Joshua 11 Devotional

Stronger Than Chariots

“Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them, for by this time tomorrow I will deliver all of them slain before Israel. You are to hamstring their horses and burn up their chariots.””Joshua 11:6 (BSB)

The northern kings gather under Jabin of Hazor with an army as numerous as the sand on the seashore and a great force of horses and chariots (11:4). God tells Joshua not to be afraid (11:6). Then comes an unusual order. Israel is to hamstring the horses and burn the chariots rather than keep them (11:6, 9). The weapons that made the enemy fearsome would not become Israel's confidence.

In the end Hazor is burned, and no one who breathed is spared, as Moses had commanded (11:11-15). The text gives its own explanation: the LORD hardened the kings' hearts to fight, so that they would be judged without mercy (11:20). It is God's sovereign judgment on these nations, not a model for human violence. Yet the chapter ends with the land at rest (11:23). The psalmist contrasts trust in military strength with trust in the name of the LORD (Psalm 20:7). Whatever you are tempted to lean on, the LORD is the safer place to rest your confidence.

To think about: What resource have you been treating as your real security, and how might you trust God with it instead?