Joshua

Joshua Chapter 10

Joshua 10:1 Now it came to pass, when Adonizedek king of Jerusalem had heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed it; as he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king; and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel, and were among them;
2 That they feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, as one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all the men thereof were mighty.

This king of Jerusalem heard how Israel was defeating one city after another so he was moved to unite others in the cause of going against Gibeon for making a treaty with Joshua.

The name of Jerusalem means city of peace but until Christ returns it will not be at peace but is a cup of trembling. Years and decades later David defeats the Jebusites and Jerusalem becomes the capital of Israel.

Evidently the city of Gibeon was considered a great and important city which caused the other kings to fear. The men within it were mighty men perhaps giants as many of the Canaanites were.

This is a controversial subject but not as great a controversy as it once was. Some previous doubters have come to the conclusion that this theory is not as far fetched as it once seemed to be.

There have been studies by theologians that say that the giants were caused by fallen angels coming down to the daughters of men. The first invasion was before the flood as told in Genesis chapter 6. The second invasion came after the flood which were among the Canaanites, and this may have been the reason for the evil that was so bad God had to allow Israel to wipe them out.

The Jewish Historian, Josephus also tells of these things in his book. Others say the sons of God and daughters of men were merely descendants of Seth and Cain intermarrying but some point out that if that was the case, it would not cause a race of giants.

Joshua 10:3 Wherefore Adonizedek king of Jerusalem sent unto Hoham king of Hebron, and unto Piram king of Jarmuth, and unto Japhia king of Lachish, and unto Debir king of Eglon, saying,
4 Come up unto me, and help me, that we may smite Gibeon: for it hath made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel.
5 Therefore the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, the king of Eglon, gathered themselves together, and went up, they and all their hosts, and encamped before Gibeon, and made war against it.

So far we have the accounts of:

The destruction of Jericho
The destruction of Ai
The surrender of Gibeon

This time the war was started from the Canaan side. They heard that Gibeon made peace with Joshua and they were angry about it. So they decided to ban together to fight Gibeon. This was a big mistake for they would need their strength to fight Israel, not Gibeon.

Joshua 10:6 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.

The men of Gibeon asked Joshua to come to their aid quickly and Joshua reacted immediately. The Lord backed Joshua and told him not to fear. He had delivered them into their hand. It would seem as if Joshua sought the Lord first before going into this battle which exactly what he should have done.

Joshua 10:8 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.

This war was won by God Himself with large hailstones. Again this proves that Israel was not acting on their own and just conquering other nations out of greed. This was God's judgment upon the Canaanites and God doing the judgment. Lest we criticize God here, let us remember that He warns and pleads for us to turn from our sin. He can't allow child sacrifice and other evils to continue, so He has to stop it one way or another like He did in Noah’s day.

Abortion is modern day child sacrifice. It will eventually be judged by God.

I notice too that what formerly was a mistake on the part of Israel when they allowed the men of Gibeon to trick them into making a league with them, caused this war. The event is recorded in Joshua chapter 9. Apparently though God used it to cause Israel to defeat several kings at the same time. Looks like it turned out for the better.

Joshua 10:12 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.

I believe God willed for Joshua to say those words and show Israel the power of prayer when a servant of God is obedient and full of faith in God.

Joshua became leader after Moses for a reason. He and Caleb were the only two of the 12 spies who spied out the land of Canaan 40 years earlier that believed God could give them victory against the Canaanites. Because of the huge size of the giants in the land, the other 10 did not believe and stirred up unbelief among all the others. This caused God to delay the entrance into the land of Canaan. They wondered in the wilderness 40 years until the older generation died off.

Joshua and Caleb lived to see this day because they believed God. Unbelief is the biggest hindrance to our failure to obey and walk with the Lord. Unbelief in God's power to save will cause our souls to be lost and cause our influence for the gospel to be hindered. Unbelief is the factor that also leads us back into sin after Jesus has cleansed us from sin.

There is a great debate in these latter days on whether one can live above sin (sanctification, holiness) or that they can't help but sin and that we all sin a little bit every day so we have to just trust in the grace of God not being really free from sin until we get to heaven. I refuse to debate that issue because I believe that if we have the faith in God to keep us from returning to sin and we desire to walk with God without returning to sin, we can.

If we think in our hearts that we can't live above sin, then of course we will not be able to. My question is this. Why does God make commandments if we are not supposed to try to keep them?

I believe Joshua's faithfulness and His faith in God's power to save them was the reason God harkened to Joshua and caused the sun to stand still to give them more daylight to win the battle. That is my speculation.

Joshua 10:15 And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal.
16 But these five kings fled, and hid themselves in a cave at Makkedah.

There were spies everywhere it seems. They had a way of communicating events that worked even in the days without our modern technology.

Joshua 10:17 And it was told Joshua, saying, The five kings are found hid in a cave at Makkedah.
18 And Joshua said, Roll great stones upon the mouth of the cave, and set men by it for to keep them:
19 And stay ye not, but pursue after your enemies, and smite the hindmost of them; suffer them not to enter into their cities: for the LORD your God hath delivered them into your hand.
20 And it came to pass, when Joshua and the children of Israel had made an end of slaying them with a very great slaughter, till they were consumed, that the rest which remained of them entered into fenced cities.
21 And all the people returned to the camp to Joshua at Makkedah in peace: none moved his tongue against any of the children of Israel.
22 Then said Joshua, Open the mouth of the cave, and bring out those five kings unto me out of the cave.

It doesn't say how many days the kings were in the caves but it wasn't long enough for them to die from lack of food and water because they were still alive. They might have been provided with food and water, we don't know.

Joshua 10:23 And they did so, and brought forth those five kings unto him out of the cave, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon.
24 And it came to pass, when they brought out those kings unto Joshua, that Joshua called for all the men of Israel, and said unto the captains of the men of war which went with him, Come near, put your feet upon the necks of these kings. And they came near, and put their feet upon the necks of them.
25 And Joshua said unto them, Fear not, nor be dismayed, be strong and of good courage: for thus shall the LORD do to all your enemies against whom ye fight.

Why he did this I don't know for sure but they were always meant to realize that they could do nothing against the Canaanites if the Lord was not with them. The same is true with us today.

If we ever studied the book of Daniel in the latter part of the book, we will see that there are evil powers behind all kingdoms both past and present. Unless the Lord God our creator and savior is with us as a nation, there is no way to win any battle against a mighty nation that has an evil angelic power behind its leadership.

We need the Lord folks or we are history as a nation. This means even the great and mighty United States. If the Lord is not with us, we will fail. We need to re-read and study His word to find out where we went wrong and repent.

Joshua 10:26 And afterward Joshua smote them, and slew them, and hanged them on five trees: and they were hanging upon the trees until the evening.

Hanging from a tree is a sign that they were cursed of God. Notice Joshua killed them first. Israel was not into torture. I assume that the earlier king that was hanged was also killed first although the bible doesn't specifically say that Joshua did it that way. This was the judgment of God upon wicked nations, not Joshua being a despot. It is likely that those kings had put many to death in their time of leadership.

Joshua 10:27 And it came to pass at the time of the going down of the sun, that Joshua commanded, and they took them down off the trees, and cast them into the cave wherein they had been hid, and laid great stones in the cave's mouth, which remain until this very day.

Joshua could have allowed them to starve to death by shutting up the cave but they were there to execute the judgment of God, not torture people.

Joshua 10:28 And that day Joshua took Makkedah, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king thereof he utterly destroyed, them, and all the souls that were therein; he let none remain: and he did to the king of Makkedah as he did unto the king of Jericho.

Although it says that none remained in most of these cities, my speculation is that it meant none that were left to rebel and fight against Israel. It would seem that there were always a small few that escaped to go tell other cities or else how could the words get out and other nations fear Israel as a result?

I thing I want to bring out about is this; we now live in the days after Jesus came to make Himself a sacrifice for all our sins so that we can have eternal life. We still live in the day of grace. Gentile nations actually have it better than the heathen nations that once occupied the land of Canaan. If we refuse that good way provided by our creator, we will not be part of the grace of God and the inheritance He provides for those that believe and receive His Son, Jesus the Christ or Messiah. The choice is ours.

Joshua 10:29 Then Joshua passed from Makkedah, and all Israel with him, unto Libnah, and fought against Libnah:
30 And the LORD delivered it also, and the king thereof, into the hand of Israel; and he smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein; he let none remain in it; but did unto the king thereof as he did unto the king of Jericho.
31 And Joshua passed from Libnah, and all Israel with him, unto Lachish, and encamped against it, and fought against it:
32 And the LORD delivered Lachish into the hand of Israel, which took it on the second day, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein, according to all that he had done to Libnah.
33 Then Horam king of Gezer came up to help Lachish; and Joshua smote him and his people, until he had left him none remaining.
34 And from Lachish Joshua passed unto Eglon, and all Israel with him; and they encamped against it, and fought against it:
35 And they took it on that day, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein he utterly destroyed that day, according to all that he had done to Lachish.
36 And Joshua went up from Eglon, and all Israel with him, unto Hebron; and they fought against it:
37 And they took it, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king thereof, and all the cities thereof, and all the souls that were therein; he left none remaining, according to all that he had done to Eglon; but destroyed it utterly, and all the souls that were therein.
38 And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to Debir; and fought against it:
39 And he took it, and the king thereof, and all the cities thereof; and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed all the souls that were therein; he left none remaining: as he had done to Hebron, so he did to Debir, and to the king thereof; as he had done also to Libnah, and to her king.
40 So Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the springs, and all their kings: he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the LORD God of Israel commanded.
41 And Joshua smote them from Kadeshbarnea even unto Gaza, and all the country of Goshen, even unto Gibeon.
42 And all these kings and their land did Joshua take at one time, because the LORD God of Israel fought for Israel.
43 And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal.

This was the same camp they set up just before they conquered the city of Jericho. That seemed to be their base camp. As we study the book of Joshua we did see Israel was almost defeated once and that was when Achan had stolen a Babylonian garment and some other treasures that Israel was commanded not to take. It was called the accursed thing. Until they got rid of the accused thing and cleansed themselves of that, God would not go with them in battle.

Forty years earlier when unbelief delayed Israel from going to defeat the Canaanites, some tried to go in anyway and they were defeated. God had already told them they had to wander for 40 years because of unbelief and He meant what He said. When some tried to go to battle without the Lord’s presence, they suffered loss.

God has given us His word. We can believe what He says or abide in unbelief. It is our choice, but we can see what the result of not believing God’s word is. He has not changed. We need God and we need His word. Without it there is no life either here or eternity. DC

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