We're in Joshua chapter 11 today
and I'm going to read the whole chapter. I want to take time
just to read the whole chapter because we kind of have been
building up to this for a long time. Joshua chapter 11 verse 1. And it came to pass when Jabin
king of Hazor had heard those things, that he sent to Jobab
king of Madan, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of
Ahshaf, and to the kings that were on the north of the mountains,
and of the plains south of Chinneroth, and in the valley, and in the
borders of Dor on the west. and to the Canaanite on the east
and on the west, and to the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite
and the Jebusite in the mountains, and to the Hivite under Hermon
in the land of Mizpe. And they went out, they and all
their hosts with them, much people, even as the sand that is upon
the seashore in multitude, with horses and chariots very many. And when all these kings were
met together, they came and pitched together at the waters of Merom
to fight against Israel. And the Lord said unto Joshua,
Be not afraid because of them, for tomorrow, about this time,
will I deliver them up all slain before Israel. Thou shalt hawk
their horses and burn their chariots with fire. So Joshua came, and
all the people of war with him, against them by the waters of
Meron, suddenly, and they fell upon them. And the Lord delivered
them into the hand of Israel, who smote them and chased them
unto Great Zidon, and unto Misri-foth-meim, and unto the valley of Mizpe
eastward, and they smote them, until they left them none remaining. And Joshua did unto them as the
Lord bade him. He hawked their horses, and burnt
their chariots with fire. And Joshua at that time turned
back, and took Hazor and smote the king thereof with the sword,
for Hazor before time was the head of all those kingdoms. And
they smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of
the sword, utterly destroying them. There was not any left
to breathe, and he burnt Hazor with fire. And all the cities
of those kings and all the kings of them did Joshua take and smote
them with the edge of the sword, and he utterly destroyed them,
as Moses the servant of the Lord commanded. But as for the cities
that stood still in their strength, Israel burned none of them, save
Hazar only, that did Joshua burn. And all the spoil of these cities,
and the cattle, the children of Israel took for a prey unto
themselves, but every man they smote with the edge of the sword,
until they had destroyed them, neither left they any to breathe. As the Lord commanded Moses his
servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua. He left nothing undone of all
that the Lord commanded Moses. So Joshua took all that land,
the hills, and all the south country, and all the land of
Goshen, and the valley, and the plain, and the mountain of Israel,
and the valley of the same, even from the Mount Halak, that goeth
up to Seir, even unto Balal-gad, in the valley of Lebanon, unto
Mount Hermon, and all their kings he took, and smote them, and
slew them. Joshua made war a long time with
all those kings. There was not a city that made
peace with the children of Israel, save the Hivites, the inhabitants
of Gibeon, all other they took in battle. For it was of the
Lord to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel
in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might
have no favour but that he might destroy them as the Lord commanded
Moses. And at that time came Joshua
and cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron, from
Debar, from Anab, and from all the mountains of Judah, and from
all the mountains of Israel. Joshua destroyed them utterly
with their cities. There was none of the Anakims
left in the land of the children of Israel, only in Gaza. and in Ashdod there remained. So Joshua took the whole land
according to all that the Lord said unto Moses and Joshua gave
it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions
by their tribes and the land rested from war. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this
reading from his word. If you're alert, you'll have
noticed that I've skipped a few verses in chapter 10 because
the lessons I want to leave with you today can be gathered from
these verses that we've read together. This was a time of
war and battles. It is perhaps likely that this
period, the period covered in chapter 10 and chapter 11, extended
to about Seven years. It's thought between
five and seven years. Some of the old Jewish commentators
say seven. Some of the old Christian writers
imagine it to be a little bit less. Six years is said also. but it was of this length of
time that the children of Israel were warring against these different
nations and cities in the land of Canaan. It had been a longer
time since Abraham and Isaac and Jacob had dwelt in this land
and had been given the promise of this land by the Lord. In fact, that was almost 500
years. But God had promised it to Abraham
and to his children. Isaac, we remember from the scriptures,
was the child of promise and Jacob bequeathed it to his 12
sons who became the heads of the 12 tribes of Israel. Now it was time to repossess
the land. Moses had led the children of
Israel for 40 years in the desert from the time when they came
up out of Egypt and their period of slavery there. But Joshua
was the Lord's general to recover the land from the Canaanite nations. So beginning at Jericho, the
Lord delivered the kings and the cities of the land into Joshua's
hand. First, the southern part of the
country, then the north. And sometimes Joshua fought city
by city, as in chapter 10. Sometimes against an alliance
of kings, as here in chapter 11. But battle by battle, the
Lord gave the victory. But let us remember as we read
these chapters, that the usefulness of these accounts is greatest
when we apply spiritual lessons that they provide to us. Listing
the battles and learning the history and being able to pronounce
all the strange names of the kings and the cities, or not,
might be interesting for a historian, but the real value is to learn
what the Lord is saying to us today by these accounts. And for that reason, I've got
a few lessons that I would like to leave with us today. The first
one is this. The Lord encouraged Joshua and
the people in this grand affair of possessing the land. So I
want to think about the Lord's encouragement for Joshua. In verse 6, we read it together,
we read these words, And the Lord said unto Joshua, Be not
afraid because of them. Be not afraid because of them. Do you remember all the nations,
all the peoples, all the tribes, all the cities that had gathered
together? This was a massive army that
suddenly confronted Joshua and the children of Israel. And the
Lord said to Joshua, be not afraid because of them. One of the lessons that we shall
learn as we are growing up, or as we are growing older, is that
responsibility and uncertainty brings anxiety. Now Joshua was
responsible for possessing the land, but what if he failed? What if the enemy was too strong
for him? You know, what ifs can be like
big weights that we drag around with us. And I think that Joshua
was maybe a person who had a lot of what ifs. You'll remember with me that
the Lord had already told him that he would be with him and
that, with the Lord's help, Joshua would conquer and possess the
land. But the Lord knew of his servant's
anxiety. And so the Lord came to Joshua
again and reminded him again that the Lord was on his side,
telling him over and over, tomorrow at this time I will deliver them
all slain before Israel. In the Lord's goodness, in the
Lord's mercy, in his kindness, to his servant, he reassured
Joshua that God's power and help would be with him to bring him
success. And I want you, and I tell myself
as well, I want us to remember that whenever what-if questions
rise in our mind or trouble us in our heart. Whenever these
what-if questions get you down, the Lord has promised to be with
us and to help us. Joshua did not go alone into
the battle. The Lord fought for Israel and
the Lord fights for his people still. I don't know what your
problems are. I don't know what troubles you
will face. Maybe at school, maybe at college,
maybe in your life, maybe in your relationships, maybe in
your jobs, maybe in the events and affairs of your life. I don't
know what those problems will be, but I do know this. that
you will be beset with what-if questions at some point or another. And if you are troubled by what-if
questions, then here's a little trick. Each time you feel a what-if
question coming on, remember Joshua and the Lord's words to
him, be not afraid because of them. Be not afraid because of
them. What if this happens? What if
that happens? The Lord knows and he will sort
it out. That's the first thing I want
you to remember. And here's another thing that
will be good for us to note. When Joshua fought against these
cities, against these armies, and against these kings, he was
commanded to utterly destroy the Canaanites. This was the
Lord's judgment on this nation's wickedness. Now we've made mention
of this before a few weeks ago, but I want to just come back
to it again. It was ordered by God that Joshua
and the children of Israel were to put these nations, these cities,
utterly to the sword. And so complete was the task
to be carried out that we read, the hearts of the Canaanites
were hardened by God so as not to seek peace with Israel. We read this in verse 20 and
I think it's very important for us to note this. Here's what
verse 20 says again. For it was of the Lord to harden
their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle
that he might destroy them utterly and that they might have no favour
but that he might destroy them as the Lord commanded Moses. Now this helps us to understand
and it helps to explain the thoroughness of slaying all these people and
expelling them, the Canaanites, from the land. But there's a
spiritual lesson here for us too. The sin of the Canaanites
was what caused God to judge them like this. And that sin
of the Canaanites is like sin in our lives too. It has to go. It has to be dealt
with. It has to be utterly destroyed. It has to be expelled from our
lives. We can never say The Lord has
forgiven my sin, so it doesn't matter what I do. We can never say, the Lord has
forgiven my sin. It's okay if I just do a little
bit, if I only keep a little bit. If I only allow a little
bit to remain. Actually, The Bible likens sin
to yeast in baking. I don't know whether you know
what happens with yeast in baking, but even the smallest amount
of yeast grows and soon spreads through all the dough of the
bread. And that's a picture of sin encroaching
and growing and deepening and getting worse in our lives. And that's why when we were reading
this chapter, we learned that the horses and the chariots of
the Canaanites were to be hawked and burned. I wonder if any of
you know what hawked means? Well, I didn't and I had to look
it up. What it means is that the horses,
they weren't killed, the horses weren't killed, but they had
a tendon on the back of their legs cut. It sounds a little
bit cruel, but many of the horses survived this and they were useful
afterwards. They were useful for farming
or they were useful for carrying things. What it did mean is that
they were no longer any use for fighting in battle. They were
no longer any use for drawing chariots. They could still be
used for farming and for dragging and drawing things. We sometimes
use the word hobbled. It doesn't mean exactly the same,
but it has the same effect. And what the Lord was explaining
here to Joshua was that they were not to appropriate these
chariot horses and chariots. They were not to adopt the methods
and the means of the Canaanites, even in battle. If they, the
children of Israel, had a mighty army of chariots at their disposal,
they would feel proud, they would feel strong, they would feel
that they didn't need the Lord's help anymore. And so the Lord
said to Joshua, get rid of that temptation, hawk those horses,
make them unusable for the chariots, make those chariots redundant,
burn them, be rid of them, because I don't want these to be a temptation
to you to think that you can go on without the Lord's help. And similarly, the Lord does
not want his people to rest upon the powers of this world or the
things of this world and forget him. Sometimes the church gets
involved in politics. Sometimes we imagine we can spend
a lot of money doing certain things that will improve people's
lives or improve the things of the world. But we don't use force,
we don't use violence, we don't use politics, we don't use the
courts of law, we don't use our money and our finances or our
natural abilities to serve the Lord. We come by faith. We simply preach the gospel. We live to serve the Lord in
simplicity and to honour his name. And everything else we
leave to the one who knows all things and who declares the end
from the beginning. Lastly, here's a final point
I want to leave with you. It's the point of Joshua's obedience. In verse 15 we read these words,
Hawking the horses and burning the chariots was just one part
of what the Lord commanded Joshua to do. The Bible tells us that Joshua
was successful in overcoming all that he fought against and
he took and he possessed all the land he fought for. Now there
were still parts of the whole land that remained such as the
land possessed by the Philistines and their five cities where Joshua
did not go to fight. But in all that he fought, he
accomplished all that the Lord had commanded him. And we've
said before how Joshua is a type or a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And this testimony of Joshua's
obedience and Joshua's success is a picture of the obedience
and the success of our Saviour. When the Lord Jesus Christ came
and suffered and died for his people, it was as if he came
and did battle for us and successfully overcame all our enemies. Joshua, we're told in this chapter,
won the battle and brought Israel into rest. And the Lord Jesus
Christ defeated our enemies. on the cross and soon he'll defeat
them in our flesh too and he brings us into spiritual and
eternal rest. There are many lessons that can
be learned from these Old Testament accounts of the Lord's dealings
with Israel but in them all We need to keep an eye on the Lord
Jesus and on the spiritual accomplishments that he secured for us and the
rest that he has won for us by carrying our sin, by bearing
our burdens and by dying in our place on the cross. We're told
that Joshua left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded
Moses. And our precious Saviour has
left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses. Our Lord Jesus fulfilled the
law. He lived a perfect life so that
no sin or transgression of the law was found in him. And yet
he bore all our sins in his body on the tree, on the cross. He
died in our place and by doing so he gained our eternal rest. We can't please God by our works. We will never succeed in doing
that. But the Lord Jesus Christ has
satisfied and pleased God on our behalf by his death and in
his resurrection and in his glory. May the Lord give us grace to
hear and to understand and to believe the gospel of God's mercy
and love. And may we each find complete
spiritual rest by faith in Jesus Christ. Amen.