Joshua 10:6-15 KJV And the men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to the camp to Gilgal, saying, Slack not thy hand from thy servants; come up to us quickly, and save us, and help us: for all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the mountains are gathered together against us. [7] So Joshua ascended from Gilgal, he, and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valour. [8] And the LORD said unto Joshua, Fear them not: for I have delivered them into thine hand; there shall not a man of them stand before thee. [9] Joshua therefore came unto them suddenly, and went up from Gilgal all night. [10] And the LORD discomfited them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goeth up to Bethhoron, and smote them to Azekah, and unto Makkedah. [11] And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Bethhoron, that the LORD cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died: they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword. [12] Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. [13] And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. [14] And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel. [15] And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal.
I. INTRODUCTION—THE SETTING OF THE TEXT
-The background behind this passage that we have read is one of where the city of Gibeon is under siege from five kings of the surrounding area. All of these kings, Adonizedek (Jerusalem), Hoham (Hebron), Piram (Jarmuth), Japhia (Lachish), and Debir (Eglon), have watched Joshua and the Israelites take over Jericho and Ai.
-As the battles continued and Israel pressed her way into the land of Canaan, these kings notice that the Gibeonites have made an alliance with Joshua and because Gibeon is a great city, they decide they will take it so that Joshua will not get it.
-When they came to the city, as was common in the ancient times, they would surround the city and then start to barter and bargain with the people inside. They would literally shut off all outward resources that might have been coming into the city and they would close off those who were exporting goods out of the city. The siege could become very taxing on the people.
-So facing their dilemma the men of Gibeah made an appeal to Joshua:
Joshua 10:6 KJV And the men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to the camp to Gilgal, saying, Slack not thy hand from thy servants; come up to us quickly, and save us, and help us: for all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the mountains are gathered together against us.
-The story behind all of how Joshua responded will give a focus for this message. As it turns out, Joshua on that day experienced a great victory.
-There are some faith building and inspiring lessons that come from this miracle.
II. LESSONS FROM THE TEXT
A. It Takes a Warrior Mentality.
-The first lesson comes from Joshua 10:6-7.
Joshua 10:6-7 KJV And the men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to the camp to Gilgal, saying, Slack not thy hand from thy servants; come up to us quickly, and save us, and help us: for all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the mountains are gathered together against us. [7] So Joshua ascended from Gilgal, he, and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valour.
-With the threat from the intruders, Joshua determined that he would be a warrior. Any victory that comes to us in our spiritual lives will be accomplished because of the fight that is in us. Some might argue that after you get the Holy Ghost that the fight is over. This is not accurate especially when one looks to the Bible.
• 2 Corinthians 10:3 . . . . we do not war after the flesh:
• 1 Timothy 1:18 . . . that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;
• 1 Timothy 6:12. . . Fight the good fight of faith. . .
• Ephesians 6:12 . . . For we wrestle not against flesh and blood. . .
• 1 Peter 5:8 . . . Be sober, be vigilant. . .
1. The Roman Centurion
-The apostles wrote all of these things with an eye on Roman soldiers and centurions that they had seen in their day.
-The historical records give us an idea about a Roman centurion and what he was willing to do to hold his rank. He wasn’t a weakling, he was a man!
• He was only promoted after spending at least 16 years of combat service.
• He was able to carry 90 pounds of equipment at least 20 miles a day and train under harsh conditions.
• He was required to equip himself at his own expense and pay for his own food, clothing, bedding, boots, arms, armor, and pay dues to the burial club.
• He was a skilled engineer and builder in addition to his excellent fighting skills.
• He was in charge of his 100 man strong century and was responsible for their welfare.
• He had to enlist for 25 years and at the end was given a lump sum of money and a small piece of land to work.
• He knew that death was the penalty for fleeing during battle or feigning an illness to avoid battle.
-Joshua gives us an indication that this is the kind of man that he was when he heard the threats that came from these five kings. He was willing to give himself to the fight and overcome the enemy.
-Joshua has the mentality of a warrior in all of this because he understands that he is carrying out the will of someone who is greater. The force of the fight on the inside of Joshua pressed him to clean out the whole lot of the enemies attempting to overtake Gibeah.
-Joshua realized it was the will of God for him to have victory in the battle. Victory is the will of God but at some point in your life there has to be a time that you realize that the will of God is get up and fight. If you are going to have a 25th hour miracle it is going to take a fight!
-Victory can never come when we are lying down. We are compelled to get up out of our spiritual La-Z-Boy and battle it out. Somewhere that warrior mentality has to awaken in your soul.
• I have been pushed around long enough!
• I have been at the mercy of my whims long enough!
• The devil has pushed me around long enough!
• I have let my long tongue of gossip destroy too many, I am taking contol!
• My pride has kept me from being a worshipper long enough!
• My anger has harnessed me long enough!
• My selfishness has kept me uninvolved long enough!
• I have let my judgmental, legalistic spirit hold me up too long, I am for fighting now!
• I am tired of my envy filling me with jealousy, I am fighting it out!
• I have let my greed shut down my giving long enough!
• My moods have taken me captive for the last time!
• I have been choked down by my half-hearted efforts long enough!
• I have given in to spiritual laziness long enough!
• My self-pity has paralyzed me far too long!
• My besetting sins have ruled long enough!
• Enough is enough!
-It’s time to get up and fight and let the Lord take care of the battle. If you can ever get engaged in the battle you will find out it that it isn’t your battle anyway. . . It belongs to the Lord!
1 Samuel 17:47 KJV And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the LORD'S, and he will give you into our hands.
-If a man can ever get in his mind that the battles on the outside and the one raging on the inside belongs to God, it will change the whole outlook. David knocked down Goliath but only after he had won the battle within himself and the one with his brother (Eliab) and the one with the king (Saul). But that brought a series of victory to his life.
-If you can ever become a warrior in the Kingdom of God it will turn you around and you will look back at the course of history and see that there have been victories after victories that have been fulfilled.
-Just notice the completeness of the battle on that single day for Joshua.
• In the early morning, a slaughter on the plain of Gibeah (10:10).
• Havoc produced by hail and Joshua’s pursuit of the fleeing armies (10:10).
• Destruction as Joshua followed them to their own cities (10:10).
• The day ended with the execution of the kings (10:18-19).
• Their cities were sacked (10:40).
-That same thing can happen in your life if you can ever wake up the spiritual warrior that is on the inside. It is a battle for freedom, purity, overcoming spiritual terrorism, and all corruption of spirit. Even if it takes getting down in the dust and fighting and raging against the complacency and apathy of spirit that wants to put you to sleep while everything opposed to God rules your spirit! This is what it takes to have a 25th hour miracle!
-When a man is fighting it out in the Spirit one of the great temptations is to be lenient.
• We just finished the prayer revival and I feel great, I can coast a bit.
• We have been enjoying some wonderful, powerful weekends I can catch my breath a bit.
• I have just come off this fast and I can wait a while before I do it again.
-That is NOT a warrior mentality. You must have the courage to slay those tendencies. You must gain some perseverance and fight on.
-It is also important to know that every person you meet has their own battles that they have to battle out. There isn’t a single person who is spiritual that is not enduring a battle on some front.
-We may not see our enemies crushed by hailstones or the sun standing still in Gibeah or the moon arrested in the valley of Ajalon. . . but what we will see is spiritual men raised up in this church.
-The tide of the Spirit overcoming low levels of spiritual mediocrity and complacency. Jericho’s’ will be dismantled, Ai’s’ captured, and champions of evil having their backs and necks broken. There has to be a revival of faith!
B. Overcoming the Time Factor.
-See how this text is opening up our spiritual lives?
• If the first lesson is that we have to get a warrior mentality.
• The second lesson is that we have to overcome the time factor.
-If ever there was a generation that was conscious of time, it is this one. The majority of us are slaves to the clock and we work feverishly and desperately trying to beat the clock. Up early and then up late and fall into the bed and in 25.4 seconds become comatose and sleep for a few hours and take off again.
-Every person who is somewhat conscious about doing something with their life has felt the constricting tentacles of the clock in their efforts to do well. Time becomes more important than money.
J. T. Pugh—Time is the coin of life. Don’t let a fool spend it for you.
-Somewhere along the way we pick up some ideas about how to save time, only to discover that we may need more of it because we have sorely underestimated deadlines and our procrastination has gotten the better of us.
-This is probably one of the things that ran through Joshua’s mind on that day he was fighting five kings. He had much to do but not enough time to do it. One of the things that we find is that Joshua travelled a 3 days journey in a single night. That is how you get a 25th hour miracle!
Joshua 10:9 KJV Joshua therefore came unto them suddenly, and went up from Gilgal all night.
-The distance is about 27 miles which for an army would have been stretched out over 3 days. But Joshua was pressured and had to get there quickly because Gibeah was under siege.
-Have you ever been summoned to a siege and you had no idea how it was going to turn out?
-Joshua had no idea what kind of victory was waiting for him. In fact he probably was somewhat anticipating the idea that they may be getting in over their heads.
-While they were travelling through that long night, God was preparing to stretch out their day! They just did not know it. Isn’t that how it is when you are fighting through the night shifts of the heart; the night seasons of the spirit?
• Nights of nothing.
• Nights of disappointed hope.
• Nights of toil in the same setting.
• Nights on the deep.
• Nights that faith flounders.
• Nights where it seems all hope is gone.
• Nights of pain.
• Nights of separation.
• Nights of mistrust.
• Nights of failure.
• Nights of longing for a better tomorrow.
• Nights of wasted effort.
-Those nights can seem so destructive to our faith. Sometimes it seems like they are endless. But the secret of a long day is that you stretch your night!
Psalms 30:5 KJV. . . weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
-Don’t waste your nights!
Pray, work, worship, give, love, desire, pursue, teach, encourage, and so forth through your night.
-The longest day in your life is when you work the hardest, think the clearest, and live the noblest. The longest day is usually your best day. It is also the difference between getting a 25th hour miracle and nothing happening at all!
-When you let God manage the clock, you suddenly get into a place that results are going to happen.
• Hailstorms were about to get in league with Joshua.
• The Sun stopping in its tracks was about to take place.
• The Moon altering its pattern for God’s plan.
-All of these things in themselves could be touted as natural disasters but God was going to use nature to work out something in His time frame.
• What looked like a storm was deliverance.
• What looked like the world stopping was victory.
• What looked like a failure in space was the key to their dilemma.
-God is never on our time frame. He isn’t bothered by our overloaded, overcommitted schedules. He just wants faithfulness more than spiritual workaholics.
-Consider for a moment that the sun that we saw rise this morning and the moon we saw last night was the same sun and moon that Joshua spoke to thousands of years ago. So serve the Lord with all your might and He will stop the sun and the moon in their course and you will do a work greater than you imagine, or dream, or even desire. And yet consider this verse. . .
Joshua 10:14 KJV And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel.
-Nowhere in the text does it say the Lord stopped the sun or moon, it only says that the Lord listened to the voice of a man and that he fought for Israel.
-Get in the warrior mindset and God will stop nature for you and help you destroy your enemies!
C. You Have to Believe God.
• If the first lesson is that we have to get a warrior mentality.
• If the second lesson is that we have to overcome the time factor.
• The third lesson is that we have to believe God no matter how outrageous it may seem.
-Far too often we have to listen to the so-called voices of “experience” that has something to say about what God can or cannot do. Our past experiences and our associations become contributing factors into how we perceive God.
-Your faith can never be judged by the standards of carnal reason.
Joshua 10:12 KJV Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.
• From a natural standpoint these words look like they belong to a mad man.
• From a spiritual standpoint these words look like they are full of spiritual pride and presumption.
-Somewhere in Joshua’s mind, he had to believe something that he had never seen come to pass. There are times that you will have to believe God can do it even if you have never seen it before! God can!
-Take a look at all the miracles in the Bible and the cold hard facts are that rarely are there any repeats. . . which means that when they showed up on the horizon, no one had ever seen them take place.
• A ninety-year old mother named Sarah.
• A burning bush that was never consumed.
• A dead rod that could turn into a serpent.
• A dead rod that would bud.
• Manna falling on the ground to which they asked, “What is it?” Even the quail that was a lustful craving.
• All of the plagues that confronted Pharoah.
• The miracle of a cloud covering and a pillar of fire. (Protection and guidance.)
• The water at Marah losing its bitterness and turning sweet.
• A talking donkey.
• The falling walls at Jericho.
• Gideon’s miracle with the pitchers, candles, and trumpets.
• Samson slaying lions, catching foxes, carrying off city gates, and picking up a donkey’s jawbone.
• Elijah shutting down the rain and being fed by ravens.
• Fire dropping from the heavens and the slaying of the prophets of Baal.
• Elisha’s flooded ditches and vessels being filled with oil and a dead boy coming back to life.
• Jesus healing the blind, the crippled, those with great issues in their lives, and so on.
• The list could go on. . .
-All of these miracles took place with desperate people who thought their day was over until God showed up in the 25th hour!
III. CONCLUSION—SOME NEED THE SUN TO STAND STILL. . .
-This house is filled with people who come in needy and open to the Spirit. There are difficulties beyond ability to describe in some cases. . . more than anything what is needed is a miracle in the 25th hour. . .
• Healing of bodies.
• Healing of minds.
• Salvation of souls.
• Pressure points that need some alleviation.
• Questions whose answers only can come from a divine source.
• Needs that will only be met because God has a storehouse big enough.
-There is a miracle in the 25th hour and God can stretch the day a whole lot further than you think or believe He can!
Philip Harrelson
