Introduction
In chapter 10 we read how the Lord helped the Israelites defend the Gibeonites from five kings in the southern part of Canaan who joined forces against Gibeon. The Israelites were required to defend the Gibeonites because of the treaty they made with Gibeon in the previous chapter. And the Lord fought on behalf of his people and defeated the coalition army.
The enemy kings were caught and executed. And afterwards, the Lord helped the Israelites conquer the remainder of the southern part of Canaan. God was doing what he said he would do: he was giving the Promised Land to his people: that Eden-like land, flowing with milk and honey, where they would have everything they needed and where they would know the presence of God in their midst. And life in the Promised Land of Israel is a picture for us of life in the kingdom of God, which begins in this life and which will continue for ever in the life to come.
If last week’s chapter was all about the southern kingdoms in Canaan, this week’s chapter is about the northern kingdoms.
Verses 1 to 5
In verses 1 to 5 we read that the northern kings agreed to join forces against Israel. The instigator was this king, Jabin, who was king of Hazor. When he heard what Israel had done in the south, he sent word to a number of his fellow kings. And our narrator lists them all in verses 1 and 2 and 3. One of the commentators suggests that our narrator lists them all because he wants his readers to feel overwhelmed by the size of this coalition. In the previous chapters, five kings joined forces against Israel. In this chapter, many more kings joined forces. In fact, in verse 4 he describes them as a huge army. The ESV describes them as a ‘great horde’. And we’re told they’re like the sand on the seashore. In other words, there are so many soldiers, it’s impossible to count them all. And not only are there lots and lots of soldiers, but they have a large number of horses and chariots too. This is the strongest force to come out against Israel.
Verses 6 to 9
Moses forewarned them about this in Deuteronomy 20. At that time, Moses said to the Israelites that when they go to war against their enemies and when they see horses and chariots and an army greater than their own army, do not be afraid of them. Do not be afraid of them. Why not? Because the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you. The Lord their God will be with them to fight on their behalf. And he is far, far, far mightier than the mightiest army.
That’s what Moses said to the people back in Deuteronomy 20 and before they’d entered the Promised Land. And now, as they faced this mighty force at the Waters of Merom, the Lord spoke to Joshua and said to him: Do not be afraid of them. Do not be afraid of them. Why not? Because by this time tomorrow the Lord will hand all of them over to Israel, slain. So, the outcome of the battle has already been decided in heaven and God has ordained that the coalition army will perish. And afterwards Joshua and his men should hamstring their horses and burn their chariots. Hamstringing horses means disabling them so they cannot run. And the reason for this command is that God didn’t want the Israelites to trust in horses and chariots, but to trust in him. And so, instead of re-using the horses and chariots, they were to get rid of them.
And having received the Lord’s encouragement not to be afraid, Joshua and his men came against the coalition army suddenly and attacked them. And the Lord, who promised to give them the victory, gave the coalition army into their hands. The Israelites defeated their enemies and pursued them until no survivors were left. And afterwards, Joshua did as the Lord instructed and he hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots.
Verses 10 to 15
According to verses 10 and 11, Joshua turned back and captured the city of Hazor. He also put its king to the sword. The king of Hazor was the one who had formed the coalition army at the beginning of the chapter and the city of Hazor was regarded as the head of the coalition. Everyone in the city of Hazor was killed and the city itself was burned to the ground. In other words, they did to Hazor what they did to Jericho and Ai and all living beings in the city were devoted to the Lord.
According to verse 12 Joshua captured the other cities in the coalition. He killed the kings and the people, but he did not burn the cities in accordance with what Moses had instructed back in Deuteronomy 6. So, before they entered the Promised Land, Moses made clear to the people that they could live in the cities in Canaan. After all, why destroy perfectly good cities and homes when they can use them themselves? And they were allowed to keep the plunder from the cities including the livestock. Presumably they treated the city of Hazor differently because it was the head of the coalition.
Verses 16 to 20
And in verses 16 to 18 the narrator summarises the extent of the conquest. He wrote that Joshua took the entire land and he captured and killed all their kings. According to our narrator, this took a long time. Since the conquest of the southern and northern kingdoms was recorded in only two chapters, we tend to think it all happened quickly. But some of the commentators calculate that it might have taken about seven years.
We’re told in verse 19 that apart from the Hivites — another name for the Gibeonites — not one city made a treaty of peace with Israel. Instead of seeking peace, the rest of them made war on Israel. And this happened according to the will of God, who rules and reigns over the heavens and the earth and over all that he has made. And it was his will to destroy the Canaanites to punish them for their wickedness over many generations. The whole time that the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt, the Lord was being patient with the Canaanites and he gave them hundreds of years to repent. But because they did not repent and continued in their wickedness, then the time came for the Lord to punish them. And so, he hardened their hearts so that they would go to war against Israel and be destroyed.
Verses 21 to 23
And the chapter ends with a little note about the Anakites. One of the commentators describes verses 21 and 22 as an afterthought. It’s as is the narrator had almost forgotten what Israel did to the Anakites and at the last minute, he remembered: ‘Oh yes! I almost forgot. Let me tell you about them.’
The Anakites, you might remember, first appeared in Numbers 13, when the Israelites had just escaped from Egypt and they came to the border with the Promised Land and Moses sent men to spy out the land. And the spies returned and all but Joshua and Caleb gave a bad report. They said there’s no way they would be able to take over the land, because the Canaanites are too big and strong. And they said that they even saw the sons of Anak there, who come from the Nephilim. And the spies said they made them feel like grasshoppers, because the Anakites are like giants.
In other words, the Anakites were their bogey men: the ones they feared the most. And yet, in the end, Joshua and his men beat them easily. So easily, that the narrator almost forgot all about them.
It says in verse 21 that Joshua totally destroyed them and their towns. However, it also says in verse 22 that some of them survived in Gath and Gaza and Ashdod. However, they were able to destroy the rest of them easily with the help of the Lord.
And so, Joshua took over the whole land. And he was able to take over the whole land, because the Lord was giving it to them as their inheritance. They received it from the Lord as his gift to them.
Now, we know from the books of Judges and 1 and 2 Samuel that they didn’t conquer every single city and that many of the Canaanites remained on the land. And so, for years afterwards, they had to put up with the Philistines and others. However, while some Canaanites survived, the land now belonged to Israel. God enabled them to settle there and to live in that Eden-like land, flowing with milk and honey where they had everything they needed and could enjoy the presence of God in their midst.
Joshua’s obedience
Before we finish, let me make two further points.
First of all, the narrator is careful to point out Joshua’s obedience. So, in verse 6 the Lord commanded Joshua to hamstring the horses and to burn the chariots. And according to verse 9 that’s what he did. In verse 12 we’re told he destroyed the cities and their kings as Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded. In verse 15 it says that as the Lord commanded Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua. And Joshua did it. That is to say, he did everything Moses commanded him to do in accordance with the command of the Lord to Moses. Then in verse 20 we’re told he exterminated the Canaanites without mercy as the Lord commanded Moses. And finally in verse 23 it says Joshua took the entire land just as the Lord directed Moses.
So, the Lord commanded Moses and Moses commanded Joshua. And Joshua did all that he was commanded to do. He was God’s obedient servant. And in this he foreshadows the Lord Jesus Christ, who came into the world as one of us and as God’s obedient servant. As God’s obedient servant, he obeyed his Father’s will in everything even to the point of giving up his life on the cross to pay for our sins and to make peace for us with God.
In obedience to God, Joshua went out and killed many enemies so that God’s people could live with God in the Promised Land of Canaan. And in obedience to God, the Lord Jesus let wicked men kill him so that we can live with God in the Promised Land of Eternal Life. Because of Jesus Christ, who is our new and better Joshua, we can look forward to everlasting life in the new and better world to come, where God will dwell with us and we’ll rejoice in his love for us for ever and for ever. And that’s why we must always trust in him.
God is sovereign
And the second point is that the whole of this chapter teaches us that our God is the great king who rules over all that he has made.
In verse 6 he revealed to Joshua that the outcome of the battle had already been decided in heaven. And in the rest of the chapter we see that what God ordained in heaven was put into effect on earth when God enabled Joshua and his men to defeat their enemies.
And in verse 20 we see that God hardened the hearts of the Canaanites. In other words, the hearts of men and women — the things we plan — are in his hands and he’s able to direct what we do according to the purpose of his will.
And then enabling his people to destroy a great horde of Canaanites and to overcome the Anakites in particular teaches us that our great God, who rules over all, is able to overcome every powerful enemy who confronts us. In fact, by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead, he has overcome our greatest enemy which is death itself.
Which of us is able to conquer death on our own? And death is a terrifying enemy, because death cares for no one and it snatches our loved ones from us and one day it will snatch our life from us. And there’s nothing we can do to stop it. But the good news is that our great and powerful God has conquered death by his Son, who was raised from the dead on the third day. And he will give life to our mortal bodies so that even though we die, yet we shall live with God for ever.
And if God is able defeat our greatest enemy, then he can easily conquer every other enemy and everyone who worries us in our daily lives. Is someone against you? Is someone making your life difficult? Well, the Lord your God is able to help you to endure those trials each day. He’s able to give you the strength you need to endure it. However, he’s also able to change that person’s heart so that he or she will think differently about you. He’s able to change that person’s heart because the hearts of all are in his hands and he directs our steps according to his most holy and good will. And so, we should entrust ourselves to our God who is the great king over all.
