Sons of Encouragement

by Francine Rivers

  “With confusion. No one knows what to do now that Joshua is dead.”

  Caleb scowled. “We do what the Lord has told us to do. We cleanse the land of idol worshipers and keep our covenant with Him.” It had not been that many years since they had made the covenant with Joshua at Shechem. Had they forgotten everything he had said to them already?

  “We are preparing to travel to Shechem for Passover. The Lord will make His will known to us. Go now, in peace.”

  Caleb’s sons made preparations for the journey, including in the provisions plunder they had collected from the hill country villages they had conquered. Caleb wondered if they were more interested in trade than in worship. When they arrived, there was sorrow mixed with jubilation. Joshua and Eleazer were well remembered, but as the council met and men talked, Caleb realized now much work there was yet to do. Why had it been so long left undone? The tribes had received their inheritances, and still they failed to drive all the Canaanites from their land. Worse, the tribal elders were in confusion over Joshua’s death.

  “Who will be the first to go out and fight for us against the Canaanites?”

  “How do we decide?”

  What manner of men were they? When had they ever decided anything?

  At least Phinehas, son of Eleazar, high priest of Israel, remembered. “The Lord decides!”

  Lots were cast and God’s answer came swiftly.

  “Judah.” Phinehas stood. “Judah is to go and fight. The Lord has given the land into their hands.”

  Once, Caleb would have been exultant. Now, he stood silent, grim with resolve while his sons and the men of Judah shouted their response. Too many in Israel lacked the faith to take and hold their land and keep it purified. Did they think Judah could do for them what God had told them they must do for themselves? Some had allowed the pagans to remain pocketed in fertile valleys or nestled in ravines. The Lord had said these idol worshipers would be like thorns in Israel’s side if allowed to remain. None must remain.

  His sons came to him. “We have made an alliance with our Simeonite brothers. If they will come up into the territory allotted to us to fight against the Canaanites, we will in turn go with them into theirs.”

  “Did you inquire of the Lord about this alliance?”

  “They are our brothers, Father. Hasn’t the Lord said from the beginning that we are to come alongside one another? Didn’t you say—”

  “Has every man among you forgotten what happened when we did not inquire of the Lord over the Gibeonites?”

  “These are our brothers!” Mesha said.

  Caleb raged. “And the Lord said Judah is to go! The Lord has given the land into Judah’s hand.”

  They all talked at once, rationalizing and justifying their decision.

  “Enough.” They might as well have kicked Caleb in the stomach. Simeon! These brothers used their swords as implements of violence. Even Jacob had said not to enter into their council or be united in their assemblies, for they were cursed because of their anger and cruelty. As was Levi. The Lord had dispersed the Levites among the tribes as priests, but what of the Simeonites? How would the Lord disperse them? And what trouble would arise if Judah aligned with them?

  “When will you learn we must heed the Word of the Lord and follow Him only?”

  When men made their own plans, disaster was sure to follow.

  Judah attacked the Canaanites at Bezek and the Lord was with them. They struck down hundreds, then thousands.

  Bloodied by those he had cut down, Caleb spotted the king of Bezek with his circlet of gold. “There is Adoni-bezek.” He hacked his way toward the Canaanite king, and saw the man flee the raging battle. “Don’t let him escape!”

  Some of the men of Judah went in pursuit. Caleb did not leave the battlefield, but roused the men of Judah and Simeon to destroy the enemies of God. Ten thousand were cut down before they could scatter in retreat. When Caleb saw Adoni-bezek, he was appalled. The man’s thumbs and big toes had been chopped off. The conquered king stumbled and fell, sobbing in agony.

  Caleb raged. “What have you done?”

  Shelumiel, leader of the Simeonites, spoke, head high, chin jutting. “What he deserves! We have done to him what he did to the seventy kings who ate scraps under his table.”

  Moaning in the dust, Adoni-bezek cried out, “God has paid me back.”

  “Kill him,” Caleb ordered. Surely there was more mercy in killing him outright than torturing and mutilating him.

  “We will kill him!” Shelumiel looped a rope around the Canaanite’s neck. “When we’re ready.” The men of Simeon laughed at the man’s plight. He was led up the mountain. When he fell, they dragged him. He was given only enough water to keep him alive. When the army arrived before the city of Jerusalem, Adoni-bezek was brought up before the men and stood before the walls. Shelumiel executed him there so the Jebusites could witness his death.

  Furious, Caleb ordered them to leave. “Go home. Go back to your own land!” He wanted no part of these men.

  “What are you talking about? We’ve come to help you. You can’t destroy these people without us.”

  “The Lord said Judah was to go up. Not Simeon! Would you rebel against the Lord with whom you just renewed a covenant?” Caleb looked at Adoni-bezek’s body. The Lord had said to kill the Canaanites, not torture them. “Go south and fight for your land.”

  “You made an alliance to help us!”

  “We will help you after we have taken Jerusalem.”

  The Simeonites departed, but his sons were not pleased. “How are we going to deal with the Jebusites without more men?”

  Caleb was angrier with the men of Judah than with the Simeonites. “We do not need more men. The Lord is our strength. Trust in Him. Do not put your faith in men. Our victory does not depend on the number of warriors, or how many horses or chariots, but on the power of the God who delivered us from Egypt!”

  Rallied, the men cried out to the Lord to give them help. But Caleb wondered then what the future held.

  Joshua had been right in speaking to Israel that last time in Shechem. Joshua had seen the way things were going.

  And now, Caleb feared he saw as well.

  The gates were breached, the walls scaled, the men on the battlements killed. Screams rent the air, carrying across the narrow valley in which a grove of olives grew. Every man, woman, and child who had not fled before the onslaught of Judah died within the walls. “Burn it!” Caleb commanded, and men ran with torches, setting houses, altars, and piles of wooden household gods on fire.

  The army of Judah headed south and joined forces with Simeon. They fought against and defeated the Canaanites. Simeonites settled in Beersheba, Hormah, and Arad.

  Judah turned north once again, fighting against the Canaanites who had come back into the hill country during their absence. Judah took the Negev and the western hills, and returned to Hebron in force, destroying the remnant of Anak who attempted to reclaim it.

  “They keep coming back!”

  “They’re like a plague of locusts!”

  Judah’s army drove out the Canaanites from the hill country, killing every one of them they found. Only Caleb sent his men in pursuit of those who escaped. “The Lord was clear. If you don’t finish them, they will keep coming back. Now, go after them and destroy them completely.”

  They obeyed until the winter months and then returned to their homes. They were tired of fighting. They wanted to celebrate their victories and tell tales of their great feats. They praised the Lord, too, but mostly they talked of what they had accomplished over the years of fighting. Areas remained unconquered; enemies hid, plotted, and spread in the recesses of the hill country.

  “We will finish the work when spring comes.”

  When spring came, the people of Judah planted crops.

  “Next year we will finish the job.”

  And with each year sin grew.

  Triumph gave way to complacency.

  The Benjamites faile
d to hold Jerusalem. The Jebusites poured back into the city and the Benjamites could not dislodge them.

  The tribe of Manasseh chose not to drive out the people of Beth-shan or Taanach or Dor or Ibleam or Megiddo nor the surrounding settlements. Instead, they made the Canaanites forced labor.

  The tribe of Ephraim did not succeed in driving out the Canaanites living in Gezer.

  The tribe of Zebulun allowed the Canaanites to live in Kitron and Nahalol. They did not follow the example of Manasseh, but made alliances with the people of the land and began adopting their ways.

  The tribe of Asher did not drive out those living in Acco, Sidon, Ahlab, Aczib or Helbah, or in Aphek or Rehob. Asher dwelt among the people of the land.

  The tribe of Naphtali left the inhabitants in Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath living in peace, and lived among them.

  “We can’t drive them from the plains, Father.”

  “You must rely upon the Lord.”

  “We have prayed.”

  “We have fasted.”

  “We have done everything we can think to do. And we cannot drive them out.”

  “They have iron chariots, Father.”

  “At least, we hold the hill country. We hold Hebron securely. That was our own inheritance.”

  “And for how long will we hold it if we allow God’s enemies to live?” Caleb hung his head in shame. “We have failed to do what the Lord told us to do.”

  “We have fought!”

  “Some have died.”

  “The Lord is not protecting us! He is far from us!”

  “Because we have sinned!” Caleb cried out in anger. “Because you lack the faith to follow the Lord.”

  “How have we sinned, Father? Tell us. We have worshiped the Lord just as you have.”

  “I have scars to show for my faith, Father! And so do countless others. I have grandchildren. I want to have time to enjoy my inheritance. Don’t you?”

  “We don’t need the plains, Father. We have enough land here in the hill country.”

  Caleb could not believe what he was hearing. “We will be at war until the enemies of God are all dead like the generation who perished in the wilderness. You cannot give up. You must arm yourselves.”

  “We are tired of fighting!”

  “We can do no more in the plains!”

  “And what of Hebron?”

  Mesha gazed at him, defeated. “Don’t you remember, Father? Hebron no longer belongs to Judah. Joshua and the others gave it to the Levites as a city of refuge. The Kohathite clan can take care of themselves.”

  “Naked we come into this world, Mesha. Naked we go out of it.” Caleb had been surprised when Joshua named Hebron as a city of refuge, but Joshua had done only what the Lord had told him to. Caleb had known then that he could think upon it in either of two ways: resentment, allowing bitterness and envy to grow and spread their killing vines . . . or gratitude. He chose to be thankful that God had wanted Hebron, Caleb’s city, to be counted as a city of refuge.

  Unfortunately, not all his sons had been able to accept the loss, or been completely content living in the surrounding villages.

  “Hebron was never ours, my sons. God gave it to us, and we have given it back to Him.”

  “It was to be your inheritance forever, Father.”

  “Some of our men died in taking that city from the Anakites. It was our blood that was shed for that city.”

  “The Lord was with us.”

  They all talked at once.

  Mesha spoke for all. “We will rest for a while, and if they attempt to come up into the hill country, then we will fight again.”

  Wine flowed freely, made from grapes that came from vines they did not plant, vines the Lord had given them.

  Shobab sighed. “I’ve yet to plow a field.”

  Fields the Lord had given them.

  “Or plant crops,” Mareshah agreed.

  Caleb thought of the grain that had been harvested the first years they had come into the Promised Land. The Lord had brought them in when there was a bounty of food, theirs for the taking.

  “Will you know how to plant crops?” one joked.

  “I can learn.”

  Would they ever learn what was important?

  “I have work to do on my house.”

  What about the work God had given them to do?

  “It’s time for my son Hebron to take a wife.”

  “I have a daughter he can marry.”

  The men, young and old, laughed and talked on around Caleb. He rose, knowing they would take little notice of him now. They were too busy making plans for themselves. He went outside and raised his head.

  Oh, God, forgive them. They know not what they do.

  SIX

  Caleb hobbled toward a flat stone near an ancient olive tree where he often sat overlooking the orchard and vineyard. “Come, my sons. Come. We must make plans to secure the hill country. We cannot stop the advance.”

  “We can’t now, Father.” They raised their hoes in a gesture of solidarity. “We have work to do.”

  Caleb’s mouth tightened. He and his sons had driven out the three Anakites—Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai—from Hebron, but when they advanced upon Kiriath-sepher, Caleb had been too weary to go with them and they had left the work undone. Thus, the Canaanites had trickled back in like a leak in a roof. His sons, complacent, had forgotten the warnings of the Lord.

  He heard his sons’ grumbling. Doesn’t he ever get tired of fighting? War, war. We’ve had enough of war. It’s time to enjoy the land we’ve taken. We will hold what we have.

  Oh, they knew what he was going to say. Hadn’t they heard everything a hundred times before? They wanted to plow and plant seed, to enjoy the land they had taken. So what if a few Canaanites came back. Peace, we want peace! But they would have none. God had warned them. They just wouldn’t listen.

  Leaning on his walking stick, Caleb felt defeated. The spirit within him still rose to the challenge, but his body had given out. And there was no one to rally these sons of his, no one to lead them. Ever since they had reconquered Hebron, only to find it given to the Levites as a city of refuge, they had ceased listening to him.

  Mesha’s resentment grew with each year he tilled the soil. Caleb grew weary of hearing the same complaints over and over again. “We fought for five years to settle the tribes. And then, our turn came and we had to take the land by ourselves! And then what happens? The biggest and best city we have is handed over to the Levites and we get the surrounding villages!”

  Patiently, Caleb would explain again. “Hebron is the best of what we have. And the Lord gave it to us. Is it not right that we give God the best? Do you think we could have taken Hebron by ourselves? God gave it to us. He is the rightful owner! You cannot offer a village as a city of refuge.”

  Still their whining continued. “A village would have sufficed!”

  “We pay in blood and the Levites reap the benefits!”

  What was wrong with these sons of his? Had they set their hearts against the Lord their God? Had they forgotten already the commandments by which they were to live?

  Ultimately, they gave up Hebron, then concentrated on claiming the surrounding villages and pasturelands. They drove the Canaanites out, killing every one of them that did not flee the hill country. No more was said about Hebron, but Caleb saw how they looked toward it. Their resentment spread like mildew, seeping into the cracks and walls of the houses in which they now lived, houses they had not built, but God had given them. It seemed against their very nature to be grateful for the gifts God had given them.

  As the months and years wore on, Caleb’s sons turned their strength and thoughts to the orchards and vineyards, flocks and herds. They prospered, but were not content. They didn’t listen to their father as they had when they were boys. They no longer hung upon his every word, nor followed his instructions, nor strove to please him and, in doing so, please God.

  Often, Caleb thought back with strange longing to t
hose hard years of wandering in the desert. The people had learned to rely upon the Lord for everything—for food, for water, for shelter, and for protection from enemies who watched and waited. Now that they had conquered the Promised Land and settled in it, life had become easier. The Israelites had relaxed their vigil, dozed in the sunshine, forgotten that faith was more work than tilling the ground.

  Like so many others in Israel, his sons were doing whatever was right in their own eyes. And Caleb grieved over it, trying each day to draw them back to what they had been when times were harder. But they did not want to come or listen. Not anymore. It was by God’s grace that they continued to prosper, but they had been warned when the blessings of steadfast faith and cursings of rebellion had been read to them from Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. Oh, they kept the Sabbaths, but without joy. What God had given them now ruled their days and nights.

  When Caleb prayed with them, he felt their impatience. Get it done and said, Father, and let us be about our work! He could almost hear their thoughts. Must we listen to another rambling prayer of praise from this old man?

  Oh, they loved him. He had no doubt of that. They saw to his every need and made sure he was pampered and petted. But they thought his time was over and theirs had begun. They thought he couldn’t teach them anything they didn’t already know. They thought times were different now.

  All true, but some things must stay the same. And it was this he tried to tell them. And it was this they refused to hear.

  The slippage had already begun, like a few pebbles trickling down a hillside with a boulder now and then. The people neglected the things the Lord had told them to do. The Canaanites had not been driven from every valley in the region. A few had returned, tentative at first, with words of peace and offerings of friendship. The men of Israel were too busy enjoying the milk and honey of the land God had given them to see the danger in allowing God’s enemies to return and settle in small encampments. The Canaanites vowing peace gnawed like termites at the foundations God had laid.

  How could his sons have forgotten what happened at Shittim? Men were easily enticed into Baal worship. A beautiful young woman beckons, and a foolish man follows like a lamb to the slaughter.