The Lord is identified as the living God to distinguish him from the false gods worshipped by the people of Canaan. The Hebrew phrase used here occurs only three other times in the Old Testament (Psalm 42:2; Psalm 84:2; Hosea 1:10) and speaks to the direct presence of an active God. The gods of the Canaanites were dead idols (see Psalm 115:5–8).1 In the miracle that the Lord was about to do, he was going to demonstrate to Israel and the Canaanites that he truly is the only God.
10 And Joshua said, “Here is how you shall know that the living God is among you and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites.