JOSHUA 12
Read Joshua 12
You might well ask, ‘What is the point of all this? How is all this, “Meron the king of Acshaph, one; the king of Tanach, one; the king of Megiddo, one” going to help me in my devotions? How is it going to give me a greater knowledge of Jesus? How is this going to prepare me in being a Christian in this world?
Let’s start with verses 1-6. Here we revisit the land to the east of the River Jordan. You might remember from back in the beginning of Joshua that this is the land given to the tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh. This land lay outside Canaan, but the men of these tribes were called upon to cross the River Jordan along with the rest of the nation and to help them conquer the enemy, even though their bit had been successfully conquered and they were safely settled (Joshua 1:12-15). This passage reinforces the idea of the unity of God’s people. They are one people, they were all involved in crossing the Jordan and entering the Promised Land. The tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh are not second class citizens just because their allotted home is outside the land of Canaan. It is as if God is saying in the midst of all these victories, “Remember that I gave you victories east of the Jordan as well. Don’t forget that God’s people live over there too”. The call for us is to remember the unity of God’s people today in all its variety and that others are no less God’s people even if they do prefer a different style of worship or a different Bible version or whatever.
The rest of the Chapter, difficult as it is to read, vindicates God’s promises to his people. ‘Great is thy faithfulness’ we sing, and here God has itemised his faithfulness to his people in delivering these kings (and, it is implied, their land) to the Israelites. What God promises, he delivers, and we see that clearly in the New Testament when Jesus, the long awaited saviour of God’s people, fulfilled God’s promises by dying on the cross and being raised up to bring us eternal life. Great is his faithfulness indeed.
Finally, this list of kings defeated by the Lord is not triumphalism but rather evidence of God’s goodness towards his people. The Israelites might ask, ‘What has God done for us?’. The answer is that he has defeated this king, that king and so on. We have the expression ‘count your blessings’ and that is what this list enabled them to do, to give thanks to the Lord for each one of them. In our own prayers we can list the blessings that God has given us and thank him for them.
What has God done for us? He has defeated sin and death through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen