“Give Me This Mountain”
There’s a story our culture loves to tell about getting older. It’s a story about slowing down, taking it easy, and enjoying a well-deserved rest. And while rest is a good, biblical thing, the Bible tells another story, too. It’s a story about finishing strong — a story that says our passion, our usefulness, and our faith don’t have an expiration date.
It’s the story of a man who, at 85 years old, looked at a mountain infested with giants and said, “I’ll take that one.” His name was Caleb, and his life gives us a powerful picture of what it looks like to live with a faith that never gets old.
Here's What You'll Find Inside:
A "different spirit" allows us to see God's promise where others only see giants.
Even when a promise from God is delayed, we can learn to stay faithful during the "long wait" in the wilderness.
A lifetime of faithfulness doesn't lead to a quiet retirement, but to a bolder faith that's ready for its next mountain.
The Heart of the Story: Caleb’s story teaches us that a lifetime of faith isn’t forged in a single moment of victory, but in the long, quiet wilderness of holding on to God’s promise.
Act 1: A Different Spirit
To understand Caleb at 85, we have to meet him at 40. Israel is on the very edge of the Promised Land, and Moses sends twelve spies to scout it out (Num. 13). Ten of them come back with a report dripping with fear. They saw the legendary giants — the Anakim — and their perspective crumbled. “We seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers,” they lamented, “and so we seemed to them” (Num. 13:33). They saw the obstacles and felt small; they forgot about God.
But Caleb steps up. He silences the panic and declares, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it” (Num. 13:30). The difference? The ten spies saw giants — Caleb saw God. The ten spies focused on their own inadequacy — Caleb focused on God’s promise. God himself identified the distinction, saying Caleb had a “different spirit” (ruach) and had “followed me fully” (Num. 14:24). This “different spirit” is one that becomes so aligned with God’s that it reacts to the rotten smell of fear and unbelief, even when the rest of the world is desensitized to it.
Act 2: The Long Wait
Because of the nation's unbelief, Israel was sentenced to wander in the wilderness for forty years, until that faithless generation passed away (Num. 14:34-35). Only Joshua and Caleb were spared. This is where faith is truly forged. It’s easy to be courageous for a moment. It’s much harder to stay faithful for a lifetime, especially when the promise is delayed and you find yourself wandering in a desert.
Imagine year thirty-one. Caleb isn’t leading armies or giving speeches. He’s just walking. Another sunrise, another day of gathering manna, another decade with the promise still unfulfilled. But he keeps showing up. He doesn’t grow bitter — he keeps his heart soft. He doesn’t lose faith — he nurtures it by observing God’s quiet, daily faithfulness. It’s the steadfastness James talks about, where trials produce a faith that is “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:4).
Act 3: Give Me This Mountain
Forty-five years later, the new generation of Israel has conquered the main parts of the Promised Land (Josh. 14). Caleb, now 85, approaches his old friend Joshua to cash in on God's promise. He doesn’t say, “Look how strong I am” — he says, “the LORD has kept me alive” (Josh. 14:10). His vitality is a gift, not an accomplishment.
Then he makes his request. He asks for the very hill country where the giants were, the fortified mountain of Hebron (Josh. 14:12). This wasn’t just any piece of real estate. It was where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were buried. Caleb asked for the parcel pivotal to the promise. He didn’t ask for an easy retirement in a quiet vineyard, he asked for the hardest assignment left. His confidence at 85 was the exact same as it was at 40, rooted not in his own strength, but in God’s presence: “It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the LORD said.” And he did. The Bible gives us the satisfying resolution: “And Caleb drove out from there the three sons of Anak” (Josh. 15:14).
What's Your Mountain?
Caleb’s story flips the script on what a life of faith can look like. He shows us that a lifetime of seeing God’s faithfulness should make us bolder, not more timid. So, what is the “mountain” God might be calling you to take now? It may not be a literal battle, but a challenge born from the joyful overflow of your faith.
Maybe it’s the mountain of intentional mentorship, of pouring your wisdom into the next generation. Maybe it’s going deeper in God’s word with a new hunger. Or maybe it’s a smaller, but no less holy, mountain — like praying for someone by name every day this week.
As inspiring as Caleb is, he points us to someone greater. Caleb took a physical mountain, but Jesus took the ultimate mountain — the mountain of our sin — and conquered it on the cross. Caleb’s confidence was that “the LORD will be with me,” and that’s only possible for us because Jesus gave the ultimate promise: “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). He’s the one who makes a life of mountain-moving faith possible.
