Project 119: Joshua 12
| Project 119 | Amy Hirsch
Have you ever fixated on an object so intently that you lost focus of what was really around you? Sometimes it’s helpful to take a step back and see the bigger picture. In Joshua 10 and 11, we’ve been in the weeds for a bit, hearing details about specific battles. But now in Joshua 12, the camera lens zooms out and we see the larger picture at hand: the story of God’s faithfulness to the Israelites. As they prepare to settle in the land, Joshua 12 gives a summary of what it took to get this point. Notice that the battles mentioned at the beginning of Joshua 12 didn’t happen under Joshua at all - rather, we journey back even further to Numbers and to Moses’ conquests east of the Jordan River (Joshua 12:1-6)—and the rest of Joshua 12 lists out all of the kings defeated by Joshua west of the Jordan River—31 in all (Joshua 12:7-23)!
Certainly there are issues of interpretation in Joshua. There’s so much destruction, and sometimes I think we can focus in on the brutality so much that we miss the bigger picture—the picture of God’s faithfulness in giving His people the land He had promised to their ancestors. God had been waiting for the people of Canaan to repent and turn to Him; because they had not repented, He hardened their hearts and allowed them to be destroyed. God used Israel to judge a nation for their sins, and even as He judged Canaan, He warned Israel that this too could be true for them. Sadly, hundreds of years later, Israel will lose the land they were once promised and faces judgment by exile—and God will use Assyria and Babylon to punish Israel for her idolatry and waywardness.
We also see the bigger picture of God’s mercy and grace—even the grace He shows to outsiders. He did command that certain cities should be devoted to destruction—these were cities where the Israelites would directly settle. God’s decree was meant as a safeguard for their hearts, to ensure that they would have no temptation to fall into the idolatrous ways of their neighbors. But other cities on the periphery are spared—in fact, later the Lord reminds the Israelites that they have moved into cities that they did not build, with vineyards that they did not plant. Only specific cities are destroyed for a specific purpose. And we see how God shows mercy to Canaanites who acknowledge Him; the Gibeonites and Rahab are both examples of His lovingkindness and care for the stranger, for the Gentile who trusts in Him.
I think about the Israelite children who would have been read these words from the book of Joshua. While these names and people are fairly meaningless to us, can you see the wonder in the eyes of the Israelite boy who grew up in one of these towns, as he imagined his ancestors, who were once slaves in Egypt and wanderers in the wilderness, conquering these lands? Lest we get too caught up in the forest to see the majesty of the trees, we are reminded that first and foremost, the book of Joshua isn’t just about conquest and war—it’s about a God who keeps His promises to His children.
Joshua 12 (ESV):
Now these are the kings of the land whom the people of Israel defeated and took possession of their land beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise, from the Valley of the Arnon to Mount Hermon, with all the Arabah eastward: 2 Sihon king of the Amorites who lived at Heshbon and ruled from Aroer, which is on the edge of the Valley of the Arnon, and from the middle of the valley as far as the river Jabbok, the boundary of the Ammonites, that is, half of Gilead, 3 and the Arabah to the Sea of Chinneroth eastward, and in the direction of Beth-jeshimoth, to the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, southward to the foot of the slopes of Pisgah; 4 and Og king of Bashan, one of the remnant of the Rephaim, who lived at Ashtaroth and at Edrei 5 and ruled over Mount Hermon and Salecah and all Bashan to the boundary of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and over half of Gilead to the boundary of Sihon king of Heshbon. 6 Moses, the servant of the Lord, and the people of Israel defeated them. And Moses the servant of the Lord gave their land for a possession to the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
7 And these are the kings of the land whom Joshua and the people of Israel defeated on the west side of the Jordan, from Baal-gad in the Valley of Lebanon to Mount Halak, that rises toward Seir (and Joshua gave their land to the tribes of Israel as a possession according to their allotments, 8 in the hill country, in the lowland, in the Arabah, in the slopes, in the wilderness, and in the Negeb, the land of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites):9 the king of Jericho, one; the king of Ai, which is beside Bethel, one;10 the king of Jerusalem, one; the king of Hebron, one; 11 the king of Jarmuth, one; the king of Lachish, one; 12 the king of Eglon, one; the king of Gezer, one; 13 the king of Debir, one; the king of Geder, one;14 the king of Hormah, one; the king of Arad, one; 15 the king of Libnah, one; the king of Adullam, one; 16 the king of Makkedah, one; the king of Bethel, one; 17 the king of Tappuah, one; the king of Hepher, one; 18 the king of Aphek, one; the king of Lasharon, one; 19 the king of Madon, one; the king of Hazor, one; 20 the king of Shimron-meron, one; the king of Achshaph, one; 21 the king of Taanach, one; the king of Megiddo, one;22 the king of Kedesh, one; the king of Jokneam in Carmel, one; 23 the king of Dor in Naphath-dor, one; the king of Goiim in Galilee, one; 24 the king of Tirzah, one: in all, thirty-one kings.