Worried about the forecast, or trusting that He has supplied and sealed those who are sent?
David wasn’t listening to the Goliath forecast.
Caleb wasn’t concerned in his receiving the land with the greatest forecast for himself.
But they knew that the Lord was with them. They might say, “Let the others have their good forecasts and human efforts, I have the Lord who will faithfully see me through every trial and circumstance! I have found my greatest treasure and it isn’t in the land, or even in this life, but in the Lord!”
David’s perspective:
“Don’t worry about this Philistine,” David told Saul. “I’ll go fight him!” “Don’t be ridiculous!” Saul replied. “There’s no way you can fight this Philistine and possibly win! You’re only a boy, and he’s been a man of war since his youth.” But David persisted. “I have been taking care of my father’s sheep and goats,” he said. “When a lion or a bear comes to steal a lamb from the flock, I go after it with a club and rescue the lamb from its mouth. If the animal turns on me, I catch it by the jaw and club it to death. I have done this to both lions and bears, and I’ll do it to this pagan Philistine, too, for he has defied the armies of the living God! The Lord who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine!” Saul finally consented. “All right, go ahead,” he said. “And may the Lord be with you!”
1 Samuel 17:32-37 NLT
Caleb’s perspective:
https://www.gotquestions.org/Joshua-and-Caleb.html
Do you trust in the Lord?
Do you believe that He has set you apart with a purpose, that He is the one that has supplied you, that He has sealed you with His Holy Spirit, and that He has sent you to do His will on earth as it is in heaven?
Don’t listen to the whispering lies of the enemy — who wants to cut you off from the great and eternal things the Lord has for you!
Don’t let fear and doubt and distractions of this world deter you from your purpose.
See the forecast of your trials ahead as opportunity for an even greater testimony of the peace, love, joy, and patience that flows from the Lord.
He has won the victory!
Don’t run your life, your ministry, like a well thought out business based only on verifiable forecasts! Yes, that can testify to your own human skills, knowledge, and puffery. But good business skills alone don’t demonstrate faith. Don’t go where you know you can be profitable and paid and configurable by your own skills, but step out in faith and let God show Himself faithful.
I’m not saying to test God for the sake of testing Him, No! But I am saying that it is only by faith that we can please God. Not faith in ourselves and pour own abilities, but faith in Him.
And Caleb wasn’t some great chess player, thinking to himself, “If I prove that I’m willing to trust the Lord, He will have to bless me.” No! He trusted the Lord, He valued the Lord, He sought first the Lord wholeheartedly in faithful abandon instead of through reasonable consideration of the “forecast” — and “all these things were added to him”.
See how the Lord responds to Moses (the one whom God some to “face to face”) when Moses was praying (interceding on behalf of the people) — the Lord honors Caleb (and we know that He resists the proud and honors the contrite of heart):
“Please, Lord, prove that your power is as great as you have claimed. For you said, ‘The Lord is slow to anger and filled with unfailing love, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion. But he does not excuse the guilty. He lays the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations.’ In keeping with your magnificent, unfailing love, please pardon the sins of this people, just as you have forgiven them ever since they left Egypt.” Then the Lord said, “I will pardon them as you have requested. But as surely as I live, and as surely as the earth is filled with the Lord ’s glory, not one of these people will ever enter that land. They have all seen my glorious presence and the miraculous signs I performed both in Egypt and in the wilderness, but again and again they have tested me by refusing to listen to my voice. They will never even see the land I swore to give their ancestors. None of those who have treated me with contempt will ever see it. But my servant Caleb has a different attitude than the others have. He has remained loyal to me, so I will bring him into the land he explored. His descendants will possess their full share of that land.
Numbers 14:17-24 NLT
Harold J. Ballinger 