Joshua 10:34-43: a reflection

34Joshua passed from Lachish, and all Israel with him, to Eglon; and they encamped against it and fought against it. 35They took it on that day, and struck it with the edge of the sword. He utterly destroyed all the souls who were in it that day, according to all that he had done to Lachish. 36Joshua went up from Eglon, and all Israel with him, to Hebron; and they fought against it. 37They took it, and struck it with the edge of the sword, with its king and all its cities, and all the souls who were in it. He left no one remaining, according to all that he had done to Eglon; but he utterly destroyed it, and all the souls who were in it. 38Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to Debir, and fought against it. 39He took it, with its king and all its cities. They struck them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed all the souls who were in it. He left no one remaining. As he had done to Hebron, so he did to Debir, and to its king; as he had done also to Libnah, and to its king. 40So Joshua struck all the land, the hill country, the South, the lowland, the slopes, and all their kings. He left no one remaining, but he utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the LORD, the God of Israel, commanded. 41Joshua struck them from Kadesh Barnea even to Gaza, and all the country of Goshen, even to Gibeon. 42Joshua took all these kings and their land at one time because the LORD, the God of Israel, fought for Israel. 43Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp to Gilgal.

This is a hard passage, a summary of Joshua's campaigns in which city after city falls and the destruction is complete. Scripture reports the severity plainly, and honest readers have long wrestled with it. These are not scenes to relish or to use as a model for our own conduct. They belong to a particular, terrible moment of judgment on entrenched evil in the land, and the text itself keeps pointing to the deeper reality underneath: it was the Lord who fought for Israel.

That refrain, the Lord fought for Israel, is the theological heart of the chapter. The victories are not credited to Israel's superior strength or valor but to God, who was acting in judgment. Scripture presents these events soberly, as the outworking of a holy God's response to long-standing wickedness, not as a celebration of violence. It is meant to make us take seriously that God is just, that evil is not endlessly tolerated, and that judgment is real, however uncomfortable that truth is to hold.

For the Christian, passages like this are read in the light of the whole story, which comes to its center in Christ. The New Testament turns our warfare in a wholly different direction: our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against sin, evil, and death, and our King wins his victory not by taking life but by giving his own. Let this difficult chapter deepen your reverence for a God who takes evil seriously, and drive you to gratitude that in Christ that judgment fell on him, so that mercy could reach us.

Lord, this is a hard chapter to read, and I hold it soberly. You are a just God who does not endlessly tolerate evil, and judgment is real. Deepen my reverence, and turn my own struggle away from flesh and blood toward the true enemies of sin and death. Thank you that in Christ your judgment fell on him, so that mercy could reach me. Teach me to fight his way, by love. Amen.