Conquest

Conquest

Words of Faith 9-22-2020

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2020

Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com

Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL

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Joshua 11:7-15

      [7]  So Joshua and his whole army came against them suddenly at the Waters of Merom and attacked them, [8]  and the LORD gave them into the hand of Israel. They defeated them and pursued them all the way to Greater Sidon, to Misrephoth Maim, and to the Valley of Mizpah on the east, until no survivors were left. [9]  Joshua did to them as the LORD had directed: He hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots.

      [10]  At that time Joshua turned back and captured Hazor and put its king to the sword. (Hazor had been the head of all these kingdoms.) [11]  Everyone in it they put to the sword. They totally destroyed them, not sparing anything that breathed, and he burned up Hazor itself.

      [12]  Joshua took all these royal cities and their kings and put them to the sword. He totally destroyed them, as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded. [13]  Yet Israel did not burn any of the cities built on their mounds--except Hazor, which Joshua burned. [14]  The Israelites carried off for themselves all the plunder and livestock of these cities, but all the people they put to the sword until they completely destroyed them, not sparing anyone that breathed. [15]  As the LORD commanded his servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua, and Joshua did it; he left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded Moses.

         Joshua was poised to enter one of the largest battles recorded in the Hebrew scripture. The battle took place in two phases. First, Joshua surprised the enemy, attacking them at the Waters of Merom, where they were still organizing.  Then he chased them westward to the coast and east to the Valley of Mizpah.

        The Conquest Narratives in Joshua are quite shocking. The destruction is absolute. God's direction was to kill all of the enemies, burn their chariots, and lamed their horses. (This is not a passage for horse lovers.) 

         Why did God command such drastic action, burning the chariots and hamstringing the horses? We must remember that this Conquest was not just a real estate foreclosure or a hostile corporate takeover. The Lord was cleansing His land for His people.

         This pagan population was an occupation of everything that God is not.  The Canaanites were a horribly idolatrous people. Among their terrible rituals, they practiced child sacrifice and refused any sort of repentance before God. Any remnant of this left behind would be a stain and a spiritual infection.

         The Canaanite kingdoms used horses in war but also in their pagan worship. Horses were so powerful in war and life that they became an image to worship. There was a danger that Israel might fall into such pagan worship. This happened later in 2 Kings 23:11. There was also a danger that Israel might trust in these new weapons of war, rather than in the Lord. The Psalmist David declared, "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God" (Psalm 20:7).

          This passage is not meant to set a model for modern warfare. This is a history of what happened at one specific point in time.  It is not a structure to follow.

          There is such a thing as a "Holy War."  This is a war commanded, directed, and empowered by God. We do not have those today.  We simply do not live in a time when God expresses Himself to one nation as a theocracy.  No nation on earth is directly commanded by God. And in our earthly realm, there is no place for such violent annihilation of a nation. War must be entered into only as a last resort and with measured restraint.

         We live in an age where the Gospel is reaching the nations of the earth. The work of the Messiah shines Light into the darkness of this world. The hope offered in Jesus is given to the nations.

         The Apostle John described this in his vision reported it in Revelation 7:9-10 – “After this, I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’"

          We can apply this to our journey with God and our battle with sin. We need to take a “scorched earth” policy with the sin in our lives. We need to mortify or “put to death” the acts of our sinful nature.  “For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13).

          Jesus said it a little differently but with great impact: “If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell” (Matthew 5:29-30).  Of course, we understand that passage figuratively. Taken literally, we would all be blind and without hands.  But we get the picture and the strength of Jesus’ statement. 

          The point is that there are some enemies we cannot coddle. Sin is one of them. We must wage a Holy War on the sin of our own flesh. We must scorch the earth and make no provision for the flesh.

         Father God, forgive me of my sin. Cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Create in me a clean heart and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Give me the courage to mortify the acts of my sinful nature and walk in newness of life.  In Jesus' Name.

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© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2005, 2020

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)       

2820 Business Center Blvd.

Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200

Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com

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The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2010 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.