Courageous Prayer
Notes
Transcript
July 5, 2020
Dominant Thought: God fights His enemies with the prayers of His people.
Objectives:
I want my listeners to schedule a time each day for prayer.
I want my listeners to understand the power of prayer as a weapon against evil.
I want my listeners to know that God listens to our prayers.
Do you realize that God fights differently than we fight? We use words as weapons. As children, we kick and punch and push. If left unchecked, that violence can escalate with weapons. Yet, God fights differently. God has a weapon that is more powerful than Thor’s hammer and sharper than Wolverine’s claws. God’s weapons are more magnificent than the hired guns of the magnificent seven and has more grit than Rooster Cogburn.
The Apostle Paul reminds us that we do not wage war as the world does (2 Corinthians 10.3). In his letter to the Ephesians 6.12, Paul declares:
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Paul concludes the Christian’s armor against evil by commanding us to pray in the Spirit on all occasions (Eph. 6.18).
The message for today is simple to understand, but challenging to live. God fights His enemies with the prayers of His people. To help us unpack this theme today, I want to explore a story from Joshua 10 and conclude with three questions and prayer.
In the opening verses of Joshua 10.1-5. The king of Jerusalem named, Adoni-Zedek, which means “lord of righteousness” asks four other kings in the southern cities to help him go against the city of Gibeon that had recently made peace with Joshua and the children of Israel (see Joshua 9 for that story).
So, we find a lord of righteousness asking four other kings to form an alliance with the words, “Help me attack Gibeon because it has made peace with Joshua and the Israelites” (Joshua 10.4). The kings join forces and move all their troops up to Gibeon and take up positions and attack the city of Gibeon.
If we pause the story or even end the story here, we would think five kings and their armies against one. The five kings win easily, end of story. Next chapter. The number alone would overwhelm the people of Gibeon.
So, with the first request of this one king to the others, it appears to be a good move, a strong move, and one that appears to be winning. The alliance has moved into position and begun the attack.
But with any attack, there is generally a counterattack. So, the first thing the writer tells us about the counterattack in Joshua 10.6 is this, “The Gibeonites sent word to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal: ‘Do not abandon your servants. Come up quickly and save us! Help us...’”
We need to spend a quick moment on these Gibeonites. In Joshua 9, they trick Joshua and the leaders of Israel into making peace with them. The Gibeonites put on old worn out clothes and sandals. They packed dry moldy bread and cracked wineskins. They told Joshua and the others a tale that they had heard of the fame of their God (Josh 9.9) and had traveled many days. They told them that their clothes were worn out from the journey and that their bread was hot when they packed it and now you can see it is moldy bread. This was the tale they told even though they lived just 8 miles up the road. Joshua and the others failed to consult God and believed their story. They made a peace treaty with them and would not destroy them.
When they found out the truth, the Israelites were furious, but Joshua honored his treaty with them not to destroy them, but he cursed them to carry water and chop wood. Carrying the water and chopping the wood may have given the Gibeonites a front row seat to the worship of God by providing the water for cleansing and the wood for the altar for the sacrifices.
So, it is this group of people that now sends word to Joshua, “Come, save us.” Do you remember what Joshua’s name means? God Saves or Savior. So, while the king of Jerusalem asked the other kings to help him, the Gibeonites ask Joshua to help them. So, if you do the math you have five cities against a city and a nation. A nation that has just conquered Jericho and Ai. So, the odds seem to be balancing if not tipping in the favor of Gibeon, Joshua, and Israel. That is, if Joshua honors their request.
In Joshua 10.7, “Joshua marched up from Gilgal with his entire army, including all his best fighting men.” If I’m Gibeon, I’m thinking, “Okay, if we can hold out until reinforcements come, then we will be okay. If we can make it through the night, then help will be here in the morning.”
In Joshua 10.8, the writer plays the trump card when he writes:
The Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you.”
These words are similar to what God told Joshua about Jericho back in Joshua 6.2. So, that night Joshua takes his entire army with all his best fighters and marches all night to take the enemy by surprise. Then, we come to Joshua 10.10-11
The Lord threw them into confusion before Israel, so Joshua and the Israelites defeated them completely at Gibeon. Israel pursued them along the road going up to Beth Horon and cut them down all the way to Azekah and Makkedah.
As they fled before Israel on the road down from Beth Horon to Azekah, the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them, and more of them died from the hail than were killed by the swords of the Israelites.
The Lord through the enemy into confusion. Joshua and the Israelites defeated them completely. Israel chased those who were fleeing for 20 miles. The Lord hurled large hailstones down on them and more died from the hail than by the sword.
So, who won the battle? Was it Gibeon? Was it Joshua and Israel? Was it the Lord?
The answer is given to us in Joshua 10.12-15
On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel: “Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”
So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies, as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.
There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!
Then Joshua returned with all Israel to the camp at Gilgal.
It sounds like God won the victory that day. In Joshua 10.12, he states clearly that the Lord gave the enemies over. God sends a miraculous hail storm and a miracle of the sun standing still for about a full day. Some suggest these were the greatest miracles of the book even greater than crossing the Jordan River on dry ground.
What amazes the writer of the story even more than the miracles of hail and sunshine is recorded in Joshua 10.14, “There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being.” In Joshua 10.12, we have the words of Joshua 10.12, “Sun, stand still over Gibeon...” Joshua’s prayer may have sounded like this, “Lord, give us a little more daylight to finish the job you’ve given to us.”
Jesus said it this way,
He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
God fights His enemies with the prayers of His people.
Notice that the writer tells us that more people died from the hail than from the storm. Who did the real fighting? Who stopped the sun from setting?
“Prayer is the slender nerve that moveth the muscles of omnipotence” (Charles Spurgeon, Twelve Sermons on Prayer, p. 31).
On August 24, 1977, a young mother pressured by her mother went in to in St. Luke’s Hospital in Sioux City, IA, for a saline induced abortion. The mother was not 18 weeks weeks pregnant as reported, but 31 weeks. The baby was delivered alive. On her birth records along with her footprints, it states, “On August 24, saline infusion for abortion was done but was unsuccessful.” This baby had survived the abortion procedure, and by the grace of God suffered no physical disabilities. Her story is recounted in her book, You Carried Me, by Melissa Ohden.
I had the opportunity to hear Melissa speak a couple of years ago at the the Pregnancy Resource Banquet. I encourage you to check out her book. In her presentation that night, she recounted an experience where she was telling her story for a pro-life banquet in Onawa, Iowa. She writes (p. 107), “While I was at the podium, I notice a man in the audience struggling to fight back tears. I wondered what I had said that affected him so much and resolved to seek him out at the end of the program. I was amazed when he was invited up to the stage to give the benediction. He was a Catholic priest, and I’ll never forget what he said, the tears still glistening in his eyes. “Who says prayers go unanswered?” he asked. “I used to pray outside St. Luke’s Hospital in 1977 that a child’s life would be spared from abortion—and here she is!”
God fights in ways that we do not understand. God was able to make the sun stand still to defeat the enemies. This alliance of five kings were anything but righteous. Even though one king had righteous in his name, they were far from righteous. The peoples of the land had refused to change their ways. They dishonored God and one another. The offered their children as sacrifices. Dale Ralph Davis says, “God was using his imperfect people to judge another immoral culture” (Gospel Coalition Podcast, July 9, 2015, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/podcasts/help-me-teach-the-bible/dale-ralph-davis-on-joshua/).
By the end of Joshua 10, those five kings would literally be stepped on by the commanders of Joshua’s army when he instructed, “put your feet on the necks of these kings.” Then, they killed the kings and put their bodies on poles until evening.
There was another day, not when the sun stood still, but when darkness covered the land. The son of God, would be stripped down and hung on a pole to die. He endured the darkness so that those walking in darkness could embrace the light. Through His sacrifice, he was able to crush the head of that serpent from the garden (Genesis 3.15).
Today, we are living in a hostile culture with protests and riots and anger toward those who don’t share the same opinions. Blood pressures run high, social media is a flutter with the latest opinions. Can I invite you to trust God to fight His enemy through your prayers.
The Gibeonites asked Joshua for help. Joshua asked God for help. God listened to Joshua and won the victory. Could you give yourself to courageous prayer?
What would it look like if we could find 168 people in our community or at least our county and say, I will pray for one hour a week. 24 hours a day times 7 days a week equals 168 hours in a week. If we had 168 people commit to praying one hour each week, then we would have every minute of every day covered in prayer. Dick Eastman writes a helpful book called, The Hour That Changes the World, that would be a helpful resource to spend an hour in prayer.
What would it look like if we asked the God of the light to defeat the lord of darkness? You realize that we have an enemy, but he is not flesh and blood. Your enemy doesn’t live in your house or down the street. Your enemy doesn’t go to your school with you or work at your workplace. Your enemy is the evil one. My friends, I have good news for you. When Jesus endured the darkness of the cross and stepped out of the grave into the first light of the first day of the week, He won the victory over evil once and for all.
What would it look like if we prayed with confidence knowing that God still listens to our prayers? True, this experience in Joshua 10 seems to be a one time experience with hail stones and the sun stopping. The writer marveled that God listened the voice a human. But Jesus reminds us in Matthew 6 to go into our closets and pray to our father in secret. Our father sees what is done is secret (Matthew 6.6).
Remember, God fights His enemies with the prayers of His people.
I feel that if we are going to talk about prayer, then we ought to close this message with prayer. Please join me in prayer.
Lord, you listen to our prayers and we say thank you. You are Lord of the universe. You reign over hailstones and sunshine, viruses and vaccines. Lord, we call out to you for help for your world that is so divided. Please unite our communities with your love, truth, and respect. Bind the evil one who is bent on destruction and division and bind us in perfect unity for your glory. Lord, create in us a people who reflects your image well to the world, for your glory. Amen.
5 Day Devotional Guide on Joshua 10
God fights His enemies with the prayers of His people.
You may want to refer to the sermon notes for further discussion. Take a moment to read the assigned Scripture and then reflect or discuss the questions. Customize this outline to your situation. Here are some questions to ask from the Discovery Bible Method:
What are you thankful for today or this week?
What challenges are you facing?
Have 2 or 3 people read the scripture out loud.
Can you summarize this passage in your own words?
What did you discover about God from this passage?
What have you learned about people from this passage?
How are you going to obey this passage? (What is your “I will” statement?)
With whom are you going to share what you have learned?
Based on this passage, what can we pray about?
Day 1: Joshua 10.1-5
Day 2: Joshua 10.6-11
Day 3: Joshua 10.12-15
Day 4: Joshua 10.16-21
Day 5: Joshua 10.22-27