Sermon Tone Analysis

If you walk up to a random Christian in church, and ask them what the book of Joshua is about, they will tell you it's about the conquest of the land God promised Israel.

But consider this: we are almost through Joshua 10, and at this point in the book, Joshua has conquered three cities: Jericho, Ai, and Makkedah.

And none of these cities were captured for Israel to actually use.

The focus of each of these stories has been on two things: the khereming of everyone living inside of the city, and the killing of the city's king.

By the end of our passage this morning, this overall situation is going to look completely different.

AJ has told his story slowly up this point.

But now, he picks up the pace of his story telling.

What you are going to read is going to feel like a blur of action.

Joshua and Israel will strike one city after another, taking/capturing, killing everyone in it, killing its king, and looting anything valuable.

If you are like me, when you read these chapters, you are going to instinctively understand this visualize as describing the near-total conquest of Canaan.

Joshua 10:28-43 describes Joshua's campaign against the southern half of the country.

Joshua 11:1-23 describes Joshua's campaign against the northern half of the country.

But our initial reaction to these verses is almost certainly wrong.

What you're about to read, you should understand as a series of raids.

More like, what the Vikings used to do, raiding up and down the coastlands.

Joshua isn't going to try to hold any of these territories.

He's not going to leave behind a garrison.

He's not going to set up a provisional government in any of these cities.

If Joshua's not going to do these things, what is he going to do?

He's going to kill lots and lots of people.

As we read, these attacks are going to sound random.

We are going to wonder, "Why these people?

Why these cities?

Why these kings?"

What Joshua is doing in these chapters is specifically targeting the Anakites.

Let's cheat, and read 11:19-22 first:

(19) There wasn't a city that made peace with the sons of Israel except the Hivites, the dwellers of Gibeon.

All/everything they took/captured in battle,

because from Yahweh it was to harden their heart to encounter the war with Israel, in order to kherem them, not being for them mercy but in order to destroy/exterminate them, just as Yahweh had commanded Moses,

(21) and Joshua came at that time and he cut off the Anakites from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the hill country/mountain of Judah and from all the hill/mountain country of Israel.

With their cities Joshua kheremed.

(22) The Anakites weren't left over in the land of the sons of Israel.

Only, in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod they remained,

Why is Joshua committing genocide against the Anakites?

Why is he trying to exterminate them?

Our answer is found in Numbers 13:25-33:

25 At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land.

26 And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the Israelites in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.

27 And they told him, "We came to the land to which you sent us; it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.

28 Yet the people who live in the land are strong, and the towns are fortified and very large; and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there.

29 The Amalekites live in the land of the Negeb; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live by the sea, and along the Jordan."

30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, "Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it."

31 Then the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against this people, for they are stronger than we." 32 So they brought to the Israelites an unfavorable report of the land that they had spied out, saying, "The land that we have gone through as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are of great size.

33 There we saw the Nephilim (the Anakites come from the Nephilim); and to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them."

And who are the Nephilim again?

For that, we have to read Genesis 6:1-4 (NRSV):

6 When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose.

3 Then the LORD said, "My spirit shall not abide[a] in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years." 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days-and also afterward-when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them.

These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.

So what Joshua is doing is systematically going through the land of Canaan, targeting cities where Anakites are known to live.

Yahweh is determined to wipe out all of these descendants (so also Deuteronomy 25:17).

So as we read today's passage, understand that what you are reading, doesn't describe the total conquest of the land of Canaan.

You're going to want, really badly, to understand it this way, but you're going to have massive problems with the book of Joshua is you do this.

Instead, understand that Joshua 10:28-11:23 describes the near-total genocide of the Anakites.

And this is a good thing.

So here we go:

(29) And Joshua crossed over, and all Israel with him, from Makkedah, to Livnah,

and he fought against Livnah,

(30) and Yahweh gave also it into the hand of Israel, and its king,

and he struck with the mouth/edge of the sword.

He didn't leave behind in it a survivor,

and he did to its king just as he had done to the king of Jericho,

(31) and Joshua crossed over, and all Israel with him, from Livnah to Lakish,

and he laid siege to it,

and he fought against it,

(32) and Yahweh gave Lakish into the hand of Israel,

and he (Israel) took/captured it on the second day,

and he struck it with the mouth/edge of the sword, and all the people who [were] in it,

as all that he had done to Livnah.

(33) At that time Horam king of Gezer went up to Lakish,

and Joshua, with his people, struck him until he didn't leave behind a survivor in it,

(34) and Joshua crossed over, and all Israel with him, from Lakish to Eglon,

and they laid siege to it,

and they fought against it,

(35) and they took/captured it on that day,

and they struck it with the edge/mouth of the sword,

while all the people who [were] in it on that day he kheremed,

as all that he had done to Lakish,

(36) and Joshua went up, and all Israel with him, from Eglon to Hebron,

and he fought against it,

(37) and they took/captured it,

and they struck it with the mouth/edge of the sword,

while its king, and all its cities, and every person who was in it he didn't leave behind (as) a survivor,

as all/everything that he had done to Eglon,

and he kheremed it, and every person who [was] in it,

(38) and Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to Devir,

and he fought against it,

(39) and he took/captured it and its king and all its cities,

and he struck them with the mouth/edge of the sword,

and they kheremed all the people who were in it.

He didn't leave behind a survivor.

Just as had done to Hebron, thus he did to Devir and to its king,

and just as he had done to Livnah and its king,

(40) and Joshua struck all the land: the mountain and the south country (Negev) and the lowland and the slopes, all their kings.

He didn't leave behind a survivor,

while everything that breathed he kheremed,

just as Yahweh the God of Israel commanded,

(41) and Joshua struck them from Kadesh-Barnea, and up to Gaza, and all the land of Goshen, and up to Gibeon,

(42) while all these kings and their land Joshua took/captured at one time

because Yahweh the God of Israel fought for Israel,