Last week we looked at how the Lord granted Joshua success against the 5 kings that had formed a coalition to come and war against the Gibeonites and against Israel. The Lord granted Joshua success in battle, and even stopped the Sun and Moon in the sky so that the battle could be won completely, thoroughly.
And then, in a stunning picture of the Lord’s assured victory, Joshua had the leaders of Israel come and put their feet on the throats of those defeated kings, and then proclaimed that this is what Yahweh would do to all the enemies of Israel.
Tonight, we will finish up chapter 10, which lists the details of the campaign of Southern Canaan, then chapter 11, which describes the campaign in Northern Canaan, and then briefly look at chapter 12, which summarizes the entire military history, from the eastern side of the Jordan with Moses, all the way through Joshua’s victories here.
But let’s begin by reading beginning in Joshua 10 verse 29, through the end chapter 10:
29 Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Makkedah to Libnah and fought against Libnah. 30 And the Lord gave it also and its king into the hand of Israel. And he struck it with the edge of the sword, and every person in it; he left none remaining in it. And he did to its king as he had done to the king of Jericho.
31 Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Libnah to Lachish and laid siege to it and fought against it. 32 And the Lord gave Lachish into the hand of Israel, and he captured it on the second day and struck it with the edge of the sword, and every person in it, as he had done to Libnah.
33 Then Horam king of Gezer came up to help Lachish. And Joshua struck him and his people, until he left none remaining.
34 Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Lachish to Eglon. And they laid siege to it and fought against it. 35 And they captured it on that day, and struck it with the edge of the sword. And he devoted every person in it to destruction that day, as he had done to Lachish.
36 Then Joshua and all Israel with him went up from Eglon to Hebron. And they fought against it 37 and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword, and its king and its towns, and every person in it. He left none remaining, as he had done to Eglon, and devoted it to destruction and every person in it.
38 Then Joshua and all Israel with him turned back to Debir and fought against it39 and he captured it with its king and all its towns. And they struck them with the edge of the sword and devoted to destruction every person in it; he left none remaining. Just as he had done to Hebron and to Libnah and its king, so he did to Debir and to its king.
40 So Joshua struck the whole land, the hill country and the Negeb and the lowland and the slopes, and all their kings. He left none remaining, but devoted to destruction all that breathed, just as the Lord God of Israel commanded. 41 And Joshua struck them from Kadesh-barnea as far as Gaza, and all the country of Goshen, as far as Gibeon. 42 And Joshua captured all these kings and their land at one time, because the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel. 43 Then Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp at Gilgal.
In this first point, I’d like for us to notice the emphasis that the text gives on The Divine Gift of Progress. The Divine Gift of Progress.
This section of scripture makes perfectly clear that while the people of God, and particularly Joshua, are making great gains in their battles, it is the Lord who is actually doing the heavy lifting. God is the one who is actually enabling them to have any progress in the land at all.
For example, look again at verse 30:
“And the LORD gave it [Libnah] and its king into the hand of Israel.”
And verse 32:
“And the Lord gave Lachish into the hand of Israel”
And down in verse 42:
“And Joshua captured all these kings and their land at one time, because the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel.”
From beginning to end, the progress made by Israel was progress made because the Lord was working in and through them. He gave them success. He was the deciding factor. He was the prime mover and the determiner of victory.
This principle is found throughout scripture, and the people of the Lord must never forget it. We must be faithful to do our part, as we discussed last week, but God is the one who is actually producing fruit.
To use Paul’s language, some of us plant, others of us water, but the Lord is the one who actually provides the growth.
We must never forget that simple truth. That although we must be faithful to do what we are called to do, any fruit that we see, any progress in our lives, any growth in holiness, any of that is purely the result of God’s kindness to us.
God’s people are the safest when they recognize their own inability to produce anything on their own. And conversely, God’s people are most endangered in scripture when they fail to recognize their utter dependence upon the Lord for everything.
A people aware of their need for the Lord will be a humble people, because they know their own strength is nothing.
A people aware of their need for the Lord will be a praying people, because they reflexively call out to their God for aid and for strength.
A people aware of their need for the Lord will be a thankful people, because they are more trained to spot every single gift from the Lord and to be grateful for each of them.
Do you see those gifts in your life? Has your dependence upon the Lord made you a humble person? A more prayerful person? A more thankful person?
If not, then you are probably placing too much importance upon your own strength in the fight, and failing to recognize that any progress, any growth, any advances are simply gifts of the Lord’s grace to you. He gave them to you as a gift.
Don’t boast in your own strength. Recognize what God has done in you and through you, and let that be your eyes be trained to spot the gifts of Grace that God has given you throughout the battle.
There’s more on this theme in our text tonight, but before we get to it, let’s move on to chapter 11, and we will note our second point, The necessity of endurance. The Necessity of endurance.
Chapter 11 begins with the king of Hazor, named Jabin, sending word to the other kings in the Northern country to join up in battle against Israel. It’s the same story as what happened in the last chapter. They amass a great army, so much so that verse 4 says:
4 And they came out with all their troops, a great horde, in number like the sand that is on the seashore, with very many horses and chariots. 5 And all these kings joined their forces and came and encamped together at the waters of Merom to fight against Israel.
6 And the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them, for tomorrow at this time I will give over all of them, slain, to Israel. You shall hamstring their horses and burn their chariots with fire.” 7 So Joshua and all his warriors came suddenly against them by the waters of Merom and fell upon them. 8 And the Lord gave them into the hand of Israel [there’s that theme again] , who struck them and chased them as far as Great Sidon and Misrephoth-maim, and eastward as far as the Valley of Mizpeh. And they struck them until he left none remaining. 9 And Joshua did to them just as the Lord said to him: he hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire.
10 And Joshua turned back at that time and captured Hazor and struck its king with the sword, for Hazor formerly was the head of all those kingdoms. 11 And they struck with the sword all who were in it, devoting them to destruction;[a] there was none left that breathed. And he burned Hazor with fire. 12 And all the cities of those kings, and all their kings, Joshua captured, and struck them with the edge of the sword, devoting them to destruction, just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded. 13 But none of the cities that stood on mounds did Israel burn, except Hazor alone; that Joshua burned. 14 And all the spoil of these cities and the livestock, the people of Israel took for their plunder. But every person they struck with the edge of the sword until they had destroyed them, and they did not leave any who breathed. 15 Just as the Lord had commanded Moses his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did. He left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded Moses.
16 So Joshua took all that land, the hill country and all the Negeb and all the land of Goshen and the lowland and the Arabah and the hill country of Israel and its lowland 17 from Mount Halak, which rises toward Seir, as far as Baal-gad in the Valley of Lebanon below Mount Hermon. And he captured all their kings and struck them and put them to death. 18 Joshua made war a long time with all those kings.
So the king of Hazor and all his confederates came together against Israel for war. But Joshua, just like the Lord had promised, defeated them.
It’s interesting to note in passing that the Lord promises them that they will hamstring their horses and burn their chariots. You’d think that Israel would be better served by keeping the captured horses and chariots and using them in battle. Why wouldn’t they do that?
Hamstringing a horse renders it useless. It can’t be used in battle anymore. Why is the Lord having Israel do that?
I think the Lord is preventing Israel from placing their hope in the chariots and horses. He wants every single person to look at the victories of Israel and have no other conclusion than that the Lord was the strength of Israel in the fight. Not horses. Not mighty chariots. The Lord and the Lord alone is Israel’s strength and shield.
But the main point I want us to see in this section of text is not that Israel won the fight. That’s not surprising to the reader of this text.
The more surprising thing might be verse 18. Joshua made war a long time with all those kings.
Just skimming through this passage could give the reader the impression that these battles took place quickly. That Israel is progressing through the Land at a rapid pace. But that’s not how it worked, and it is not usually how the Lord works.
This length of time shouldn’t have surprised them. God promised it in Exodus 23 when he said:
“ I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. 30 Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land.”
The conquest of the land was to take time. Scholars agree that this campaign led by Joshua took place over years, likely 5-7 years.[1] That’s a long time to be at war.
Think about how many times they had to wake up, pack up camp, march on foot to the next place. All the mundane daily chores. Fetching water. Lighting a fire. Sharpening your blades, repairing your gear. Mending wounds. Not being able to see your family. Not being able to go home. All of this over and over and over. For years.
But that’s the life of a child of God in this age. Yes, sometimes God does something mighty and miraculous, like parting the Jordan river or knocking down walls at Jericho or making the Sun stand still. But usually, he doesn’t.
Normally, he works normally. Ordinarily, the Lord works ordinarily. Through the daily grind of ordinary faith, commonplace prayers, and simple bible reading. Through the ordinary means of grace, like preaching and the Lord’s supper and the fellowship of the saints.
That’s why the Christian virtue of endurance is so important. We need to be able to plod, year in and year out. We’re not likely to witness an event like the parting of the Red Sea or the Sun standing still. And yet, we’re called to be faithful to the word.
Day in and day out. Rain or shine. Good days or bad. We’re called to endure. We’re called to have stamina, perseverance.
Proverbs 24:10 says that
“If you faint in the day of adversity,
your strength is small.”
A man’s strength isn’t measured in the level of his momentary intensity that he can muster up, but rather in his sustained endurance. That actually takes more effort. Everybody can muster up a blast of strength and focus for a moment.
But the truly strong are able to sustain it over the long haul. A flash of zeal is seldom of much value. What is necessary, is durable, resilient, sustained, battle-tested, long-suffering endurance.
Do you see that in yourself? If you do, praise the lord for that gift, like we said in the first point.
But if you’re like most Christians, you see that you have often fainted in the day of adversity, and shown your strength to indeed be small.
I know I have. I have not endured trials and testing like I should have.
But I can also take heart knowing that my savior endured completely. He suffered through the greatest day of adversity anyone has ever known, and he persevered, showing his strength to be great.
It’s his strength that is sufficient to endure even the hardest days of adversity. And when we dress for battle, when we put on the armor of God that Paul describes in Ephesians 6, we must remember that we stand, not in the frail weakness of our own strength, but we stand in the power of his might, Eph. 6:10.
That’s the only way for us to endure the grueling battle that is this age. We stand in the power of His might. We depend on his strength, pray to him for endurance, walk in the power of His un-tiring spirit, and not try and do it all in the strength of our flesh, which will fade.
So don’t give up. Don’t grow wearing of doing good. When you stumble, remember the savior who never fell and endured to the end. And let the strength of His endurance help carry you through the battle.
But this text doesn’t only show the necessity of enduring IN THE WORK OF THE LORD. It also shows the danger of enduring against the Lord. Have you ever thought about that? That there is a kind of endurance that the bible warns against.
Let’s look at that in the next point. Our third point is the fearfulness of divine hardening. The fearfulness of divine hardening. Pick up at verse 19:
19 There was not a city that made peace with the people of Israel except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. They took them all in battle. 20 For it was the Lord’s doing to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, in order that they should be devoted to destruction and should receive no mercy but be destroyed, just as the Lord commanded Moses.
The text hear is clear that these Canaanites were so committed to their sin, so resistant to the Lord and His works, so tied to their wickedness that they endured the judgement that was earned by them.
And the judgment from the Lord was seen in the fact that every single city, other than the Gibeonites, united themselves in battle against Israel and the Lord. And the Lord hardened them to their own destruction.
Just like he did in the heart of Pharaoh in Exodus 4-14 through the plagues, the Lord uses the sinful hearts of his enemies and lets them loose down the path that they have chosen.
That’s the same judgment that Paul describes in romans 1. Sinners chose to reject God, and so God gives them over to their own wicked hearts.
Verse 21: For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Verse 24: Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
The clarity of our text in Joshua is stunning. God hardened their hearts, and in their sinfulness, they willfully chose to assault God’s people, to their own demise.
That’s a mighty picture of God. Does that action of divine hardening fit within your picture of God? Your doctrine of God?
And don’t think that you can escape this God by running to the New Testament. You meet the same God there. Hebrews 3:
12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Don’t toy with sin. Run from it. It has a hardening effect on the heart. And if you reject God and his word, he might just give you over to the desire of your heart.
We’ve seen glimpses of that hardening in the life of Morningview, when once diligent members of our church give themselves over to secret sin, and over time their hard hearts get exposed for what they really are, they reveal the true condition of their hearts which get harder and harder.
Don’t toy with sin, don’t tempt the discipline of the Lord. Don’t let your heart get hardened by coddling and indulging wicked desires.
Learn the lesson here from Joshua, that the Lord is mighty, and he will either be mighty for you, or against you.
And that might of the Lord FOR his people will be our fourth point: God’s might over the mighty. God’s might over the mighty.
Look at verse 21 of chapter 11, where we read about the Sons of Anak, or the Anakim:
21 And Joshua came at that time and cut off the Anakim from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel. Joshua devoted them to destruction with their cities.22 There was none of the Anakim left in the land of the people of Israel. Only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod did some remain. 23 So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses. And Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal allotments. And the land had rest from war.
The Sons of Anak, or the Anakim, might not be a name you recognize, but the Israelites surely knew of them. When the spies first went into the land, the 10 fearful spies came back and gave a scared report.
They were worried about the giants in the land. Here is their report from Numbers 13:
“We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there…
We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are… The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. 33 And there we saw the …the sons of Anak…, and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers [compared] to them.”
Apparently, these Sons of Anak, somehow descended from the Nephilim mentioned in Genesis 6 and Numbers 13, these are giants of men. Some scholars also tie them to the giants of the Philistines, like Goliath.
In 2 Samuel 21 we read a bit about these giant men. It says,
Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.[c] 20 And there was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number, and he also was descended from the giants.
Whatever their lineage, the point is clear. These were mighty men, giants in stature, but they were nothing for Joshua. The text says that Joshua “cut them off.” Remember, this section is summarizing the campaign.[2]
And it is as if God is saving the best for last. The scariest, the biggest, the mightiest opponents. Those are the ones that God too defeats with ease.
And these were the figures that made the majority of the spies want to turn back and head toward Egypt. They wanted to give up before the fight even began.
But those fears turned out to be groundless. The fears were misplaced, unnecessary.
Not to over-spiritualize this text, but there have certainly been times in each of our lives when we were afraid of something. Something was ahead of us, some financial problem, some medical diagnosis, some relationship difficulty, and we were afraid.
Afraid of not having enough, not having peace, not having strength, not being able to figure it out.
But then, in hindsight, we can look back and see that the Lord had it handled all along. Can you think of a time in your life when the lord showed his might over some situation that had made you feel afraid?
I bet you can.
And if that is the case, then think about what it is that has you afraid right now. Think of the relationship, or the sickness, or the trial.
Now ask yourself: Isn’t the Lord almighty more powerful than that scary thing? Of course he is.
Don’t you think that your fear is probably misplaced again?
If the Lord can make manna and quail fall from the sky, he can provide for your financial needs. Don’t be afraid.
If the Lord can handle armies numbering like the sand on the seashore, he can handle whatever enemies you might have. So don’t fear.
If the Lord can cut down giants, like Goliath, then he can handle whatever scary thing is taunting you now. So don’t be dismayed.
In fact, he’s already defeated the giant. Like Joshua in our text, or David against Goliath, we have as our leader the Son of God who has defeated the scariest enemy this world can muster.
Colossians 2 says that God has disarmed the rulers and spiritual forces of this age, and placing them in public shame, by defeating them in Christ.
Through the cross, through the death of the promised Son of God, the ruler of this age, Satan, has been disarmed.
He’s got no more power. Sin and death are no longer the most powerful weapons. They’ve been defeated in the gospel. So, if you’re trusting in Christ, what is there to fear? Not giants, not sin, not death, not condemnation, not shame.
God in Christ has overcome all these things, just like Joshua overcoming the giants of the realm.
Nothing can separate us from the Love of God in Christ, so what is there to fear? Nothing.
Christ was faithful, and that means we no longer have to be fearful.
And that leads us perfectly to our final point in chapter 12, which is: Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness.
Chapter 12 is a recounting of the list of kings that were defeated by both Moses, and then Joshua.
It might read as a tedious list, and don’t worry, I won’t read every jot and tiddle. It is a summary of much that we have already studied in detail.
But, while the list might seem unnecessary to us, it actually serves the people of God in a couple of ways.
First, this list serves to guard the unity of God’s people.[3] It helps keep the people of God united.[4] The first part of the list of kings were those defeated by Moses on the eastern side of the Jordan river, on the outside of the promised land, where the tribes of Ruben, Gad, and the eastern half of the tribe of Manasseh would be given their inheritance.
There was apparently a fear among them that they would not be seen as full-blooded Israelites by the majority of the tribes that had their inheritance on the western side of the Jordan. So it is as if the writer of Joshua:
“carefully includes in the survey of the conquered kings the record of the conquest of Sihon and Og; as if to say, ‘remember Yahweh gave victories east of the Jordan too; don’t forget that Israel lives over there as well.’”[5]
The people of God need to hear such words in every generation. Because of the remaining sinfulness in our hearts, we can be tempted to see others as somehow less-than-full members of Christ.
Those over there, those Methodists, those Arminians, those charismatics, those who look different than me, those who dress differently or are of a different class, those who sin differently than I do.
James talks about this in chapter 2 of his letter. Partiality is a sin, and it should have no place among the people of God.
Indeed, we are too quick to forget that ALL whom God chose, were the shameful ones. That’s what Paul said to those Corinthians who were full of themselves.
“God chose what is weak in the world… God chose what is low and despised in the world.” 1 Cor 1: 27.
Let us not be guilty of shameful partiality, but rather be united to each other in Christ.
But there is another lesson from this list of defeated kings, and that is a lesson for us in gratitude. Each of these kings listed as defeated, is a listing of God’s goodness shown to his people. It is an itemized list.
As one commentator put it: “Itemizing Yahweh’s goodness [is] always the method of biblical faith.”[6] For example, look at Psalm 105 where the Psalmists lists out over 45 verses itemizing out the wonderful works of God. You see the same in Psalm 135 and 136.
Too often the people of God are too general in their thanksgiving, too vague in their observations, and a list like this serves to remind us against that.
Consider your prayers of gratitude, do they sound something like this: Dear Lord thank you for this day and thank you for this time, now here are the things I need from you.
Now, surely, such prayers of gratitude honor the Lord when prayed with sincerity. But too often the prayers of God’s people are rote, are routine, and therefore can be said without engaging the heart at all.
Perhaps this is why so often such prayers feel empty and cold. Because they are simply routine.
One way to help us not get into the rut of saying trite prayers with a artificial script is to be specific in our observations.
Lord, I thank you for helping me persevere through my math homework this afternoon, and not letting me get discouraged when I was struggling with it.
Lord, I thank you that I didn’t lose my temper with my children this morning. Help me with the same this afternoon.
Lord, I thank you for forgiving me yesterday when I spoke harshly to my spouse. Help me today to be more loving in my tone.
Brothers and sisters, let us be careful to seek out, to itemize, the various evidences of God’s goodness to us, and intentional to spell them back out to him in Prayer.
He is glorified in the recognition of his kindness, and delights to see that we are recognizing his gifts to us.
And as we close, let us remember a final thing that this passage teaches us: that God’s coming victory will be complete and thorough.
The victory over Og and Sihon and the Canaanite kings is a preview of His final victory to come. When every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.
And Jesus will reign forever and ever on the throne over His enemies, who in defeat have been made his footstool.
That’s what awaits the people of God. And in the expectation of such a glorious reign, let us persevere with endurance, and pray with particularity, acknowledging every bit of goodness and grace he gives to us along the way.
Amen.
[1] Dale Ralph Davis, Joshua: No Falling Words (Fearn: Christian Focus, 2010), 104n2.
[2] For more on this point, see: Davis, 106.
[3] Marten H. Woudstra, The Book of Joshua, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1981), 200.
[4] See also: Davis, Joshua, 107.
[5] Davis, 108.
[6] Davis, 109.
