Sermon Tone Analysis

Joshua 10 is complicated, and I'm not sure how to teach it.

Normally, the way stories work, is that there is a flow to them-- an order.

One thing naturally leads to another, which leads to another.

Stories look like life looks.

Everything happens in order.

In chapter 10, AJ bends the rules.

The first 11 verses flow like we'd expect.

It's a great story.

It will make us praise God, and make us think about how Yahweh is a Warrior.

It's powerful.

I'm excited to teach this, to be honest.

In verses 12-15, AJ backs the story up, because Yahweh does a ridiculous wonder in the middle of this.

There's a huge surprise-- a shocking miracle.

A very cool story, gets even cooler.

I can make that work.

I think I understand what AJ is doing, and why he tells the story like he does.

But verses 16-28 are attached to all of this awkwardly, if we are expected a story that has chronological order.

The easiest way to think about chapter 10 is that it's like looking at a really nice car.

You go to your loacl Chevy dealer to buy a new sedan.

And while you're in the lobby, waiting for a salesman to smell the blood in the water, you see it.

The Corvette.

You walk over to it, and you admire it.

You look at it from one angle, and admire the lines, and the way it looks.

Then, you walk to another side, and then to another.

And it's a beautiful car, regardless of where you stand-- or, if you're lucky, regardless of where you sit.

But regardless of where you stand or sit, it's the same car.

What AJ wants to do in chapter 10 is tell this story from three different perspectives, to help us see it from different angles.

You could combine these three, and make it all fit.

But there's no way to do this without wrecking the story.

We are supposed to hear this story from three different perspectives, to learn three different things.

It's a great story.

But it's not the kind of story you can fully appreciate, without coming at it from different angles.

So what I'm going to do this week, I think, is just work through the first 11 verses.

We will just try to hear the first thing AJ wants us to leave us with.

Next week, we will spin the story around, and look at the same events from a different perspective.

(Read vs. 1-11)

(1) And then, as soon as Adoni-Tsedeq king of Jerusalem heard (A) that Joshua took Ai and had kheremed it, just as he did to Jericho and its king, thus he had done to Ai and to its king, and (B) that the inhabitants of Gibeon made peace with Israel-- and they were in their midst-- (2) they feared very

because (A) a great city [was] Gibeon, like one of the cities of the kingdom,

and (B) because it [was] greater than Ai, and all its men [were] warriors,

(3) and Adoni-Tsedeq king of Jerusalem sent to Hoham king of Hebron and to Piram king of Yarmut and to Yaphia king of Labish and to Davir king of Eglon, saying,

"Come up to me,

and help me

so that we may strike Gibeon

because they made peace with Joshua and the sons of Israel,"

(5) and they gathered,

and the five kings of the Amorites went up-- the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Yarmut, the king of Lakish, the king of Eglon-- they, and all their camp/army--

and they camped before/opposite Gibeon,

and they made war against it,

(6) and the men of Gibeon sent to Joshua, to the camp at Gilgal, saying,

"May you not abandon your hands from your servants.

Come up to us quickly,

and save us,

and help us,

because they are gathered against us-- all the kings of the Amorites, the inhabitants of the mountain,"

(7) and Joshua went up from Gilgal-- he and all the people of the camp with him, and all the great warriors--

(8) and Yahweh said to Joshua,

"Do not fear them,

because into your hand I have given them.

A man from them will/shall not stand before you,"

(9) and Joshua came to them suddenly.

It was all night that he had gone up from Gilgal,

(10) and Yahweh confused/routed them before Israel,

and he struck them a great blow at Gibeon,

and he pursued them on the road going up to the house of Kharon,

and he struck them up to Azekah and up to Makkedah,

(11) and then, while they were fleeing from before Israel-- they [were] on the descent to the house of Kharon--, Yahweh threw on them great stones from the heavens up to Azekah,

and they died.

It was many more who died by the stones of hail than the sons of Israel killed with the sword.

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Yahweh is a powerful God.

He has shown his power over and over in the book of Joshua, and I hope I've been able to lift your gaze upward to God and his glory.

Yahweh stopped the waters of the Jericho River during flood season while all of Israel crossed over.

Yahweh caused an earthquake, that led to the walls of Jericho collapsing, and its defeat.

And last week, Yahweh showed his faithfulness and his power by helping Joshua and Israel conquer the city of Ai.

At this point in the book of Joshua, everyone knows who Yahweh is.

Everyone has heard what he is doing.

We see Yahweh's name being honored.

We see his kingdom coming.

For us, when we hear these stories, it makes us worship God, and revel in his power.

We know that this God-- Yahweh-- is our God.

But most people in Joshua, when they hear what Yahweh is doing, are terrified.

If you're a Canaanite or an Amorite, Yahweh coming in power, keeping his promises, is nothing but bad news.

And if you're an Amorite king, you know that the fate waiting for you is a brutal, humiliating death.

What I've just described is one of the main themes in the book of Joshua.

Yahweh is coming in power, and in judgment on Canaan.

Everyone has heard what he is doing, and understands why he is doing it.

The question is, how will you respond?

What will you do when you hear?

What I'd like to do is read the verses where this theme has popped up so far.

Joshua 2:9, Rahab's speech as a citizen of Jericho: (ESV)

"I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you.

10 For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction.

Joshua 5:1-2 (ESV)

5 As soon as all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the people of Israel until they had crossed over, their hearts melted and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the people of Israel.

Last week, we worked through Joshua 9. There, AJ started the story like this, in verses 1-3:

(1) And then, as soon as the kings heard who were beyond the Jordan in the hill country and in the Shephelah and in all the coast of the great sea opposite of Lebanon--the Hittites and Amorites, the Canaanites the Perizzites the Hivites and the Jebusites-- (2) they gathered themselves together to fight with Joshua and with Israel with one accord,

(3) while the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho to Ai, (4) and they acted-- also they-- with wisdom/cunning,

Near the end of the story, when Joshua demands an explanation for why the Gibeonites deceived Joshua, we read this, in verse 24:

(24) And they answered Joshua,

and they said,

"Because it was certainly told in detail to your slaves/servants that Yahweh your God had commanded Moses his slave/servant to give to you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from your face/presence,"