Joshua Part 11 - The Christian's Battle

Gavin Wright continues the series on Joshua chapters 11 and 12.

This sermon is from Sunday 30th Nov 2025.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

We are this morning going to be in Joshua chapter 11 mostly. Christian, before we read today, are you ready for battle? Are you someone is who's ready for battle? Was that you, Margot? Marg's ready. Everyone else? Very good. Everyone else, are you ready for battle? A Christian person, Christian man, woman, boy, girl, the Bible says that you are in a battle. A battle in some ways that is nothing like the battles that we've been reading about in Joshua. His are battles against flesh and blood, whilst ours, the Bible says, are against the spiritual forces of evil. Those who would see you die not just now, but forever. But in other ways, the battle in which we find ourselves is much like his, in that it is waged against those who rage against God who made the worlds, and who rage against his kingship of his worlds, who rage against the God who loves and saves and provides for and protects his people, and who rages against his people, and would do anything to see them stop trusting God and suffer the consequences. We are in a battle this morning. And this chapter of Joshua is going to teach us, I hope, five important things that we need to know as we step out onto that battlefield. I'm going to read the passage a bit of a time just so we can follow the story. We're going to start reading just six verses from verse one, first of all. Have a look down there at your Bibles. When Jabin, King of Hazor, heard of this, that is, the conquest of southern Canaan, he sent to Jobab, king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Ashsaf, and to the kings who were in the northern hill country, and in the Araba south of Chinnaroth, and in the lowland, and in Napoth Dor on the west, to the Canaanites in the east, and the west, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizites, and the Jebusites in the hill country, and the Hivites under Hermon in the land of Mizper. 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, and all these kings joined their forces and came and encamped together at the waters of Merom to fight against Israel. 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. And good as me, this is quite a description. This is quite an army. It is difficult to read verses one to five and feel optimistic about Israel's chances of success. The opposition they face is overwhelming. Kings from all over northern Canaan gather their troops into one massive army. Verse 4 uses quite a turn of phrase. If you want sort of references, this is sort of Custer's last stance, or the Battle of Rawke's Drift, or the Siege of Helm's Deep, depending which way you are inclined. Any sane person would give up hope as they realize what they were facing. Or they would, if they didn't get as far as verse six, and see what is really going on here. The first five verses of the chapter tell us the enormity of the challenge facing Israel. It looks bleak, doesn't it, to be frank? The problems pile up in these opening verses. We've got Jabin, king of Hazor, he's the ringleader in yet another Canaanite alliance opposing Israel's advance. Hazor, the city that he's a king of, it's a sprawling, significant city with a population of more than 40,000 people. And it naturally commanded a dominant place in this confederation of northern tribes. And just so we really feel the scale of the problem. The author takes his time to list out each king and every town and every nation involved in this anti-Israel league. And with each name, we are meant to picture in our minds another element of this army of growing opposition, each with their regimental banners fluttering in the breeze, proudly gathered to fight against God and his people. A great horde, a number like the sand on the seashore, with very many horses and chariots. And the chariots in particular, they are scary. This was in those days state-of-the-art military technology. Fast and maneuverable. They carried archers or javelin throwers on the back. These things were the ancient equivalent of an armored Humvee, you know, with sort of turret-mounted 50-caliber guns on the roof. Israel had nothing close to that kind of firepower. And so you can imagine Joshua in the sit-room, getting his daily briefings from the joint chiefs of staff and the blood just draining from his face at the scale and the power of the enemy. Israel had beaten the odds in the south, but now they are way out of their depth. But it is at this point, once the enemy has been fully catalogued, in all of its intimidating vastness, that we read verse 6. 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. Verses 1 to 5 is a description, a sort of display of might, like a North Korean or Russian military parade. This is who we are, and this is how we can hurt you. We're supposed to feel the threat, but God looks at that and almost with a shrug is able to say to Joshua, I've got this. This time tomorrow, I'm going to hand over all of them to you. Joshua. These opening verses are meant to help us see, once again, not just the dimensions of the spiritual opposition, and there are dimensions to it, but the scale of God's sufficiency in answering it. God is not intimidated by the enemy. He's not daunted by the difficulty facing the church as it seeks to advance his kingdom in his worlds. You can itemize, you can list, you can detail the fearful powers of evil in all their malice. And were we to face them in our own strength, friends, to be sure we would and we should rightfully tremble. But the Lord is sufficient in his grace for the fight ahead. That's the message. The Lord has set his king on Zion, his anointed one, the second Joshua, the Lord Jesus Christ. He reigns. And all the petty rulers of the earth and all the supernatural forces of evil in the heavenly realms are no match for him. The opposition is great, but not nearly as great as God, who is always enough for his people and who will always equip us to do his work. But so we carry on. We're going to read verses seven to nine and see that God wants us only then to trust in him. Let me read those three verses. Verse 7. So Joshua and all his warriors came suddenly against them by the waters of Merom, and fell upon them. And the Lord gave them into the hand of Israel, who struck them, and chased them as far as Great Sidon and Mishrafoth Maim, and as far eastward as the valley of Mizpah, and they struck them until he left none remaining. Joshua did to them just as the Lord said to him. He hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire. Verses seven and eight tell us, of course, that the battle, in short, goes exactly as promised. He gave them into the hand of Israel. Did you notice, though, in the promise of verse six and the fulfillment of that promise in verse 9, this odd little note about hamstringing the horses and burning the chariots with fire? If you're a Bible explorer, with apologies, I gave the wrong verse for you to look for in answering that question. It's verse 6 or verse 9, not verse 7, if you've got your learning sheets. But everyone else, we've got this detail. They're going to cut the hamstrings of the horses so they can't run anymore. And they're going to burn these great chariot weapons. That seems a bit excessive. Why in the world, with the army dead, would they do that? I mean, a few armoured homvis sound pretty useful in their ongoing fights. Why would they burn these chariots instead of using them? Why would they put the horses out of action? And I think this is probably the reason. The Lord wants his people to be able to sing Psalm 20, verse 7, with all of their hearts. Let me read what Psalm 20 says. Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will trust in the name of the Lord our God. It is one of the reasons, I think, actually, that being middle class in England makes it very hard to hear the gospel. It is so easy in our culture to imagine that we have everything we need, that we are without vulnerabilities, without weaknesses, we are well educated, well-resourced, affluent, self-sufficient. And so folks think to themselves, and I understand why they would think it, what use do I have for Jesus? Do you see in these verses how wise God is in giving this instruction to Joshua? And how careful Joshua is in obeying it, hamstringing the horses, burning the chariots, because it puts beyond all possibility the temptation for his people to rest in their own strength, in their own sufficiency, in their own resources, and say, we've got this. Why would we need the Lord? His people need to trust him, the God who fights their battles, not cling to their own strength. And sometimes, friends, you know, God strips us of good things, helpful things, healthy bodies, reliable jobs, financial ease, even friends and family. He weakens us. He leaves us less able. My friends, not to hurt us, but actually that we would learn every day more and more to keep resting on him and not in ourselves, so that we can say, with every new thing that comes along, some trust in chariots and horses, but here today, in the midst of this, I will trust in the name of the Lord my God. He teaches us to trust the promises of his power, his sufficiency for us. But then we'll carry on. I'm going to read from verse 10, and we're going to see uh the importance of obeying God's commands. Read with me from verse 10. Look down there. 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. And they struck with the sword all who were in it, devoting them to destruction. There was none left that breathed, and he burned Hazor with fire. 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. But none of the cities that stood on the mounds did Israel burn, except Hazor alone, that Joshua burned. And all the spoils 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. 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. It is stark, isn't it? Verses 10 to 15, they give, if you like, a simple account of Israel's conquering of Hazel. They burn it to the ground, they kill Jabin the king, and they conquer every other major city and each of their kings. And we think maybe firstly of the, okay, what about the death? What about the destruction? And we'll come to that in a minute. But actually, here, first of all, our attention is directed actually to the careful obedience of Joshua in what he does. You see that in verse 12, he did just as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded. Or verse 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. We tend to focus on first on the violence and the death and the conquest of the promised land. But the author of this passage wants us to focus firstly actually on Joshua's obedience. Joshua is being presented to us as God's obedient servant through whom Israel conquers. And Joshua's example, I think, is certainly a call for us to do likewise. The commands of God we must understand are not suggestions or the advice of God. When God says something, he expects us to do it. But obedient Joshua is more than just an example for us. Joshua here is a picture of the one to come, isn't he? Who, unlike us, will be perfect in his obedience to the commands of God, beneath whose perfect obedience all of our failures to obey are hidden and cleansed and pardoned. The Lord Jesus, the second Joshua, conquers sin and death and hell and secures the victory by becoming obedient for us, even unto death, even to death on a cross. And in the obedience of that one man, Paul writes, The many are constituted righteous. We praise God for the obedience of Jesus and we hide our imperfect obedience beneath his perfect obedience, for in it, just like in Joshua's obedience, the people of God triumph. But then let's think about the slaughter. And we're going to read verses 16 to 20 as we feel the gravity, friends, of God's wrath. Let me read those verses. 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 from Mount Halak, which rises towards Seir, as far as Baalgad and the valley of Lebanon, beha below Mount Hermon. And he captured all their kings and struck them and put them to death. Joshua made war for a long time with all those kings. 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, 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. So Joshua took all that land we read, end of verse 17, and he captured all their kings and struck them and put them to death. There's the summary. That's the short version of the whole northern campaign. Just reading those two verses might give us a sort of a faulty impression that Joshua pulled this all off in one sort of overwhelming blitzkrieg one Tuesday afternoon. But actually, verse 18, look at that, it's relatively sobering. Joshua, we read, made war a long time with all of those kings. This is months of hard fighting compressed into just a handful of verses. And it's a helpful reminder, perhaps, to us that God's combat against sin, including in our own hearts, actually is long and slow and hard. Joshua made war a long time, and so must we. But the key to understanding why it took such a long time is not sort of the stubbornness of the Canaanites necessarily, although, as verse 19, I think helps us see stubborn they certainly were. The implication seems to be that had these pagan Canaanites cast themselves on the mercy of the Lord, had they repented, they may well have been spared. But verse 19 presents us a picture of no one doing it, no one making peace with God and his people. And the reason that they didn't do so finds its explanation not in the sort of natural proclivity of the Canaanites to dig their heels in, but in the gravity of God's wrath working itself out in their midst. And when we see it, it really ought to make us tremble. Have a look at verse 20 and have a look at that carefully. What is the explanation Joshua gives us for why it took so very long to conquer Canaan? 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. That is a sobering picture. God hardened their hearts so that they would not repent but cling to their sin and oppose the advancing kingdom of God and so be destroyed. That's what the Bible says. And just so we are clear, I don't think that is a thing for just then. That is often the way that the wrath of God works itself out even among us today. The wrath of God doesn't always or doesn't usually work itself out in catastrophe and fire falling from heaven, that we see his judgment in that sort of way, but in the heart that rejects his mercy, quietly being hardened, so that it becomes like a brick wall to the pleas to hear the gospel and to change course and to repent and to find hope in Christ while there is still time. I think, for example, if you uh think of the New Testament, Romans chapter one, the people exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and therefore Paul says there's this little refrain that keeps on coming up. God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity. God gave them up, he says, to dishonorable passions. God gave them up to a debased mind. God gives us up to the wickedness that our hearts choose. And immersed in our own sin, our hearts freeze hard in their settled opposition to him. That is the gravity of the wrath of God at work. Do you see it here in the text? He gives the rebellious over to their sin. He gives those who would choose to be his enemies up, and he hardens their hearts, and in due course he will treat them as their sins deserve. Friends, if today you are living in conscious rebellion against Jesus Christ, do you not think that because it has not rained down fire from heaven upon your head, that you've gotten away with your sin and that God has not seen it. If you feel the pang of guilt at your sin today, if you feel the ugliness of having lived a life in this world without caring to listen to him, if you feel the pain of the wrongs that you have done, then deal with it now before you stop feeling. Before your conscience stops bothering you, before you stop caring about what God thinks. Friends, today there is a time to turn to Jesus before your heart fossilizes. If you would repent, that is, if you would turn and seek mercy from Jesus, you will find it. You will find it. But if you will not, one day you won't care to. It won't occur to you that maybe you should. Those pangs of guilt that you feel right now are going to dwindle to a whisper, becoming easier and easier to ignore until they are silenced completely, and God will give you over to what you've decided you want more than Him. Jesus said, When I am lost, I can run to Him. Forgiveness is what you need, and it is what Jesus is offering you. Turn to Him before it is too late, and the Lord hardens your heart. And Joshua came at that time and cut off the Anakim from the hill country, from Hebron, from Deber, 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. 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. 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. In these last verses, and really running through chapter twelve, that I'm sorry we're not reading today. The last thing for us to wonder at is the fullness of God's blessing. Verses 21 to 23 here. The author pauses just for a moment to linger over what you might not know, but these they are these unusually large and ferocious warriors called the Anakim. Daryl Ralph Davis wrote a commentary on this. He said, Of course, the very mention of the Anakim probably doesn't send chills up your spine. Because you've never seen any of them. He said, Who were they? They were the incredible hulks of the land of Canaan. They're mentioned in your Bibles back in Numbers 13, back when Moses sent the spies across the Jordan to check out the lands. And one of the things that had them quaking in their boots was the presence of the Anakim. Only Joshua and Caleb had the faith to face them, but it was too much for the rest of the people of Israel who refused to enter the land at that time. Forty years before, Darrell Raf Davis says again, Israel was sure that even God's help was of no avail against these big bruises. In Israel's dictionary, Anakim spelt terror. But now verse 21 says almost casually, as a footnote, oh, and by the way, the giants in the land that keep Israel, Israelites up at night, Joshua cut them off from the hill country, from Hebron, from Deber, from Anna, from all the hill country of Judah, and from the hill country of Israel. Which, by the way, is the first time that the land of Canaan has been renamed Israel. Because the enemies are defeated and it belongs now to God's people. But it belongs to them only because God is a giant slayer. How God kills the Anakim. And chapter 12 continues very much in that same vein. It's a sort of rapid-fire recap of the whole conquest of the land, north and south. Listing victory after victory, each of the conquered kings, all of the cities of Israel that have been defeated, beginning on the one on the other side of the Jordan with Sihon and Og, and then piling up in the rest of that great list of names in verses 7 to 24 of chapter 12. It reads a little bit like a phone book of people and places. Why all these details? Why do we need to hear about the Anakim or be reminded about Sihon and Og? Why is it worth writing down the fact that Israel defeated the kings of Jarmouth and Debit and Eglon and Lashish and Tapuah and Shimron Meron? I mean, in some cases, we don't even know where these cities were. They're lost to history. No one remembers them. They're forgotten. Except for here in chapters 11 and 12 of Joshua. Here they are remembered, and why? And I guess it matters because it matters that the people of God recognize and remember the victories of God, the blessings of God in their colour and their detail. The words of Joshua 11.21 through 1224, they may not look much to you, but they are a sort of doxology. They are glory words that magnify the greatness of the grace of God. Every name in that list says, look here, do you see? Do you remember what God did? And over here and over here. Now do you believe that God is good all the time? No, well, how about this place and this place and this place? Every street name, every postcode in Canaan was a monument to the triumph of God who keeps his promises to his people. And Israel was meant to read these names and places that they might say with joy Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Remember them, pile them up, name them one by one. A Christian people, this is why we never stop talking about the victory of Jesus and why we never stop talking about the cross, because that is still the message. We never stop talking about Jesus' costly conquest of the powers of darkness. We never stop talking about his blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins. We never stop remembering that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Because the details matter. They shouldn't bore us, but drive us time and time again to give glory to the God who saves us so completely. Look at what God's victory accomplishes. The end of verse 23. There was rest in the land. God fights for his people and he gives them rest. Their enemies are dispensed with. They can live at peace and worship God without fear. And Jesus does just the same. He fights our battles. He is with us every step of the way as we stand firm against the fiery darts of the evil one. And he won for us the greatest victory of all, giving us true rest in the defeat of sin and death, a victory already won, friends, and to be felt in all of its fulfillment when, as this Advent season now reminds us, He returns to call us home. Come to me, Jesus says, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. I will give you rest. Let me pray for us. Our Father God, please help us see that you are a great God, an undefeatable God. Help us to see that more and more clearly and take away what you need to take away that we might trust that more and more fully. Lord, please today help us to turn from our sin and trust in Jesus, knowing that we need not be at war with you, but we can know perfect rest in Him. I ask that you go help us to grow in our love of that rest, in our appreciation of it, in our glorifying of Him because of what He did to achieve it for us. And we ask all of this for the good of your church, for the salvation of the lost, and for your glory, Lord. Amen.