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Context No. 1848 of 4322 · Joshua

Context · Reflection

Joshua 11:15-23: in context

15As the LORD commanded Moses his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua. Joshua did so. He left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded Moses. 16So Joshua captured all that land, the hill country, all the South, all the land of Goshen, the lowland, the Arabah, the hill country of Israel, and the lowland of the same, 17from Mount Halak, that goes up to Seir, even to Baal Gad in the valley of Lebanon under Mount Hermon. He took all their kings, struck them, and put them to death. 18Joshua made war a long time with all those kings. 19There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. They took all in battle. 20For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, to come against Israel in battle, that he might utterly destroy them, that they might have no favor, but that he might destroy them, as the LORD commanded Moses. 21Joshua 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. Joshua utterly destroyed them with their cities. 22There were none of the Anakim left in the land of the children of Israel. Only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod, did some remain. 23So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD spoke to Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. Then the land had rest from war.

As Joshua's long campaign of conquest comes to its end, the account gives him a striking commendation: as the LORD commanded Moses his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did. He left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded Moses. Over a long war against many kings, through years of hard fighting, Joshua carried out the whole of what God had commanded, leaving nothing undone. And then, the text says, the land had rest from war.

The commendation of Joshua is worth pausing over: he left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded. This was not a single act of obedience but a long, sustained faithfulness, carried through a war that lasted years, against many enemies, with many opportunities to grow weary, to cut corners, to leave the hard parts unfinished. And Joshua did not; he completed the whole task God had given him, thoroughly, to the end, leaving nothing undone. There is a challenge here to the way we often serve God, which tends toward the partial and the unfinished. We start well; we obey the parts that are easy or appealing; and then, as the task drags on or grows hard, we leave things undone, satisfy ourselves with a partial obedience, tell ourselves that most of it is enough. Joshua's example is of a complete follow-through: not most of what God commanded, but all of it; not the easy parts, but the whole; not begun and abandoned, but carried through to the end, leaving nothing undone. This kind of thorough, sustained faithfulness is harder than a burst of initial obedience; it requires perseverance through the long, hard middle of a task, a refusal to leave things half-done. And it is the kind of faithfulness God commends. Jesus himself, at the end, could say to the Father, I have finished the work you gave me to do; the completed task, not the abandoned one, is what pleases God. The question this puts to us is whether we finish what God gives us, or leave it undone; whether we obey the whole of what he asks, or only the palatable parts; whether we carry his commands through to the end, or start well and fade. Joshua left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded; and then the land had rest. Complete obedience, thorough and sustained to the end, is the way of the faithful servant, and it is what brings the work God gives to its intended rest.

Do I serve God with a partial obedience, doing the easy or appealing parts and leaving the hard things undone, satisfying myself that most is enough, or can I follow Joshua, who left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded, carrying the whole task through to the end with a thorough, sustained faithfulness?

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