Well, let's read from Joshua chapter 11. We've already been singing about warfare in these Psalms, but here is an Old Testament example. Joshua chapter 11, verses 1 through 11. And it came to pass when Jabin, king of Hazor, heard these things, that he sent to Jobab, king of Madin, to the king of Shimron, to the king of Akshoth, and to the kings who were from the north in the mountains, in the plain south of Chinaroth, in the low land and in the heights of Dor on the west, to the Canaanites in the east and in the west, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite in the mountains, and the Hivite below Hermon in the land of Mizpah. So they went out, they and all their armies with them, as many people as the sand that is on the seashore in multitude, with very many horses and chariots. And when all these kings had met together, they came and camped together at the waters of Merom to fight against Israel. But the Lord said to Joshua, Do not be afraid because of them, for tomorrow about this time I will deliver all of them slain before Israel. You shall hamstring their horses and burn their chariots with fire. So Joshua and all the people of war with him came against them suddenly by the waters of Merom, and they attacked them. And the Lord delivered them into the hand of Israel. who defeated them and chased them to greater Sidon, to the brook Misperoth, and to the valley of Mizpah eastward. They attacked them until they left none of them remaining. So Joshua did to them as the Lord had told him. He hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire. Joshua turned back at that time and took Hazor and struck its king with the sword, for Hazor was formerly the head of all those kingdoms. And they struck all the people who were in it with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them. There was none left breathing. Then he burned Hazor with fire." Amen. Father, we thank you for your Word, every portion of your Word. It is for our edification, and we want to grow in understanding not only of you and of your character, but also the history, the divine history that you have given to us. And I pray that we would be edified as we listen to your Word. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, last week I spent a lot of the sermon looking at the typological lessons that were seen in the Southern Conquest, and I don't want to repeat those lessons as we look now at the Northern Conquest. Obviously a lot of those typological lessons would be the same in this passage as well, but there are a lot of other applications that we can get into. And by the way, application, there are so many applications of the scriptures, no way you could preach on all of them. It's rare for me to even preach 75% of the applications in a passage, many times not even 50%. For example, if you look, I didn't bring it with me, but if you look at the back of the outline at the map that's on there, You'll see what some people take as absolutely fascinating military strategies that are in there. We're not going to get into that. I may address it just briefly. But some of you could probably wax quite eloquent on the military strategies in the book of Joshua. preaching, trying to apply the passages of Scripture, I'm always asking the Lord, which of these applications would you like me to apply to this congregation? So just by way of background, just wanted you to know that. Now, I've titled this sermon Against Overwhelming Odds, and I think most of us have experienced or will experience times when we are called to trust God against overwhelming odds. I've talked to many of you, and you've shared some of the overwhelming odds in your own personal lives. When you look at the big picture, it just seems absolutely impossible to bring America back to bow its knees before King Jesus. It seems so discouraging. But if there is one overarching lesson in the book of Joshua that we need to constantly remind ourselves of, and that is that it is nothing, nothing, nothing that is too difficult for the Lord. Amen? We can trust him. If it is consistent with his revealed will for all nations to become Christian, including America, then it's not a problem for the Lord to turn that around. I was talking before the service with David, David Burke, and he was mentioning the fourth turning as something you were mentioning there. The Lord could be preparing things even through disaster. Many times he uses disaster to bring people back to himself. Yeah, back to himself. And the key thing, I think, is that we have faith that in God's perfect timing, whether it's in my lifetime or not, it doesn't matter, we just keep planting the seeds and setting the foundations for when that will happen. So whatever the timing is, so, I claim the promise, those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. And that verse goes on to say, he who continually goes forth weeping, and I think there's plenty to weep about in our society, but it says, he who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. And I think we need to have that long-term vision of the farmer, and the hard work of the farmer, and the perseverance of the farmer, and the expectation that a farmer has in our day-to-day work. So don't let the news media rob you of your faith, and your joy, and your hope. Stay anchored in the word of God. Anyway, let's dive into the text. First lesson. is that we really should not be surprised when slanted news begins spreading about us. Verse one says, and it came to pass when Jabin king of Hazor heard these things. Did he have a good source of news? Well, I'm sure he had slanted news. It was likely not Israel's perspective he was getting. For sure it was not God's perspective that they deserve judgment. What did Jabin hear? Well, first, Jabin heard that Israel posed a threat. I think that's obvious, because any foreign power that could wipe out the Southern coalition, which was a pretty intimidating coalition in such short order, wow, that was a power to be reckoned with. But if he only looked at the conquest of the South in terms of geopolitical futures, he was missing the opportunity for repentance and salvation. And you might say, why do you even bring repentance and salvation? What does that have anything to do with this? Could really any of those nations have escaped judgment? without being deceptive like Gibeon was deceptive. And I say, oh yeah, absolutely. Verse 19 says, there was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel. Commentators say just right there, it implies that they could have made peace. They could have repented of their sins and made peace. But it says, there was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon, all the others they took in battle. Then verse 20 shows explicitly if they could have repented, If they could have repented, which they could not because God hardened their hearts, right? But if they could have repented, they would have been spared right there in verse 20. Now, already in chapter eight, we saw that there were quite a number of foreigners who had become Israelites. And we're going to be seeing in a later chapter that one of my heroes of the faith, Caleb, was not even an Israelite in origin. In fact, if you read Numbers 32.12, Joshua 14.14, Joshua 14.6 actually as well, Caleb is called a Kenizzite. A Kenizzite. Who is a Kenizzite? We read in Genesis 15, 19, it was one of the Canaanite tribes that God said was deserving of judgment and that Israel would disinherit. And so, yes, he was a Canaanite, and yet now he's a hero of the faith because once you embrace Christ in faith, your past is your past. You're a new creature in Christ. He was treated as an Israelite. And so no Canaanite would have needed to perish in judgment if he had repented. That's the point. Canaanite cities wouldn't have had to deceive as the Gibeonites did. All they'd have to do is repent and believe. It's so simple. It's so simple, but human nature bucks against, I think maybe it's a pride issue, but it bucks against God's simple plan, it twists the truth, and it ends up treating God as if he's a meanie. I mean, most unbelievers, when they read through Joshua, they think God's just a meanie. This is an awful book, you know, all of these judgments. And they completely miss the fact that these judgments all of us deserve, and yet God holds out the gospel to them as well. So don't be surprised when people slander God or slander Christianity painted in a bad light. They are looking at the same facts you're looking at, but they're filtering them through different presuppositions. They're looking at it from a completely different perspective. Jabin was likely looking at these battles only in political terms of survival. And as a result, he missed the most important news, that this was God's judgment, therefore they deserve this judgment, and that their only hope was to cast their sins upon God and receive His forgiveness and grace. That is foreign to the natural man to do that. So don't be surprised when slanted news begins to spread about us. Second, we should not be surprised when disunited enemies unite together against God and the church. It's not as if these Canaanites were all united and peaceful. You study archaeology and you realize these guys were at each other's throats continually. There's all kinds of evidence that they were constantly conquering, being conquered, or at tension with each other trying to protect. their boundaries. Keep in mind that chapter 12 will mention 31 kings over 31 city-states, each of which competed for territories between them. Now here's what Matthew Henry says about this verse. Whatever separate clashing interest they may have had among themselves against the people of God, they consult with one consent. Look at verses 1 through 3. And it came to pass when Jabin king of Hazor heard these things that he sent to Jobab king of Madin, to the king of Shimron, to the king of Akshoth, and to the kings who were from the north and the mountains and the plain south of Chinaroth in the low land and then the heights of Dor on the west, to the Canaanites in the east and in the west, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite in the mountains, and the Hivite below Hermon in the land of Mizpah. Now when you read the background conflicts that these people had with each other, it's amazing that they could have united even against a common foe. They didn't trust each other. But it's important to understand that the demonic drives the world. It does. It's important to understand why these nations who were in competition with each other could put down their differences to oppose God and His truth. You know, Democrats and Republicans, they might fight each other, but if you talk to just about any of them about, why don't we reestablish God's laws in America like we used to have, and then start spelling out what those laws would be, oh yeah, they're going to be united in opposing you on that kind of an idea. I don't normally read long sections from books, but what Dan Fortner said about Mark chapter 12 in his marvelous book on the gospel, I think is spot on, and it helps to explain what's happening in this chapter. Fortner says this. The next thing we see in these verses is the fact that lost men and women who are mutual enemies, people who utterly despise one another, will unite in opposition to Christ and his gospel. The Pharisees were religious fundamentalists, superstitious ceremonialists, and self-righteous moralists. Religion was their life. They lived to go to church and do religious stuff. The Herodians were mere worldlings. They had absolutely no use for religion. They cared no more for the honor of God, His name, His will, His glory, than for the life of a maggot. Yet, when the Lord Jesus Christ came preaching the gospel, the Pharisees and the Herodians were united like blood kin in the common cause of opposing Him. Both the religious crowd and the worldly crowd despised the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ as Christ himself preached it and personified it. That is the way it has always been. The cross of Christ is an offense to unregenerate men, both religious and irreligious. Galatians 5.11, 1 Corinthians 1.17-24. All lost men hate God and the gospel of Christ. All despise those things revealed in the gospel. There are no exceptions. God's sovereignty offends man's pride and sense of self-determination. Fallen man desperately wants some credit for the salvation of his soul. Man is repulsed by the Bible doctrine of election because he thinks it's unfair for God to be gracious to whom he will be gracious. The teaching of Holy Scripture that man is totally depraved offends man's sense of self-worth and his love of his own imaginary righteousness. The Bible's teaching about Christ's limited atonement for only the elect enrages men who think God owes sinners salvation, that He owes men a chance to be saved. The fact that salvation comes by the revelation of God the Holy Spirit in irresistible grace offends man's love of wisdom. When faced with the plain declaration of the gospel, men who despise one another always unite in opposition to it. 1 John 3 verse 13 says, do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. Expect it. Third, don't be surprised when God tests your faith with overwhelming odds. See, God's more interested in your growth in Him, your relationship to Him, your holiness, than He is in your comfort. So don't be surprised when this happens. It takes tests like the tests that we see in verses four through five to grow us up in the Lord, and He'll do it. He'll bring tests into your life. He's been bringing tests into my life, and I'm seeking to embrace those tests. I would encourage you to do the same. Beginning at verse four. So they went out, they and all their armies with them, as many people as the sand that is on the seashore in multitude, with very many horses and chariots. And when all these kings had met together, they came and camped together at the waters of Merom to fight against Israel. Talk about intimidating. Josephus estimates that their combined strength was 300,000 armed foot soldiers, 10,000 cavalry men, 20,000 chariots. Who knows where in the world he got those? In fact, I'm skeptical of those figures. Most people think it was way, way more than that. But he says it's like the sand on the seashore, which means not literally, it means you can't count it. You can't count the number of sand on the seashore. You couldn't count it. So I don't think Josephus was right on that. It was a huge number. But whatever the case, for foot soldiers to go up against cavalry and chariots would have been hugely intimidating. Let me just quickly describe those Hittite war chariots. They were state-of-the-art war technology. They had improved upon the previous generation of chariots that the Egyptians had made. In fact, the technology was instantly recognized as being so superior that the Hittites overnight developed a massive industry of selling these chariots all over the world. They were superb chariots. Let me just describe it briefly. Where the Egyptians stood on the front part, just in front of the axle, which put more weight on the horses and thus slowed the horses down, the Hittite chariots, the soldiers, stood right over top of the axle. Putting less weight on the horses enabled them to go much more quickly. They further, they innovated by, they were the first ones really to forge iron. And so they made iron wheels instead of the weaker wheels that were made before. They further strengthened the wheel by making them have six or eight spokes, as opposed to the previous four spokes. And again, giving endurance, speed, maneuverability. Hittite innovations enabled them to have one driver and two to three fighters, whereas the Egyptians only had one driver and one fighter. And even the weapons that they used were able to penetrate the armor of the enemy much more easily because of the iron-tipped arrows had greater penetrating power than the copper and the bronze arrows of the Egyptians. By the way, There's, well, we'll get into that a little bit later. But the point is that the news of the relatively new war technology could very easily have been terrifying, and yet what happens? Joshua speeds his whole army immediately forward to engage them. Okay, he passes this test of faith. Don't be surprised when God tests our faith with overwhelming odds. Faith does not look to the odds, it looks to the odds maker, God, right? And his promises. Fourth, always be ready to accept new challenges that are given by God. Some people are just so uncomfortable with change, they don't want new challenges, but you need to embrace them if you're gonna grow in the Lord. We see several new challenges in verses six through eight. Verse six gives the first challenge, to conquer our fears. But the Lord said to Joshua, do not be afraid because of them. Now there was plenty about that massive army that could have instilled fear into Joshua and all of these people. And Joshua may have had to fight to keep fear at bay. God commands Joshua to not fear because he knows otherwise Joshua might be prone to fear. Don't think you're the only one who struggles with fear. Almost every great leader in the past has had to fight against fear that has come up, and these great saints of old knew that fear is incompatible with faith, and so they have refused to give in to fear. So what are the antidotes to fear? This chapter displays, and I didn't put it in your notes, but this chapter displays three things that help Joshua to keep fear at bay. The first is faith in God's promises. If God promises victory, it doesn't matter whether it looks like victory is possible or not. Faith believes it's going to happen. Fearing the enemy would immediately cast out faith. It would make these people doubt God's promises. So faith and fear are in opposition. Later in this book, Joshua will call upon Israel to trust God's promises implicitly. So if you want to conquer fear, you have got to grow in your faith. How do you do that? Well, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, says Romans 10, 17. So memorizing God's Word, meditating upon God's Word, praying God's Word, claiming God's Word is one of the ways that you can grow in faith. I would encourage you to make a long list of promises that meet your specific needs, and then start systematically memorizing those and claiming them before the Lord. It will build a fear-conquering faith within you. The second thing that keeps fear at bay is a deep love. 1 John 4, 18 says, there is no fear in love. Well, if that's the case, then developing a deep love for God and for each other should be key. Verse goes on, there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. He who fears has not been made perfect in love. Are you a fearful person? then don't argue with me, argue with 1 John. He says your love is not mature. You've got to grow in love. Love is incompatible with fear. I heard about a mother who charged in and chased off a grizzly bear who had approached her little toddler. And later on, she was just struck. How on earth could I even do that? But she didn't even think about the danger. All she could think about was her son was in danger and she was going to get in there and do something about it. Strong love banishes fear. And I'm going to read a verse from Joshua illustrating that in a moment. But before I do that, let me give you the third thing that wards off fear. Taking maybe initially, baby steps of obedience. But taking steps of obedience to the Lord begins to ward off fear. As you take steps of obedience, as Joshua did, you see God coming through. That gives you boldness to take more steps. And little by little, as you obey, even with fear and trembling, you begin to obey, you begin to get more and more confident. So let me read you a verse in Joshua that gives all three antidotes in one fell swoop. It's Joshua 22, verse five. But take careful heed to do the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to keep his commandments, to hold fast to him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul. So conquering fear, that was the first challenge. By the way, I grew up a very fearful person. It was not until I conquered my fears that I began growing in grace like crazy. Fear is incompatible with growth. So heed that first admonition. Do not be afraid because of them. Second challenge was to believe God's promises. Verse six goes on to say, for tomorrow about this time, I will deliver all of them slain before Israel. All of them? Really? All of them? Was there anything visual that could have made them believe that promise? And I would say, no, absolutely nothing. The Northern Coalition had the advantage in terms of numbers, terrain, technology, almost anything you could measure by. Chariots and horses charging against ground troops could have potentially wiped them out. But God promises them that all of the coalition would be slain the next day. That's mind-blowing. That's astounding. And yet they believed the promise because they knew God is incapable of lying. He is the very definition of truth. And then God has given us equally astounding promises. And if you will take God at His word, And you will take these baby steps of obedience and say, Lord, OK, I'm just trusting you to come through. You're going to see him overcoming your besetting sins, dealing with the demonic. You'll be seeing him coming through on your behalf. So if you struggle in your Christian walk, And nothing has worked thus far. I would encourage you to start memorizing the promises of God and daily appropriating them for yourself. We already saw that can help with fear. It can help with many areas of sanctification, including putting off negative thinking. The next challenge was not to put their trust in technology or anything other than God. So really, faith issues are all through here, aren't they? In one sense, the last command in verse six seems counterintuitive. It says, you shall hamstring their horses and burn their chariots. Why would God make this command? I mean, Deuteronomy 17 doesn't prohibit horses and chariots completely. It just says, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, Deuteronomy 17, 16. So he did not want their trust to be transferred from the Lord into technology and horses. They could be tools, but so frequently in our lives, tools do become a substitute for trust. And it would have been very easy for this generation to begin transferring trust from the Lord to the technologies that the pagans trusted in. Anytime you do that, what you're doing is you're, instead of trusting the creator, you're trusting a part of his creation or a creature. Well, that means that creature, that part of creation has become an idol. What does God declare war on? All idolatry, right? He is going to ensure that it's not going to pan out very well for you when you trust in those things in creation. He wants them to fail you. It never pays to trust anything more than God. But I do want to address the side issue, because I'm sure it's going to plague you if I don't. It's really a side issue, but it's an important one, of cruelty to animals. Why would God allow these animals to suffer? After all, Proverbs 12.10 says, the righteous regards the life of his animal, but the wicked can be cruel. And that phrase, regards the life of his animal, as other translations have, has compassion on his animal, cares about his animal, thinks about his animal. Isn't that the exact opposite of this? Genesis 49, 6-7, Jacob rebukes Simeon and Levi for having hamstrung Oxen and curses them for their expressions of anger and cruelty. He said it's a horrible thing. But there are several differences between those passages and this one. First of all, God commanded this. So it's not flowing from willfulness or sinfulness. God owns everything. He has the right to kill and to make alive. They're just following God's orders, and it's never wrong to follow God's orders. Second, the horses were specifically being used as war equipment against Israel, and therefore, based on the harem principle of warfare, God could have just had them kill the horses. But he didn't. He extends mercy to these horses. He allows them to continue to function. He just did not want them pulling chariots. But the point is, they were war equipment that could be used by the enemy and needed to be treated as war equipment. Third, horse-drawn chariots were used for invasion of other territory, and God wants them to get used, even though they are right now invading other territory, He wants them to get used to not depending on, what's the kind of technology that's offensive weaponry, going outside of the nation. He did not want them invading other countries. Fourth, probably most importantly, God did not want them transferring trust from Him to horses and technology. Psalm 20 verse 7 says, some trust in chariots, some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. Isaiah 31 verse 1, woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses. who trust in chariots, because they are many, and in horsemen, because they are very strong, but who do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the Lord." So God will occasionally take away from us things that maybe we are trusting and maybe we're not, but just to test us. Are we going to trust the Lord whether we have them or whether we do not have those? Technology is okay, but it's never a substitute for faith. Fifth, the operation wasn't necessarily a cutting of the hamstring tendon. It may have been, but if you cut the hamstring of a horse, you might as well kill it because it's going to be completely lame. It's not going to be able to take care of itself. So many commentators believe that this was the cutting of the rear tarsal tendon or some other tendon that would have enabled the animal to do farm work, to mate, to get around, but wouldn't be able to pull a chariot, you know, the way it was trained to do in aggressive warfare. David Firth is one of those. He says this, hamstringing the horse probably involved a process that rendered them useless for military activity but would still permit their use in agriculture. Possible. Now, of course, trusting God does not preempt being smart, being strategic. So the next point says, the challenge of being proactive rather than reactive. Joshua immediately has his army sprint into action. Well, it was a long way, so they were probably jogging rather than sprinting, but going quickly up to Merom. Let me read the verse, and I'll tell you the significance of this swift move. So Joshua and all the people of war with him came against them suddenly by the waters of Merom and they attacked them. Now these armies were no doubt planning to come down to where Joshua was, but Joshua meets them on that terrain up there where he's going to have a little bit more advantage. It's still going to be the odds against him, but a little bit more advantage. He brings the battle to them rather than letting them bring the battle to where he was at. Now I gave you a terrain map in your outline so that you can see where he moved from, where he moved to. They were coming from much more open level ground and if they had stayed there they would have been at a huge disadvantage against horses and chariots. But Merom was 4,000 feet above sea level. and was in slightly hilly country, a little bit more crowded. You could still function with chariots up there, but they could not do what they were noted for, their wide sweeps, wide maneuvers. Joshua's sudden appearance because of the instant obedience to God's first two commands takes them by surprise. But I think it still would have taken faith to quickly travel to Merom. Let me read you at length a tactician's analysis of why the Canaanite coalition picked Merom. It's still a deadly place. He says coalition troops. Moved to the waters of Merom, this was an area at just the right altitude for the cultivation of olives, a product of millennial importance. The main reason the enemy chose that ground was that Merom was the natural junction between several routes of communication in northern Galilee, therefore being an ideal zone to assemble the vast force in the field. By its 360 degree disposition, this also had the enormous strategic advantage of allowing one or more contingents to strike in any direction necessary, sort of like a queen on a chessboard. Defense against such a well-laid-out force under these circumstances would have been disastrous, and should Joshua have been less aggressive in this theater, his army would surely have disappeared off the map and the Jewish people off to some obscure footnote of history. Considering that Scripture points to approximately ten kingdoms and six independent peoples from that region of the Levant, this was undoubtedly the tremendous force hurled against the Hebrews to date, hence the hyperbolic, as numerous as the sand on the seashore, description. This army group gathered at the waters of Merom, an area around present-day Lake Merom in the Hula Valley. This was fertile, spacious land for the fighting hordes. Aside from the sheer number of their foes, Israel had to contend for the first time with a new deadly weapon. Iron chariots on open ground. Until now, Israel had been fighting and winning its battles on mountainous terrain, mostly against local semi-isolated dwellers. Facing professional armies with state-of-the-art weaponry was not what Joshua had signed up for in the natural. His faith was stretched again, just like in the Battle of Jericho. Okay, so the main point is, he had instant obedience. God says, go up north. Unquestioningly, he immediately goes up north. And if he had not, it would have been a lot worse for him on the open plains. Now, I see several principles that we can take to heart and apply to our lives, four in all. I didn't put it in your notes either. But the first is that instant obedience to the Lord pays off. We tried to teach our children instant obedience in our day-to-day training as well as in our boot camp. By the way, if you've got a child that's particularly difficult to train, I highly, highly, highly, highly recommend you have boot camp. Boot camp is where you set aside an entire day to train that child in obedience, giving arbitrary commands and nope, you did not do that quickly enough. And there's discipline and you just keep practicing over and over all day long until it just comes naturally to that child. And you're going to find for the next few weeks, they're pretty good until you have to have another bootcamp. Bootcamp is a marvelous way of training. So we treated, um, uh, a slow obedience as if it was disobedience. Thomas Akempis once said, instant obedience is the only kind of obedience there is. Delayed obedience is disobedience. And I agree. Take that to heart, parents. Delayed obedience is disobedience. Second, faith produces boldness to tackle difficult things, and the faith-driven boldness of the leaders was no doubt contagious. Well, you parents are leaders, aren't you? Christians should never see leaders afraid of their enemy. Fear is contagious, just as bold faith is contagious. Third, though our battles with the enemy tend to be in the invisible realm rather than in the physical realm, I think there is a place for this first strike preemptive approach. Take the legal courts, for example. Heritage Defense and Alliance Defending Freedom have been very successful in taking on strategic cases in strategic jurisdictions where there's friendly courts, win a battle there. In the friendly court, it helps churches all over the states, including in the places of liberal jurisdictions. And they're pressing the advantage in courts, even when the enemy is willing to back off. No, they press it in the court. By winning strategic battles in federal courts, it has taken major momentum away from the enemy on issue after issue. And by the way, if you're not supporting those two organizations or some other Christian legal organizations, do so. They need our funds. We have been supporting them for a long time and we would encourage every family, they'll have your back. It's really important. They help homeschooling issues, they help all kinds of issues. Fourth, Though they saw miracles in the Southern Campaign, God enabled them to win this battle without miracles. Either way, God is the one who prospered what they did. This is so important. Too many Christians mistakenly believe that if they don't see miracles in their lives, God's not at work in their lives. That is a ridiculous concept. Yes, we value miracles. We believe in miracles. God is sovereign in His distribution of miracles, giving them when and where He wants. We can't demand them. But at the same time, we can trust God to work supernaturally through us, whether with or without miracles. We always have access to His supernatural power. We must have access to it. But there's another challenge that's mentioned here. It's seen in verse 8, a call to perseverance. You can see where that is on the map. Now that one verse covers a huge expanse of time. Very easy to say it. It would have been much more difficult to actually persevere through that, and yet perseverance is an absolutely essential facet of Christian, authentic Christianity. Proof of the pudding of our authentic Christianity is not whether we've had a major victory or two in the past, it's whether we keep plodding on when the difficulty comes. They would have been bone weary at the end of this day. Now related to this, but somewhat distinct, is the call to leave nothing undone that God has commanded. Verse nine begins, so Joshua did to them as the Lord had told him. Now we like to think we're obedient sons and daughters of God, doing exactly what God has told us to, but there come tests. God will bring tests of our obedience to see whether our obedience is authentic or not. The first test was whether they would be willing to obey God on the issues that might appear to be distasteful. It says that Joshua hamstrung their horses. Whatever the process, this would have been extremely distasteful to bring such magnificent, beautiful, powerful creatures from galloping to plodding. I love horses. I just imagine myself crying as I'm hamstrunging these horses, because I love horses. I mean, it would have been so distasteful for me. But I trust I would have done it, because God says to do it, right? But we can ask ourselves, what kinds of distasteful responsibilities do you skirt in our own day? It might be bringing a rebuke to somebody. When you're like, oh, Lord, do I really have to rebuke that person? God says, yeah, he's sinned in front of you. You need to bring a rebuke to him. It might be learning to witness on a street corner. And you're saying, oh, Lord, I'm terrified of doing this. Well, you need to get past your fears, don't you? What is the distasteful thing that God is calling you to? It might be tithing, fasting, memorizing scripture. You alone know what the distasteful things are that you're holding off and holding off and holding off and obeying the Lord on. It's a test of the authenticity of your obedience. The second test of their obedience was the counterintuitive task of destroying the chariots. As I've already mentioned, these chariots were state-of-the-art, extremely, extremely expensive equipment, and they might have thought, why don't we use this? This would be so cool in our battles. Well, maybe they hadn't been trained to use it, but at least we could sell it to somebody else and use the money, right? What a waste to be destroying all of this high-dollar equipment. But if God called for its destruction, they were going to destroy it. What commands of God seem counterintuitive to you? It might be the role relationships between husbands and wives, and you want to reverse that. Don't do it. It might be tithing. When you are flat broke and you say, Lord, I can't tithe. I can't afford to tithe. And so you postpone it, you postpone it. The Lord's not going to prosper you. He's not going to bless you when you do that. You can never out give God. When you are sold out to the Lord and you obey him on everything that he asks, you find that God delights in pouring out far more than you have sacrificed. He certainly gave them an amazing victory against the Northern Coalition. And we're going to end with that victory in verses 10 through 11. These verses show that Joshua modeled the principle, you don't leave important business unfinished. In verses 10 through 11, we have the burning, the total destruction of the leading city in the north, Hazor. Joshua turned back at that time and took Hazor and struck its king with the sword, for Hazor was formerly the head of all those kingdoms, and they struck all the people who were in it with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them. There was none left breathing. Then he burned Hazor with fire. He made an example of this city by burning it. Now, by the way, so far there's only three cities that God had them burn. It was Jericho, Ai, and Hazor. The rest were actually inherited by Israel as a gift from God with pantries filled, you know, and wells already dug. all kinds of comforts and couches and tables. Deuteronomy 6, 10 through 11, God promised them that they would inherit, quote, large flourishing cities that you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, vineyards and olive groves you did not plant. But on this particular city, it was razed, everything in it destroyed. He left no unfinished business. And so even though this passage describes a war that is not really normative for us today, I think you can see there are still normative principles that apply in every age. May the Lord cause us to grow as we seek to imitate Joshua on these principles. Amen. Father, I thank you for the challenges that we receive from your Word. We don't want to dismiss them because they're uncomfortable. We want to always operate in obedience to your Word and the power of your Holy Spirit. And I pray that you would fill us with your Holy Spirit and enable us to day by day experience your power, your almighty power working in us and working through us. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.