Today’s reading: Joshua 14; Acts 3
Thinking about Caleb in Joshua 14 this morning, I can’t help but think how impatient I can be with the Lord.
God promised Caleb that He would give him the land he had explored when Moses sent the spies into the land, and then it was 45 years before that promise came to fruition. Caleb stayed faithful to God for that entire time, trusting that God could and would bring to pass what He had promised. Even as Israel rebelled time and again in the wilderness and everyone from his generation and older died for their rebellion, Caleb continued to trust that God would come though, and five years after Israel entered the land, Joshua gave Hebron to Caleb for his inheritance.
I think that last 5 years is especially noteworthy. Israel had to wander in the wilderness for 40 years as punishment for their rebellion and refusal to enter the land due to the bad report from the spies, so Caleb knew up front there would be a wait. He still had to trust God to keep him healthy, strong, and living long enough to enter in and enjoy it at that age, but he knew up front they were not going to be going in right away. But then once they entered the land, Caleb clearly sought after the interests of Israel as a whole rather than focusing on what he himself was owed. Right after the walls of Jericho fell Caleb could have said, “Alright, I’ve done my time and been faithful waiting, but God said I could have that hill country, so I’m gonna take some guys and go capture Hebron,” but he doesn’t. He spends five years fighting for the entirety of Israel to be settled in the land, and it is only when the land has rest from war that he seeks his own promised portion.
I have a lot to learn from Caleb. I haven’t even been alive as long as he faithfully waited for what the Lord had promised him. I pray for a year and think, “God, why haven’t you already taken care of this??” There are things I have been praying for daily for over a decade that at times I start to wonder if they are even worth continuing to pray for. There are aspects of my character that haven’t grown or changed as much as I wish they would as I have tried to faithfully follow Him, and I get impatient wondering why He isn’t changing me faster.
God has definitely tempered this in me over the years, but I still feel it at times. I remember thinking, especially earlier on in my walk with the Lord, that if God was going to do something, it had to be right then and there, and the thought of waiting for a year seemed untenable, let alone waiting ten or more. I know God is good for His promises though, and I have learned over the years that His timing will always be better than my own, no matter how great I may think my plans are, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling impatient at the wait.
One of the verses I find myself having to go back to over and over though when I’m feeling impatient is Jesus’ words in Matthew 6, “ But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” My job is not to make things happen in my own timing, or to hurry the Lord along. My job is to stay faithful to Him, seeking first His kingdom and His righteous, and then to trust that when I put Him first, He will come through as He has promised.
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