March 25 - Joshua 10:1-12:6

Good morning everyone,

Today as we begin our reading, Adoni-Zedek the king of Jerusalem has heard a train a comin’ down the track; this train’s name … Israel. He’d discovered that Gibeon, an already powerful city, had worked an agreement with Joshua and alarmed by this, sent word to four of the neighboring kings to come up and help him attack Gibeon. Of course the Gibeonites sent to Joshua for help and with the Lord’s blessing Joshua marched his groups on an all-nighter to take them by surprise. The Lord threw the five king’s soldiers into a state of confusion allowing Joshua and his army a complete victory. Thus begins Joshua’s march to take over the whole land, devouring kingdom by kingdom.

Now some may read these chapters and wonder, “How is it that a God who says, ‘Thou shalt not kill’” equips the army of Israel to, kingdom by kingdom, attack and completely conquer, leaving no one alive; after all God did create them too, right? - I think to completely “get” what’s going on here we first have to always remember God’s plan is SO much bigger than ours. He sees all; thousands of years of the past and all of eternity while we can only see a very small time frame. Also, we need to remember that the Canaanites and other tribes in the land were ugly wicked people. They practiced child sacrifice, incest, bestiality, and other behaviors that you, that me, that almost everyone in history, including today, rightly regard as unspeakably, grossly immoral, sick (not the good kind) behavior. So, much the same as when God used Noah and the flood, after giving them 400 years to repent God knew these folks were not going to turn from their evil ways and it is with the army of Israel that the Lord swept through the land and cleaned house. 

I would be remiss if I did not mention Joshua’s prayer to the Lord, “Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon”, to allow him extra daylight to finish the task. Vs.13 reads, “So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies,as it is written in the Book of Jashar. The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.” First off … how awesome is that? I seriously want that much faith. Anyway, the book of Jashar is also mentioned in 2 Samuel and though unavailable to us, was a book well known to the people of those days. God saw fit to use this reference so we can believe it is true. 

While we all know that it is not the sun that moves, we can also know, without any doubt, by whatever miracle God chose to accomplish the task, on that day time stood still. We read in  Habakkuk 3:11 “Sun and moon stood still in the heavens at the glint of your flying arrows, at the lightning of your flashing spear. When we get to 2 Kings 20:11 we will read that at the request of Hezekiah, Isaiah called on the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow go back the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz. 

Joshua and Hezekiah both made colossal requests of the Lord, and God answered their prayers. The sun, moon, and stars obey the Creator who placed them in the sky by the power of His word. I ask you, if your God, our God can turn back time is there anything that He can not do for us? Matthew 19:26 “Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” All things are possible through God, great promise!! Mark 9:23 "Everything is possible for one who believes.” All we have to do is ask in faith and His will will be done. God loves us, He is always there for us and so much bigger than the box we tend to keep Him in.

Psalm 147:5 How great is our Lord! His power is absolute! His understanding is beyond comprehension! Amen?

I pray you all have a good day, to God be the glory.

God bless you all