APRIL 5, 2010 I got neck Joshua 10:20-26
The recounting of this storyline text featuring Joshua and the children of Isreal.
In vesre 18, we see that now the kings have gone into a cave and was directing the war from inside the caves, they were hiding yet fighting and directing a campaign(sought of what Osama bin laden has been suspected of) but this was a common technique of early easten conquerors who wanted to preserve themselves yet continue a campaign of war against an enemy. This is in itself very frustrating because its one thing to fight an enemy you can see, its one thing to understand the enemy’s location and fight from that perspective but when you have an enemy fighting and/or directing a fight from a hidden location, it becomes a lot more difficult to wage an effective campaign because it would appear that your enemy has no physicality. Sometimes the enemy would appear to fight and hide it would appear that it becomes difficult to say the least in trying to determine from which direction the attack is coming. Almost as if he hits and runs and hits and runs Almost as if you were fighting a phantom or some ethereal type of opponent who could attack you and disappear at will.
But Joshua found out where they were, he knew he had defeated the enemy but the war still waged strongly becasu they were fighting, so he knew that the leadership was still vibrant alive and active. Have you ever had to deal with a problem after it appears that the problem was solved, have you ever had to deal with issue, upon issue, even though it seems that you have already conquered the issues.– so he looked for the source-sometimes you have to trace your problem and find out, “where is this coming from”. Sometimes you have to look for the source of the conflict and find out which direction its coming from. Why are the kids out of control, why cant I keep my money right, why is it that im going through a struggle that I really shouldn’t be going through. I thought I had already handled this problem, I thought I had already dealt significantly with these issues so why am I still dealing with some of the same madness that I am dealing with today. So he traced it back to the source and found the kings that were waging this secret campaign. He then instructed his armies to roll a stone in the way of the hiding place, now rolling the stone in front of the hiding place was at first glance an odd strategy to say the least but look at it he tells them to roll the stone in front of the hiding place
And then in v19-20 he instructs the armies to pursue after your enemies, he tells them to get up and go after the enemy- what he is doing is he is saying that you can pursue after your enemy with reckless abandon now because they have no effective leadership- those of you that were holding back because the enemy was fighting back and fighting with this strange tactic, he says pursue, let me share with you that no one gets victory without engaging in the fight you don’t get the option to win if you aint going to fight how can you be blessd if you don’t participate in what it is that will allow you to be blessed. You don’t get the benefit of a victory if you don’t get your hands dirty- im telling you its time to roll up your sleeves and get to fighting.
In vs21 we see that they have actually won the war and defeated the enemies that wre against them and now they return to the camps and they return to the dwelling places and the writer says that they return in peace and he uses the word shalom here – but shalom here , the word peace is used in an unusual wayits used here to depict the condition as a satisfied condition, an unconcerned state of peacefulness. We have a hard time grasping this concept of peace because too many of us fight and struggle and are preoccupied with maintaining peace, struggling in your mind , struggling in your heart, that the kids don’t act up, struggling in yourspirit. This is not peace when everything is ok but you looking for the problem, you expecting the problem, you expecting a mess, you expecting something to come up –THAT’S NOT PEACE. Its not real peace if you are ok but you struggle internally that the bills get paid on time-that’s not real peace, though shalom here can mean the absence of strife it usually means much more, for it expresses completeness, harmony and fulfillment.
Silenced the men(1 peter 2:15, psalms 63:11, psalms 107:41-42, titus 2:8) when the lord gets through hes going to silence all that talk.
In verse 24 joshau calls the captains of war to come near- qarav- basic meaning is being or coming near but here in this masculine tense it denotes a coming together for a legal decision- they are making a legal decision against the enemy. And let me say that if a person had done to you what the devil has done to some of you , you would have took him to court a long time ago, you would have done something about his madness a long time ago but instead you been sitting taking his mess, taking his madness, taking his junk-its illegal that the enemy has got you sick, its illegal that your depressed, its illegal that yoru kids are in trouble, its illegal that you feel so lonely all you do is cry, its illegal thayt you so broke your pockets are touching, its illegal that he keeps attacking you on your job, attacking you in your own house-I don’t know about you but its time to find the devil guilty and I believe there are some people under the sound of my voice who have had enough of what the enemy has been doing and they have decided I aint taking it no more- so they came together to make a legal decision-
He orders in vs24 for them to come together and put their feet on the neck of the king.
A few things that are interesting to note- this was not a jewish or Hebrew tradition basically because these children of isreal was for the most part an agricultural society – so this was not something that they created or practiced – but it was the tradition of the Assyrians- Assyrian kings to trod the neck of his enemy- king places his foot upon the neck to symbolize complete subjagation and possession of the captured king. Yet he asks not other kings he asks the lowly captains of the armies to place their feets on the necks of these five kings – he was stating in a very pronounced way that its not just another king that’s getting victory over you, but the very people themselves have victory over you – because victory is not the possession of a few – there is no elitist policy in the church or anywhere else that says you cant have the same victory as everybody else.
The neck was the bastion of pride: the neck or throat fundamentally expresses pride and self confidence. In the near east from ancient times, a self confident beariung was part of the ideal female beauty gods and goddesses by idolaters were often portrayed or depicted completely naked except for the neck or throat which was usually emphasized.
- Head- thoughts, mind intelligence
- Heart – center of life , seat of emotions
- Eye – spiritual vision light of the soul
- Ear- spiritual hearing entrance to the soul, receptacle of faith
- Forhead-thought reasoning, memory, imagination, seat of the mind
- Nose-symbol of breath, discernment
- Shoulders-searof government, strength
- Belly – symbol of emotions
- Arms-strength of the body, enablement
- Hands-power
- Legs-support and strength
- Thigh-ones walk and integrity
- Knee-symbol of humility
- NECK PLACE OF PRIDE UPON WHICH ALL THE OTHERS RESTED.
awordgiver
