The UNchosen – My servant Caleb – a different spirit

[First posted in 2014; part of the series whose title went through 3 changes:  “the Outsiders”, then “the Other”, and finally “the UNchosen.”— ‘who they’?   Non-Israelites, Gentiles, just like us Sinaites, who were not “chosen” but who chose and embraced the God of Israel and joined the “mixed multitude” who left symbolic “Egypt” the land of bondage . . . bondage to what? Ignorance, false gods, religions that worship another god other than YHWH, anything that keeps one blind to the original Sinai Revelation and deaf to the call of the One True God whose Voice has been reverberating through six millennia in words recorded in the Scriptures of Israel.  Caleb, Ishmael, Ruth, all outsiders — can we relate to them? That’s what the series is about.  Related posts:

• The UNchosen: What if you were a gentile slave in Egypt?
• The UNchosen – Esau/Edom – A Second Look
• The UNchosen — “Call me Ishmael”

Translations: EF/ Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses; AST/ArtScroll Tanach.—Admin1.]

 

 

——————————–

 

Caleb usually mentioned with Joshua— two among the generation of slaves who left Egypt . . . who were kept alive and–more importantly–divinely permitted to enter the promised land.  

 

Between the departure from the land of bondage to the arrival at the land of promise are 40 years of wilderness wandering during which occurred a most important part of the divine plan — the preparation of a generation born free and instructed in the WAY, the TORAH.  Everyone else from the original mixed multitude (who grumbled, grumbled, grumbled) died, including golden-calf-maker Aaron and sibling-authority-challenger Miriam, and rock-striker Moses.

 

The self-revealing God on Sinai, God of Israel, YHWH, in His wisdom and providential choice of who would carry on specific assignments, knows best why He handpicks specific individuals for specific tasks. We readers can only get our clues from observable actions and spoken words preserved in the biblical narratives. Early on, we can say that at least in Caleb’s case, and Joshua as well, men’s consistent pattern of choices ultimately make them God’s elect.

 

First of all the meaning of the name Caleb. We have always emphasized that biblical names are descriptive of the essence of the person.  Everywhere we checked, the word “dog” kept coming up as its meaning, surely there’s a mess-up somewhere?  In fact one Christian commentary connected the term “dog” to “gentile,” citing Jesus’ treatment of the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:27  and the Syrophoenician woman in Mark 7:24.

 

Luckily, one website behindthename.com explains that the mess-up is that the Hebrew word for “dog” is “celeb” which almost sounds like Caleb [whew!].

 

“CALEB is actually a compound word in Hebrew – something that is quite common in ancient Hebrew. Col (Cuf + Lamed) = all or whole. Lev (Lamed + Vet) = heart. Therefore, CALEB (or COLEV as pronounced in Hebrew) actually means ‘whole hearted’. Faithful could be another translation. However, if you read in the Hebrew Bible the exploits of CALEB (as in one of the twelve spies who went into Canaan Numbers 13:6 & 13:30), one will see that he wasn’t simply faithful, but that he served the God of ISRAEL with his whole heart.”

 

[Note:  For another website about names in general, biblical or not, check out this link: https://www.names.org].

With that cleared up, here’s a profile of this servant of YHWH:

• he’s 40ish when he left Egypt,
• he’s from the tribe of Judah
• and the son of Jephunneh,
• and he comes to prominence in the story about the 12 spies.

[EF] Numbers/Bemidbar 13:6  For the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh.  

 

Combing through the Genesis lists of “begats” to trace the ancestry if the Kennizites descended from Jacob renamed Israel — here’s the unexpected result:  the Kennizites are listed among the non-Israel ‘ites’ –Kennite, Kennizite, Kadmonite, Hittite, Perizzite, Rephaim, Amorite, Canaanite, Girgashite, Jebusite.  Bible students tend to skip genealogies but remember, they yield clues regarding bloodlines, tribal lines, criss-crossing inter-marriage relationships between the only two categories of people in the bible:  Israelites and gentiles.

 

Genesis/Bereshith 15

 

18 On that day

YHVH cut a covenant with Avram,

saying: I give this land to your seed,

from the River of Egypt to the Great River, the river Euphrates, 

19 the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite, 

20 and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Refa’ites, 

21 and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Yevusite

There are speculations about how Jephunneh the Kennizite was absorbed among the Israelites, specifically the tribe of Judah; as Rabbi Federow explained in his commentary on our article Are you Jew-wannabes? If not, what are you? —“the ‘gentiles” in the “mixed multitude” that left Egypt were absorbed into  the Israelite majority. This makes more sense than the other commentators who allege that these gentiles were the rabble rousers, the idolaters, the trouble-makers who kept clamoring to go back to Egypt at the slightest inconvenience such as tired of manna, sick of quail, lack of water, fearful of enemy attacks; our reaction to this interpretation— then why did Aaron the Israelite ‘high-priest-to-be’ participate in making the golden calf upon clamor of the mixed multitude?  All of them came from an idolatrous past in Egypt which was full of ‘gods’ in its pantheon; this generation was four centuries removed from the 70 Jacobites who ended up in Egypt because of Joseph. Whoever said that it was easier to get Israel out of Egypt than to get Egypt out of Israel?

 

The most significant compliment in Caleb’s profile is the one that YHWH Himself declares [Numbers 14:24]

 

What exactly has Caleb done or said that sets him apart from the others?

First, the report of the 10 spies:

 

25 They returned from scouting out the land at the end of forty days. 

26 They went and came before Moshe, before Aharon, and before the entire community of the Children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they returned word to them and to the entire community, and let them see the fruit of the land. 

27 Now they recounted to him, they said:

We came to the land that you sent us to,

and yes, it is flowing with milk and honey,

and this is its fruit-
28 except that fierce are the people that are settled in the land,

the cities are fortified, exceedingly large,

and also the descendants of Anak did we see there!
29 Amalek is settled in the Negev land,

and the Hittite and the Yevusite and the Amorite are settled in the hill-country,

the Canaanite is settled by the Sea, and hard by the Jordan!

 

Caleb, not Joshua, reacts: 

 

Bemidbar 14

 

This time, both Joshua and Caleb together remind the people of who their God is and whose side He is on:

 

6 Now Yehoshua son of Nun and Calev son of Yefunne,

(alone) from among those who scouted out the land,

ripped their garments; 

7 they said to the entire community of the Children of Israel, saying:

The land that we crossed through, to scout it out—

good is that land, exceedingly, exceedingly!

8 If YHVH is pleased with us,

he will bring us to this land and give it to us,

a land that is flowing with milk and honey.

9 But: against YHVH, do not rebel,

and you–

do not be afraid of the people of the land,

for food-for-us are they!

Their protector has turned away from them,

and YHVH is with us—

do not be afraid of them!

 

This falls on deaf ears, and God proclaims the consequences of lack of faith and trust in Him, disobedience, and non-stop grumbling, virtually a death sentence for all of the generation that left Egypt.  One commentary notes that this declaration is prophetic because this early on, God names only Joshua and Caleb, but does not include Moses and Aaron among those who will enter the promised land 38 years later.

 

26 Now YHVH spoke to Moshe and Aharon, saying:

27 Till when for this evil community,

that they stir-up-grumbling against me?

The grumblings of the Children of Israel that they grumble against me,

I have heard!

28 Say to them:

As I live—the utterance of YHVH—

if not as you have spoken in my ears,

thus I do to you . . . !

29 In this wilderness shall your corpses fall,

all those-of-you-counted (for battle), including all your number,

from the age of twenty and upward,

(you) that have grumbled against me!

30 If (any of) you should enter the land over which I lifted my hand (in an oath)

to have you dwell in it,

except for Calev son of Yefunne and Yehoshua son of Nun . . . !

31 Your little-ones, whom you said would become plunder—

I will let them enter,

they shall come to know the land that you have spurned.

32 But your corpses, yours,

shall fall in this wilderness,

33 and your children shall graze in the wilderness for forty years;

thus shall they bear your whoring,

until your corpses come-to-an-end in the wilderness. 

34 According to the number of days that you scouted out the land,

forty days,

(for each) day a year, (for each) day a year,

you are to bear your iniquities,

forty years,

thus you will come to know my hostility!

35  I am YHWH, I have spoken:  

If I do not do this to this whole evil community

that has come together against me . . .!

 In this wilderness they will come-to-an-end,

there they will die.

36 So the men whom Moshe had sent to scout out the land

returned and caused the entire community to grumble against him

by bringing a (false) report about the land;

37 the men died,

those bringing a report of the land, an ill one,

in a plague, before the presence of YHVH.

38 But Yehoshua son of Nun and Calev son of Yefunne

remained-alive from those men

that had gone to scout out the land.

 

Forty years after leaving Egypt, the two octogenarians have not lost their fighting spirit and zeal for their God and successfully lead the 2nd generation Israelite tribes to claim their inheritance. Not surprisingly, Caleb requests the same land of Hebron which he surveyed 38 years earlier, not intimidated at all by the same inhabitants, the Anakim, those “gi-ants” who are not so formidable to an “ant-size” senior warrior who claims his inheritance in the Name YHWH, the Lord of hosts. That is the same daring spirit of David the shepherd boy who defeated Goliath with his slingshot weapon whose source of courage says it all: “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” 

 

Caleb is often relegated to the background since Joshua is given more prominence for inheriting the authority of Moses, this time as a warrior-leader to fulfill part II of the assignment — Israel’s conquest of the promised land.  

 

The faithful Caleb of gentile roots who embraced the God of Israel and was counted among the tribe of Judah, stands out as a figure to emulate among us gentiles, who should not look at the intimidating obstacles to fulfill our individual choice to make known the One True God.  

 

 

and his offspring shall possess it.

 

Caleb the Kenizzite embraced and wholly followed YHWH, the God of Israel, the God he heard speak on Sinai, just as our gentile forbears among the mixed multitude did . . .we Sinaites still hear Him and heed His Torah today, six millennia later.  

 

Would that our chosen God who is our Lord, YHWH, also recognize  that “a different spirit” just like Caleb, is within each Sinaite/Gentile who follows Him wholeheartedly while in our own “wilderness wondering” toward the ‘Land of Promise’,  whatever that signifies to a non-Israelite.