Scripture Reading: Josh. 10, Josh. 11, Josh. 12
We all need to learn how to study the Bible. In studying the Bible, we should not understand it merely according to letters nor according to the natural way by the natural mind. The Bible has its spirit, reality, and center. Therefore, we need to learn how to know the center, reality, lines, and principles of the Word of God. We should keep this in mind as we come to Joshua 10 through 12. My burden in this message is that we would see the intrinsic significance of these chapters.
Joshua 10 through 12 show Joshua’s destruction of all the rest of the nations in the hill country and the lowland west of the Jordan and on all the shore of the great sea. The strongest people in Canaan were in a strip of land from Lebanon in the north to Egypt in the south and from the Mediterranean Sea to the river Jordan. These people included the Anakim, a race of giants. According to Numbers 13:33, the sons of Anak were from the Nephilim. Genesis 6 reveals that the Nephilim were the issue of the evil union between the daughters of men and fallen angels. Because of the Nephilim, God charged His elect to slaughter everyone in the land. God is kind, loving, and merciful, but He is also severe because He has an enemy on earth.
God made the earth in His economy, and He purposely created a strip of land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. God promised this land to Abraham and his descendants. Eventually, this land became the land of Christ, the land of Immanuel (Isa. 8:8). But when Israel was ready to take possession of Canaan, it was filled with demon-possessed people, idol worshippers, and Nephilim. Joshua slaughtered them (Josh. 11:21-22), but some on the mountain were quite strong, so Caleb came in and conquered them (14:6-14).
The significance of this is that without Joshua we cannot fully understand the spiritual warfare in Ephesians 6. There is spiritual warfare in the invisible scene behind the visible scene. This means that in addition to war on the earth, there is a war between God and Satan in the air. The heavenlies are full of Satan’s forces. Christ is our good land, and God wants us to gain Christ, but there is a layer of devilish, demonic forces between us and the good land. If we would take possession of the good land for our enjoyment, we have to defeat these satanic forces.
Joshua conquered many nations and killed many kings, but he conquered only a narrow strip of land. According to Joshua 1, the land stretched from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates. The good land was wide and spacious; however, Israel’s territory never spread to the Euphrates. Since there was much fighting and rebellion after the time of Joshua, there was not the opportunity for God’s people to build a temple. When David gained more land and there was a time of peace, Solomon, David’s son, was able to build the temple of God to set up God’s kingdom on earth.
In principle, our situation is the same in the Lord’s recovery today. Our standing on the church ground annuls the standing of all the denominations, and this stirs up opposition. We are God’s Israel, and we have our Captain, but the Lord’s recovery is still involved in a struggle. Every day we need to engage in spiritual warfare.
In the United States there are more than two hundred and fifty churches, but nearly all of them are small. It is hard to get an increase. There is a struggle in the United States because it is a crucial country, affecting the entire world situation related to the Lord’s move. Our enemies are not humans on the earth but evil forces in the air, who hinder people from believing into the name of the Lord Jesus and who frustrate the saved ones from pursuing Christ to the uttermost.
We all need to know what the recovery is, where the recovery is, and what kind of persons can take the recovery on. We all need to see that in the Lord’s recovery today we are on a battlefield. We should be today’s Joshua and Caleb, fighting against Satan’s aerial forces so that we can gain more of Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ, setting up and spreading the kingdom of God so that Christ can come back to inherit the earth. It is not adequate for us simply to be spiritual and holy. We need to learn of Joshua and Caleb to represent God’s interest in this age to fight down the enemies that Christ can be gained by people and that Christ can be increased by His pursuers.
Let us now consider a number of the details in Joshua 10 through 12.
Joshua 10:1-27 records the destruction of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon.
The king of Jerusalem was threatened by Israel’s destruction of Jericho and Ai and their peaceful agreement with Gibeon (vv. 1-2). When he heard that Joshua had taken Ai and had utterly destroyed it as he had done to Jericho and that the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were among them, he was afraid, knowing that Gibeon was a great city and that all its men were mighty men.
The kings of the five nations formed an alliance to fight against Gibeon. The king of Jerusalem sent word to the kings of Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon, saying to them, “Come up to me and help me, and let us strike Gibeon; for they have made peace with Joshua and the children of Israel” (v. 4). Thus the five kings of the Amorites went up to Gibeon and fought against it.
In verses 6 through 27 we see that Israel engaged in war against the five nations.
The Gibeonites begged Israel to fight for them against the five nations (v. 6).
Jehovah encouraged Joshua to defeat these nations, saying to him, “Do not be afraid of them, for I have given them into your hand. No man among them will stand before you” (v. 8). Joshua came upon them suddenly, and Jehovah threw them into a panic before Israel, struck them with a great stroke, and pursued them.
While the five nations fled from before Israel, “Jehovah sent large stones upon them from heaven as far as Azekah, and they died. There were more who died because of the hailstones than the children of Israel slew with the sword” (v. 11).
Jehovah caused the sun and the moon to stay still for about a whole day (vv. 12-14). These two miracles by Jehovah were by natural forces.
Joshua and the children of Israel destroyed the people of the five nations and killed their kings (vv. 15-27). The five kings were brought out of the cave into which they had fled, and Joshua told the chiefs of the men of war who were with him to put their feet on the necks of these kings. They did so, and Joshua said to them, “Do not be afraid or dismayed; be strong and be bold, for thus will Jehovah do to all your enemies against whom you fight” (v. 25).
Joshua 10:28—12:24 is a record of the destruction of the thirty-one kings of the thirty-one nations in the hill country and the lowland west of the Jordan, from Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon unto Mount Halak going up to Seir.
Joshua 10:42 says that Joshua took all these kings and their lands at one time, “for Jehovah, the God of Israel, fought for Israel.” When certain other kings came together to fight with Israel, Jehovah said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid because of them, for tomorrow at this time I will deliver all of them up slain before Israel” (11:6a).
Joshua took all the cities of these kings with their kings, struck them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed them. This he did according to the command of Moses the servant of Jehovah (v. 12). Verse 15 says, “As Jehovah had commanded Moses His servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did; he left nothing undone of all that Jehovah had commanded Moses.” Therefore, Joshua took the whole land according to all that Jehovah had spoken to Moses (v. 23).
The destruction of the thirty-one kings of the thirty-one nations was according to God’s intention. Concerning this, verse 20 says, “It was of Jehovah to harden their heart to meet Israel in battle so that He might utterly destroy them and that they might not receive mercy but be destroyed as Jehovah commanded Moses.” From this we see that God’s intention was not to have mercy on these kings but to destroy them.
Verse 13 says that Israel burned none of the cities that stood on their mounds except Hazor.
Some of the Anakim were left in Gaza, Gath, and Ashdod (v. 22; cf. Num. 13:33).
Joshua 12:1-6 speaks of the destruction of Heshbon under King Sihon and Bashan under King Og east of the Jordan.
The destruction of Heshbon and Bashan was by Moses and the children of Israel (v. 6a).
This destruction took place before Israel’s crossing of Jordan (v. 1a).
The land of Heshbon under King Sihon and of Bashan under King Og was given by Moses to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh (v. 6b).
