Poetic Justice
Poetic Justice
Joshua 11:21-22 And Joshua came at that time and cut off the Anakim from the hill country, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the hill country of Judah, and from all the hill country of Israel. … There was none of the Anakim left in the land of the people of Israel. Only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod did some remain.
Back in Numbers 13, before Joshua became the fearless frontman of this pilgrim band, Moses commissioned him and eleven men to spy out the land of Canaan: “See what the land is, and whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many, and whether the land that they dwell in is good or bad, and whether the cities that they dwell in are camps or strongholds” (v. 18-19). But, of the twelve, only Joshua and Caleb came back from that enterprise with hopeful words. The other ten spies were gutless cowards, having evidently learned nothing from pillars of cloud or Red Sea crossings or Sinai thunderings. Numbers 13:23-33 records their revolting report to the camp: “The land … is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.” When Joshua and Caleb rose afterward to speak encouragement to the disheartened listeners, the people picked up stones to stone them.
Now, at least, in Joshua 11, with that petty generation of faithless elders now deceased, Joshua can finally achieve what he always saw possible. Although he doesn’t tell us whether he takes down each of the Anakim one by one in hand-to-hand combat, or whether he snipes them from afar with sling-stones the way David will one day do to a surviving son of Anak living in Gath, the ease in which he blazes through their garrisons is evident. Which leads to a sobering principle of the life of faith, friend: that legions of ten-foot-tall devils outside the assembly do not pose near the threat to our spiritual progress as complaining persons within the assembly.
Trust God today and you’ll move mountains from your brother’s path. Distrust Him, and you’ll put mountains in his way.