God Fights for Us

Joshua 10:29-43
29 Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Makkedah to Libnah and fought against Libnah. 30 And the Lord gave it also and its king into the hand of Israel. And he struck it with the edge of the sword, and every person in it; he left none remaining in it. And he did to its king as he had done to the king of Jericho. 31 Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Libnah to Lachish and laid siege to it and fought against it. 32 And the Lord gave Lachish into the hand of Israel, and he captured it on the second day and struck it with the edge of the sword, and every person in it, as he had done to Libnah. 33 Then Horam king of Gezer came up to help Lachish. And Joshua struck him and his people, until he left none remaining. 34 Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Lachish to Eglon. And they laid siege to it and fought against it. 35 And they captured it on that day, and struck it with the edge of the sword. And he devoted every person in it to destruction that day, as he had done to Lachish. 36 Then Joshua and all Israel with him went up from Eglon to Hebron. And they fought against it 37 and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword, and its king and its towns, and every person in it. He left none remaining, as he had done to Eglon, and devoted it to destruction and every person in it. 38 Then Joshua and all Israel with him turned back to Debir and fought against it 39 and he captured it with its king and all its towns. And they struck them with the edge of the sword and devoted to destruction every person in it; he left none remaining. Just as he had done to Hebron and to Libnah and its king, so he did to Debir and to its king. 40 So Joshua struck the whole land, the hill country and the Negeb and the lowland and the slopes, and all their kings. He left none remaining, but devoted to destruction all that breathed, just as the Lord God of Israel commanded. 41 And Joshua struck them from Kadesh-barnea as far as Gaza, and all the country of Goshen, as far as Gibeon. 42 And Joshua captured all these kings and their land at one time, because the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel. 43 Then Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp at Gilgal.

Considering the scope of the conquest, it takes Joshua only twelve verses to describe the action. We are not surprised by the victories because the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel. It took only one day for each of these battles, with the exception of Lachish, which took two. (Interestingly enough, Lachish was difficult for almost every army to defeat, including Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon.) That it took Joshua two day remains remarkable. Also interesting in this account is that seven cities are named. Some have conjectured that this is a purposeful decision on the part of the author (Joshua).

The fact that seven cities are named in this account is significant. The number seven in the Scriptures often has the symbolic connotation of completeness. Joshua’s southern sweep is complete and completely successful. It is possible that the author has chosen to leave out the names of some conquered cities or towns so that the tally totals exactly seven. In fact, 10:37 and 10:39 state explicitly that Joshua took other settlements (not named in the account) that were around Hebron and Debir.
Harstad, A. L. ©2004. Joshua (p. 438). Saint Louis, MO: CPH.

Clearly, the time has come for God’s people to inherit the land, and so He does the work of making it happen. Yes, Joshua has a mighty army – given to him by God. But the conquering of all this territory mentioned is miraculous and God’s power makes it happen. The longer I study God’s Word, the more reliant I become upon Him to do the same for me. I spent years making my own way in the world with a slight nod toward God. But as I examine His great faithfulness to His people, I can look back and see that I wasn’t making my own way at all. God was in it all along. Everything good that has ever happened to me (or created by my hands) was God’s work, not mine. I’m along for the ride and increasingly grateful for that truth.

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