Biblical Logos Blog

In my last post “Exploring the Historical Validity of the Bible“, I ended the post with a summary of Caleb from the Old Testament. He was a Kenizzite (Gentile), who was grafted in to the Tribe of Judah (Numbers 34:19), during the time of the Exodus. I noted the supernatural story telling God was doing with Caleb. God used Caleb as a Gentile leader in the Tribe of Judah, at least in part, to be an example through Biblical typology of us Gentiles during the Church age, being grafted in by faith (Romans 11:17-21) to the children of God.

Num 32:12  none except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the LORD.’ 

Caleb’s Role

Let’s dig a little deeper. What did Caleb’s faith really look like? The story of Caleb is found in Numbers 13-14. Let’s look first at how he was regarded within the tribes of Israel:

Num 13:2-3  “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the people of Israel. From each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a chief among them.” So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, according to the command of the LORD, all of them men who were heads of the people of Israel. 

Num 13:6  from the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh;

Of the 74,600 men 20 years and older (Numbers 1:26-27), Caleb is chosen to represent Judah as a spy. As the passages from Numbers 13 state, he was also considered a chief and a head of the tribe of Judah. Judah was the largest tribe during the Exodus. God had raised him up for a time such as this!

Now we get to a very interesting verse, Numbers 13:22:

Num 13:22  They went up into the Negeb and came to Hebron. Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were there. (Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) 

Two questions come to mind. Who is Anak? and why does the Bible call out Hebron saying it was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt?

Let’s start with the Zoan and Hebron comparison.

Hebron: was a central location for Israel’s patriarchs. Abraham lived there (Genesis 13:18) and, most importantly, the Cave of Machpelah—the burial place of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Leah—was at Hebron. For the spies, this was “covenant soil,” the very land promised to their forefathers.

Zoan (or Tanis): This was a major, ancient, and famous capital city in the Nile Delta of Egypt. It was a symbol of Egyptian power and antiquity.

The Meaning of the Comparison: By stating that Hebron was built before this prominent Egyptian city, the text is making a powerful statement. It establishes that the land God is giving them is not insignificant. It has a history and importance that rivals, and even predates, the great cities of the empire that had just enslaved them. It underscores the value and ancient legitimacy of the Promised Land.

Now for the question, who is Anak?

Num 13:28  However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. 

Num 13:32-33  So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height.  And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.” 

The Anakim / giants in the Bible are much debated. Their size estimates are anywhere from 6’9 – 10’0. Some suggest that the initial size of these giants was much larger in antiquity as these giants inter-married with human women and as a result, their size decreased over generations. When the Bible speaks of the Anakim at the time of Caleb, the Anakim were large enough to make the Israelites seem like grasshoppers in comparison (Num 13:33). Even by the time David fought with Goliath 400 years later, the descendants of the Anakim (Goliath), still had armor weighing 125 pounds and threw spears that weighed 20-25 pounds each (1 Samuel 17). The Masoretic translation of the Old testament puts their height at 9’9″ at the time of King David. How big were they at the time of Caleb?

Caleb’s Faith

Caleb saw the Anakim near Hebron, which as we established above, was the key Patriarchal city of the Jews. It also was compared to Zoan in the Bible which was the capital city in Egypt. Caleb and Joshua were the only spies that gave a good report:

Num 13:30  But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” 

Num 14:6-9  And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes and said to all the congregation of the people of Israel, “The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land.  If the LORD delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey.  Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them.” 

But, the other spies (not including Joshua) gave the bad report:

Num 13:31-33 Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.”  So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height.  And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.” 

With the lack of faith demonstrated by the 10 other spies, God sent the children of Israel into the wilderness to wander for forty years until that faithless generation died off.

God remembered Caleb’s faith however and made a promise that day when Caleb gave the faith filled report. God said:

Num 14:24  But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. 

Caleb was 40 years of age when he came back to the camp with his faith-filled response. God not only gave him a promise of the land he spied out, but also kept Caleb healthy during the wilderness wandering and through the conquest of Canaan. Now after all that time, we see the promise to Caleb fulfilled:

Jos 14:6-15  Then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God in Kadesh-barnea concerning you and me.  I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again as it was in my heart.  But my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholly followed the LORD my God.  And Moses swore on that day, saying, ‘Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the LORD my God.’  And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old.  I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. So now give me this hill country of which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the LORD said.”  Then Joshua blessed him, and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance.  Therefore Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite to this day, because he wholly followed the LORD, the God of Israel.  Now the name of Hebron formerly was Kiriath-arba. (Arba was the greatest man among the Anakim.) And the land had rest from war. 

The story is very dramatic when you look at the historical context. Caleb a Gentile who God rose up to be a leader of Judah and one of only 12 spies sent to the Promised land after the Exodus, by faith came back with the good report. Caleb had no fear of the giants in the land or of the heavily fortified walls around Hebron. He said the Lord will give the land to them as he had promised. Caleb trusted by faith the word of the Lord despite what his eyes had seen!

Caleb’s reward for his faith was immense. God gave him the land around Hebron. Hebron being the most important city in Israel for the Jewish people. The historical land of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as well as their burial place. Here in the city of Hebron, which was compared as better than Zoan of Egypt, lived the most feared Anakim. Yet when Caleb at 85 years old received the land of Hebron and conquered the land through God’s strength. Caleb, the Gentile leader in Judah, inherited a prime portion of the Promised Land because of his faith!

Are we walking by faith? We also are grafted-in to the promises of God. What in this world could stop us? Let Caleb’s story by our story!