Joshua 10:1-15

Introduction

In Joshua 9, Israel is tricked into signing a covenant with the Gibeonites. Israel is culpable for this, since they did not seek the counsel of God. The people are rightfully upset with Joshua and the elders for making a hasty decision. But the leadership is careful to keep the Israelites from breaking their covenant. They instruct the people that even though they were tricked, they are still bound to their word and must protect the Gibeonites. The Israelites make the Gibeonites work for them, but they spare their lives.

In some ways, the covenant was still theory. They could send the Gibeonites back to their land and continue on their conquest mission. It's not like they would be living in the Israelites way just yet. Of course, God desired to use the covenant to ordain His purposes and calls the Israelites to honor it almost immediately.

Commentary

verses 1-2
Report gets back to Adoni-zedek and he is not pleased. This king of Jerusalem has received word that Jericho has fallen and that Ai was also destroyed. Of course, Israel has already wiped out Sihon and Og on the east side of the Jordan and now their success continues to the west.

News about the Gibeonites only adds to the problem. We are told that Gibeon was a great city, a royal city even. It was a greater city than Ai and all its men were mighty warriors. Not only does Adoni-zedek lose the Gibeonite army as a potential ally, he may now have to fight against them.

It is important to see that his response to the information is fear. It is not hard to picture the inhabitants of Jericho shutting themselves within the walls from fear. However, this text also tells us that some respond to fear by fighting. Adoni-zedek is not gathering an army to fight against the Israelites because he is confident of victory. To the contrary, he is terrified, but his fear motivates him to fight.

verses 3-5
Adoni-zedek sends word to the four other larger cities. He calls for their leadership to form an alliance with him to fight against the Gibeonites. Though their alliance with Israel is certainly his reason for wanting to fight, we are not told if he knew the fight would then extend to the Israelites. It appears that his action is aimed soley at the Gibeonites, for he is willing to gather, camp out and fight against them before the Israelites arrive. It is also noteworthy that none of the kings refused his request. They all aligned themselves in opposition to Israel.

verse 6
The Gibeonites immediately get word to Joshua. Their tone is desperate yet they do not ask for Israel's protection. "Do not abandon (literally, do not let your hands drop)," "come up quickly," "save us," and "help us" are all in the imperative form. The Gibeonites understand that they do not need to request Israel's aid, for their treaty obligates that Israel come to their defense.

verses 7-9
We are not sure of the exact timing of Adoni-zedek's attack, but once Joshua receives word, he is able to gather troops, march 15-20 miles with those troops and be ready to fight the next morning. During this time, the Lord again tells Joshua not to fear and encourages him that He will give the enemy into his hands. Joshua may have wondered if this battle was a judgement for entering a treaty with the Gibeonites, but God reassures him that this battle is an opportunity for God to show his provision to the Israelites. Because of Joshua's quick action and the encouragement of God's words, the Israelites are able to advance to Gibeon overnight. Even if Adoni-zedek had considered Israel's participation, certainly he did not expect it to happen so soon.

verses 10-11
God immediately begins to fulfill His promise to Joshua. Verse 10 lists four verbs that are all in the singular tense. God confounded the army. God slew them with a great slaughter. God pursued them as they fled. God struck them down. None of these verbs are attributed to Joshua or the Israelites. God alone gets the credit.

But God is not interested in simply protecting the Israelites in the battle. He is executing judgment upon these rebellious nations. Therefore, as the attacking army scatters, God pursues and strikes them with hailstones. Some of the deserters have fled up to 20 miles away, and yet the Lord finds them and eliminates them. In fact, so great is the Lord's work that more enemy men died as a result of hailstones than died at the edge of an Israeli sword.

verses 12-13
While these verses encapsulate one of the more famous works in the book of Joshua, there are some difficult details. There are textual questions as well as the overall question, "What happened that day?" Starting with the textual issues:

1. Who is quoted in verse 12?--At first glance, it appears that Joshua calls out "O sun, stand still..." However, the text says "Joshua spoke to the Lord" and later says "and he said." Could this "he" possibly be referring to God and not to Joshua? I believe it could for the following reasons:
a. Again, the construction is odd for the "he" to be referring to Joshua. It is just as possible that "he" is referring to God, to Whom Joshua was speaking. Of course, this is not enough evidence on its own, but coupled with...
b. Joshua speaks to the Lord, yet the quote is directed to the sun and moon. No portion of the quote is actually directed at God. Furthermore, Joshua would have no authority to command the sun and the moon.
It appears likely then, that Joshua called out to God for aid, and God commanded the sun and moon to stand still.

2. Just what is Jashar quoting?--"Is it not written in the book of Jashar?" could either refer to the portion of the verse preceding this statement or following it, but it is unlikely that it would be both. Either Jashar gives the detailed account or the summation of the events. However, the statements compliment one another, therefore it is not a critical issue to discern.

The other question that is asked, "What happened with the sun and moon?" There are a few options:

1. The sun and moon literally sat still.--Science tells us that the sun does not move in the sky but instead that the earth rotates. That the text says, "the sun stood still" should not trouble us, for even today we use such figurative language as sunset and sunrise. To make the sun and moon stop in their place, it would seem this would require the earth to stop spinning. Is this possible? I have no idea, but believe God is certainly capable of the impossible.

[Some have tried to verify that this did take place. There are urban legends in circulation about NASA using computers to calculate future positions for the earth. According to this legend, it is only after the data regarding Joshua and Hezekiah are entered into the computer that the computer program finally worked. Of course, there is not concrete evidence for the story. Also, the believer puts himself in a precarious position if he places too much stock in these stories. Honestly, if we believe the Lord caused the earth to stop, we should not depend on NASA to prove it correct or not.]

2. God made it look like the sun and moon stood still--God may have allowed the earth to continue rotating but could have allowed the sun and moons light to appear coming from a constant source. Whether refracted light or an additional light source fixed in the apparent location of the sun and moon (I'm not a scientist, so I'm done speculating), God causes it to look like the sun and moon hung in the sky.

3. God produces light--Perhaps the language allows for some poetic license. Joshua and Jashar may simply be stating that light continued even though it should have been dark. Certainly, the critical element for Joshua was the continuation of light to allow the armies to fight. God can certainly produce light with His word or even just by His own radiance.

4. It was just a long day--While others speculate the entire account is poetic. They claim that the moon stood still represents the hike to Gibeon and the sun standing still represents the long day of fighting. They do not require anything to have literally happen, other than that Israel saw a tremendous victory that day. The sun still set and the moon still faded, but Israel was very efficient during that day.

Personally, I find number 4 to be the least compelling. The burdern of proof is on saying the text does not mean what it says, and I find the evidence for complete poetry to be slim. This also leads to my assumption that option 3 is a bit weak. The reference to the sun and moon, rather than to just light, seems to suggest something was happening (or appearing to happen) with these celestial bodies. As for choosing between option 1 and 2, I find myself completely overwhelmed to try to discern which is the most probable solution.

verse 14
The author states that this day was a unique day. Immediately following the account about the sun and moon, one might expect this response. However, the author says that is not what truly made the day amazing. The amazing feature is that "the Lord listened to the voice of a man." This is the only time "listened" (shama) is attributed to the Lord. Throughout Joshua, "listened" is attibuted to individuals (or Israel corporately) with an obedient inflection. It is not just that they audibly heard something, they heeded it and obeyed. In essense, the author is saying the day was unique because the Lord obeyed Joshua. (More within "Exposition.")

verse 15
Though the text says the Israelites returned to Gilgal, it is unlikely that they did this before the following (10:16-42) verses take place. To literally fall in this way chronologically, Joshua and Israel would have pursued their enemy, then returned to Gilgal (about 20 miles away) to again depart to deal with the kings and their neighboring cities. There are two possible explanations:

Scribal Error--Since verse 14 ends "for the Lord fought for Israel" and verse 42 ends "the Lord, the God of Israel, fought for Israel" some assume a scribal error took place. Somewhere along the line, a scribe's eye traveled down the page and inserted verse 43 and the position of verse 15. This does not devestate the inerrancy of Scripture, for that doctrine holds that the original autographs were without error. Furthermore, if verse 15 should not be in the text, this does not change anything about the perspective of the text and no doctrine is questionable from this.

Literary Device--Just as Genesis 1 tells of the creation and Genesis 2 presents it again from a slightly different perspective, the author of Joshua may have been presenting the battle from two perspectives. First, he gives a broad sweeping overview of Israel's conquest. Next, he takes us through detail of defeating the kings and their cities. This may be done to draw a distinction with Joshua 11:18, when Israel's conquest took a considerable amount of time. The author may be employing a literary device to help the reader see the speed of their conquest. Basically, he would be saying, "Once the initial battle was over, the whole conquest of southern Palestine was over."

Either way, it is doubtful that the army marched 20 miles to Gilgal, then marched back to attack the cities and deal with the kings.

Exposition

Many people are familiar with the sun standing still for Joshua. This is truly a startling concept as we try to wrap our minds around what happened. The believer should not be troubled if he cannot offer the perfect scientific explanation. If he is challenged that the language is in error (for the sun does not travel in the sky, rather the earth rotates around a fixed sun), he should simply remind the challenger that we still use this language today (sunset, sunrise). We do not need to run to science for the explanation. God created light with His command, therefore, He could have done any number of things to give the appearance of a sun and moon fixed in the sky.

But so often, as we try to wrap our minds around the sun standing still, we miss the truly mind-boggling event...

The Lord obeyed Joshua.

Unfortunately, this is not a mind-boggling concept today. Many people on television or radio claim to know promises of God that obligate Him to respond. The see God as a marionette and they are pulling the strings. Pray this prayer. Give this amount of money. Claim this verse for yourself. Then God must respond to you as you desire. We live in a world that is very slow to obey God, but very quick to tell Him what He must do.

No way has this perspective grown more than in prayer. Prayer has become the believers opportunity to tell God what we think He ought to do. Men stand up and preach that we must command God to act. We have to stand up to Him and call upon our rights. If He does not answer, you are to contend with Him, wearing Him down until you get what you want. But this is not the way Jesus tells us to pray:

Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, saying, "In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. "There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, `Give me legal protection from my opponent.' "For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, `Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.' "And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge said; now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? "I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?"--Luke 18:1-8

A few things to note:

Jesus tells the parable to encourage persistence in prayer. He tells us to keep it up and not lose heart.

The widow had rights. She came to the judge demanding that he do his job. Should we assume Jesus is telling us we have rights and we should demand them?

Contrast, Contrast, Contrast. We understand that this parable contrasts a widow/judge with believer/God. Points of note are:
Judge did not fear God. Jesus later describes this as being unrighteous.
Judge did not respect man. He has not respect for objects made in the image of God.
Judge is unwilling to act. God is not lazy or slack in accomplishing His purposes.
Judge speaks to self. Due to the Trinity, God may not be speaking to His creation, but He is speaking within community of Father, Son, Spirit.
The widow's annoyance finally got results. God does not act because He finds His children annoying.
Judge can be worn out. God cannot be worn out.

Jesus is telling us to come to the father and lay our requests continually before Him, not because we can wear Him down, but because he loves righteousness and His elect. Therefore, the believer comes before Him with a God pleasing confidence that God will work to His best for us (Hebrews 11:6).

We cannot call God into a place of obedience to us, but we can pray with assurance that He cares about justice and His children. He listens and is delighted to respond, not because He is at the end of our string, but because He delights in His own nature. Even in salvation, He responds because He is delighted to see righteousness and loves His elect. His character is revealed and He is glorified. After all, a God who is at the whim of man could never have commanded the sun and moon and delievered His people!

Neither could He deliver us from our sin.