What is the significance of the story of Joshua and Caleb?

from the old testament

• When the Israelites neared Canaan, God told Moses to send leaders from each of the twelve tribes into the land as spies (Numbers 13:1–2). The list of spies included Caleb, a leader of Judah (Numbers 13:6), and Joshua, leader of the tribe of Ephraim (Numbers 13:8).
• While there, the spies saw how good the food was (Numbers 13:23–24). However, upon returning, ten of them told tales about the enemies, saying, “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. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan (Numbers 13:28–29). They would later say, “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” (Numbers 13:32–33).
• In contrast, Caleb and Joshua said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it” (Numbers 13:30) and “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” (Numbers 14:8). They also described the enemies as “bread for us” (Numbers 14:9a), referring to how easily their God would slice through them.
• It’s unclear whether the ten spies exaggerated the difficulties or whether the enemies were truly formidable. But Caleb and Joshua said it didn’t matter: “Their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them” (Numbers 14:9b).
• The ten spies left Israel fearful. They “raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night” (Numbers 14:1) and then grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying they had brought them here to die (Numbers 14:2–3). They then said, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt” (Numbers 14:4). When Caleb and Joshua tried to encourage them to obey God, they turned on them and wanted to stone them (Numbers 14:10a).
• But God revealed His glory to stop them (Numbers 14:10b). After a discussion between Him and Moses, where God expressed His desire to simply kill all the Israelites and restart with Moses (Numbers 14:11–12), and Moses interceded to save their lives for God’s name (Numbers 14:13–19), God limited His judgment. Instead of killing them outright, He judged them by saying that none of them would enter the Promised Land, except Joshua and Caleb. Instead, they’d wander in the wilderness for forty years and die there (Numbers 14:20–35).
• Joshua and Caleb saw the same enemies the other spies saw, but trusted that God would conquer them. Because of that, when that generation died off forty years later, they both entered the land. God made Joshua Israel's new leader, replacing Moses (Joshua 1:1–2). Caleb, for his part, got a special land grant inside Judah for his faithfulness (Joshua 14:6–15).

from the new testament

• The story of Joshua and Caleb is not found in the New Testament.

implications for today

Faithfulness isn’t always popular, as Joshua and Caleb discovered. They saw the same things as the other spies: both good food and the formidable enemies. However, Joshua and Caleb faithfully remembered that God is stronger than any enemy, while the rest of the Israelites feared what they believed was impossible to overcome. Being faithful meant Joshua and Caleb spoke contrary to the rest of them and fell under Israelite anger. Had God not intervened, they would have been killed. All they were doing was encouraging them that God would let them defeat their enemies!

We live in a world that hates God and Jesus. Sometimes Christians are tolerated for saying that “God is good!”, but more and more often, they are being persecuted for telling that to people. Faithfulness is measured by how little we give way even when people imply they’d rather we were dead. There’s an interesting scene when the entire earth throws a party and gives each other gifts to celebrate God’s witnesses being gone (Revelation 11:10). But this is no surprise because Jesus said the world hated Him, so of course it hates His followers (John 15:18–20).

Caleb and Joshua lived in a unique time in history and trusted a specific promise we don’t have. We have no promise that, if we’re faithful, we will lead a nation like Joshua or get a tract of land like Caleb. But what we are promised is that God’s faithful will be rewarded in eternity (Matthew 5:11–12) and their enemies destroyed (2 Thessalonians 1:6–9).

Let us stand up, point to Jesus, and tell others how great He is, even though that proclamation makes us enemies of the world. Let us show others that following Jesus is worth it by staying faithful, no matter what comes, trusting God will keep us forever (John 10:27–29).