In Joshua 10 things really speed up. The conquest of the Amorites is complete and then Joshua and the people go into fast motion and conquer all of southern Canaan. To get to this point, though takes a lot of effort and God even works a miracle by elongating a day in order for their efforts to be complete.
For us as we seek to live a victorious life in Christ this stage could be seen as the getting into the flow. We’ve seen the initial victory at Jericho, followed by the tripping up of the flesh, the rededication to following God’s lead in destroying the flesh in ourselves and always seeking Him for direction no matter how innocuous the matter (the Gibeonites) or how confident we feel about our own abilities (Ai).
In this chapter we see how God uses even our mistakes to do His will in the battle for Gibeon that leads to the destruction of the Amorites, and then a string of successes in destroying the enemy and case by case following through with the Lord’s will. I think this chapter ought to be encouraging to us who wish to be transformed into God’s image and do His will and have dominion over sin and temptation in our lives.
Verses 1 - 2
Gibeon stands between Ai and Jerusalem. I’m sure Adoni-Zedek (means Lord of Righteousness) was thinking that now he had two threats to the north: Israel that had captured Ai, and now Gibeon that had joined forces with Israel. In reality it wasn’t really like that, the Gibeonites were vassals of Israel, but it was enough to get this tribal king to strike out, like a cornered animal.
Verses 3 - 5
Gibeon had to be punished for joining forces with Israel. The kings had to stop other cities from defecting and stop Gibeon from marching with Israel. All the cities were to the south southwest of Gibeon.
Verses 6 - 11
In a sense what we see here is God using the occasion of the blunder with Gibeon to goad Israel into doing what God had told them to do in the first place, and that is to destroy the Amorites. Instead of waiting and planning and strategizing, it was time to just jump in with both feet.
Sometimes that happens to us too. I would have liked lots of preparation and intelligence about what things were going to be like in Kenya for Margaret and me. Instead we just prayed that God would guide and fill our mouths when it was time. Then we just got in a Rent-A-Wreck car and when we arrived somewhere God came through. That’s not to say that you never prepare. In fact, we had spent out whole lives being prepared for that moment, though we didn’t know it before. But occasionally God has to sort of kick us out of the nest and show us that we can indeed fly under His power.
In verse 8 they have the specific promise of God that victory is theirs and that no one will be killed from the armies of Israel-that’s exactly what happened.
The march from Gilgal to Gibeon would ascend 3,300 feet! The march under darkness would have taken 8-10 hours covering a distance of about twenty miles. It’s another example of excellent military strategy coupled with divine intervention.
God does not tell us to check our minds at the door. We are thinking people who have talents. The key is to put those talents to work for the Lord and acknowledge God’s control in the situation.
The distance they traveled in chasing the Amorites is about 25 miles towards Makkedah.
It’s cool that more died by God’s hailstones than by the Israelite warriors. God really does win the victories. The Canaanites worship nature gods so they might have even thought that their own gods were fighting against them! They also worshipped the sun and the moon. Next we see how God even turned them against the Amorites.
Verses 12 - 15
Was there an actual extra day? It seems odd to think about. We know now that it would be almost impossible for the earth to stop in its rotation. It’s possible for the Hebrew word "stand still" to also mean "be silent." The alternate theory is that Joshua wanted optimum weather to continue the route of the enemy. Heat-exhausted troops don’t fight very well.
Though physically unlikely that the earth stopped spinning - it certainly is not out of God’s abilities. In fact, a slowing of the earth’s rotation by about 800 kph would create a 48 hour day. Another idea I suppose is that God just stopped time for a bit and allowed the men in this battle to keep on going.
Some ideas:
Suggested answers may be divided into three main categories:
1. Some form of refraction (bending) of the light from the sun and the moon. According to this view, God miraculously caused the sunlight and moonlight to continue in Canaan for ’about a whole day’. Supporters of this view point out:7
a. It was light that Joshua needed, not a slowing of the Earth.
b. God promised Noah that ’while the Earth remaineth...day and night shall not cease’ (Genesis 8:22). This could be seen to mean that God promised that the Earth would not stop rotating on its axis until the end of human history. (However, it would not seem to preclude a temporary slowing down of the Earth’s rotation.)
c. Some form of light refraction appears to have been what happened in the reign of Hezekiah when the shadow on Ahaz’s sundial retreated ten degrees (2 Kings 20:11)-an event that appears to have occurred only in the land of Palestine (2 Chronicles 32:31).
2. A wobble in the direction of the Earth’s axis of rotation.
This involves a precession8 of the axis of the Earth, wobbling slowly so as to trace an ’s’-shaped or circular path in the sky. Such an event could have made it appear to an observer that the sun and the moon were standing still, but need not have involved any actual slowing of the rotation of the Earth.
One suggestion was that this was caused by the orbits of the Earth and Mars being close together on this date.1 One problem is that these authors postulate an ancient orbit for Mars different from its present one, and there is no proof that this ever happened. Other suggested causes have included impacts of asteroids on the Earth.
3. A slowing of the Earth’s rotation.
According to this view, God caused the rotation of the Earth to slow down so that it made one full revolution in about 48 hours rather than 24. Simultaneously God stopped the cataclysmic effects that would have naturally occurred, such as monstrous tidal waves. Some people have objected to this on the erroneous assumption that, if the Earth slowed down, people and loose objects would fly off into space. In fact, the apparent centrifugal force (tending to throw things off the Earth) is only about one-three-hundredth of the gravitational force. If the Earth stopped rotating (whether suddenly or not), this outward ’force’ would cease and we would actually be held more firmly by gravity.
The Earth at the equator moves at about 1,600 km/h (1,000 mph). The velocity needed to escape from the Earth’s gravity is about 40,000 km/h (25,000 mph). If the Earth was spinning as fast as this, we would all fly off into space anyway, regardless of whether the Earth stopped suddenly or not!
What about the momentum of people and objects travelling at 1,600 km/h on the Earth? Answer: A car travelling at 100 km/h can be stopped comfortably for the occupants in a few seconds; something traveling at 1,600 km/h could stop comfortably for passengers in a few minutes.
This scenario need only imply that God slowed the rotation of the atmosphere, oceans, and Earth simultaneously to prevent any tidal-wave effect, and any heat build-up inside the Earth due to friction from still-rotating liquid layers of the Earth’s core. And after the long day was over, the whole process would need to start up again.
It is certainly not impossible for God to have done all this, despite representing a major interruption of the natural order of things with respect to the Earth set up by God in Genesis 1.
(from: http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v19/i3/longday.asp)
Verses 16 -21
Some of the enemy soldiers escaped but eventually they would be destroyed inside those cities.
Verses 22 - 27
Putting your feet on the neck of a king was an ancient way of showing you had conquered them. Joshua wants to show the people just how defeated the enemy really is. Do we know how defeated our enemy, Satan, really is?
Joshua essentially crucified the kings and took their bodies down so as not to defile the land (Deuteronomy 21:23)
Verses 28 - 43
Joshua’s strategy was basically to cut through the middle of the land, capture the southern cities in the hill country, and then as we’ll see in chapter 11, conquer the northern cities.
Notice one thing here. The phrase "he left none remaining." Joshua and his men here are totally obeying the Lord in wiping out the enemy. No more missteps like at Jericho which led to the Ai debacle. No more mistaken identities like at Gibeon. This is a total route.
Lessons
God can actually triumph from your mistakes
I know that seems contrary. We think that when we make a mistake God has to come over and get out the broom or the mop and clean up our mess, scold us a little, then tell us the right way to do things.
As we see here, though Israel made a big mistake by making a treaty with Gibeon, God uses it as an excuse to destroy his enemies. Don’t make mistakes purposefully, but realize that God indeed causes ALL things to work together for the good to those who love Him and are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).
As you begin to really make a difference-and your effectiveness grows-the enemy will be aware of it.
They will see that you have taken major cities like Gibeon. You are no longer just reading your Bible and going to church and growing in your faith. You are now beginning to see victories over the world in your life and are leading and encouraging others to consider faith in Jesus Christ.
Don’t be surprised if our enemy Satan launches some combined attacks against you. It might come in the form of circumstances or spiritual attack. When Margaret and I came back from Kenya we did not expect this to happen. But from right before we left and for a long period after we returned the enemy attacked us ruthlessly. It happened in circumstances and sickness and relatives getting terribly sick and even attacks against our relationship in really diabolical ways that wouldn’t normally happen.
Our promise needs to be the same as that which God gave Joshua: "Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands. Not a man of them shall stand before you." We need to go on the attack: in prayer and with the promises of God’s Word-not letting the enemy get away with it. Know this, that God will strike a panic in the enemy camp and will do greater damage (hailstones) than you can!
Put your feet on the necks of your enemies. What are defeated foes in our lives? Sin, death, the flesh, the world, obstacles against the gospel, obstacles against our personal relationship with God.
Don’t let your mistakes nor a seemingly strong enemy deter you. God is bigger than your mistakes and bigger than any obstacle placed in the path of you becoming like Him and bringing others into His kingdom.
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