We're turning again in our Bibles to Joshua chapter 10, please. Joshua chapter 10. Continuing on where we left off last Lord's Day. So we're breaking into the chapter at verse 16. Joshua chapter 10 and the verse 16. And we'll read from verse 16 down to and including verse 28 together. Joshua chapter 10. And the verse 16, the word of God says, but these five kings fled and hid themselves in a cave at Makeda. And it was told Joshua saying the five kings are found hid in a cave at Makeda. And Joshua said, roll great stones upon the mouth of the cave, set men by it for to keep them. And stay ye not, but pursue after your enemies and smite the hindmost of them. Suffer them not to enter into their cities, for the Lord your God hath delivered them into your hand. And it came to pass when Joshua and the children of Israel had made an end of slaying them with a very great slaughter, till they were consumed, that the rest which remained of them entered into fenced cities. And all the people returned to the camp to Joshua at Makeda in peace. None moved his tongue against any of the children of Israel. Then said Joshua, open the mouth of the cave and bring out those five kings unto me out of the cave. And they did so, and brought forth those five kings unto him out of the cave. the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmath, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon. And it came to pass, when they brought those kings on to Joshua, that Joshua called for all the men of Israel, and said unto the captains of the men of war which went with him, Come near, put your feet upon the necks of these kings. And they came near and put their feet upon the necks of them. And Joshua said unto them, Fear not, nor be dismayed. Be strong and of a good courage. For thus shall the Lord do to all your enemies against whom ye fight. And afterward Joshua smote them, and slew them, and hanged them on five trees. And they were hanging upon the trees until the evening. And it came to pass at the time of the going down of the sun, that Joshua commanded, and they took them down off the trees, and cast them into the cave wherein they had been hid, and laid great stones in the cave's mouth, which remain until this very day. And that day Joshua took Makeda, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king thereof he utterly destroyed, them and all the souls that were therein. He let none remain, and he did to the king of Makeda as he did to the king Jericho. Amen. We'll finish there and again we know God will bless this reading of his word to our hearts today. As I say, we're continuing on our study from where we finished off last Lord's Day in the life of Joshua. Last week we came to the opening verses of chapter 10, the first 15 verses, and we thought about a number of different things during that study last week. We thought about how God delivered the enemy. God had promised that He would do that, and He delivered the enemy to His people, and He's promised that He will do those things, the things that He has promised to do, He will do. And He will always be faithful to His promises, and we're to remember that fact, that God will deliver the enemy. whenever we are engaged in battle for him. Not only did God deliver the enemy, but God directed the storm. And we noted how that was divine judgment, and it was reserved for that particular time. And of course, we thought then about the future, divine judgment that sits upon those who reject the claims of Christ. And then the final thing we noted was that God had delayed time. And the point that we drew out of that was that whenever we're engaged in a work for the Lord, whatever that work might be, God will always enable us with the tools that we need to labor for Him, to fight for Him, and to serve Him. And then the challenge, I suppose, at the end really for us was whenever we have those tools, whenever we have the time, are we using them wisely in the service of the Lord? And so, that's really the first 15 verses wrapped up, but as we move on, we're still here in this same day, this supernatural day that God has extended, a time when God stopped the earth rotating on its axes so that the sun didn't set and the moon didn't rise, and this whole engagement is still continuing. There's still a battle being fought and time is slowed down for the purpose of being engaged in this battle. Now there is something interesting to be made. We broke in at verse 16, but there is a point in verse 15 where it says, Joshua returned and all Israel with him onto the camp to Gilgal. So we have there this idea that Joshua's returned to Gilgal. And then when you come down to verse 21, it says that they returned to the camp to Joshua at Makeda in peace. And then you come to the end of the chapter, which we haven't read that far along, but when you come to the end of the chapter, verse 43, it tells us again, and Joshua returned in all Israel with him unto the camp to Gilgal. Some people look at this, some people will be critical and say, well, there's no way that this all lines up, that there's a conflict here in Scripture. And I just want to address that now. If you look at verse 13, 14, and 15, you'll see here that it speaks in the middle of verse 13, it says, is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven and hasted not to go down about a whole day. And there was no day like that before it or after it. And the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel. And Joshua returned in all Israel with him unto the camp to Gilgal." And really what's happening here is in the middle of verse 13, we have reference to this book. It's called the Book of Jasher. It literally means the Book of the Upright. And then the rest of verse 13 into verse 14 and into verse 15 is quoting for us what was written in the book of Jasher. Now, the book of Jasher is not an inspired book. It's not a book that we have our hands on today. It was a book which Scripture refers to. It was a historical book. It recorded Israel's battles, or certainly some of Israel's battles. It's mentioned in 2 Samuel as well, 2 Samuel chapter 1 and verse 18. It talks about the book of Jasher. And then when you read the next, I think it's the next eight or nine verses down to verse 27 of 2 Samuel chapter 1, there's a lengthy quotation there again from that book. The word's found 119 times in the Old Testament, the word Jasher, which as I say is translated as upright. And really the point I'm making is this, some people look at Scripture and they try and identify conflicts. They try and identify where there is something that might contradict itself to try and suggest that Scripture is not inspired. But what we have here is very simple whenever we look at it. It's simply a quotation. It's a summary quotation about what happened in this battle. So there is no conflict between what it says in verse 15, verse 21, and verse 43, because Scripture is the Word of God. and it can always measure up against itself. Now, that was just by the way. When we move on, we look now in verse 16 down to verse 28 about what happened. when we come to the end of the long day and whenever we come then into the next day, the day after. The battle's not complete whenever we come into verse 16. The kings, these five kings who have set themselves to besiege the city of Gibeon, they have now fled. They have fled because they have seen how the Israelites have come in upon them suddenly and have discomforted them and have put them to flight. They have seen how God has supernaturally intervened. You'll remember we looked at that last week. So they're now fleeing, and many of their soldiers are fleeing as well. So it's clear that there's still things to be done. The children of Israel still have a work to be engaged in. You see, the point here, I suppose, even at the start, is this. Even when we see the beginning of victory, that doesn't mean it's over. Because it's not over. until it's over, and they were still engaged in the work here. And we can see that in many different areas of life. We can see that in practical aspects of life. We can see it, and one example where you can see it is in the world of politics, or particularly when it comes to election time or election day, where the outcome's never sure. until the final vote has been counted. And there have been times whenever there have been opinion polls or there have been predictions that have been made which have said that this is what's going to happen, but when the votes are counted. It's slightly different, or maybe sometimes significantly different. We can see it in the world of sport, where there's many times whenever individuals are engaged in a sport or an event, and perhaps a team or an individual, they are so far behind, and then they come back and they carry out a great comeback when it looks like they've lost, but yet they come back and they win in the end. You see, victory's not victory. until the final whistle, until it's over. And in the Christian life, we should never consider ourselves and think that the work is over, because it's not. We cannot become complacent and think that because we had victory today, or because we have won a battle today, that the enemy won't return tomorrow. Whether it's the world, whether it's the flesh, or whether it's the devil, this is a basic lesson for us in this incident. And you see, as we look at what we learned this morning, we understand this point that there can be no complacency in the battle. We can't take our foot off the pedal because we think we've got the enemy on the run. Children of Israel here, they had been guilty of this. There'd been too many times recently when they had failed. They had won a victory. And then they had taken their eyes off the Lord, or they had become complacent, or they had become confident or overconfident, and they had failed. So this time, they're following through on what the Lord has told them and what the Lord is telling them, and they're trusting in Him. There's three things I want us to notice this morning in this passage which inform us. and which instruct us in our walk with the Lord. I want you to notice, first of all, verse 16 down to verse 18, to see the capture of the kings. We're looking at the capture of the kings. So we come here and these five kings, they're southern kings. They rule in cities in the southern part of the land. They've run away after what they've seen is happening to their armies. They weren't leading from the front. They were obviously leading from the back. And whenever the, The defeat started to come about. They were able to be the first ones away. And they're fleeing. They're in disarray. And off they go to save themselves. Now, you would imagine that these five kings have come together, and as they've come together with their armies, that whenever they flee, that they will try and head off to their own individual cities. That they'll try and go to their own places, because they come from five different cities, but they don't. They hold on together. And at this sense, I suppose, as these kings are fleeing, you can imagine them, maybe you can picture the scene of how they're there, and these kings are grouped together, because they're the ones who are gonna be calling the shots in the battle. They're the ones who were directing their own troops from wherever they were. So as they flee, they flee together. And in a sense, there's safety in numbers. So they all go off together. It doesn't matter about the fact that in the past they would have battled against each other, and history tells us that's what would have happened. They would have quarreled among themselves. They were more often enemies than they were allies. But now, in this situation, they were allies when they besieged Gibeon, and they're allies while they flee from the Israelites. They're staying together. The armies have been routed, and they flee and they seek somewhere to hide. and they come to Makeda. Now, Makeda is about 15 to 20 miles to the southwest of the city of Gibeon, so it was quite a distance for them to flee. It wasn't the nearest, actually, of their cities. If we look at these five kings, the nearest city to Makeda, or to Gibeon, sorry, would actually have been Jerusalem, and it's to the southeast of Gibeon. But the way that the children of Israel have come in from Gilgal, and the way that they have routed the enemies, it has sent them in the opposite direction. It has sent them northwest, first of all, and we see how it tells us that in earlier verses in chapter 10. They were in the going down to Beth Horon. They fled from before Israel and were in the going down to Beth Horon. Now, that's actually northwest of the city of Gibeon. So then they've headed that direction, but then they've taken a turn to the south, and they've gone from northwest to southwest, they've headed towards Azekah and Makeda. And eventually they've come here to Makeda, they're in front of their fleeing armies, they're seeking to hide, and close to where Makeda was historically, there are a lot of caves. And they've found a cave to hide in. but they didn't get into the cave without being spotted. And that's what scripture tells us in these verses. Verse 17, it says, it was told Joshua, saying the five kings are found hid in a cave at Makeda. So there they are, they're in this cave. They think for a short period of time that they have safety, but they have been spotted. So what they thought was a place of safety becomes a temporary prison for them. And ultimately it becomes their burial place, and the Word of God tells us that. And I suppose, even at this stage, we can see the picture of those who seek to flee from judgment. and they seek to hide from judgment. We referred to this last week. We thought about how God has supernaturally intervened last week, but these kings, as they have fled and as they've got themselves off into this cave, perhaps they've thought to themselves that they've gotten away with their actions. Perhaps they thought that we'll be all right, we're here, we're hiding, and no one knows where we are. But they had been seen. They were unable to hide. And you see, for those who are the enemies of God, there is nowhere to hide. Those who are unsaved will not be able to hide from eternal judgment. They might try, but it is impossible. Then we think about what Joshua did. And this is really the point we want to get to here in verse 18. So Joshua gets this word that they've been found, the kings have been found, and it's important that these kings have been found. But Joshua gives an instruction, and it's a very clear instruction. And there's a lesson here for us. There's a lesson for the believer about persistence, and about attention to the task that we have been given for the Lord. You see, Joshua and the armies are employed in a very specific task at this moment in time. They're pursuing the enemies, and they're chasing after them. And it tells us that in verse 19, "'Stay ye not, but pursue after your enemies, and smite behind most of them.'" So, they're chasing after the armies who are fleeing. And these armies are also attempting to get to safety. And as far as Joshua is concerned here, at this particular moment in time, the kings are caught. They're being held securely in the cave. Stones have been rolled over the door of the cave. A watch has been sent beside the stones, so there's no way they're getting out. So it's more important to keep chasing the enemies. It's more important to fulfill the task that you've been given. God said to Joshua, that these people had been delivered into their hands. Remember how Joshua reminds the children of Israel of that now. In verse 19 we read it, the Lord your God hath delivered them into your hand. So he's focusing on what God has said. He's focusing on completing the task that the Lord has given him. And capturing the kings was one part of that. But once they were captured, they were secure, so there was another part of the job that was more important at that particular moment in time. This was about having his priorities right. And he had his priorities right. The kings in the cave would be dealt with in the due time. They would be dealt with in the right way. But at this particular moment in time, Joshua doesn't want the people to get themselves distracted by the wrong things. And so the command is given. rolled great stones upon the mouth of the cave and set men by it for to keep them. Now this was excellent wisdom by Joshua. It was very strategic. He made doubly sure that they couldn't escape because while those great stones were rolled there, if there hadn't been men kept to watch over those, perhaps there would have been others of these king's guards or men who had observed from a distance and could have come and released them. So he set men by it for to keep them. They couldn't escape. But the task at hand right now was to encourage the people to focus on what they were needing to do. Sometimes we can get this wrong. Sometimes we focus on the wrong things. We all can do it. Sometimes we see things that we perceive to be problems. But perhaps we see situations and we think, well, I need to deal with that right now, and we get turned aside by that specific issue. And when we get ourselves caught up in those issues, there's a problem, because we take our eyes off what actually is the important thing that the Lord has for us to do. We get distracted by secondary matters. Joshua is making sure here that the children of Israel don't get distracted from the task at hand. He uses wisdom and he uses discretion to seek to ensure that people keep to the important job. Now where do we get our wisdom from? We don't get it from our own thoughts. We don't get it from our own imaginations. We don't get it by what we think is important. We find our wisdom from the word of God. We find our wisdom through the leading of the spirit of God by his word. Yes, we're prone to get distracted by unnecessary things. Sometimes we get distracted because of worries. We get distracted because we worry about the future. Sometimes we see something, we look at a problem, and we think that the problem's great, and we forget about the God who's infinitely greater than the problem. We get our eyes off the things that are important. As God's people, we have to learn to take our leading from Him. Not to take our leading from ourselves, not to take our leading from our feelings, or from our emotions, or from our preferences, but our leading needs to be from Him and Him alone. You see, Joshua has learned an awful lot. He's learned a lot in the recent past through failures. He's learned through defeat. And Joshua has begun to really learn this important lesson to be faithful to the leading of God, to be faithfully obeying the Word of God, and he's applying himself to that, and he's leading the people in that direction. He's keeping his focus on the big picture. Colin Peckham wrote in his commentary in the book of Joshua about what has taken place here, and he says, had he not pursued the enemy, Many more would have taken refuge in the fortified cities and would have given huge problems in the future. His priorities were focused, how necessary to have our priorities right and to stick to them. I want you to listen to me this morning. It's really important this. Whatever it is that's distracting you, whether it's a burden, whether it's a concern, Whether it's something that's causing you grief, whether it's something that's causing you distress, those things that are distracting you from getting on with the work of the Lord, bring it to the Lord. Leave it with Him and obey Him and follow Him. We have enough to do focusing on the task at hand. We can leave those other issues with the Lord. And if the Lord wants us to come back to those issues at a particular time, which is what happened here, well he will make the way for us to come back to those issues at that time. You see the capture of the kings, but I want you to notice secondly the completion of the battle. Look at verse 19 down to verse 21. Word of God says here, Joshua's speaking still, says, And stay ye not, but pursue after your enemies, and smite the hindmost of them. Suffer them not to enter into their cities. For the Lord your God hath delivered them into your hand. And it came to pass, when Joshua and the children of Israel had made an end of slaying them with a very great slaughter, till they were consumed, that the rest which remained of them entered into fenced cities. And all the people returned to the camp, to Joshua at Makeda, in peace. None moved his tongue against any of the children of Israel. So we look here and we see here at this task that they were to focus upon, that they were to engage in. We have to understand the reason why they had to focus upon this. You see these enemy soldiers, many of them, as they were fleeing, they were making their way towards safety. They were making their way towards the fenced cities or the walled cities that we read about at the end of verse 20. And Joshua here gives an instruction in verse 19. He says, So it's very clear that the purpose that Joshua has here is to fulfill the command that God has given to them and to obey God in the work. You see, God had told them to smite the inhabitants of the land. That instruction's already been given earlier on in the chapter. God had promised them on this occasion that the enemy's going to be delivered to them. So if God has told them to smite them and has said the enemy's going to be delivered to them, in fact God says that they wouldn't be able to stand against them. What's the responsibility of the children of Israel here? Is it to get distracted by other things? Is it to focus in on things that really aren't that important for them at that particular moment in time? No, it's not. The only responsibility of the children of Israel at this particular moment in time was to obey the Lord. And what had the Lord said? The Lord said, smite them. They've been given into your hand. Stick to the task. The responsibility was to obey God. That's it. And that's our responsibility, to obey Him. And Joshua here encourages the people to their service. He doesn't encourage them by his own thinking or by his own ideas. He doesn't encourage them by saying, well, look, do what you can do and do the best you can, and hopefully that'll be enough. He encourages them in the Lord. What does he say to them? He says to them, the Lord your God hath delivered them into your hand, in verse 19. He reminds them of what God has said. You see, this battle isn't about Joshua. It's not about the children of Israel. It's not about power for the children of Israel. It's not about anything other than fulfilling the will of God. So as the chase goes on, and as they continue, and then they've come to the end of the chase, and every last one who didn't make it to a fenced city was put to the sword. Only those who were able to get into a fortified city were safe at this particular moment in time. There was a great victory. And this was a great victory, why? Because the people had obeyed the Lord. They had followed the word of God. The Lord had engaged in battle for them. They had seen the power of God at work for them. And victory was won that day. And yes, there's some who escaped. Yes, there's some who got to the fenced cities. And yes, there was going to be an ongoing resistance to the possession of the land by the children of Israel. And yes, it's going to cause problems in the future. But there was still a great victory won this day. There's a lesson here, I suppose, for us all in terms of not sitting back after winning a victory, not resting on our laurels. We've already touched on this. You know, we can have great victories if we obey the Lord and if we're faithful to Him. And we can see the hand of God at work. And we can see and we can experience blessing. And that's wonderful when that happens. It's so encouraging to our hearts when that happens. It thrills our souls when that happens. But that doesn't mean that the work's over. The work doesn't stop then. The forces of wickedness are still powerful. Whether it's the world, whether it's the flesh, or whether it's the devil, whatever it might be, we will still have to engage in the work. We will still have to battle. until complete victory occurs when the Lord himself returns. Up to that point, there'll always be battles to be fought. And as we engage in battle, faithfulness is what's required. Obedience is what is required. Do you know how we know this was a great victory? Because there was a sense of absolute fear in the land of the children of Israel and of the God of Israel. You can picture the scene here as the children of Israel are chasing after enemies, and they get into the fortified cities. And there they are in those cities. And you can imagine that in a normal run of events, those who got inside the walls, plus those who were already inside the walls, would have been standing on the walls, jeering at the children of Israel. Shouting at them from inside the cities, taunting them. But what does it tell us here in verse 21? None moved his tongue. against any of the children of Israel." None moved his tongue. The word translated there is tongue in that verse. It's used in a number of different ways in Scripture. It's used for language, it's used for other things, but mostly it's translated as the tongue. And there's another occasion where it's used in Scripture in a very similar picture, and we see that over in Exodus chapter 11. Exodus chapter 11 and verse 7, and there we have this occasion where God is speaking to Moses and Aaron about the 10th plague that's going to come upon the land of Egypt, the smiting of the firstborn of the Egyptians. God said to Moses there about this, he said this, he says, there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt. Such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more. But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue against man or beast, that ye may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. Do you know what the picture is there? Do you see the land of Goshen where the children of Israel dwelt within the wider land of Egypt? Within Goshen not a sound was heard. A complete silence. Not even the dog barking. God said, why did God cause that to happen? That ye may know that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. A holy stillness. And here in the land on this day, in the promised land after this battle, there was silence from the enemies after the victory that God had wrought in the land. Silence. What a day that must have been. Can you imagine that? Imagine what it would have been like. It's sad that we don't know this, that we don't know the experience of this, because we live in a time when the voice of God and the voice of God's people, and our voices should be raised in declaration. Our voices should be raised in praise. Our voices should be raised in glory and in worship to the Lord, but our voices are drowned out by the sound of the world. Sadly, the reason for that is this, we are tainted by the world in too many cases. And our voice won't be heard. And the church's voice won't be heard because the world is creeping into the church. We're more interested in being accepted in society. And yet as God's people, we're on victory side. Why are we so silent? The world should be silent because of the greatness of our God. The children of Israel were far from perfect. They failed the Lord, they let him down, they got distracted by the world just the same way that we do. But when they wholly committed here to obedience, when they wholly committed to faithfully follow the Lord, what a difference was made in the land. What a difference we could make. if we would only live for the Lord as we ought to. When we think about the one who has redeemed us, the one who's given us a future, who's given us an eternity, what a difference we could make. You see the capture of the kings, you see the completion of the battle, but I want you to notice finally, verse 22 down to verse 27, the conclusion of the matter. Verse 22, they've come back now to Makeda, There's silence by the enemies. Joshua then says, open the mouth of the cave and bring out those five kings unto me out of the cave. So the enemies are routed. People have returned to Makeda with Joshua. They haven't gone back to Gilgal yet because there's still this matter to deal with, the matter of the five kings. Joshua says, open the cave, roll the stones away from the cave, bring them out, bring these kings out. And as Joshua says, bring them out, it tells us then that they did so and they brought forth those five kings onto him out of the cave. And then look at verse 24. It says, it came to pass when they brought out those kings unto Joshua that Joshua called for all the men of Israel. So the men of Israel are gathered, the warriors of Israel, and they're gathered there and these five kings are here. And Joshua then goes on and he says to the captains of the men of war which went with them, he says, come near, put your feet upon the necks of these kings. And they came near and put their feet upon the necks of them. There's a lesson here for the people. That's why he calls for the men of Israel to be there. It's intended that only one king will be glorified in all of this, only one king. So the men, the captains of Israel take these five kings, and these five kings are lying in the ground, and the captains are standing with their feet on the necks of the five kings. Now this was normal. This was a normal act of humiliation for defeated kings at the time in which we're reading about. They would have been humbled in such a way before the enemies who had defeated them. But normally speaking, as a king lay on the ground, The foot that would have been on his neck would have been the foot of the victorious king. But Israel has no king, certainly not a human king. Israel had the Lord of heaven. And this is a picture of how his people, obedient to him, would have victory. There's a lovely picture here of what Christ will do when he returns to establish his kingdom. You turn over in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, just for a minute or two. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and we're looking at verse 24 down to verse 28. But this great chapter of 1 Corinthians 15, it's pivotal for us as God's people in our understanding of the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. It tells us there in that chapter why the resurrection matters. It tells us that Christ is the firstfruits after our day, that our Christ is His coming. Now I'm not going to get into the prophetic timeline of that this morning and what that means, because if I start that, you'll still be here at about four o'clock. But we're not going to do that, we don't need to. But in verse 24, it starts off with these words after that. It says, then cometh the end. when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority. For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. Do you see the picture here? This is a time here when he will reign, when all enemies are under his feet. The same imagery is used, and it's speaking about the authority of the reigning Christ. And what a picture that is for us. We find that in Psalm 110, verse 1, prophetically speaking, God says to Christ, So Joshua here tells the captains of Israel to do this. He says, put your feet on their necks. Is he exalting the people? No. Is he exalting himself? No. Is he giving himself a pat on the back and saying, well done, Joshua, you led us well? And the people are looking at Joshua and saying, aren't you great? That's not what's happening here at all. Joshua here is encouraging them, surely. But he's clearly reminding the children of Israel that it's the Lord who will bring the blessing. Because look at what he says to them after they put their feet on their necks. He says to them, fear not. nor be dismayed, be strong and of good courage, for thus shall the Lord do to all your enemies against whom you fight." You see, it's about the Lord. It's about glorifying God. God had promised them the land. God had said that they would enter into the land. God had promised them victory. God had promised these enemies would be delivered into their hands. And what Joshua was doing in this circumstance was reminding them that in every victory, glory goes to God alone. Victory comes from God alone. Honor belongs to God alone. You see, there's coming a time when every enemy of the child of God will be defeated. Do you know where they'll be? They'll be under his feet. Every enemy, all of the problems of life that we go through, under his feet. The things that discourage us and distress us and burden us, under his feet. I love the way Dr. Adrian Rogers puts it. He says, everything over my head is under his feet. Do you know, if that doesn't thrill our hearts this morning, there's something wrong. Isn't it true there's times whenever things seem too big for us? The burden seems too large, the problem seems too great, we can't see a way around it, through it, over it, or under it. But it's under his feet. And we can commit it to him. because he's the God who's in control. He hasn't surrendered. Not one iota of his authority and power has been surrendered, and it never will be, because he's God. Notice in verse 26 as well, it tells us that Joshua, afterward Joshua smote them, and slew them, and hanged them, and they were hanging upon the trees until the evening. Judgment has come. It's come for these wicked kings, they've been humbled, and then they have been slain. They were hung upon the trees, but they were taken down at evening and buried, and that's a very important thing. because that was a sign of obedience to the Lord and to his word again. Over in Deuteronomy 21, verses 22 and 23, here's what the word of God says. It says, if a man hath committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou shalt hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day. For he that is hanged is accursed of God, that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance. These five kings, Could have been left up there for a long time as an example. But because of what God had said, they were taken down that very evening. That the land would not be defiled that the Lord thy God hath given thee for an inheritance. See, Joshua remembered what God had said. He obeyed what God had said. And it's followed through. And what that is is a mark of commitment to God. and evidence of commitment. It would have been easy in the heat of battle to forget something like this. But Joshua wholly followed the Lord. Sometimes whenever we get into the heat of the thing, we forget about all sorts of things. But we're to wholly follow the Lord. We're to obey him. And as we seek to do that, and we see God work for us, Let's just keep being faithful to this one who has and will put all things under his feet for his glory and that his name would be exalted.