From Identity

In an international adoption, long before a family ever holds their child, this is my understanding and some of the research I did, sometimes months before even they meet, a judge in a courtroom on the other side of the world signs a piece of paper, and in that instant, on that paper, it is actually done.

The child is then legally, permanently, and irreversibly their son or their daughter.

Not pending good behavior.

It's just done.

Now the child doesn't necessarily know that yet, certainly depending on the age.

Potentially still in an orphanage, still doesn't know even his family or her family's names, still doesn't, hasn't done a single thing that looks like belonging to them, the relationship, the trust, the bond.

The child finally calling them mom or dad and meaning it.

That comes later.

Sometimes much later.

Sometimes it's hard and slow and doesn't feel real for some time.

But here's what's true the whole time.

In between, the child was never trying to become their son or daughter.

They already were.

Every step after that courtroom, every plane ride, every awkward first meal, every hard night.

It wasn't the child earning a place in the family.

It was a child who already had one, slowly learning to live like it.

And that's not just an adoption story.

Paul in the New Testament and Ephesians uses the exact word for what happened, that exact word for what happens to us, to you, and to me when we are in Christ.

This morning, I actually think our passage in, we're going to cover Joshua 11 and 12 today.

I think it speaks in some ways to this.

Now this week we're going to look at the consummation of the conquest.

So last week we covered the defeat of the kings in the south.

The kings heard about what Israel had done with Jericho and Ai, and they and how they Israel made a pact with the Gibeonites, and so they they the Gibeonites called for help from Israel because all this coalition of these other kings in that region came together to attack Gibeon in some ways to test just how much this covenant, this pact was real between Israel and Gibeon.

Before Joshua marched a single step to actually wade into that battle, God told him, I have given them into your hand.

So the victory was declared before the fight even began.

Israel won decisively.

God threw the enemy into a panic, sent hail from heaven.

Joshua prayed boldly for the sun to stand still.

And whatever that meant, whatever happened, was some sort of miracle.

And then the battle was finished.

Now, our big idea, our kind of main takeaway last week was because Christ has already won, we fight and pray from victory, not for it.

Now this week we pick that thread up a little bit.

But we ask a different question.

What does it actually look like to live and obey from that kind of settled security?

So this reality that Christ has already won, and so when we fight in this life and when we pray in this life, we're not praying necessarily for victory, for whatever.

Like God has already won in Christ.

And so, what does it look like for us who are in Christ to live, still obey, be faithful in that kind of settled security that we've already been given because of what Christ has done on the cross.

So we're going to start here in Joshua chapter 11, and we're going to go all the way through Joshua chapter 12 today.

Joshua 11 · chapter mention Joshua 12 · chapter mention

So bear with me.

There'll be a lot of names.

Again, count yourself lucky, you don't have to read them out loud.

But we're going to dive in.

As we dive in, please pray with me briefly.

Father in heaven, we come to your word, your scripture, and you have something to say.

So, Lord, may we be willing to hear it, receive it, and change course if we need to based on it.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Alright, Joshua chapter 11, starting in verse 1.

Joshua 11 · chapter mention

When Jabin, the king of Hazar, heard of this, he sent to Jobab, king of Madon, and the king of Shimron, and the king of Aksheth, and to the kings who were in the northern hill country, and the Arabah, south of Chinnaroth, and in the lowland and the Nathoph door of the west, on the west.

To the Canaanites in the east and in the west, and the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizites and the Jebusites in the hill country, and the Hivites under Hermon in the land of Mizpah.

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 forces and came and encamped together at the waters of Merim to fight against Israel.

Now, this is gonna sound in some ways very similar to what we read last week in chapter 10.

We're in a different part of the country.

Now, we were in the south, where all of these kings came together to come against Israel and Gibeon, and now we are in the north.

After they've heard all that happened in the south, they are gonna all come together because they want to extinguish the Israelites.

Chapter 10 and 11 mirror each other in a lot of ways.

We are, we as the reader are meant to see that Joshua and Israel are up against a massive, almost insurmountable foe.

It's exactly like chapter 10 in many ways started.

But not unlike chapter 10, the Lord speaks into this mess.

Verse 6.

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 at the waters of Marim and fell uh and fell upon them.

And the Lord gave them into the hand of Israel, who struck them and chased them as far as the great Sidon and Mishaproth, Maim, and eastward as far as the valley of Mizbah.

And they struck, and they struck them until he left none remaining.

And Joshua did to them, just as the Lord said to him, he hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire.

So again, God essentially gives a guarantee.

Before it even starts, by this time tomorrow, they'll all be defeated.

Again, this was exposited last week, and indeed a major thread throughout this chapter, because Christ has already won.

We fight and pray from victory, not for it.

So God had already delivered them.

The victory was already won.

All they needed to do was obey and engage.

And God did give a specific instruction, which was different from what happened in chapter 10.

God rained down hail and killed more of the enemy than the swords of Joshua, it says in chapter 10.

It's repeated multiple times.

God was the one who won the battle.

And that's not untrue this week.

God is the one who won the battle.

But it did take a little bit of a different form.

God told Joshua to hamstring the horses and burn the chariots with fire.

So Joshua descended on the coalition in the north.

God gave them into Joshua's hands, and then Joshua chased them out, leaving no one standing.

And he does exactly what the Lord told him to do.

He hamstrung the horses.

Or in other words, he made it so that they could not be used in battle anymore.

And it may even have been lethal.

And indeed, they burned the chariots to ash.

Now, as an aside, in some ways, you read this and you're like, that seems counterintuitive.

They just smoked this army, and now they have a lot of free horses and like a car.

They have cars now.

But God didn't want or need this in his army, at least not yet.

This more technologically advanced army in the north.

God didn't need them to act more like that so that the next battle, whenever it might be, is that they won because they had more tech.

Now that's not to say that any and all tech is bad, but it does mean at this time, in this place, God did not want his people to become more like the Canaanites, but to stay expressly his.

And so Joshua obeys.

He sees all of these horses that he could use, and these chariots that he could use.

But because God said, hamstring the horses, burn all the chariots with fire, that's exactly what Joshua did.

He obeyed.

Continuing on, verse 10, which we we have already read in our scripture reading, but we're going to read again.

And the Lord turned back at that time, and Joshua, I'm sorry, and Joshua turned back at that time and captured Hazar and struck its king with the sword, for Hazar formerly was the head of all those kingdoms.

And they struck with the sword all who were in it, devoting them to destruction, where was none left that breathed.

And he burned Hazar with fire.

And all the cities of those kings and all their kings Joshua captured.

He 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 these cities that stood on the mounds did Israel burn, except Hazar alone that Joshua burned.

And all that spoiled 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 anyone 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 here we have a description of Joshua's continued obedience in service of the Lord.

Verse 12 and 15, we have a pretty emphatic statement regarding Joshua and the way that he followed the Lord's leading and instruction.

Just as Moses served the Lord, served as the Lord had commanded.

Then in verse 15, just as the Lord had commanded Moses, his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did.

He left nothing undone, all that the Lord had commanded Moses.

This is a very strong language.

When it comes to the way Joshua obeyed and served God.

Hazar was the dominant city in the region, and it was utterly destroyed and burned, not unlike Jericho and Ai.

No trace.

But the other cities, they were not burned.

Israel would eventually inhabit them.

We need to be honest that in some ways, as we have been in this whole series, and I won't belabor the point because we talked about it multiple times before.

But this part of the conquest, this conquest does it does sit uncomfortably for us.

But I think it is important to remember what this conquest actually is in redemptive history.

It is a unique act of divine judgment against nations whose wickedness had reached its full measure.

It's not a template for how God's people are to treat their enemies today.

And even inside that judgment, God's kindness isn't absent.

We remember the story of Rahab, a Canaanite, who's folded into the history, into the line of Jesus Himself.

The same God who judges here is also the God who at the cross absorbed the judgment we deserved into himself rather than pouring it out on us.

So as we read stuff like this, it does make us uncomfortable, and in many ways it should, but we should read it through the cross.

His severity and his mercy were never actually intention.

They meet at Calvary.

Now the following section is essentially the wrap-up of the conquest.

It starts with Joshua took all the land, and it ends with Joshua took all the land.

But there are some things in here that are worth highlighting.

So let's do that.

Verse 16.

So Joshua took all the land and the hill country and all the Negeb and all the land of Goshen and the lowland of the Arabah and the hill country of Israel and its lowland.

From Mount Hallech, which rises toward Seir, as far as Baalgad, in the valley of Lebanon, below Mount Hermon, and he captured all the kings and struck them and put them to death.

Joshua made war for 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.

And they took them all in battle, for it was the Lord's doing to harden their hearts, and 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.

Verse 16 and 17 are descriptions of the kings and the regions that are captured.

And then in verse 18, we are given some information that puts a finer point on this whole conquest.

Verse 18.

Joshua made war a long time with those kings.

So in our last scene, there was this idea that I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna, we're gonna end this war in a day.

But as he continues on, it goes on for a long time.

And it will be read, and we're gonna see in chapter 12.

It will feel like it just kind of was like this.

But there is a truth that this took a long time, and the author wants us to know that that it wasn't instant.

Sometimes it was, but sometimes it moved very slowly.

This part of the conquest took a long time.

It was a long and grueling process.

Chapters 10 and 11 may seem like it all happened in one week, but the truth is this was longer and more strenuous than it may seem on first read.

The author wants us to know this.

Now, when considering the idea of hardening their hearts, again, this is an idea that people have struggled with for a long time.

Maybe you have as well.

I have at times as well.

This idea that God would harden their hearts.

Now we're probably reminded of God's dealings with Pharaoh a generation before, a couple generations before.

In the story of the Exodus of Joshua's mentor, Moses, I want to give two quotes that I found very helpful that might be helpful to you.

One is by Dale Ralph Davis in his commentary on Joshua, he said this Do we not find that disturbing, offense, offensive, and outrageous the idea of God hardening his hearts?

Who gave God the right to be that sovereign?

He asked.

But our verdict had better remain stuck in our throat.

Don't try to evade the clarity of this text.

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Don't think you can escape this God by running into the New Testament.

You will meet the same God there.

Hebrews 3, 12 through 13.

You will do better to tremble and worship, he says.

That's an interesting posture.

That who gave God the right to be that sovereign?

Now R.

C.

Sproul put it a different way, but in a lot of ways the same way.

That is a finer point that I found very helpful.

R.

C.

Sproul said this all that God had to do to harden Pharaoh's heart, or to harden your heart, is to withhold his own grace.

So, in other words, God isn't injecting evil into a neutral heart.

His hardening of a heart is God withholding his grace that alone can keep a heart soft in the first place.

God didn't need to manufacture hostility in these kings' hearts.

He simply withheld the grace that might have softened them and let what was already run rampant run its course towards the judgment their wickedness had earned already.

Not to not delabor the point belabor the point, and for the sake of time, we're going to continue on.

There's more that could be said.

Now the author turns his attention to the Anakim and gives more time to them than any other uh to any other uh people group in this section.

Verse um in verse 21.

So let's read that briefly here.

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

Israel div uh Joshua devoted them to description 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 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.

Some of us in this room, when we heard some of what was just said, our head may have tilted a little bit.

Like when we hear Gaza, we hear Gaz.

The Anakim were first mentioned in another chapter earlier on in the book of Numbers, Numbers 13.

Now, if you remember Numbers 13, Moses had led all of the Israelites out of slavery into the wilderness.

They had come to the promised land, the land of Canaan, and they sent in some spies.

These spies went and surveyed the land, one of them being Joshua, another being Caleb.

And as they looked and they surveyed the land and they came back to Moses, and the the report was essentially, yeah, we we can't go there.

We cannot take this land because there are giants there.

And I don't think we can defeat those giants.

Now, outside of Joshua and Caleb, Joshua and Caleb both were like, no, if the Lord said this is ours, then we should go take it.

It's not ironic that later Joshua is the one that's leading the whole nation to actually do what he was supposed to do all those years earlier.

But they have giants, or another way to say it is the Anakim.

And what giant do we know that is from Gaza, but actually more specifically Gath?

Ten bonus points to anybody that knows.

His name is Goliath.

So, in many ways, what is being set up here is a story that we've all read a hundred times.

The author is setting something up here for us, potentially.

The power of the Holy Spirit.

There is some that are spared, and they end up in Gath, and they may hook up with the Philistine army, and the king who's not yet crowned might have to face it.

Just a little nugget there for you.

Okay, now we come to chapter 12.

If you look at it, you will see that a lot of the same thing is said over and over again.

So what's what's happening here?

Chapter 12 is a true hinge chapter.

In this it is the end of the conquest narratives as the book transitions to the settlement.

So when when when uh when the author here says, so Joshua took the whole land according to all the uh all that the Lord had spoken, and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel.

What we're gonna see next in chapter 13 and beyond is okay, now you guys you can have this land, and now you guys, you can have this land, and I want to step on John's toes next week, but that's essentially what the rest, so this these first 11 chapters is this conquest, and now chapter 12 is basically the summary of all that has happened before.

Again, for the sake of time, we're not gonna read through all this, but let me help us understand what is happening here.

So the first six verses, if you look, the author is giving us a rundown of all of the kings that Moses defeated east of the Jordan River, Sihon and Og.

And then in the remainder of the verses, there is a rundown of all the kings that Joshua defeated after they crossed the Jordan.

Thirty-one kings, each entry closing with a one.

King of Jericho, one, king of Ai, one, and so on.

And the effect here is a memorial cadence.

It's a not a celebration, but it's a deliberately unglamorous, just to tally the names, functions as Israel, Israel's formal record of land claim, and not merely just a recap, but there's this there's this rhythm to it.

So if we read some of this, verse 9 of chapter 12, the king of Jericho, one, the king of Ai, which is inside Bethel, one, the king of Jerusalem, one, the king of Hebron, one, the king of Jarmouth, one, the king of Laklish, one, the king of Eglon, one, and so on and so on and so on.

Again, chapter 12 here is a true ending to the first section of the book, and the rest of the book will look fairly different.

So starting here in chapter one and all the way through chapter 11, we have seen the power of the Holy Spirit, God's directing, and the obedience that they've been able to take that was there.

God promised.

I don't really want to do it again.

I could.

I wonder if I got up here and just preached my sermon from last week, if anyone would be like, hey, I think I've heard that before.

But the overlap of chapter 10 and 11 is definitely there.

It mirrors itself in a great day, but in a great great deal, but one of the biggest differences is that again, this lack of miracle, like the hail or the sun standing still.

But again, as a reminder, we we were taught last week, and we were reminded last week that because Christ has already won, we fight and pray from victory, not for it.

And again, this week we pick up that thread.

What does it actually look like to live for you and I now to live and obey from the kind from that kind of settled security?

We're reminded last week that, and truthfully, again, this week that God is a warrior and he will fight for his people.

We're reminded that the ultimate outcome is already decided.

God has already won.

Christ has won.

We are secure in what Christ has done for us.

Now, last week we really emphasized this idea that the Lord fought for Israel.

God is the one who gets the credit.

God declares the outcome.

Now, this week, I want to spend some time on the obedience of Joshua and people and see if there's anything in there for us.

And of course there is.

God declares victory over sin and death, but there is also this in-between that we talk about often here.

So, more specifically this week, what does obedience look like when we actually believe that God is won and already secured our victory?

So, what does faith-shaped obedience look like even while we're living in the security of Jesus?

In the already and the not yet.

Let's use our text this morning and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us.

It would be easy in some ways for me to stand up here and just say, all we need to do is obey God more, just like Joshua did, and then I can close up shop and walk away.

I could say that.

In some ways it's true.

But in reality, that statement, like that, produces in some ways just more shame and apathy, oftentimes.

Let's remind ourselves what the author tells us in 1115.

Just as the Lord had commanded Moses his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did.

He left nothing undone and all that the Lord had commanded.

He left nothing undone and all that the Lord had commanded.

It doesn't say that Joshua obeyed.

It's deeper than that.

There's a specific kind of obedience.

Complete.

Not selective.

I think if we're honest with ourselves, there is something in there that we need to hear, myself included.

We don't struggle with obedience to our God in some global sense, but we can be very selective in our obedience, can't we?

We're mostly faithful in the visible, comfortable, socially approved areas, but meanwhile, we are quietly negotiating in one or two specific rooms of our lives.

I don't know that I fully need to obey that part.

Where have we left something undone?

I do think briefly it would be good to remind ourselves of our motivation to obey God.

Because it can't be guilt and it can't be shame.

Ultimately, we were once guilty in our sin, but God gave his grace through Christ.

We talked about that last week, and we will reiterate this this morning.

So the progression is guilt, grace, and then gratitude.

We obey because we are so filled with gratitude for what God has gifted us in Christ.

But we can even go a little bit further.

Obedience is motivated by gratitude and love, and that is the the way that the way that we love God back is by our obedience.

1 John 4.19 says, we love because he first loved us.

John 14, 15 says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Now, note the grammar there.

It's not a command, you must keep my commandments to prove love.

It's a description.

This is simply what love does.

Obedience is the shape love takes when it's aimed at a person, not a rule.

And that person is Christ, the one who saved us.

We're also motivated by our union with Christ.

Obedience isn't just you trying to copy Christ's example from a distance.

It's the Spirit working out in you what's true what's already true of you positionally.

Philippians 2, 12-13 says this, therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work his good pleasure.

This idea of fear and trembling, part of we can't skip this over.

This isn't terror of losing our salvation.

It's the weight of taking seriously who you're actually dealing with.

We obey with a right posture, with a right attitude, as someone who recognizes our weakness, but also recognizes God's power and strength and goodness.

Hebrews 12, 28 through 29 says, Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

Our reverence for his holiness in many ways is love and obedience to him.

1 John 5, 3 says, For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.

We can often quietly assume that obedience equals burden by definition.

This verse flatly denies that on the specific ground that it flows from love and the new birth rather than obligation.

We are made a new creation in Christ, and we have been given a new heart, a heart that is able to obey when we were incapable to obey before.

Again, this is what motivates us, not guilt, not shame, but love and gratitude.

And another reminder from this passage that I think is worth mentioning is this idea of a long obedience.

It might be for a while.

The victory was declared in verse 6 of what we read today, but it said that he was fighting for a long time.

Took years, real, sustained effort, and a settled outcome are not intentioned.

They're normal for the Christian life.

Obedience might look like sitting across the table from your spouse for the third counseling session this year and fighting for your marriage.

Choosing to show up for the fourth session.

It might look like forgiving the same person for the same wound again on a random Tuesday because yesterday's forgiveness didn't somehow make today's hurt disappear.

It might look like biting your tongue in the same meeting with the same coworker for the 11th month in a row because blowing up would feel better than staying faithful.

It might look like showing up to church one Sunday, you'd rather, even though you'd rather stay in bed, not because you feel close to God that morning, but because you know what Hebrews warns that neglecting to gather is rarely the cause of someone walking away from Jesus, but it is usually the first sign.

Sanctification is a long war fought from a declared victory, not a short war fought for an uncertain one.

So where does that leave us this morning?

Obey Christ.

Not to become his, but because you already are.

Joshua left nothing undone.

He left nothing undone because most and and most of us can say not a single week about that, let alone our life.

And yet even Joshua, faithful, obedient, leaving nothing undone, dies without giving his people the actual final rest.

The writer of Hebrews says it plainly.

If Joshua had given them that rest, God would not have spoken of another day.

Even the best obedience, this side of Eden, has a ceiling.

But there is another Joshua, so to speak.

Yeshua, Jesus.

The Lord saves.

Sent centuries later into a greater war against a greater enemy than Canaanite kings.

Not sin and death holding territory and a piece of land, but sin and death holding you and me.

And where Joshua's obedience was real, it was partial, a long war, a rest that was not true, not yet total.

But Jesus' obedience was total once, never to be repeated, and didn't leave the cross saying, Much remains.

He said, To telestai, it is finished, paid in full, nothing left undone, nothing left unpaid.

No chapter 13 where we will see that it seems like everything's complete, but we will find out that actually there is much more to be taken.

The cross, there is nothing more to be taken.

So when you feel the weight of your own unfinished obedience, the sin you confessed last month and are confessing again this week, the thing you know God has asked you to do, got or asked of you, but you still haven't done, that weight is real.

But it was never meant to sit on your shoulders as a debt.

You're still trying to pay off.

It's already been paid.

By the only obedience that could actually cover it.

You're not fighting to become his.

You already are his fully, right now, on the strength of somebody's, somebody else's finished war.

What's left is not earning, it's response.

It's a war still worth fighting, hard as it is, long as it takes, not because the outcome is uncertain, but because you're now joined by faith to the one whose obedience secured it.

Fight like Joshua fought long, hard, all in, but fight from the empty tomb, not toward it.

Christ has already won.

He's not there anymore because he reigns.

You fight from a finished cross towards a certain crown, not to earn what Christ already secured, but because you're now joined to the one who secured it, and a heart truly united to him cannot stay idle.

So obey.

Not to become his, but because you already are.