The Sufficiency of God's Sovereignty

Victory, God’s Way, 1-15

A Northern Coalition, 1-5

Six observations About Their Enemies

1. They have a leader - Jabin, king of Hazor, a key city in northern Canaan.

2. They have a motive - they had “heard” that Israel had

done-in the forces in central and southern Canaan. You’d think that with all that had transpired to their south, that they’d get the hint and “get right” with Israel and their God. But what is that description of insanity? "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

The Mattle of Merom, 6-9

3. They are united, 2-3 These groups couldn’t get along with one another but are now uniting in hatred against Israel. Moses had specifically said that God would give victory over these people because they are God-haters (). They hate God, hate His truth, hate His people. And God has said they are to be destroyed.

4. They have numbers, 4 “…a great horde, like the sand that is on the seashore....” They have impressive strength as well in their cavalry and chariots (equivalent of today’s main battle tanks). The ancient Jewish historian, Josephus, says that there were 300,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry, and 20,000 chariots in this force. It was by far the largest and best armed force they have faced.

5. They had a place to united to, that is, a place to gather, 5. They had a careful plan to destroy Israel; they had done their homework. They met at the “waters of Merom” which offered them and their animals good water. It is NW of the Sea of Galilee. They felt it gave them a strategic advantage.

The Mattle of Merom, 6-9

The sixth observation: They haven’t a prayer! see verse 6 A sovereign God is in charge and will give total victory.

If left to ourselves, we would have plenty of cause to be afraid. But if we are faithful to God, and do what He commands, we will have nothing to fear. If God tells us not to fear them, but to trust Him, then the victory is secure. It is built on the foundation of His Person, His Power, His Promises.

There is a command to be followed in the wake of the victory: hamstring the horses (cut their back leg tendons) and burn the chariots. Do not trust in the material, the methods, or means of the enemy. But your total confidence in Me now and always. , .

Israel is to learn that it must totally depend upon God; that it may not depend upon itself for anything for victory.

So Israel goes up against the superior force (at least, in our eyes it would seem that way). They surpise them, and chase them in two diretions, NW toward Tyre and Sidon, and NE to the Valley of Mizpah. No one was left of their enemies’ armies.

Israel obeyed God. As a result, God gave them victory.

Hazor, 10-11

The capital of the north is taken out. Hazor, Ai, and Jericho are the only cities we see that are destroyed in this way.

Utter Destruction; Utter Obedience, 12-15

The destruction of these people and their cities was part and parcel of the judgement of God against the inhabitants of the land. Their time had run out. These people had been singled out, by name, by Moses, in . He told them that when they had taken the land, that they were to “utterly destroy them.” And they were destroyed.

Nothing was left undone of all that the Lord had commanded Moses.

Ralph Davis: Naturally, we regard such commands as unnecessarily vicious, because we do not comprehend the contagious spiritual cancer that was throughout Canaan. We arrogantly pride ourselves on being kinder than God, but we only prove that we haven’t a clue about what holiness is.

Wrapping Up, 16-23

The Initial Conquest of the Land, 16-18

It is believed that it took seven years from the time of entry into the land when they crossed the Jordan to this point.

Scholars calculate it by the chronology of the life of Caleb. Caleb was forty years old when he was sent by Moses from Kadeshbarnea to spy out the land of Canaan (14:7). Because of the evil report of most of the spies () the Israelites are made to wander in the wilderness an additional thirty-eight years (). Caleb is, therefore, seventy-eight years old when the conquest of Canaan begins. He then receives his land allotment at Hebron when he is eighty-five years old (14:10). Thus the initial conquest of the land takes approximately seven years to complete.

We see times of blitzkrieg / lightning war, and times of hard slog.

The conquest did not occur immediately, but was a long, hard, progressive event.

Everyone not driven out all at once, in one summer (v.16-18)

"And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you. 29 "I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beast of the field become too numerous for you. 30 "Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land.

3. Joshua took no shortcuts but pursued the campaign in a logical, step-by-step progression. Even today students of Scripture are impressed with this man’s consistent and logical pursuit of the conquest. He defeated the kings and their armies. Then he proceeded step-by-step against the fortified towns. There was no other way to conquer the land completely. The progressive overthrowing of these cities, which is described so briefly in , took seven years. It would help many of us to be as consistent as Joshua in our living of the Christian life. In our day we are bombarded with books, talks, and seminars that are supposed to give us shortcuts to spiritual growth and maturity. We waste much time with these, since there are no shortcuts in the development of the Christian life. There is no mystery. The Bible tells us that we are to read and study the Bible, pray, worship together with others of God’s people, witness to non-Christians, and serve others in specific ways. This is what works and has always worked, but it is no shortcut to maturity. It is just something we must do and continue to do throughout our lives as Christian people. Joshua is a model for us in this area.

Boice, James Montgomery. Joshua (Expositional Commentary) (Kindle Locations 1791-1800). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God -- through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

So then, one of the Big Ideas we encounter here in Joshua:

No Shortcuts, we have to do it God’s way, using God’s means.

Joshua’s life is a commentary on this, he did not just believe in God, he believed God, and obeyed Him completely. Step by step. Not a life without errors, but at no point did he give up and leave off obedience.

God’s Sovereignty, 19-20

This hardening of the heart — This is why Canaan’s cities were were so bent on engaging Israel in battle. They are set-up, as it were, to be destroyed. And they willingly went to their slaughter. The theology of the text clarifies the matter: The Lord God had hardened their hearts that they might be utterly destroyed, that they might make no plea for grace, that they might be exterminated.

Understand, this hardening is God’s letting them continue in their hatred of Him and His people. It is sometimes called judicial hardening. Time is up. The Canaanite’s () iniquity is now full. There have persisted in their idolatrous and sex-perverting worship; and so God ‘gives them up’, confirms them in that resistance, and leads them by it to destruction (compare Pharaoh in , and Paul’s repeated ‘God gave them up’ in , , ). It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Giants! 21-22

Matthew Henry - Never let the sons of Anak be a terror to the Israel of God, for even their day will come to fall. Giants are dwarfs to Omnipotence; yet this struggle with the Anakim was reserved for the latter end of the war, when the Israelites had become more expert in the arts of war, and had had more experience of the power and goodness of God. Note, God sometimes reserves the sharpest trials of his people by affliction and temptation for the latter end of their days. Therefore let not him that girds on the harness boast as he that puts it off. Death, that tremendous son of Anak, is the last enemy that is to be encountered; but it is to be destroyed, . Thanks be to God, who will give us the victory.

Rest, 23

The “rest” referred to at the end of is therefore a prototype or foreshadowing of the rest that remains for the New Testament people of God. Joshua could only replicate in the physical, temporal sphere what Jesus has won for his people in his spiritual and eternal kingly rule. That is God’s gracious intention for his people. “Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience” (), namely the fruit of unbelief. Real faith shows itself in obedience, and while that faith is never a work by which we earn our salvation, it is the means by which we receive and appropriate the promises of the gospel, made real for us in the person and work of our Savior, Jesus Christ. So Joshua points us to his infinitely greater namesake and to the liberation from our works into the rest that is the new birthright of everyone who turns and trusts in him. “Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts” (, ).

Have you ever wondered why the writer spills so much ink and wanders into such particular detail? Why he takes up so much of your time to specify various kings, to identify locations, to indicate ethnic groups opposing Israel? Why does he dwell on the massing of their numbers and their armaments? Why didn’t the writer give you a break and make your Bible lighter and study brevity by saying, ‘King Jabin summoned his confederates and their armies in order to make a massive assault on Israel’? But then the text would lose its punch. You see, it is precisely in reading this extended, detailed, particularising description of Israel’s opposition that you begin to feel how overwhelming the enemy is, to sense in line-upon-line fashion the almost hopeless situation Israel faces. (More often than we know the Bible wants to impress our imaginations rather than merely inform our brains.)

There is a motive in this madness. To impress the reader (and Israel) with the massive resources available to the enemies of God makes the power of God shine more brightly in delivering his people from their hands. When we clearly see both Canaan’s numerical (v. 4a) and technological (v. 4b) edge, we realise that Yahweh’s strong right arm is no empty metaphor. ‘When you go out to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots plus an army larger than yours, you must not be afraid of them; for Yahweh your God is with you, the One who brought you up from the land of Egypt’ ().

There is a motive in this madness. To impress the reader (and Israel) with the massive resources available to the enemies of God makes the power of God shine more brightly in delivering his people from their hands. When we clearly see both Canaan’s numerical (v. 4a) and technological (v. 4b) edge, we realise that Yahweh’s strong right arm is no empty metaphor. ‘When you go out to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots plus an army larger than yours, you must not be afraid of them; for Yahweh your God is with you, the One who brought you up from the land of Egypt’ ().