The Conquest of the Soul

This is an old teaching that I came up with years ago, but was reminded of today in my Bible reading. The reminder came from Deut. 7:22, "The Lord your God will clear away these nations before you little by little. You may not make an end of them at once..."

The wandering nation of Israel has been traipsing through the wilderness for forty years, and here they gather, at the banks of the Jordan river ready to cross over and inherit the land which they have been hearing about since the day they left Egypt a generation ago. This land was God's promise to them. God has told them that He would give them this land, and yet here He tells them, essentially, that the fulfillment of this promise will be a long, arduous and difficult task. If God wanted to, He could just pull a "Sodom and Gomorrah" on these nations, and burn them up with fire and brimstone from heaven. But He doesn't. The Israelites will have to fight. They will have to obtain the promise "little by little." One victory at a time. Sounds a lot like life...


The Conquest of the Soul is a teaching I developed (but yet have never actually taught) that discusses, from a theological perspective, this very idea, using the Israelite's Conquest of Canaan as a backdrop. In a very real way, we are at war every day against the influences of the world, against the devil, and against ourselves to obtain the promise of God. We are "working out our own salvation," day by day, painstakingly, to obtain the fulness of the salvation which God has promised. Our victory is sure, so long as we keep our eyes on Jesus, so long as we do things God's way. But despite the "sureness" of our victory, we will still have to fight.

One of the more famous verses from the book of Joshua (the book that chronicles the Conquest of Canaan), is this: "Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses." (Josh. 1:3). We Christians love quoting this verse. It makes victory sound easy doesn't it. "Just walk on it, and it's yours!" However, looking at the Hebrew puts a new spin on it...

daw·rak is the Hebrew word which in many places is translated, "bend the bow," as in "bow-and-arrow." Thus the idea of "treading" here doesn't mean "walk," but more like "war march." Thus, "wherever your foot marches to war, I will give you," is a more complete interpretation.

So, God's command to Israel was not to "walk around" and "claim" the land, but rather to "go to war" and "conquer" the land. The first is passive, the second active. It is the same in our lives. It is foolishness to look at the defeated areas of our lives and assume that we can just "claim the victory." If there are "enemies in your land," you've got to "drive them out"! You've got to go to war!! You've got to do some treading!!

Okay, that's a good introduction. More to come!