Faithfully Depending

Open your Bible to Joshua chapter 11. Joshua chapter 11.

Joshua 11 · chapter mention Joshua 11 · chapter mention

And we're going to begin reading in verse 1. We're going to take the whole chapter today.

We have been walking our way through this book, and I think we're going to have one more Sunday in Joshua. And I have not finalized this yet, so I'm not going to tell you what we're doing next.

But it might be the parables of Jesus. These, the stories of Jesus, or the stories that Jesus told. So there's a rumor that it could be. I'll confirm that in a week or two.

Let me read for us in God's Word, beginning in verse 1. When Jabin king of Hazor heard of this, he sent to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Akshaph, and to the kings who are in the northern hill country, and in the Ereba south of Chinaroth,

and in the lowland, and in Naphoth-dor on the west, and to the Canaanites, in the east and the west, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, and the Jebusites in the hill country, and the Hivites under Hermon in the land of Mizba.

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.

And all these kings joined their forces, and came and encamped together at the waters of Merrim to fight against Israel. 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. So Joshua and all his warriors came suddenly against them by the waters of Merrim, and fell upon them.

And the Lord gave them into the hand of Israel, who struck them and chased them as far as Great Sidon, and Mizrathoth, and Maim, and eastward as far as the valley of Mizpah.

And they struck them until he left none remaining. And Joshua did to them, just as the Lord had said to him. He hamstrung their horses, and burned their chariots with fire.

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.

And he 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.

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. But none of the cities that stood on mounds did Israel burn, except Hazor alone that Joshua burned.

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.

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.

So Joshua took all that land, the hill country, and all the Negev, and all the land of Goshen, and the lowland, and the Arabah, and the hill country of Israel, and its lowland from Mount Halak, which rises towards Seir, as far as Baal Gad, and the valley of Lebanon below Mount Hermon.

And he captured all their kings, and struck them, and put them to death. Joshua made war a long time with all those kings. 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, 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.

And Joshua came at that time, and cut off the Anakim from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel.

Joshua devoted them to destruction with their cities. There was none of the Anakim left in the land of the people of Israel. Only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod did some remain.

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.

Let's pray. Father, this morning we ask You to open our eyes to see what You have to teach us in Your Word. We trust You and all of Scripture as breathed out from You and good for us, good to correct us, to challenge us, to instruct us, to encourage us.

And so do that this morning through Your Word. We pray this in the name of our great Savior, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Look at how this passage opens. It says, when Jabin, king of Hazor, heard about this. Heard of this. Heard about what? Well, if you were with us last week, you know what he heard about.

This is in reference to the entire southern campaign. This is in reference to this rumored-to-be invincible people who are now in control of not just a broad swath of the central region of the Promised Land, not just the entire southern region, but now, as of today,

they're going to be in charge of nearly all of the Promised Land. These kings, led by Jabin, they know what happened in the south to that five-king coalition where a sixth one decided he would join in and he lost two.

And what this means is that even before the fighting starts today, Israel already controls about three-fifths of the entire Promised Land. They have routed every army.

They have taken every city. They have defeated every king they faced, pursuing their enemies across mountains and rivers and even into caves.

Israel wins. There is no escape from God's people. And so our fellow King Jabin of Hazor heard of this. But rather than be brought to his knees before the true God, rather than try to strike some kind of a treaty with these people like the Gibeonites were smart enough to do,

that's not what we hear. Instead, we hear that he hardens his heart before them. Verse 20 tells us that it was the Lord's doing that he would harden his heart, that they should come against Israel in battle.

And that's exactly what's happening here. So what's he do? King Jabin. Well, he rounds up his cronies in the region. All the surrounding kings in the northern hill country.

Kings from way, way, way down south, even further than where Joshua defeated kings earlier, in the Arab region, which is south of the Dead Sea.

He's got the kings coming in from the lowlands, the kings from the highlands, east, west. He's got the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, all the ites that you can imagine.

And he has formed up what our narrator can only describe in verse 4 as a great horde. How does that sound? When I hear the word horde, I can't help but think of the Lord of the Rings, right?

I think about that second movie and there's this massive gathering. Of course, they're orcs. But these are really sinful, very wicked, I would call them ugly, sinful Canaanites.

And they are coming with some very, very bad intentions. And as for old King Jabin, which is probably a dynastic title like Pharaoh because we're going to see another Jabin appear in the book of Judges and know this is not the same guy.

He's king of Hazor. And Hazor is like the biggest, baddest city in the north. It's large. In fact, a lot of scholars say, you know, Israel probably would have had their match with just Hazor.

But it's not just Hazor. They're not alone. They've got hordes and hordes of additional miscreants. Verse 4, And they came with all their troops, a great horde, in number, like the sand that is on the seashore, with very many horses and chariots.

You hear that phrase, like the sand on the seashore. That never sounds encouraging. My wife and I have a standing joke in our marriage or maybe it's a quirk about us.

I will ask her a question and try to get a number from her. I'll say, hey, you know, I'm not at the soccer game. She says, well, they have a lot of subs.

They're going to be a lot more rested than we are. I'm like, oh, really? How many subs do they have? Well, she's like, a lot. And I'm like, do they have five or 50?

And she's like, no, like seven or eight. I'm like, okay, thanks. All right. Got my information. Our narrator isn't even trying here. He's like, the sand on the seashore.

Don't even bother trying to count. It's a lot. But what we also have to understand is that in addition to the numerical superiority, our people of Israel are also outmatched.

They are at a severe disadvantage because of the military weaponry. That's coming against them. Very many horses and chariots. Understand, Israel doesn't have this.

This is military sophistication. That is really the latest weaponry of the day. Unlike in the southern region, apparently our wealthier kings up here in the north have had access to buy the chariots.

Most of them came from Egypt. They're on the main trade route. Hazor is. Stands to reason they've purchased themselves an army of chariots. And it's hard to overestimate just what kind of a game changer the chariot was in battle.

For starters, it offered you a mobile fighting platform. You were also up higher. You could see over the helmets. You could see better. Above the fray.

Secondly, chariots were fast and really maneuverable. They allowed archers to move their way across the battlefield and just rain down arrows, leaving a lot of guys with arrows sticking out of them.

Built out of wood, they used iron as linchpins for wheels. They were fast. You couldn't outrun a chariot on foot. Scholar Richard Hess is right to describe them as, quote, the most fearful fighting machinery available at that time.

Verse 5, And all these kings joined their forces and came and encamped together at the waters of Merom to fight against Israel. Yeah, Israel is very much overmatched and overwhelmed.

Even the way our narrator tries to describe this force, this great horde, it's like very many this and very many that. Humanly speaking, we need to understand that the situation looks very hopeless for Israel.

And yet, we're pretty sure that this is the place, this place where the horde is gathering, these waters of Merom, we're pretty sure this is not where the enemy horde means to fight.

What they're using this as is as a staging ground. It's not where they want to fight the battle because Merom is high up in the hill country.

It's about 4,000 feet in elevation. That means these chariots have probably either been carried in or maybe they've driven in single file through a narrow passageway.

Now the Lord speaks in verse 6 to Joshua with some encouragement and some instruction. Here's what he says, verse 6. Don't be afraid of them, Joshua, because tomorrow at this time I'm going to give over all of them slain to Israel.

And by the way, after I do this for you, God goes on to say, you shall hamstring their horses and burn all their chariots with fire. In other words, Joshua is to destroy all the advanced military weaponry.

In fact, verse 10 a little later tells us that Joshua's also supposed to burn the city of Hazor itself kind of uniquely. It's the only city in this conquest that gets burned joining the ranks of Jericho and Ai.

Only three cities were burned. The Lord intended for most of the cities to be left standing so that the Israelites could inhabit them. But not Hazor.

Why? Well, because Hazor was a very strategic city on a very strategic route. It had mighty walls much bigger than Jericho. It occupied a site of land that archaeologists tell us was about 200 acres.

It's a big city. And it would have provided a tremendous advantage for Israel. But the Lord wants to make a statement to His people. And that statement is this.

You won't simply slide into great power with a great fortified city like Hazor and all this arsenal of chariotry because then you might start to depend on those things and not me.

Now, I'll be honest. I don't have a lot of experience, you know, working with animals much less cutting anything on an animal. And hamstringing a horse sounds kind of cruel.

But honestly, it's far better than just slaughtering all the animals. Because what you're effectively doing to a horse when you hamstring it is you're giving it a career change.

Bear with me. You can never use a hamstrung horse again in battle. They're not fast enough. They can barely walk. You're giving it a career change.

God wants to ensure that these horses would change careers from a military use to agriculture. And I'm sure if we could ask the horses, hey horse, in terms of a career, which would you prefer?

Go off to war and dodge a whole bunch of flying arrows and spears? Or you want to pull a plow around some nice little field somewhere? I'm sure Mr. Horse would choose the farm option.

So it's not so bad, but whatever. These are the words from the Lord. These are His instructions, His encouragement. And so we read that Israel just goes off into the night, we presume, secretly, making the journey north to Hazor.

We say secretly because we know they come upon the enemy suddenly, meaning that they weren't ready for them. They weren't expecting them. I think about sometimes what would it have been like to be a soldier in Joshua's army?

And I wonder, you know, as they're making that night march, is Joshua or maybe some of the other generals with them? Are they encouraging the troops?

Are they maybe even quoting scripture for them? I mean, they knew the law. It was their scripture. Were they quoting scriptures like this one in Deuteronomy 20, verse 1?

Deuteronomy 20:1

This is what the Lord said, when you go out to war against your enemies and you see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

That would be pretty relevant. That would be pretty encouraging. Well, we get to verse 7 and all that we are told very quickly is that Joshua and all his warriors came suddenly against them by the waters of Merrim.

Yeah, it's another sneak attack. They're unexpected and they fall upon this horde. They literally blast them unexpectedly and we also remember by this time, Joshua and his soldiers are getting pretty experienced.

They've had quite a few battles now. They're getting pretty good. But does God do some mighty miracle here in the northern campaign like he did in the south?

Do we read here that he rains down hailstones or does some miracle in the sky with making something stand still and lengthening a day? No, we don't read that.

Maybe this is one of those times where God sent his promised hornets. Did you know that? And in the Old Testament in the Pentateuch that God actually said a couple of times to his people that he was going to send hornets in front of them?

Here's what Exodus chapter 23, 28 tells us. And I will send hornets before you which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites and the Hittites from before you.

Exodus 23 · chapter mention

No matter how mighty you are as a soldier, how big, how strong, you know, a swarm of hornets will discourage you. It'll turn you around. The hornet or hornets actually they're mentioned a couple of times in the Torah.

Exodus 23 as we just read. Also Deuteronomy 27. In Deuteronomy 27 God said I'm going to send my terror ahead of you and then in the next verse he says it's the hornets.

I'm going to send hornets in front of you. So we don't know. It could be that this is one of those times. But there's no direct mention. And besides, somebody actually has to march and pounce and do some fighting with their own swords and spears and bows.

Somebody has to pursue the enemy and kill them. And I just kind of sometimes pause and think like isn't that theologically fascinating the interplay between divine sovereignty and human agency.

How God can say I'm going to do this for you. I'm guaranteeing by this time tomorrow it will be done and yet the army still has to go and fight.

What an interesting thing. Also, let's not forget that they're pouncing here at those waters of Merrim. Again, not exactly a strategic place for horses and chariots.

They can't maneuver. In fact, what Joshua and Israel have effectively done is they have negated their enemy's advantage. They've negated their tactical advantage by making this sudden attack right here.

And so we read in verse 8 of how the Lord gave them into the hand of Israel who struck them and chased them maybe with some divinely sent hornets helping as far as Great Sidon and Mizraphoth Maim and eastward as far as the valley of Mizba.

I am not an expert in geography in the ancient world but it looks like Israel is making their enemies scatter in every direction. Northwest, south, east.

And we're told that they pursued them and they struck them until they left none remaining. And then true to his word or true to the Lord's word Joshua looks at all the horses they've now acquired and he says line them up we're giving them a little surgical alteration that will change their careers.

Well what about the chariots Joshua? What are we going to do with the chariots? And he says burn them burn them all with fire. Again horses rendered militarily useless chariots now nothing but firewood.

God's wanting to teach his people to depend on him alone. As one of the psalmists of Israel is later going to write as he reflects on things like this Psalm chapter 20 verse 7 what does he say?

Psalms 20:7

Some trust in chariots and some in horses but we the people of God trust in the name of our Lord the Lord our God. But the work of destroying all the weaponry isn't the only job left in this campaign because we go on to read in verse 10 that Joshua is now ready

to capture Jabin's hometown of Hazor. We're not sure when or how but apparently Jabin has fled in the direction of his city and thinks he's safe in the fortified walls of Hazor.

Joshua and the army now double back and he goes to Hazor and he takes out Jabin devotes all the remaining inhabitants of this wicked city to destruction per the Lord's very precise instructions and then we read that he burned Hazor with fire.

Interesting fact from archaeology but there are digs at this site Hazor in fact we have uncovered burn remains of a city that dates to this time to about 1400 BC.

You know what else is interesting that they have found at this archaeological mound? They found what they think are the chopped up mutilated remains of statues.

statues of Canaanite gods chopped up decapitated mutilated. Kind of funny how that coincidentally matches up with again instructions from the Lord in Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 5 But thus you shall deal with them you shall break down their altars and dash into pieces their pillars and chop down their ashram and burn their carved images with fire.

Deuteronomy 7:5

Huh. All the other cities get sacked too captured struck with the edge of the sword but again as I said earlier not burned only Hazor joins the ranks of Jericho and Ai and will become an ash heap.

The other cities are allowed to remain to be used by the Israelites who will soon be inhabiting them. Verse 14 says the same thing about the spoil all the plunder and livestock Israel can keep that too.

Everything that we see being done here is being done by the book. Everything is as God commanded. In fact that's what verse 15 very strongly and very clearly emphasizes verse 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. a model servant Joshua that's what he is. Everything God gave Moses Moses passed on to Joshua and Joshua followed it to a T.

Verses 16 and 17 give us a little geographical summary of this northern campaign even as verse 18 if you didn't miss this part verse 18 points out that this doesn't happen in a single day or even in just a few weeks.

It actually says that Joshua made war for a long time. We don't know exactly how long but most scholars are convinced that this went on for months possibly even a few years.

But Israel doesn't stop and Israel doesn't lose. Look at what verse 19 says. They took them all took them all in battle. And it was the Lord's doing again to see this thing through.

To finish the hardening of hearts that were already cold already hard much like he once did with Pharaoh. Sometimes we read about God hardening hearts and we think oh that's unfair.

I've never read in the Bible of God hardening a heart that wasn't already hardened. I don't know if that means God completes it. If that means that when you're finally you know sword is coming at you and you're cowering in the corner and you're like okay I give up I give up mercy please.

The Lord's like no we're going to finish this. The Lord hardens hearts. Nobody's asking for mercy. Nobody's asking for a treaty. They want to kill Israel.

And the Lord is in fact taking care of these Canaanites as he said he would do. But I want you to see there's one more part in this extended campaign that our narrator wants to highlight for us here at the end and this is a good one.

It's down in verse 21. It's a good one and it's a big one. And by big I mean that literally. I mean big as in standing by some records 6 foot 11 to 8 foot 10.

That's pretty big. Egyptian records from outside the Bible. Okay this is extra biblical stuff. They tell us that there were these Anakim in the land of Canaan.

The Egyptians write this down. And they said they were the giants in the land and they were between 4 and 5 Egyptian cubits which is like almost 21 inches and Egyptian cubits a little longer.

That comes to about 8 to 9 feet tall. Literal giants in the land whom Israel had heard about once upon a time. They'd heard about these giants and they greatly feared them.

We may remember that previous generation of their fathers how they feared these Anakim so much that it paralyzed them into disobedience. This is back in Numbers chapter 13.

Numbers 13 · chapter mention

Twelve spies sent in to spy out the promised land. They come back with the promised land scouting report and it's from the 10 anyway a bad report.

And the highlight which we can maybe say the low light of their bad report is the fact that there are these giants in the land. We saw the sons of Anak in the land.

The sons of Anakim were a renowned group of mighty warriors somehow associated with the Nephilim back in Genesis 6. We don't know if it's just a tall tale pardon the pun or if they have actual genealogical lineage to these strange beings who pop up in

Genesis 6 but think of them as like incredible Hulk like people. They are the primary cause that Israel for Israel not being obedient. You could say that the Anakim were the reason that they had to wander in the wilderness for 40 years delaying this conquest that's now happening.

The Anakim were fearsome, they were well known, and they were deeply, deeply dreaded. And they apparently control several major cities here in the region.

But here's what God had told the new generation. Remember Deuteronomy is God speaking again to the second generation of Israelites at the end of their wilderness wandering as they're getting ready for the conquest.

And so this is what God now says to their children in Deuteronomy chapter 9 verses 1 to 3. Hear, O Israel, you are to cross over the Jordan today to go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than you, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and

Deuteronomy 9:1–3

tall, the sons of Anakim, whom you know and of whom you've heard it said, who can stand before the sons of Anak? Yeah, they heard it said, their parents said that.

Know therefore today that he who goes over before you as a consuming fire is the Lord your God. He will destroy them and subdue them before you.

Apparently our second generation here are much braver and they are certainly much more faithful because they follow Joshua and we read in verse 21 that they came at that time and they cut off the Anakim from the hill country and from a whole lot of other places too.

In fact, they literally cut them off from a majority of the promised land, relegating them to the distant shores of what will be Philistia. Cities like Gaza, Ashdod, and notably Gath.

That last city being hometown to a future son of Anak who will later face off against a young shepherd boy. Fitting that this big wave of the conquest should conclude with these big guys at the end.

Canaan's most feared inhabitants. And this is how our campaign closes in the very last verse. Verse 23, So Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses.

And Joshua gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal allotments. And the land had rest from war. This morning maybe you're wondering, what does a record of Israel's northern conquest mean for me in my life today and tomorrow?

How does any of this have any application for me, for my family? Well I would remind us again that we certainly know we're not fighting a physical war, physical conquest, for physical territory anymore.

Much less against literal giants. But we are fighting in a war. A spiritual war. Ephesians reminds us that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers and powers and principalities in the other realm.

We have an enemy, his name is Satan, and he wants to crush and destroy God's church. And I think this account today shows us some things. I think it teaches us some things.

And I think fundamentally what it teaches us is, how to faithfully depend on God. So we might pose it as a question. That question would be this.

What does it look like to faithfully depend on God? I think our passage illustrates some answers for us. Four to be specific. And I'm going to spend the rest of our time laying these out for us, starting with this one.

Number one, what does it mean to faithfully depend ! on God? Number one, it means faithfully obeying. Faithfully obeying. Do not be afraid of them, the Lord says in verse 6, for tomorrow at this time I will give them into your hand.

And what does Joshua do? He obeys. He immediately marches north to the great surprise of the great horde. world. And then, even in victory, after you've decimated all your enemies and have their great arsenal, you know, like the panzer tanks of the Germans

in World War II, that's what the chariots were. We've got them. Even then, what do you do? Joshua orders, hamstring the horses, burn the chariots.

Can you imagine maybe some Israelite soldiers saying, Joshua, are you sure? Are you really sure that's what the Lord said? Do you want to get the little rocks out again?

Maybe just ask them again? Joshua faithfully obeys. Even with the great walled city of Hazor, which would have been quite a trophy, quite a prize.

Mighty walls around this 200 acre site, on the most important trade route from Egypt up to Mesopotamia. You know, we could really benefit by keeping this thing, Joshua.

But again, Joshua's got a torch in his hand. He is setting the city on fire in faithful obedience to the Lord's word. Again, verse 23, so Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses.

Moses. You know, sometimes in life, sometimes you find yourself in certain circumstances where it's going to seem odd to follow God's instructions and his word.

Sometimes it will seem odd to people around us. Sometimes it might even seem odd to us. Telling a salesperson who's pressuring you by telling you, you know, I can't guarantee this car or this house will be here tomorrow and telling them, I'm sorry, we have to pray about these things.

We pray about all of our major purchases. We'll get back to you tomorrow. Well, the car might not be here tomorrow. The house, you know, I got other offers coming.

Well, okay. This is what we feel like the Lord wants us to do and we won't be pressured to make a major decision. It could be with a house, it could be with a car, it could be with another major purchase in your life, it could be with other practical things in life, from how we approach our dating lives,

to our marriages, to how we choose to raise and educate our children, to what we make a priority in our family's calendar. Faithful obedience means we don't trust our own power, we don't simply do things the way the world might think we should do them,

we don't necessarily do what the world says makes sense. we do what we do in faithful obedience to the teaching of God's word. This is one important part of what it means to faithfully depend on God.

Here's another one. Number two, it means faithfully persevering. Faithfully persevering. Persevering. Again, as we pointed out, last week the conquest in the south went pretty quick.

They defeated that single coalition in like a single day thanks to the miraculous help from God. And while today's initial battle goes really, really well, we go on to read in verse 18 that Joshua had to make war a long time with all those kings.

Again, months, maybe even years. Was it because God wasn't powerful enough to do it in a single day? Was it because Israel wasn't obedient enough?

They did something bad like happened at Ai? Or Jericho actually, and then Ai was the consequence? No. No indication Israel did anything but be faithful.

No indication that God is anything but all-powerful. And yet, it would take a long time.

Actually, the Lord told them this back in Deuteronomy, and he also told them there's a reason. Listen to this. This is interesting. Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 22.

Deuteronomy 7:22

The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you, little by little. You may not make an end to them at once, lest the wild beasts grow too numerous for you.

Sometimes I outright laugh when I read the Bible. I'm like, oh, okay. God's not going to empty the promised land because he knows that it's going to take a nation of what, a million people a long time to actually go back and get all their families and all their herds and their stuff and slowly

make the journey and settle and populate each of these empty cities. And God says, that's why I'm not going to let you just do it all in a single day or drop down fire bombs from heaven because the wild beasts will grow too numerous for you.

Okay. I don't even want to think about what that's like moving into a land where there's just like too many wild beasts and it's dangerous. But apparently that was a real thing.

So God says it's going to be incremental. I'm going to have you go on mission and have it happen little by little city by city king by king over months and even years.

Remember what we read happening in like a sentence, a verse or two sounds really quick but it was actually a longer term gradual work that took perseverance.

perseverance.

You being faithfully dependent on the Lord means you may need to faithfully persevere. I don't know about you but this is one I'm just not really very good at.

The faithful perseverance thing. I want things now. I want to know now. I want to see it happen now. I want to get there now. That's why every drive across town is a race for me.

I got to get there now. I'm not naturally a very patient person. But I have to remember that I do serve a patient God. Even listen, even before the fall into sin, God was all about incremental work.

Our original parents were created and put into a garden, gifted to them, to work it, to tend it. But they were also given a task to incrementally fill the earth and subdue it.

Tame creation.

And this is again before the curse, before sin. And that shows us that incremental work isn't always due to the curse. Incremental work isn't always a bad thing.

So perhaps it's not too much for us to be patient as we persevere in our work, whatever it is that we're doing. Does God sometimes do flashy miracles and take care of things quickly?

Sometimes. Does He do it that way most of the time? Not in my experience. A lot of other times it comes over a longer time and it calls for something from us.

I'm going to borrow some words from a scholar. It calls for what one scholar calls durable faithfulness. durable faithfulness. I remember for years we were looking for a larger church building for our church family.

And we toured several of them. And I'll be honest, every time we went and walked through a facility I so badly wanted to make it work, we could maybe do this.

We toured one facility that had a pool.

What are we going to do with a pool? Fill it in? Escape board. I so badly was trying to think of a way it could work. And we had to wait. And it took a few years.

Again, I want to hurry up and get there. I want to know. But it took time. It was incremental work. But here we are. Here we are. And God knew what would be best for us.

And some of you are only here right now because we moved up here. Beautiful thing. Remember, faithful dependence also means faithfully persevering.

But there's more here. What does it mean to faithfully depend on God? Number three, it means faithfully passing down. Faithfully passing down.

This one is brief, but it's a big feature in our passage. Because think about it. After all the build up, our narrator isn't really very interested in giving us any of the details of the battle.

battle. There's really no description of this great battle against the great horde. It's just that Joshua came upon them suddenly and he fell upon them and the Lord gave them in Israel's hand.

Period. But you know what our narrator is interested in emphasizing and slowing down to get across to us? It's this point we read in verse 15.

Verse 15. Just as the Lord commanded Moses his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did. He left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded Moses.

I don't know what you call that, but I call that a faithful passing down. The details of this conquest from its scope to its boundaries to their tactics, including who and what they could spare and when, no horses or chariots to

keep, no deals with any of the wicked people inside the promised land, all of those details about the conquest that were recorded in God's word.

Moses received it, and Moses passed it down faithfully to Joshua, every jot and tittle, and so Joshua did. Every jot and tittle. Listen, if you're here as a parent, or a grandparent

right now, if you're here even as maybe a teenager who babysits children in your church, or the children of other believers, if you're here and once in a while you even so much as serve in kids ministry, or if you're here and you meet up with someone who's a younger Christian, a newer Christian,

and you're discipling and mentoring them, you are passing things down.

Because are any of us making this faith up as we go? Are we making this up as we go? If we start doing that, you should leave this church. We don't do that.

Watch out for people who make things up or add to the faith. We faithfully hand it down. I love how Jude puts it in his letter, Jude chapter 1 verse 3, he says, I wanted to write about other things, but I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was

Jude 1:3

once for all delivered to the saints. The faith once for all delivered to the saints. Being faithfully passed down and having to sometimes contend for it while you're doing it.

Parents, how are you contending? dads, I'm a dad. I want to talk to you specifically. How are you contending in your home? Are you personally involved in the work of passing things down?

In your conversations? In what you read to your kids? Maybe in how you lead your family in prayer? In what you prioritize? All kinds of ways.

Remember that faithfully depending on God means faithfully passing down the things of his word.

And then finally I want to leave you with one last point and we'll close with this one. What does it mean to faithfully depend on God? Number four, it means faithfully facing down our fears.

Faithfully facing down our fears. Starts with the great horde allied against Israel, bent on Israel's total annihilation. That would make me afraid.

facing the greatest weaponry of the day, war horses, mighty chariots, yikes. But worse yet, maybe we could say worst of all, as this conquest proceeds, somebody in the Israelite ranks is whispering to

his friend about the boogeyman. You know, there's still the Anakim. I heard they're out here. You know, sooner or later we're going to get to some cities where these rumored sons of Anak live.

I heard they're eight, nine feet tall. And then they finally see some and they are. The incredible hulks of the promised land. Again, I like how one scholar, Dale Ralph Davis, puts it.

He says, in Israel's dictionary, Anakim spelled terror. Terror. Terror.

But what their fathers were too scared to do, too scared to go in and obey the Lord and see his mighty hand deliver over, not this generation.

This generation is going to faithfully face down their fears by facing down those giants.

What does faithful dependence on God mean? It means that we faithfully face down our fears. I don't know about you, but I have not met any giants, at least not of the eight to nine foot variety, who want to kill me.

I'm not likely to ever face those kinds of fears, but I have faced other fears in my life, and I think probably you have too.

Some of us struggle against fears that prevent us from doing what God wants us to do.

God says, don't neglect meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, Hebrews 10, but there'll be some of us that can't help but give way to our fears once flu season arrives.

God says, give back a portion to me of what you earn, and if you want a suggestion about how much, well, God might say, I told my first covenant people 10%, but some of us are like, no way, that's way too scary to think about trying to live on only 90% of what I make.

some of us are single, and we have fears about finding a mate, maybe I won't find one. If I don't lower my standards and start dating someone who's unchurched, but facing our fears in the single life means we don't lower our standards.

Parents, sometimes we fear that God might call our kids to do something that would take them far away, take them somewhere to be missionaries that might not be safe.

The greatest need in parts of our world or in areas where Christianity is not welcome. Some of us might have children that grow up and do what my wife did, which was move away from her family, a place where everybody stays and lives and isn't far from mom and dad and cousins

and follow this idiot with a call to ministry in South Bend.

Whether it's pressures that you face in your workplace to bend to ideology that you shouldn't bend to, to use someone's preferred pronouns, to wear a pin or a badge that says you're in support of something, you know God would not want you to support.

There are a lot of challenges that come at us in this life that can be fearful. I'm not trying to underestimate that there are sometimes consequences for being a Christian.

Sometimes it's just fear of sharing our faith because we'll be rejected. Fear of our kids not getting the part or getting first chair or playing, starting on varsity for the sports team because your family is saying no to

practices, recitals, rehearsals, and games that compete with church or youth group. We've just come through it. I know. I have four kids that went through the teenage years.

Faithfully depending on God means faithfully facing our fears in the power of God and trusting Him. I don't know how else you're what? Five foot something Israelite soldier is facing down a nine foot descendant of the Nephilim.

But they are. And they did. And the end of verse 19 includes the Anakim when it says that they took them all in battle in the power of God. I'm going to ask our team if they would come and join me on the stage.

And as they do, I'm going to ask you if you're able would you stand with me as we take a moment to pray? Heavenly Father, today we celebrate that You are Lord over all.

You are in command, Lord, of our destiny. You created us. You patiently sent Your Son as part of a plan to redeem us. And so even when we sold ourselves into sin, You bought us back and we are Yours.

We are proudly owned by You, Lord. We bear Your mark as Your servants. And so, Lord, help us to remember that our priority is to live in obedience to You.

Lord, in the conquest of this life, there will be things that test us. We know there will be situations that are difficult for us. We know there are things that will make us afraid.

need. And so, Lord, we claim our power not in ourselves, not in anything that we keep, but in what You have given us and what You are presently giving us.

And so, Lord, help us to be like Joshua, Your faithful servant, and do everything according to how we understand Your Word to tell us. Help us to understand.

Help us in our roles and whatever they are, as a leader of someone else, Lord, as a person in the mix of things with others. We know we can't do this in our own strength, and so we pray for the help of that great Holy Spirit that we know lives within us.

And we pray all these things in the name of our Savior, in Jesus' name. Amen.