Transcript

Podcast Introduction

Today is History Tuesday and we’ll read Joshua 11-15. After the reading, I have some comments. I’m calling today’s episode “When God Says Go.”

Design: Steve Webb | Photo: Mark König on Unsplash

Comments on Joshua 11

Here in Joshua 11 there are three things I wanted to focus on for just a moment. 

1) We see in the first few verses that Israel's enemies banded together to defeat them. It didn't matter what their differences were, they knew that Israel had defeated every enemy they faced, so if they were to have any chance at all, they knew they had to fight Israel together. 

We as Christians could learn from that. We have a common enemy, too. And that enemy is the enemy of man's soul. It's satan. And just as Israel had no prayer of defeating their enemies in the Promised Land without the help of God, we have no hope of defeating satan in our own lives without the help of that same God. Also, the world today is turmoil on a hundred different fronts, but you can be sure that the same enemy is behind it all. It's satan. He delights when man is fearful, combative, hateful and without hope. It's our job to tell mankind of the Good News of Jesus Christ. And we have a better chance of success if we forget about the things that cause division amongst us and focus on what we have in common, Jesus the Messiah.But if we are divided, our message is diluted. The world is less inclined to believe us. Jesus said they'll know that we are Christians by our love for one another. Believers need to focus on the One who died for us, not on our petty differences. 

2) Notice that God didn't fight these battles for Joshua miraculously like he did in the beginning. He has demonstrated to Joshua that He is with him, and He assures Joshua that he will have the victory, but He gives Joshua the battle plan and then leaves Joshua to execute that plan. 

Family, as we mature in our spiritual life, he expects more of us. He expects us to fight our own battles. How many times have I heard someone say, "If God would only just take that temptation away, because I just can't handle it on my own!" Hogwash. He has given you what you need, you just need to do it. God didn't fight all of Joshua's battles, and He's not going to fight all of your battles, either.

3) Near the end of the chapter, when Joshua and Israel have nearly completed the task of taking the land promised to their fathers by God, we're told that "Joshua and his army killed the Anakim from the northern and southern hill country." Who were the Anakim?

When Moses was still alive, just as he brought the people to the threshold of the Promised Land, he sent twelve men in to scout out the country. When they came back, most of the scouts correctly said that it was a land flowing with milk and honey, but they also reported that the people who lived there were strong, and their cities were large and walled. They said, "We even saw the three Anakim clans. In fact, we saw the Nephilim who are the ancestors of the Anakim. They were so big that we felt as small as grasshoppers.”

And so the people of Israel became fearful. They forgot about all the miracles God had done for them to bring them out of Pharaoh's Egypt, how he gave them water out of a rock, how he fed them manna from heaven. They said, "We wish we had died in Egypt or somewhere out here in the desert! Is the Lord leading us into Canaan, just to have us killed and our women and children captured? We'd be better off in Egypt.”

And God became angry at them and ultimately said, in essence, "Fine. They want to die in the desert? In the desert they shall die. Not one of this generation will set foot in the promised land." It was their lack faith that caused them to wander in the desert for forty years. 

Of course, God was able to defeat Israel's enemies when they first arrived at the threshold of the Promised Land, but their lack of faith stood in the way,