Joshua 11:1-23. \u00a0More war.\u00a0 This time the war is for the northern part of the land.\u00a0 What is kind of interesting is that these northern kings started it.\u00a0 From past readings we know that these city-kingdoms were aware of what was going on around them.\u00a0 It also seems that at least some of them knew some details about the Israelites.\u00a0 Remember Rahab knew about Yahweh, and that was God\u2019s personal name that He told Moses so that the Israelites would know that Moses was really representing the right God (Exodus 3:14-15.\u00a0 When God said, \u201cI AM THAT I AM\u201d that phrase is the one word Yahweh in Hebrew).\u00a0 Also the Gibeonites seemed to know about the rules in Deuteronomy 20:10-20 about only making peace with the people outside of the land.\u00a0 Maybe they read the rocks set up at Mount Ebal with the whole law written on it.\u00a0 If the whole book of Deuteronomy was written there, including the \u201chistory\u201d parts and not just the rules part, then they would have known that God was promising the \u201cland of the Canaan\u201d to the Israelites (Deuteronomy 32:49).<\/p>\n
But why did they make war?\u00a0 If they knew the rules they would have known that peace was not an option but they could have fled.\u00a0 That would be hard of course.\u00a0 And I suppose when you have an army \u201cas many people as the sand on the seashore\u201d it\u2019s probably impossible to convince your people to move.\u00a0 Sure Israel beat Jericho, sure they beat Ai (the second time), sure they beat the five kings in the southern part of the territory, but the kings of the northern area had an army \u201cas many people as the sand on the seashore.\u201d\u00a0 In 1 Kings 20:23 there is the story of a king that attacked Israel many years after the time of Joshua.\u00a0 The king lost the battle but his servant convinced him it was because they had fought the Israelites in the hills. \u00a0The servant figured that the Israelite\u2019s \u201cgods were gods of the mountains\u201d and that if they fought again down on the flat land that the \u201cgods\u201d of Israel would be weak.\u00a0 Pretty risky reasoning but that is what that king did and he lost again.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if it was pride, desperation, bad reasoning, or a combination of all of the above but the results were a disaster.\u00a0 I suppose the same sort of think happened in our reading today.\u00a0 Certainly normal thinking would lead you to believe you could beat the Israelites with an army \u201cas many people as the sand on the seashore\u201d.\u00a0 Oh and remember they had a lot of horses and chariots too.<\/p>\n
When we last saw the Israelites they had returned to their camp at Gilgal down by Jericho.\u00a0 This part of the war starts out at a place called the \u201cwaters of Merom\u201d.\u00a0 For many years scholars believed that it was the smaller lake on the Jordan River north of the Sea of Galilee, now called Lake Huleh.\u00a0 Today many scholars think it is some other place between Galilee and the coast.\u00a0 Lake Huleh seems more likely since the terrain between the Sea of Galilee and the coast is very hilly.\u00a0 Lake Huleh is surrounded by flatter land and is near Hazor.\u00a0 Remember that it was the king of Hazor that arranged this battle.\u00a0 Either location though is far to the north of Gilgal between 80 and 90 miles.\u00a0 Interestingly while the Canaanites were gearing up for war against Israel (see v. 5) Joshua is being told again not to be afraid (see v. 6).\u00a0 The reason Joshua did not need to fear was because God was fighting for him.\u00a0 While the Canaanites were overestimating themselves Joshua had to be reminded not to underestimate God.<\/p>\n
Proverbs 16:8 tells us that pride leads to destruction.\u00a0 That is just what happened to the Canaanites.\u00a0 So far in the book of Joshua nobody from the Canaanite tribes has survived Israel\u2019s advance (Canaanite can be used for the specific tribe or the whole group of tribes living in the land before the Israelites invaded (except the Philistines which always seem to be separate)), nobody except Rahab and her family and the Gibeonites.\u00a0 In both of those cases we see the survivors showing humility.\u00a0 Rahab showed humility by asking to be spared.\u00a0 Also she recognized the great power of God.\u00a0 The Gibeonites too were humble accepting the role of servants forever.\u00a0 But there were rules about not making treaties and by now the Canaanites were probably aware of that.\u00a0 They had two choices fight or run (I guess there was a third choice, just sit there and be killed, but that wasn\u2019t going to happen).\u00a0 Given all the evidence they should have tucked tail and run.\u00a0 But they decided to fight instead and were destroyed.\u00a0 The fighting didn\u2019t end that day on the battlefield though.\u00a0 The Israelites were told to destroy all of the people in the land and that is what they did, all except Rahab\u2019s family and the Gibeonites.\u00a0 According to verse 18 it took a long time.\u00a0 In Joshua 14:10 Caleb tells us that it had been 45 years since he spied out the land.\u00a0 Caleb was one of several spies that Moses sent into the promised land to spy it out.\u00a0 Only he and Joshua recommended taking the land.\u00a0 The disobedience of the Israelites at that time resulted in that generation wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.\u00a0 It appears from this reference that Joshua the long time in Joshua 11:18 was five years.<\/p>\n
A special group mentioned at the end of this history is the Anakim.\u00a0 According to Deuteronomy 1 the Israelites were afraid of the Canaanites who were \u201cbigger and taller\u201d than them with \u201cfortified cities\u201d.\u00a0 And what was worse was that the \u201cAnakim were there\u201d.\u00a0 The Anakim were so impressive to the Israelites that they rebelled against God and would not take the promised land.\u00a0 It is fitting that this group of supermen is listed last on the conquest.\u00a0 This does not mean that they were defeated after all the other Canaanites.\u00a0 Verse 21 says they were killed \u201cat that time\u201d.\u00a0 Tis is probably talking about during the five years of war.\u00a0 A few Anakim were left in three cities belonging to the Philistines.\u00a0 On of these cities, Gath, plays an important role in later history of Israel.\u00a0 About 400 year in the future a little boy will fight a giant from Gath and will become the hero and king of Israel.\u00a0 Perhaps that giant, Goliath, was a descendant of these Anakim.\u00a0 And so Joshua took the whole land, even those intimidating Anakim.<\/p>\n