Joshua and Judges: Joshua's southern campaign, part 4; Jos 10.

Title: Joshua and Judges: Joshua's southern campaign, part 4; Jos 10.  

 

Announcements/opening prayer:

 

JOS 10:25 Joshua then said to them, "Do not fear or be dismayed! Be strong and courageous, for thus the Lord will do to all your enemies with whom you fight."

 

JOS 10:26 So afterward Joshua struck them and put them to death, and he hanged them on five trees; and they hung on the trees until evening.

 

JOS 10:27 And it came about at sunset that Joshua commanded, and they took them down from the trees and threw them into the cave where they had hidden themselves, and put large stones over the mouth of the cave, to this very day.

 

Those who oppose God and His people may seem to get away with it, but judgment is only a matter of time.

 

Joshua and the army are in the land of Makkedah and now they will take the town.

 

JOS 10:28 Now Joshua captured Makkedah on that day, and struck it and its king with the edge of the sword; he utterly destroyed it and every person who was in it. He left no survivor. Thus he did to the king of Makkedah just as he had done to the king of Jericho.

 

Every one of these towns are put under the ban - not one survivor is to be left, however, the cattle and the property were given to the people.

 

This entire campaign would likely have taken over a year to accomplish.

 

JOS 10:29 Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Makkedah to Libnah, and fought against Libnah.

 

JOS 10:30 And the Lord gave it also with its king into the hands of Israel, and he struck it and every person who was in it with the edge of the sword. He left no survivor in it. Thus he did to its king just as he had done to the king of Jericho [executed and hung on a tree until sundown].

 

JOS 10:31 And Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Libnah to Lachish, and they camped by it and fought against it.

 

JOS 10:32 And the Lord gave Lachish into the hands of Israel; and he captured it on the second day, and struck it and every person who was in it with the edge of the sword, according to all that he had done to Libnah.

 

JOS 10:33 Then Horam king of Gezer came up to help Lachish, and Joshua defeated him and his people until he had left him no survivor.

 

Of the towns listed in this campaign, three of them are towns that joined Adonai-zedek, king of Jerusalem, in attempting to take Gibeon. The kings of Lachish, Eglon, and Hebron are buried in a cave, and in their absence, successors have taken their positions within their cities. The successors meet the same fate as the kings who went out to war.

 

The kings of Lachish, Eglon, and Hebron are successors to the original kings who went out to war. Leaders of evil and successors to them all perish before God.

 

JOS 10:34 And Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Lachish to Eglon, and they camped by it and fought against it.

 

JOS 10:35 And they captured it on that day and struck it with the edge of the sword; and he utterly destroyed that day every person who was in it, according to all that he had done to Lachish.

 

JOS 10:36 Then Joshua and all Israel with him went up from Eglon to Hebron, and they fought against it.

 

JOS 10:37 And they captured it and struck it and its king and all its cities and all the persons who were in it with the edge of the sword. He left no survivor, according to all that he had done to Eglon. And he utterly destroyed it and every person who was in it.

 

JOS 10:38 Then Joshua and all Israel with him returned to Debir, and they fought against it.

 

JOS 10:39 And he captured it and its king and all its cities, and they struck them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed every person who was in it. He left no survivor. Just as he had done to Hebron, so he did to Debir and its king, as he had also done to Libnah and its king.

 

When this was all finally done and Joshua and the army returned to Gilgal, the Canaanites who survived, for it would have been impossible for Joshua to kill every person in the whole area, moved into the abandoned towns. The towns remained, but all of the livestock and valuables, including things of value and food stores, were taken away by Israel. This explains why the tribes had to still evacuate these towns of Canaanites when the land was finally divided between them.

 

Some people read a contradiction from the fact that these towns still had Canaanites in them at a later date. Survivors outside the towns simply occupied them when the Israelites left.

 

It is seen that Joshua and the army destroyed the Canaanites in the land, but some still remained, yet in a far weakened state. It was still up to the tribes to thoroughly clean out the land that was given to them.

 

"In this expedition Joshua ran through the southern region with an armed band, in too hurried a manner to depopulate it entirely. All that he needed was to strike such terror into the hearts of all through his victories, that no one should henceforth offer any resistance to himself and to the people of God. Those whom he pursued, therefore, he destroyed according to the commands of God, not sparing a single one, but he did not search out every possible hiding-place in which any could be concealed. This was left as a gleaning to the valor of each particular tribe, when it should take possession of its own inheritance." [Masius]

 

Unfortunately, not all the tribes would see the importance of this fight and chose rather to let some of the Canaanites remain in the land, from whom they were influenced into paganism and idol worship.

 

This is a perfect depiction of the individual believer in the church age. The Lord on Golgotha thoroughly destroyed all enemies, but they were not fully removed from the earth.

 

The world has been conquered by Christ, yet the system still remains in a greatly weakened state. The same is true for Satan and the kingdom of darkness and the sin nature.

 

We conclude that the sin nature, the world system, and Satan are defeated before the believer.

 

To the natural eye it might seem that the world has gone on as it always has, before and after Christ, but there is a great difference after the death and resurrection of Christ that the natural minded man cannot see. The world now has born-again believers who are a part of the body of Christ, who are indwelt by the Spirit and are to be full of the Spirit and of wisdom. These are not under the power of the world nor the sin nature nor the kingdom of darkness. They have been set free.

 

Facing the believer, these foes are positionally judged and dead and they are one step away from the execution of total annihilation. We still must fight these foes in time, but from a position of superior power and wisdom.

 

Our power, given us by none other than the grace of God is superior in every way to the three enemies that oppose us since Christ has handed them such a crushing defeat that they stand weak and helpless until the day of their executed sentence. They would try to convince you otherwise. The world professes to be strong, Satan attempts to deceive those who know of him that he is superior in every way, and the sin nature projects passions and desires that propagandize the soul into thinking that they are unbeatable and that the best way, and inevitably the only way, is to just give in. But these are all lies according to the Lord of glory who crushed them. In this way, Joshua is a wonderful type of the Lord Jesus Christ.  

 

2CO 4:7

 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves;

 

Why does God tell us we have surpassing greatness rather than just saying that He gave us power? The noun huperbole means exceeding greatness. Our enemies have power and if God told us dummies that we had power, we might wonder if it was enough to overcome the strong power of the enemy. By using huperbole, God assures us, beyond any doubt or question, that His power far exceeds the enemies. He pledges by His own name that He has graciously given us this power, His power, in that it is in each of us, without exception to gender, race, economic status

 

EPH 1:18-19

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.

 

EPH 2:6-7

and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

 

Php 3:8

More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ,

 

Joshua and his valiant warriors crippled Canaan and some surviving Canaanites from surrounding areas moved back into these cities, half starved and weak. It is up to the twelve tribes, once they are allotted their land to drive out these remaining, weak people.

 

Concerning the great northern Canaanite city of Hazor that Joshua will completely destroy, archeological evidence shows us that a much weaker and poorer people inhabited a portion of the city, building on top of the ruins of the first city. I quote an article from the Biblical Archeology Society.

 

"The last Canaanite city (Stratum XIII) was violently destroyed and, after a short occupational hiatus, a new settlement (Stratum XII), confined to Hazor’s acropolis, was discovered. This new settlement was poor in nature and was most probably of a seminomadic character." [Amnon Ben-Tor, Who Destroyed Canaanite Hazor]