The Southern Campaign

If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Joshua chapter 9. Joshua chapter 9.

Isn't it kind of wild that right now we're studying in Joshua, the children of Israel taking the land, and in our world right now, we're hearing constantly about the children of Israel trying to keep the land. So, kind of interesting, but in both of them, it is the same God. And so, we'll see some stories of God's faithfulness tonight, as we will continue to see stories of God's faithfulness with the nation of Israel now. So, we pick up in chapter 9.

Now, the title that I've given to this evening is The Southern Campaign. So, remember we said that Jericho and Ai sat right about the middle of Israel. And so, they came across the Jordan River, and they're coming from the east to the west to cross the Jordan River into the nation of Israel. Canaan at that point in time. And as they crossed over, they first of all came to Jericho,

and they took Jericho in that miraculous way by simply marching around the city, yelling, and then God knocked the walls down. It was great. And then they came to Ai. Uh-oh, right? Things were a little bit wrong at Ai at first because there was sin in the camp, but they dealt with the sin, and as they dealt with the sin, they were ready to move in and take Ai.

And so, they took Ai. Well, now as we come to chapter 9, they've sort of driven a wedge right in between so that now there's, two different portions of the land left, the south and the north. So, they have to decide how they're going to take this, only the decision is going to be made for them. Now, we ended the last chapter with that beautiful picture, that beautiful renewing of the covenant, doing exactly what Moses had told them to do when they came into the land.

They built an altar, they wrote down the law, and they sat up there on those two mountains, and they declared the blessings of obedience and the curses of disobedience. And what an amazing spiritual time that had to have been for the nation of, Israel to do that, as they renewed that covenant, something that Moses had told them to do when they entered the land. And now here they are in the land, able to do that. And so, as we pick up in chapter 9, I wanted you to pay attention to something because I've titled chapter 9 of these two chapters, Deceived by Gibeon.

It says in chapter 9, verse 1, Now, it came about when all the kings who were beyond the Jordan, in the coast of the great sea, or excuse me, in the hill country, and in the lowlands, and on all the coast of the great sea toward Lebanon, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, heard of it, that they gathered themselves together in one accord to fight with Joshua and with Israel. When the inhabitants of Gibeon had heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, they all said what God had been doing with the nation of Israel, how they had been taking over some pretty good things, some pretty powerful cities at that point in time. And so they decided maybe the best thing that they could do

is even though normally they might be enemies against each other, they decided perhaps they could come together so that they could take over the nation of Israel. Sort of sound familiar to you? Kind of sounds a little bit like what's going on today. It's kind of fascinating, right? That once we come up with an enemy that we can agree upon, the enemy of my enemy

is my friend, right? And so that's kind of what happens here. And so, that sort of sets the stage for where things are in the south right now of the land of Canaan. There is an alliance that is forming because they are fearful of the nation of Israel. But there is one city that's going to make a little bit of a different plan. They're going to decide to do something

just a little bit differently. So I want you to notice what Gibeon does. It says in verse 3, when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, they also acted craftily and set out as all envoys and took worn out sacks on their donkeys, wineskins worn out and torn and mended, and worn out and patched sandals on their feet, and worn out clothes on themselves, and all the bread of their provision was dry and had become crumbled. They went to Joshua to the camp at Gilgal, and they said to him and to the men of Israel, we've come from a far country, now therefore make a covenant with us.

The men of Israel said to the Hivites, perhaps you are living within our land. How then shall we make a covenant with you? They said to Joshua, we are your servants. Joshua said to them, who are you and where do you come from? They said to him, your servants have come from a very far country because of the fame of the Lord your God. For we have heard the report of him

and all that he did in Egypt and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon and to Og king of Bashan, who is at Ashteroth. So our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us saying, take provisions in your hand for your journey. Go to meet them and say to them, we are your servants. Now then make a covenant with us.

This our bread was warm when we took it for our provisions out of our houses on the day that we left to come to you. But now behold, it is dry and has become crumbled. These wineskins which we filled were new. And behold, they are torn. And these, our clothes and our sandals are worn out because of the very long journey. So the men of Israel took some of their provisions

and did not ask counsel of the Lord. So this is the scene, right? The Gibeonites are like, we have a plan. Let's tell them we came from a really long ways away. Let's show them that we're a really poor people and maybe they'll make some sort of a covenant with us. And so that's what they do, right? Can you imagine? They're like, what's the oldest clothes anyone has?

They put on really old clothes. They put on their most worn out shoes. They find the nastiest bread out of the trash can, right? The stuff they should have thrown away three weeks ago. They find the oldest wineskins that they could possibly find that they dug out of the garbage heap. And they said, let's go visit Joshua. Now, before we get into what they did here,

I do want you to pay attention to something because it is truly, again, a picture of God's keeping his promise. Because I want you to think about what all the Gibeonites said that they had heard about God. They had heard about what he had done to Egypt. They had heard about what he had done to Sihon and Og. And they had heard about what he had done to Jericho and Ai.

That's a lot to have heard about considering there was no social media or newspapers at that point in time. I find that to be fascinating that they knew those things. What gets me the most is that they knew what happened in Egypt. Because we're going 40 years prior to this is when all that happened, right? God is always good to keep his promise when it comes to sending forth

his fear in front of us. And so that's exactly what happens. So these Gibeonites come and they're like, hey, listen, we just want you to make a covenant with us, right? Because we're from a really far away land. We think your God is the greatest thing since sliced bread, which clearly we don't have very much of anymore. And we think that you should make a covenant with us.

But I want you to take note of something. Before we get into Joshua's mistake here, I want you to take note of what it says in verse four. It says, they also acted craftily. If you're reading the old King James, it says wily, something along those lines. From what I understand in my studying, the root word that's used there for that word craftily is the same word that's used

in Ephesians chapter six when it refers to the wiles of the devil or the craftiness of the devil when he tells us to put on the full armor, armor of God to be able to withstand the craftiness of the devil. Now, before we get into anything else, I want to tell you this. We must beware of the craftiness of the enemy. We must beware of his deception because the enemy, if he cannot blatantly lie to us, he will do it in a crafty sort of way.

He will try to make the lie look as much like the truth as he can while making it a lie. This is kind of what's going on right now in the world, right? This is kind of even what's going on. Some people think that Israel are the ones that are the bad guys and the Palestinians are the good guys because the enemy works very craftily. And we must beware of that.

That's why we must always know the truth so that we can be able to discern the lie. And so, they act craftily and they fool Joshua, but I want you to take note of the fact that Joshua sees a red flag. Did you see that? Did you see that? Did you see that? Did you see what it says in verse 7? It says, The men of Israel said to the Hivites, Perhaps you are living

within our land. How then shall we make a covenant with you? In today's culture, we call that a red flag, right? That's what Joshua saw there. He's like, Something seems off with this story. Something feels off with this story. Now, friends, I'm going to tell you something. When the Holy Spirit is at work in your life, and you are pursuing the things of God,

and you know the truth, when you see the red flag, you should pay attention to the red flag. When discernment takes its grip on you, and you have that uncomfortable feeling about something, you should pursue that uncomfortable feeling until either A, the lie is exposed, or B, turns out it was bad pizza, right? But you should pursue that, because when those red flags come up, you need to pay attention to them, because the Holy Spirit is telling you something's off here. I tell you that because when the Holy Spirit begins to give discernment about something, you initially feel really bad about it, right?

I don't know how many of you have experienced this before, but the Holy Spirit begins to give you a little bit of discernment about something, and you're like, what's off with that person? What's off with this situation? What's off with that thing? And then immediately you go, oh, I'm being judgmental. I'm the one that's being the jerk right now. Well, maybe,

but pursue it. Continue to seek out the truth when those red flags come up, because if Joshua would have done that, he might have saved himself a little bit of trouble here. So, he sees the red flag, but he doesn't pursue the red flag. No, we're from way far away, right? And so it says in verse 14, so the men of Israel took some of their provisions, and this is the last point

that I want to make about this, and they did not ask for the counsel of the Lord. They did not ask for the counsel of the Lord. One of them, the tools that the enemy uses in our lives is he causes us to think we have to make a decision today. You don't have time to ask God about this, right? Like the enemy's the ultimate used car salesman. Like, no, no, this deal

will only be here today, right? And once it's gone, it's gone, and you're just going to have to live with that. And something that I am in the process of learning, and that hopefully we all are in the process of learning, is that in the will of God, I've got nothing but time. In the will of God, I have time to seek the counsel of God. Because how many issues,

I bet each of us could tell stories about the issues that we've gotten ourselves into because we did not first seek the counsel of the Lord. It sounded good. There were red flags. But ultimately, you had to make a decision now, and so you did. You didn't take time to seek the Lord, and you found yourself going, oops, that was a bad idea. This is exactly where Joshua

and the children of Israel find themselves. They don't seek the Lord. And so what do they do? Verse 15, So Joshua made peace with them. He made a covenant with them to let them live. And the leaders of the congregation swore an oath to them. So now we move on to verse 16. It says, And it came about at the end of three days, after they had made a covenant with them,

that they heard that they were neighbors and that they were living within their land. Then the sons of Israel set out and came to their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon and Shephira and Beroth and Kiriath-Jerim. The sons of Israel did not strike them because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by the Lord, the God of Israel.

The whole congregation grumbled against the elders. So here's the question that I have. What happened three days later? How did they discover this? This is Ryan's philosophy on this. Ryan's thought is that what did Joshua have a tendency to do? He had a tendency to send out spies to the next place where they were going to be attacking. I think, we're not told this in Scripture,

so this and 495, we'll get you coffee at Starbucks. But I think Joshua sent out spies and they were like,

those are the guys we just talked to the other day. They have brand new clothes on right now. They lied to us. That's what I think happened. Now, is that what happened? I don't know. But three days later, they figured it out. They figured out that these guys were living amongst them and of course, they can't strike them down now because they'd made a covenant.

They can't be the people that go back on their covenant. To God, promises are really important and Joshua knew that. And so everybody's a little bit upset right now with the leaders. It says in verse 19, but all the leaders said to the whole congregation, we have sworn to them by the Lord, the God of Israel, and now we can't touch them. This we will do to them.

Even let them live so that wrath will not be upon us for the oath which we swore. The leader said to them, let them live so they became hewers of wood and drawers of water for the whole congregation just as the leaders had spoken to them. Then Joshua called for them and spoke to them saying, why have you deceived us? We are very far from you when you, by saying we are very far from you, when you are, we are living within our land.

Now therefore you are cursed. You shall never cease being slaves. Hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God. So the answer Joshua said, because it was certainly told your servants that the Lord your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land before you. Therefore we fear greatly for our lives

because of you and have done this. Now behold, we are in your hands. Do as it seems good and right in your sight to do to us. Thus he did to them, delivered them from the hands of the sons of Israel and they did not kill them. But Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord to this day and the place

which he should choose. Another black mark on Joshua, right? Another mark against him because he didn't take time to seek the Lord. But praise God that God is gracious, right? And that's the last point that I want to make to us out of chapter 9. Is that God in his grace even uses our mistakes for his glory. Because do you know what's going to happen with the Gibeonites?

Well the first thing that's going to happen with the Gibeonites is the Gibeonites are going to give an opportunity for God to show his glory in a way that the children of Israel have never seen before. And we'll see that in chapter 10. Not only that, but do you know that for a time the tabernacle will be set up in the area of Gibeon. And it will be a place that houses the house of worship for the children of Israel.

And then as you continue on down into the history of the nation of Israel you come to the book of Nehemiah. And you find that when the children of Israel come back into the land the temple is rebuilt under Ezra but Nehemiah builds a wall around Jerusalem to protect him. You know who some of their greatest allies that helped them build the wall were? The Gibeonites.

Isn't that great? Because God in his grace takes our mistakes and out of them he produces something beautiful. Because when we put our mistakes in the hands of God and say Lord you're going to have to fix this that's exactly what he does. He takes that which is our greatest mistake and he does something powerful with it. I would venture to say that anybody that God has used greatly

would look back and say that God has taken their worst moments and turned it into God's greatest victories. Because that is what God does by his grace. And so that brings us to chapter 10. It says now it came about in chapter 10 I have labeled defeating the southern kings. Now it came about when Adonai Zedek king of Jerusalem heard that Joshua had captured Ai

and had utterly destroyed it just as he had done to Jericho and its king so he had done to Ai and its king and that the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were within their land that he feared greatly because Gibeon was a great city like one of the royal cities and because it was greater than Ai and all its men were mighty. Therefore Adonai Zedek king of Jerusalem sent word to I'm going to butcher these names I'm going to do the best I can here Hoham king of Hebron to Piram king of Jarmath to Japhia king of Lachish and to Debir king of Eglon saying come up to me and help me and let us attack pay attention Gibeon for it has made peace with Joshua and with the sons of Israel. So if you will most of chapter 9

was like a parenthetical statement right? So all of the kings of the south are scared and they decide to form an alliance. Gibeon does a little something different and they deceive Joshua into making a covenant with him but now we go back to the kings that wanted to make an alliance and now the king of Jerusalem sees not only what Joshua and the children of Israel have done to Jericho and Ai but he also sees that Gibeon has made a covenant with the children of Israel and so he gathers all of his friends together those four other kings so five all together a five nation confederation if you will or a five city state confederation and they go to attack not the children of Israel they go to attack Gibeon because Gibeon is sort of the one

that got out of the alliance therefore they attack the one who had left the alliance that is going to draw the children of Israel into a battle that they didn't think they were ready for. So it says in verse five so the five kings of the Amorites the king of Jerusalem the king of Hebron and the king of Jarmuth the king of Lachish and the king of Eglon gathered together and went up they with all their armies encamped by Gibeon and fought against it then the men of Gibeon sent word to Joshua to the camp at Gilgal saying don't abandon your servants come up to us quickly and save us and help us for all the kings of the Amorites that live in the hill country have assembled against us. Okay don't read any further yet Joshua has a choice he has to make now.

Joshua has to decide what kind of a man he's going to be at this point in time because he has made a covenant with the people of Gibeon that he is their ally and now he is faced with a battle that I would call overwhelming because up to this point in time they've been nervous to take on Jericho a single city Ai a single city only now they're going to have to take on five cities. Isn't it amazing that in our walk with God things don't get easier as we go. It's almost like the closer you get to God the bigger the battle gets right? The bigger the enemy is that you face.

You know why? Because each battle that you face prepares you for something bigger. Each battle that you face prepares you for something better. Only you know what we think as humans? We're all looking for that safe place on this side of eternity where I just stop fighting. We'll call it retirement. Right? I'm just going to retire from the battle. Listen, you can retire from your job

but you can't retire from the battle because the longer that you walk with Jesus the more intense the battle becomes. The more intense it becomes because the greater the enemy is that you face because now you know God better than you ever have before. Therefore, the enemy comes at you harder than he ever has before. I've shared with you stories about a good friend of mine who's home with Jesus now.

His name was Truman Page and he lived at Lakeview Village and he taught me so much and he was such a great man of God and he knew so much about the Bible and I was so impressed with him. I will never forget going to visit him when he was in the health care center within about two weeks of him going home to be with Jesus and him telling me, Ryan, I am more aware of my need for the grace of God today than I ever have been in my entire life. You know why? Because the longer he walked with God the greater the enemy was that he faced.

And that's what Joshua and the children of Israel are about to face. What? First it was Jericho then it was Ai now it's five of them coming at me at one time and really not even my battle because I'm not Gibeon. All I have to do is pretend I never got that message. All I have to do is pretend I never heard from Gibeon. They get wiped out takes care of my covenant

and then I can start handling those city states one at a time. What will he do? Joshua was a man of character. Notice what it says. So Joshua went up from Gilgal. He and all the people of war with him and all the valiant warriors. Now I love this because in this we again see the character of Joshua. We see that he is a man of character and he is a man of his word.

And may I say those whom God would use must be men and women of their word. They must be men and women of character. But in this also we see an interesting picture of Christ. Do we not? Because the Gibeonites were not deserving of the help of Joshua because they had deceived Joshua and yet because of the promise that Joshua made he came to their aid when they asked for help.

Sort of sounds like us, right? We're not worthy of the help of Jesus but because of the promise of God. Because of the promise that he made he will come to us every time we ask for help. And that's exactly what Joshua does. Only Joshua is scared. Do you know how I know that Joshua is scared? Look at verse 8. The Lord said to Joshua Do not fear them for I have given them into your hands.

Not one of them shall stand before you. Now I know that Joshua was scared because God told him do not fear. And God doesn't use words he doesn't need to use. But when we are the most fearful that's when God shows up to remind us you don't have to be afraid. Because I know that the enemy that you face is greater than you can handle. I know that the enemy that you face

is greater than anything that you've seen before greater than anything that you feel like you're prepared for greater than anything that you want to face but I am with you and I have delivered them into your hands and I don't know who in here tonight is facing an enemy that feels too great for you an enemy that feels too good for you an enemy that feels too good for you an enemy that feels like more than you can handle an enemy that quite frankly you don't want to have to take on but I want you to know something God has made a promise He says do not fear for I have given them into your hands. Not one of them shall stand before you. You know what this reminds me of? The verbiage of this kind of brought me back to when

Moses was at the edge of the Red Sea with the children of Israel and in front of him was an insurmountable man an insurmountable sea and behind him was an insurmountable army and he stuck with a bunch of people who were complaining and saying why did you bring us out in the wilderness just to kill us out here and Joshua stood right next to him and God told Moses don't be afraid because these Egyptians that you see before you today you will see again no more forever I love it because Joshua was right next to Moses so you would think Joshua would not be afraid because Joshua had seen God's mighty hand in the parting of the Red Sea and the destruction of the Egyptian army and yet as Joshua was having to face it as a leader what does he have to be told?

Don't be afraid because I've delivered them into your hands. Not one of them is going to escape. You're going to defeat them all because you see the promises that God gives to other people we need to hear for ourselves. The victory that God gives to other people is wonderful it is as it is to hear the stories of other people and it is wonderful to hear the stories of other people eventually God wants us to experience it for ourselves because God does not want us to live off of the victories of others He wants us to live off of the victories that He brings into our lives and so He tells Joshua do not fear them for I have given them into your hand not one of them shall stand before you so notice what it says verse 9 so Joshua came upon them suddenly

by marching all night from Gilead and the Lord confounded them before Israel and He slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon and He pursued them by the way of the ascent of Beth Horon and struck them as far as Ezekiah and Makedah as they fled before Israel while they were at the descent of Beth Horon the Lord threw large hailstones from heaven on them as far as Ezekiah and they died and there were more who died from the hailstones than those whom the sons of Israel killed with the sword then Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the sons of Israel and He said in the sight of all Israel O sun stand still at Gibeon and O moon in the valley of Aihalon so the sun stood still and the moon stopped

until the nation avenged themselves of their enemies for a whole day there was no day like that before it or after it when the Lord listened to the voice of a man for the Lord fought for Israel personal opinion here this is one of the coolest chapters in all of the Bible right I can't explain anything that happens in this chapter scientifically I don't have to we'll get to that as I see it there are three major miracles that take place here so Joshua and the children of Israel have marched all night long from what I understand it's about a 25 mile march a lot of it uphill so they've marched all night long so they're without sleep a little bit exhausted and now they're facing an enemy that's insurmountable so if you will they're coming into it weak

and they're coming into it facing an enemy that there's no way on God's green earth apart from the help of God that they would ever be able to defeat and so God does three incredibly miraculous things the first thing it says that God does is that the Lord confounded them or He confused them in other words no matter how good a military strategist they were leading up to that they were terrible military strategists now why? because God confused them now I don't know what this looks like I don't know what it means that God confounded them I don't know if they were all just like what do we do? right I don't know how that worked but somehow God confused them to where they were much easier to take over so the first thing that God does

is cause military confusion amongst them and so they're able to go in and begin to defeat them but the people start to flee and as the enemy armies are fleeing what does God do? number two He sends large hailstones I don't know a ton about the nation of Israel or the area but I did spend about a little over two years living in Southern California in what they call a Mediterranean climate in other words a climate that's incredibly similar to what it's like in Israel you know what I never saw the whole time that I lived in that Mediterranean climate? hail hail hail hail hail in October Kansas that's a Tuesday right? like we're used to that like if it hailed tomorrow we'd be like yeah we saw that coming because that's just what happens in Kansas

even though it's October we'd be like man it's Kansas in Israel that's a thing right? like that's miraculous not only is it miraculous but he sends large hailstones down and it's just obliterating people right? like like this is a Bugs Bunny cartoon right? people are running right? getting wiped out by hailstones matter of fact the children of Israel can claim victory all they want to

but it says more than one of the people died from the hailstones than those whom the sons of Israel killed with the sword right? the angels are just up there going phoom right? just chucking those things at the people and God is just bringing this miraculous victory why? because the Lord fought for the nation of Israel you know what's fascinating to me? this is not the only time

in the history of the nation of Israel that we have seen this this is not the only time in the nation of in the history of the nation of Israel that they will see this and it's not the only time in the nation of Israel that they will see it in the future because it happened throughout the book of of Exodus it happens now in the book of Joshua it will happen later in the books of the kings it happened in what was it? 1948? was it 48? 46?

one of those wars that they fought where there's no way they should have won and they absolutely wiped out the enemy I'm kind of excited to see what's going to happen next over here because God fights for his people but not only did he confound them not only did he shoot large hailstones down on them this is where it gets wacky Joshua spoke to the Lord in the valley of Aihelan so the sun stood still and the moon stopped what was that again? I don't know how that happened how can that happen? so we know that the earth is moving on its axis even though we say that the sun rises and sets what really happens is that the earth is moving on its axis what really happens is that the earth is moving on its axis the earth moves, right?

that's what the sun rising and setting is like while the sun is going down on this side of the earth the sun is coming up on the other side of the earth because the earth is moving so how did the sun and the moon stop? there's a lot of different thoughts that are out there I genuinely have no idea I mean I suppose we could look at some some scientific things Chuck Smith always quotes this book worlds and clouds and collision by Immanuel Velikovsky if you ever listen to and you should if you ever listen to the bible with Chuck especially the Old Testament starting in Genesis all the way through about half of the Old Testament you should just take note of all the times he references Immanuel Velikovsky's worlds in collision because it's a lot

but he talks about the fact that there is actually a record of an extra long night I think somewhere down in the Amazon because of an extra long day in the Middle East kind of trippy right? so what actually caused this? scientifically? I have no idea but here's what I do know the God who created the heavens and the earth the God who hung the sun in its place the God who hung the moon in its place the God who told the oceans how far to go and no farther the God that holds hailstones which he was throwing at them at that point in time in a storehouse it's not too hard for him to do whatever he wants to he could put the sun wherever he wants to he can hold the moon wherever he wants to because he is God and this always brings me back

to one massively important point when you study the word of God if you can believe Genesis chapter 1-1 you should have no problem with the rest of the Bible if you can believe that in the beginning God bara the heavens and the earth created from nothing spoken to existence because bara is the Hebrew word for that the heavens and the earth then I have no problem believing that God can stop the sun for a little while could the earth keep spinning? sure, could God go with the sun? better doggone believe it I don't know how he does it I just know he did and the whole reason that he did it is so that they could continue the work of destruction of their enemies and if there's any question because you know as Joshua was writing this

no one's going to believe this he says hey I'm not the only guy writing this it's also in the book of Jasher now, fascinatingly enough I used to go to church with a guy named Dr. Ken Johnson Dr. Ken Johnson attends church up at Calvary Chapel of Johnson County he is biblically one of the smartest people I've ever been around in my entire life and historically one of the smartest people I've ever been around in my entire life and he has copies of things like the book of Jasher in English I actually have a copy of it in my office and so I look to double check is this in the book of Jasher? yep, sure is it's in there it's a non-biblical historical document that tells that story isn't that great?

so we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is true because that's how powerful God is it says and there was verse 14 no day like that before it or after it when the Lord listened to the voice of a man for the Lord fought for Israel now usually I always apply these things to us and I will for just a moment and say the Lord fights for us in this exact same way but given the current culture in the world right now I want to remind us the Lord fights for Israel there's a great psalm that says the Lord is a warrior and the Lord is mighty in battle so verse 15 says then Joshua and all Israel with him returned to the camp of Gilgal now these five kings had fled and hidden themselves in the cave at Makeda and it was told Joshua saying the five kings

have been found hidden in the cave of Makeda and Joshua said roll large stones against the mouth of the cave and assign men by it to guard them but do not stay there yourselves pursue your enemies and you will be saved and attack them do not allow them to enter their cities for the Lord your God has delivered them into your hand and it came about when Joshua and the sons of Israel had finished slaying them with a very great slaughter until they were destroyed and the survivors who remained of them had entered the fortified city that the people returned to the camp to Joshua and Makeda in peace no one uttered a word against any of the sons of Israel and Joshua said open the mouth of the cave and bring these five kings out to me from the cave

and they did so they brought these five kings out to him from the cave the king of Jerusalem the king of Hebron the king of Jarmath the king of Lachish and the king of Eglon when they brought these kings to Joshua Joshua called for all the men of Israel said to the chiefs of the men of war who had gone with him come near and put your feet on the necks of these kings so they came near and put their feet on their necks and Joshua said to them do not fear or be dismayed be strong and courageous for thus the Lord will do to all your enemies with whom you fight so afterward Joshua struck them and put them to death and he hanged them on five trees and they hung on the trees until evening they came about at sunset that Joshua gave a command

and they took them down from the trees and they threw them into the cave where they had hidden themselves and put large stones over the mouth of the cave to this very day Joshua captured Makeda on that day and struck it and its king with the edge of the sword and he utterly destroyed it and every person who was in it he left no survivor thus he did to Makeda just as he had done to the king of Jericho now I want to point something out because that sounds like a pretty brutal thing that Joshua did right brings these five kings out lays them all on the ground can you imagine that lays them all on the ground and Joshua who I always I don't know why but I always picture in my mind him being kind of a mild mannered sort of a guy I think because he was

Moses' assistant all those years it may not all be who he was but that's kind of how I view him and he says I want you to put your feet on the necks of the kings and I've made sure that's exactly what that means in the Hebrew put your feet on their necks you know why because he told them that's what God's going to do to all of your enemies now in our minds we go oh my gosh that's that's horrific what about compassion listen I believe in compassion but I believe in the destruction of evil and those kings were given a lot of time to repent you know you know how I know that because living in the camp of the Israelites is a girl by the name of Rahab and Rahab when she knew that the God of Israel was coming didn't lie about it didn't

try to deceive anybody and didn't try to fight against it she simply asked for mercy because she knew that the God of Israel was the one true God and God showed mercy to her there is grace for the humble and law for the proud and while I absolutely believe in mercy I believe in the destruction of evil and that's exactly what takes place right there and Joshua tells them don't fear don't be afraid don't be dismayed for this is what the Lord will do to all of your enemies and so they destroy those five kings and we pick up in verse 29 actually I'm just going to summarize for you what takes place in verses 29 29 through 41 Joshua defeats all of the other cities of the south it says in verse 41 so Joshua struck them I mean I could read it to you

but that's what it says Joshua struck them all those cities he took them all out from Kadesh Barnea even as far as Gaza and all the country of Goshen even as far as Gibeon now that's not the Goshen of Egypt it's another region known as Goshen it doesn't go that far Joshua captured all these kings and their lands at one time there it is again because the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel so Joshua and all Israel with him returned to the camp at Gilgal I can't overemphasize this point enough it would be impossible for me to do so God fights for you God fights for you in every way possible and we need to know that we face strong enemies today we face strong enemies today we face strong enemies today we face the enemies of the world

we face the enemies of the flesh and we face the enemies of the devil and sometimes we can find ourselves going the enemy is too great for me but greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world and God fights for you every day and we need to know that because we need to walk not as people who are walking in fear we need to not live in these days as people who are fearful we need to live as people who have a God on their side who has already been already fought for us we just simply need to walk in the victory that he's given to us because right now the church is so afraid to be the church the church is so afraid to carry the message of truth the church is so afraid to carry the message of the gospel because we're afraid

it's going to offend somebody and right now we need to understand that God fights for us but not only does God fight for us but God fights for Israel and as we see these things happening in the nation of Israel right now we need to remember that God fights for Israel and we pray for them we pray for them as they're going through this time because right now the world is by and large on their side I don't know if you've seen some of the different capitals of countries that have put the either put the Israeli flag up in lights on their on their capital buildings or they've shined blue I think Paris has I think they have in London Greece some different countries some different places like that where they've really shown support for the nation of Israel

but underneath of it all you can hear the chants you can hear the chants for the Palestinians some of them are in our own congress unfortunately and right now we need to pray that those people will be gone that they will be ousted in some way shape or form because those that would stand with Palestine do not stand with God nor do they stand with anything that this nation's values stand for and if you're going to hold on to that a Palestinian flag then you'd better get out of Congress you'd better quit being a leader in the United States of America because that's evil and that evil needs to be done away with and there are rumblings of people that are opposed to Israel in Australia they're chanting gas the Jews

and other things that I can't repeat up here and so there are rumblings of people being opposed to Israel and the longer that this battle goes and the more that Israel stands for itself and defeats the enemy the more they will be opposed and they will continue to be accused of being occupiers they will continue to be accused of being those who take part in human rights atrocities even though they are giving half hour to hour to sometimes a day for people to escape before they bomb which is not what the Palestinians gave them even though they're doing those things there's still going to be these rumblings a girl that I used to think was a Christian that I went to Bible college with posted something today she said you can support Israel

and still be opposed to their human rights atrocities and I thought man that's a I don't know what happened to you since Bible college but nothing good because that is not anything that we learned because what's going on over there right now is them defending themselves just like we would be doing here so brothers and sisters we need to be strong because God fights for us and God fights for Israel amen amen Father we come to you and Lord we do want to lift up once again the nation of Israel to you the nation they're from Lord would you set them free may we continue to stand strong for the things of God in Jesus name amen be blessed