Love wins

Love wins. A strange title for a blog all about death and destruction (that I sidestep dealing with yet again in the hope that you won’t notice and won’t get too frustrated with me!). Bear with me. We’re talking about victory…….

Last time, we saw how Joshua and the Israelites captured all the southern cities.

Today, it is pretty much the same story, this time with the Northern kings.

All the kings of the North join forces to fight against this mighty Israelite army. This huge joint army is as numerous as the sand on the seashore.

Again God tells Joshua not to be afraid of them because He will bring victory to the His people.

And He does.

It’s bloody carnage again. No survivors. The horses are hamstrung and the chariots burned. Hazor (the chief city in this alliance) was burned to the ground. The kings are all put to the sword.

And so Joshua took the entire land. Not one city tried to make peace with the Israelites –

For it was the Lord himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy, as the Lord had commanded Moses.  Joshua 11:20

Harsh words.

For Joshua, it’s all about trust and obedience. He obeys everything God commands without question because his trust in God is absolute.

As the Lord commanded his servant Moses, so Moses commanded Joshua, and Joshua did it; he left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses.  Joshua 11:15

Joshua chapter 12 is a list of the defeated kings – those defeated by Moses and the Israelites on the east side of the Jordan and those defeated by Joshua and the Israelites on the west side of the Jordan.

And yet there is still more work to be done –

When Joshua had grown old, the Lord said to him, “You are now very old, and there are still very large areas of land to be taken over.”  Joshua 13:1

This land that has not been taken has to form part of the inheritance of Israel (even though it is still to be conquered) and has to count in the division of the land between the remaining tribes. Nine and a half tribes remain in this count, because the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh have already been allocated land by Moses at their request on the east side of the Jordan.

Although the tribe of Levi will receive no inheritance in terms of land, because they serve in the tabernacle and have no time to cultivate the land. They will be well looked after by the people, according to God’s commands.

Andy is going to look at this division of territory tomorrow, bringing it bang up to date and making it as controversial and topical as ever!

Although these campaigns are covered in just a few chapters, the conquest of Canaan took place over a very long time. It will not be completed until the time of David.

Joshua has to have faith in the final victory, however, even though he will not see it in his lifetime. He is called to divide up the land based on this future victory.

Such trust and obedience.

Such faith.

It’s the same for us of course. Joshua means ‘The Lord Saves!’ and our Joshua (Jesus) has won a great victory over the powers of sin and death. We will probably not see this victory complete and in all its glory in our lifetime. Terrible things still happen. Evil deeds still seem to go unpunished. Good people still die. We pray for healing and peace and reconciliation and protection and our prayers seem to go unanswered.

But the victory in that universal battle of good versus evil has been won. Love wins. God reigns.

We can walk in faith and victory.

That does not mean we experience God’s victory in all of our battles all of the time. As I said, we will face defeats and disappointments on a daily basis. We were watching a film on Saturday night about addictions in which one man goes five years without giving in to his addiction – five years! – and then one day, gives in. Just like that. One moment of defeat and he is back to day zero. So sad. So real. None of us are ever very far away from getting it spectacularly wrong.

Our battles may threaten to overwhelm us. We have been battling for so long, we cannot imagine what victory would look like. We have been walking in darkness for so long that the light at the end of the tunnel is beginning to dim. Depression, negativity and anxiety have such a hold in our lives that we cannot begin to wriggle free. Pain, suffering, debilitating illness sap us of our joy, our hope, our strength.

The end is not in sight. No one has the answers. No one has a magic cure. Where is the hope in that?

The hope is in God’s ultimate victory. Which has already been secured in Jesus.

I cannot teach you how to walk in faith and victory in whatever you are walking through right now.

I can say to you that experience tells me that nothing lasts forever. Everything is for a season.

(And experience tells me too that that hearing that when you’re drowning in darkness is no help at all!)

All there is to cling to is this –

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Romans 8:38-39

This was true for Moses. This was true for Joshua. This is true for me. This is true for you.

God’s love wins.