Believing in God and Believing God

INTRO

While we’re in the book of Joshua, we’ll have two chapters to consider each day. That creates a small inner turmoil for me, because it means each day I have to decide which chapter to teach on. The historical books feel like constant ongoing action. Chapter 9 opens with six people groups who formed an alliance against Joshua and the Israelites. However, the Gibeonites tried to deceive the Israelites by looking like meek and poor foreigners. Israel bought into this deception and made peace (vv. 1–15). Three days later, the Israelites found out the Gibeonites were their neighbors, not foreigners, and realized the Gibeonites had deceived them. The Israelites felt they couldn’t kill the Gibeonites as their enemies because of the peace between them, so they allowed them to live. The Gibeonites became the woodcutters and water carriers for the Israelite community (vv. 16–27).

TEACHING

Joshua 10:1–5: This is the first reference to Jerusalem in Scripture (v. 1). Constable explains that according to information recorded in the Amarna letters between 1406 and 1340 B.C., “Jerusalem was the center of political activity in the fourteenth century B.C. and was always conscious of its own security.”¹The name “Jerusalem” meant “The Founding or Possession of Peace.”²In this case, the king of Jerusalem was trying to figure out how to keep the city safe, and he became angry that the city of Gibeon had sought safety from the Israelites, basically pulling out of the alliance that had been formed against the Israelites (v. 2). King Adoni-zedek, who was not a good guy, sent for the other kings in the alliance for support in fighting the Gibeonites (vv. 3–4). Nelson’s Commentary states that these five kings made “political and military calculations” to determine how they could take the large city of Gibeon with its large numbers of warriors.³This coalition of kings from Canaanite (or Amorites) besieged the city of Gibeon (v. 5).

If you keep up with what’s going on in the Middle East today, you’ll see this same pattern continues as each country tries to gain the support of another nation so they will have more power and influence. It’s the common theme of what happens there. And when the anti-Christ comes into play, Israel will be totally deceived. But that also means that the Messiah is coming! There’s this crazy foreshadow here of what we see today.

John 10:6–8: The Gibeonites called out to Joshua for help (v. 6). Joshua and the Israelites’ entire fighting force came from Gilgal (v. 7). Wiersbe notes there are three “calls” for help in this passage: (1) Adoni-zedek called the other kings for help against the Gibeonites; (2) the Gibeonites called out to Joshua for help against this coalition; and (3) Joshua called out to the Lord.⁴God promised, no one would be able to stand against them (v. 8) and Joshua believed God (Romans 14:23; 10:17). The more we listen to the Holy Spirit, the more we are able to walk out our faith.

Wiersbe points out that “because they believed God’s promises and knew that the victory was assured,” they marched at night for a surprise attack on the coalition.⁵The Israelites’ journey was twenty-miles long and up steep terrain,⁶but they moved quickly because of their trust in God’s promises (v. 9). One of Israel’s prime ministers said, “We don’t believe in miracles; we depend upon them.” Joshua caught the coalition by surprise, and God threw their enemy into confusion, defeating them, chasing them, and raining down hail upon them. More died from God’s hailstones than from the sword (vv. 10–11). I always wonder why none of the Israelites were struck by the hailstones.

Joshua 10:12–15: Joshua prayed before the people of Israel of God’s might in the battle, asking that the sun stand still and the moon stop (vv. 12–13a). His prayer was confirmed in the Book of Jasher (v. 13b), which has not survived, and is mentioned in 2 Samuel 1:18.⁷How did these miracles happen? Nelson’s Commentary proposes three possibilities: (1) Since the sun doesn’t actually move, some suggest God stopped the rotation of the earth; (2) some suggest “God caused an unusual refraction of light in the earth’s atmosphere that caused the sun to remain visible” for a longer period of time than normal; and (3) some suggest Joshua’s prayer was actually for the sun to stop rather than stand still to keep the sun off his exhausted soldiers.⁸Regardless of how you view this, God responded to a man’s prayer by using His power over His creation to change nature’s action at the precise moment it was needed.⁹Verse 14 says, “The Lord listened to the voice of a man, because the Lord fought for Israel.” Joshua and his men returned to Gilgal with the Lord (v. 15).

Joshua 10:16–21: The defeated kings fled and hid in a cave. When Joshua found out where they were, he told his men to roll large stones in front of the cave and place guards outside it. The rest of his men were told to keep fighting, pursuing and attacking the enemy until they were destroyed. However, a few survivors escaped and hid in some of the fortified cities. This is important because they didn’t complete what they were supposed to do, and this will impact things to come later in the book of Joshua.

Joshua 10:22–28: Then Joshua had the kings brought out of the cave, and Joshua had his military commanders put their feet on the necks of the kings (Psalm 8:6; 110:1; 1 Corinthians 10:15). Joshua encouraged his commanders because this had been the Lord’s work. Then the kings were executed and hung on five trees. In the evening, their bodies were taken down and sealed again inside the cave. On the same day, Joshua also captured the city of Makkedah and executed its king as well.

We keep talking about the stones because they provide reminders of what has happened along the journey.

CLOSING

Joshua didn’t just believe in God, but he believed God and acted on that belief.