God doing God things.

Joshua 10:1–14 KJV 1900

1 Now it came to pass, when Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem had heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed it; as he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king; and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel, and were among them; 2 That they feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, as one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all the men thereof were mighty. 3 Wherefore Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem sent unto Hoham king of Hebron, and unto Piram king of Jarmuth, and unto Japhia king of Lachish, and unto Debir king of Eglon, saying, 4 Come up unto me, and help me, that we may smite Gibeon: for it hath made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel. 5 Therefore the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, the king of Eglon, gathered themselves together, and went up, they and all their hosts, and encamped before Gibeon, and made war against it. 6 And the men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to the camp to Gilgal, saying, Slack not thy hand from thy servants; come up to us quickly, and save us, and help us: for all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the mountains are gathered together against us. 7 So Joshua ascended from Gilgal, he, and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valour. 8 And the Lord said unto Joshua, Fear them not: for I have delivered them into thine hand; there shall not a man of them stand before thee. 9 Joshua therefore came unto them suddenly, and went up from Gilgal all night. 10 And the Lord discomfited them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goeth up to Beth-horon, and smote them to Azekah, and unto Makkedah. 11 And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Beth-horon, that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died: they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword. 12 Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; And thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. 13 And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, Until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, And hasted not to go down about a whole day. 14 And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the Lord fought for Israel.

Introduction

Offense is taken.

Israel’s entrance into Canaan had not gone unnoticed.

At several points in the book of Joshua we are told about the fear that the people of the region felt towards Israel and their God.

The people of Jericho felt it.

The people of Ai felt it.

The people of Gibeon felt it.

Gibeon was so convinced of Israel’s power that engaged in subterfuge to protect themselves.

You may be familiar with the story.

Gibeon was a very strong city to the northeast of Jerusalem.

They are right smack dab in the middle of the promised land.

They put on a big performance for Joshua and pretended to be from a far distant country.

Joshua bought their lies.

Without consulting God, Joshua and the people entered into a league with the Gibeonites.

God was not pleased with His people’s decision.

Now that they were in league with the Gibeonites, they would be expected to honor that agreement.

God wasn’t the only one to be offended by this agreement.

Adoni-zedek, the king of Jerusalem was keeping a close watch on the progress that Joshua was making in fulfilling God’s plan.

He had heard about Jericho.

He had heard about Ai.

Then, he heard about Gibeon and their deal with Israel.

What was his reaction to Israel and Gibeon’s alliance?

He was afraid.

So much fear over this nomadic group of former slaves coming into the region.

Why was everyone so afraid?

Because of the mission and power of the Israelites.

The Israelites’ mission was to conquer the whole region.

The totality of Israel’s mission was frightening.

When they overcame a city, nothing was left.

The Israelites’ power defied expectations.

It was clear they were being enabled by something divine.

The God of Israel was proving His dominance over the imagined gods of the land.

One by one they fell to His power.

Now, this invading people group has allied with Gibeon a great city, filled with might men.

Adoni-zedek is unwilling to let this all take place without a fight.

If Joshua would have been content to just set up his own city-state at the Jewish camp at Gilgal, there probably wouldn’t have been much opposition.

However, his energetic commitment to obey God and occupy the land that God had given them stirred up the opposition.

A commitment to the status-quo provides a more placid, easy going life.

If you set your sights high, and you commit yourself to changing people’s lives, you will immediately stimulate opposition.

Gibeon, by allying with Israel instead of resisting them is now viewed as a traitorous city to the Canaanite way of life.

Adoni-zedek calls on 4 other Canaanite kings to come and help him send a message to the Gibeonites and anyone else that would side with the Israelites.

None of these kings were friendly with each other.

Gibeon was actually the only city that Adoni-zedek had been in alliance with before this all happened.

It never fails that former enemies become allies when they unify around a common threat.

The five-king confederacy surround the city of Gibeon and make war with it.

Help is requested.

Gibeon sends word to Joshua asking for him to honor their alliance.

Had Joshua messed up in making a league with the people of Gibeon?

Yes! He had made a huge blunder.

No doubt, he was embarrassed by his failure, but no mistake is final for a follower of God.

God can even use our blunders to accomplish His purposes.

Joshua now has 5 kings and armies in one place that he would have had to travel to and defeat individually.

Joshua and his army immediately set out with the blessing of God to attack the confederacy of kings.

The trip was conducted in the middle of the night.

It normally would have taken 3 days.

Joshua makes the trip in about 8 hours.

This is an almost completely uphill journey.

God had told Joshua that he would be successful in his attack.

Joshua believes God and is emboldened by the guarantee.

Faith has an incredible strengthening effect.

Joshua leads his people into battle.

He knows that God is with him.

He trusts God’s word to him.

Joshua could not have guessed what God was going to do next.

God empowers His people in 3 miraculous ways.

He discomfits the armies of the 5 kings.

God causes the armies of the five kings to lose their mettle.

He allows the Israelites to exact a great slaughter on the enemy armies.

The canaanites are routed and begin to flee from the battle.

The Israelites give chase, but, after running all night to the battle, you can understand that they may have had a difficult time keeping up with them.

God had an answer for that.

He rains massive hailstones on the enemies of Israel as they flee.

The largest recorded hailstone was 1.67 pounds.

It hit the earth traveling at 105 mph.

That equals 605 lbs of force.

Easily enough to pierce the skulls of the Canaanite soldiers.

The Bible tells us that more soldiers were killed by the hailstones than by the Israelites.

The Israelites chased the Canaanites over 30 miles.

After all the fighting.

After all the chasing.

Joshua sees that there is a pressing issue that they will soon have to deal with.

There is more work to do than the day can contain.

Once it’s dark the enemy soldiers will have a much easier time hiding and escaping to fight another day.

Joshua speaks to the Lord.

I believe he gets permission for what he is about to do.

Having obtained it, Joshua commands the sun and moon to stand still.

He does it in the sight of all Israel.

You’d better be sure you are in agreement with God when you get up and command the sun and moon to stand still.

In verse 13, God stops the motion of the sun and the moon.

God stops then slows the movement of the sun and the moon.

He holds them in the sky until Joshua and the people had avenged themselves.

This event was the subject of a poem in the book of Jasher.

Jasher was a collection of poems about Jehovah and righteousness.

Vss 13-14 appear to be a quote from that book.

The poem tells us that the day was extended by a whole day.

This may have been a 24-hour period.

It may have been the Jewish understanding of a day being from sun up to sun down.

Whether it was 24 hours or 12 hours, it was a great miracle.

It was clear to everyone that the Lord was fighting for Israel.

God did such a great work, that there are a lot of people, to this day that try to discredit or explain away the great victory that God won for Israel.

Why do we try to explain away the miracles of God?

If God can’t perform the miracle of Joshua 10, then He can’t perform any miracles.

He is either not God.

He is a prisoner of His own creation.

The mind which asks for a non-miraculous Christianity is a mind in process of relapsing from Christianity into mere religion.

-C.S. Lewis

If God can’t do the impossible, then we don’t have to attempt the impossible.

What was it that made the people of Canaan fearful?

Israel served a miracle-working God.

Israel was committed to doing what God told them to do.

What was it that Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 28?

I have all power.

Go do what I am telling you to do.

Joshua 10 shows us an example of the power of our God and what He is capable of.

As God’s people, we have great power behind us.

When we believe the promises of God,

We will obey the commands of God.

We act by faith and we can expect God’s help.

We are not limited strictly to that which makes sense in the terms of this world.

When God’s people are obeying God’s will, everything in the universe works for them.

But, we have to act by faith.

We have to obey His commands and believe His promises.

We have to be willing to give up the routine and expected if we are going to see Him do the miraculous.

Is there anything in your life today that puts you in a position where you are trusting totally in God?