“As soon as all the kings who were beyond the Jordan in the hill country and in the lowland all along the coast of the Great Sea toward Lebanon, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, heard of this [i.e., Israel’s crossing the Jordon], they gathered together as one to fight against Joshua and Israel” (9:1-2). Reading this, I quickly remember Psalm 2: “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, ‘Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.’ He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision” (Psalm 2:1-4).
What? Do the nations believe they can defeat Israel’s God? Do they believe they can stand before the armies of Israel? Do they believe they will have victory over God’s people? The people of Gibeon knew better, and they quickly formed a plan to deceive Israel and to save themselves. But the Canaanite kings, after hearing of Israel’s victory at Ai, gathered against Israel. Did they really believe they would be victorious? Joshua and Israel responded, “striking them with a great blow until they were wiped out” (10:20). City after city, “Joshua struck them . . . And Joshua captured all these kings and their land at one time, because the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel” (10:41-42). “So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord had spoken to Moses. And Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal allotments. And the land had rest from war” (11:23).
Do the enemies of God, today, really believe they will ultimately be victorious? I suppose they do. But I also remember the words of the psalmist: “He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.” And I remember the old Civil War hymn:
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on. -- Julia Ward Howe (1862)