While Israel was at Mt. Ebal & Mt. Gerizim, reaffirming their commitment to the Lord, the kings in Canaan were getting ready to attack.
A) They had heard about the defeat of Jericho and Ai and were not about to give up without a fight. Plan was to UNITE
B) It was time for them to go on the offensive and attack these Jewish invaders.
C) But Israel’s greatest danger wasn’t the confederation of the armies of Canaan.
1) It was a group of men from Gibeon who were about to enter the camp and deceive Joshua and the Leaders of Israel.
D) In 1 Peter 5:8) we are told that Satan walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
1) In the UNITED armies of Canaan we see the enemy like Lion
E) But sometimes he comes as a deceiving serpent and we must be ALERT & Clothed in the spiritual armor God has provided for us IN CHRIST
1) The serpent reflects the cunning & craftiness of the enemy. That we see in the Gibeonites {v.2 they worked craftily….
Gibeon was located only twenty-five miles from the camp of Israel at Gilgal and was on Joshua’s list to be destroyed.
A) In Deuteronomy 7:1-4, God TOLD Israel they must destroy all the cities & People in Canaan.
B) The reason for this command was that the people whom they would find living in the land were involved in perverse life styles & religious practices.
1) They sacrificed infants to their false gods. / They worshipped their gods in all sorts of sexually perverse acts.
C) The very nature of their religious practices meant that they would eventually wipe themselves out
1) God wanted every aspect of that to be REMOVED from the land.
D) God knew that if ANY of that was to remain that it could eventually infect and destroy His people. {Turn their Children from the Lord
1) So God ordered that the people & their religious practices, their places of worship & their idols to be destroyed.
E) He wanted the knowledge and understanding of those people and their practices were to be TOTALLY driven from the land.
1) The UNGODLY influences could not co-exist with God's people
Now somehow the Gibeonites knew this to be the case – They feared the People of God – so they came up with a crafty plan
A) The Gibeonites assembled a group of men and equipped them to look like an official delegation from a FAR AWAY foreign city.
B) Their clothing, food & equipment were all designed to give the impression that they had been on a long & difficult journey from a distant city.
1) (2 Cor. 11:14) Satan is a counterfeiter “masquerades as an angel of light”
C) The Gibeonites put on a great masquerade in seeking to deceive the people of Israel.
1) And they were CONVINCING with their worn out sandals / ragged clothes & moldy bread.
D) But we are told that they were successful because – V.14 the men of Israel took some of their provisions; but they did not ask counsel of the LORD.
E) Joshua & the Elders of Israel made the Grave Mistake of Walking by Sight – Instead of walking by faith - Prov 3:5,6 Trust in the Lord ….
Lean not to your own …… In All your ways acknowledge ……Paths
A) They based their decision on their physical senses – instead of seeking the Lord –
B) Had they consulted the Lord – He would have revealed to them that they were imposters
C) How many of us have FALLEN because we did the SAME thing as Israel in this chapter?
1) Leaned on OUR own understanding/ or made a decision based on how it looked instead of INQUIRING of the Lord.
D) There is an OLD HYMN that says: "O what NEEDLESS pain we bare when we do not carry EVERYTHING to God in prayer".
We bring so much suffering and pain upon ourselves because we DO NOT inquire of God.
A) This decision in Joshua 9 seemed so plain. “Look at the bread, the wineskins, the clothes & shoes"
B) What SEEMS so plain to you may be the very thing you MUST ask God about.
C) Now you would think that they would have learned a lesson just a few days earlier at Ai
1) They were DEFEATED because they did NOT pray before the battle to seek direction from God
D) We might think: "What in the world is wrong with these guys?"
1) But we have done the same thing time and again ourselves
E) EXAMPLE: There are some things that when people ask if you've prayed about it and you get mad for them asking.
1) "What do you mean, have I prayed about it- this is a no Brainer”
"There is just NO way to lose"
But In so many of those situations where there is NO WAY to lose we find that it doesn’t work out {We missed something
A) BECAUSE we made the mistake of NOT seeking God's counsel
B) Listen - In the SMALL as well as the GREAT- In the OBVIOUS as well as in the Complicated – We need to seek the Lord for His Direction
C) Now although this alliance with the People of Gibeon would have some long range negative affects –
1) As we continue in Ch.9 & move into Ch. 10 we see that God was gracious with Israel and Gibeon –
D) This story illustrates for us the Principle of Romans Ch.8:28 that all things work together for Good to those who love God …… Purpose
1) How God can turn our Blunders into Blessings { Rd v. 16-27
Here we see the result of their deception – the Gibeonites were spared but they were made slaves – Wood cutters & Water carriers
A) But notice where they get to serve – v.23 & v.27 – They are serving the Priest around the Tabernacle the house of God/ before the altar
B) In other words - although they were servants they had privilege of being brought close to spiritual things on a regular basis
C) And when the land of Canaan was divided, Gibeon was one of the cities given to the line of Aaron. / It became a special place where God was known!
D) Approx 400 years later David put the Tabernacle in that city. This meant that the altar and the priest were in Gibeon as well
1) At least one of David’s famous MIGHTY MEN (those closest to him in battle) was a Gibeonite
E) Solomon made burnt offerings at Gibeon. It was there that Solomon had a vision and God spoke to him about his coming rule.
Much later - about 500 years before Christ - in the time of Zerubabel, the genealogies of the Jews who returned from captivity under the
Babylonians included a list of the Gibeonites.
A) This is pretty remarkable because the names of some who claimed to be Jews were not found in the registry and they were not allowed to be a part
of the Jewish nation
B) In the days of Nehemiah the Gibeonites were mentioned as being among the people who helped rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
1) The Gibeonites had come in among God’s people and after 100 years they were still there!
C) See God in His infinite Grace - honored this covenant and blessed both sides with each other. Blundering into blessing!
But as we move into Ch. 10 we see another way that God used this situation for His Glory – Read v.1-9
A) Here we see that as a direct result of the Covenant that Israel made with the Gibeonites that 5 Kings of the Amorites formed an Alliance.
B) They came together to attack Gibeon & the Gibeonites call on their new friends the Children of Israel to help them
1) Here we see how God is going to use this situation for His Glory – See instead of having to fight 5 separate battles / All 5 cities delivered one battle
C) Now there were Three combined factors that gave Joshua success in this attack: 1st believing a divine promise (v. 8), Do not fear them, for I have
delivered them into your hand; not a man of them shall stand before you."
D) 2nd Walking Confidently based upon that Promise V.9 Joshua therefore came upon them suddenly, having marched all night from Gilgal.
1) 3rd calling on the Lord in prayer (RDv. 10-15)
Now first of all we see a neat Illustration here of that Principle that God gives us Just what we Need.
A) Here we see that God assisted the weary Jewish soldiers by killing the enemy with these large hailstones
B) The timely occurrence of the storm was indeed a miracle – but an even greater miracle was that the stones hit only the enemy soldiers
1) It was as if God took His Special ammunition out of the storehouse & used it to good Advantage
V.11 There were more who died from the hailstones than the children of Israel killed with the sword.
C) Egypt & Later in Rev 11 & 16/ Hail the size of a talent – the Size of a Basketball –
But the miracle of the hailstorm was nothing compared to the miracle of extending the day so that Joshua could finish the battle and secure
a complete victory over the enemy.
A) His men were weary and the task was great; and if night came on, the enemy could escape.
B) Joshua needed a special act from God to enable him to claim the victory the Lord had promised.
1) Joshua SPOKE TO THE SUN - that is Faith – Knowing that God is with you can give you that kind of Confidence!!!
C) This is the last Miracle recorded in the book of Joshua & certainly it is the GREATEST
D) But this event is questioned by those who deny the reality of miracles and look only to science for truth. They ask “How could God stop the rotation
of the earth and extend the length of a day,”, “without creating chaos all over the planet?”
Ps. 74:16) Day & night belong to God & everything He has made is His servant.
If God can’t perform the miracle described in Joshua 10, then He can’t perform any miracle and is imprisoned in His own creation, unable to use or suspend
the very laws He built into it. I have a difficult time believing in that kind of a God.
A)An Old Testament expert, Gleason L. Archer, points out that the phrase “hasted not to go down” KJV in verse 13 indicates “a retardation of the movement”
and not a complete cessation.9-1
B) Which means that the sun & moon didn’t stand still permanently & then suddenly go down but were held back so that the daylight was lengthened.
1) God stopped the sun and moon and then retarded the rotation of the planet so that the sun and moon set very slowly.
C) Still an incredible miracle but such a process would not create chaos all over the globe.
.
C.S. Lewis wrote, “The mind which asks for a non-miraculous Christianity is a mind in process of relapsing from Christianity into mere ‘religion.’”9-2
D) Either we believe in a God who can do anything, or we must accept a Christian faith that’s non-miraculous;
1) One that does away with the inspiration of the Bible, the Virgin Birth, and the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Robert Dick Wilson, a former professor of Hebrew at Princeton Seminary.
About 12yrs After Donald Grey Barnhouse graduated from Princeton – He was invited to come & speak at the University – On the day that he spoke he noticed
that his Hebrew Professor Dr. Robert Wilson was seated in the Front Row to hear him
When the service was over, the old Hebrew professor came up to Barnhouse and said, "If you come back again, I will not come to hear you preach. I only come once.
I am glad that you are a big-godder. When my boys come back, I come to see if they are big-godders or little-godders, and then I know what their ministry will be."
Barnhouse asked Wilson to explain. He said, "Well, some men have a little god, and they are always in trouble with him. He can't do any miracles. He can't take care
of the inspiration of the Scriptures and their preservation and transmission to us. They have a little god, and I call them little-godders. Then there are those who have a
great God. He speaks, and it is done. He commands, and it stands fast. He knows how to show himself strong on behalf of those that fear him.
You have a great God, and he will bless your ministry."
What about us – Do we have a big God or a little God!!! What trials are you facing today – None too big for Your God!!!! Rd v.16-28
A) So these Canaanite kings were executed. Joshua wants to make it clear that there can be absolutely no accommodation with these Canaanite kings.
B) Another example of how the Lord would have us deal with sin & those vices of the enemy that would come after us to temp us – {ACHAN
1) They should be dealt with Swiftly & Aggressively
C) Not a time to be tinkering with the enemy – trying to trap us in his web
1) Speaking of Web’s – WWW – InterNET – Called that for a Reason
D) Severe Measures are in order: Unplug the computer – Web Blocker – Integrity – Christian Purity
E) The Foot on the necks was also a symbol to Israel of how the Lord puts his enemies under his feet –
1) It was meant to give them confidence for future battles
Now v.29-39 is a summary of how they defeated each city represented by these kings – not read – Pick it up in v. 40 –43
Now the story here in Ch. 10 reminds us of certain key principles in the Christian life
1st There are times that God by His actions remind me that He is on my side.
A)Here
we saw it in the example of the Hailstones & keeping the sun from going
down – Also in the little things
1) When it comes to me, because I am His child, God does not stay neutral, but
rather He takes a position on my side.
B) When the world comes against me, God is on my side.
When my finances overwhelm me, God is on my side.
1) When my health fails,
God is on my side.
C) God can used the SUPERNATURAL TO REMIND ME
1) But what I have to
remember that OFTEN TIMES God uses the natural to remind me that He is on my
side.
2ND I should not be
ashamed to show before others my relationship with God. Vs 12- Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel.
A) There are times when we can be so shy about our Faith – talking
to someone about the Lord – or shy about expressing our love in worship
B) This was a radical thing
that Joshua did - Something that Only a person who is confident in their
relationship with God could do so.
3rd I am reminded
that I can ask God for the difficult because nothing is impossible for Him.
A) Sometimes my Prayers are so SAFE. It is safer to pray for
medicines and doctors to work than for God to heal.
B) It is safer to pray for my family members or neighbors salvation than it is to pray use me to win them to Christ.
1) It is safer to pray
that this church needs be met than to pray God bless this church in abundance.
C) Here we see that Joshua didn’t pray a safe prayer. God stop the sun and the moon until we finished defeating
our enemies.
1) Elijah didn’t pray a
safe prayer to stop the rains for 3 ½ years.
D) Listen if I believe that God
can do the impossible in my life/ OUR CHURCH – I won’t pray JUST safe prayers.
4TH There are some
things that can’t wait till tomorrow.
A) Joshua didn’t believe that defeating this enemy could wait for tomorrow.
And God agreed because God choose to answer his payer immediately.
B. God reminds us throughout the Bible that some things can’t wait for
tomorrow.
1) It says if I am angry, I need to get it resolved before the sun goes down.
C) If a brother has a
problem with me than I need to leave my gift at the altar and go and get the
matter resolved.
1) The Bible reminds me that today is the acceptable day of salvation.
5th Sometimes God answers our prayers exactly like we ask
to prove to others that He is God.
A) Vs 14-There has never been a day
like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a man. Surely the Lord
was fighting for Israel.
B) God choose to answer Joshua’s prayer exactly like he asked it. It was an
unusual pray request to stop the sun.
1) But since
Joshua asked it in confidence of God before the people, God chose to answer it
to prove to Israel that He was real.
As you review the whole episode of Joshua and the Gibeonites, you can’t help
but be both warned and encouraged. These events warn us to be alert and
prayerful lest the enemy deceive us and we start walking by sight instead of by
faith. Then we’ll find ourselves making decisions that are wrong and getting
into alliances that are dangerous. But there’s also a word of encouragement:
God can take even our blunders and turn them into blessings. This isn’t an
excuse
for carelessness, but it is a great encouragement when you’ve failed the Lord
and His people.