16Now the descendants of Moses’ father-in-law, the Kenite, went up with the men of Judah from the City of Palms to the Wilderness of Judah in the Negev near Arad. They went to live among the people.
17Then the men of Judah went with their brothers the Simeonites, attacked the Canaanites living in Zephath, and devoted the city to destruction. So it was called Hormah. 18And Judah also captured Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron—each with its territory. 19The LORD was with Judah, and they took possession of the hill country; but they could not drive out the inhabitants of the plains because they had chariots of iron.
20Just as Moses had promised, Judah gave Hebron to Caleb, who drove out the descendants of the three sons of Anak.
“Strange! Were the iron chariots too strong for Omnipotence?” (Clarke)
“If they had believed in God, and gone forth in his name, the horses would soon have fled, as indeed they did when God gave his people faith. When Barak led the way with Deborah, then they smote Jabin, who had nine hundred chariots of iron… the imperfection of their faith lay in this, as it may do in yours, my brethren, — that they believed one promise of God and did not believe another. There is a kind of faith which is strong in one direction, but utter weakness if tried in other ways.” (Spurgeon)
Chariot’s of Iron! Read and re-read this quote until it sinks in!
“An unconverted person is here who has been thinking of coming to Christ, but he says: ‘I cannot give up all my sins. One of them I must retain: all the rest I can leave, but that one is invincible, for it has chariots of iron. I cannot drive it out,’ That sin must die, or you will perish by it. Depend upon it, that sin which you would save from slaughter will slaughter you.” (Spurgeon)
“Yet, as if to rebuke them, they had a singular incident set before them for the vindication of God’s power, and of that we read in the twentieth verse. Caleb, that grand old man, who still lived on, the sole survivor of all who came out of Egypt, had obtained Hebron as his portion, and he went up in his old age, when his bones were sore and set, and slew the three sons of Anak, even three mighty giants, and took possession of their city. In this way the Lord’s power was trusted and vindicated from the slur which Judah had brought upon it.” (Spurgeon)
“I will not speak of Caleb, for you will tell me, ‘Ah, he was an old, old man, and belonged to another generation. He was just going off the scene; we do not wonder that he did great things.’ Ay, but he had a nephew, one Othniel, a young man…The young hero stood forward, and went up to the fortress, and took the city, and passed it over to his uncle’s hands, and received the promised reward. Oh yes, and we have seen raised up-and shall see it more and more young heroes who have been self-denying, self-distrustful, inconsiderate of themselves, who have been willing for Christ’s sake to be anything or nothing, and God has been with them, and the power of the Most High has rested upon them.” (Spurgeon)
Where are our young heroes today who have been willing for Christ’s sake?
Blessings
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