear. A ll the other men who had been with Caleb and Joshua, looking at the new land, were frightened and cow ardly. They forgot God’s power, and they told such a sad story about the new country that the people were afraid to obey God, and He had to punish them by keeping them out of the land for a Ipng time. Joshua and Caleb were not like that. They believed God with all their hearts. And they were glad they did, for God did something fine for each of them. He made Joshua a leader of the people. He told Caleb that be cause he had trusted God, some day he and his children would have, as their very own, the part of the coun try that Caleb had walked over when he had gone in as a spy long, long be fore. Caleb had to wait forty-five long years. His friends who had doubted God all died, but Caleb was strong and ready to have his mountain home. (Read 14:13.) So God gave it to him. Caleb had learned: “The Lord is my helper . . (Memory Verse). Object Lesson H alfhearted or W holehearted OBJECTS: Four hearts, cut from black, green, yellow, and white paper. (Cut the colored hearts in half—one vertically, one Horizontally, and the other obliquely. Discard half of each heart, and thumbtack the remainder to the board at the points of a triangle.) LESSON: Who can tell me what is the matter with these hearts? “ They are only half there.” Judges 2:6 And when Joshua had .let the' people go, the children of Israel went every man unto his inheritance to possess the land. 7 And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord, that he did for Israel. 8 And Joshua the son of. Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being a hundred and ten years old. 9 And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-here#, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash. 10 And also all that generation were gath ered unto their fathers: and there arose an other generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which* he had done for Israel. 1 1 * After tne children of Israel did evil. In the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim:
which never changes. Caleb was the kind of a man who-grows old with' his harness oh. 3. “Now therefore give me this mountain" (v. 12). Why did Caleb ask, for this mountain? It was about the biggest and hardest thing he CQuld ask for in all Canaan. The giants were stjll there with their fortifica tions. But he knew God was able to give it to him, and he asked.for thç privilege of demonstrating his faith by works.. The trouble with most of God’s servants is that they do not ask for enough mountains. Victories are few because there is little embracing of the promises of God. 4. “And the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites" (Judg. 1:21). The sin of incomplete obedi ence is the sin that dogged the foot steps of Israel all through the period of the judges. The people never en joyed the full blessing o f the Lord becausé they so often compromised in the matter of obedience. Likewise today, incomplete obedience is the thief of a radiant witness. My host in Boston said to me, “We shall go and view our new sub way.” It was a great engineering feat As we neared the entrance on Park Street, my host went ahead of me. i let him do it. There were turnstiles and wicket gates between me and the sub way, but I, coming after him, had not to deal with them. Furthermore, it is number one, not number two, of the party who gets the tickets. >Spiritually, all of our difficulty comes through our persistent, foolish clinging to the place of number one, w/hereas rest and peace and the open door come from our being number two. Let the Lord go first, and let us fall in behind.—John Robertson. Golden Text Illustration J oshua 14:9
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A Mountain for Caleb J oshua 13 and 14
JULY 16, 1944 SUCCESSES AND FAILURES OF ISRAEL J udges 2:1 t o 3:7
MEMORY VERSE: “The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear” (Heb. 13:6). AIM: To show that we can be brave when we trust the Lord. APPROACH: When some good thing is promised us, sometimes we say, “ But I just can’t wait for it!” The
12 And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger. 13 And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth. 14 And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he* sold them into the hands, of their ene mies round about, so that they 'could not any longer stand before their enemies. 15 Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed. 15 Nevertheless the Lord raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.
man we shall hear about today spent a Jong time wait ing, but he was glad he did. LESSON STORY: The man’s name was Caleb. When he was q uV s- Division j»
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