“When Yavin king of Hatzor heard of it, he informed Yovav king of Madon; the king of Shimron; the king of Akhshaf; the kings to the north, in the hills, in the ‘Aravah south of Kinn’rot, in the Sh’felah and in the regions of Dor on the west; the Kena‘ani to east and west; the Emori, Hitti, P’rizi and Y’vusi in the hills; and the Hivi at the foot of Hermon in the land of Mitzpah.”-Joshua 11:1-3
Joshua Chapter 11 starts off with the King of Hazor receiving the stunning news that Israel had defeated the 5-army alliance led by the 5 kings, not to mention the fact that Israel had also made mince meat of the citizens of several other big Canaanite cities.
Not one to waste any time, the King of Hazor quickly formed his own alliance with the kings of Madon, Shimron, Achshaph and a number of other kings hailing from the northern territories of Canaan.
What’s interesting about how these military campaigns were conducted is that Israel never initiated any attack.
It was always the Canaanites who attacked first after hearing about Israel’s conquest plans.
Why is this?
Why did Israel always wait to be attacked first when God had already given them the order to take the Promised Land?
Well, here’s something to remember.
The Israelites at this time weren’t trained professional soldiers like the ferocious IDF of modern Israel today.
They weren’t used to the horrors that accompany going into battle.
Thus, they were in no rush to throw themselves into a situation fraught with danger and possible injury and death.
We’re talking about the good ‘ole human tendency to just keep putting off what we know we have to do.
Under normal circumstances, God’s people would have suffered greatly because by procrastinating, they were just giving their enemies all that much more time to fortify their cities and prepare for the attack to come.
However, because God is the master chess player with the whole earth and its subjects under His divine control, He used this situation to Israel’s advantage.
Having all of the major city-states in Canaan leave the protection of their fortresses to gang up against Israel worked on Israel’s behalf.
Because this would give Israel the opportunity to strike ’em all down in one stroke like a bowling ball knocking down several pins at once.
Imagine for a second if the opposite had occurred.
What if the Canaanite kings had decided to adopt the defensive strategy of NOT venturing outside of their cities and instead relying on the protection of the enormous and thick walls surrounding their cities?
This means it would have taken Israel a lot longer to accomplish their mission to conquer the Promised Land because they would have had to conduct a long-drawn-out siege warfare.
So what did God do to speed up the process?
Simple, He allowed the dumb arrogance of the Canaanite kings to lead them out of their protective strongholds thus putting themselves in a vulnerable position.
This is fascinating because the Lord simply sat back and let the flawed human tendencies of both Israel and the enemy (Israel’s procrastination and the Canaanites’ arrogance) follow their own natural paths leading to God’s Will being done.
Isn’t it amazing how the Lord exercises his supernatural influence over not just Joshua and his soldiers, but also over the enemy?
Leave a Reply