Chariots of Fire (2)

Joshua 11

Joshua and the people of Israel face Hazor, a great horde with many horses and chariots. God wins.

The story of the largest battle for the Promised Land is told in just a few brief verses. No drama and no explicit miracles: simply victory. The focus is instead on God’s faithful providence and Joshua’s faithful leadership and obedience.

Joshua kept taking next steps… but his stride grew longer. This is long obedience in the same direction.

What God can do through and in us only grows as we follow.

Effortless Snowboarding

Going snowboarding this week with kids.

Video of “me” snowboarding. (Actually Shaun White with Olympic Gold-winning half-pipe run).

Shaun White – snowboarding.

How are they so mature? How are they so good? They make it look so easy, how do they do that?

How do they make victory look so effortless?

Do you have spiritual mentors who make the spiritual journey seem effortless? How do we get there?

Joshua – Effortless Victory

The Opponent

1 When Jabin, king of Hazor, heard of this, he sent to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph, 2 and to the kings who were in the northern hill country, and in the Arabah south of Chinneroth, and in the lowland, and in Naphoth-dor on the west, 3 to the Canaanites in the east and the west, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, and the Jebusites in the hill country, and the Hivites under Hermon in the land of Mizpah. 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.

Worst enemy yet. This is a union of kings across all of Canaan, North to South. (See map of Israel).

And horses and chariots are the tanks of the ancient world. Now they are out of the hills, on the rich fertile flat areas. This is intimidating, this is terrifying.

But God promises, as he does every time to His people:

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.”

Now as we all know, in a novel, this is when the action slows down. Joshua and the people of Israel are going to fight the last battle, the final challenge, the big one. The enemy has finally gathered, the scene is yet. This is Harry verse Voldemar… time to split the seventh book into two movies because there is SO much about to go down.

So here we go, the story of Joshua and the people of Israel’s victory over the greatest army they have yet and will ever face in conquering the promised land:

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, 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.

They won. That’s it.

The next few verses just say they burned Hazor and killed all the people. And then after that, the mopup.

The Epilogue

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. 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.

What’s Missing?

It’s almost disappointing. If this were the last chapter of the novel, I would be ticked. Did the author run out of time?

Effortless victory. No major miracles. An impossible enemy. But God delivers the enemy into their hands, Joshua and Israel ambush, and they win. It is now a well-rehearsed and practiced pattern. It is a practiced pattern.

The focus is not on the play-by-play of the victory. The focus of the chapter is on Joshua’s faithfulness, Joshua’s long faithfulness.

It is Joshua did “just as the LORD said.”

. 9 And Joshua did to them just as the Lord said to him: he hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire.

That must have been a long day. We assume that “Joshua” here is representative of all Israel, but if not… what a process! 😉

18 Joshua made war a long time with all those kings.

Joshua was faithful. Joshua made war “a long time with all those kings”. A long time is literally “many days” but this is likely describing years of effort, years of mopping up the kings. Years of war, but years of faithfulness. And then summarized again… “just as the Lord commanded Moses.”

And then again in verse 23

23 So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD had spoken to Moses.

Faithfulness. Faithfulness of God to deliver in his promise to Moses and the people of Israel. Faithfulness over YEARS on the part of Joshua and the people of Israel to participate in that process, to obey the commands of God and carry out the war.

Long Obedience in the Same Direction

Shaun White is a few years younger than me! What’s the difference between his ride and my ride? Why is he so much better at snowboarding?

Even when it goes wrong. Sean smashed his entire face open in a double cork 1440, landed on his face. 60 stitches. But he got back up and trained again daily, following the snow around the world.

“Effortless” victory is a result of Daily Faithfulness

Long obedience in the same direction.

Enemy of the moment. God says “fear not, strength and courage, I will be with you.” His people say, “I know, let’s do this.” And then victory.

The details change, but the pattern doesn’t really. There are setbacks. The people make mistakes, God offers grace, forgiveness, reconciliation and redemption, and then back into the pattern of trial, faithfulness and victory.

We talk a lot about “next step” and being a “next step Christian” and being a “next step church”. And sometimes that step is dramatic. The big commitments of life. Your first step of faith in response to God’s salvation call. That’s a moment! Your commitment to be a member of a church, a member of THIS church. That’s a big step. And early in our walk we can have all these exciting firsts.

And the people of Israel had that too. The first crossing of the Jordan. Slow it down and see them wrestle with each step of it, practicing for the first time the faithfulness that would carry them through. Their first Passover. Their first circumcision. Their first big battle, Jericho, that took 3 chapters. Their first defeat, and then repentance, and then victory. And as they learn this idea of faithful obedience to the call of God, the pace picks up.

They are chasing after God, and to them it is still one step at a time, but to the outsider, it starts to seem effortless… until they can win the Gold medal in the Olympics and have it look like they aren’t even trying.

Until they can defeat the greatest combined army of Canaanites of all time… and the actual victory barely merits a sentence.

Hello faithful next steppers. Faithfully practicing the presence of God. Faithfully studying and discovering the Word of God. Faithfully ministering to God’s children within and outside the church. In the step by step faithful walking after God, it may feel routine to you, but through you God may be accomplishing massive victories.

Change that: God Has, Will, and also IS accomplishing massive victories through your faithful walk with Him.

Long obedience in the same direction.