OT Characters: Caleb

For additional notes and resources check out Douglas' website.

Hebrew words:

• Khelev (Caleb) -- dog
• Appears 35x in the OT (compared to 223x for Joshua), in Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, 1 Samuel, and 1 Chronicles

Further study:

• Passages covered in this podcast
  • Numbers 13-14
  • Joshua 14-15
  • 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Proverbs 13:12; Hebrews 11:13,39.
• Quotable quotes
  • “I am long on ideas, but short on time. I expect to live to be only about a hundred.” – Edison
  • "To hold the same views at forty as we held at twenty is to have been stupefied for a score of years, and take rank, not as a prophet, but as an unteachable brat, well birched and none the wiser." – a famous educator
  • "And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." – Lincoln
• Some passages on old age
  • Leviticus 19:32
  • Psalm 71:8; 91:12-15
  • Isaiah 46:3-4
  • Luke 2 (Simeon and [H]anna), Philemon 9 (Paul), etc.

Some things we learn about God:

• As he did for Caleb, God will give us too a different spirit -- the Holy Spirit!
• God will work in our lives till the very end, if we keep our faith.
• Even when we are old, God still has work for us to accomplish! (Ephesians 2:10 always applies.)

For kids:

• Read the Caleb story.
  • Ask the kids to act out how a very old person walks / talks / moves around.
  • Then ask them to move and speak the way they imagine Caleb did.
  • Ask, What is the difference? Is it only that his body was different than theirs? (No -- his spirit was different!)
• Read some of the extra verses on old age (above).
• Pray together:
  • That we and our friends will respect the aged.
  • That we will learn from their wisdom.
  • That the older members of the church will be active in the work of the Lord.
  • That the older members of the church will be and feel valued.
  • That the children in the church will respect parents, grandparents, and all their elders, as the word of God instructs.
  • That we will keep our spiritual fervor as we age.

Key verses:

• Numbers 13:30 -- Caleb a dissenting voice among the tribal spies.
• Numbers 14:24 -- Caleb has "a different spirit."
• Joshua 14:10 -- Still vigorous in old age.
• Joshua 14:12 -- "Give me this hill country!"

Next lesson: Deborah