What is the meaning of Joshua 11:20? For it was of the LORD • The verse opens by grounding the whole episode in God’s sovereign purpose. Nothing here is accidental; “The LORD has made everything for His purpose” (Proverbs 16:4). • As earlier with Pharaoh—“Still I will harden Pharaoh’s heart…and I will gain glory through him” (Exodus 14:17-18)—God is actively directing history for His glory and Israel’s deliverance. • Paul later reflects, “So then, He has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden” (Romans 9:18). to harden their hearts • This hardening is moral and spiritual, not mechanical. It intensifies the Canaanites’ existing rebellion, pushing them to persist instead of repent. • Pharaoh’s story in Exodus 9:12 illustrates the pattern: a heart already resistant becomes more so when God removes restraining grace. • By hardening, God ensures that justice, not negotiation or half-measures, will prevail (cf. Deuteronomy 2:30). to engage Israel in battle • The Canaanite coalition could have sued for peace, but God’s plan moved them to fight. • Their aggression provided the context for a decisive judgment, much like the Amorite kings who “gathered together to fight against Israel” in Joshua 10—only to be defeated utterly. • Judges 14:4 hints at the same principle in Samson’s day: God sometimes stirs conflict to expose and judge sin. so that they would be set apart for destruction • “You must devote them to complete destruction” (Deuteronomy 7:2) describes the herem, a total ban removing a people from the land they had defiled. • This was not random violence but a judicial act against cultures steeped in child sacrifice and gross idolatry (Deuteronomy 12:31). • The land itself was to be cleansed so it could become a holy dwelling for God’s covenant people (Leviticus 18:24-25). and would receive no mercy • Mercy had been long delayed: Genesis 15:16 notes that “the iniquity of the Amorites” took centuries to reach full measure. • When sin reaches the tipping point, “judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful” (James 2:13). • God’s severity here underscores that final judgment is real (Hebrews 10:31) while still leaving room for individual exceptions like Rahab who embraced faith (Joshua 6:25). being annihilated • “So Joshua conquered the whole region…he left no survivor” (Joshua 10:40) parallels this verse. • The language emphasizes total defeat of organized resistance, not necessarily the extermination of every individual, as later pockets of Canaanites still appear (Joshua 13:13). • The focus is the removal of wicked rule, clearing the land for covenant life under God (Numbers 21:3). as the LORD had commanded Moses • Joshua’s actions rest on earlier revelation: “In the cities of these peoples…the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not leave alive anything that breathes” (Deuteronomy 20:16-17). • Obedience to God’s word, already delivered through Moses, shapes Joshua’s strategy (Numbers 33:52-55). • The pattern reminds us that God’s commands are consistent and must be followed fully, even when they challenge human sentiment. summary Joshua 11:20 shows God directing events so that hardened Canaanite kings would choose battle, incur just destruction, and fulfill the commands already given to Moses. The verse underlines God’s sovereign rule, the certainty of judgment on entrenched wickedness, and the necessity of complete obedience to revealed truth. |
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