Joshua Session 6 - A Comprehensive Commentary by Ron Matsen

[Music] do so tonight we're going to look at in session 6 chapter 10 of the book of joshua you know the nation of israel now has found itself right in the heartland of what will eventually be the nation of israel's territorial land beginning in verse 1 chapter 10 now it came to pass when adonai zedek king of jerusalem heard how joshua had taken ai and utterly destroyed it as he had done to jericho and its kings so he had done to ai and its kings and now the inhabitants of gibeon had made a peace with israel and were among them and they feared greatly because gibeon was a great city like one of the royal cities because it was greater than a.i and all its men were mighty therefore adonai zedek king of jerusalem sent to hohem king of hebron paran king of jarmuth jafia king of laish and dibir king of eglon saying come up to me and help me that we may attack gibeon for it has made peace with joshua and with the children of israel therefore the five kings of the amorites the kings of jerusalem the kings of hebron the king of jeremoth the king of laish and the king of eglon gathered together and went up they and all their armies encamped before gibeon and made war against it now we see this confederation of kings and their initial objective is not the encamped children of israel but these people who came out and we studied in our last session the gibeonites they intend to basically teach gibby in a lesson they broke ranks and therefore they're going to be punished for it and as a result of that um gibeon finds itself looking to its allies now you remember in our last study we pointed out that although joshua was instructed to go into the land and utterly wipe out these seven nations that he would confront there yet the gibeonites came to him and by subterfuge tricked them into creating a treaty but as we pointed out the most important thing of that is to recognize although their method wasn't right their motivation was correct they could see that the lord god of israel was going before the nation of israel and they wanted to be part of uh god's covering and so they believed in the word of the lord and they expressed it very much like rahab had done as she was residing and hiding the spies in jericho and therefore they had left their former allies and joined themselves with israel now in another parallel sort of a way we see a similar sort of situation happens when you leave the world you know you have uh these friends and acquaintances and co-workers and even family members who are with you in the world and everything is fine but then one day you come home and say you know what i've i've really considered uh the gospel of christianity and i've put my trust in jesus christ and oh my goodness the reaction of some of the people is as if you as if you were you know have done something horrible oh my gosh i can't believe you've done that you've ruined your life so to speak and the gibeonites you know they've put their trust in the god of israel and the protection of the nation of israel and immediately of course there's that consolidation effort that happens oh we can't let that guy go away boy i tell you what and so they're there to uh pursue and persecute gibeon now they are led by a man named adonai zedek of course adonai means lord or master we come across that a lot when in the psalms david or the other psalmists are referring to adonai it's a it's a title that we give of one who rules over us and the word zedek means right or um equity and so often times when people translate that they translate it lord of righteousness oh what a lovely name this man whose name loosely translated means lord of zedek but an alternate translation again i like to look at it a little closer is really the master of right a little different because that's how the world sees themself the reason why they react to people converting to christianity because they think they're doing something wrong not seeing their lives put right and right side up they see themselves doing oh my gosh i can't believe you're doing this great wrong that makes them the master of right they're defining what's right what's right is every man should do that which is right in their own eyes there is no god who establishes authority over everyone and everything now isn't it interesting that he is the king of jerusalem so we need to pay attention to some close parallels here this master of right is the king of the city of peace jerusalem of course would in the future uh in terms of the time frame of this event is going to become the capital of israel and also of course the resting place of the ark of the covenant in the temple of israel the last record of anything happening coming out of this city of salem is in genesis chapter 14 verse 18. you're familiar with this fellow melchizedek again his name means king of right or king of righteousness the zedek right or righteousness there's a big difference when we take a look at these individuals one is the king of right and the other is the master of right subtle but important difference of these two leaders and there's an interesting match-up taking place here and they're going to be on either side in the initial conflict the either side of this new convert the gibeonites either side we see joshua yehoshua whose name means jehovah is our salvation which we know in the new testament is jesus and adeniza zedek the master of right i see a match up here remember we told you there would be a lot of parallels within the book of joshua to the epistle of paul to the ephesians but also the book of revelation and here we see this first real big match-up of not just israel against a city or a small group of people now this is a confederation of kings they've consolidated their their armies and they are now going to march in a in a coordinated way against first gibeon but really it is to establish a beachhead and eventually perhaps attempt to push israel back out of the country but i see it also as an interesting foreshadowing of the conflict that we will see in this same region between jesus and the antichrist of course it won't be a battle jesus will just vanquish his enemies with the word of truth that comes forth from his mouth but nonetheless we see that there is some interesting peril and as we go through this by the way we're going to see lots of references and foreshadowing of that which will take place um during that uh 70th week of daniel where the wrath of the lamb is poured out upon the earth and the conflict between the master of right or as how he will pose himself to the world and jesus christ the one who will usurp him to take israel for his own continuing in verse 6 and the men of gibeon sent to joshua at the camp of gilgal saying do not forsake your servants come up to us quickly save us and help us for all the kings of the amorites who dwell in the mountains have gathered together against us so joshua ascended from gilgal he and all the people of war with him and all the mighty men of valor now again it's lovely to see at this point that israel is really honoring their covenant they made a covenant with people um they are now forced by that covenant to defend them and even though technically one could say this was an unsanctioned union i think we pointed out at least the provocative issues associated with uh the right motivation wrong method that the gibeonites applied and god as a result will still bless and protect his people so israel is not in sin at this point i've read so many commentaries that as you get to this juncture in this passage they say well here you go here's an example of what happens when you make an alliance with the world the world will draw you into their warfare and one could take it that way if you saw the gibeonites as someone who were a pest to the nation of israel but as we pointed out in our last study they become servants faithful servants even through the age of the kings in israel they are the ones who carry the wood and carry the water and they remain faithful and we also pointed out that one of the mighty men of valor for david is a gibeonite so they integrate themselves quite well as a people within the nation of israel and ultimately lose their identity inside of the nation of israel so i'm one of those few that would go to this passage and not see it as oh here we go this is what happens when you make alliances with the world you get drawn into the world's battles god is going to use this to not only defend gibeon but to vanquish the enemies of both israel and gibeon important to see what will come as a result of this and the lord said to joshua do not fear them for i have delivered them into your hand not a man of them shall stand before you now as this news comes from gibeon to joshua in the camp of israel god immediately affirms that what they are about to do he is in the midst oh how important it is for us to remember that if we are attempting to do anything in the lord lord are you in the midst of this and notice there is a statement that he makes whereby he tells them no one will be able to stand before you read that there will be no enemy survivors now god will completely wipe out the opposing army and it's like the armies of the antichrist in the second coming of jesus christ in revelation chapter 19 beginning in verse 19 and i saw the beasts the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse and against his army then the beast was captured and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worship the image these two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone and the rest were killed with a sword which proceeded from the mouth of him who sat on the horse and all the birds were filled with their flesh the sense there is quite simply that that army that is congregated in the valley of megiddo the jezreel valley the where the armageddon scenario takes place people often refer to it as the battle of armageddon and uh it's amazing how often they try to to make it as though it is going to be some struggle no it is a place where they will congregate in an attempt to make one final assault upon the jews that are hidden in petra in basra and jesus will come to their defense and in doing so he will wipe out them simply with the two-edged sword that comes forth from his mouth there's no battle they are assembled there in an attempt to try to make one final push to get to those who are sheltered and marked by god within the nation of israel let's wipe out the jews if we can wipe out the jews then they won't be able to cry out to messiah and recognize him as messiah and therefore the salvation plan of of god would be thwarted and so what we have is in a like fashion as jesus will come in defense of those who are under the protection of god he will vanquish the enemies who are following after in the armies who are following after the antichrist joshua therefore came upon them suddenly having marched all night from gilgal so the lord routed them before israel killed all of them with a great slaughter at gibeon chased them along the road that goes down to beth horan and struck them down as far as asaka and makada now when we look at this we recognize that from gilgal to gibeon is about 40 kilometers about 25 miles and we are told that once they receive the news the gibby knights are saying come hurry we're in trouble and so they marched through the night 40 kilometers 25 miles it would have taken them all night think how long that is you wonder how on earth did they do that march through the night plus they're not just going for a country stroll here they're marching to war so they're carrying the implements of war with them i love what isaiah chapter 40 verse 31 tells us those who wait on the lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint i can honestly tell you that certainly with marcy and i in the history of ministry that we've had there have been instances where we have seen god just empower and enable us beyond that which we're physically capable of doing and and and sometimes people will will will see that and think oh gosh you know don't you need to go take a nap or whatever and yet the end you're so energized by the holy spirit sleep seems to be a barrier to carrying on you just want to carry on you don't want to to stop you you see god moving and you just you you want to just keep going forward and that's that divine strength i think that takes place you see when we take a look at this whole instant of of what this army does they march 40 kilometers and immediately enter into a battle at gibeon from gibeon they go to beth horan which is 13 kilometers from beth haran to asaka is 24 kilometers or 15 miles as aka to makada is another 19 kilometers or 12 miles and so the total area they've covered in this battle is k's now there these guys are real iron men you know they they in the iron man competition that we have that cycles past us here at the river lodge uh you know the uh the the cyclists cycle uh i guess around 100 kilometers or so and and that's flat territory by the way by comparison uh when you look at this um they would have marched uphill to gibeon from where they were at gilgal near shechem and and really they're going through the mountainous country there of the the southern part of israel it is really rugged territory and the areas that they are conquering are not in the open plain they're really difficult to get to so it's not just the distance it's the altitude going up and down tremendous and remember they're not out for a country ramble and and enjoy themselves walking along here they are fighting all along the way and it happened let's pause for a moment i love it when scripture says that and it happened as if you know something normal is going to take place mark that phrase for it's used a lot in scripture and it happened as they fled before israel and were on the descent of beth horan that the lord cast down large hailstones from heaven on them as far as a zika and they died and there were more who died from the hailstones than the children of israel killed with the sword man you talk about god joining the battle here amazing absolutely amazing these giant hailstones as a judgment from god fall upon them again the parallel is striking to revelation chapter 8 verse 7 where we are told that hailstones destroy a third of the earth's vegetation and that's in some of the early judgments then hailstones weighing one talent about 75 pounds fall on mankind in revelation chapter 16 verse 17. and if you remember in leviticus chapter 20 verse 2 27 chapter 24 verses 14 and 16 stoning was the hebrew way of capital punishment it was the romans who brought in crucifixion the jews would stone people and god as he is judging these nations he is stoning them but there's an amazing aspect of this that we need to pay attention to and that there are actually two miracles that take place here one is the hellstones fell and they killed the amorites okay we got that from the text but they didn't hit the israelites now this is not over the horizon type combat that we experience today you know where where you are at great distance from one another and you're firing volleys back and forth and on armor and you're positioning this is hand-to-hand combat so the sense here is that as they were in hand-to-hand combat you know the israeli soldier would be right with the sword and all of a sudden thunk the hailstone would hit this guy in the head okay i'll go after somebody else and he's ready to connect with the next guy and all of a sudden tong and and uh you know it must have been quite a sight but none of the israelites are hit by this i think that's important especially when we come on to what have what some have proposed as the cause for this it's a miracle it's god entering the battle and and if you choose to have a um a natural uh uh cosmological answer for this you really got to think that through in the sense that these meteorites would have been traveling for certainly many many years through the through space enter the earth's atmosphere and each one of them is a smart weapon they all targeted and were able to determine which one were the enemies and which one were the israelites to avoid the israelites and to kill the amorites it's astonishing then joshua spoke to the lord in the day when the lord delivered up the amorites before the children of israel and he said in the sight of israel sun stands still over gibeon and moon in the valley of agilent so the sun's sun stood still the mood stopped till the people had revenged upon their enemies is it not written in the book of jasser so the sun stood still in the midst of heaven and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day and there has been no day like that before it or after it that the lord heeded the voice of a man for the lord fought for israel the long day of joshua you know it's one of those interesting things to examine there was a lot of debate and discussion about this some years ago there was a man who published a book called worlds and collision emmanuel velikovsky and his book proposes something quite amazing in that he postulates that around 15th century bc venus was ejected from jupiter as a comet or comet-like object and passed by earth and so you have this near pass of this newly formed planet called venus and the object changed the earth orbit and access causing innumerable catastrophes that were mentioned in early mythologies and religions around the world now that's just what online dictionaries tell you about this book uh it is very controversial but a lot of christians embraced it and said wow that that really is fascinating because uh it could give us a naturalistic thing of course god orchestrating it um and and as there was this uh movement of this planet near the orbit of the earth it created these cataclysmic events that take place i have to honestly admit i have a hard time with that because then why don't we get a natural naturalistic uh reason for the dividing of the red sea or dividing of the jordan and people do that oh it was vesuvius that that erupted and and created the clouds over egypt and so on so forth and i don't know i'm one of those that just i don't need a god that needs to use natural circumstances some have a real hard time with this report in fact when they want to point to the preposterousness of these things in scripture certainly the long day of joshua is one of them i'll show you a few more that are even weirder but there are many instances in scripture where where it would appear as though the very laws of physics are are being manipulated in a way to produce a result which is hard to hard to take many have suggested other made other suggestions but you see i think our problem is not in finding evidence for what the bible tells us but in our concept of who god really is i think the biggest problem people have with the reported miracles in scripture is they have a small concept of god and somehow they think it's evil for god to do that which appears to violate his own laws well jesus did it he rose people from the dead he changed water into wine nobody seems to just see that seems too weird it's unless you're not into miracles at all if he can do those sorts of things change the very molecular makeup of something call someone from death into life surely he can manipulate the elements of the universe i don't believe god is a is a prisoner of his own creation he's outside of the creation jeremiah chapter 32 verse 17 tells us ah lord god behold you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power an outstretched arm there is nothing too hard for you he put it all in place which we scarcely understand at the best of times but yet i think job really tells us a little more insight here for job says god is wise in heart and mighty in strength who has hardened himself against him and prospered he removes the mountains and they do not know when he overturns them in his anger he shakes the earth out of its place and its pillars tremble he commands the sun and it does not rise he seals off the stars job is probably an individual who was a contemporary of abraham and in this instance i think he's speaking as a prophet for this statement he makes he commands the sun and it does not rise he seals off the stars is something that takes place during the time of joshua you see one of the problems that we have when we come across these and there will be many more not just in our study of the book of joshua but throughout scripture how big is your god do you need a naturalistic answer to what is clearly described in scripture as something that is an act of god to demonstrate his uh mastery over all of creation living or dead molecules or man god can do whatever god wants to do therefore if god can do this then ask yourself this question if you think that's strange how about the sun that not only stops but goes backwards there's no naturalistic way to describe that that took place as described in isaiah chapter 38 during the time of hezekiah hezekiah comes near to the end of his life and the prophet comes to him and says you better put your house in order because you're going to die and hezekiah falls before the lord and prays and says you know basically you know extend my life and the prophet comes back to him and says okay i'll give you 15 more years now that's a study in itself the answered prayer of hezekiah because during those 15 years he produces an offspring manasseh who's the most wicked king in the history of all of israel so had hezekiah allowed himself to just meet the destiny that god had for him manasseh would not have been born setting that aside god sends the prophet back to hezekiah and tells him i'm going to give you 15 more years and this is the sign to you from the lord that the lord will do this thing which he has spoken behold i will bring the shadow of the sundial which has gone down with the sun on the sundial of ahaz 10 degrees backwards so the sun returned 10 degrees on the dial by which it had gone and so now we're getting something that completely defies any naturalistic answer god controls everything and if he chooses to take the rotation of the earth and and stop it and rotate it the other direction whatever the physical uh ramifications of that might be in terms of a naturalistic mechanism don't care the scripture says it took place and my god can do those kinds of things i'm not bothered by that at all and so we have this sense of joshua who you know what when you are in the midst of seeing god work a mighty work for you you don't want the sun to go down you never want the day to end god just never let this day end carry on let's keep doing this you know let's don't i don't want to go to sleep i don't want to stop to eat i just want to keep doing it nothing's more exciting than to know that your life is a tool in the hand of god almighty whoa when you know that he's working through your life to his glory you don't want to touch that you want to stand back and just say god i this is amazing this is this is said definitely not me this is all you don't stop continue to use me don't let the sun go down and so you can see the sense of joshua is just let's just keep doing this they've gone almost a hundred kilometers in one day fighting all the way how exciting you don't want it to end then joshua returned in all israel with him to the camp at gilgal but these five kings had fled and hid themselves in a cave at machida and it was told joshua was saying these five kings have been found in the cave of machida so joshua said roll large stones against the mouth of the cave and sent men by it to guard them and so these five kings who thought that their confederation would be mightier than the armies of israel they didn't realize that behind the armies of israel was the commander of the host of heaven that the battle belongs to the lord and that's what they saw and so all of a sudden now that great confidence they had turns into cowardice and they go and hide in a cage it's interesting that they've hidden in a place called the place of the shepherds nakada means the place of the shepherds they've hidden themselves there again the same thing will happen in revelation in chapter 6 verse 15 the kings of the earth the great men the rich men the commanders the mighty men every slave and every free man hid themselves in the cave and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of his wrath has come who is able to stand see that will happen again the the kings of the world will find themselves going and hiding in a cave somewhere but they they won't be able to to to avoid the coming wrath of god they won't be able to hide in caves it's amazing to me how many nations have these carved out places for their national leaders generals of course the united states has a number of them carved into the bases of uh huge granite mountains and some of these things are many kilometers inside of these gratin mountains it's it's supposed that you know they could take a direct nuclear hit and nothing would happen because they're so well encased but there will be no place on earth where anyone can hide remembering the earth itself is held together by the word of god himself there's no place to hide and do not stay there yourselves but pursue your enemies and attack their rear guard do not allow them to enter their cities for the lord your god has delivered them into your hand then it happened while joshua and the children of israel made an end of slaying them with the great slaughter till they had finished that those who escaped entered fortified cities and all the people returned to the camp to joshua at machida in peace no one moved his tongue against any of the children of israel now subtly as we go through those three verses you recognize there's an yet again a job left undone joshua's command was do not allow them to enter their cities yet israel were so taken by their great victory that they allowed those who escaped to enter fortified cities now at this point it's important for that you recognize that joshua who was a type and shadow of course of jesus christ and the battle in the promised land is a type and shadow of our quest through the work of the holy spirit in sanctifying us to deal with the fleshly appetites that are residual in our life to see those conquered notice the kings of all these cities have been defeated adenydek the king of jerusalem he's been defeated but but the jebusites who occupy the city of jerusalem they will remain as a stronghold until david finally defeats them their king is destroyed and many of these cities in the southern half of israel all of their their kings are destroyed but because the nation of israel stopped dealing with the individual foot soldiers they allowed them to go back and escape into the fortified cities that will become a problem for the nation of israel as it will in our life the scripture makes it very clear that there's only one thing that we are to do with the aspects of our flesh that's not to make treaties let's crucify the flesh paul said that he died daily that wasn't a religious ritual that is literally dealing with those issues on a daily basis not allowing them to find refuge in our life excusing them we have a problem with pornography or lying or anger or lust or whatever well it's not lust i'm just window shopping and there's no harm in that adultery i i'm doing nothing i'm just appreciating one of god's finer creations i'm not actually lying i'm actually trying to protect these people because if i tell them the truth they'll be heard and of course i don't want to hurt anybody and we allow those things to reside in our life and they flourish they don't go away it's like your garden if you're a gardener and you see a weed do you think looking at that weed will make it go away no the longer it stays there the more it will propagate itself that's the nature of the world in which we live if it's left unchecked it will bring about a reproduction of itself to a greater extent i believe a job undone will have to be done all over again and israel will spend the rest of their time as a nation in the land fighting many of these same people fighting and being overcome by many of these same people and their ideas their concepts of god their practices they'll be there they'll be influenced we're to come out from among them not to be une unequally yoked with unbelievers justifying in our own life well it's okay you need to understand no i don't need to understand joshua's command was simple straightforward take no prisoners israel's response we're going to enjoy our victory and we're going to ignore those few that escape into fortified cities then joshua said open the mouth of the cave and bring out those five kings to me from the cave and so they did so and brought out those five kings to him from the cave and the king of jerusalem the king of hebron the king of jarmuth the king of laish the king of eglon and so it was when they brought out those kings to joshua that joshua called for all the men of israel and said to the captains of the men of war who went with them come near put your feet on the necks of these kings and they drew near and put their their feet on their necks then joshua said to them do not be afraid nor be dismayed be strong and be of good courage for thus the lord will do to all your enemies against whom you fight notice what he is doing here joshua now has captured these guys they have fled to a cave they've rolled a stone they've been held there now joshua shows up and he is going to teach his army something very important and that is this if your quest is a quest that god is guiding you in you will be successful regardless of who stands in your way he's teaching his own soldiers to only fear god and never fear man to take authority not merely in some verbal way but these men are approaching those who would have been highly revered in their own little fiefdoms their own little kingdoms and he brings these common soldiers in who are fighting in the power of god almighty and he says come and put your feet on their necks for thus god will do to all your enemies what authority we have we don't have to be victims of sin in our own life there's a way we can deal with every ill in our life every aspect of our life that we know to be displeasing to god don't make treaties with it confess our sins and he's faithful and tr just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness don't allow any stronghold don't allow any king or kingdom to rise up in your life and and eventually uh challenge the authority of god in your life god's given you the authority to see those areas in your lives be vanquished but you have to be willing to allow god to create in you that new person that's totally dependent upon him not upon your own talents or capabilities verse 26 and afterwards joshua struck them and killed them and hanged them on five trees and they were hanging on the trees until evening and so it was at the time of the going down of the sun that joshua commanded and took them down from the trees cast them into the cave where they had been hidden and laid large stones against the cave's mouth which remains until this very day now we've pointed out how often we we have seen already these memorials to victory these memorials that will be set up in the promised land you know once again a pile of rocks something that is not made with human hands that you can look at and remember that it is ordered because god wants you to remember something about that pile of rocks that memorial there's one on the west bank of the jordan of the river there's one at gilgal over the body of aiken there's one at the entrance of ai there's one on mount ebal and now there is one at the mouth of the cave of makkah all of these are there as demonstration that god will fulfill his will and purpose in our lives because every one of those are as a result of god intervening and bringing about something that brings glory to himself we want to participate in that we need to get out of the way we need to let god really orchestrate the events in our life not try to manage it ourselves to some hidden agenda that we may not even be willing to acknowledge is there these memorials are there for us to go back to in times of confusion and remember yep did god bring me here yep there's the pile of rocks on the west bank of the jordan does god tell us not to take the things of the world yep i'll take a little walk up to ai and see the the these pile of rocks in the valley of acor where the family of aiken was stoned to death yeah how about ai where i went out in the flesh and we were defeated but when we went back in the power of the lord god gave us a plan and we defeated them or where god sets up his law in mount ebell and joshua makes an altar and then basically whitewashes the rocks around and and writes the entire law of god on the side of the mountain a place where we need to go back to and muse on the word of god remembering that that's the ultimate revelation of god to us when we're crying out and saying god i'm not hearing you where are you go back to his word as a pastor i've had so many people that's probably the number one question that gets asked how will i know the will of the lord well when was the last time you spent a considerable amount of time in his word do you hear his voice well i don't know it's so confusing right now get into his word and now as they make this memorial at the cave of mecca a cave that we should visit often jesus has defeated the authority of evil that plagues us in our own life we just need to appropriate it not just by saying some magical words i've i've been around those in the pentecostal world where it's like i take authority over that well that's cheap talk no in the spirit put to death your members that's what it's talking about see the old man die that aspect of you that always wants to crop up you always want to try to get in with your own flesh and figure it all out now we back off we allow god to fight our battles for us he'll vanquish the enemies if we submit to his word and will in our life and on that day joshua took macada and struck it and its kings were the edge of the sword utterly destroyed them all the people who were in it he let none remain he also did to the king of mecca as he had done to the king of jericho then joshua passed from makkah and all the children with him to libna and they fought against libna and the lord delivered it into and its kings into the hand of israel he struck it and all the people who were in it with the edge of the sword he let none of none remain in it but did to its king as he had done to the king of jericho then joshua passed from libna and all israel with him to laish and they camped against it and fought against it and the lord delivered laish into the hand of israel who took it on the second day and struck it and all the people who were in it with the edge of the sword according to all that he had done in libna now you see this is turned from a defense of gibeon into a route of the enemy he's absolutely destroying the enemy in the whole southern half it's like once the floodgates open and god begins to move stand back don't limit what god can do in our life watch out israel was first compelled by virtue of their of their oath to come to the defense of gibeon but god had bigger plans his plans was to wipe all of the enemies in the south and so this invasion just continues all the way to the south and notice each victory is the standard for the next he wiped out this city as he did before as he did before god begins to set up a pattern in our life one of the ways in which from a practical standpoint we can see through the power of the spirit victory over those areas in our life which are unique to each and every one of us and yet in some sense similar in that they are the appetites or attitudes in our life that are strongholds in our life because of sin in our life but what we need to recognize is as we deal with those openly and honestly the holy spirit revealing it the more we begin to see that dealt with the more the next challenge will be easier in the sense that you've set the precedent that challenge is there no i'm not doing that i've no no lord help me give me a get my attention off of that and and the more that happens the more it seems natural as a young teenager growing into my late teens early 20s i had a huge problem with anger huge i would turn into another person beside myself they'd say i hated what i would do when i was angry i was also a huge liar and i knew it but it just seemed so convenient to tell a lie even when it was unnecessary and really it was just through the sovereign work of the spirit and a lot of patient urging from people that love me i remember when we were marcy and i were traveling from southern california to northern california and we were planning our wedding and marcy very gently leaned over as we were traveling along and says i think this is really great but there's only one problem that i think we need to address before we get married what's that you got to deal with this lying issue do you know how hard that was to swallow i don't want to deal with that now come on it's not that big of a deal anyway after all but you see once you're confronted with it you need to deal with it you need to deal with it and it doesn't go away instantly oh i wish that it was i wish it was a demon that could be cast out and it would be over it's an aspect of your flesh and it is only through allowing yourself to be broken that that flesh will be dealt with and each victory will be the standard for the next and the next and the next and all of a sudden you begin to grow a conscience about those issues which you never seem to have before and then one day you find yourself in a situation where normally it would be so natural for you to act in the power of the old man and that which comes forth is the sweetness of the spirit and you think wow that's what it is to see the new man do you see what i'm saying that's why it's important as we go through this study in the book of joshua to recognize jesus is there to help us be victorious but to be victorious we've got to face the issues in our life we can't mess around here he will take us to the point of putting our foot on the throats of those things in our life that are destroying our life or robbing us from the spiritual growth in our life that we desire so desperately but then we castigate ourselves we whip ourselves when we're failing and i'll never get there that's the voice of satan in your ear joshua is willing to take you and make you victorious throughout your life then horem king of gizer came up to help laish and joshua struck him with his people you think these people would learn right by this time they would learn no horem king of gezer came up to help laish and joshua struck him and his people until he left none remaining notice when joshua is actually leading the battle the enemies are completely vanquished from last joshua passed to eglon and all israel with him and they encamped against it and fought against it then they took it on that day and struck with the edge of the sword all the people who were in it were utterly destroyed that day according to all that he had done to laish so joshua went up from eglon and all of israel with him to hebron and they fought against it and they took it and struck it with the edge of the sword its kings all its cities and all the people who were in it he left none remaining according to all that had that he had done to eglon but utterly destroyed it and all the people who were in it then joshua returned and all israel with him to dubair and they fought against it and he took it and its kings and all its cities they struck them with the edge of the sword and utterly destroyed all the people who were in it he left none remaining as he had done to hebron so he did a deburr and its kings as he had done to libna and its kings so joshua conquered all the land the mountain country and the south and the lowlands and the wilderness slopes and all their kings he left none remaining but utterly destroyed all that breathed as the lord god of israel had commanded and joshua conquered them from kadish barnia as far as gaza and all the country of goshen even as far as gibeon all these kings and all their land joshua took at one time because the lord god of israel fought for israel then joshua returned in all israel with him to the camp at gilgal man he was a busy boy wasn't he a busy man in this southern conquest it is absolutely breathtaking to see what took place the whole southern half of israel is entirely conquered as far south as canis barnia that name sound familiar to you this was the southern doorway at which joshua and the twelve spies brought back their report for when moses sent them forward and you remember what happened you remember when they were there ten of the spies came back with a bad report why because there were giants in the land joshua goes back and utterly wipes them out giants in the land yeah there were giants in the land and he goes and he wipes them out so it wasn't just some farmers and some this and that these were the people that struck fear in the hearts of the children of israel 38 years earlier and now because god is working in and through the person of joshua leading the army of israel the enemies are vanquished it's stunning when you consider the fact that they crossed the jordan they come to jericho they make their way up to shechem they establish a permanent memorial to the word of god they make an alliance with gibeon which draws them into a battle which then takes them all the way to kiddish barnea they went a long ways if you've been to israel you understand they're down in the negev they've gone a long way and they've gone through the mountains they've gone through the area of gaza it's a huge territory then they return and they go to gilgal they're back in their normal habitation in the middle of the country they've vanquished everything from the south and the the armed forces have returned back to where the women and children and the other stores would have been have been safely residing there and they're ready for their next escapade and their next conquest which we'll pick up in our next study so for our next study uh read chapter chapters 11 and 12 and with that let's close with the word of prayer lord as we bow before you we are so grateful that you've laid before us such a wonderful example of jesus our savior and our lord we're thankful lord for the work that you've done upon the cross which purchases for us that forgiveness of sin which we could never earn through any religious ritual or any discipline on our part but also thankful that as our savior you are also our lord you are the king of righteousness in our life and you will bring about in our life and everyone who submits to you and to your lordship righteousness that is not of our self but as a fruit of the spirit in our life lord we desire to be not only connected to the vine lord which which gives us the sense of who we are in our identity and our nourishment but father as a result of this connection with your son lord we know that it can produce fruit and that fruit remains lord help us to be obedient concerning the areas of our life that need to be dealt with lord may we see great and mighty works done in and then through our life to the glory of our lord and savior jesus christ for it's in his name we pray amen

Channel: Koinonia House

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Length: 57min 48sec (3468 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 14 2020