Joshua: God’s Strategies for Victory, Part 4
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
The Northern Campaign
After Joshua’s victories in the South, he had to turn his attention to the North, where his enemies were gathering at the waters of Merom. This time, instead of five kings joining together to fight Joshua, 15 kings band together against him and against the Israelites.
Hazor was the economic center of the northern part of the land of Canaan. It was about seven miles from the Sea of Galilee. The king of Hazor was Jabin, and it was likely that the other kings in the region were under Jabin’s authority and, therefore, at his disposal. He gathers together all the surrounding kings as one massive force.
The “ite” that can apply to us is intimidation.
Joshua 11:4 ESV:
And they came out with all their troops, a great horde, in number like the sand that is on the seashore, with very many horses and chariots.
According to Josephus, there were probably 300,000 foot soldiers, 10,000 men on horses, and 20,000 Egyptian chariots. Israel did not have horses and chariots to match.
The sheer numbers of foot soldiers, men on horses, and chariots were overwhelming, and Israel’s resources were no match. Jabin wanted to so intimidate Joshua that he would just remain in the south and give up on the north.
Spiritual intimidation often comes when you least expect it.
Joshua 11:5–6a ESV:
5 And all these kings joined their forces and came and encamped together at the waters of Merom to fight against Israel.
6 And the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them…”
Fear is close to intimidation. Intimidation is like intensified fear.
Joshua 11:6 ESV:
And the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them, for tomorrow at this time I will give over all of them, slain, to Israel. You shall hamstring their horses and burn their chariots with fire.”
Wouldn’t it seem to make more sense to keep their chariots and horses and use them in future battles? God was teaching Joshua that he could not trust in the same things that his enemies had trusted in. The multiplication of horses was actually forbidden in the law.
Deuteronomy 17:16a ESV:
Only he [a king of Israel] must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses…
They were supposed to depend upon God, not upon horses and chariots. Later in the Old Testament, King Solomon started multiplying horses, which contributed to his getting into trouble. Guess where Solomon set up his giant stable for horses—in Hazor!
Joshua 11:7–11 ESV:
7 So Joshua and all his warriors came suddenly against them by the waters of Merom and fell upon them. 8 And the Lord gave them into the hand of Israel, who struck them and chased them as far as Great Sidon and Misrephoth-maim, and eastward as far as the Valley of Mizpeh. And they struck them until he left none remaining. 9 And Joshua did to them just as the Lord said to him: he hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire.
10 And Joshua turned back at that time and captured Hazor and struck its king with the sword, for Hazor formerly was the head of all those kingdoms. 11 And they struck with the sword all who were in it, devoting them to destruction; there was none left that breathed. And he burned Hazor with fire.
Joshua zeroed in on the place where the control was. Spiritually, it would be like zeroing in on where the spiritual attack is coming from.
Joshua 11:12–15 ESV:
12 And all the cities of those kings, and all their kings, Joshua captured, and struck them with the edge of the sword, devoting them to destruction, just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded. 13 But none of the cities that stood on mounds did Israel burn, except Hazor alone; that Joshua burned. 14 And all the spoil of these cities and the livestock, the people of Israel took for their plunder. But every person they struck with the edge of the sword until they had destroyed them, and they did not leave any who breathed. 15 Just as the Lord had commanded Moses his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did. He left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded Moses.
Then we read about how he took the other kings, and we get to verse 18.
Joshua 11:18–20 ESV:
18 Joshua made war a long time with all those kings. 19 There was not a city that made peace with the people of Israel except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. They took them all in battle. 20 For it was the Lord’s doing to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, in order that they should be devoted to destruction and should receive no mercy but be destroyed, just as the Lord commanded Moses.
Joshua 11:23 ESV:
So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses. And Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal allotments. And the land had rest from war.
When Joshua allotted the land to the tribes, they did not allocate the territory of Hazor, even though it had been the center of economic power before Joshua burned it. Later, during the time of the judges with Deborah and Barak they had to fight over Hazor again because the Canaanites came back into the territory that they did not occupy. After a victory, if you don’t occupy the territory, the adversary comes back in, and you’ll have to fight the battle again in the future.
Joshua’s Last Words
Joshua 24 is at the end of Joshua’s life, after they’ve had rest in the land. Joshua is almost 110 years old and knows that he is going to die soon.
Joshua 24:1 ESV:
Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel. And they presented themselves before God.
Joshua 24:11–13 ESV:
11 And you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the leaders of Jericho fought against you, and also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And I gave them into your hand. 12 And I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out before you, the two kings of the Amorites; it was not by your sword or by your bow. 13 I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant.’
It could be a figurative usage of the word “hornet,” but there are some records you can look at to study it.
Exodus 23:28 ESV:
And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you.
Deuteronomy 7:20 ESV:
Moreover, the Lord your God will send hornets among them, until those who are left and hide themselves from you are destroyed.
There’s good reason to suspect that in some of the large battles that are not described in Scripture, God sent hornets (at least with two of the kings).
Joshua 24:14–18 ESV:
14 “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. 15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
16 Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods, 17 for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed. 18 And the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.”
Joshua 12:31 ESV:
Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the work that the Lord did for Israel.
It was only after those leaders who outlived Joshua had died that they turned and did not serve God anymore.
That’s a tremendous testimony to a man’s life who stood for God.
We are all Joshuas, and we don’t have to tolerate keeping the “ites” in the land. We can take a stand against fear, intimidation, greed, deception, pride, idolatry, or any of the things that are described in these battles. We can stand against them just like Joshua did because all things are under our feet because of what Jesus Christ has done. Later, we learn that there should be no tolerance for such “ites.” Because as the people allowed the Canaanites to stay, and did not continue to take over more and more of the cities, they became content with just the portion they had. They didn’t keep on fighting to take over more of the land. That allowed the Canaanites to bring their idolatry right next door to them. So it was very difficult for the Israelites to not succumb to idolatry. They had to deal with it continuously because of their policy of tolerance for all the “ites.”
“The more I know about Joshua, the better I like him. Through the years he has stood in the shadow of Moses so that we think he is a sort of miniature Moses. But Joshua is a man of great stature. God made no mistake in choosing this man. Although Joshua is an average man, this book reveals that an average man dedicated to God can be mightily used. He says to the nation, “Do you want to go back to the gods of your fathers, those pagan gods which they served? Or do you want to serve the gods of the Amorites? You can choose. But as for me and my house, we have made our choice; we are going to serve the Lord!” Friend, this was a tremendous challenge to all the tribes of Israel to consider their covenant with God.”
YouTube: Ron Kenolly As for Me and My House:
Scripture References
Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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