Joshua 10:12-15 – History of the missing day

It’s a great thought to know that we never have to fight any battle in life alone. That’s why we have no need to lose any war against the opposing forces of life. When we learn to tap into the power of God that He has made available to us, we need not be defeated in a single score. Joshua 10:10-11, described for us how the Lord sent a barrage of hailstones and killed many from the opposing forces. So great was the destruction that it was said that more from the enemy’s camp were killed by the hailstones than those the Israelites had slain. Now in Joshua 10:12-14, we see yet another supernatural act in which God fought for His people. In all the record of miracles that had happened in the physical world, this is probably the greatest. God literally stopped the sun in the sky, extended the number of hours of daylight, so that Joshua and his people could finish the battle.

To those who refuse to believe God, this miracle is the butt of their jokes. They consider us believers to be simpletons for daring to believe in such a silly myth. To them, it’s ridiculous to think that the Bible is the inspired Word of God because science has long shown that the sun has all along been stationary and does not move. It is the earth that rotates around it. The daylight that shines through a different part of the earth is due to the rotation of the earth around the sun. The fact is this: what is described here is deploying the use of the language of observation. For example, when we speak of the morning at sunrise and evening at sunset. The sun in reality does not rise nor set. It has always been stationary. Scientifically speaking, the earth just miraculously stopped rotating for a duration. This gave the Israelites enough sunlight to finish the task of destroying the enemies.     

We need to know that in life God has set in motion a series of law to ensure order. And He normally operates by that norm. However, once in a while we do see God disrupting that norm and those moments we term as a miracle. It is an act of God’s grace. This miracle of “the sun that stood still” describes here has certainly violated the law of nature. That’s why it is called a miracle. We need to know that God governs the universe. He has created it and according to Hebrews 1:3, He upholds the universe by the word of His power. Besides, it is God who has given us the laws of nature. Thus, it is not impossible for this same God, who has created the universe, to do a little thing like that. The fact is that God supernaturally intervened on His people’s behalf so that they could finish what they had begun.

What is the implication of a passage like this? Well, it tells us that our God is a supernatural God. It tells us that He controls everything physical and spiritual, visible and invisible. This assures us that He can supernaturally arbitrate in the circumstances of our lives and bring about our deliverance when it seems humanly impossible to do so. Testimonies of divine interventions exist. God can move in ways that seem humanly impossible. Know that God specializes in situations when our wit ends. Remember next time when we come to the end of the line, that’s when we are ready for God's miracle to begin. We are blessed indeed!

Joshua 10:6-11 – God is with us in our battles

In these verses, we see Joshua and the people of Israel honoring their words. By reason of the treaty they had signed with the Gibeonites, they were obliged to assist them from the coalition of the five Canaanite kings, who had arisen against them. In verse 8, God came to give Joshua the assurance of His help and victory. He Himself was going to fight for His people. Beloved, the truth of the matter is this: in our battles, God wants to be there to help and fight with us. If we let Him, He will move into our circumstances and battle on our behalf. There are three experiences we will encounter when He fights for us.

Firstly, we will experience His peace. In verse 8, God came and assured Joshua telling him not to fear for He would be with him in the battle to grant him the victory. This is by way of saying that He had Joshua’s back covered. And that He is in control of the situation. Whatever circumstances we may be encountering today, the Lord is in control. He has never vacated the throne. He promised that His peace will garrison our heart and mind, and keep us with that peace in our battles. There is no cause for us to worry or be anxious. We must learn to rest in His peace.

Secondly, we learn to rest in His promise. He told them not to fear. He also gave them the promise of absolute victory. It is never the intention of God, who after He has rescued us, to leave us languishing in defeat. The situation in life will not always work out the way we want it to work out. But regardless of what we may go through, God will enable us to live above the circumstances and experience victory over the flesh, the world, and the devil.  

Thirdly, in verses 9-11, we see God’s demonstration of supernatural power. Naturally speaking, the coalition of forces should have enough manpower to fight Joshua and his men. But the Israelites had God behind them. So, in verse 9, we are told that God threw the enemy into panic as the Israelites confronted them. To ensure that they could not escape as they fled from the Israelites, God released a barrage of hailstones from heaven to destroy the enemy. Verse 11 tells us that more of the enemies died from the crushing hailstones than at the hand of the Israelites. This is to say that God slew them supernaturally.  

Here are some lessons when we encounter tough circumstances in life. When we abandon ourselves and wholly trust the Lord, He gives us peace that no one in the world can ever give. We can be assured that God will keep His promise and every single word of His will be brought to its fruition and accomplish His purpose. As we trust Him, be prepared to see Him work out the situation in ways that surpass human capability.  Our victory in the Lord is always assured if we faint not. Praise the Lord and all glory to Him

Joshua 10:1-5 – Think carefully before we act

We are told that Gibeon was not a small city. It was, in fact, greater than the city of Ai and had great warriors. Hence, the coalition of five kings, namely Adoni-Zedek of Jerusalem, Hoham of Hebron, Piram of Jarmuth, Japhia of Lachish and Debir of Eglon, regarded Gibeon as a traitor city. Her defection to Israel stirred up animosity from these five kings. To them, they had lost a powerful ally. In chapter 9 we saw how it all happened. The Gibeonites through deceptive means duped Joshua into signing a peace treaty with them. The mistake Joshua made was that he was too hasty to make a pact with Gibeon, without checking the facts the Gibeonites gave to him concerning where they came from. The impression they gave to Joshua was that they came from a faraway country when in fact they were located nearby. The lesson for our spiritual journey is that we should always make sure before we make an important decision. Always check with God’s Word to make sure we don’t violate any instruction given by the Lord. When we are uncertain of God’s will, it would do us no harm to wait. It is better to err and being right with our delay, than to make a serious error in timing by jumping into something that will burden us needlessly for life.

Joshua 10:1-5 give us an account of the five kings of Canaan forming a coalition force to come against Gibeon because of her peace treaty with Israel. In Adoni-Zedek, the king of Jerusalem, we see a person of strong influence. Here we learn that a person with character and charisma can lead others into an irrational and needless conflict. It behooves us to be careful who we are being influenced by in our journey with God. However, the one positive thing we learn from the foolish actions of this coalition of the kings is that they had unwittingly played into the hand of Joshua. For instead of fighting five times to defeat five enemies, he could now finish all five off in one battle.

But from Israel, we learn what burden one will need to bear by making one wrong move in life, by wrongly entering into a pact with the Gibeonites, they now had to fight needless battles that they could avoid. For they had to make good their promise to help the Gibeonites because they were their allies. There is a lesson here. If we enter into a needless alliance, we have adopted an excess baggage. And we may have to bear that burden for life. Hence, be careful with the decision we make so that we will not have to bear a burden for the rest of life. 

Joshua 9:22-27 – Don’t be afraid to confront our sin

None of us need to hide from God or stay away from the church because of our failure. The devil’s strategy is to implant false belief into our mind, make us think that we are unforgivable and then to hide away from God and stay away from the church. He makes us feel guilty, condemned and shameful. We often behave as if God is not all-knowing. The fact remains that God knows everything about us. He is not shocked by anything we do, but He does expect us to be honest, confess, change and align with Him. None of us can catch God on the wrong foot. There won’t be a moment where He will be surprised by our wrongful step. We can confront our wrong and make the needful amendments. That’s what Joshua did.

In Joshua 9:22, we see Joshua confronting the Gibeonites. The moment he realized that he and Israel had made the mistake and were duped into signing a treaty with the Gibeonites, he went straight to them. Without hesitation, he faced them head-on. In so doing he refused to be further manipulated. This is an example for us to adopt. We need to confront our moral failings and not give the devil further avenue to twist and turn us. When we ignore our sin and not repent from it, the devil will hold us to it and continue to mold and make us conform to his will. We must emulate the example of our Lord and must confront him with the truth of the Word. And when we do that, he won’t be able to complete his sinister work in us. A lesson we can learn from Joshua 9:22 is not to run away from our failure but to confront and deal with it honestly.  

There is no doubt that Joshua and Israel had made a serious mistake when they entered into a treaty with the Gibeonites. But Joshua did not allow it to ruin their conquest. Like them, we also need to know that a mistake, even if it is a serious one, doesn’t necessarily spell our ruin forever. However, it does mean that we need to seriously deal with it and take steps to ensure that we are controlling the damage. Aware of it or not, all problems in life but not all difficulties. We often have to live with the difficulties we have unwittingly created in life. Joshua, in making a treaty with the Gibeonites, had created a difficulty for themselves, hence Israel had to live with it. They could not destroy them but they could control them. There will be a time in our walk with God that we find ourselves walking out of step with His will and sin. The truth is that we don’t have to be bound by it. We can come before the Lord, confess, repent and then do something to control the damage.

The good news about the spiritual battles we are engaged in is that we are fighting from victory ground. We may lose some battles in life but know for sure that the war is already won. Jesus had already secured that victory for us at Calvary. All we need is to apply the finished work of the cross to our defeat. According to 1 John 2:1, the desire of God is that we will not stumble. He knows that we will stumble in our journey even as we seek to thwart off the scheme of the enemy. So, the Lord's assurance is that if we fail, we have an advocate with the Father. Jesus is our atoning sacrifice and he has already appeased the wrath of God for us at Calvary. So then when we confess our sin, God is faithful and just and will forgive our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). There is forgiveness when we repent.

Verse 27 tells us what Israel did with the Gibeonites. They were made to chop wood and carry water for the Tabernacle of God. Joshua turned the mistake, exploited it and used it for the glory of God. In 2 Samuel 21:2-6, we can see that these Gibeonites made their peace with God and were absorbed into the nation of Israel. It was a case of an error make good for the glory of God. The plan of the devil was to defeat and destroy us but God can turn it for good if we let Him. This is not an attempt to glamorize sin. The point made here is this: We don’t have to be defeated by the mistake or downright sin we have committed. God had the grace to help us deal with it. And like Paul, by God’s grace, we can be made perfect in our weakness. Whatever failing we may have because we give into the flesh, the world or the devil, we need not live with the failure. We can deal with it and re-chart our course. And continue on the glorious journey with God!

Joshua 9:16-21 – Be careful who we invite into our life

Earlier in a dialogue between the Gibeonites and Joshua, recorded in Joshua 9:8-9, we can see that he was skeptical about their story. For his first two questions on hearing their account were “Who are you? And where do you come from?” But the mistake he made was to believe them so easily without checking. Unwittingly, Israel was hoodwinked by their story that they came from a distant land. They told Joshua that they came because of the name of the Lord their God. When shown the clothes, food and broken wineskins, Joshua believed their story without further investigation. The Gibeonites had deceitfully used the name of the Lord God. This could result because Israel failed to seek the counsel of the Lord. We know this because Joshua 9:14-15 said, “So the men (of Israel) took some of their provisions, but did not ask counsel from the Lord. And Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them, to let them live, and the leaders of the congregation swore to them.” When they came to their senses it was too late to reverse. They were three days late. They learned that the Gibeonites were, in fact, people from nearby. We get a sense here that our enemy is always lurking nearby our life. In our day, people are talking about a new morality, which in fact is just the bad, old immorality.  

Another observation we make is that people still use the name of the Lord to deceive and to achieve their own end. From this account, we should learn not to fall so easily to all claims that are purported to come from the Lord. We should check everything we have heard with the Word of God. One of the devil’s tricks is to blur the line of truth for us. If we neglect the Word of God and prayer, we will become more susceptible to the tricks and traps of the enemy. This underscores the necessity for us to be diligent, to stay connected with God through careful investigation of the Word and through prayer.   

In Deuteronomy 7:2, God through Moses had already told Israel that “…when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.” Yet in Joshua 9, they unperceptively entered into a treaty with the Gibeonites. This had resulted in their inability to stay undisrupted in living a wholly set apart life, totally consecrated to the Lord. This is an example for us to be prudent and selective who we run with. It is true that “if we run with a skunk, we will smell like the skunk.” When we enter into an unwholesome alliance with the enemy, we will be handicapped and prevented to live as devoted to the Lord as we would have desired. Be selective and discerning who you choose to invite to run with in life. A wrong decision made could mean bearing a lifelong burden. Take seriously the warning of Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:33. He warns us saying, “Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company ruins good morals.’”  

Joshua 9:3-15 – Be watchful and uncompromising

Like it or not, our conversion brings conflicts into life. We find ourselves battling with the world, the flesh or our carnal nature and the devil. This is illustrated by the conflicts that Joshua and Israel had in Canaan, their promised land. Immediately on entering Canaan, the first battle they had was with Jericho which is a type of the world. Jericho was a formidable and well-fortified city. But with an unusual strategy given by God, they defeated the city and the wall came tumbling down. Similarly, if we trust God and His word, we have the wherewithal to ably deal with worldly values. The next battle they had was with a small but pesky city, known as Ai. This city is a type of the flesh. They were defeated by it in their first attempt to capture it. They failed because they were over-confident and had underestimated Ai. There was an issue of a hidden greed that was in the camp. The guy, Achan serves as an illustration of fleshy greed that needed to be dealt with in our life if we are to experience victory in our battle. It was only after they dealt with and removed Achan that they overcame the city. It underscores for us the necessity to deal with our flesh, our carnal nature if we are to experience a victorious walk with God.

In Joshua 9, we come to the third foe that Israel had to fight. It is the Gibeonites. They represent the devil and his cohorts of demons. These enemies are probably the hardest to contend with in our spiritual journey. They are full of trickeries and deception. The history of the fall of mankind tells us that deception was the very method that Satan deployed to trap and cause Eve to fall. The Bible tells us that Eve was beguiled and she succumbed and took the bait dangled before her by Satan, using the serpent. Here in Joshua 9, we are introduced to the deception of the Gibeonites. They knew that it was not easy to defeat Israel because they had the backing of God. And the only way for them to penetrate the camp of Israel and get them was to resort to deception.  

Israel was already warned by Moses not to enter into an alliance with any of the forces when they came into the promised land. So, verse 4 reveals that the Gibeonites acted craftily in order to penetrate the camp of Israel. What did they do?  The made Israel compromise with them. The moment Joshua and the Israelites entered into a treaty with them, they were bound and trapped by the treaty and had to live with the Gibeonites.

The first strategy the Gibeonites used was deception. Verses 4-6 tell us that they “…acted craftily and set out as envoys, and took worn-out sacks on their donkeys, and wineskins worn-out and torn and mended, and worn-out and patched sandals on their feet and worn-out clothes on themselves; and all the bread of their provision was dry and had become crumbled.”  They went to Joshua to the camp at Gilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel, “We have come from a far country; now, therefore, make a covenant with us.” Verse 4 shows us that they resorted to deceitful wiles; verses 4-5 show us that they resorted to deceitful wares; and verses 6,9, 11-13, reveal that they resorted to deceitful words. The combination of all these three was used to ensnare the people of Israel. These are the devil’s strategies to lure us into complacency, confuse us by twisting the instruction of God and bait us into compromising with the Word of God.  

The trickeries of the Gibeonites remind us of the strategies Satan would deploy to stumble us in our relationship with God. We must stay alert for the purpose of prayer. That’s why we must be sober-minded and watchful. The devil wants to get us down. He is in the business of plotting the downfall of our life, our family, our testimony and even our church. Therefore, we must be watchful and not play into his hand. Verse 14 gives us the reason Joshua and Israel fell prey to the Gibeonites. We are told that “they did not ask counsel of the Lord.” Foolish act! Gullibly they accepted the deceitful scheme of the Gibeonites, entered into a live treaty and ended up living in compromise. The advice of Paul in Ephesians 6:18 is for us to keep ^“praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.…” This we must do so that we will not fall prey to the deceitful scheme of the evil one. Be watchful!

Joshua 9:1-2 - The battles ahead

Joshua 9:1-2 tell us that all the forces in the promised land literally ganged up against Israel.  We are told that “…all the kings who were beyond the Jordan, in the hill country and in the lowland and on all the coast of the Great Sea toward Lebanon, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard of it, that they gathered themselves together with one accord to fight with Joshua and with Israel.” They were now facing a formidable collision of forces. Like them, when we become a Christian, we find that we have to face a collision of opposing forces of life.

Joshua and the people of Israel in their conquest of the promised land leave us with ample illustrations on what our Christian journey is like. In studying their conflicts, we will discover the conflicts we have to face in our journey and what we can do to be victorious and effective. Like them, Christian living is a privileged journey with God but not an easy one. It is one that is filled with conflicts. Crossing into Canaan, their promised land, was just the beginning. And to possess the land they had to enter into many battles with the different forces within it. Isn’t this also a true moment for us Christians? The moment we become a Christian, we are given the privilege of journeying with God. But we are also thrust into our spiritual battleground. We not only have to fight the world, but we also need to contend with our carnal nature as well as the devil.

To harness our life and to live it fully for God, we have to contend and successfully dismantle the strategy of the devil and his cohorts, the system of the world and our own carnal nature. If we fail to come to our spiritual journey with a proper perspective, we will become confused and rendered ineffective in life. We are all accustomed to our old life style. But now we need to have a total transformation. Know for sure that if we want to experience continual victorious walk, we need to battle the devil, the world and our old nature.  

In Joshua and the people of Israel’s conquest of the two cities, we see a picture of our life as God’s children. Jericho is a type of the world that they had to overcome and they overcame. Ai is a type of the flesh which they, by the help of God, dealt with. If we are to overcome our flesh, our carnal nature, we also need the help of God. The next city would be Gibeon. This is a type of the devil. And we shall discuss in our next few reflections. We will explore how to deal with the trickeries of the devil so as not to fall for his deception. Yes, be sure to stay alert, for the enemy prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Be warned!