God Heeds Our Voice (Joshua 10:1-15) Series

Let's start today by simply rereading Joshua 10:1-11 (read it).

This brings us to verse 12. The easiest way to think about verses 12-15, is that AJ here hits the pause button on the story, because there's something else he wants to add. He could've talked about it earlier, in verses 1-11, but he wanted us to focus on Yahweh the Warrior. He wanted us to marvel at this picture of Yahweh throwing enormous hail stones from the heavens, killing thousands of men. He wanted us to think about how Yahweh is the More Powerful One-- more powerful than kings, more powerful than the army of Israel as a whole.

AJ knew that once we hear verse 12, we will lose all of that. And if he'd smooshed the two stories together, we'd find it impossible to revel in Yahweh the Warrior.

But what we are about to read is too cool to simply not include. It's too amazing. So AJ here adds it to the story.

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How we should understand the phrase, "Then/At that time... imperfect verb" is debated. Isaac Rabinowitz, "Az followed by imperfect verb-form in preterite contexts: a redactional device in biblical Hebrew" (VT 34:1, 54-62), argues that "the imperfect verb-form is used in these instances because the action is thought of as having taken place before the completion of, hence as incomplete relative to, the actions described in the preceding context. The construction is resorted to as an efficient means of causing a reader or hearer to regard the ensuing additional textual material as temporally (though not sequentially) linked the preceding textual statements, when the writer, editor or speaker does not wish to work in and to merge such additional material with that of the preceding text as given" (54).

Rabinowitz argues that this is a redactional use-- a clue that a later author is combining two sources-- but if we just stick with this summary, it works really well for a literary/narrative approach. AJ wants to tell this two different ways, separately.

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So. Verse 12, and I'll read through part of verse 13:

(12) At that time Joshua was speaking to Yahweh, on the day Yahweh gave the Amorites before the sons of Israel,

and he spoke before the eyes of Israel,

"Sun, at Gibeon, stand still!

and moon, at the valley of Ayalon,"

(13) and the sun stood still,

while the moon stood still until the nation took vengeance on its enemies.

So Joshua is pressing the attack, and the day is going great. But there's a problem-- there's not enough daylight in the day, to kill everyone who needs killing. These kings dared to attack Gibeon, and Gibeon is now part of Israel.

It's all part of Yahweh's one special, chosen nation. Anyone who dares to attack God's people deserves to die. Joshua's job is to take vengeance on them for their sinful, arrogant attack.

Now, every soldier who has ever been defeated in battle knows that the night is your friend. The darkness will let you hide; it will let you run away in relative safety. If you've lost, and you're running, you know that all you have to do, is hang on until dark.

Joshua sees all of this unfolding in front of him-- the attack is going well, but the day will be too short. Too many of these enemies, vulnerable outside of their fortified cities, are going to get away. So Joshua does something astonishing. In the full view, and hearing, of the Israelites, he commands the sun to stop moving.

And it stops! Many of you, maybe, get to verse 13, and you mutter to yourself, "No way." You say to yourself, "I have a scientific, Western mindset, and I don't have time for legends and myths. God either couldn't do this, or wouldn't. This is ridiculous."

AJ knows that his readers/hearers will hear these words, and some of them will struggle. Israelites weren't any less intelligent than you. They know that the sun doesn't just stop. So AJ reveals himself in verse 13, about as clearly as he does anywhere in his book. He writes this, next:

"Is it not written in the book of Yashar?

AJ knows some of you will struggle to believe him, so he points you to one of his sources, a well-known book called the book of Yashar. He says, "Go research this. I'm not making this up."

This book of Yashar turns up one other place in the OT, in 2 Samuel 1. Let's turn there, and start reading at verse 17 (ESV, modified spelling so it's Yashar, not Jashar):

17 And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and Jonathan his son, 18 and he said it[a] should be taught to the people of Judah; behold, it is written in the Book of Yashar.[b] He said: