Victory Through Obedience

Hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we are at Joshua chapter 11 verses 1 through 15. Joshua's just finished conquering the southern area. Now he's got to, you'd think he would be done, maybe, against the confederacy of different Canaanites and Hittites and Amorites and ites and ites and ites, but the trouble doesn't end just with the south. So let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into Joshua chapter 11 verses 1 through 15. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you for giving us an opportunity today to read it. Lord, we pray that you would please help us to understand it. Teach us your ways in Jesus' name, amen. All right, Joshua 11, verses 1 through 15, here we go.
And it came to pass when Jabin, king of Hazor, heard these things, that he sent to Jobab, king of Madin, to the king of Shimron, to the king of Aksoph, and to the kings who were from the north, in the mountains in the plain south of Chinaroth, in the lowland and in the heights of Dor on the west, to the Canaanites in the east and the west, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Debizite in the mountains, and the Hivite below Hermon in the land of Mizpah.
So they went out, they and all their armies with them, as many as the sand is on the seashore in multitude, and very many horses and chariots. And when all these kings had met together, they came and camped together at the waters of Merom to fight against Israel. So the Lord said to Joshua, do not be afraid because of them, for tomorrow, about this time, I will deliver all of them slain before Israel. You shall hamstring their horses and burn their chariots with fire. So Joshua and all the people of war came with him against them suddenly in the waters of Morom, and they attacked them. And the Lord delivered them into the hand of Israel, who defeated them and chased them to greater Sidon. to the brook Misrifoth and to the valley of Mizpah eastward. They attacked them until they left none of them remaining. So Joshua did to them all as the Lord had told him. He hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire.
Joshua turned back at that time and took Hazor and struck its king with a sword. And Hazor was formerly the head of all those kingdoms. And they struck all the people who were in it with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them. There was none left breathing. Then he burned Hazor with fire.
So all the cities of those kings and all their kings, Joshua took and struck with the edge of the sword. He utterly destroyed them as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded. But as for the cities that stood on their mountains, Israel burned none of them, except Hazor only, which Joshua burned. and all the spoil of these cities and the livestock, the children of Israel as booty for themselves. But they struck every man with the edge of the sword until they had destroyed them and left none breathing, as the Lord had commanded Moses' servants. So Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did. He left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded. Moses. Well, we need to ask ourselves our three questions. A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do? So A, what's this about?
So this king of Hazor up in the north, Atzor, Hazor, however you want to call it, there's all these different kingdoms and he seems to be the head over this confederacy. We had seen Adonai Zadok, the king of Jerusalem, of the Jebusites, get together this small kind of army against the Gibeonites and they call out to Joshua, that's what we looked at it in the last chapter, chapter 10, and now you have a much bigger army.
Do you notice what it said? Man, verse 5, this would be scary. And when all these kings had met together, they came and camped together by the waters of Merman to fight against Israel. But it said that they were as many people as the sand that is on the seashore in multitude with very many horses and chariots. Talk about the possibility of fear and terror, right? This is going to be a great battle. This is going to be an amazing fight. And Israel is Are they up for it? What would they do? Would Joshua cower? Would he get afraid? Would he run away?
But the Lord comes to Joshua himself in verse 6. He says, you're going to hamstring their horses, you're going to burn their chariots, go to war. And so Joshua does, and they overtake them. They win. And they go to Hazor, they go to the capital city of this confederacy, and they burn it to the ground. This is under harem, right? This is under the ban. This is a complete destruction, right?
So they're going to take this city and absolutely destroy it, devote it to the Lord like they had Jericho. It was a symbol that the great king, Jehovah himself, was king over all of this area. He had given them this land. And so as they conquered, that city was set apart for the Lord. Now, all the other cities they didn't destroy entirely. They actually got spoils of war. In all those other cities, they killed the men of war, but then all the rest of the houses and the money and the fields, all like that, that went to the Israelites, the spoils of war. And so the point is this, right?
Israel defeats this amazingly huge army of the north. He defeats this huge confederacy of people and horses, and God has done this because he made the promise to them, and God was good on his promise. and Joshua is doing according to what the Lord commanded. Many times Joshua could have been tempted to turn back, to turn away, to shrink back, to cower down, but instead he does what the Lord commands him. So God is the king. God's the covenant head of this people, of this nation, and he's making his covenant good. He's leading them to victory, but they are expected to follow him.
What's the best verse in all of this? Well, I think in my Bible, I have a few things underlined in my Bible. I have verse 4 underlined. I also have verse 6 underlined. But I also have verse 9. So Joshua did to them as the Lord commanded him. He hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire. Joshua did what he was told. I also have verse 15. As the Lord commanded Moses his servant. So Moses commanded Joshua and Joshua did. And so I have a few things underlined, but what would you underline as the best verse do you think summarizes this whole section?
Well, let's talk about seek calling. What are we called to do now? We don't want to just step in and be like, oh yeah, we're like Joshua. We're going to be strong and courageous and we're going to do the exact same parallel. We're going to go and we're going to conquer lands now. We're going to take over. We're going to forcefully establish a new Christendom upon the earth. I don't think that that's what this is calling us to do at all.
Because that's not the promises we received, right? Those promises were for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I think that was part of that old covenant. But I think in the covenant of grace now, We see in the covenant, the new covenant in Jesus' blood, that we're also commanded to do.
We follow the Lord's command. We do as He's told us because He is still our covenant King. But He's made promises and we're about His kingdom of glory. So how is His kingdom of glory come? How is it hastened? Well, we talk about the kingdom of grace now advancing.
We pray. that ourselves and others would be brought into it and kept in it. And so we go and we evangelize and we watch over our own lives. We seek to win others unto the Lord. We seek to see them follow our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by going into all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, making disciples of all nations and teaching them all which he has commanded us. And so we go, we go to the nations now with a, not that we're going to conquer you. That's not what we're doing.
But we go and we say, Jesus has conquered, conquered even sin and death. And the King's coming again. It's about the need of Him. because he's coming again someday to judge the living and the dead. So we come with that message. We trust in him. His promises are true and our King lives. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for our King Jesus Christ. We thank you for the advancement of his kingdom.
We pray for the propagation of the gospel, that it would go out. Lord, we pray for the Great Commission, that we would not be ashamed of the gospel, for it is your power unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and then to the Greek. And so, God, we pray that the gospel would go out in Jerusalem, that it would go out in Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Lord, we pray that you would please make us ambassadors of that kingdom you have made us citizens of. Our citizenship is in heaven, as well as our inheritance. So, Father, we pray that you would please advance the throne of your Son, Jesus Christ. In his name we pray. Amen. May the Lord bless you. May you follow in the love and peace of Jesus Christ. I'll see you next time.