The Record of God's Faithfulness - Joshua 12

Good morning, beloved, and welcome. We're continuing again this morning in the book of Joshua.

We find ourselves this morning in Joshua chapter 12. I invite you to turn there. As I said last week, we are at the major transition point in the book of Joshua.

Joshua gave us essentially eleven chapters of conquest, and then after this chapter, after chapter 12, starting in chapter 13 and to the end of the book, it's essentially just the division, the dividing up of the land among the tribes of Israel and instructions regarding the maintenance of the land.

But here, here in Joshua chapter 12, where we find ourselves this morning, right in the middle of the book is a detailed record of the kings and of the lands that have been conquered.

One commentator calls this chapter an appendix on the first half and a prelude to the second half, and I think that's right.

The themes that we'll be reflecting on this morning are similar to what we have discussed, specifically what we what we discussed last week, because Joshua's purpose is essentially here the same.

He's calling us to remember God's faithfulness. And so if I were to give you a title for this message, this is the record of God's faithfulness.

And so by God's grace and with his help, I endeavor to do just that this morning, to to remember the faithfulness of our covenant -keeping

God of Jehovah. And as we do, we must remember that his mercy, his steadfast love, endures forever, as we read this morning already.

So let us read now Joshua chapter 12. I'll be reading it in its entirety.

The other king was Og, king of Bashan and his territory, who was on the bank of the river Arnon, from the middle of that river, even as far as the river

Jabbok, which is the border of the Ammonites, and the eastern

Jordan Plain from the sea of Kenaroth, as far as the sea of Erebah, the

Salt Sea, the road to Beth -Jeshemoth, and the southward and southward below the slopes of Pisgah.

The other king was Og, king of Bashan and his territory, who was of the remnant of the

Giants, who dwelt at Ashteroth and at Edorai, and reigned over Mount Hermon, over Salka, over all

Bashan, as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maccathites, and over half of Gilead to the border of Sihon, king of Heshbon.

These, Moses, the servant of the Lord, and the children of Israel, had conquered, and Moses, the servant of the

Lord, had given it as a possession to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh.

And these are the kings of the country which Joshua and the children of Israel conquered on this side of the

Jordan, on the west, from Baal -Gad, in the valley of Lebanon, as far as Mount Halak.

And the ascent of Seir, which Joshua gave to the tribes of Israel as a possession according to their divisions, in the mountain country, in the lowlands, in the

Jordan plain, in the slopes, in the wilderness, and in the south, the Hittites, the

Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

The king of Jericho, one. The king of Ai, which is beside Bethel, one.

The king of Jerusalem, one. The king of Hebron, one. The king of Jarmath, one.

The king of Lachish, one. The king of Eglon, one. The king of Gezer, one.

The king of Debir, one. The king of Geder, one. The king of Horma, one.

The king of Arad, one. The king of Libna, one. The king of Adullam, one.

1. The king of Maqedah 1. The king of Bethel 1.

The king of Tepua 1. The king of Hepha 1. The king of Aphek 1.

The king of Lecheron 1. The king of Maidan 1.

The king of Hazor 1. The king of Shimron Meron, one.

The king of Akshfa, one. The king of Tenek, one.

The king of Megiddo, one. The king of Kadesh, one. The king of Joknim in Carmel, one.

The king of Dor in the heights of Dor, one. The king of the people of Gilgal, one.

The king of Tirza, one. All the kings, 31. Let us pray.

Our great God and Father, ruler of heaven and earth, we ask now for your help as we humble ourselves before your word, asking that your spirit would help us to see and know

Christ through your word. Lord, as we consider your faithfulness this morning, your faithfulness through the ages, your faithfulness to us as a church, your faithfulness to us as individuals,

Father, this morning, would we revere your word as holy scripture?

The food that we need, the spiritual food that we need that we might be found faithful servants of you.

Would you help me this morning? Would you help us this morning to set aside distractions and to behold here in this text the glories of Christ?

In his name we pray, amen. Structurally, this chapter is pretty simple.

It's clearly divided into two parts. The first six verses recount what is described in the book of Numbers, actually.

Moses' conquest of the east side of the Jordan River. This land was divided into two parts on the east side of the

Jordan River. The southern part was ruled by Sihon, king of the Amorites, and the northern part was ruled by Og, king of Bashan.

Now we've talked about these kings and this monumentally significant conquest and what they represent and how this is echoed throughout the millennia of recorded scripture for us in the

Old Testament. So I won't belabor that point again this morning.

We talked about that even last week and so if you missed last week's message, I invite you to find it online or to come to me and I'd be happy to recount and recap that for you.

That was all on the east side of the Jordan River before the book of Joshua, before the crossing over of the

Jordan River and coming into the land that we commonly call Canaan. Then the other part of this chapter, from verse 7 down to the end, is the recounting of the kings and lands conquered by Joshua on the west side of the

Jordan River. This is what the first 11 chapters of Joshua were describing.

And just so we're clear here in the text, when Joshua says this side of the river, he's speaking of the west side of Canaan.

And when he says the other side of the Jordan River, he's speaking of what is sometimes called the Transjordan, that other side of the

Jordan River toward the east. Due to the nature of this chapter, for the most part, we're going to be considering it as a whole, tackling it thematically rather than the typical section by section, verse by verse exposition that we typically do here from this pulpit.

That's not to say there isn't profit in going name by name and city by city and region by region through this chapter, but I think the bulk of our time this morning would be best spent marveling at the grand truths, the themes that Joshua is deliberately pointing us to in this text.

I don't want to get lost in the forest because of the trees and the blades of grass here.

There's some overarching themes that are critical for us. And so just to state it plainly in the beginning, the overarching theme of this chapter is the faithfulness of our

God. And we'll see that primarily in three ways. First we will see the covenant faithfulness of Jehovah.

And really that first point is where we'll spend the bulk of our time this morning. The covenant faithfulness of Jehovah.

And then secondly, the common redemption of God's people. And thirdly, the blessing of remembering

God's works. So the covenant faithfulness of Jehovah, the common redemption of God's people, and then the blessing of remembering

God's works. But before we dive into that, I think some brief comments are warranted regarding God's word because passages like this can be difficult for us.

When we come to passages in God's word like this, we might be tempted to question their usefulness to us.

If you are one of those Christians who has been blessed with the ability and opportunity to read through God's word on your own or with your family on a regular basis, which

I think should be most, if not all of us in this room, and you endeavor to take up that challenge, which is a good thing to do, then you're going to come to chapters that are difficult.

You're going to come to genealogies and lists, places in the Bible that give us regulations for ordinances in the temple and clothing and how to deal with various diseases and things that seem very far removed from us.

There was a direct personal application for the people of Israel in Joshua's day when they would read this text, for they could read or listen to this chapter being read on the

Sabbath knowing that the land possessed by one of these kings was where they were sleeping that night.

The land possessed by one of these kings is the farmland that they were going out to work the next day.

This land provided their means of survival. It was very personal, very direct, personal application for them.

And that's not directly the case for us. But nevertheless, we must remember what the

New Testament clearly teaches us. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.

We must remember the centrality of Christ in all of God's word. For you remember the resurrected

Christ when speaking with his disciples, explained to them and expounded from beginning with Moses and all the prophets.

He expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

We must remember that prophecy never came by the will of man, but by holy men of God who spoke as they were moved by the

Holy Spirit. Spirit, all of God's word is inspired by God.

When we say inspired, it means it's breathed out by him. This is true of all of this book.

Every part of it. All of it is God's word. All of it is profitable. All of it reveals Christ.

All of it is for God's glory and for our good. And so do not allow yourself to be tempted to diminish or discount his holy word, but treasure it.

Discipline yourself to treasure all of God's word. If you love the

Lord Jesus Christ, know that he is the word made flesh. And so if we love the word of God in flesh, then we must love the written word of God.

We cannot know the word of God apart from God's word.

We cannot know Christ apart from God's word. There's a reason

God gave this to Joshua and had him write it down. There's a reason why

God preserved this text, kept pure in all ages, and delivered across the centuries and continents and languages for us here today in 2026.

And that reason is Christ. Every word is as much needed today as the day it was written.

As we sang this morning, the word is our firm foundation. Our firm foundation.

Everything that we do and say and believe in our lives must be grounded firmly on the word of God because it is the only foundation that is not crumbling.

All things will pass away, but the word of God will stand forever. So with that in mind, let us consider the chapter before us.

First we must see this as a display of the covenant faithfulness of God.

By renumerating this recap of the kings and the lands conquered, Joshua is connecting what

God has done in his lifetime and in the lifetime of his predecessor,

Moses, to the grand narrative of Holy Scripture. All the way back in the very first chapters of the

Bible, we see that God made Adam and he put him in a garden paradise, a land that he had prepared for Adam.

God had prepared the garden for him and brought Adam into it to rule over it, to keep it.

But because of Adam's unbelief and sin in the fall, Adam and his descendants lost this paradise and were driven out of Eden.

Jump forward then a mere 2 ,000 years to the life of Abraham.

He was at this time known as Abram. He was, as far as we know, a pagan, dwelling in a pagan land.

He was living in Ur, which is this city on the coast of the

Euphrates River. And God chose this man, this particular man.

God singles him out as the man of his own choosing. I know we've referenced it before, but I want to go back to Genesis 15 and talk about this and read a portion of this chapter for us because this is the narrative that Joshua is tying into his text this morning.

In Joshua chapter 15, I'm going to read most of the chapter, I'm going to skip a couple portions of it, but for the most part, we're going to read the whole chapter here now.

After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision saying, do not be afraid,

Abram, I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.

But Abram said, Lord God, what will you give me seeing I go childless and the heir of my house is

Eleazar of Damascus? Abraham said, look, you have given me no offspring for indeed one born in my house is my heir.

But behold, the word of the Lord came to him saying, this one shall not be your heir, but one whom you, one whom will come from your own body shall be your heir.

Then he brought him outside and said, look now toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to number them.

And he said to them, so shall your descendants be. And he believed in the

Lord and he accounted it to him for righteousness. Then he said to him,

I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to inherit it.

And then down in verse 12, now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram and behold, a horror and great darkness fell upon him.

Then he said to Abram, know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs and will serve them and they will afflict them 400 years.

This is speaking of the captivity in Egypt. And also the nation whom they serve, I will judge afterward.

They shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace.

You shall be buried at a good old age, but in the fourth generation, they shall return here for the iniquity of the

Amorites is not yet complete. And then down in verse 18, on the same day, the

Lord made a covenant with Abraham saying to your descendants, I have given this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river

Euphrates, the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the

Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the

Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites. We have to see the context here and how it connects to what

God had done with Adam before. Even in Abram's day now, the land was possessed by a great and mighty and terrible people.

These Amorites that we talked about last week, they were rightly feared. And yet, this is the land that God has promised to give to Abram's descendants.

Now what's amazing is that God made this to Abram, a barren, childless man who had no offspring that he would have this innumerable multitude of offspring that he would possess this promised land, this remade paradise.

This was an astounding promise, a promise that God solemnly sealed with a covenant.

We're here now in our chapter this morning, some 430 years later,

God has shown himself faithful. The childless

Abram now has this great multitude of offspring, and his offspring have taken the land of Canaan because God is faithful to the promise that he has made.

In spite of the giants that lived in the land, in spite of their doubts and fears of the children of Israel, God has brought them into Canaan.

Joshua writes this to vindicate God's faithfulness. God has done what he has said he would do.

Just like Adam was placed in the garden, the children of Israel have been placed in the promised land.

As we talked about last week, the land has not been utterly purged of their adversaries.

There are still enemies dwelling in the land, but they have a foothold in every region.

No king that they've gone against in battle has been able to remain when the commander of the

Lord's armies is fighting for them. God has done what he has said he would do, and this will continue.

As we saw in Genesis 15, the Lord ultimately promised to give them the fullness of this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river

Euphrates. That fullness of this possession will not come in Joshua's lifetime, but God would eventually deliver it.

If you remember back in Joshua chapter 1, God said, Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses.

From the wilderness, and this Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river

Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the great sea, toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory.

No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.

Now this promise, as I said, is ultimately fulfilled in the

Old Testament. We see this in 1 Kings chapter 4. In 1

Kings chapter 4 it says, Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand by the sea in multitude.

This is referring back to the promise made to Abraham, eating and drinking and rejoicing. So Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the river of the land of the

Philistines as far as the border of Egypt. They brought tribute and served

Solomon all the days of his life. And then just a couple chapters later, still during the reign of Solomon, the very pinnacle of God's covenant faithfulness to the physical seed of Israel is made explicit in 1

Kings chapter 8. In 1

Kings chapter 8, the whole land has been possessed, the temple is completed, the Ark of the

Covenant has been brought into the most holy place of the temple, and this great glory cloud fills the temple.

It's a visible manifestation of the presence of God himself.

And with the whole assembly of Israel gathered together, King Solomon says this in verse 15 of 1

Kings 8, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth to my father

David, and with his hand has fulfilled it. And then down in verse 22,

And then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven, and he said,

Lord God of Israel, there is no God in heaven above or on earth below like you, who keep your covenant and mercy with your servants who walk before you with all their hearts.

You have kept what you promised your servant David my father. You have both spoken with your mouth and fulfilled it with your hand as it is this day.

And then down in verse 54 of the same chapter, And so it was when Solomon had finished praying all this prayer and supplication to the

Lord that he arose from before the altar of the Lord, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven, that he stood and blessed all the assembly of God with a loud voice saying,

Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people according to all that he has promised.

There has not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised through his servant

Moses. May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our fathers.

May he not leave us nor forsake us that he may incline our hearts to himself to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers.

God is faithful. This is the message of the

Old Testament. The point I'm trying to make here is that Joshua in chapter 12 is emphasizing to us that this, what

God has done in his day is part of that grand narrative that God is faithful, utterly faithful to do all that he has promised.

Now we know, sadly, that Solomon's heart after this was turned away to other gods.

And the kingdom of Israel is split in two and crumbles bit by bit through the rest of the

Old Testament because of their sin and unbelief. But it reached its full extent here in the beginning of 1

Kings and never will possess this whole extent again. Why is that?

It is because God's faithfulness. Is it because God's faithfulness has an expiration date?

Is it because God is only faithful when we keep up our end of the bargain? By no means.

You see, it was never ultimately about the plot of land in the Middle East. And even

Abraham knew this, of course, as we read and we've talked about before in Hebrews 11. He was looking not for a physical land, but for a heavenly city, a heavenly home.

But even that would come about as God promised it would. For God preserved the nation and people of Judah, even if only a remnant, until the promised seed would be born, the

Lord Jesus Christ. And ultimately the land of Canaan was a type and shadow of the eternal inheritance, the new

Jerusalem, the new heavens and earth. Our God's people, the true seed of Abraham will live and dwell with him forever.

God's faithfulness is being vindicated in our text here and is being vindicated by the works of his hands throughout all of human history.

This is the story of the cosmos, that God is faithful to what he has promised.

Our second point here this morning then, with that as the foundation, is this common redemption of God's people that we see here.

It's worth pointing out that Joshua takes the time here not to just recount the conquest that has happened in his life, not just the conquest that he has led, the conquest of the land of Canaan, but also that which was conquered by Moses on the other side of the

Jordan River. Why is that? Why does he do that? And why is that significant? If you recall, not all of the people are going to settle west of the

Jordan. Two and a half tribes had already established with Moses that they would have the land east of the

Jordan. That's Reuben, Gad and east Manasseh, half the tribe of Manasseh.

We've covered this already. We talked about it early in the book of Joshua, but just to refresh your memory, before entering into the land, back in Numbers 32, the leaders of Reuben and Gad had agreed with Moses that the land previously occupied by Sihon in the south on the east side of the

Jordan and Og in the north on the east side of the Jordan were suitable lands for them.

They had large flocks and there's lots of land there for their flocks to graze.

And so that agreement was made that they would stay there until the end of the year on the land, provided that they would go with the rest of the children of Israel into Canaan during the conquest.

And they did. Half the tribe of Manasseh along with the tribe of Reuben and the tribe of Gad have their land on the other side of the

Jordan while the rest of the tribes have the land allotted to them in Canaan. Now I suspect this is at least part of the reason why

Joshua recounts what God did in Moses' conquest against Sihon and Og here in his vindication of God's faithfulness.

They are no less partakers in the sovereign grace of God simply because their possession is outside of Canaan.

God was faithful even to them. The point being underscored here is that the wondrous works of God benefit all of God's people.

All of them are given an equal share in God's gracious blessings. We all in Christ have an inheritance as firstborn sons.

For our own application let us not think less of other believers for what God has allotted to them, neither let us doubt the extent of his benevolence and gracious kindness to us.

All who are in Christ have been equally redeemed from the pit of hell. All of us are deserving of utter condemnation because of our own sins and the sins of our father

Adam. And we have not kept God's holy just righteous and good law and so we stand condemned.

This is Paul's point in Romans chapter 3. Paul says this, but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets.

Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.

There is no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

So what this means beloved, it doesn't matter your birth, your origin, your story before Christ.

It stands as a testament to his faithfulness, to what he has called you to be.

You are a new creation if you are in Christ. You have been utterly redeemed.

You have an inheritance in the new creation because of what Christ has done for you.

This is what James 2 is all about also. Far from contradicting Paul, we see he's making virtually the same point.

It's not the law that makes us righteous before God. We are all unrighteous alike. So do not boast, but glory in this great and gracious redemption that God has worked for all of his children, for all whom he calls to himself, whether you're east or west of the

Jordan. Thirdly and lastly, let us endeavor here to follow

Joshua's example of remembering what God has done for us. This is the blessing of remembering

God's faithfulness. This is the blessing of thankfulness. Joshua doesn't just make a sweeping, generalized statement, thanks for everything you've done for us,

God. Instead, he details this victory. He does it because it's a blessing to us to remember his faithfulness, with specificity to enumerate it.

Now, there's still work to be done in the land, both in Joshua's day and there's work to be done by us in our day.

There are obstacles still ahead. There are enemies to still displace.

There are things that you are fearing or dreading, hardships ahead, ones that you know of and ones that you don't.

Beloved, as you face those fears, remember God's faithfulness to you in the past.

Remember God's faithfulness to his people. Follow Joshua's example and take up the discipline of enumerating what

God has done, how he's shown himself faithful. We should do this individually and corporately.

We should do this historically and personally. And so, we must be a people who know our

Bibles well, and call to mind how God preserved and provided for his people throughout

Scripture. How God used common fishermen and tax collectors to turn the world upside down with the message of the gospel of a

Savior crucified, buried, and risen again. Be a student of church history.

Remember how God enabled the early church to bear up under unspeakable affliction that we cannot hardly imagine here in America.

Recall how God enabled them to be faithful and to carry the gospel out to the peoples and the nations around them, spreading this gospel as it proliferates across the globe and bringing with them the word of God.

Remember how God preserved the witness of the gospel through the rising and falling of empires.

How when the enemies of the gospel tried to hide the word from the people,

God raised up men like Tyndale and Wycliffe to translate Holy Scripture into the common tongue.

And then, God used technology. He used the printing press to fill

Europe and then the rest of the world with copies of God's word so that people like you and me can read and know

Christ. He is faithful. Remember how God used men like Luther and Calvin and countless others to turn the world upside down yet again with the recovery of the biblical gospel of Jesus Christ.

How God moved mightily in England through the Puritan movement to call Christians back to a devout commitment to personal piety and piety in their churches and piety in their homes.

How God in his providence caused a group of these Puritans to rally together seeking religious freedom to cross the

Atlantic Ocean, bringing with them the message of the gospel to the Americas and planting churches and establishing communities where Christ was revered and extolled.

And then here we are today, all these years later, beneficiaries of all these who have gone before us, who by God's faithfulness had accomplished much so that we here,

Hill City Reformed Baptist Church, can gather together under the banner of Christ and sing his praises and read his word in our own language and worship the

God who is worthy, the God who is faithful to his covenant.

Remember, beloved, how God called you to himself, how he saved you from your sinful ways, how he's washed you in the blood of Christ and made you clean.

And he's sanctifying you even now for his word sanctifies us, does it not?

He is conforming you more and more to the image of Christ. Praise be to God. He is faithful.

Beloved, if he has done all this, will he not be faithful to bring it to completion?

First Peter says, blessed be the God and father of our

Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten again to a living hope, has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time.

Beloved, if you are in Christ, you are in Christ because you are kept in Christ by the work of the

Spirit. Jesus, our Lord, prayed that these would be kept.

The faith that you have is a gift that you've been given, that you would persevere in this path before you because of God's faithfulness.

But dear one, if you are not in Christ, you are not in Christ. The scriptures are clear.

Your sin has deceived you and we are utterly lost apart from Christ.

There's no hope. There's nothing that you can do on your own to reconcile yourself before a holy

God. I urge you to come to Christ, to be reconciled, to be washed clean, for he has abundant mercy.

He is faithful and steadfast to bring to completion that work which he has started.

Let us be a people who remember his faithfulness. Let us be a people who is courageous and bold for the work that lies ahead because we know that he's been faithful in the past.

Let us be a people who cherish the word of God and the work of redemption that he has done on the cross by his death and resurrection.

Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you. We thank you for what you have done.

We thank you for the work of Christ, our Lord, that he has redeemed us from sin and hell.

We thank you that we might be a people washed clean by the blood of Christ, adorned in white robes, one day standing before your throne and worshiping you with an unsinning heart because you have been faithful to the uttermost.

Father, we thank you for this great gift, this great mercy. Praise be to you for your glorious grace.