Author: Calleen Hough

Living in the Promised Land

I think it is possible for a Christian, someone that has accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, to live their entire life outside the will of God. God always gives us the choice to go his way or not. He does not force his will upon his children. If you think of the Promised Land as the will of God, then being inside the borders of the Promised Land means that you are in the will of God, you are living your life according to God’s plan for you, and being outside the borders of the Promised Land means that you are outside of God’s will, you are going your own way and doing as you please.

Two and a half of the tribes of Israel chose to live outside the boundaries of the Promised Land. The children of Rueben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh lived on the other side of the Jordan from the rest of Jacob’s descendants. The Jordan River formed a natural barrier between the two territories and made it difficult to discern whether the Ruebenites, Gadites, and half tribe of Manasseh were a part of the family that had inherited the Promised Land because they were not actually living in it.

Even though the Ruebenites, Gadites, and half tribe of Manasseh chose to live outside the Promised Land, they did not want to give up their right to their inheritance all together. In order to ensure they would continue to be identified with the Israelites, they built a replica of the altar that was used to make sacrifices to God. The altar was intended to be a will of sorts, a legal testament to their right of ownership to a portion of the Promised Land.

Every Christian has the guarantee that when they die they will go to heaven. For some Christians, that is enough, that is all they hope to gain from their relationship with the Lord. But I think they are missing the point of why Jesus died on the cross to purchase their salvation. I believe God wants his children to experience a different kind of life on earth that what they would have if they were not Christians. he wants them to be resurrected before they get to heaven.

A question that I think is worth asking is why did Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead? Everything that Jesus did was used to teach his followers a lesson. When Jesus arrived at the home of Martha after her brother had died, she said to him, “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died” (John 11:21). If it was me that had a chance to confront the Lord, I might have said, Lord, if you had been with me that night, I wouldn’t have been raped. What follows in their conversation is not only an important lesson about the resurrection of believers, but a lesson about the kind of life God wants his children to live while they are on Earth.

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believeth thou this? (John 11:25-26)

What I think Jesus is saying to Martha here is that if you are alive spiritually and are exercising your faith on a continual basis, you are never separated from God. You will not be thinking, if you had been here this wouldn’t have happened because you will know that the Lord is always with you. He is constantly by your side.

God is able

There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.

When God created the heaven and the earth, he spoke into existence everything that he created “and God saw that it was good” (Gen 1:10). There is a lot that God sees today that is not good, but he is able to change things, to change lives and make them as they were intended to be.

The way that God works today is the same way he worked in Abraham’s time, through promises. God tells us what he is going to do ahead of time so that we can see that it is good in the same way that he did when he first created the heaven and the earth. If you’ve ever watched an artist at work, you have probably been amazed to see the canvas or lump of clay come to life. It is amazing how a blank sheet of paper can suddenly become an image that moves you to tears or laughter.

The word translated pass in Joshua 1:45, bôw (bo) is an action word, “this verb connotes movement in space from one place toward another” (935). What it is referring to in this verse is the movement of the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan. God brought them into the Promised Land, but it was the Israelites that had to do the walking, fighting, and occupying in order to live in the land.

It was a partnership, God did his part and the Israelites had to do theirs. I would refer to the arrangement as collaboration because God could not force the Israelites to go into the land and the Israelites would not have defeated their enemies without God’s help. They needed each other and to a certain extent, they had a shared destiny. God could have chosen another family, but he would still have had to choose someone to receive his blessing.

The question I have to ask myself sometimes is, do I really want God’s blessing? It is hard sometimes to be obedient and walk in God’s way. I get tired of going against the tide and don’t always agree with what God asks me to do, but I know if I want to live in the Promised Land, I have to be obedient and let God call the shots. He can do it without me, but I can’t do it without him.

God is my refuge

Not every mistake I make has the same effect on my life, therefore, I regret some mistakes I have made more than others. The good thing about mistakes is that you can correct them. The bad thing about mistakes is that sometimes the effect is so severe or the damage so unrepairable that you can’t just erase them and start over.

When I was in elementary school, my teachers would correct my papers for me. As I got older, my teachers expected me to correct my own mistakes. Eventually, I was not given an opportunity to correct my mistakes, I was just give a score and however well I did determined my grade for the class.

One of the things I made a lot of mistakes on when I was a teenager was driving. I got a lot of tickets and one day two police officers showed up at my home and told my parents they had a warrant for my arrest. I was taken to jail and had to appear before a judge to determine what my punishment would be.

I think the worst mistake I have ever made in my life happened when I was 14. It really wasn’t that bad as far as what I did wrong, but the effect changed my life and there was no way to correct it or repair the damage after it happened. It was one of those wrong place, wrong time scenarios that resulted in me being raped and losing my virginity to a man that would best be described as despicable. This year marks 40 years since that fateful day and I still have not completely recovered.

God knows we are not perfect and doesn’t take pleasure in seeing us suffer for our mistakes. In fact, the reason he sent Jesus to save us is so we wouldn’t have to be punished for our mistakes. In the Promised Land, there were designated cities where a person could take refuge. It says in Joshua 20:3 that if someone killed another person as a result of a mistake, the killer could flee to one of the cities of refuge and be safe until his case had been judged.

Not every church is a safe place for people that have made mistakes, but I believe the reason God established the church in a physical form was so that people would know where to find him if they got into trouble. Ultimately, God is our refuge because it is his protection we need when we have done something wrong. After I was raped, it took me six years to make my way into a church. It wasn’t until I was desperate and in a way, running for my life, that I was willing to seek refuge in the arms of God. Perhaps the real mistake was that I waited so long.

I asked for it

Joshua was the last to be assigned a territory in the Promised Land. Unlike the rest of Israel’s children who received their inheritance by lot or the casting of small pebbles similar to what we think of today as dice, it says in Joshua 19:50 “they gave him the city which he asked.” Joshua and Caleb received the land they wanted because they were the only survivors of the wilderness generation. When they were sent to spy out the Promised Land, they came back with a good report and believed they could overcome the people who lived there.

The Promised Land is described as a land flowing with milk and honey. It was a fruitful land and the city Joshua chose to live in Timnath-serah, which means “portion of (the) sun” (8556), could be described as a hot spot in Israel because it was located on a mountain facing toward the location where the Messiah was expected to arrive, Bethlehem. In a way, you could say Joshua wanted his family to have front row seats for the Messiah’s arrival. It’s possible that Joshua’s descendants were among the shepherds that received the announcement of Christ’s birth and visited him in the stable.

Sometimes I think about where I would like to live if I could live anywhere in the world. Every time, I always come up with the same answer, exactly where I’m at right now, Costa Mesa. What makes Costa Mesa special is that it is the home of Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, the church founded by Pastor, Chuck Smith.

The Calvary Chapel ministry began in the 60’s during the hippie age and became famous for the trend of people coming to church dressed however they wanted to, even barefoot in some cases. Up until that time, everyone that went to church was expected to dress up and had their “Sunday clothes.” I think it’s interesting that Jesus was born in a stable to parents that were not rich and famous. I think Pastor Chuck was raised during the time when going to church was just a ritual that people went through and he understood that it was not going to church that mattered, it was what you did after you got there that was important. Calvary Chapel is famous for it’s worship and the teaching of God’s word is central to its mission.

If it weren’t enough that I live just minutes from Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, for the past five years I have had the privilege of being a member of Greg Laurie’s church Harvest Christian Fellowship. Greg Laurie is probably the most effective evangelist in the world today. Every year thousands of people are saved at the Harvest Crusade. A couple of years ago, Pastor Greg launched Harvest America, an annual event that enables hundreds of thousands of people to hear the gospel preached. I don’t believe it will be long before technology will enable the Harvest ministry to expand worldwide.

So here I am in the hot spot of Christian ministry and I can’t help thinking, how did I get so lucky? Well, I didn’t get here by a roll of the dice. I actually believe God called me here, particularly because of what is going on in the ministry and who knows, maybe I will end up having front row seats when Christ returns and raptures the church into Heaven?

My Inheritance

An inheritance in something you get whether you want it or not, deserve it or not, and in one sense, you could say that it is an entitlement, something you have coming to you. An inheritance is a possession, property that is owned by one person and transferred to another. When my dad died four years ago, he had several properties in Oklahoma that my brothers and sister and I inherited. All of us lived in Southern California at the time, so it was very difficult for us to take possession of the properties. My dad died suddenly and did not have time to put his affairs in order and there was no will to state how the land was to be distributed. As a result, the properties are still tied up and none of us has received any money from our inheritance.

In Joshua 16:4 it says, “so the children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, took their inheritance.” This means that they actually went in and took possession of it, they began to occupy the land that belonged to them.

One of the cities the children of Joseph inherited was Beth-el, formerly known as the city of Luz. When Jacob was sick and close to death, he told Joseph about his encounter with God at Luz. “And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared to unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me” (Gen 48:3).

Jacob’s encounter with God takes place in a dream while he is traveling from Beer-sheba to Haran to escape his brother Esau after he has tricked him out of his inheritance, the blessing that was first given to Abraham, passed on to his father Jacob, and then belonged to him. It was the blessing of Abraham that entitled the children of Jacob to inherit the land of Israel. In his dream, God says to Jacob, “And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all the places wither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land: for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of” (Gen 28:15).

My dad lived in Oklahoma when he was a child. His family moved to California when he was around eight years old as a result of the loss of their farm due to a family crisis. My grandparents became sharecroppers, which meant they no longer owned the land, but were able to continue farming.

The situation of the Israelites in Egypt was similar to my dad’s family in that their basic needs were always met, but they could never seem to get far enough ahead to return to their homeland and start over. It wasn’t until my dad was nearly 70 that he decided to sell everything and return to the place that his ancestors had called home.

Something that we inherit that we may not realize is our family culture. Now you may be thinking that a culture cannot be inherited because it is not something you possess, but in a way culture is more tangible than you think. Culture can exist in a building, in clothes, and in the haircut a person chooses. Elvis Presley, a famous singer in the 50’s and 60’s had a hairstyle that was copied by thousands of young men that wanted to present a particular image of themselves. The Beatles wore a type of clothing that when copied by their followers, ushered in a whole new way of life for young people in the United States. It was known as the hippie age.

Gilead, the descendant of Manasseh, Joseph’s first born son, was known as a man of war, therefore, he inherited a portion of land that was suitable for a warrior. It was kind of like giving a set of tools to a carpenter. Gilead’s inheritance matched his identity, his way of life, and his destiny.

One of the reasons I believe my dad returned to Oklahoma and purchased land before he died was so that he could relink his children to their ancestry, the heritage that he tried to pass along to us. My dad was a Native American. His father came from the Chickasaw tribe. The Chickasaw fought against the U.S. government and refused to be registered when a law was passed that required all Indians to be registered so that they could be treated as U.S. citizens. My dad refused to pay taxes and went to great lengths to remain anonymous in  eyes of the U.S. government. The interesting thing about it was that my dad was a veteran and was very proud that he served in the military. It didn’t always make sense, but my dad used to say to us, you’re a Hough, and a Hough…whatever lesson he was trying to teach us was always put in the context of our family name, as if our whole identity was wrapped up in the family we came from.

Not every child wants to follow in his parent’s footsteps. The desire for independence and the ability to make choices for oneself is a natural human tendency. Even though the Promised Land had been conquered, it was not all being occupied by the Israelites. “And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, How long are you slack to go to possess the land, which the LORD God of your fathers hath given you?” (Joshua 18:3).

In my case, the reason why I haven’t moved to Oklahoma and began to occupy any of the properties that belong to me and my siblings is because I don’t want to be an Oklahoman. I have lived in Southern California almost all my life. I feel I belong here and my current lifestyle, which includes spending a lot of time at the beach, will not be able to be maintained if I move to Oklahoma. I definitely think it matters where you live and I like where I am living right now.

One of the problems we had shortly after my dad died was people occupying his properties that didn’t belong there. As soon as word got out that he had died, most of his tenants stopped paying rent. Some of his properties got trashed and abandoned  leaving them open to vandalism. Because none of us kids were willing to occupy my dad’s land, it was determined that it would have to be sold.

My Hero

Sometimes victories come quickly, perhaps overnight, life suddenly changes. Other times, the battle rages on for years, maybe even decades with no end in sight. What I think God wants us to realize is that he is in control and his timing is perfect. He does not make things easy because he wants us to trust him.

Joshua 12:24 – 13:1 puts the Israelites’ conquests into a proper perspective. Although 31 kings had already been conquered, Joshua tells them, “there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed” (Joshua 13:1). It was a good news, bad news scenario of sorts because the acknowledgement of what had already been accomplished would help to strengthen the people’s resolve to keep fighting until all their enemies were defeated.

I think Caleb is one of the unsung heroes of the Bible that has not received the recognition due him because of the vast amount of attention given to Joshua. Caleb was the representative of the tribe of Judah that was sent to spy out the Promised Land when the Israelites first reached its borders after their Exodus from Egypt. Caleb’s attitude differed from the majority of the men that spent 40 days looking over the lay of the land. Caleb was not intimidated by the strong men, large cities, or high walls he saw. His advice to the people was, “Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it” (Num 13:30).

Even though Caleb’s entry into the Promised Land was delayed 40 years, his positive attitude was not diminished. When it came time to distribute their inheritance, Caleb proclaimed:

Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to espy out the land…and now low I am this day fourscore and five years (85) old. As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me…Now therefore give me this mountain whereof the LORD spoke in that day. (Joshua 14:7, 10-12)

Hebron, the mountain Caleb is referring to, is the place Abraham first dwelt after God promised to give him all the land north, south, east, and west of Canaan. You could say Caleb’s occupation of Hebron brought things full-circle, God’s faithfulness was now evident to everyone. The cave Abraham purchased as a burial place for Sarah was located in Hebron. Isaac and Esau lived in Hebron and Jacob returned there after spending 20 years in Haran with his uncle Laban, so the family’s history was closely tied to this location.

Hebron was also pivotal later in the establishment of God’s kingdom. The first seven years of David’s reign were in the land of Hebron. His inauguration in Hebron may well have been a peak moment in Israel’s history. It says in 1 Chronicles 12:30, “All these men of war, that could keep rank, came with a perfect heart to Hebron, to make David king over all Israel: and all the rest also of Israel were of one heart to make David king.”

The explanation given for Caleb receiving Hebron as his inheritance is “because that he wholly followed the LORD God of Israel” (Joshua 14:14). One of the definitions of the word translated followed is stayed behind (310). This may make sense to followers of Jesus Christ because he once walked on the earth, but for Caleb, who followed someone he had never seen, this was a remarkable accomplishment.

Although Caleb’s conquest of Hebron was an important victory for the tribe of Judah, it did not completely secure the area that they were meant to inherit. In particular, the city that would eventually become their capital, Jerusalem was compromised. “As for the Jebusites the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the children of Judah could not drive them out, but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day” (Joshua 15:63).

Eventually, David would gain control of Jerusalem and build his palace there, but even his military strength was not enough to drive out the people that were a continual stumbling block to the Israelites. David’s own life was compromised when he committed adultery with Bathsheba and his daughter Tamar was raped by her half-brother Amnon. So, the question that comes to my mind is, why could they not drive them out? If God was on their side, why did the Israelites not get the victory over these people as they did over the inhabitants of Jericho?

It does not say in the Bible why they could not drive them out, it just says that the Jebusites dwelt with the children of Judah. When Jesus was on the earth, one of the things he did was to cast out demons and he gave his disciples the ability to do it also. On one occasion, a man brought his son to Jesus’ disciples and asked them to cast out the demon that possessed him. It talks about this in Luke 9:40. “And I besought thy disciples to cast him out; and they could not.” Jesus’ response may provide some insight into why his disciples power was limited. “And Jesus answering said, O faithless and perverse generation, now long shall I be with you and suffer you?…And Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the child, and delivered him again to his father” (Luke 9:41-42). What Jesus is saying is that they were not really Believers, they were unconverted.

The concept of being born again is one that has never really been understood. It only makes sense to those that have experienced it. When a person is born again, the Holy Spirit comes and dwells inside the person. It is what some people refer to as having Jesus in your heart. The Holy Spirit is the source of a Believer’s power. It is his presence inside of us that makes it possible for us to do miraculous things. The key to receiving the Holy Spirit is belief. “Jesus said to him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth” (Mark 9:23).

Be not afraid

And the LORD said unto Joshua, be not afraid because of them: for to morrow about this time will I deliver them up all slain before Israel: thou shalt hough their horses, and burn their chariots with fire. (Joshua 11:6)

The word translated hough in this passage, âqar (aw – kar´) means to pluck up by the roots. Aqar also means to hamstring or figuratively, to exterminate, so the idea here is to render something useless. When I was a child, my dad taught me that in order to ensure that a weed would not grow back, you had to pull up the root along with the rest of the plant or you would be continually weeding your garden. Even though it took a little extra time, it would be better to get all of it the first time, then to have to month after month come back and weed the garden.

One of the reasons the inhabitants of the Promised Land had to be destroyed utterly or exterminated “was to be a security against idolatry and demoralization on the part of Israel” (2763). The Canaanites were a corrupt people, beyond redemption in regards to their immoral behavior Their decision to come against Israel in battle was really their undoing, it led them to judgment and punishment for their sins.

I don’t necessarily like being the instrument God uses to root out sin in other people’s lives, but I understand that God’s divine protection and assurance of victory makes the battle worthwhile. Like Joshua, I do not have to be afraid because the outcome has already been determined and will be in my favor.

The longest day of my life

Turning points are sometimes marked by unique or unusual events that cause them to stand out in our minds many years after the transition is complete. The turning point in the development of the nation of Israel may have come when they defeated five of their most formidable enemies in a single day.

The day the Israelites killed the five kings of the Amorites was not just a day like any other day. On that day “the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day” (Joshua 10:13). You could say the day the Israelites avenged themselves was the longest day ever. It says in Joshua 10:14 “there was no day like that day before it or after it.”

The longest day of my life was the day I overdosed on sleeping pills. After being rushed to the hospital and having my stomach pumped, I was told that I would not be allowed to fall asleep that night. I was placed in a bed that had bright lights shining directly into my face. The nursing staff checked on me frequently and made sure I understood that I was not to close my eyes.

What I didn’t know until later was that I was in a Cardiac Intensive Care Unit because my heart was beating erratically and all of my bodily functions had shut down. In a way, you could say I was already as good as dead and for sure my life was hanging in the balance. There was a good chance I would not make it through the night.

I can’t say I was fighting for my life because the desire to live was still not in me, but I do believe the Lord was fighting for me. In the unseen spiritual realm, there are battles going on all the time. That night, I know there was a struggle between the Lord and Satan and Satan was defeated once and for all, he would no longer have control of my life.

I feel so stupid

It’s hard to admit it when you’ve been tricked because you feel like a fool. My immediate reaction is to think, how could I have been so stupid? The problem with being tricked is you usually don’t realize it until it is too late or after experiencing the pain of having been taken advantage of.

Trickery is an intentional effort to deceive someone or to keep something hidden (6195). The Gibeonites tricked the Israelites into believing they were from a distant land so that a political agreement could be made that would prevent the Israelites from exterminating them along with the other inhabitants of the Promised Land. The word Joshua used to describe the Gibeonites action is râmâh (raw – maw´) which figuratively means to delude or betray (7411).

When I was 19, I worked in an office building in downtown San Diego. One day, when I arrived at work, there was a man standing next to the curb outside my building. As I entered, he followed me into the elevator and quickly pushed the button for a floor beneath the level we were on. When we started going up to the floor I worked on, the man became upset and told me he needed to get to the bottom floor quickly because there was a man injured in the stairwell. He pleaded with me to come and help and eventually convinced me that helping the injured man was much more important than me getting to work on time.

When we entered the bottom of the stairwell, the man pulled out a knife and forced me into a small closet beneath the stairs where he raped me while holding the knife to my throat. Afterwards, he told me there was a man waiting outside to kill me if I told anyone about what he had done. I was to wait five minutes to give him enough time to get away without being seen and then go to my office and act as if nothing had happened.

It’s hard to say which makes me more angry about what the man did to me that day, tricking me into going into the stairwell with him or raping me after I agreed to help him take care of the injured man.

I confess

I’m not sure exactly what it is about confessing something I’ve done wrong that makes me feel better, but I know that inside of each person there is some sort of mechanism, a switch if you will, that seems to get flipped when we confess our sin to God. It might be one of the great mysteries of life or maybe I’m just stupid, but I don’t understand why forgiveness has the power to change a person, why in many ways forgiveness is the key to true life.

The Hebrew word that is translated as confession in Joshua 7:19, tôwdâh (to – dah´) means an extension of the hand as in adoration, like a choir of worshippers (8426). If you’ve ever been in in  church where the people raise their hands during worship, then you have an accurate picture of what confession looks like.

In a sense, confession means to become a worshipper of God. When Joshua says to Achan, “My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession unto him” (Joshua 7:19), he is basically saying, you need to get right with God and become a true follower or worshipper of him. Achan’s response “Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel” (Joshua 7:20) indicates that he knows he is subject to God’s commandments and must be punished for his wrong doing.

The Greek word that is translated as confession in Romans 10:10 sheds a little more light on the act of confession. Homologeo (hom – ol – og – eh´ – o) means “to speak the same thing” or to agree with something (3670). The idea here is an acknowledgement of the truth, to say yes, I believe that is true. Paul puts it this way, “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:10).

One of the ways salvation is described is “the present experience of God’s power to deliver from the bondage of sin” (4991). So when I confess, I actually experience God’s power, it is like a momentary jolt that makes me aware that God’s working in my life.