"Now these are the areas the Israelites received as an inheritance in the land of Canaan, which Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun and the heads of the tribal clans of Israel allotted to them. Their inheritances were assigned by lot to the nine and a half tribes, as the Lord had commanded through Moses. Moses had granted the two and a half tribes their inheritance east of the Jordan but had not granted the Levites an inheritance among the rest, for Joseph's descendants became two tribes---Manasseh and Ephraim. The Levites received no share of the land but only towns to live in, with pasturelands for their flocks and herds. So the Israelites divided the land, just as the Lord had commanded Moses." (Joshua 14:1-5) We typically use the expression "the twelve tribes of Israel" but in a way there were actually thirteen tribes. There was no tribe of Joseph; his descendants were reckoned through the family lines of his two sons whom Jacob adopted as his own. But only twelve tribes received swaths of land in the promised land, for the Levites were assigned towns to live in and they mainly made their living from serving the Lord. So we see it is correct to refer to Israel as having either twelve tribes or thirteen tribes, depending on which subject we are discussing.
The first land we see being allotted on the west side of the Jordan goes to Caleb, a man of faith of the tribe of Judah. You'll recall that when Moses sent twelve spies into the promised land in the book of Numbers, ten of the spies came back with negative faithless reports. But Joshua and Caleb came back with positive reports. They wholly believed that the Lord would enable them to take the land, just as He said He would. Caleb will be given the area of Hebron as his inheritance in the promised land.
"Now the people of Judah approached Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, 'You know what the Lord said to Moses the man of God at Kadesh Barnea about you and me. I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh Barnea to explore the land. And I brought him back a report according to my convictions, but my fellow Israelites who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt in fear. I, however, followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly. So on that day Moses swore to me, 'The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever, because you have followed the Lord my God wholeheartedly.'" (Joshua 14:6-9) I don't feel like Caleb is bragging on himself when he says he wholeheartedly followed the Lord. He's simply stating a fact; he did believe the Lord was able to give them the land and therefore he was willing to do whatever the Lord said and go wherever the Lord said. Moses also recognized his faith and testified to it and made him a promise that a particular segment of the land would belong to Caleb. The Lord rewards faithfulness and, now that the Israelites have taken hold of the promised land, Caleb asks Joshua to assign him the portion promised to him by the Lord through Moses.
I love the way Caleb says he brought back a report "according to my convictions". A conviction is a firmly held belief. It is confidence. It is assurance. It is a principle, a faith, a doctrine. All of us who have made God the Lord of our lives should be people of conviction, just like Caleb. We should believe that the Lord is able to do anything He says He can do. Caleb believed the Lord when He said He would enable Israel to take the promised land. It didn't matter to Caleb that the promised land contained heavily fortified cities, large armies, and men of giant stature. He knew his God was bigger and more powerful than anything or anyone they would ever face.
Not only was Caleb a man of convictions at the age of forty, but he's still a man of convictions at eighty-five. He is still ready to go out and face giants because he still has the faith that God is with him. He says, "Now then, just as the Lord promised, He has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time He said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I'm just as vigorous to go out in battle as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the Lord promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out just as He said." (Joshua 14:10-12)
In my opinion this is one of the most powerful statements of faith in the Old Testament. Caleb says, "The same God who gave me strength when I was young gives me strength now that I am old. I can still defeat giants in His name! With His help, I can do anything." You and I may not be as physically strong as Caleb when we get to eighty-five, but we can be as spiritually strong as Caleb. There's no reason why our faith in the Lord can't continue to grow every year we're on this earth. To quote the Apostle Paul, "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day." (2 Corinthians 4:16) The apostle referred to himself as "Paul the aged" in Philemon 1:9, although many Bible scholars estimate he was only somewhere between sixty and sixty-five when he was put to death. But the things Paul endured in his life took a toll on his physical health. He may only have been chronologically in his sixties but he felt much older. Yet he grew in faith every day. He didn't allow distress, deprivation, imprisonment, or persecution to affect his convictions. Caleb and the Apostle Paul are just two of the people of the Bible who have set a great example of faith for us to follow.
"Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as his inheritance. So Hebron belonged to Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite ever since, because he followed the Lord, the God of Israel, wholeheartedly. (Hebron used to be called Kiriath Arba after Arba, who was the greatest man among the Anakites.) Then the land had rest from war." (Joshua 14:13-15) As we've previously learned, the Anakites were giants. The land allotted to Caleb was formerly named after an Anakite named Arba who was evidently known for being a mighty warrior. But as we'll see later in the book of Joshua, the eighty-five-year old Caleb and his men defeated the Anakites at Hebron, just as Caleb vowed he would do with the help of the Lord.
Nothing is impossible for the Lord. If He calls us to do something, He is going to enable us to do it. Our faith---our convictions---are in Him, not in ourselves.
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