NOTES for Jos 14:1-15

Now that the conquest of the land is completed, all knots are untied, all debts are repaid, and everyone receives what was promised and destined for him back at the beginning of the journey. So it was with Caleb. Long ago, when the Jews sent scouts to survey the land that was later to be conquered, Caleb and Joshua were the only ones out of the twelve sent who were ready to fight even then. All the rest wanted to turn back to Egypt or even die in the desert, just so as not to go to war. It was they, Joshua and Caleb, who entered the land promised by God to the people — only the two of them out of their entire generation. The rest did not reach the land, remaining in the desert, where they died without living to see victory. And the conquest itself was then postponed by God until the moment when the generation of cowards passed away.

To God, however, all things are possible — He can let a person live to an age that the vast majority do not reach, if this is necessary for the achievement of the goal He has set before the person. The land, after all, promised by God to His people, is by no means a reward, as is sometimes thought. It is the goal of the journey, which should lead a person to the place of encounter with God, and it is a goal precisely because God chose it for this encounter. That is what distinguished Caleb and Joshua from the majority of their contemporaries even back then, in the desert: for them the land was the goal of the journey, while for the rest it was a reward. The desire to receive a reward makes a person a coward, the striving to achieve a goal makes him brave. Of course, for the one striving toward a goal, what is achieved becomes a reward, but the reward never becomes his goal, as it does for those who, setting out on a journey, think only of it.

The point, however, is not only in the system of values and life priorities. The point is also that the Living God cannot be a reward for anyone, but can become the goal of the journey for everyone who desires it. God cannot be obtained as a reward for correct behavior or correct religion, or even a correct life. His presence cannot be and is never the consequence of any human efforts whatsoever, and therefore it cannot be a reward, which in any case crowns precisely human efforts. However, His presence can be the goal of a person, the goal of his journey — a goal unattainable and at the same time open to a person insofar as God reveals Himself to him. The Promised Land was indeed the place toward which those who desired and sought an encounter with God strove as their goal, the place where God promised to dwell eternally in the midst of His people — and therefore everyone from the people who strove toward it as the goal of his journey was bound to attain it.