Joshua 11:15 - Meaning and Application

This is the close of the whole matter. Here we are given a brief account of four things.

First, we see the stubbornness of the Canaanites in fighting against Israel. It is surprising that, although it was plain that God was fighting for Israel and the Canaanites kept losing every battle, they still held out to the end. Not one city made peace with Israel except the Gibeonites, who understood what led to peace better than their neighbors (Joshua 11:19). Other cities could have made just as good terms for themselves, without torn clothes and worn-out shoes, if only they had humbled themselves. But they never even asked for peace.

We are told where this strange stubbornness came from, it was from the Lord, who hardened their hearts (Joshua 11:20). Pharaoh’s heart was first hardened by his own pride and stubborn will, and then God hardened it in righteous judgment, leading to his ruin. So it was with these Canaanites. God punished them for their other sins by leaving them to this one, making them enemies of those they might have made friends with. This was their ruin, they came against Israel in battle and struck the first blow, and so they could expect no mercy. People do not know what they are doing when they provoke divine justice, or the agents God has chosen to carry it out. Are we stronger than God? Hardness of heart is the ruin of sinners. Those who are dull, careless, and ignore God’s warnings are already marked for destruction. What hope is there for those to whom God says, “Go, make their hearts dull”?

Second, we see the steady persistence of the Israelites in carrying on this war (Joshua 11:18). Joshua made war for a long time. Some say it was five years, others seven, spent in subduing the land. God allowed Israel to spend that long learning war and seeing again and again his power and goodness in every victory he gave them.

Third, we see the final conquest of the Anakim, a race of giants, at last (Joshua 11:21-22). This may have happened as Israel came upon them where they were scattered, or more likely, the Anakim had withdrawn into strongholds and were hunted out and destroyed at the end, after all the other enemies of Israel. Those mountain regions in Judah and Israel had been the home of these giant men, but neither their height, nor their caves, nor the hard paths to reach them could protect them from Joshua’s sword. The sons of Anak are named especially because they had terrified the spies forty years earlier, and their size and strength had seemed too great an obstacle to taking Canaan (Numbers 13:28, 33). Even what looked impossible was overcome.

Let the sons of Anak never frighten God’s people, because even their day will come to fall. Giants are small beside Almighty God. Yet this battle with the Anakim was left until near the end of the war, when Israel had become more skilled in battle and had seen more of God’s power and goodness. God sometimes saves the hardest trials for the later part of life, both in suffering and in temptation. So let no one boast as if the battle were over while still putting on the armor. Death, that great son of Anak, is the last enemy to be faced, but it will be destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:26). Thanks be to God, who will give us the victory.

Fourth, we see the result of this long war. The Canaanites were rooted out, not completely, as the book of Judges will later show, but to a great extent. They were no longer able either to keep Israel out of the land or to harass them constantly. Joshua took all that land (Joshua 11:16-17). We may suppose that the people spread out with their families into the regions they had conquered, at least into the areas near their camp at Gilgal, until the land could be divided in an orderly way by lot, so that each man would know his own portion. Or, in another sense, the land had rest from war (Joshua 11:23). This did not mean peace with the Canaanites, which God had forbidden, but rest from their attacks. There is still a rest, a rest from war, waiting for God’s people, and they will enter it when their struggle is finished.

What was done here is also compared with what had been spoken to Moses. God’s word and his works, when considered together, help explain each other. At the end, it is noted that all the commands God had given Moses about conquering Canaan were obeyed on the people’s side, at least while Joshua lived (Joshua 11:15). This is stated very carefully: as the Lord commanded Moses his servant, through whom the law was given, so Moses commanded Joshua, for Moses had been faithful as a lawgiver to the one who appointed him. He had done his part, and then he died. But were Moses’ commands still kept after he was in the grave? Yes, they were. Joshua did so too, and in his own place he was just as faithful as Moses.

Joshua left nothing undone, or, more literally, he removed nothing, of all that the Lord had commanded Moses. Those who leave their duty undone work, as far as they can, to weaken or cancel God’s command. Joshua, by obeying it, confirmed it, as the expression says (Deuteronomy 27:26). Joshua was a great commander, yet nothing praised him more than his obedience. Those who govern others by their own will must first be ruled by God’s will. Then their power is truly their honor, and not otherwise.

The obedience for which Joshua is especially praised here is his careful carrying out of the command to destroy the Canaanites and to tear down their altars and burn their idols (Deuteronomy 7:2-5; Exodus 23:24; Exodus 34:13). In his zeal for the Lord of hosts, Joshua spared neither the idols nor the idolaters. Saul’s disobedience, or rather his half-obedience, in carrying out God’s command against Amalek cost him his kingdom. It seems Joshua himself could say that he had followed his orders with great care in all his work, and that he had done in every way what Moses commanded him. He found more satisfaction in remembering his obedience to God’s commands than in all the gain and honor that came from his victories.

It is also noted that all the promises God had made to Moses about this conquest were carried out on God’s side (Joshua 11:23). Joshua took the whole land, conquered it, and took possession of it, just as the Lord had said to Moses. God had promised to drive out the nations before Israel (Exodus 33:2; Exodus 34:11) and to bring them down (Deuteronomy 9:3). Now it was done. Not one word of the promise failed.

Our successes and comforts are twice as sweet and satisfying when we see them coming to us from God’s promise, when we can say, “This is what the Lord said.” In the same way, our obedience is pleasing to God when it is shaped by his command. If we carefully do our duty, we do not need to doubt that God will keep his promise.