God Fights for Us

So we heard that. I want to remind you of a great declaration from God's Word that every word that we have in scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable. That was some pretty difficult words and some very difficult things we heard in this particular passage. And it does help us to address a very important topic, and that is the topic of our enemies. This morning, we're going to think about our enemies. And I want us to begin by reflecting on a few questions. And it's simply, do you have enemies? Should you have enemies? And if you have enemies, how should you treat them? You see, an enemy is somebody that you at least feel like is somebody who's against you. The typical response that we have when we feel like somebody's against us is to put ourselves over against them. You know, who could this be? It may be a competitive co-worker. It may be an old friend that you've had a long-standing disagreement with that you've never come to terms with. Maybe somebody that's close to you that you simply do not get along with. We do sometimes have real enemies, but I fear oftentimes we make somebody an enemy because they get in our way. Often times we make somebody our enemy because they're an obstacle to a desire that we have. For instance, a bank robber will consider a policeman an enemy. The bank robber doesn't like the policeman because he's actually trying to protect other people's money and belongings and is an obstacle to the bank robber. The policeman isn't an enemy. He's good and right and helpful. But because he's an obstacle to a sinful desire, the bank robber views him as an enemy. Maybe a little more closer to home, a youth can see a parent as an enemy. When a child has a desire that is not helpful or productive or Christian or godly, then the parent has to say, no, that is a good thing you just received, but our sinful inclination is to say, well, why would you say no? I want to do this. And so we treat them like enemies. It's not just youth, it may be a Christian adult who has another brother or sister in Christ or an elder say no. We don't like being told no, and so we view anyone who says no as an enemy. We're talking about this today because we're going to look, well, you've just heard about what God does to the enemies of his people from Joshua. And it's a helpful time to reflect upon, do we have enemies? What does God say about our enemies? And now in the time that we believe in Jesus Christ, how should we treat somebody who is an enemy? We're looking at Joshua 10 to 11. It's very important to realize where we are in the story because Israel has been taken out of Egypt. As Andrew already told us, they've been attacked constantly. The other nations are raging against God's people ever since they've been freed from Egypt, even Egypt themselves, and they've been attacked, and now they're in the promised land. And now they're starting to be attacked within the promised land, but God is going to give them this land. God is hardening the hearts of these kings, these nations, so that they will no longer be a deterrent and an obstacle to Israel. Because these kings, they're not the greatest threat to Israel. The greatest threat to Israel is really the ongoing desire they have to worship other gods. I appreciated how they made it very clear. Chapter 11, 23, I want us to see again. So Joshua took the whole land according to all the Lord has spoken to him. You have the Lord's command. Remember, Joshua has to submit to God, the commander. So Joshua took the whole land. He's obeyed and God has blessed him. And Joshua gave it for inheritance to Israel according to their tribal allotments. That's what we'll look at next week. And the land had rest from war. God is giving his people his land so they can enjoy it. Now, this passage is very difficult for many of us. This passage has a lot of difficult events for our day and age. It's not comfortable for our modern ears. However, for most centuries of humanity, this passage would be a great relief and a source of great hope. But most people have lived in tribal communities where there's other tribes and nations all around them, and those neighbors are threats. So we really enjoy a long history of peace. Our borders are secure for the most part. We have threats, and they cause us great fear, and they cause us to want to have revenge. But for the most part, we live in a world where a nation, our borders are secure. But most people live in villages and nations where they have neighbors that are a constant threat. And to hear that there's a God who's going to fight for you, who's going to protect you, and defend you, and keep these enemies at bay, and even give you rest from these enemies, this would be welcomed. Because that is a real fear for many people still today. Also, you see, this is the bigger picture. God said, I want my people in my land, He promised them in Genesis 15, 430 years prior, I'm going to bring you into my land. And for 430 years, God has patiently shown mercy to the Hivites, the Canaanites, the Amorites. But now judgment has come. He is coming in to judge these nations that are wicked. He's coming in to judge these nations that rage against him and his own people. But what we have to see here, for four and 30 years, he gave them mercy. And now comes judgment because they did not respond to his mercy. Our main three points that I want to look at from our text. First, God orchestrates the battle. As we look at the battle, I want to first see God is the one who's orchestrating this battle. Secondly, we're going to see God fights for his people And then finally, God gives rest. God orchestrates the battle, God fights for his people, and God gives rest. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you are the God who has decided you are going to be with your people and for your people. May these truths change us, inform us, give us confidence to live according to your commands. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. So first, God orchestrates the battle. Something that runs consistently throughout many of these stories in Joshua is that the nations hear about what God has done. Turn with me to chapter 9, verse 1. As soon as all the kings who are beyond the Jordan and the hill country and in the east lowland, all the coast of the great sea, toward Lebanon, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, They heard of this. They've heard of what God has done and what God has given, the great victory God has given to his people. Go on down, chapter 3. But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Aiot, God is allowing all the nations to hear about how great he is and the great things he's doing for his people. Let's go to chapter 10, verse 1. As soon as Adonai Zedek, the king of Jerusalem, heard how Joshua had captured Ai and had devoted it to destruction, doing it to Ai and his king as he had done to Jericho and his king. The kings have heard what God is doing. Go to chapter 11, verse 1. When Jabin, the king of Hazor, heard of this. Joshua is giving you a theme here. He's giving you a repetition. God has been doing mighty things. And these other nations, they're hearing about it. And what they should do when they hear about this is to say, I'm afraid of this God. This God is truly awesome. This God is truly worthy of all worship. I'm going to go and I'm going to say, I want to submit to this God. That's not what they do. One nation says, I'm going to try to trick this God. I'm going to try to deceive my way into living by pretending we're somebody we're not. It's the Gibeonites, that's chapter 10. All the other kings, they grab their swords, they grab their shields, and they decide they're going to go fight against this God who's part of the waters and crushed cities. Now, it's really amazing that God is orchestrating all of this. He's having them here. He's not giving them the grace to respond appropriately, but he's having them here so that they will come and God is orchestrating that these battles will take place. Let's look to chapter 11, verse 20. This is a very important declaration that we need to understand. There's a reasoning here. Why are all these battles taking place? For it was the Lord's doing. The Lord is the one doing this. He's orchestrating. It's the Lord's doing. To harden their hearts. That they should come against Israel in battle. In order that they should be devoted to destruction and should receive no mercy but be destroyed. Just as the Lord commanded Moses. God has made promises. And God is a God of truth. He keeps His promises. And He has the power to keep every promise. He's promised His people, you'll be in a land, there's people occupying it, so He's going to destroy them. So that His people can be in His land as He promised. And what's amazing here is that it shows His sovereign power. He hardens their hearts. Now God is not responsible for the sin of these people. These nations, these kings, they have chosen to set themselves against God. They are going to be in judgment for all the evil deeds they have done. But what we see here is something very encouraging. God is still sovereign over evil. He's not the cause of evil. He's not the author of evil. He cannot be, because He is always righteous and good, but He's sovereign over it. We saw this in Genesis. When Joseph said, what man intended for evil, God used for good. We can have evil intent, but God works all things for the good of His people. It shows how amazingly powerful He is. Even when we have sinful intent, God is sovereign in being able to keep us from being as sinful as we could be. God is sovereign in making sure His plan is always fulfilled. God hardens their hearts. Now, here's my simple explanation of what it means for God to harden a heart. Our hearts, because we've chosen to sin, are so twisted and bent towards sin We are so predisposed to sin that it's only by grace that our hearts are ever bent towards God in any way, in any fashion. It's by God's grace alone that we can ever have a right thought of God and have any kind of right affection for God. And what it means to harden the heart is for God to take every bit of grace out so that the heart is just left alone in its hatred of God because that's what our hearts do without God's grace. And that's terrifying. So when God hardens a heart, what he's doing is he's just letting it do what it would naturally do apart from his grace. It's a great reminder for us to praise God that we're not as sinful as we could be. It's also a reminder here that God is orchestrating these battles. They're not easy. God is sovereign over all things, and so when we think about life circumstances, when we think about trials and difficulties and things happening, we have to look up and say, God, I'm gonna trust you because you are sovereign right now. You're allowing this, you may have even brought this, and what I can do is I can say, God, I know from all of your word and my life experience with you, you're trustworthy. I'm going to seek the grace I need to persevere. Now oftentimes what trials do is they squeeze us. That's what the trial does. It brings a kind of pressure and it causes whatever's inside to come out. And sometimes that's grumbling. Sometimes it's complaining. Sometimes it's faith. And what God does with that trial is he wants you to see, wow, I'm gonna squeeze you in this particular area of your life and what's gonna come out is an idol that you can repent of. That's how God orchestrates tasks to refine us, to show us what's inside so we have more grace and less grumbling. We have more faith, less fear. God seeks to make us pure worshipers. That's why these trials come. He's less interested in our comfort. He's more interested in having a pure worship. So God is a sovereign orchestrator. Now let's get to the fighting where most of our time is going to be spent. God fights for his people. Again, two simple phrases that every Christian needs to just always have in their mind. God is with us. God is for us. We're focusing on the God for us. He fights for us. God has connected his name to these people. Israel, they weren't a people. They were a simple, there was a man who actually couldn't have children, and then he made them multiply. He gave him a child, and then there's a tribe. And then they became a mighty nation, and God said, you're my nation. God's sovereign hand is all over Israel, and the most important thing about Israel is that God has said, you're my people. My name is tied to you. His reputation is connected to Israel, and so he cares. That's why he fights for them. He set them on a mission. He set them on a mission, and the first focus here to continue the campaign is on five kings who are actually fighting against Gibeon. We can go back to chapter 10, verse one. The five kings, they're actually really upset with Gibeon because Gibeon found a way to trick themselves into a peace. And so, Gibeonites do what a country and a treaty does. Israel, we're getting attacked. We're in a peace treaty with you. You need to come defend us. Now, let's just think about this for a moment. The Gibeonites lied to get in this treaty. They're now getting attacked Israel is going to go protect them. Israel made a foolish decision. And God uses that foolish decision to harden the hearts of these kings so that He will have His ultimate will fulfilled. Again, He's the great orchestrator. But look at chapter 10, verse 8. I'm just gonna hit some highlights of what we hear. These kings are coming. They're mighty, they're numerous. Chapter 10, verse 8, the Lord said to Joshua, do not fear them. I have given them into your hands. Not a man of them shall stand before you. This is the promise of God. It goes back to chapter 1. Be strong and courageous. Trust me, I am the commander, I am the fighter. And so Joshua, he leads his men into battle. And one of the most amazing things that takes place is more people die by the hailstones that God brings out of heaven than Israel's own swords. God is the one who's going to bring victory. Joshua prays, son, stand still so that this day is full and long so the enemies all perish. Verse 14 is a summary of the event. There has been no day like it before or since when the Lord heeded the voice of a man for the Lord fought for Israel. Now, before we think about that prayer and its role, I want to go and I want to think about these kings, because a lot of time and attention is given to these kings, and it needs some explanation. The five kings, after all their troops have died, they decide to go hide. They're going to go put themselves in a cave. Joshua hears about it. Roll a stone over that cave. I don't want these guys getting away. And then, He has all of his troops come out, or his chiefs, and the chiefs decide, or he tells the chiefs, I want you to put your foot on their necks, and then we're going to kill them. Look at verse 24. And they brought those kings out to Joshua. Joshua summoned all the men of Israel and said to the chiefs of the men of war who had gone with him, come near, put your feet on the necks of these kings. And they came near and put their feet on their necks. It seems like a very violent action. They then kill them. They then hang them on a tree. And we have to kind of ask, what is God doing? Why is he going to such long, making so many events out of this victory? Well, it's always helpful whenever you actually have an explanation of the verse. Look at verse 25. He's making a spectacle of these kings and how great the victory is for this purpose, I believe. Joshua said to them, that is the Israelites, do not be afraid or dismayed. Be strong and courageous, for thus the Lord will do to all your enemies against whom you fight. And then Joshua struck them and put them to death and he hanged them on five trees and they hung on the trees evening. So they have their heads stepped on. They're killed. They're hung on a tree. And this is also Israel will see your God fights for you. Your God is going to crush every enemy that comes against you. Be strong and courageous. I believe there's also something more here. If we were to turn to Deuteronomy 21, verses 23 and 24, it talks about how every man who's hung on a tree is cursed. I believe the importance of hanging them on a tree is that there's a symbolism that says these kings who represent all the people, they are cursed. And by being hung up on the tree, what Joshua is saying, the curse of these people is being lifted up. And they're obedient, they're not supposed to leave the man on the tree overnight. So they did it in less than a day. There's a lot of symbolism in the stepping on of the head and the hanging on a tree that's very significant for us as we think about God in the bigger picture. First of all, the image of a victor standing on the head of an enemy is actually given, is attributed to God in numerous places. One of the most popular ones is Psalm 110. The enemies of God are made his footstool. It's a grand vision to show how great and mighty God is, that he is the victor. He stands over his enemies, there is no threat. If you believe in Yahweh, he fights for you and you have no fear. We also could go back to Genesis 3.15. When God is cursing the serpent, He says, there will be a child born of this woman, Eve, and she is going to crush your head. It's a declaration of absolute victory. What we see is that this language shows God is giving Israel the victory. God himself is the victor. But this is actually where we gotta do a little bit of thinking. This is where it's going to get a little complicated, and I want you to make sure you're following with me. As we think about Christ the victor, we also have to see that Christ not only is the one who has victory, Christ is the one who also dies. Christ is the one who has the absolute victory, and Christ is also the one who dies. Let me make it, try to be as simple as possible. We could go to Galatians 3.13. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. You see, one of our greatest enemies that we have to come to terms with is death. has come to be the victor, to be the champion that saves us from that great enemy, death, and the way that he saves us from our death is by dying for us in our place. Death is a curse. Death is part of the curse because when we rejected God, God said, you will surely die. You see, God is the God of life. God is a God who wants to know us and for us to live and to know Him. And so God said, I'm going to send my Son, my blessed, righteous Son, and He is going to be put on a cross, and He there is going to be treated as if a curse. And this is what happens. If you recognize your sin, If you recognize how cursed you are in your sin and that wicked heart and the death you deserve and you look up to Christ and you see the righteous man who died as if a sinner, the curse of sin, the curse of death is lifted off of you and it's put on Christ who dies in your place. That is the gospel of the God who is the victor of one of our greatest enemies, and that is death. If you're not a believer this morning, I have to tell you a great warning in that if you continue to reject Christ and you die, you're going to suffer worse than what these kings suffered. You see, by nature, we're all enemies of God. In our sin, we're all enemies of God. And God is going to punish everyone according to their sin, and it's going to be terrible. We all deserve wrath. We all deserve death. But, God has sent his son. And if you believe in Him, if you believe that He died in your place, if you believe He died to take away your sin, to forgive you of sin, you can have new life. You can have the blessing rather than suffer the curse. You must believe. I want us to continue to look here at chapter 10, verse 29. That southern campaign continues and there's repeated phrases again. The Lord gave it to them and they left nothing remaining. Just as they had done in Libna, they did here. They left nothing remaining. They destroyed every devoted thing. There was nothing remaining. They left nothing remaining. Just as the Lord of God Israel commanded. There's a beautiful declaration here that if you obey God, you're going to be victorious. They have learned from Ai, they've learned from the Gibeonites, they must trust God and obey God. They must know that He's fighting for them and that they must obey Him. There is a strong connection here to the success Israel has and their obedience to what God says. These two things are necessarily related. Now I want to go back to Joshua's prayer. Son, stand still. This is a pretty bold, amazing prayer. One that he thought to pray for it. That's a bold claim. Change everything about the way the orbits work, God, because we need to finish this battle. And then God did it. The book of Jeshua, apparently there's a book out there that also attributes to this, that's not canonical, that's not in our scriptures to say, yes, this is true. I want you to think about something in that if we commit our way to God, if we obey Him and what we want to do is stay on mission with Him, we will be successful. And I believe here what we see in this prayer is Joshua's asking a very bold thing, but it's in line with what God wants to do. This is the important thing about prayer. Our prayers should be so focused, more focused on us getting ourselves aligned with God, rather than making a wish list of the things we wish he would do for us. Prayer is our most powerful weapon. Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. This is saying, God, would you make sure that what your will is in heaven, may it be done so on earth. And the first thing we should ask is, God, how can you change my thoughts, my words, my deeds, my desires? But what do we normally ask for? Would you change that other person? Would you change my circumstances? Would you change my health? Would you change these other things that will make my life more comfortable? Whereas no, we're supposed to be saying, God, change everything about me so that I'm more aligned with what you're doing and then everything you pray for will be successful. When we're actually aligned with God and we're committed to doing God's will, we'll be successful. So the problem is I think we only pray when we need to. We only pray when we feel helpless. Think about how often, what we often pray for. We feel helpless with our physical needs, so we pray for physical healing. That's good, that's right. But I wanna challenge you, how often do you feel helpless spiritually? Emotionally? How often do you feel helpless in temptation and actually say, God, I'm crying out for help? We too often want the comfort of feeling well rather than to know God is fighting for us. And quite frankly, it's because of this. The sin that's tempting us, we typically want too much. And so we don't ask for help. God fights for us. Now let's look at this theme we'll just touch on today. We'll come back next week. God gives rest, chapter 11, verse 23. So Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses, and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel. According to their tribal allotments, in this fantastic declaration, the land had rest from war. The land had rest from war. We just heard about kings being stepped on, killed, hung. Whole cities being destroyed. It's quite a bit difficult to think through these things. But this declaration we like, and the land had rest from war, and what I want us to do is back out for a moment. I want to make two claims. One is that God is first and foremost a God who is good and committed to rest. God, as we think about Him in the Old Testament, I want us to first think He is a God who is good and He's committed to rest. Go to Genesis 1. What God does there is always good. God's work is good. He created this, and it was good. He created that, and it was good. He created this, and it was good. And He created that, and it was good. And then what did God do at the end? He rested. God is committed to righteousness and rest. We too often look at the Bible and we think, God, he's such a God of wrath. God, that's a wrong way of looking at it. The clear claim, the clear focus that we need to see is that God is first and foremost a God who is committed to righteousness and rest. What we need to see is that we have been so wicked as a people that he has and must have righteous wrath against us. Wrath isn't a proper attribute of God. It's an action of God that comes out of his love and commitment to righteousness. What we have to see here is that God's desire is for his people to have rest. Rest from seeking to be good enough because we're not. Rest from fighting against God because that's a losing battle. Rest from weariness and trying to find peace in the creation rather than the creator. Rest from being a slave to our sin. What we're gonna see next week is that Joshua, he gave them rest from war, but he did not give them the true rest they needed, and that was a rest. with God, a true peace with God because Christ came to die to make them once again right in relation. Before we conclude, I want us to go back to that question about enemies. Do you have enemies? How do you respond to enemies? I want to think about this again because I want to think about it in light of Christ and what we are now called to do in response to enemies. And I have four thoughts. four thoughts on enemies. First, in the New Testament, the command to the Christian is to love your enemies. Israel was called to overcome their enemies with battle. You, Christian, are not called to overcome your enemies with a sword, or a fist, or a sharp word. You are called to overcome your enemies with love. That's so much harder. But that is the radical change that Christ brings. If there is a human who's been an obstacle, a pain, a bother, a trouble, Jesus Christ, our commander, calls us to love that person. This is the radical ethic of Jesus Christ in the church. Now we usually respond to someone who's an obstacle with pouting, complaining, avoiding, and slandering. We want revenge. Christ says you're not supposed to respond that way. You're supposed to respond with love and grace. Here's what you should do if somebody starts to feel like an enemy. Pray for them. It really is just that simple. If someone starts to feel like an enemy, you don't try to take matters into your own hand. You say, God, I don't know what's happening. Will you help me know how to properly love this person? Whatever problem you think there is, you pray for them, and you pursue them in love. So I wanna make it very clear, the New Testament church has no command to arms. We have a command to love, even our enemies. enemies. Second, you have a clear command to love your enemies. Second, we are not supposed to make enemies or keep enemies. We're called to be peacemakers. We're ambassadors of the God of reconciliation. We do not crush enemies. We reconcile with them. We seek to live at peace with all men as far as it depends on us. Romans 12, 18. It means we apologize, we forgive, we see ourselves as instruments of grace. We try to make much of Christ. Third, we have to make sure we identify our real enemy. See, I believe we oftentimes make somebody an enemy when they become an obstacle to our sinful desires. The real enemy is the sin that lives within us. The real enemy is this longing for our self-righteousness, for others to acknowledge us, for our great comfort. And here's what happens. If you think somebody's an enemy, if you think somebody is really an enemy, I want you to ask yourself, in what way are they being an obstacle to my desires? and there you've got an idol. If you get an answer to what are they keeping me from, there's an idol. How are they threatening you? What are they keeping you from that you think is your entitlement or your right? God uses this opportunity to say, if I think somebody's an enemy, there's something wrong with me because they're revealing my selfishness and my sin. Fourth, we have to stop pretending that another real enemy does not even exist. The devil and demons are real. They're as real as scriptural as the existence of us human beings. We have to realize this is clear. We have to realize there's a battle. We read Ephesians 6 earlier. Our battle is not against flesh and blood. It's against the evil spirits. They're constantly trying to deceive us that we're not as bad as we think we are, that the other guy must be the problem. They're constantly trying to deceive us. God isn't good. That's why all that armor has to do with truth and righteousness. The command is to stand firm. If you are a Christian and you are seeking to do the will of God and proclaim Him, you're going to be attacked. What we have to do is to make sure we're standing firm. Brothers and sisters, we're in a battle. Yes, we have rest with God, we are at peace with God, but that real rest has not yet been fully accomplished, and while we're waiting on that rest, we have to realize we're in a battle. Our weapons are prayer, grace, love, God's word. We must stand firm together and remind one another this isn't a playground anymore, this is a battlefield. where we are seeking to make much of Christ and His great victory. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you for setting yourself towards us when we had set ourselves against you. We thank you that while we were enemies, you loved You sent your son to die for us, to become a curse for us, to lift that curse off of us so that we are now your blessed, beloved children. Help us, Lord, to consider this radical ethic that you've given to us. Help us, Lord, to consider the real enemies that live within our hearts, the sin that still dwells, the deception that lies outside. Help us to stand firm on your truth and to glory in Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. In his name we pray, amen.