PODCAST
The Southern Campaign
November 8, 2026 | Brandon CooperBrandon discusses how God wins the victory, but His people are called to participate in it. Joshua 10 shows this clearly through Israel’s southern campaign, where God threw enemies into confusion and hurled hailstones from the sky, yet Israel still showed up and fought. This pattern of divine sovereignty working alongside human responsibility runs throughout the entire book of Joshua. The power of sin has been broken at the cross, but the presence of sin has not yet been fully removed from our lives. Just as Israel subdued the land but left some cities unconquered, we often make progress in our spiritual lives without finishing the work. The tools for the fight remain the same: return to the Word, remember God’s promises, pray boldly, and seek help from the community around you. The war was won at Calvary, but the daily battle is real, and you have a meaningful part to play.
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TRANSCRIPT_______________________________________________+
The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
Well, good morning, church. If you weren’t at revision last week, we switched denominations.
We used to be a denomination where we preached on the platform, now we preach on the stage. So if you walk out, I understand, but go ahead, grab your Bibles, open up to Joshua chapter 10. It’s fun for me. I can see the balcony for the first time ever. There are people up there.
This is great. Oh, they’re waving. So fun. We are in Joshua chapter 10. So if you want to open your Bibles there as you’re turning there, there is an old Seinfeld stand up routine where he talks about people whose team has just won a championship or important game and they will immediately exclaim, we won, we won.
And Seinfeld points out, no, no, no, they won, you watched. There is that difference. Of course, I understand that. I’m not hitting a 98 mile an hour fastball or anything like that. I contributed very little to any team’s victory.
But fans do make a difference. Of course. That’s why there’s such a thing as home field advantage. Fans have been loud enough to influence refs before, I’m sure. But it’s not just the fans.
What about some of the people who are around the team? I mean, would you say if you were part of the training staff or grounds crew or even working ticketing or concessions like, you know, I helped this. The victory happened. Of course. Of course you would have the idea being we can participate in a victory that we didn’t officially win.
And that’s exactly what we’re going to see in our passage this morning, where God wins the victory. Clearly, no argument there. God wins the victory, but Israel had a meaningful part to play. They get to participate in that victory. That’s important for us because in the same way we have a meaningful part to play in the work God’s doing in our lives and through our lives.
So there is work for us to do and that’s where we’re going to land as we walk through these three scenes chronicling the southern campaign for the promised land. We’re going to walk through really the then and there first, and then at the end, I’ll kind of turn, pivot. We’ll look at the here and now. But for for now, let’s start at scene one, the Lord’s battle. Joshua, chapter 10, verses one to 15.
A lot of fun names for me to get to try to say today. So look forward to that. Now, Adoni Zedek, king of Jerusalem, heard that Joshua had taken AI and totally destroyed it, doing to AI and its king, as he had done to Jericho and its king, and that the people of Gibeon had made a treaty of peace with Israel and had become their allies. He and his people were very much alarmed at this because Gibeon was an important city. Like one of the royal cities, it was larger than AI and all its men were good fighters.
So Adonizedek, king of Jerusalem, appealed to Hoham, king of Hebron, Puram, king of Yarmouth, Yasiah, king of Lachish, and Debir, king of Eglon. Come up and help me attack Gibeon, he said, but because it is a made peace with Joshua and the Israelites. Then the five kings of the Amorites, the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Yarmouth, Lachish and Eglon, joined forces. They moved up with all their troops and took up positions against Gibeon and attacked it. The Gibeonites then sent word to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal, do not abandon your servants.
Come up to us quickly and save us. Help us. Because all the Amorite kings from the hill country have joined forces against us. So Joshua marched up from Gilgal with his entire army, including all the best fighting men. The Lord said to Joshua, do not be afraid of them.
I’ve given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you. After an all night march from Gilgal, Joshua took them by surprise. The Lord threw them into confusion before Israel. So Joshua and the Israelites defeated them completely at Gibeon.
Israel pursued them along the road going up to Beth Horon and cut them down all the way to Azekah and Makkedah. And as they fled before Israel on the road down from Beth Horon to Azekah, the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them. And more of them died from the hail and were killed by the swords of the Israelites. On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel, sun stand still over Gibeon. A new moon over the valley of Ayalon.
So the sun stood still and the moon stopped. Till the nation avenged itself on its enemies. As it is written in the book of Yashar, the sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. There’s never been a day like it before or since. A day when the Lord listened to a human being.
Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel. And Joshua returned with all Israel to camp at Gilgal.
Israel’s reputation is growing. Everyone keeps hearing about what Israel and More importantly, Israel’s God in doing. Now, when Gibeon heard about this, they surrendered. They made a peace treaty with Israel, but Jerusalem, not so much. In fact, they’re quite angry with Gibeon for making this peace treaty.
And you can understand why if you understand the geography of what is happening here. So I promised you a map. Here is your map. You are looking at the southern part of Israel here. So that red line, that’s them coming in right there, that bisects the nation of Israel almost directly in half.
So where they start over there, that’s Gilgal. The first dot is Jericho, where that red line dips a little bit. Just above that is AI and Bethel, which they defeated recently. Now, you can see once they kind of get to that AI and Bethlehem range, Gibeon and Jerusalem are right there. So the fact that Gibeon surrendered means Jerusalem’s next.
There’s no way around this. And so they take the initiative at this point and are going to go up and attack. If you’re wondering what happens, they’re the blue lines going up that red line. Then what happens after that big battle? They defeat this coalition.
The rest of the southern campaign, which we’ll get to in the last part of this chapter, they just kind of loop through the south of Israel and conquer it utterly. So now you got the map in your head, at least as we go. But for now, notice we have this huge coalition, five kings, going up against Gibeon, which is important because that does mean that, you know, Israel is right to attack them at this point. This is a just war. It also shows how impressive the victory is that they’re going to win in our passage today.
But what can Gibeon do? They are no match for this coalition. Like, they’re all alone here. This is like Iraq during the Persian Gulf War with this huge multinational coalition going like, you’re getting wiped out here. There’s no way around it.
And so what can Gibeon do? The only thing they can do is fall back on covenant, fall back on the treaty they made with Israel. Israel is at this point bound to Gibeon. And Gibeon makes that point, reminds them of this truth we actually have there in verse 6, almost an analogy for prayer, like a picture of what prayer looks like for us because we come to God on the basis of nothing other than covenant, the fact that God has bound himself to his people. That’s why we can approach him in prayer.
We can plead the promises, the stipulations of the covenant, because he bound himself to us. That’s why when you look at the prophets and the psalmists, for example, when they cry out to God in prayer and they’re saying, you know, help us, Lord, they often do so on the basis of covenant. Specifically, you said, you said you would help us be a God of your word. And of course, God always is and always provides the help. So we have here this picture of covenant prayer, although we also have a picture of covenant community, if I’m being honest, because here Gibeon’s going, you know, it’s exactly what Kyle just said to the parents.
I can’t do this on my own. I need help. And so they send word to Israel, of course, Israel, happy to help. I do love that it’s these five kings, you know, all these names are listed. And then we get.
In verse 6, the Gibeonites sent word to Joshua. That’s it, one name. That’s all we need for the coalition. And it’s not because it’s Joshua, by the way, but because of what Joshua’s name means. We keep talking about it means the Lord saves, and indeed he does.
That’s what’s happening here. You see it in verse 8. What does he say? I have given them into your hand. Perfect tense.
It is already done. They have already been defeated. Not the first time we’ve seen this in Joshua. In fact. That’s a good reminder for us.
There is no new revelation here in this moment. We just get a repetition of promises that have already been given to Joshua and Israel. That is how God usually works, of course. He reaffirms, reminds us of the truths we need to remember. And that’s true for us today, too.
We don’t need a new word from the Lord so much as we need to remember the true Word from the Lord. The Gospel. We need to call to mind what he has already given us. What more can he say than to you? He has said, right, like, we’ve got what we need already in this book.
And if that’s what we need and what God gives, the reminder of his truth, then the action step for us, of course, is to seek it. Like, go find what you need in this moment to remember. Read word, study God’s word, meditate on it, memorize it, and then trust in what you read there. Remember the promises, how many problems we have because we forget to remember what God has told us. How often we fall into anxious fretting, for example, instead of prayerful peace, because we don’t remember the peace that His Word offers us.
We see Here again, what we keep seeing in the book of Joshua, which is the balance between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. The fact that God has done something doesn’t mean that we don’t do anything. And God says, I have given them into your hand. And Joshua doesn’t then go, great, I’ll sit down. In fact, he steps up in a lot of ways here.
God’s promise stimulates human creativity. Joshua thinks, you know what would help here is an all night march. And Gibeon had asked Israel to hurry back in verse six. And so Joshua led his troops on an all night march for a daybreak surprise attack. This is Washington crossing the Delaware river on Christmas night.
It’s the same idea. And sure enough, it’s a spectacular success, like yay Joshua. Except no, it’s not Joshua, because we read, the Lord threw them into confusion in verse 10, the Lord threw them into confusion just like he had Egypt’s chariots at the banks of the Red Sea. He does it again. And we read just a little bit later in verse 11 that the victory is clearly his because of the hailstorm that he sends on this coalition of enemies.
The Lord. The Lord fights for his people. Can I say that I think it is a tremendous shame that the Church has lost this vision of the divine warrior.
We have in many ways sanitized Jesus. One commentator put it well, he said, we sanitize Jesus as though he comes to us smelling of hand cream. I don’t even know what that means, but I thought it was a good phrase and I wanted to share it with you. And of course there’s truth to that in Jesus. He is gentle and meek.
He’s humble and lowly. Absolutely. We just don’t want to lose the other part of who he is. Because if you were here with us when we did Revelation, you may remember that we’ve seen the faithful and true Christ astride his steed, fire in his eyes and a double edged sword proceeding from his mouth as he brings judgment on the nations.
We learned then what we see here in Joshua over and over and over again, which is that we both need and desperately want God to defeat very real enemies. And it is not going to happen through diplomacy. You are not going to reason with the Father of lies and the Prince of Darkness like you just need to crush him underfoot. We don’t want somebody to reason with death or sin. We want them destroyed utterly.
And that is what God promises to do. Meaning we need to learn the catechism of Psalm 24, which says in verse 8, who is this King of glory? That’s the question. And then we usually say the answer together. Let’s do it.
Let’s say it together. The Lord strong and mighty. The Lord mighty in battle. That’s Jesus. That’s being talked about right there.
The. The one who is able to ascend the holy hill because of his pure hands and clean heart. He is the Lord strong in mighty. The Lord mighty in battle. We see it here as well.
And then we get as a punctuation mark on the victory of the day, this curious little story. Because at break of day, Joshua said to God, son, stand still. Now, when you read this story, you think he’s saying this at the end of the day. I know that because that’s how I read this story for 45 years. Well, 37 years, let’s say.
Not because I’m 37, but because I wasn’t reading for a while. Because it says the sun is over Gibeon and the moon is over the valley of Ayalon. And that position happens at sunrise and moonset, not vice versa. So this is when Joshua shows up at the field of battle that he prays this, which may confuse us a little bit, like, what happened exactly in this moment? And the answer is, we are not at all sure what happened in this moment.
There are a few different options. One, perhaps Joshua is asking for an astrological ill omen. Not that this is what Israel would pay attention to astrological signs, but certainly the Canaanites would. And so he’s almost saying, like, would you just mess with their minds here? Maybe second, it may be that Joshua is actually asking God to prolong the darkness as he prays this, you know, as the sun is getting ready to rise, to say, hang on, not yet, because they’re tired.
They’ve just marched a good number of miles all night long. They don’t want to fight in the heat of day. It could be what most of us would think has happened here, that Joshua’s asking God to prolong the day. Can you make this a 40 hour day so that I can get everything done? How many have prayed that prayer before?
Right. It doesn’t work. Okay, but prolong the sunlight until the victory is complete. Or fourth option, it could just be poetic some of the way this is phrased in the Hebrew reads, like other passages. It may be that we’re asking the sun and moon to stop and watch the victory, which reads a lot like habakkuk in chapter 3, verse 11.
Or even to fight with Israel, which is similar to what Deborah And Barak pray in Judges 5, verse 20. Here’s the takeaway. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t really matter that we understand that part, because the main point stands regardless, and it’s there at the end of verse 14. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel.
Like, that’s the part you don’t want to miss. Although there is a miracle that happens in this moment, for sure. And verse 14 draws our attention to that as well. Because even more than just the Lord fighting for Israel, the Lord actually listened to a mere human being. Whatever happened here, it happened at Joshua’s initiative.
That’s different. Think of all the miracles we’ve gotten so far. It happened at God’s initiative. Moses isn’t saying, hey, Lord, what if you send frogs? Then they’re gonna let us go, right?
No, God’s saying, hey, I’m about to send frogs. Go tell Pharaoh. God says, go like this, Moses, and I’ll split the Red Sea. God says, carry the ark into the river. It’ll stop.
And then Joshua says, hey, sun stands still, moon stands still. And God listens. It’s even more powerful, by the way, because it’s not God heard, it’s God listens. There’s a nuance there, even in English. Occasionally.
This is the hard thing that Kyle was talking about a moment ago. Occasionally my kids don’t listen to me, and I have to tell them this. Usually the small, masculine children in particular. Right, like you’re not listening to me. And when I say that, I don’t mean I’m worried.
You didn’t hear what I said. I’m saying exactly the opposite. In fact, I know you heard what I said, and you’re not acting in light of you. You’re not doing. You’re not obeying.
This is the Hebrew word for obey. The text says here, the Lord obeyed a human being.
This is the miracle of prayer right here. God acts when his people ask. Now, God is always acting, and God is always sovereign. But still, let’s revel in this moment. Let’s delight in it.
Let’s not just revel, in fact, but let’s respond to it, to the reminder that God hears and answers prayers. Do you need an application of this truth prayer? Like, it’s easy? You’re looking at this going, well, then why wouldn’t I pray? Ask God.
No, by all means, ask in his name, meaning under his authority and according to his will. Because that is the example we get from Joshua here. Because there, in verse eight, God said, I’m delivering this nation into your hands. And so Joshua says, lord, I know what your will is. Would you deliver this nation into our hands?
And God answers that prayer. This is why we start with the Word. As we saw back in verse six, we start with the Word so that we know his promises and can discern his will. So that we can boldly, confidently ask for his help, trusting that he will listen and accomplishment accomplish it. So ask God to fight for for us.
We ask God to fight for us. Remembering, of course, now that our fight isn’t against flesh and blood, but against the powers and authorities in this present darkness, which we’ll return to in a moment. We also ask God to fight for us, not just in this world, but in our own hearts as well. Because sin still lurks in our hearts, like the Canaanites in Israel, which is really where we’re headed in the rest of this passage. Let’s turn to scene two.
Then. At this point, we just saw the Lord’s battle, but here is the nation’s victory in verses 16 to 27. Now, the five kings had fled and hidden in the cave at Makkedah. When Joshua was told that the five kings had been found hiding in the cave in Makkedah, he said, roll large rocks up to the mouth of the cave and post some men there to guard it. But don’t stop.
Pursue your enemies. Attack them from the rear and don’t let them reach their cities. The Lord your God has given them into your hand. So Joshua and the Israelites defeated them completely. A few survivors managed to reach their fortified cities.
The whole army then returned safely to Joshua and the camp at Makkedah. And no one uttered a word against the Israelites. Joshua said, open the mouth of the cave and bring those five kings out to me. So they brought the five kings out of the cave. The kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Yarmouth, Lachish and Eglon.
When they had brought these kings to Joshua, he summoned all the men of Israel and said to the army commanders who had come with him, come here and put your feet on the necks of these kings. So they came forward and placed their feet on their necks. Joshua said to them, do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. Be strong and courageous.
This is what the Lord will do to all the enemies you are going to fight. Then Joshua put the kings to death, exposed their bodies on five poles, and they were left hanging on the poles until evening sunset. Joshua gave the order and they took them down from the poles and threw them into the cave where they had been hiding. The mouth of the cave, they placed large rocks which are there to this day. Important to note, this is a flashback.
We got to the end of the battle in the last section. And then we go back, though, because we kind of, like looked at the battle part and especially what the Lord had done. Now we go back and go, what happened to those kings, though? So the chronicler here goes back and he tells the story from another angle. The pursuit and execution of these kings.
These five kings hid in the cave somewhat early on in this process, I don’t know when exactly, hid in this cave that became first their prison and then ultimately their tomb. Why? Because Joshua says, we got to finish the battle first and then we can come back and deal with them. So he returns and he brings these kings out. And mostly we see what we’ve seen before.
Like with the king of AI. He puts the kings to death, which is just punishment for the evil they had done. And then he hangs their bodies on poles to show that they have been cursed by God. If you are here and haven’t been with us the last couple of weeks, you may have some big questions about that. May have questions about the conquest, may have questions about impaling people’s bodies on poles.
We covered those back in Joshua 6 and Joshua 8, respectively. Go back and listen, because we do want to make sure we have answers to those questions. Questions. But we get something new this time around. There’s one unique part to this story, and it’s there in verse 24, where before they’re put to death and Joshua has some of the men of Israel, some of the army, put their feet on the necks of the kings.
Like, what is going on here in this story? Is this an act of barbarism or machismo? Is this just the OG flex that’s happening? In a sense, yes. But it’s not barbarism or machismo.
In a sense. We could almost talk about what’s happening here as a sacrament or a sacramental sign. The sign part is key. Like, this is meant to be an encouragement to the troops. Exactly what Joshua even says.
Don’t be discouraged. Don’t be discouraged. Like, this is meant to encourage you, because this is what God is going to do to all the enemies in Canaan. This act, of course, shows the impotence of those who defy the living God. This is what will happen to the proud.
They will be humbled. The high and mighty will be brought low. God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble, as scripture says time and again. But how does putting dirty Feet on regal necks assure the army that God is going to keep doing this. This is what I mean by a sacramental sign.
A sacramental sign, it’s not meant as cold logic to convince a skeptic. Like here is indisputable proof that this is how it’s going to shake out. It’s not that at all. It’s just something to help those who believe remember what God had promised. I mean, you think about what God says to Abraham when he promises that he’s going to make his descendants like the stars in the sky.
He takes them outside. Look at, look at the stars. And what does any of that have to do with Sarah’s fertility?
Nothing. Nothing whatsoever. That’s not proof. But every time Abraham went outside at night, he remembered. This is what God said.
This is what God promised. I’m choosing to believe. Of course, the sign takes on a different function later, because when Sarah has baby Isaac in her 90s, now we got some proof right now there’s like, right, right, right stars. He can do that. He can do that because he did this.
And that’s how this sign is functioning as well, of course, helping shore up the weak faith of those who believe. Because the sign points backward to point forward. Because now Israel can look and go. He defeated this massive coalition that rose against us. He can do it again.
He can do it again. Why wouldn’t we trust him in this battle as well? And of course, this is good. We need sacramental signs, so we remember as well. Chief among the sacramental signs is the Lord’s Supper, which we will take together here in a moment again, doesn’t prove anything.
Bite of bread, sip of grape juice doesn’t prove anything. But it helps us remember every time we take it, Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose again victorious three days later. And because he did that, I know he’ll do this. I know that Jesus Christ will come again and save me to the uttermost and set all things right. Now, I called this scene the nation’s victory, which is of course a little odd, because I’ve been at pains to show you the Lord won, but they participated in it.
So what we have here in this scene is the groundskeeper getting to hoist the trophy. And why not? Like, yes, the battle belongs to the Lord, but He calls his people to participate and work and fight. It is all of grace. It is all his power.
But that doesn’t mean that our effort isn’t added to it. God won. We watched, but also we won. Because in Christ we put sin to death. We resist the devil and make him flee from us.
We spread the word of the Gospel so that people are saved.
Last scene, then the region’s defeat. We’ll read the rest of chapter 10, starting in verse 28. That day, Joshua took Makkedah. He put the city and its king to the sword and totally destroyed everyone in it. He left no survivors.
And he did to the king of Makkedah as he had done to the king of Jericho. Then Joshua and all Israel with him moved down from Makkedah to Libnah and attacked it. The Lord also gave that city and its king into Israel’s hand. The city and everyone in it Joshua put to the sword. He left no survivors there.
And he did to its king as he had done to the king of Jericho. Then Joshua and all Israel with him moved on from Libnah to Lachish. He took up positions against it and attacked it. The Lord gave Lachish into Israel’s hands and Joshua took it on the second day. The city and everyone in it he put to the sword, just as he had done to Libnah.
Meanwhile, Horam, king of Gezer, had come up to help Lachish. But Joshua defeated him and his army until no survivors were left. Then Joshua and all Israel with him moved down from Lachish to Eglon. They took up positions against it and attacked it. They captured it that same day and put it to the sword and totally destroyed everyone in it, just as they had done to Lachish.
And Joshua and all Israel with him went up from Eglon to Hebron and attacked it. They took the city and put it to the sword together with its king, its villages and everyone in it. They left no survivors. Just as at Eglon. They totally destroyed it and everyone in it.
And Joshua and all Israel with him turned around and attacked Debir. They took the king, took the city, its king and its villages, and put them to the sword. Everyone in it they totally destroyed. They left no survivors. They did to Debir and its king, as they had done to Libnah and its king and to Hebron.
So Joshua subdued the whole region, including the hill country, the Negeb, the western foothills and the mountain slopes. Together with all their kings. He left no survivors. He totally destroyed all who breathed, just as the Lord, the God of Israel, had commanded. Joshua subdued them from Kadeshvarnea to Gaza and from the whole region of Goshen to Gibeon.
All these kings and their lands Joshua conquered in one campaign. Because the Lord, the God of Israel fought for Israel. Joshua returned with all Israel to camp at Gilgal. So we get here a brief summary of the rest of the southern campaign. We’re probably talking about a year at least here, that I just read in those few verses.
We know this because Caleb, who is 80 when they crossed the Jordan river, is 85 in Chapter 14. So we got five years for Chapter 1 to Chapter 13 for these two campaigns, especially in the south and then in the north. But we get no more long descriptions of battles. So that’s it. We did Jericho, we did AI here, we did this coalition from Jerusalem, but that’s it.
It’s over. We only get short summary statements from here on out. And even here, you notice we. We got seven cities mentioned specifically, which is an interesting number because the seven is the number for completion. And so these are representative cities where we’re saying all of it.
He took all of it. It’s almost like our narrator here is going, we don’t need to get into everything anymore. You just need to know. Joshua subdued the whole region. Some boundaries are listed.
They possess the land. And the reason they’re able to do that never changes. Even if the description isn’t given in each case, the summary statement is still there in verse 42. This all happened because the Lord, the God of Israel, fought for Israel. Great, let’s celebrate.
Only there are hints that all’s not well, that something is rotten in the state of southern Israel. You see this in the structure of the passage. It is subtle, but we have here a chiasm which is the. Like the Greek letter chi looks like an X. It looks a little bit like a mountain peak is kind of how it works.
And so in Western thought, we tend to put the most important stuff at the end. We climax with it, right? But in Hebrew thought, usually the most important piece is in the center. It’s at the top of the mountain peak. So you kind of walk up.
Here’s the key part, and then you walk down the same way. I wanted you to see what this looks like in this description. There we go. It worked. So here are the seven cities that are mentioned.
The first two and the last two are very similar because we get all three elements mentioned. The king, the city or villages, depending on its size, and the people. So that’s like A on both sides, then B on both sides. Looking at Lachish and Eglon, you get the city and the people, but no king is mentioned. And then when we get to Gezer, which is the one in the middle, there it is only the king, the army that marched out with him that’s mentioned, not the city, not the people, anything like that.
That seems really significant. Gezer is the center, meaning it’s the most important part. They defeated the army, they didn’t conquer the city. And actually, we’ll know that for sure when we get to Joshua 16, verse 10, where it says they didn’t dislodge the Canaanites living in Gezer. When you open the Book of Judges, chapter 1, verse 29, it says the exact same thing.
Thing. And that hint is actually true of a number of these towns, because we know if you’ve read the rest of the Old Testament, you know that Jerusalem, which just got whooped here in our story, right. Is not defeated until the time of David. So they didn’t dislodge the Jebusites either at that time. And actually, that’s exactly what the text says, quite literally in.
In verse 42, we read all these kings and their lands Joshua conquered in one campaign. Totally fair translation. Probably what the narrator intends. But it’s also ambiguous, and the narrator probably intends the ambiguity as well, because it says more literally all these. Joshua conquered once.
Once, as in might need to conquer them twice. Twice or three times, or again. And you see it at the end too, because what happens then? Joshua returns to Gilgal with all of Israel, meaning they haven’t actually occupied the southern land yet. That’s going to happen in later chapters.
So it’s like they took the land, but they haven’t driven out the people yet. The picture you should have in your mind is like Germany in World War II. They defeated France in what, like nine minutes or something? It was over. France surrendered.
And then when the Nazis were defeated years later, the French resistance was still active. So, like, they defeated France, but the French were there resisting all the time. That’s what’s happening here in the Promised Land. Now, why does this matter? Why does any of this story matter, but especially that last part in that cool little mountain I showed you right there.
Because this is a picture of the life of. Of a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Because what we see in the Exodus and the conquest is exactly what God has done for us. Like your conversion was an act of God and God alone. No one would turn to Christ of their own initiative. It is only when God calls us out of darkness and into his marvelous light. And so that’s what God does in Egypt.
They’re stuck in slavery. They will be stuck until God acts. And what does God tell Israel as he’s bringing them out of Egypt.
Moses says it, the Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still.
Then God brings his people into the promised land. And what have we seen over and over and over again in Joshua? The Lord will fight for you. So go up and attack this city. And that’s the shift.
That’s conversion and sanctification, the process of our becoming more like Jesus. God says, I’ve saved you, now fight. Now fight. Go into battle every day. Face your enemies every day.
And every day choose to trust and obey, drawing on the Spirit’s power. This is what Paul says to the church in Ephesus. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God. It’s still all of grace.
It’s the Lord who’s fighting for us. It’s the Lord who’s equipping us. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground.
And after you’ve done everything to stand. And how do we draw on the Spirit’s power? He says it just a little bit later. Pray in the Spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying.
So our lives are exactly like Joshua 10. The war was won once for all time on the hill of Calvary when Jesus cried out, it is finished, it’s done. But the battle rages daily. The war was won, but we’re like, still in the battle. That’s why we get Ephesians 6 and the battle rages not just here, but here.
Like our flesh stubbornly resists the Spirit’s conquest of our lives. Right? We got a. Not a French resistance, but a flesh resistance within us, causing all these problems. So that Paul says, spirit and the flesh, they are in conflict with each other, which is why we need to walk in the Spirit at all times.
So we may have subdued sin, but we haven’t driven it out completely yet. Like, the power of sin has been broken already. But the presence of sin is not yet gone from our lives, so we need to continue the work. And that is our big idea. This is how we put this chapter into practice in our lives.
It’s this, conquer sin in your life. Conquer sin don’t subdue sin. Conquer sin in your life. Put sin to death by the Spirit, as Paul counsels in Romans 8, as he says elsewhere, Philippians 2, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.
That’s on you like you have a battle to fight, but the only reason we can is because the Lord fights for us. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. So examine your life even now. What has been left undone? Where is your personal gezer that you haven’t conquered, you haven’t driven the enemy out yet?
So many of us, especially if we came to Christ in later years like I did, you get this initial burst of change after your conversion. Like for me, I stopped swearing. I had a mouth like a drunken sailor, okay? I stopped swearing the day God saved me. No one told me to do it.
It just changed in my life like that. So you have that initial burst of change, but then you discover the campaign is long and the progress is slow. We need to remember the words. The great Puritan theologian John Owen, who said, be killing sin or sin will be killing you, goes on to say later in that book, the mortification of sin. When sin lets us alone, we may let sin alone.
That’s, by the way, exactly what is being said to Joshua and Israel in this moment. As soon as the Canaanites stop attacking, you know you can be done with them. But they’re still attacking, they’re still there. And that’s how we are with sin. So it’s time for a new offensive, a surprise attack.
Wage war on sin. Like maybe you need to take up the discipline of silence at strategic moments in your life because you speak too many careless words. Or maybe it’s time to. Maybe in the lobby today is the time to grab somebody and ask for some accountability in a struggle that you have that you know you’re not getting done on your own. Or it’s time again, maybe in the lobby today to pull somebody aside and, and to reconcile a relationship, or to do everything without grumbling or arguing, to give up complaint and choose gratitude instead.
The point is, don’t leave it alone. It’s like when you peel a hard boiled egg and you know, you get most of it off and then you go to take a bite and you see the bit of shell on top. What do you do? Probably packed with minerals. I don’t know, we’ll chew on it.
No, you pick it off like that’s the same idea. Okay, keep going. Don’t leave a trace of sin in your life. How Everything we talked about already, the word and prayer. Return to the promises of God first.
Thessalonians 5 comes to mind. Make God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through, so your whole spirit, soul and body may be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord is faithful and he will do it. That’s a good promise. That’s a good one to say.
Hey Lord, you said. You said, keep your word in my life. Return to the promises, plead the promises, practice sacramental remembrance and ask for help. And don’t forget Gibeon’s lesson. You can ask for help from the church community as well, but don’t let up.
Conquer sin in your lives. Conquer sin in your lives. Because you know that Jesus already conquered sin on the cross. Jesus is the divine warrior, the Lord, mighty in battle. He defeated Satan.
He conquered the grave. It’s done.
Like D day broke the Nazi regime forever. Except there was a little gap, wasn’t there, between D Day and VE Day. Kind of that mop up operation time. That’s where we are. It’s over again.
The power sin has been broken. And now we mop up here. These last little battles. We saw that in the passage that will read for us earlier in First Corinthians 15. And the end will come when he hands over the kingdom of God the Father, after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.
For he must reign. Jesus must reign according until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. That’s where we are right now, right? He is reigning until he puts every enemy under his feet.
And we will know it when death itself is defeated finally, fully and forever.
But we get to participate. We get to participate in the mop up operation. We have a part to play in his victory. How meaningful a part do we have to play in this mop up operation?
Here’s Paul’s benediction to the Church in Rome. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. Jesus is going to put his enemies under his feet. And he does so by putting his enemies under your feet. My feet.
I love too that it says the God of peace. That’s the reminder we need when we get to the hard questions in Joshua. It’s the God of peace. It’s because God wants us to experience the fullness of peace that he makes war on evil. Like that’s what we see in Joshua, we have a part to play in that we trample on Satan like Israel on those five kings.
He won, but we win. And he calls us onto the field to celebrate with him. You were a part of his conquest, or at least you can be. If I could speak a quick word to those who do not believe you could be part of this victory. Especially if you’re looking around going, I am struggling with some of the choices I make.
And I see the mistakes I am making. And it seems like I can’t get myself home unstuck. Here is hope for change. Put your faith in Jesus Christ, all of us. Remember that he’s already won.
He’s already won. Let that spur you to keep on fighting, conquer sin in your life, knowing that the Lord, the God of Israel, fights for you. Let’s pray.
Lord, we rejoice in the victory that you have already won over sin and death and Satan. You have crushed your enemies under your feet, and you will crush your enemies under your feet and ours. And so, God, all we pray is that we would be faithful, courageous, encouraged warriors in your name and for your sake, as we do battle against sin and the powers of darkness. And, Lord, would you fight for us? And would we every day see increasing victory, more conquest, more subduing of sin in our lives?
Because you are faithful to do what you promised to do. We pray this in your name and for your sake. Amen.