Read Joshua 11-12.
When the army of Israel came to the rescue of the
Gibeonites, the attacking kings retreated west and then south. Joshua simply kept pursuing them until the
last one was captured and destroyed. By
then he had divided the land in two. He
conquered the south and now, in Chapter 11, his attention was directed to conquering the
northern kingdoms. It literally turned
out to be a battle tactic of divide and conquer for the land.
"(Joshua) left nothing undone of all that the LORD had
commanded Moses. So Joshua took all the
land." "And all the land had
rest from war." (11:15-16,23c)
Was it Israel 's
might and cunning or was it God whose power enabled them to accomplish this?
In 11:6, the LORD said, "I will give over all of them,
slain to Israel ." In 11:20, "For it was the LORD's doing
to harden their hearts that they should come out against Israel in
battle."
There is no question of God's sovereign control over the
lives of His creation. And, there are
instances in the Bible where He completely wiped out entire armies without Israel doing
anything. At the same time, notice His
encouragement to Joshua in 11:6-"Do not be afraid of them...you shall
hamstring their horses and burn their chariots with fire." God was not going to do it without them. He set it up and they did the work.
We cannot do what only God can do. We are totally dependent upon Him.
God will not do what He has commanded us to do. He enables us by providing all we need to
accomplish His will. Amazingly, the
LORD of heaven wants to use us for our good and His glory in every situation of
life.
Our job whether interacting with neighbors, or working
through personal difficulties, or achieving some great project, is to make the
name of the LORD famous.
"Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making
his appeal through us. We implore you on
behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." (2 Corinthians 5:20)
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