As we come to our text this morning, we reach the end of the second major section of the book of Joshua. In chapters 1-5, we read of the people's entrance into the land. And in chapters 6-12, we have read of the conquest of the land. Next week, we will cover the next large section of the book (chs. 13-21) which detail the dividing of the land. And we will close the book of Joshua by looking at the final chapters of book in which the people essentially rededicate themselves to God.
So understanding that structure, our text this morning serves as the conclusion of the people's conquest of the land. Thus far, we have read fairly detailed stories that it seems are meant to convey some very specfic points to us as readers. The story of Jericho provided a specific reminder of God's incredible power while reminding us of our need to obey regardless of whether commands make sense to us or not. The story of Ai demonstrated the righteous wrath of God against sin even among His own people while reminding us the seriousness of sin and the need to deal with it. And the story of Gibeonite deception (which we looked at last week) reminded us of our incredible weakness and need for God while also reminding us of the incredible power and wisdom of our God that is sufficient to overcome our weakness.
Looking at Joshua 10:28-12:24, we see a bit of a departure from this paradigm that has guided us over the last few weeks. Instead of detailed accounts of battles, our text this morning takes on a more panoramic view as it rapidly details Israel's conquest of the rest of the land. Rather than laying out minute details of battles, the author resorts to concise lists of Israel's vanquished foes. It is as if God (through the author), having used some specific instances to make specific points, wants to step back and encourage His people with the big picture of His mighty hand at work. Having seen God's ability to win battles, this text makes clear that God was equally able to win the war. So as we look at this text today, we will take a step back from more specific stories and see some general truths that should guide us as we navigate life.
Having understood the conquest, the text is not difficult to break down. It begins by detailing the rest of Israel's conquest of southern Canaan (10:29-43) - a conquest which began with the battle at Gibeon described in our text last week. Then, chapter 11 lays out, in brief, Israel's conquest of northern Canaan (11:1-23). And chapter 12 closes this section of Joshua with a quick recounting of all of the kings that Israel defeated in their conquest of the land (12:1-24). With that outline, let us look at the themes that arise in the text.
The first thing we see very clearly is that God is able to accomplish the plans that He has made. This is a reality that has come up throughout the book of Joshua, but we see it again very clearly this morning. Just as with Israel's other victories, the victories described in our text are attributed - first and foremost - to the hand of God. The text begins by declaring that "the Lord gave it [Libnah] also and its king into the hand of Israel" (10:30). It goes on to say that "the Lord gave Lachish into the hand of Israel (10:32). No doubt Israel did something in these battles, as the text tells us, but their victory is ultimately attributed to God's acting on their behalf. The author even sums up the conquest of southern Canaan by declaring, "And Joshua captured all these kings and their land at one time, because the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel" (10:42). This same theme dominates the conquest of northern Canaan as the Lord tells Joshua - in the face of an overwhelmingly large enemy force - "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" (11:6). And the Lord did that very thing: "And the Lord gave them into the hand of Israel" (11:8a). Throughout this text, we are reminded again that God fought on behalf of His people.
In order to understand this reality, however, we also must understand that God did not fight these battles for His people because He happened to wake up in a good mood that day. The reason God fought on behalf of His people is because He had planned long ago that His people, Israel, would possess this land. God is not fighting for Israel because they have earned His favor or merited His approval; He is fighting for them because He had purposed to give them the land. The roots of this plan stretch back to Genesis 12 where God told Abram - as Abram stood in the midst of Canaan - "To your offspring I will give this land" (Gen. 12:7). This was a plan that God determined to carry out, and our text is proof that His plan did not fail. As proof of this, we need merely to look at Exodus 33:1 in which God tells Moses that He will drive out "the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites." Our text this morning makes clear that this plan was carried out because the force that Israel defeated in Joshua 11 consisted of "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" (11:3). Moreover, God reiterated His plan in Deut. 1:6-8 as He told the people of Israel to "go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in the Negeb and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates" and take it. And our text makes clear that "Joshua struck the whole land, the hill country and the Negeb and the lowland and the slopes" (10:40). The plan of God was carried out in the lives of His people, because God is able to carry out His plan.
On the other hand, we see this same reality (that God is able to accomplish his plans) in the fate of Israel’s enemies. Just as God made clear His plan to bring His people into the land, He also made clear His plan to judge the wicked people that resided in Canaan. In Leviticus 18:24-25, God told the Israelites, “Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.” God makes the same point in Deuteronomy 9:5 as he declares, “Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you.” God made clear His plan to judge the wicked people of Canaan. And just as we saw in our text the accomplishment of God’s plan to bless His people, we see in our text the accomplishment of God’s plan to judge these wicked people: “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” (11:19-20). Here again, we see the Lord’s plan being accomplished through His hardening of Israel’s enemies so that they would fight Israel and be destroyed.
As we contemplate this reality, we must realize the ramifications of this reality for ourselves. In order to understand our connection to this story (and all of the stories involving Israel) we must understand that God’s plan with Israel was a microcosm of His plan for the world. That is, through Israel, God was giving a small glimpse into His plan for the entire world. He was giving clues and hints and warnings and encouragements that were indeed intended for Israel but also for a wider audience. While Israel’s story begins in Genesis 12, the story of the Bible begins in Genesis 1. The ultimate plan of God is not just to get Israel into their land, but to have an entire creation that is filled with His people and with the knowledge of His glory. The ultimate plan of God is not just to save Israel but to save people from every tongue and tribe and people and nation. God’s plan for Israel was simply a small, shadowy version of His bigger plan for the world.
Why is it so important to understand that God’s plan for Israel was only a smaller installment of a larger plan? It is important because the ultimate plan still has not been fully accomplished. The Old Testament is full of hopeful previews of the glorious day when God’s grand plan is accomplished: God told Abraham that through him all the nations would be blessed (Gen. 22:18), God told David that He would have a son who reigned forever (2 Sam. 7:13), and God spoke to Isaiah about the day when He would create a new heavens and a new earth. Likewise, the New Testament gives an even clearer picture of this grand plan. Jesus came into the world as the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets – as the Son of God who would reign over the kingdom of God. He died on the cross for sin and was raised from the dead – fulfilling the plan and will of God (Acts 2:23). He ascended to the right hand of God, and is waiting for the plan of God to be fully accomplished. Paul spoke to the Corinthians of the day when Jesus would return and gather His people, crush His enemies and deliver the kingdom to God the Father (1 Cor. 15:23-28). This is the same grand accomplishment of God’s plan spoken about in the Old Testament! God’s grand plan is still being carried out.
The reason this is important for us to understand is because the fact that God accomplished His plan for Israel gives us assurance that God will accomplish His grand plan for the world. If we are believers, we have placed our hope in the success of the plan that I have just laid out – that, as Paul told the Ephesians, God will unite all things in Christ (Eph. 1:10). How do we know that our hope will not be dashed to pieces? How do we know we will not be let down? We know because of texts like Joshua 10:29-12:24. God is able to accomplish His plans, and the story of Joshua and the Israelites taking the land makes that clear. The rest of Scripture makes this same point. Psalm 33:11 declares, “The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.” Isaiah 14:27 declares, “For the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back?” God is able to accomplish His plan, and we must rest in this reality.
As we think even more specifically about our own lives, we see the necessity of truly believing this reality. Nothing can thwart the plans of God – they are sure. This means that, just like Israel, our hope for salvation and deliverance and life does not rest on whether God is pleased with us today or whether we have earned His favor today. His plan is fixed, and if we have trusted in Christ, our hope is sure. Our hope is that God’s plans are firm and that they will be accomplished.
Moreover, we can be sure that God’s plan is being carried out even if that does not appear to be the case in our present circumstances. Even if things seem to be going horribly wrong, we can be certain that God’s plan is being accomplished. For the Scriptures are clear that God’s plan is accomplished through evil and suffering at times. The crucifixion of Christ was an unspeakably evil event – and yet the Bible makes clear that it happened according to the plan of God (Acts 2:23). Paul’s thorn in the flesh was excruciating, but God made clear to Paul that the thorn was a means of accomplishing His plan. Just like Israel, we need to know that God is able to accomplish His plan. And just like Christ and Paul, we need to know that God’s plan could involve suffering. God is able to accomplish His plans, and God is going to accomplish his Plan.
The second reality we see in the text is very closely related to the first, but it is a bit more closely concerned with us personally. We have seen that God is able to accomplish His plan, but we also see in our text that God is able to, and does, fulfill His promises. Just as God had a plan to bring Israel into the land, He had promised such to them on numerous occasions. As we saw God promised Abram in Genesis 12 that He would give Him the land. In Exodus 3, God told Moses that he would bring His people out of Egypt to “a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites” (Ex. 3:8). And God later told Israel, “I will send my terror before you and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you” (Ex. 23:27). These are not just declarations of God’s plan like the ones we saw earlier; these are promises given directly to the people of Israel – to give them the land. And as we look at our text, we read, “So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses” (11:23a). The Lord kept His promise to Israel. Our text next week is even more explicit as the author declares, “Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass” (Josh. 21:45). God kept His promises.
Just like with our last reality, this truth about God is important to us for the same reason. God, in His very character, is a promise-keeping God. It is important for us to read texts like our text this morning that demonstrate God’s faithfulness to His promises because there are still promises that have not been fulfilled. In fact, for those of us who are Christians and are still alive, our salvation is a promise that has not been ultimately fulfilled yet. Paul made clear that we have not hoped only in this life but in the life to come. As of now, we do not have the substance of our hope. How do we know that such a fulfillment of God’s promise will come? We know it because we know the character of God. In a very real sense, we can look at texts like Joshua 11:23 and 21:45 and draw encouragement to trust the promises found in verses like John 14:3 where Jesus says, “And If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” We can look at texts like Joshua 11:23 and 21:45 and draw encouragement to trust promises like Hebrews 13:5 which says, “I will never leave you or forsake you.”
God is a promise-keeping God, so we should trust His promises and cling to them and hold fast to them in our lives. This is a crucial reality for us to understand not only with our minds but with our hearts. It is one thing to know in your mind that God keeps His promises, but it is another thing entirely to know in your heart that God keeps His promises and actually draw comfort and encouragement and joy and delight from those promises. It is one thing to know in your mind that God withholds no good thing from the one who walks uprightly (Ps. 84:11), but it is another thing to truly believe that and be able to rest in the Lord in times when it seems you have nothing but bad things happening. It is one thing to know in your mind that nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ (Rom. 8:39), but it is another thing to truly believe that in your heart and know that God is for you and loves you and delights in you and works all things together for your good. It is one thing to know in your mind that God has given us everything we need for life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3), but it is another thing to truly believe that you have everything you need to fight temptation and proclaim the gospel and bear one another’s burdens and then do those things. God is a promise-keeping God, so we should live like His promises are true statements of reality.
Having seen two realities that this text declares to us about God, we will close by looking at two realities that this text declares about God’s people. First, God’s people should make it a point to faithfully remember what God has done for them. Joshua 12, at first glance, seems like nothing but a boring list of hard-to-pronounce names. But, if we put ourselves in the place of the Israelites who would have read this list, we will recognize that this is not a random list of names. Rather, it is a testimony to God’s mighty hand on behalf of His people. The author has already described Israel’s conquest of the land. Why would he go out of his way to systematically lay out the names of every king Israel defeated? This is an intentional plan to hold before the people the things God had done on their behalf. For the people would not have read this list and simply heard difficult names – they would have associated the names themselves with what God had done. So “the king of Jericho” would not have been just another name in a list; it would have reminded them that God caused the walls to fall and gave them the city. The “king of Jerusalem” would not have been just another name in this list; it would have reminded them of the day that the sun stood still and God rained down hailstones on the enemy. This list is intended to remind the people of God’s faithfulness.
As we think about this in relation to ourselves, it should cause us to see the importance of remembering the things God has done for us. We should do whatever we can to ensure that God’s mighty and gracious acts on our behalf are remembered and declared. If we need to write them down, we should do so. We should also be sure to remind each other of the things that God has done. As members of the same body, we should exhort one another by continually reminding each other of God’s faithfulness.
The final reality we see very clearly in our text is that God’s people must faithfully obey. It could be tempting to contemplate the realities we have already seen – that God accomplishes His plans and fulfills His promises – and use that as an excuse for laziness or, even worse, disobedience. Alongside these realities about God in our text is the clear emphasis that Joshua and the Israelites faithfully obeyed everything that God told them. We see it first in 10:40 as the author declares, “So Joshua struck the whole land, the hill country and the Negeb and the lowland and the slopes, and all their kings. He left none remaining, but devoted to destruction all that breathed, just as the Lord God of Israel commanded.” In 11:9, we read, “And Joshua did to them just as the Lord said to him: he hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire.” In 11:12, the author declares, “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.” In 11:15, we read, “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.” And in 11:23, we read, “So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses.” Our text is emphatically clear that – even with the understanding that God’s will and plan was going to be accomplished – Joshua saw the need to obey. God’s sovereignty and power was not an excuse for laziness or disobedience but motivation to action and obedience.
Our text also highlights one specific aspect of this obedience that we must not miss: it was faithful obedience over an extended period of time. In the middle of our text, we read this seemingly insignificant statement: “Joshua made war a long time with all those kings” (11:18). This seems to be a minor point, but it is actually an incredible commendation of Joshua’s faithful obedience. It is easy for us to assume – since we have been able to preach through Israel’s conquest of the land in a month’s time – that it must have only taken about a month to accomplish. In reality, this conquest took a long time – Joshua 11:18 makes that clear. And this was God’s plan. God had told Israel in Exodus 23:29-30: “I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land.” And in Deuteronomy 7:22, Moses declared, “The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You may not make an end of them at once, lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you.” God had intended for this taking of the land to be a lengthy endeavor. It was imperative for Joshua to persevere in obedience. No doubt, he was tempted to grow weary and slack off and disobey, but our text makes clear that Joshua fought that temptation and obeyed faithfully over a lengthy period of time.
As we consider the applicableness of this reality to our own lives, we recognize our own need for obedience to God’s command. Indeed, God will accomplish His plan of saving those of us who are in Christ, but we are still commanded to persevere and to work out our own salvation and to walk in a manner worthy of our calling. Obedience is not an option for Christians. Jesus made clear, in John 14:15: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Paul told the Ephesians, “At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light” (Eph. 5:8). 1 John 5:3 says, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.” Obedience is essential for the people of God.
But we also need to understand that “long” obedience is essential. We need to persevere in obedience. The Scriptures are clear that one act of obedience is not sufficient obedience – God desires a lifestyle of faithful obedience. God desires perseverance in faithful obedience. Romans 2:6-7 makes this clear as Paul declares, “He [God] will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.” And Hebrews 10:35-36 makes the same point: “Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.” God’s people must not only obey, but we must persevere in that obedience.
But what is our motivation for faithful obedience? Long obedience is hard. We grow weary and tired. Fighting sin is often exhausting and difficult and perpetual. How do we persevere? The Bible declares that our motivation for faithful, long obedience is the reward that awaits us at the end. Hebrews 10 made that point by exhorting endurance “so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.” Paul makes the same point in Galatians when he writes, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Gal. 6:9). Notice that the impetus for doing good is that a harvest will come in the end! Hebrews 12:1-2 even goes so far as to point out that this is what drove Christ to make His sacrifice: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus endured the cross because of the joy set before him. Likewise, we should run with endurance because we know that Christ awaits us, and in the end, we shall have Him. We should faithfully obey, and we should persevere in long obedience because of the reward and hope that awaits us.
As we come to the table, those of us who are believers come remembering that the ground of our hope and reward in the future is Christ’s death and resurrection. We have placed our hope in Him, and we can be sure that that hope will not be disappointed because Jesus Christ has died for our sins and been raised for our justification. As we eat this bread and drink this juice, we are reminded that our confidence and assurance in God’s plan being accomplished and His promises being fulfilled rests in our glorious Savior.
For those who are not believers, you must realize that God’s plan is certain to be accomplished. And that plan will involve the destruction of His enemies who do not submit to Jesus Christ as Lord. Turn from your sins and trust in Him and you will be saved. Amen.