God is Faithful to Fulfill His Promises
Joshua 12:1 - 13:7
Good morning! I invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to Joshua 12. This morning we are coming to the end of one of the major sections in the book of Joshua. You can divide this book into three major sections:
I. Entering the land [1-5]
II. Conquering the land [6-12]
III. Allocating the land [13-24]
As we come to chapter 12, we are looking at the close of that second section. It is, you may say, the most exciting section of the book. This has been where all the battles and wars have taken place. Today’s section though, may not seem quite as thrilling. Chapter 12 is essentially a summary chapter. It is going to give us a review of all the lands that have been conquered. We’ll read a little into chapter 13 too. That’s going to tell us of the land that hasn’t yet been conquered. It’s still land that has been promised, but not yet gained.
But I want to show you a few pictures before we dive in. I have some more maps that will give you an idea of what the passage we’re going to be reading says. The first map shows you all of the Canaanite territory. It shows you where each of the different people groups lived. So you see Edom, Moab, Og and Sihon, on the eastern side of the Jordan. Then you have the Canaanites, Hivites, Jesubites and so on and so forth on the Western side of the Jordan.
I. Entering the land [1-5]
II. Conquering the land [6-12]
III. Allocating the land [13-24]
As we come to chapter 12, we are looking at the close of that second section. It is, you may say, the most exciting section of the book. This has been where all the battles and wars have taken place. Today’s section though, may not seem quite as thrilling. Chapter 12 is essentially a summary chapter. It is going to give us a review of all the lands that have been conquered. We’ll read a little into chapter 13 too. That’s going to tell us of the land that hasn’t yet been conquered. It’s still land that has been promised, but not yet gained.
But I want to show you a few pictures before we dive in. I have some more maps that will give you an idea of what the passage we’re going to be reading says. The first map shows you all of the Canaanite territory. It shows you where each of the different people groups lived. So you see Edom, Moab, Og and Sihon, on the eastern side of the Jordan. Then you have the Canaanites, Hivites, Jesubites and so on and so forth on the Western side of the Jordan.
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The next map depicts for you the territory that has been conquered up to this point and what still remains to be conquered. So what you’ll see is that they’ve made a good claim to the land, but there’s still a lot of work to do.
All this will likely become more clear as we go through the passage today. I just wanted you to get that visual before we start reading.
But let’s look at the Word of God together. Joshua 12:1.
Introduction:
After having read all about the battles in the last 6 chapters, this portion of Scripture probably doesn’t feel very stimulating. And rightfully so. What we have here is basically a ledger. We are reading just a recap of all the land that has been conquered. There are no battles; there are no great heroics or mighty miracles. All we have is a log book. It’s merely a catalog of victories and it sets out in words all of what I showed you in those maps just a moment ago.
As I mentioned, this section serves as a conclusion to section 2 of the book. It is a summary of all the gains God’s people have made in their conquest. But I want you to know that it is more than just a boring record of defeated kings. It is more than just a verbal map, so to speak. This section of Scripture is setting forth the faithfulness of God.
The person who wrote the book of Joshua could have easily skipped this stuff. It could have been left out and we could have easily transitioned into chapter 13. But instead of diving directly into the allotments of the land to all the different tribes the author felt it important to pause. He felt obligated to put this long list of places, territories, and defeated kings in the book which would be passed down from generation to generation.
And the reason he did that is because he wanted to leave just another testimony to how faithful God is. He wants to impress upon us one more time that God is true to his promises. That’s the whole point of this book. And even though this is very technical and precise and reads like something you might get out of the county auditor’s office, these words are here to impress upon us once again the fact that our God will not fail when it comes to His gospel promise.
And it reminds us that we can trust in God. We can trust him because he is faithful. And in our passage we see that God is faithful in every point of time. He’s been faithful past; he’s been faithful in the present, and we have the good hope and guarantee that he will be faithful in the future.
And if you’re the note taking time, you can jot that down because that’s the outline that we’re going to follow today.
We can begin by talking about God’s faithfulness in the past. That’s what the first 6 verses of chapter 12 tell us.
I. God’s faithfulness in the past [12:1-6]
Verses 1-6 tell us about what happened before Joshua took over as leader. This section looks back to the time when Moses was the leader of God’s people and was the de facto general of God’s army. We are taken back to the time before Joshua marched everyone across the Jordan River; when God’s people were East of that river in the Ammorite territories.
And what are we told? We read that God was faithful at that time. We are told that God brought about defeat these two kings Og and Sihon. Moses went into battle with them and low and behold, he won. And that was no small thing. Gaining victory over these two rulers was just as monumental as gaining the victory at Jericho or any of the campaigns of Joshua.
Let me just give you a real brief overview of Og and Sihon.
First of all, In verse two it talks about Sihon and it lays out his kingdom. But what I want you to notice is his name. Sihon’s name literally means “Warrior.” It comes from a word that means “to wipe out.” So whenever you see Sihon, you should think, “Mr. Destruction.”
And how do you think he got that name? Do you think that mom and dad looked at their newborn baby and said, “Let’s call him Killer.” “No, dear, I like the name Devastation. It has a nice ring to it.” Then he just happened to get elected as lord and prince of his territory. No, he probably got that name based on how he dealt with his enemies. He was a warrior. He was a man who was most likely reputed completely wiping out all his enemies.
Now think about Israel coming up out of Egypt to meet with Warrior-man. Do you think that battle might have been a little lopsided in terms of power. But God was faithful, wasn’t he? And God gave the victory.
Then in verse 4 it mentions Og. Notice what it says about good old Oggie. It says that he was one of the Rephaim. If you were here two weeks ago, we talked about the Anakim. They were these giants. The Rephaim were sort of like the cousins of the Anakim. They were massive people too. As a matter of fact, the book of Deuteronomy talks about Og and says that his bed was 6 feet wide and 13 feet long. I’d probably say that most of your bedrooms are barely 13 feet long!
So, this guy was humongous. And not only was he a giant, but he was as tough as nails. Deuteronomy says his bed was made out of iron. He was not sleeping on your Serta Perfect Sleeper. He didn’t have a perfectly cozy sleep number. His bed was iron.
And I would bet that he’s just representative of everyone who fought in his army. I’m pretty sure his army would have been made up of men who were larger than life and tougher than the iron he slept on.
But wouldn’t you know that Og the Giant met the same terrible end as Sihon the Warrior.
Really, these guys embody every ugly aspect of Satan. Defeating them is akin to the defeat of some part of Satan’s opposition.
And that’s the epitome of God’s promise. It’s a reminder to us that God is bringing about the end of Satan’s kingdom and no matter what forces of opposition are in the world. God has gained the victory. You just need to look to the past. You just need to see how he has been faithful in the ages that have gone by and you can be assured that God will accomplish all his promises to bring about his great redemption.
This is doubly so for me and you who live this side of the New Testament. We have the cross of Jesus Christ. We have the written testimony of his resurrection. There you have the defeat of the two ugliest giants that we can ever imagine: Sin and Death. Jesus Christ brought the sledge hammer down upon Satan’s head and defeated the Warrior who wants to wipe us out. The giant forces of evil were given a death blow, Christ triumphed over the principalities and the powers, nailing them to the cross.
That victory makes what Moses did to Og and Sihon look like child’s play.
Ought you not then to be encouraged? Don’t we have every reason to be confident that the kingdom of God will be victorious? We can be bold and we can trust God because He has promised the defeat of all His and our enemies and we have that promise written in the blood of His Son. We have the empty tomb to which we can look back for our assurance that these promises will not be broken.
So, if you are ever needing encouragement, just look back. Look back upon what God has done and remember how he has been faithful in the past.
But, by all means though, don’t limit it to the past. You don’t just have to look back to the past, you can look at what God is doing right now in the present. There’s plenty of validation to be gained just by reviewing what God has done our own time.
That is what the next part of our passage is all about. After speaking about what happened in the past under Moses, our passage talks about what happened in more contemporary times under Joshua.
II. God’s faithfulness in the present [12:7-24]
In verse 7 see is that there is a long list of kings that Joshua and his army had conquered in his day. As a matter of fact, the last verse sums it up by saying there were 31 kings who were deposed and their lands taken.
Now, the list of kings starts with the king of Jericho and basically follows the battle plan that we’ve studied (central campaign, southern campaign, and northern campaign). If you were to work your way through the list again, you would see a lot of familiar names and places: Ai, Bethel, Jerusalem, Hebron, and so forth.
But there are some kings mentioned here that were not part of the battles we studied. For instance, in verse 17 it mentions the king of Tappuah, 18) Aphek, Lasharon, Madon, etc. There are several more, but the point is that there were many more battles that Israel fought. There were many battles that we haven’t even heard of.
The point is this: No matter who they encountered, God was faithful in every single instance. Joshua’s basically saying, Yes, you’ve heard some pretty goods stories in this book. But let me tell you that there are plenty more to tell. We haven’t even begun to give you a full testimony of all the battles we’ve fought. But these are listed here so that you can know this: God promised to give us this land, and this list is a testimony that he has been true to exactly what he said he would do.
This may be a bore to read through, but if you read it in this light, it is much more devotional, isn’t it?
This list of kings should speak to you too. It should affirm to you that God has not stopped working. Just as he was at work in Joshua’s day, so too he is working in our time.
Now, we all struggle with trusting God. It’s part of who we are as sinners. We struggle with doubt. We question God’s faithfulness. We find ourselves in a rut where we are having some difficulty seeing clearly the fact that God is working in our day (in OUR life). That’s where you should practice this very thing.
If you are in a funk like that, do you know what you should do? You should make your own record. You should make your own list of all the ways that God is showing himself faithful. Instead of moping around, worrying, and wallowing in your discouragement, you should catalog all the ways God has been faithful. Just pull out a piece of paper and start making a record of how he has been faithful. And don’t be vague. Be specific.
He’s cared for me: He’s provided me breakfast, lunch, and dinner as long as I can remember. He’s given me a house with running water and flushing toilets. I’ve had more than sufficient shelter. I’ve had friends and family. I’ve been placed in the midst of a wonderful church family, brothers and sisters in Christ who lift me up in prayer and come along side me when I’m in need. I’ve been given the means of grace, I have a bible (I have multiple bibles). I have teachers and leaders in my life, mentors and examples of godliness.
I have been given grace for my sins: sins of omission and commission, intentional sins and sins that I have done without any sort of premeditation, sins of ignorance and sins that I know I should not have done. I’ve been forgiven in full for sins I’ve committed in the past, sins of youth, sins of age. I’ve been blessed to overcome some sins and gain the victory over certain temptations.
And here you can name specifically the struggles. Point out each ugly king and power that has been strung up just like Joshua did.
And the good news is that God is always at work. He’s at work far and beyond the things going on in your own little life. God is still demonstrating his faithfulness to bring to nothing the kingdom of Satan. God is at work all around the world and none of it is being recorded on CNN. They do not want you to know about what is going on in places like Iran and the Sudan.
This past week another article was published telling us of the growth of Christianity in Iran. It is illegal to become a Christian in Iran and it is punishable by death to share the gospel in that country, but Iran continues to be the place where Christianity is growing the fastest. That’s even despite Christians who are fleeing the country for their lives and despite the intensive crackdown on underground churches.
There may be opposition there, but that will not stop God from being faithful to build his church and not let the gates of Hell prevail.
I think I’ve told you before that I try to keep tabs on Sudan. I’d prayed for that nation in particular for several years. Listen to this headline that came out this past week: Sudan Agrees … to Remove Islam as State Religion. The article reports that this move is to guarantee the Christians in that region more religious freedom so they can worship and not fear national persecution.
And we can go on to talk about all the persecutions of Boca Haran, North Koreans, Chinese Marxists, and even things here in this country. We can praise God that God is still faithful. Even these very persecutions are used by God. The Lord is just shuffling Christians around so that they are in the right place to do more ministry and further build God’s kingdom in this world. Just remember that every time a church is scattered it takes the light of the glory of Christ to new areas.
And lest you think that the COVID restrictions have somehow hindered the faithfulness of God, just know that God is doing great things. I’ve heard of at least 3 progressive churches that have closed. If that were not good enough, their buildings were either given or sold to solid evangelical church plants that were needing a place to meet. And really, I can’t wait to hear of all the great stories of how God has used the Corona to bring about His plans and purposes in this world.
All this is to say is that we need only look around. God is always at work. Even as his people live under the cross and experience the hardships of this world’s evils, God is enlarging his kingdom, establishing his purposes, thwarting Satan’s devices, and convoluting the foes that are bent on stopping Him from his achieving His worldwide dominion.
God has been faithful. He’s been faithful in the past and he is just as faithful today. And so we should be encouraged. And we should be delighted at the fact that there is still more to come.
We may have come to the end of chapter 12, but I had us read over into chapter 13 because that tells us of what God will yet do in the future.
III. God’s faithfulness in the future [13:1-7]
The first seven verses of chapter 13 talk about the land that Joshua has not yet gained possession of. But it is land that, as it says in verse 6, the Lord will still yet drive them out. So even though these regions have not yet been touched, God is promising that that territory will come under the dominion of God and his people. In the future, you can bet that it will be conquered and possessed.
Now, some of the places may be familiar. For instance, in verse 2 it talks about the land of the Philistines. You know that later on in redemptive history we read about David and how he had a lot of battles with the Philistines. Eventually David did take control of those lands.
Then it talks about the land of the Geshurites. This is land up by the sea of Galilee. It was not touched by Joshua. But During the time of Solomon, it came under Israelite control. As a matter of fact, much of the territory listed here came to be controlled by Solomon. There was a tremendous expansion of territory during that time. Solomon didn’t fight any wars, but he gained dominion over vast amounts of land. The Israelite borders were the most expansive they ever were under Solomon, stretching from Egypt to the Euphrates River.
But there are some interesting things to note: First, some of these lands were never possessed. For instance, in verse 5 it talks about Lebanon. So far as I know, that area was never gained, either by David or Solomon.
What’s more, many of the people groups in these areas were never driven out. For instance, those lands on the outskirts of Solomon’s territory were never inhabited by God’s people. They were merely vassal states. There were pagans in that land who were subjugated. They were not driven out.
So there’s a sense in which the Lord never fulfilled those promises.
And I like to believe that this is something that is still yet for our future. I like to say that this is ultimately pointing to the fact that God’s promises were not necessarily for that one little sliver of land or just for the Jews. But what Joshua is pointing to is that the whole earth will be subdued. All the earth will be God’s and all those who do not acknowledge the Lord Jesus will be driven out in the ultimate sense.
The promises, after all, are not just for Jews and not just about that land. There are some who believe in what is called Dispensationalism. It is the belief that the promises of land in the OT will be given to the Jews in a future time when Christians are raptured out of this world.
However, the promise of land is not merely about land. It is about God’s plan of redemption. The promises are promises of Salvation. They are promises that God will dwell with his people and that we will enjoy eternal life. So, it’s my belief that what the Lord is promising here is that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. It’s a promise that all God’s people will be gathered together into a kingdom that will not have the blot of sin and corruption.
This promise is what we find in Revelation 21-22. It’s the promise of a new heavens and a new earth, where in God dwells. It is looking forward to that time when the conquest of the earth will be fully achieved. It pertains to the second coming of Christ, when he will destroy the works of the devil once and for all.
This is telling us that just as God has been faithful in times past and is continuing to be faithful, we will see the finality of his faithfulness. He will be faithful to the very end when the seed of Satan is fully crushed and Christ is united to His people forever.
And you here today may rest assured that Jesus will bring to its full His promise of everlasting life and redemption. No matter what evils may yet exist, no matter what powers stand against our Lord, they will be conquered in the last Great Day, when our Victor (our Joshua) shall appear in the heavens. His heavenly hosts shall march forth and claim this earth once and for all. And all his foes will fall before him.
All this will likely become more clear as we go through the passage today. I just wanted you to get that visual before we start reading.
But let’s look at the Word of God together. Joshua 12:1.
Introduction:
After having read all about the battles in the last 6 chapters, this portion of Scripture probably doesn’t feel very stimulating. And rightfully so. What we have here is basically a ledger. We are reading just a recap of all the land that has been conquered. There are no battles; there are no great heroics or mighty miracles. All we have is a log book. It’s merely a catalog of victories and it sets out in words all of what I showed you in those maps just a moment ago.
As I mentioned, this section serves as a conclusion to section 2 of the book. It is a summary of all the gains God’s people have made in their conquest. But I want you to know that it is more than just a boring record of defeated kings. It is more than just a verbal map, so to speak. This section of Scripture is setting forth the faithfulness of God.
The person who wrote the book of Joshua could have easily skipped this stuff. It could have been left out and we could have easily transitioned into chapter 13. But instead of diving directly into the allotments of the land to all the different tribes the author felt it important to pause. He felt obligated to put this long list of places, territories, and defeated kings in the book which would be passed down from generation to generation.
And the reason he did that is because he wanted to leave just another testimony to how faithful God is. He wants to impress upon us one more time that God is true to his promises. That’s the whole point of this book. And even though this is very technical and precise and reads like something you might get out of the county auditor’s office, these words are here to impress upon us once again the fact that our God will not fail when it comes to His gospel promise.
And it reminds us that we can trust in God. We can trust him because he is faithful. And in our passage we see that God is faithful in every point of time. He’s been faithful past; he’s been faithful in the present, and we have the good hope and guarantee that he will be faithful in the future.
And if you’re the note taking time, you can jot that down because that’s the outline that we’re going to follow today.
We can begin by talking about God’s faithfulness in the past. That’s what the first 6 verses of chapter 12 tell us.
I. God’s faithfulness in the past [12:1-6]
Verses 1-6 tell us about what happened before Joshua took over as leader. This section looks back to the time when Moses was the leader of God’s people and was the de facto general of God’s army. We are taken back to the time before Joshua marched everyone across the Jordan River; when God’s people were East of that river in the Ammorite territories.
And what are we told? We read that God was faithful at that time. We are told that God brought about defeat these two kings Og and Sihon. Moses went into battle with them and low and behold, he won. And that was no small thing. Gaining victory over these two rulers was just as monumental as gaining the victory at Jericho or any of the campaigns of Joshua.
Let me just give you a real brief overview of Og and Sihon.
First of all, In verse two it talks about Sihon and it lays out his kingdom. But what I want you to notice is his name. Sihon’s name literally means “Warrior.” It comes from a word that means “to wipe out.” So whenever you see Sihon, you should think, “Mr. Destruction.”
And how do you think he got that name? Do you think that mom and dad looked at their newborn baby and said, “Let’s call him Killer.” “No, dear, I like the name Devastation. It has a nice ring to it.” Then he just happened to get elected as lord and prince of his territory. No, he probably got that name based on how he dealt with his enemies. He was a warrior. He was a man who was most likely reputed completely wiping out all his enemies.
Now think about Israel coming up out of Egypt to meet with Warrior-man. Do you think that battle might have been a little lopsided in terms of power. But God was faithful, wasn’t he? And God gave the victory.
Then in verse 4 it mentions Og. Notice what it says about good old Oggie. It says that he was one of the Rephaim. If you were here two weeks ago, we talked about the Anakim. They were these giants. The Rephaim were sort of like the cousins of the Anakim. They were massive people too. As a matter of fact, the book of Deuteronomy talks about Og and says that his bed was 6 feet wide and 13 feet long. I’d probably say that most of your bedrooms are barely 13 feet long!
So, this guy was humongous. And not only was he a giant, but he was as tough as nails. Deuteronomy says his bed was made out of iron. He was not sleeping on your Serta Perfect Sleeper. He didn’t have a perfectly cozy sleep number. His bed was iron.
And I would bet that he’s just representative of everyone who fought in his army. I’m pretty sure his army would have been made up of men who were larger than life and tougher than the iron he slept on.
But wouldn’t you know that Og the Giant met the same terrible end as Sihon the Warrior.
Really, these guys embody every ugly aspect of Satan. Defeating them is akin to the defeat of some part of Satan’s opposition.
And that’s the epitome of God’s promise. It’s a reminder to us that God is bringing about the end of Satan’s kingdom and no matter what forces of opposition are in the world. God has gained the victory. You just need to look to the past. You just need to see how he has been faithful in the ages that have gone by and you can be assured that God will accomplish all his promises to bring about his great redemption.
This is doubly so for me and you who live this side of the New Testament. We have the cross of Jesus Christ. We have the written testimony of his resurrection. There you have the defeat of the two ugliest giants that we can ever imagine: Sin and Death. Jesus Christ brought the sledge hammer down upon Satan’s head and defeated the Warrior who wants to wipe us out. The giant forces of evil were given a death blow, Christ triumphed over the principalities and the powers, nailing them to the cross.
That victory makes what Moses did to Og and Sihon look like child’s play.
Ought you not then to be encouraged? Don’t we have every reason to be confident that the kingdom of God will be victorious? We can be bold and we can trust God because He has promised the defeat of all His and our enemies and we have that promise written in the blood of His Son. We have the empty tomb to which we can look back for our assurance that these promises will not be broken.
So, if you are ever needing encouragement, just look back. Look back upon what God has done and remember how he has been faithful in the past.
But, by all means though, don’t limit it to the past. You don’t just have to look back to the past, you can look at what God is doing right now in the present. There’s plenty of validation to be gained just by reviewing what God has done our own time.
That is what the next part of our passage is all about. After speaking about what happened in the past under Moses, our passage talks about what happened in more contemporary times under Joshua.
II. God’s faithfulness in the present [12:7-24]
In verse 7 see is that there is a long list of kings that Joshua and his army had conquered in his day. As a matter of fact, the last verse sums it up by saying there were 31 kings who were deposed and their lands taken.
Now, the list of kings starts with the king of Jericho and basically follows the battle plan that we’ve studied (central campaign, southern campaign, and northern campaign). If you were to work your way through the list again, you would see a lot of familiar names and places: Ai, Bethel, Jerusalem, Hebron, and so forth.
But there are some kings mentioned here that were not part of the battles we studied. For instance, in verse 17 it mentions the king of Tappuah, 18) Aphek, Lasharon, Madon, etc. There are several more, but the point is that there were many more battles that Israel fought. There were many battles that we haven’t even heard of.
The point is this: No matter who they encountered, God was faithful in every single instance. Joshua’s basically saying, Yes, you’ve heard some pretty goods stories in this book. But let me tell you that there are plenty more to tell. We haven’t even begun to give you a full testimony of all the battles we’ve fought. But these are listed here so that you can know this: God promised to give us this land, and this list is a testimony that he has been true to exactly what he said he would do.
This may be a bore to read through, but if you read it in this light, it is much more devotional, isn’t it?
This list of kings should speak to you too. It should affirm to you that God has not stopped working. Just as he was at work in Joshua’s day, so too he is working in our time.
Now, we all struggle with trusting God. It’s part of who we are as sinners. We struggle with doubt. We question God’s faithfulness. We find ourselves in a rut where we are having some difficulty seeing clearly the fact that God is working in our day (in OUR life). That’s where you should practice this very thing.
If you are in a funk like that, do you know what you should do? You should make your own record. You should make your own list of all the ways that God is showing himself faithful. Instead of moping around, worrying, and wallowing in your discouragement, you should catalog all the ways God has been faithful. Just pull out a piece of paper and start making a record of how he has been faithful. And don’t be vague. Be specific.
He’s cared for me: He’s provided me breakfast, lunch, and dinner as long as I can remember. He’s given me a house with running water and flushing toilets. I’ve had more than sufficient shelter. I’ve had friends and family. I’ve been placed in the midst of a wonderful church family, brothers and sisters in Christ who lift me up in prayer and come along side me when I’m in need. I’ve been given the means of grace, I have a bible (I have multiple bibles). I have teachers and leaders in my life, mentors and examples of godliness.
I have been given grace for my sins: sins of omission and commission, intentional sins and sins that I have done without any sort of premeditation, sins of ignorance and sins that I know I should not have done. I’ve been forgiven in full for sins I’ve committed in the past, sins of youth, sins of age. I’ve been blessed to overcome some sins and gain the victory over certain temptations.
And here you can name specifically the struggles. Point out each ugly king and power that has been strung up just like Joshua did.
And the good news is that God is always at work. He’s at work far and beyond the things going on in your own little life. God is still demonstrating his faithfulness to bring to nothing the kingdom of Satan. God is at work all around the world and none of it is being recorded on CNN. They do not want you to know about what is going on in places like Iran and the Sudan.
This past week another article was published telling us of the growth of Christianity in Iran. It is illegal to become a Christian in Iran and it is punishable by death to share the gospel in that country, but Iran continues to be the place where Christianity is growing the fastest. That’s even despite Christians who are fleeing the country for their lives and despite the intensive crackdown on underground churches.
There may be opposition there, but that will not stop God from being faithful to build his church and not let the gates of Hell prevail.
I think I’ve told you before that I try to keep tabs on Sudan. I’d prayed for that nation in particular for several years. Listen to this headline that came out this past week: Sudan Agrees … to Remove Islam as State Religion. The article reports that this move is to guarantee the Christians in that region more religious freedom so they can worship and not fear national persecution.
And we can go on to talk about all the persecutions of Boca Haran, North Koreans, Chinese Marxists, and even things here in this country. We can praise God that God is still faithful. Even these very persecutions are used by God. The Lord is just shuffling Christians around so that they are in the right place to do more ministry and further build God’s kingdom in this world. Just remember that every time a church is scattered it takes the light of the glory of Christ to new areas.
And lest you think that the COVID restrictions have somehow hindered the faithfulness of God, just know that God is doing great things. I’ve heard of at least 3 progressive churches that have closed. If that were not good enough, their buildings were either given or sold to solid evangelical church plants that were needing a place to meet. And really, I can’t wait to hear of all the great stories of how God has used the Corona to bring about His plans and purposes in this world.
All this is to say is that we need only look around. God is always at work. Even as his people live under the cross and experience the hardships of this world’s evils, God is enlarging his kingdom, establishing his purposes, thwarting Satan’s devices, and convoluting the foes that are bent on stopping Him from his achieving His worldwide dominion.
God has been faithful. He’s been faithful in the past and he is just as faithful today. And so we should be encouraged. And we should be delighted at the fact that there is still more to come.
We may have come to the end of chapter 12, but I had us read over into chapter 13 because that tells us of what God will yet do in the future.
III. God’s faithfulness in the future [13:1-7]
The first seven verses of chapter 13 talk about the land that Joshua has not yet gained possession of. But it is land that, as it says in verse 6, the Lord will still yet drive them out. So even though these regions have not yet been touched, God is promising that that territory will come under the dominion of God and his people. In the future, you can bet that it will be conquered and possessed.
Now, some of the places may be familiar. For instance, in verse 2 it talks about the land of the Philistines. You know that later on in redemptive history we read about David and how he had a lot of battles with the Philistines. Eventually David did take control of those lands.
Then it talks about the land of the Geshurites. This is land up by the sea of Galilee. It was not touched by Joshua. But During the time of Solomon, it came under Israelite control. As a matter of fact, much of the territory listed here came to be controlled by Solomon. There was a tremendous expansion of territory during that time. Solomon didn’t fight any wars, but he gained dominion over vast amounts of land. The Israelite borders were the most expansive they ever were under Solomon, stretching from Egypt to the Euphrates River.
But there are some interesting things to note: First, some of these lands were never possessed. For instance, in verse 5 it talks about Lebanon. So far as I know, that area was never gained, either by David or Solomon.
What’s more, many of the people groups in these areas were never driven out. For instance, those lands on the outskirts of Solomon’s territory were never inhabited by God’s people. They were merely vassal states. There were pagans in that land who were subjugated. They were not driven out.
So there’s a sense in which the Lord never fulfilled those promises.
And I like to believe that this is something that is still yet for our future. I like to say that this is ultimately pointing to the fact that God’s promises were not necessarily for that one little sliver of land or just for the Jews. But what Joshua is pointing to is that the whole earth will be subdued. All the earth will be God’s and all those who do not acknowledge the Lord Jesus will be driven out in the ultimate sense.
The promises, after all, are not just for Jews and not just about that land. There are some who believe in what is called Dispensationalism. It is the belief that the promises of land in the OT will be given to the Jews in a future time when Christians are raptured out of this world.
However, the promise of land is not merely about land. It is about God’s plan of redemption. The promises are promises of Salvation. They are promises that God will dwell with his people and that we will enjoy eternal life. So, it’s my belief that what the Lord is promising here is that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. It’s a promise that all God’s people will be gathered together into a kingdom that will not have the blot of sin and corruption.
This promise is what we find in Revelation 21-22. It’s the promise of a new heavens and a new earth, where in God dwells. It is looking forward to that time when the conquest of the earth will be fully achieved. It pertains to the second coming of Christ, when he will destroy the works of the devil once and for all.
This is telling us that just as God has been faithful in times past and is continuing to be faithful, we will see the finality of his faithfulness. He will be faithful to the very end when the seed of Satan is fully crushed and Christ is united to His people forever.
And you here today may rest assured that Jesus will bring to its full His promise of everlasting life and redemption. No matter what evils may yet exist, no matter what powers stand against our Lord, they will be conquered in the last Great Day, when our Victor (our Joshua) shall appear in the heavens. His heavenly hosts shall march forth and claim this earth once and for all. And all his foes will fall before him.