Our God Is A Great Warrior (Joshua 10:1-11) Series

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 sequence.

In chapter 10, AJ bends the rules. The first 11 verses flow like we'd expect. And it's a good story. It will make us praise God, and make us think about how Yahweh is a Great 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 expecting a story being told in 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 local 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 had taken Ai and he had kheremed it, just as he had done 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 greatly,

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

and (B) because it [was] greater than Ai, with all its men 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 Lachish and to Devir king of Eglon, saying,

"Come up to me,

and help me,

and we shall strike Gibeon

because it made peace with Joshua and with 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 Lachish, 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/army 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 war with him-- and all great warriors--

(8) and Yahweh said to Joshua,

"May you 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.

All night 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,