Read Online The Warrior: Caleb by Francine Rivers - Free Book Online Page A

pomegranates,” Joshua called to the others.
    “And some figs!” Caleb shouted. He laughed. “The people will never believe the abundance until they see it with their own eyes. Even what we bring back will not tell them of the riches of the land God promised us.”
    Forty days had passed, and Caleb couldn’t wait to get back to Kadesh. As soon as the people heard and saw proof that everything God had said was true, the sooner they would come back. God would help them drive out the evil inhabitants so the twelve tribes could reclaim the land Jacob’s and Caleb’s ancestors had left four hundred years ago.
    Not once did it occur to Caleb that the people might not listen.

    “The spies are returning!” People hailed them. “They’re here!” Men, women and children ran to them, gathering alongside, walking with them as they entered the camp. They exclaimed at the cluster of grapes. “Have you ever seen anything like that in your life?”
    “This is just a small sample of what God is giving us,” Caleb boasted in the Lord. “Forests, wheat fields, orchards, flocks of sheep and herds of cattle.”
    “And the people? What are the people like?”
    “Tall,” Palti said.
    “Fierce. Warriors, all of them,” Ammiel reported as he walked in.
    Annoyed, Caleb called out loudly, “They are no threat for the Lord our God!”
    Moses and Aaron and the seventy elders were waiting for them before the Tabernacle. Joshua and Caleb turned the pole so they approached straight on with the immense cluster of grapes suspended between them. Caleb grinned at their expressions and laughed with joy. Thousands came, pressing in, talking among themselves in excitement, peering at the men and the samples of the fruit of the land.
    Moses raised his hands for silence. “Tell us what you learned.”
    Shaphat spoke quickly, joined by Igal, Palti, and Ammiel. “We arrived in the land you sent us to see, and it is indeed a magnificent country—a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is some of its fruit as proof. But the people living there are powerful, and their cities and towns are fortified and very large. We also saw the descendants of Anak who are living there!”
    “Giants!” A ripple of alarm spread out among the gathering.
    “The Amalekites live in the Negev.”
    “And the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country.”
    “The Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan Valley.”
    The people grew restless, fear spreading through the crowd. “Giants . . . fortified cities . . . Anak . . .”
    Caleb stepped forward and raised his hands. “Quiet. Listen, all of you.” He did not shout. He knew he must hold his temper and speak as a father would to frightened children. “We were not sent to find out if we could take the land. The Lord has already given the land to us. All we have to do is obey Him. You remember what the Lord did to Egypt. Let’s go at once to take the land. We can certainly conquer it!”
    The other spies spoke loudly, breaking in on his appeal. “We can’t go up against them!”
    “They are stronger than we are!”
    “Listen to us!”
    “What do we know about war?”
    “We are only slaves!”
    “They are seasoned warriors!”
    Caleb shouted over them. “We can take the land! Don’t be afraid of those people.”
    “Don’t listen to this man. He’s not even a Hebrew!”
    Men cried out. “He stands for Judah! Caleb stands for Judah!”
    Emboldened, Caleb shouted louder. “It is a beautiful land. Green fields and hills, cities already built and ready for us to take!”
    “The land we explored will swallow up any who go to live there!”
    “All the people we saw were huge!”
    “We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak!”
    “We felt like grasshoppers next to them, and that’s what we looked like to them!”
    “The land is ours!” Caleb cried out. “The Lord has already given it to us!”
    Moses called for order. He looked old