It is so easy to mistakenly approach the book of Joshua like a history book simply chronicling the battles as the promised land is victoriously won by the Israelites. To do so would make the book of Joshua a very dry read. Many see the promised land as a picture of heaven, but the problem with this is that in heaven there are no battles. We must not forget Joshua 1:3, "Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses." God already claimed the victory, it was up to the Israelites by the power of God to face their enemies. Many say that the book of Joshua parallels the book of Ephesians, for though as in the promised land, in the life of the Spirit we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing, we must face our enemies in battle through the strength of God in the Person of the Holy Spirit. The enemies for Joshua seemed obvious in the various peoples who occupied the land. But they are a picture of the same three enemies that we face as depicted in 1 John 2:15-17, "Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world- the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life - is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever." In short, our three enemies have never changed from the Garden of Eden to this present day: the world, the flesh and the devil.

Their first battle that we read about was the battle of Jericho. Jericho is a picture of the world to the believer. It’s strong, powerful, formidable and foreboding. Initially Joshua did what most of us would do in face of such a formidable opponent, he sent spies into the land to assess his opponent, as we read in Joshua 2:1, "Now Joshua the son of Nun sent out two men from Acacia Grove to spy secretly, saying, "Go view the land, especially Jericho." But this approach had nothing to do with their ultimate victory. We see the encounter between Joshua and the Commander of the army of the Lord in 5:13-15. It was when Joshua humbly submitted to the the Commander, who was a Christophany or Old Testament appearance of Jesus, that through faith and following a battle plan that made no earthly sense that the world as depicted by Jericho was defeated. We read in 1 John 5:4, "For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world - our faith."

From the towering picture of Jericho, we come to the next battle against little Ai. It is easy to see and take seriously an obvious formidable opponent like Jericho and for us the world. But in the flesh are weaknesses that lie within each of us. We often fail to notice or take seriously these seemingly small weaknesses, just as the Israelites took lightly little Ai. First, we see the specific problem of sin manifested in Achan in Joshua 7:1, where he essentially saw, he coveted, then he took. It seemed harmless enough, who would actually notice or care? The next mistake came when Joshua approached Ai in his confidence rather than through the direction of God. We read of his sending spies in 7:2-3, who sized up their opponent and deemed it easy enough to send only a small portion of their enemy. Overconfident and filled with pride they never sought God for this battle. We see the result in 7:5 as they suffered an overwhelming and embarrassing defeat. How do we overcome the flesh? Not by fighting it, but by recognizing our weaknesses, confessing to God, and letting the Spirit of God get the victory. After recognizing this we see the turn around in Joshua 8 as God claims and gives the victory to them.

We next come to a very clever opponent in the Gibeonites. Recognizing that God was with them and that a direct confrontation would never work, they resorted to deceit, as we read in Joshua 9:3-5, "But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, they worked craftily, and went and pretended to be ambassadors. And they took old sacks on their donkeys, old wineskins torn and mended...and all the bread of their provision was dry and moldy." They entered the camp of Joshua and successfully deceived Joshua and elders who mistakenly never asked the counsel of God before arriving at a conclusion. The Gibeonites are a picture of the devil. We know of this enemy and in Ephesians 6:11-12, we are warned, "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Then in Ephesians 6:13-18, Paul describes our actual armor.

Like the Israelites were given the entirety of the Promised Land, the Spirit and all He offers has already been given to us. But it is up to us to decide if we want to take possession of all the blessings offered by Him. Standing in our way are three worthy opponents: the world, the flesh and the devil. If we choose to take them head on in direct confrontation using our own strength, we will be beat up in the process. If we empty ourselves and realize the true strength that resides within us in the power of the Holy Spirit, these opponents do not stand a chance. Even trials which are difficult will not stumble us, as we are comforted with Romans 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who are the called according to His purpose.”