Compared to Joshua, Caleb is a man of few words. He only makes a few speeches in Scripture, but when he does, it usually carries a lot of weight.
His voice is the first one that the people hear after the other ten spies (besides Joshua) bring a negative report back from the land. They speak of despair, difficulty, and trouble, whereas Caleb speaks about hope. “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we will surely overcome it.”
It’s worth stopping here and wondering why Caleb’s report was so different than the Negative Nancy’s that wanted to lead the return trip back to Egypt. He had the same facts that everyone else did; what made him stand up?
Unfortunately, there isn’t an extra explanation on the backend of this story to uncover why Caleb said what he said. The only hint is in what him and Joshua say together in Numbers 14:7-9. In those verses, the two men describe how the Canaanites will be their “prey.” As such, nobody should fear them.
But that still doesn’t explain why Caleb was so confident, which is a problem. Over-confidence without facts to back it up is foolishness. The people would be right to ignore him.
Unless, that is, they actually had facts. They bring up information that everyone else, because of their lack of faith, had inconveniently overlooked: God had removed the protection from the Canaanites. That’s the missing piece.
You could argue that the other ten spies were intellectually dishonest in the way that they viewed the situation. Yes, the people were huge. Yes, their cities were massive. But it was equally true that they were vulnerable, because God had made them vulnerable.
Caleb has a way of looking very objectively at things. Later in Joshua, when he wants to take a certain part of his possession for himself, he lays out his case as a matter of facts. He had faithfully served God all his life, he was physically fit enough for the task, and still had trust that God would give him the land. Nothing had changed.
I’m not a man of few words; in fact, some would claim that I talk too much. But there’s something to the way that Caleb approaches life. He doesn’t get nearly the attention that Joshua does, but that seems by design. The only thing he cares about is the will of God, and accomplishing the task at hand.
