Then Joshua turned back at that time, and captured Hazor and struck its king with the sword; for Hazor formerly was the head of all these kingdoms. They struck every person who was in it with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them; there was no one left who breathed. And he burned Hazor with fire. Joshua captured all the cities of these kings, and all their kings, and he struck them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed them; just as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded. However, Israel did not burn any cities that stood on their mounds, except Hazor alone, which Joshua burned. All the spoil of these cities and the cattle, the sons of Israel took as their plunder; but they struck every man with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them. They left no one who breathed. Just as the LORD had commanded Moses his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did; he left nothing undone of all that the LORD had commanded Moses.After defeating the armies of the northern alliance, Joshua and the Jewish people then turned their attention to the city of Hazor and its king. The city of Hazor was significant for two main reasons. First Hazor was the largest and most prominent of the cities in the northern part of the Promised Land that had formed the alliance against the Jewish people. To provide a bit of perspective, Hazor was 25 times the size of Jericho. In addition, Hazor was located in an incredibly strategic location on an ancient highway that connected Egypt, Syria, Assyria, and Babylon. The cities location contributed to its wealth and power.
And because of its position and prominence, Joshua and the forces of the Jewish army utterly destroyed the city by burning it to the ground. The Jewish army sent a message to the rest of the cities and cultures in the land by razing Hazor to the ground. Joshua and the Jewish army then proceeded to conquer and possess the remaining cities of the kings who had attempted to form this alliance to defeat the Jewish people. Joshua left nothing undone; Joshua completed all that God had commanded Moses to do, which is recorded for us in Deuteronomy 20:16-18. Moses passed on God’s commands to Joshua as the one who would lead the Jewish people to restarting their lives in the Promised Land.
The writer of the book of Joshua then provides a summary of all the Jewish people had accomplished according to God’s power and God’s plan. And in this summary we find another timeless truth that is necessary when it comes to restarting our lives, along with one of the most troubling statements that occurs in the entire Bible. So let’s look at this timeless principle and troubling statement together, beginning in Joshua 11:16:
Thus Joshua took all that land: the hill country and all the Negev, all that land of Goshen, the lowland, the Arabah, the hill country of Israel and its lowland from Mount Halak, that rises toward Seir, even as far as Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon at the foot of Mount Hermon. And he captured all their kings and struck them down and put them to death. Joshua waged war a long time with all these kings.In these verses, we see the extent of God’s activity in fulfilling His promise to bring the Jewish people into the Promised Land. The Jewish people and its army were able to successfully defeat the nations and cultures from the Mount Halak, which is located in the far southern portion of the Promised Land, to the foot of Mount Hermon, which is located on the northern portion of the Promised Land. The size of the land that Joshua and the Jewish army conquered and controlled is approximately 1,100 square miles, which would be the equivalent to the size of the state of Maryland.
And in leading between 1.5 and 2 million people to conquer and control the land that made up the Promised Land, we are told that Joshua waged war a long time with these kings. Most scholars believe that the military campaign to conquer and control the Promised Land took between five and seven years. While all of God’s activity through the Jewish army to take possession of the Promised Land took only eleven chapters in our Bibles, it was experienced in years for the Jewish people.
And in this story we see revealed for us another timeless principle that is necessary when it comes to restarting our lives. And that timeless principle is this; to restart requires persistence. When it comes to restarting our lives, we can often view it as a sprint; as a short burst of effort and energy that will carry over a lifetime. However, restarting our life is not a sprint; it is more like a marathon. Restarting our lives requires persistent effort and energy throughout our lifetime.
The reason we often fail when it comes to New Year’s resolutions is because we fail to recognize the persistence that we will need to have in order to keep that resolution. In the same way, restarting our lives so that we can live in the relationship with God and one another that we were created and called to live requires the persistence to do the right thing even when it is not the easy thing or the comfortable thing to do. Just as the Jewish people needed to exercise a persistent and confident trust when it came to following God’s commands and plans over the years that it took to possess the Promised Land, we also need to exercise a persistent and confident trust in God when it comes to restarting our lives.
As the story continues, however, we come face to face with a very uncomfortable and even troubling statement that is found in several places in the Bible. We will look at that statement tomorrow. In the meantime, where do you need to exercise a persistent and confident trust in God to follow His word and do the right thing even when it is not the easy or comfortable thing?
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