Jesus and OCD

I Choose Joshua and Caleb

You must reach a turning point. I will not tell you that it will be easy, but I will tell you that it is well worth it. A decision is needed to do this that must be made over and over. It is to face your fears. After all, OCD is a fear based illness.

Joshua and Caleb in the Bible reached an example of this turning point. They faced the same fear as the rest of the Israelites, but handled it differently. Let's look at it together and see what it has to do with obsessive compulsive disorder.

"The Lord said to Moses, "Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders." So at the Lord's command Moses sent them out from the Desert of Paran. All of them were leaders of the Israelites. These are their names: from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zakkur; from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori; from the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh; from the tribe of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph; from the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun; from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu; from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi; from the tribe of Manasseh (a tribe of Joseph), Gaddi son of Susi; from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli; from the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael; from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi; from the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Maki. These are the names of the men Moses sent to explore the land. (Moses gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.) When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, "Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country. See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees in it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land." It was the season for the first ripe grapes". (Numbers 13:1-19).

1. How many men did God want Moses to pick?

2. What was the mission of these men?

Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it." But the men who had gone up with him said, "We can't attack those people; they are stronger than we are." (Numbers 13:30-31).

1. What did Caleb and Joshua say about the land?

2. What did the other ten men say about the land?

The Israelites believed the report of the ten scouts instead of the report of Joshua and Caleb. This was a defining moment as God decided that that generation of Israelites were not going to inherit the Promised Land except for Joshua and Caleb. The ten scouts and the Israelites were too fearful the first time around.