Joshua 11:15-23

The great conquest of the land of Canaan and its environs by the children of Israel taught them many lessons. They had experienced their glorious victories, such as Jericho (Joshua 6), but they had also known bitter defeat at Ai (Joshua 7). The victories were a result of following the leading of the Lord, and the defeats were a direct result of sin from within.

From the time Israel was purged of the blight of the sin of disobedience by Achan, success was her way of life. One king after another found it necessary to yield to Israel in battle. We must ask ourselves what the key to these people’s success was. Will the same principles cause success for us today?

• Strict obedience to the Lord’s instruction (Joshua 11:15a)
  • There was unquestioning obedience
    • Certainly, there must have been many things that he didn’t understand
    • There must have been times when he felt his judgment was wiser
    • We often think things have to be logical to us before we can obey. We must always remember God’s ways are not our ways, neither are His thoughts our thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8) We have such limited concepts that we cannot possibly always understand the way God wants us to go.
  • Joshua’s military genius was simply to obey what God said
    • He was great because of his obedience
• No compromise with the enemy (Joshua 11:19-20)
  • The Lord had said that they were to utterly destroy the enemy
    • There was one time when there was a failure to give strict obedience to the Lord. This was the incident with the Hivites who tricked Joshua into thinking they were strangers from a far country. (Joshua 9) Their trickery caused them to be slaves to Israel
  • Whenever there was a hint of compromise, Israel had problems
    • Compromise will only bring problems when we compromise God’s Word
• The key to success was in unselfish self-giving (Joshua 11:23)
  • Joshua might have tried to continue on as the great monarch of the people
  • The land belonged to the people; therefore, he distributed it to them
    • We live with the dangers of self-possessiveness in the things of the Lord
    • Success will be ours when we consider ourselves as merely servants of our King

The key to success is revealed to us through Joshua. Strict obedience. No compromise. Unselfish giving.