Adoni-Zedek, king of Jerusalem heard of the conquests of Joshua and the guile of the Gibeonites and feared greatly. He sought to make an alliance with the kings of Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish and Eglon, (all these were Amorites) to attack Gibeon for making peace with Joshua and Israel. The Gibeonites called on Joshua to protect them and help them (v6).
Joshua, not making the same mistake twice and having been assured by The LORD (v8) that He would deliver them into his hands, went ahead to help them. The LORD routed them with a great slaughter (v10). All Israel seemed to do was march (v9), chased them along the road (v10). The LORD killed more by the hailstones (v11) than by the sword. v12. This was undoubtedly miraculous when you consider that the hailstones must have been large to kill people. Let’s not forget that they were sent by God, The Creator of everything.
We have here a strange request of The LORD by Joshua that the sun and moon stand still while Israel avenged their enemies. God answered and the sun and moon stood still for about a whole day whilst Joshua and Israel defeated their enemies. Joshua believed that God could do this, otherwise why ask. Men have tried to explain what happened including an eclipse etc., but the sun and the moon stood still in different parts of the land, the sun in Gibeon and the moon in the valley of Aijalon. One writer says that the earth stopped rotating but more likely that the sun and moon kept pace with the earth. This would allow them the daylight to finish the task.
Little wonder that the people said that there had never been a day like it before.
Remember, they were not fighting to obtain victories, but to receive victories already won for them by The LORD – NB v8 “The LORD said, “Do not fear them for I have delivered them into your hands; not a man of them shall stand before you. “”
They still had to obey and to fight, not to sit back and expect it all to come to pass. They had to obey and when they did, God did the rest. Even to giving them a longer day to do it in. God didn’t need a longer day, but they did. God could have done it in a shorter time, but they needed to obey, and they needed longer.
Amazing phrase in v14 “The LORD heeded the voice of a man” God does answer prayer! Sometimes “Yes” sometimes “no” and sometimes “wait” but He does answer. And did this longer day really happen? In his book ‘Worlds in CoIIision’ Immanual Velikovsky not only catalogues ancient writings which mention a very long day and others which record a very long night (as it would have been if the sun had stood still in one place) but he also quotes one which refers to how the sun was caught on the horizon and took a very long time to break through. His book deals with the incredible account of Joshua’s long day and also covers the ten—degree movement of the sun mentioned in Isaiah 38v8.
It is clear that whilst God is in control of everything and nothing happens by chance or takes Him by surprise, we cannot sit back and let it happen. God expects, even commands us to be obedient and to walk in His ways. Walk indicates movement. It is possible for us to go the wrong way and be disobedient — God will work things out despite us, but sometimes we will suffer defeat, just as the Israelites did. But the battle is the LORD’s. He had promised victory if they obeyed. They have never fully attained what God planned for them, simply because they did not obey.
How important it is for us to obey Him. Jesus said “Watch and pray” not just “pray” but watch as well.
The Epistle of James is a very practical book and indicates how we ought to live as well as exercising our trust in God. The Epistle of Peter states “Be ye holy for l am holy” “… holy in all your conduct” (1 Peter 1:15,16.)
v16-27 Joshua was informed that the five kings had escaped and hidden in a cave at Makkedah. Joshua gave instructions to roll large stones on the mouth of the cave and set guards to watch over it while the rest of them fought and defeated the cities.
They conquered the cities and brought the kings out and killed them and hung them on trees until evening (v26). At evening they took down the bodies and put them back into the cave and laid stones on the mouth of it.
