Joshua 11-15

The word is out that The Lord fights for Israel. King Jabin of Hazor called for a confederacy of all his northern allies to combat The Lord and Israel. (11:1-2) The result was a army so large they were difficult to count such as the “sand of the sea”. The war band was furnished with horses and chariots aplenty (11:4). The Lord in the face of Israel’s untied enemy encourages Joshua and Israel to not “fear” them. How could a people not fear such a great army that only has one purpose to destroy God’s people and His name? Only this kind of faith can come from experiencing God’s faithfulness and power in the past. Such is the life Christian disciples must have in demonstrating courageous faith. God remains faithful to His people and they become more and more confident, but not in such way that should lead them to overconfidence in themselves, but in The Lord. The next day, The Lord delivered this great army into the hand’s of Israel’s warriors. (11:8) Only God can be accredited for such a victory.

The Lord continued to fight for Israel, hardening the hearts of Israel’s enemies to draw them out to battle with Israel. Joshua was an obedient, and because of this was counted faithful in biblical accounts, a “good” leader. (11:23)

Chapter 12-13 gives us an account of the Lord’s victories using Joshua in a list form. The tally ends with 31 kings of Canaan in total. At the end of this campaign, Joshua’s part in Israel’s entrance into the land is nearly over. Joshua is late in years, (13:2), yet there is much land to be claimed that was promised. So the Lord shows Joshua who to divide up the rest of the unconquered land for the remaining 9 tribes (13:7). The Lord reminds Joshua that the tribe of Levi was not to possess any sort of land, because their portion would be made of a few cities and the residue of the burnt sacrifices offered to Jehovah (13:14-33).

In chapter 14, Caleb’s faithfulness is remembered from the time Moses first commanded the spies to enter the land of Canaan. Because of Caleb’s faithful along with Joshua, they were both promised to be able to enter the land and have a possession of it for their familes. Caleb requested Hebron, a mountain land known to have natural springs of water (14:6,12-14). God maintained the strength of Caleb through the years all the way to his possessing of Hebron. Caleb said The Lord preserved his strength like a man in his 40’s all the way to age 85. Even at 85 Caleb stood in the armies ranks with ease (14:10-11). This was because of Caleb’s faithfulness to The Lord in spite the disobedience of everyone else.

Chapter 15 tells us the tribe of Judah’s claim in the land according the cities that was captured. Along with this is a detailed listed of the land’s boundaries in so the people would know what land belongs to whom and the jurisdiction of each tribe. The chapter ends with a curious explanation of why the Jebusites still live in the land of Jerusalem, simply saying the Israelites couldn’t drive them out. But no more details of this is given. I assume that this was considered a mistake on their part in God’s eyes, as His instructions were clear in driving out the entire Canaan population. Because of this apparent failure to drive them out, the Israelites will be troubled by these outsiders in the coming years. King David would later conquer the city for his capital cf. 2 Sam. 5:6-7.