ABSOLUTE SURRENDER AND ENTIRE CONSECRATION FOR THE REMAINING COMMISSION
Tet: Joshua 11:1-13:33.
“As the LORD commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua; he left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded Moses.” (Joshua 11:15). Although Moses had died at this time, Joshua did not relegate the commandments God gave to Moses to the background. The passing on of anyone does not affect the commission of the Lord. If the commission is remaining, our commitment and consecration too must remain. Although Joshua had already done so much, there remained much to still be done and he needed to have absolute surrender to the Lord for Him to accomplish what was left of the task God gave him.
1. JABIN AND HIS COMPANIONS RUSHING TO IMMINENT JUDGMENT
Joshua 11:1-14.

If Joshua had decided of his own volition to possess the land of Canaan, Jabin and the other kings would have been able to conquer Him, but because the commission to possess the land came from God, Jabin’s fight was against the Lord Almighty.
- Jabin’s Aggression Against the Almighty – Joshua 11:1-5; Numbers 16:11; 2 Chronicles 13:12-16; Psalm 2:2-9. “And when all these kings were met together, they came and pitched together at the waters of Merom, to fight against
Israel.” (Joshua 11:5). The fight of Jabin and the other kings was not just against Israel but against the Almighty, against the Creator, and the Ultimate Power in heaven and earth. Everyone who has carried weapons against the Almighty has always been defeated; don’t join the rank. “For which cause both thou and all thy company are gathered together against the LORD: and what is Aaron, that ye murmur against him?” (Numbers 16:11). “And, behold, God himself is with us for our captain, and his priests with sounding trumpets to cry alarm against you. O children of Israel, fight ye not against the LORD God of your fathers; for ye shall not prosper.” (2 Chronicles 13:12). If a project, work, or commission ordained by the Lord Himself is being done, do not fight against it because any aggression, power, or army fighting against it is fighting against the Almighty, and such fight will not prosper. Some Jewish Rabbis thought that the kingdom of God was only for the Jews, but the Gentiles were also meant to be saved because God had already promised to give His Son the heathen for His possession. Jabin and his companion kings who raised up themselves as adversaries against the Almighty were shattered and destroyed because their aggression was against the Almighty.
- Jehovah’s Assurance Against all Adversaries – Joshua 11:6-8; 10:8; Luke 19:14, 27; Revelation 19:11-21. Every power and principality that fights against the Almighty and makes themselves conspirators against the progress of the Great Commission is going to be defeated and destroyed; don’t join them. You will not die the death of the enemies of God. “But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.” (Luke 19:14, 27). Those who say Christ will not reign over them and those who say the work of the Lord will not take pre-eminence are the enemies of the Lord, and there will be destruction against the enemies of the gospel, the enemies of righteousness, and the enemies of the Great Commission on the final day. Christ is both Saviour and judge, and He will make war against those that remain in sin. There was judgement on Jabin and the kings that gathered with Him against the Almighty, there is judgement today, and there will be judgement in the hereafter.
- Joshua’s Assistance for Advance – Joshua 11:7, 9-14; 10:40-42; 1 Kings 15:29-30;
Hebrews 10:27. Joshua had both divine and human assistance for advancement. “So Joshua came, and all the people of war with him, against them by the waters of Merom suddenly; and they fell upon them. And Joshua did unto them as the LORD bade him: he houghed their horses, and burnt their chariots with fire.” (Joshua 11:7, 9). Joshua destroyed those kings as God commanded him. We do not manifest love beyond God Himself. In the ministry and service of the Lord, we do as the Lord bids us because we are fighting against sin, against Satan, against the spirits that dwell in the children of disobedience, and we are fighting the Lord’s battle. We will do as the Lord bids us without fear or favour in Jesus Name. “But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.” (Hebrews 10:27).
2. JOSHUA WITH CONSECRATION RISING TOWARDS IRREPROACHABLE JESUS
Joshua 11:15; John 8:28-29.
“As the LORD commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua; he left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded Moses.” (Joshua 11:15). “Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.” (John 8:28-29). As Joshua did all that Moses commanded Him, Jesus our Saviour and Redeemer also did all that the Father commanded Him. Anyone who is going to be ready for the rapture will not do the will of God once in a while and do his own selfish, human will another time.
- The Absolute Sovereignty and Executive Command of Jehovah – Joshua 11:15; Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32; Acts 20:20, 27. Joshua considered God as the ultimate and sovereign. In any position we hold and in any opportunity, we have, we must still realise the absolute sovereignty and the executive command of Jehovah God in heaven. “As the LORD commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua; he left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded Moses.” (Joshua 11:15). “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.” (Deuteronomy 4:2). We must not add anything to the word of God, no matter how little or next-tonothing it may appear to be. “What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.” (Deuteronomy 12:32). God does not speak to our brain because He knows how limited our reasoning is; He speaks to the faith we have in Him like the final authority that He is. “And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house, For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.” (Acts 20:20, 27). We must not hold back anything of the word of God but teach the people everything that God has commanded us.
- The Absolute Surrender and Entire Consecration of Joshua – Joshua 11:15; 1:7-9; John 12:49-50; Acts 10:42-43. Joshua was a man of like passions as us and as he had absolute surrender and entire consecration, we also must have absolute surrender and entire consecration regardless of what is happening around and beyond us. “As the LORD commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua; he left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded Moses.” (Joshua 11:15). We don’t change the word of God because of investigation or opposition. The word of God remains sacrosanct, and we will do what He said we should do all the days of our lives. We should have absolute surrender and entire consecration to the word, will and way of the Lord.
- The Absolute Submission and Explicit Conformity of the Just – 2 Samuel 15:15; 1 Peter 2:9,21; 1 John 2:6, 28-29; Revelation 22:14. “And the king’s servants said unto the king, Behold, thy servants are ready to do whatsoever my lord the king shall appoint.” (2 Samuel 15:15). The response of the just to the Justifier, the saved to the Saviour, and the sanctified to the Sanctifier should be that we are ready to do whatever our Lord and King shall command.
3. JUSTIFICATION OF CONTINUITY IN REACHING OUT WITH IRREPRESSIBLE JOINT HEIRS
Joshua 12:1, 6-7a; 13:1-2, 6b-7.
- Great Continued Commission to the Old and Aged – Joshua 13:1, 6-7; 18:3-4; 23:12; 24:15, 29, 31. “Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; and the LORD said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.” (Joshua 13:1). Although Joshua was old and even God acknowledged his advancement in age, yet God did not withdraw the commission from him, Joshua did not let go of the commission, and Caleb did not try to take over from Joshua. “All the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon unto Misrephothmaim, and all the Sidonians, them will I drive out from before the children of Israel: only divide thou it by lot unto the Israelites for an inheritance, as I have commanded thee.” (Joshua 13:6). All that we are learning is so that we can know what the Lord has commissioned and commanded, and we will keep on doing it without competition, political manoeuvring, or private, personal opinion. “And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, How long are ye slack to go to possess the land, which the LORD God of your fathers hath given you? Give out from among you three men for each tribe: and I will send them, and they shall rise, and go through the land, and describe it according to the inheritance of them; and they shall come again to me.” (Joshua 18:3-4). Despite the old age of Joshua, he was still in charge of sending the people forth, and they still reported to him. “And it came to pass a long time after that the LORD had given rest unto Israel from all their enemies round about, that Joshua waxed old and stricken in age.” (Joshua 23:1). Joshua was old and stricken in year, yet he went on and went through. You will go on and go through, and even in old age, you will fulfil everything the Lord has committed into your hand in Jesus Name.
- Gracious, Courageous Commitment till Old Age – Joshua 14:10-12; Psalm 71:1518; 92:13-14; Luke 1:5-8, 11, 13-17, 36. “And now, behold, the LORD hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the LORD spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old. As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in. Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the LORD spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the LORD will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the LORD said.” (Joshua 14:10-12). At the age of eighty-five, Caleb was old and aged, yet he was strong and active. This happened for Caleb because of Exodus 15:26, Exodus 23-26; Deuteronomy 7:12-15; and Psalm 91:14-16. The same thing can happen for us because of 3 John 2. We can experience the same strength in old age as we depend upon the word, live by the word, have a good diet, and exercise. Our young people will be strong, and the older people too will be strong, and we will be able to drive out the enemies as the Lord has said.
- Gloriously Confirmed Contribution in Old Age – John 21:17-19; Philemon 1:9-14; Revelation 1:1-3, 9; 10:7-11. “Yet for love’s sake I rather beseech thee, being such an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.” (Philemon 1:9). Both the Old Testament and New Testament ministers continued until old age; you will continue. “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.” (Revelation 1:1-3). John was about 95 or 96 years of age when He wrote the book of Revelation, and he was still preaching, writing, praying, and still receiving revelation that he was to distribute to the seven churches of Asia Minor. In old age, you cannot sit down, let go, give up, or give in to the weaknesses of old age. Shed the thoughts of old age; new strength and new revelation can come in old age.