As I read Joshua 11 on Saturday morning, I found myself having flashbacks to the movie from the night before. Every now and then, Jon and I get a craving to watch The Lord of the Rings again. We watched The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers a few months ago, but we weren’t able to get to The Return of the King until Friday night (our date night was long overdue, and we finally slowed down enough to do it in part because I slipped on our icy front porch with my hands full and nailed my knees and chin on the concrete). While reading about the kings and their armies that were amassing to fight against Israel in the first three verses of Joshua 11, I couldn’t help but remember the swarms of orcs, trolls, and men with their oliphaunts, battering rams, and catapults marching toward Minas Tirith, the capital of Gondor, in the Battle of Pelennor Fields. They far outnumbered the forces of Gondor and its allies, and their weapons and resources were much more impressive and menacing. With a few substitutions, verse 4 could have easily been describing that particular scene in the movie: “They came out, they and all their armies with them, as many people as the sand that is on the seashore, with very many horses and chariots.”
Human
logic dictates that it would be foolish for Joshua to lead Israel, a nation of
former slaves and wanderers, into such a mismatched battle. How could they possibly continue their
conquest of the Promised Land with so many kings of the land united
together? They had every earthly reason
to cower in fear. Retreating in
disobedience would have been easier than continuing in the face of such
adversity. However, Israel had seen God
work on their behalf in miraculous, if not seemingly illogical, ways
before. He tore down the wall of Jericho
with seven days of marching and a shout, He finished off the alliance of five
kings with large hailstones, and He even stopped the sun when Joshua
asked. With the arrival of this sea of
warriors, God once again told Joshua, “Do not be afraid because of them, for
tomorrow at this time I will deliver all of them slain before Israel; you shall
hamstring their horses and burn their chariots with fire” (v. 6). Joshua knew what many people today still
don’t understand:
Isaiah 31:1
“Woe to those
who go down to Egypt for help
And rely on
horses,
And trust in
chariots because they are many
And in horsemen
because they are very strong,
But they do not
look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the Lord!”
Psalm 20:7
“Some boast in
chariots and some in horses, but we will boast in the name of the LORD, our
God.”
Romans 8:31
“What then shall
we say to these things? If God is for
us, who is against us?”
When God is on your side, fear and
disobedience become the illogical choices, regardless of how daunting and
impossible your circumstances appear to be.
When God asks you to do something or to endure something, He will not
abandon you. He will provide exactly
what is needed when it is needed, and you can be confident that His purpose
will prevail. It may not be painless or
effortless on your part, but the outcome will be worth it, even if that outcome
is not revealed until this earth has passed away. He is the only one in whom we can place all
of our trust.
Who or what are you trusting in today? The nations that came against Israel trusted
in their own power and their own resources, and they were completely
slaughtered. Joshua trusted God and His
promises and obeyed His commands; as a result, he was victorious in
accomplishing what God had commanded him to do.
I know I am easily tempted to trust in my own strength and resources,
but apart from God, I have nothing and can do nothing of eternal value. Finances, jobs, loved ones, homes, abilities,
freedom, and sharpness of mind can all disappear more quickly than the vapor of
your breath on a chilled window. The
very things we want to put all our weight on when times get tough shift and
cave out from underneath us. Our heavenly
Father is our only firm foundation, our only steady ground, our only unfailing
rescuer, and our only everlasting strength.
If we rely on Him, He will carry us through all that He asks us to do
and face.
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