Dennis Tuuri

Please stand as you hear the command word of our King of Kings. Joshua 12. Now these are the kings of the land which the children of Israel smote and possessed their land on the other side Jordan to the rising of the sun from the river Arnon and to Mount Hermon and all the plain in the east. Sihon, king of the Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon, and ruled from Aroer, which is upon the bank of the river Arnon, and from the middle of the river, and from half Gilead, even unto river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon, and from the plain to the sea of Chinneroth on the east, and under the sea of the plain, even the salt sea on the east, the way to Beth-jeshimoth, and from the south under Ashdoth Pisgah, and the coast of Og, king of Bashan, which was of the remnant of the giants that dwell at Ashtaroth and at Edrei and reigned in Mount Hermon and in Salcah and in all Bashan under the border of the Geshurites and the Maacathites and half Gilead the border of Sihon king of Heshbon.

Them did Moses the servant of the Lord and the children of Israel smite. And Moses the servant of the Lord gave it for a possession unto the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh. And these are the kings of the country which Joshua and the children of Israel smote on this side Jordan on the west, from Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon, even unto the Mount Halak, that goeth up to Seir, which Joshua gave unto the tribes of Israel, for a possession according to their divisions, in the mountains, and in the valleys, and in the plains, and in the springs, and in the wilderness, and in the south country, 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 Jarmuth, 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 Hormah, one. The king of Arad, one. The king of Libnah, one. The king of Adullam, one. The king of Makkedah, one. The king of Bethel, one. The king of Tappuah, one.

The king of Hepher, one. The king of Aphek, one. The king of Lasharon, one. The king of Madon, one, the king of Hazor, one, the king of Shimron-meron, one, the king of Achshaph, one, the king of Taanach, one, the king of Megiddo, one, the king of Kedesh, one, the king of Jokneam of Carmel, one, the king of Dor on the coast of Dor, one, the king of the nations of Gilgal, one, the king of Tirzah, one, all the kings, thirty and one.

We thank God for his word and pray that he would illuminate it to our understanding.

Okay, we continue today going through the book of Joshua. This marks the halfway point of the book and chapter 12 concludes the conquest narrative portion of the book of Joshua. The balance of the book is primarily concerned with inheritance. There’s even reference to that of course in today’s verses, and next week with chapter 13, we begin very apparently the discussion of the division of the land and the giving of it to various tribes and clans of the children of Israel.

So this concludes the conquest portion of the book and remember we said that last week we ended up by saying that there was a summary account given at the last portion of chapter 11. Chapter 10 discusses the battles to the south. Chapter 11 the battles to the north. Then the last half of chapter 11 again in total wrap up of the entire Canaanite campaign and we saw a theological summation.

We saw a geographic summation and other ways of looking at it. And today we have an entire chapter given over to a summation, the enumeration of the kings of various places that were conquered by Moses, Joshua and the children of Israel in this entire campaign as they were led out of Egypt into the land of Canaan. Remember the big picture here of course is that they’re coming to do God’s work for them, so to speak.

The iniquity of the Amorites has become full and they’ll now be dispossessed of the land. And God’s people will be established in the land. And so God’s people will be put back in a context where they won’t be under, at least not in a very full sense, the perverting influences of the Canaanites the way they had been as the 12 sons of Israel prior to their being taken down to Egypt and being isolated and secluded there and growing and prospering.

So now they come back to the land to wipe out people whose iniquity become complete. Always of course also the extension of grace is obviously pictured for us in the book of Joshua both in the conversion of Rahab and her family and also the Gibeonites, an entire town. The way that Rahab was kind of a part of the whole, a remnant out of the two cities of Jericho and Ai. So the Gibeonites were a remnant out of the southern and northern campaigns as well.

So I want to just mention one thing—actually two things from past weeks real quickly. Well, last week we saw the term Mizpah used in the enumeration of the conquest of the north. And I mentioned as we were going through that Mizpah was a term that basically means watchtower or guard. Later that term is used in Samuel or, yeah, Samuel at Mizpah creates a covenant and he says let this place be a testimony when you and I cannot be here together that it may bring testimony against us if we should sin against this covenant that we enter into here.

And the reason I bring that up is that the concept of a Mizpah watchtower is a real good thing to build into our lives. It can be a simple device such as some sort of commitment to regularly follow through on family devotions and then having somebody within the context of the church who will keep you to account on that thing. That’d be kind of a Mizpah watchtower so that sin in terms of not following through on your obligations to your family does not take place.

And so the concept of Mizpah, or accountability basically and accountable forms that we can use in the context of the extended body of Christ is a good concept to think through and some of you are actually using such a thing now and others of you probably will in the future.

The other thing I wanted to mention: I mentioned the flu of 1918 when I talked about how in the battles to the south God killed more with the hailstones than he did with the sword of Israel. And then I said that there were more killed in the flu than in all of World War I. It was coterminous with World War I. The thing I didn’t mention that was very spectacular in terms of its implication from that special that I saw on PBS about the flu is that the flu ended—somehow they know the date it ended—and it ended the same day as the armistice was signed that ended World War I. So it began in the context of that war and ended precisely with that war as well.

And so there’s certainly a big thing God was doing there in the midst of the nations. Most people don’t even know about the flu of 1918. And yet it’s interesting again that I was listening to a tape of Reverend Rushdoony this last week and he mentioned it on that tape as well and said that nobody’s heard of it today or most people don’t remember it and yet they had predicted at the time that if it had gone another two weeks at its rate of geometric growth it would have killed everybody on the planet.

I mean it was a horrendous plague—millions upon millions of people coterminous with World War I and I mentioned Horton Foote’s movie that interspersed scenes of the war on the battlefield along with people dying of the flu back on the homefront in America. And so God is sovereign in the affairs of men and there is an example in our contemporary times of God’s judgments and pestilences going forth in the earth at the same time as warfare is occurring.

Okay, but on to now the enumeration of the kings of that were conquered by Moses, Joshua, and the people of Israel. And I’ve entitled the sermon “King of Kings” looking at Joshua primarily here and then of course looking at this as a typological picture of Jesus Christ who conquers all kings of the world. And so that’s what we’re going to be talking about today is these enumeration of these kings. And we’ll do like we’ve done in the past.

First, we’ll look at an overview of the text, then we’ll draw a few short implications from it as well.

Okay, first of all, an overview then of chapter 12. If you have your outlines, you can follow along with what we’re doing here. And basically, this is, as I said, an enumeration of defeated kings. And it’s broken up into two parts. First of the kings on the trans-Jordan, on the other side of Jordan from the promised land. They were coming into Jordan. They crossed the Jordan rather going west into Canaan. And so they conquered before that two kings, Sihon and Og. And those two kings, the enumeration of them occupies the first six verses of the text and after that then is the enumeration of the kings defeated by Joshua in verses 8-24. So it breaks itself up real easily here and the first portion is of the trans-Jordan. The second is of within the boundaries of Canaan itself once they had crossed over the Jordan.

So in verse one of chapter 12 we read that this is the enumeration of those on the other side Jordan, trans-Jordan, toward the rising of the sun—the east sun rises in the east—and the first king there that’s mentioned is Sihon and in verse two rather Sihon king of the Amorites who dwelt in Heshbon and then it gives the description of the borders from which he reigned. And after that we have Og. Now Sihon and Og basically occupied the southern half and the northern half of the trans-Jordan region respectively. And those are the only two kings enumerated but they were very powerful kings and they’re listed throughout the scriptures as examples of God giving his people the promised land.

Now, one thing I wanted to mention here in the context of this: that we read in terms of Sihon’s geographic region at the end of verse three that it also extended from the south under Ashdoth Pisgah—and the reference to Pisgah there, that term literally translated means ravines or slopes of Pisgah. Pisgah of course was the place of Moses’ death on the mountain opposite Jericho. And interestingly, here at the beginning of this chapter, we can also relate Pisgah here to a location where Balaam and Balak entered into an attempt to curse the people of God.

Back in Numbers chapter 23, it was at the top of Pisgah where Balaam built seven altars and offered bullocks and rams in an attempt to curse the people of God. And Balak wanted him to curse them. Remember the story? But God put a word in Balaam’s mouth and Balaam had to do what God instructed him to do.

An obvious demonstration of the sovereignty of God. And I just wanted to read a little bit of what Balaam said at the top of Pisgah as related to this place here that we’re talking about being in the territory of Sihon. In Numbers 23, it says, “The Lord met Balaam, put a word in his mouth.” And then in verse 21, we read in the prophecy that Balaam put forth relative to Israel, “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel.

The Lord as God is with him and the shout of a king is among them. God brought them out of Egypt. He hath as it were the strength of a unicorn. Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob. Neither is there any divination against Israel. According to the time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought? Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion and lift up himself as a young lion.

He shall not lie down until he eat of the prey and drink the blood of the slain.”

So here at the very start of the conquest of the land with the defeat of the king Sihon—that is his territory extended to Pisgah—and that reminds us that at Pisgah before the people of God are brought into the conquest scenario itself the prophecy is given of them that because there is no iniquity in Jacob, because God has sovereignly raised up this people they shall go forth conquering.

There shall be a king in the midst of them and that will be King Joshua. They shall go forth as a great lion, as a young lion, and they shall devour the prey, and that is the nations, the seven Canaanite nations that they’re ushered into in the context of here. And before that, Sihon and Og, the two great kings of the trans-Jordan. What hath God wrought? God is affecting the deliverance of his people here.

God is affecting great things in terms of the movements of nations. And all of this, of course, is a pale foreshadowing of what he accomplishes in the work of King Jesus. So here at the beginning in the description of the defeat of Sihon, we read of a reference that reminds us of what we will then be reading of in the context of chapter 12, the King of Kings defeating the people who are in opposition to his people.

There is no divination against Israel. There is no enchantment against Jacob. No, nothing can proceed—can rather stop—the flow of his people as they move to take possession of the land that God has called them into to conquer. So we have Sihon, but then we also have Og, king of Bashan, in verse four and following. Og was, we read in verse 4, of the remnant of the giants. In Deuteronomy 3:11, we’re actually told the size of Og’s bed.

Reading now from Deuteronomy 3:11: “For only Og, king of Bashan, remained of the remnant of giants. Behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron, and is not it in Rabbah of the children of Ammon? Nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it after the cubit of a man.”

Big bed for a big man—a big man who nonetheless falls to the King of Kings, the Lord Jesus Christ, and his servant, the servant of the Lord, twice remarked upon in these verses. Moses in the trans-Jordan, who leads the people into victory.

And so in verse six, we have a summation of what happens to Og and Sihon. In verse six, then did Moses, the servant of the Lord, and the children of Israel smite. And Moses, the servant of the Lord, twice mentioned in this verse, gave it as a possession of the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. Og is mentioned 20 times in the Old Testament. Sihon is mentioned over 30 times in the Old Testament.

They become a means of description, and we read it in the Psalms earlier in our responsive reading. They become an emblem, a memorial of the victory of Yahweh, the God of Israel, the defeat of the Canaanite kings and the possession of the land. Indeed, in Deuteronomy 3:21 and following, we read that the defeat of Sihon and Og was the down payment, so to speak, that assured the victory of the conquest of the land of Canaan. Reading from verse 21: “I commanded Joshua at that time, saying, Thine eyes have seen all that the Lord your God hath done unto the two kings.

So shall the Lord do unto all the kingdoms whether thou possess. Ye shall not fear them, for the Lord your God, he shall fight for you.”

So the beginning of the numeration of the kings starts with two kings, Og and Sihon, who are emblematic and a promise by God of the defeat of all the rest of them. So in the summation of Old Testament history, we see the beginning of the conquest assuring the end of it.

The same way that the conquest of Jesus Christ, his resurrection from the dead, assures the defeat of all enemies that shall rise up in history against him and against his church. Even here, it’s interesting: later in Judges 11, Jephthah is prevailed upon by the Ammonites who want their land back after all these years, the land that had been taken from Sihon. And Jephthah in chapter 11, the last half of Judges 11, gives a very legal answer to these requests to return this land.

And he said, “Hey, we didn’t dispossess these people. These people came out against us, then we killed them, and then they were dispossessed by God.” And that’s just what happened in Deuteronomy 2. We won’t read all the verses, but Deuteronomy 2:24 and following. It’s interesting because God tells the people of Israel, he says, “Rise up. I’m going to give into your hands Sihon the Amorite, and you’re going to begin to possess all the land.

You’re going to go forth to battle him.” But the people of God actually go to Sihon and ask permission to go through his land. They want to buy food from him with their money, and they want to buy water for their cattle, and they just want to go straight through their land to get to Canaan where they’re supposed to go. They would have left Sihon in peace if he would have allowed them to pass. But Sihon didn’t allow them to pass.

Even then, the people of Israel don’t rise up aggressively against a non-aggressive enemy, but rather Sihon’s heart is hardened by God. We’re told that explicitly in verse 30, that the Lord God hardened his spirit. And as a result, Sihon grew obstinate. He gathered people together and attacked the children of Israel. They then wiped out Sihon and then following that Og and possessed their land. And so God here at the beginning of these two kings wants us to keep in mind as he wanted the Old Testament people to keep in mind—Sihon and Og.

The beginning of the conquest assures the end of the conquest. The beginning of the list of kings assures us that all kings will fall to the one who leads his people into victory against these two great kings, Sihon and then Og, the big giant fellow being conquered by the King of Kings and his servant Moses in the trans-Jordan.

But then secondly, we move to the kings of the land of Canaan, the other side of Jordan, the actual Jordan-side tribes now, and they’re defeated by Joshua in verses 8-24.

Again here, as in the first few verses of the chapter, we have a summary statement in verse 7: “These are the kings of the country which Joshua and the children of Israel smote on this side Jordan on the west.” There’s a summary statement. And the enumeration of Sihon and Og, and then a summary statement at the end of that—here we have a summary statement. These are going to be the list of kings, the enumeration of them of the tribes on the other side of the river on the west, and this is Joshua now doing the conquering of the children of Israel, no longer Moses.

And then it gives a graphic description of this particular area and then it asserts again that Joshua gave into the tribes of Israel these areas for a possession according to their division. So all of this is so the people of God might be established in the land. Verse 8 gives a summation of the description of these things as well. It says that in the mountains, the valleys, the plains, the springs, the wilderness and in the south country and then it lists six Canaanite nations.

Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, Jebusites. So we have a summary statement in verses 7 and 8. I want to make three comments on this summary statement before we move on. Three areas of interest. First, this description is a glowing description of this geographic locality. Mountains, valleys, plains, springs, wilderness, etc. It pictures a lush land. This is the land that God had chosen for his people.

Matthew Henry in his commentary says that this was the land God spied out for Israel. And yet at this day it is one of the most barren, despicable, and unprofitable countries in the world. Such as the effect of the curse it lies under since its possessors rejected Christ in his gospel as was foretold by Moses in Deuteronomy 29:23. This was a lush land. You got to get that understanding here when they moved into Canaan.

We look at it now and it’s barren. Matthew Henry says that’s a direct result of the rejection of that people who occupied that land, their rejection of Messiah, their rejection of King Jesus. Geography is important and it tells us something about the people that live there.

Secondly, only six nations of the Canaanites are listed in verse 8. A seventh nation, the Girgashites, are not mentioned. Why is that? Well, one explanation would be that they actually left. They got up when they heard Israel was coming and took off to North Africa. That’s the traditional answer in Jewish history. And it may well be right. After all, we’re told in terms of these seven nations that God will drive them out. Sometimes it says he’ll destroy them and smite them. Other times it says he’ll drive them out. And so the seventh nation, the Girgashites apparently were driven out.

They got up and left. So that’s another way that God conquers people. They simply leave and get out of his way.

The third thing I want to mention here is that as we look at this transition from the trans-Jordan to the Jordan—to Sihon and Og and then the other enumeration of kings on this side Jordan in the land of Canaan proper—we see a transition from Moses to Joshua. I think we can see in that as well a correlation between the old covenant and the new covenant.

Now, all this is happening in the old covenant obviously, but Moses, the transition to Joshua obviously speaks of the transition of the old covenant administered through Moses, the new covenant administered through Jesus Christ. So, of course, Moses and Joshua are both types of Christ. But nonetheless, I think that there is a transition here that we can see as to one reason why there are tribes on the trans-Jordan area who settle there instead of in Canaan.

The people of God were held, as it were, out of the great promised land given to them through King Jesus, Jesus during the times of the old covenant administration and we live in the blessed times we’ve been ushered into Canaan and into the spiritual blessings of the greater Joshua and the greater Moses. Matthew Henry commenting on this says that Moses in this time gave to one part of Israel a very rich and fruitful country, but it was on the outside of Jordan, but Joshua gave to all Israel the holy land, the mountain of God’s sanctuary within Jordan.

So the law conferred on some few of God’s spiritual Israel external temporary blessings which were earnest of good things to come. But our Lord Jesus, the true Joshua, has provided for all the children of promise spiritual blessings, the privileges of the sanctuary and the heavenly Canaan. The triumphs and grants of the law were glorious, but those of the gospel far exceed in glory. So understanding this transition could cause our hearts to praise God that we have in his providence been brought into the times of the New Testament when we’re ushered in of the full blessings of King Jesus, him having conquered all kings and increasingly making that manifest throughout created history.

Okay. Now, we actually have the enumeration of these kings and there’s three basic groups of them. First in verse 9, and I said the second half of verse 16, the central kings and this is Jericho and Ai listed in verse 9. And Ai is said as being beside Bethel. And then in verse 16, it talks about the king of Bethel. Remember when they attacked Ai, Bethel came and they were wiped out as well. So, first the central kings are listed. And of course by now hopefully in your mind when you hear Jericho and Ai and you realize those are the first two cities in the first half of the book of Joshua, emblematic of the whole conquest.

Again, it’s kind of like an unfolding picture here. You’ll think of the relationship of Jericho and Ai. Jericho, the demonstration of God’s sovereignty, miraculous work, everything devoted to God for destruction. Ai strategy being used, booty being taken, etc. AI also showing the sin of the people and the result of sin in our camp. If we become an Achan, we’re no longer Israel. We’re now Jericho. We’re dissociated with a devoted thing to destruction and as a result we fall into that damnation.

Blessing is not a result of natural privilege. It’s a result of regeneration and then the demonstration of that regeneration, conformity to God’s law. So, and of course, repentance of God’s violations of God’s law that we may enter into. So, Jericho and Ai should have all these connotations for you by now. And if it doesn’t, then you’re probably not thinking about it enough during the rest of the week.

But anyway, that’s always to remind you of God’s sovereignty, man’s responsibility, and in both cases, conquest—not just letting go and letting God, realizing that he is sovereign and yet still using battle strategies the way that Joshua did at Ai and then following.

Okay, so that’s the central kings. Then we have the enumeration of the southern kings rather in verses 10-18. And this begins in verse 10 where we read the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, the king of Eglon.

First half of verse 12. And if you remember again, you got Jericho and Ai. You got the southern tribes, the southern campaign, and the northern campaign. Southern campaign begins with a confederation of five kings. And they’re the first five listed in verses 10, 11, and the first half of verse 12 for the southern kings. So these kings are listed then clearly identifying that he’s now going to list the kings of the southern conquest.

And there are more kings listed in the southern conquest than the northern conquest. That doesn’t mean there are more cities. There were actually probably more cities in the north. That might have taken longer, but the plan is that God and his providence decided to enumerate more of the southern cities for us. And so I broke it out in your outline that way where you have the underlying kings, the ones who form the association in the south that then attack Gibeon.

And then God’s people come in response to the cries for salvation from the covenanted bride of Joshua, so to speak. And then he wipes out those five kings and then he lists other as well in chapter 10 that are listed in following verses in this enumeration of kings: Gezer, Debir, Libnah and Makkedah. Then there are eight other kings or—not these aren’t the name of kings—these are names of lands. Eight other kings of various lands that are listed that I’ve put in the southern kings: the eight kings that are mentioned after the nine.

So in the southern kings you’ve got 9 + 8 and then we move to the northern kings where we have 5 + 6.

Now in the northern kings we have the same thing. We have the beginning of the list, the enumeration of four kings who were combined together against God’s people. Those are the four ones that are underlined and that’s from Joshua 11. They—remember that they were the confederated tribes to come up and begin to assemble to make war against God’s people.

God’s people as they did in chapter 10 have a sneak attack and beat them instead to the punch. And so for that reason, while we don’t know actually the exact location of some of these areas that are listed as the +8 and the +6 and the south and north respectively, we don’t know necessarily where they were. But since we have the enumeration of the heads of the confederacy of south and then of north in verses 10 and in verses 19, that I think it’s reasonable to conclude that the enumeration of those kings fall within those areas and that’s why I’ve broken it up that way.

Kuyper and Delitzsch say this about that: “If we observe that just as from verse 10 onwards, those king’s towns are first of all enumerated, the capture of which has already been described in chapter 10. And then in verses 15 and 16, certain other towns are added, which had been taken in the war with the Canaanites of the south. So likewise, in verses 19 and 20, the capitals of the allied kings of northern Canaan are given first and after that the other towns that were taken in the northern war but had not been mentioned by name in chapter 11.

There can be no doubt whatever then that the four towns in verses 17 and 18 are to be classed among the king’s towns taken in the war with the king of Jerusalem and his allies and therefore are to be sought for in the south of Canaan and not in the north.”

Okay, so we have this enumeration of these kings. And that then concludes the chapter. At the end of the last enumeration of the king of Tirzah, it says 31 kings in all.

And that’s the end of the chapter. And that’s the end of the conquest narrative. Now, let’s just talk a little bit about some of the main themes from Joshua 12. Again, as we’ve done in other portions of scripture, the first thing I want to just mention briefly is the importance of geography. God in this chapter does not list the names of the kings except for Sihon and Og who then become essentially reminders to the people of God of what God does to all the kings of Canaan.

The rest of the kings, their names are obliterated from history, so to speak, at least in this list. But God does list the areas and the cities that they were kings over. Also, in this chapter, he gives a more geographic summary of the land conquered by Moses and Joshua. And I think this tells us of a very important truth, and that is that the Old Testament faith is a land-based faith, as is the New Testament.

The only difference from Old to New Testament is that the land is now expanded to the whole earth. But we’ll see as we go into Acts, probably the beginning of next year. Again, I’m going to talk about the correlations between Joshua and the book of Acts at that point in time. We’ll see there of course the expansion of the gospel over the known world at that time. Geography is important to the people of God.

Our faith is applicable to understanding lands that God has created. Land and geography is an important study. We’ve seen a transition in education with the onset of humanism in our schools from geography to social studies as if the only thing that matters in terms of looking at the created order is what men are, what men do and their social patterns. Geography is a statement of God’s sovereignty and a setting a particular place and then in his history bring particular places to bear in historical events.

Geography is important for us and should form an important part of our understanding of the world around us and also then relating that geographic understanding to the way that God deals with us specifically. God blesses and curses. It was a fruitful land and then it became a barren land because the land is seen in relationship to the faith of the people and of God’s sovereign actions in history. I was sharing this last week about the law of the land.

That term is still used a lot in current political thinking, you know, “what is the law of the land” and I was thinking that you know probably if you want to be a little more accurate in terms of the law of the land you could say that well, if the civil magistrate enacts a law that is against God’s law, then really he’s not following the law of the land. The law of the land is a reference to God’s law relative to the land and relative to the sanctions that the land can bring against people.

The land spews out perverseness—for instance from Canaan. We see that in other places in the scriptures. God’s law is always linked to his promises, his blessings and cursings and that is linked to the land as well. Geography is an important part of the reality of our faith and it ties then to an understanding that we don’t have this secular-spiritual distinction. We don’t have a material-spiritual distinction in the scriptures.

We see a faith that is applicable to the material world around us as well. Certainly, there’ll be a new world, a new creation to come in the future, but it is a creation nonetheless. It’s not an air, it’s not a realm of total spirituality. It is a realm of super reality, so to speak, in terms of our created order. But the created order is good and given from God.

One other thing before we move on from this geographic consideration: One of the commentators that I read entitled part of this section of this chapter as “Guarding the Unity of God’s People.” Guarding the unity of God’s people. Why does he say that? Well, he wants to make sure that while he got two and a half tribes on the other side of the river, that they’re all listed together in the enumeration of the kings that Moses and Joshua take and that they’re all the children of Israel.

He wants to make sure that in years to come, quite a bit down the road, people don’t start thinking of themselves as being different in terms of their basic identity from this side of the river from that side of the river. He ties them together in chapter 12 and other accounts of the conquest of the promised land. Now, it may seem ridiculous, I guess, huh? That maybe a river could separate people in terms of the unity of God’s people.

Kind of crazy, isn’t it? People could start thinking in terms of east or west. I don’t know. Well, in any event, God says that’s a bad way to think. God says the people are unity together, that rivers and geographic distinctions that God gives into sovereignty nonetheless don’t disrupt the natural unity of God’s people based upon the faith that they have and are based upon their kings Moses and Joshua both types of King Jesus. And so he guards here the unity of God’s people—an important thing for us to consider at Reformation Covenant as we looks to the years to come.

Okay, then we also have the importance of names I think here as well. We got a lot of names. This is one of those books called “How to Read the Boring Parts of the Bible” and the fellow wrote it, so I think he’s pretty good guy. I think shares a lot of our theological perspectives and this is one of the things he treats—Joshua 12 and following in the book of Joshua—the long enumeration of various lists here and there. And it can become a bit boring to us to read some of these names. But you know Hebrew is an interesting language. It is very descriptive in its words and names mean things. I’m going to read the first five verses of chapter 12 again, and I’m going to insert what I understand to be the probable roots and meanings of the words of the cities, at least most of them. Some I don’t know the meaning of, and I’ll leave those in place. But just to give you an idea of how if you knew Hebrew and you received this text in the Hebrew, you might understand these words and their significance a little bit different.

I’m going to try this out for five verses at least. Okay. “Now, these are the kings of the land which the children of those who rule for God had possessed and possessed the land on the other side, descend toward the rising of the sun from the river shout for joy unto Mount consecration (or consecration of blessing or destruction) and all the plain on the east.” Now you might let me just stop there for a minute.

Hermon I think is the same basic root as Hormah, devoted to destruction or devoted or consecrated. But Mount Hermon and we think of Hormah is destruction devoted to destruction. Herman becomes what in Psalm 133 the dew of Hermon and is the dew that descended upon the mountain of Zion and there the Lord commanded the blessing forevermore. So devoted or consecrated could either be to destruction or to blessing and unity with God’s people in terms of Psalm 133.

Okay, reading on: “Sihon, this is verse two now. Sihon, king of the prominent people who dwelt in intelligence and ruled from Aroer which is upon the bank of the river shout for joy and from the middle of the river and from half heap of testimony even unto the river pouring which is the border of the children of a people and from the plain to the sea of harp-shaped on the east and under the sea of the plain even the salt sea and the west, a house of deserts, and from the south under ravines of consideration, and the coast of Og, king of Bashan which was of the remnant of the giants that dwell at goddess of love and fertility and at arm of power and reigned in mount consecration and in walk and in all Bashan to the border of the bridges and the depressions and half heap of testimony the border of Sihon king of intellect.”

That’s kind of interesting. It’s interesting to me to look at some of these names the significance they have in terms of the scriptures. Let’s look a little bit at some of the names of the enumeration of the kings the same way in verses 9 and following. They begin to take on a little more understanding for us. Verse 10 for instance, the king of the city of peace, the king of the seat of association.

That’s what those two names mean basically in their roots. And it’s interesting if the city of peace is linked in that verse to the city of association. These are doublets here. We’re seeing the king of calf and the king of portion. That’s an interesting one because Eglon means calf or bullock and a bullock could either be sacrificial or it could be devoted to destruction as well. A bullock can be a good thing.

But the bullock also in Eglon’s case—for instance, later we have a king named Eglon who was a fat king and he was being fattened for destruction from God. And so it can have a good connotation or a bad connotation. Either way, it’s linked to the term portion at the end of verse 12. Verse 13, the king of instruction, the king of wall. And instruction does provide us a wall, a guarding function from God. The king of devoted things and the king of the sequestered ones.

Now those go together pretty good too, don’t they? Consecration of things and that—both being implied in those two terms. Verse 16, the king of the marker of herds and the king of the city of God, Bethel. Now, I might mention here of course that we read later of Bethel that originally was called Luz, but it’s listed here as Bethel. All these names that we’re seeing listed here, these are the names that God gives these things later on.

What they were originally, we don’t know in all the all cases. We know several of them though that they were specifically different. Jerusalem was Jebus for instance. Bethel was Luz. We mentioned Debir before—that it was had a different term, etc., but in any event, here we have the marker of herds and the city of God brought together. Marker of herds, somebody who would mark the herds that belong to him, the city of God.

We come together in the city of God and are convocated together and we’re marked by God for inclusion to his city through the sacrament of baptism. Verse 18, for instance, the king of restraint and the king of make straight and prosper. Restraint is the way we become made straight by God and are led on to prosper. Verse 19, the king of height and the king of the enclosed yard, the height of the mountain of God and enclosed guarded about by his angels.

Verse 20 is an interesting one. The king of guardian whip and the king of whisper of spells. Anyway, there’s two different ways that you motivate people to action. Guardian and whip—and you know force or coercion, I guess. And then whisper of spells or enchanter, but you could say instead of force to be persuasion. And you remember with these two terms I talked about last week in their original meanings—in terms of you could think of it for instance as conservatives are guardian and whips and they’re the tough guys and then liberals they’re the enchanters—but in a proper sense it’s also the way God himself hedges our way about. Sometimes he is forceful with us and he lashes us the way he lashed ultimately is our model the King, King Jesus, and he was scourged and we’ll talk about that at communion today. But he uses that kind of force upon us but he also uses persuasion instead of the whisper of enchantment.

Of course, it’s the whisper of encouragement. Remember when I in Isaiah, we frequently read the verse where we’re supposed to come along at each other in the New Testament times and whisper in the ear and say, “This is the way when you should walk.” It’s a big part of how God motivates us is through his people whispering in our ear that this is the way walk ye in it.

Verse 23, the king of generation and the king of the nations of rolling. Rolling—you know, Gilgal was the place where circumcision was performed as they entered into the land and generations and circumcision and the rolling out of generations and years can be seen in verse 23 as we move toward the end of the list of the enumeration of the kings, the succession of God’s people into the future being talked about. And then finally the last king mentioned in verse 24, the term could be transliterated delights, delightfulness: all the kings thirty and one. So we see these various aspects of how God motivates his people, calls his people, and gives his people historical succession into the future through a faithful generation.

And all this is summed up in the king of the area called Tirzah, delights. This term Tirzah is used in the Song of Solomon chapter 6 verse 4: “Thou art beautiful and my love as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners. Turn away thine eyes from me for they have overcome me. Thy hairs as a flock of goats that appear from Gilead.” Tirzah, delights us. That’s what our savior is to be to us. And we’re understand that’s so we are to God as well in Jesus Christ.

We’re betrothed to him in Christ and we are delightsome to him and he has ushered us into a salvation which is delightful as well.

Well, the purpose of all this isn’t so much to draw new theological truths from the names of these kings, but it’s to remind you that names have a significance. We live in a day and age when we kind of don’t think of anything as having significance and certainly not names.

Now hopefully, and I’m sure this is the case at this church, more and more we think about the significance of names. For instance, when we name our children you should try to think through the implications of that name and maybe you haven’t even done that but in the providence of God your children have been given names that mean something and it’d be good to discover the meaning of that name and frequently you’ll see in that very name itself a teaching tool you can use with your children to either blessing or cursing that God sets both of them before them. Many times names can be seen either way—consecrated to blessing, consecrated to cursing—and ultimately you don’t know the end of story of that person’s life until the end of their life. That the name could be a motivating factor to them and should be used by you to instruct them.

We in our baptismal form ask what the Christian name of this child is. And I suppose that’s a bit of an anachronism—back to the days in the church when people became converted and they’d be given new names, frequently the names of saints that were honored by the family and known about. And children be given saints’ names at their baptisms. There’s nothing wrong with that by the way as long as we don’t do it superstitiously or something or in such a way as to think that we get power from those saints themselves. It’s certainly good to remember. That’s a lot of what we’re doing here is remembering what God has done in the past. And the Christian saints of the last 2,000 years of the church are important for us to know as well.

I’ve got a nice 12 volume series of the saints, the lives of the saints. And for each day of the week, there’s a number of them listed and not all of them are good or even necessarily—don’t know necessarily all the details of what happened. But it’s good to remember God’s past mercies to the faith of the church as well as looking back to the Old Testament and God’s mercies to his people. But in any event, the baptismal name hearkens back to those days. But for us as well, it can be used in the proper sense to remember that when we do have our children baptized, they should receive a name that is Christian. Doesn’t mean it has to come from the Bible, but it means it should mean something when you name your child.

Not just that it sounds nice, that’s okay, but it should have some kind of meaning that the child could be encouraged or motivated by it as well. Names are important. When we named our church, we named it Reformation Covenant Church. We didn’t call ourselves Reformed. We’re using that term a little more these last few years. We didn’t want to use it then because couple of reasons. One, most Reformed churches are liberal today.

They don’t believe the Bible. You put the name Reformed in your church and the people that really believe the scriptures—I mean, let’s face it, dispensationalists at least have an inherent infallible scripture that they adhere to and most quote-Reformed people do not anymore. So, if you put the name Reformed in there, you’re going to give people the wrong idea of who you are. Names are important. So we chose Reformation instead of Reformed.

Also to say that the Reformed church originally was to be a reformed church always reforming and it has need of reformation today. We’ve talked about that in terms of polity, in terms of the law of God and eschatology. So names are important and covenant we put in there because covenant is so much a part of what the scriptures are all about. In any event, that’s important we consider these things. You know the church not only gave children names at baptism or converts names at baptisms, they also at one point in time gave people names of excommunications.

How about that one? Do you have heard of nicknames? Well, today, see, we don’t think about the significance of names. We don’t even think about the significance of the word nickname. But if you look it up, I looked it up in the May in the 1828 Webster’s dictionary. Nickname means a term of derision or contempt. That’s what it originally meant. Kind of, you know, a nickname. Nick was one of the terms they used to use for Satan—Old Scratch, Lucifer. And old Nick was a name for of derision or contempt and one who brings derision and contempt, Satan. And a nickname was given to somebody not in a positive sense or in an affectionate sense but in a sense of derision.

And so people are actually renamed as well upon excommunications from the church, taken away their Christian name, so to speak. They may have maligned and instead given a nickname.

Well names are important in the scriptures. To name something is to control it or take possession over it. And when God gives his people, Israel, those who rule for God, into the land, most of these cities receive new names because they’re possessed now in a fuller sense by God. He’s dispossessed some people. He’s brought other people in. And when he does that, he renames things. He gives control over them.

And God’s people are called in this naming process as well in terms of being stewards of God. Throughout the scriptures, God doesn’t give his name to people. We have Yahweh, but we’re not to think of that as ultimately the name of God. It simply means “I am that I am.” He’s saying I’m the self-existent one. I don’t have a name that you can give me or that I can give you that you can exercise control over me by.

God gives us lots of names that are essentially descriptions of who he is. But we cannot name God. He names us. Okay? To name something is to control it, exercise authority or dominion over it. And as a result to remind us again that when God calls us to name our children, we have a tremendous stewardship responsibility in terms of that. The same thing with our businesses. If you own your own business, the name is important.

Churches, certainly—cities. It’s important that we live in Portland and that this can be seen as a place of sending out the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world around us. And our capital of our state is called Salem—peace. It’s the humanist peace concept.