By Guest Columnist Spencer Sullivan, Pastor, Pelahatchie Baptist
As parents choose names for their children, there is a broad spectrum for where names come from and how they are chosen. Sometimes, parents choose names because of reasons like how the name sounds or maybe it’s uniqueness or even it’s popularity in culture. However, in many cases, names are chosen because they are special for a certain reason and have meaning or significance behind them. This is certainly the case when family names are chosen to pass down to the next generation. When Melanie gave birth to our first child, we had already chosen the name we wanted to give our son. His first name is not a family name, but it certainly has significant meaning to us. We chose to name our son Caleb after the Biblical character in the Bible. Personally, I had always liked how the name sounded, but that was certainly not the reason we chose it. The significance of the name has to do with who this man was and how he lived his life. In you aren’t familiar with the Caleb from the Bible, let me tell you about him.
Caleb is first mentioned in the Bible in Numbers 13. God had just used Moses to lead the people out of slavery in Egypt and onto the doorstep of a land that He had promised them. Caleb was chosen as one of 12 spies to check out the land, its inhabitants, and then report back to Moses and the people. When the 12 returned, they confirmed that the land was desirable, but 10 of the 12 reported that the inhabitants were too numerous, fierce, huge (giants), and that there was no way that the people of God could overtake them. Only 2, Caleb and Joshua, reported that they should absolutely move forward because God had promised them and was on their side. After all, they had just seen God do astounding miracles, including part the Red Sea for them to cross on dry land. Can you imagine? Why would He not go before them and with them and fulfill the promise He made to them? Yet, tragically, the people listened to the 10 rather than the 2. It took courage and tremendous faith to believe and obey God rather than be influenced by the majority (peer pressure). That’s a hard thing to do thousands of years later, right? Yet Caleb was a man of integrity and conviction. This is certainly not the only example that set Caleb apart.
As a result of the people listening to the 10, rather than the 2, God punished the people by keeping them in the wilderness for 40 years before He would later fulfill His promise and lead them into the land. Only the 2, Caleb and Joshua, would enter the land from that generation. You have to know that was an incredibly long and difficult 40 years, even for the faithful 2. Yet Caleb continued to display his trust and faith in God throughout the 40 years, showing tremendous patience. Then, 45 years later when Caleb was 85 years old and as the people were finally settling into the Promised Land, he showed tremendous courage and strength to overtake the Anakim (giants) in the land of Hebron to claim an inheritance for his family. Caleb was a different dude. In fact, God Himself said: “…my servant Caleb, … has a different spirit and has followed Me fully.”
This is why we named our son Caleb. Our desire for him has always been to have a different spirit and to follow God fully. But, you don’t have to bear the name to follow the example. To be clear, we can’t just generate this kind of belief and faith. It is built over time, trusting Him day by day with every part of your life. As you walk with Him day by day, you will inevitably have your own God moments and experiences where His faithfulness is evident and confirmed in your life. Some of those moments may initially be hard, but often it’s in the valleys where you experience His presence and faithfulness the most. As you come to find Him faithful, may your faith be built up to resemble Caleb’s and then follow Him fully!
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