“Giving Credit Where Credit is Due” Joshua 10:7-15

One of the most annoying things of working on projects with people is that sometimes one of the team members takes more credit for the success of the project than they rightly deserve. This doesn’t usually happen, but when it does, it builds resentment and distrust at the work force.

When an athlete wins an award, the winner is usually quick to point out the contributions of his teammates. If a running back is rewarded for a great season, he almost always gives great praise to the offensive line and, to a lesser degree, to the coaches. With team sports, it is difficult to accept an award without remembering that the entire team works toward the success of the team.

In today’s passage, Israel wins a great victory, but it is God who makes the win possible, and it is this awareness of God’s role in the victory that Joshua notes.

Background

Having failed to inquire of the Lord, Israel has made a treaty with the Gibeonite community. In return for their protection, the Gibeonites are now the servants of Israel.

The treaty raised the level of concern from the other kingdoms in Canaan. The Gibeon treaty accompanied by the destruction of Jericho and Ai led the king of Jerusalem to call a summit with the kings of Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish and Debir and Eglon. The five kings agreed to an alliance and set out to teach the Gibeonites a lesson.

When the forces were arrayed against Gibeon, the Gibeonites sent word to Joshua and Israel and reminded them of the obligation to protect Gibeon. Their message was a simple one: “Do not abandon your servants. Come up to us quickly and save us! Help us, because all the Amorite kings from the hill country have joined forces against us” (v. 6).

What happens next is a great victory for Israel that God brought about through His actions.

Central Truth: God is worthy of our praise in part because He fights our battles for us.

God fights our battles by:

Assuring us He will give us the victory (7-8)

In any contested case, there is seldom a guarantee of what the outcome will be. There is always the chance for an upset, for the unexpected to happen. It would bring a lot of peace to one side or the other if they knew that they would win.

As Joshua and his army set out to defend Gibeon, God spoke to Joshua. His words are, “Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hands. Not one of them will be able to withstand you” (v. 8).

The previous verse tells us that Joshua left Gilgal with the entire army, and in particular the best fighting men. Joshua is coming off two major wins against Jericho and Ai. His army has followed God’s instructions in both the victories. It’s not as if Joshua was going to Gibeon with an army that was filled with doubt and uncertainty. They had confidence in themselves and in their God.

Remember, though, that it was this same confidence that sent them up against Ai without seeking God’s direction, and they had lost that first battle. Now, as they army marched to the rescue of Gibeon, there may have been some question in the minds of the men marching west as to whether or not God was with them in this endeavor. After all, the only reason Israel is marching to defend Gibeon is because of a treaty made without God’s blessing. Would He now go with them?

God’s words of assurance is what Joshua and the army needed to know. They needed to know that God was marching before them and preparing the way for their victory. God’s statement is enough to overcome the doubts and the fears that might accompany an army marching off to do battle.

It needs to be noted here that God does not abandon us for not following His will in all occasions or even in one occasion. Did Israel disobey God by making the treaty with Gibeon? Yes, but God doesn’t then turn His back on His people. You and I, we sin. We may not mean to or maybe we fail to seek the Lord as we should. God doesn’t ignore our sin, but He is still our Father and we are still His children. God uses sinful men and women to convey His message. Our sin hinders our walk with God, but it doesn’t complete end it.

Israel made the foolish pact. God is still with them, giving their enemies into their hands. Because God is preparing the battle, God will give the victory.

Fulfilling His promise (9-13a)

We’re in a political year, which means we’re hearing a lot of people making promises. We know that these promises will probably be ignored or at least set until the next election.

God is not that way. When God makes a promise, the promise is kept. So it is with Joshua. Joshua led the army on an all-night march from Gilgal to Gibeon (a march that took three days in Chapter 9), the army caught the Amorite armies by surprise, and the battle was joined.

Note a couple of things, though. First, the Bible clearly tells us that “The Lord threw them into confusion before Israel, who defeated them in a great victory at Gibeon” (v. 10). The key to a successful battle is for a disciplined army that knows what it is doing and why. When the leadership of the army or the individual soldiers become confused, it leads to chaos on that side of the battle line. So it was that the Amorite armies were thrown into confusion by the Lord and by the unexpected appearance of Israel’s army on the battlefield.

The second thing the Bible tells us is that God caused more deaths in the Amorite army than Israel did. “As they fled before Israel on the road down from Beth Horon to Azekah, the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them from the sky, and more of them died from the hailstones than were killed by the swords of the Israelites” (v. 11).

There is more to this battle than just the confusion and the hailstones, though. Battles have a tendency to end with sundown. Armies can no longer see to take orders and to determine the battle lines. For this reason, as the battle was raging, Joshua asked God to perform a miracle to complete the destruction of the Amorite army. Joshua asked God to cause the sun to stand still.

The Bible tells us that that is exactly what happened. “So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies” (vs. 13a).

Now, scientists will tell you that for the sun to stand still, it would require the earth to stop spinning on its axis. If the earth were to suddenly come to a stop, all sorts of laws of physics would take over to cause a cataclysm of catastrophes throughout our world. Think of a car running at 55 mph that suddenly crashes into a wall. When that collision happens, the front of the car stops immediately, but it takes a few nanoseconds for the back of the car to stop as well. That’s what causes the car to crumple into a heap. The contents of the car are also travelling at 55 mph, so the contents of the car continue toward the front of the car until they, too, come into contact with something that stops their forward progress.

Our world spins at approximately 1000 mph, which means the people on the earth are travelling at that speed. If the world were suddenly come to a complete stop, we would go flying off the earth into space. Trees would be uprooted, water sloshing around with massive tsunamis and mountains would crumble.

Yet, none of that happened. Why? Is it that the Bible is just making this up? Is this to be taken allegorically? I would argue no. I would remind us that with God all things are possible. If God wanted to cause the earth to stop spinning for a relatively short period of time without also creating untold chaos, He could and would do it. The God who can part the Red Sea, who can provide manna from heaven and destroy the nation of Egypt with plagues and disasters is also the One who can bring Israel a great victory by defying the laws of physics and cause the earth to stand still, as well as return it to its normal rate of spin once the need is over.

God promised Joshua that the Amorite armies would not stand against Israel. God kept His promise.

Hearing our prayers (13b-15)

The writer of Joshua makes an editorial note in these few verses. He states what happened—the sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed setting for about a day. This in and of itself is miraculous. But the writer makes another bold statement: “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!” (v. 14).

What is the writer trying to tell us? He says that it was a day unlike any other in that God listened to a man. Is that the miracle? I don’t think so. God hears our prayers and responds accordingly. There are times we ask God for seemingly outlandish things, but with God it isn’t so outlandish. If it is in keeping with God’s overall plan, God will answer our prayers. In part, I believe God places in our hearts a need to pray for a specific thing, leading us by His Spirit to ask for the seemingly impossible in order to demonstrate His power and His grace and His mercy. We come to God asking Him to move a mountain, then when it happens, we can do nothing else but give praise and glory to the God of the universe.

This is why Jesus tells us that if we ask anything in His name, it will be given us. That doesn’t mean the phrase, “In Jesus’ name,” are magic words that open the miracles of God to us. To pray in Jesus’ name is to surrender ourselves to His will and to submit to that same will. It is our willingness to put ourselves at His disposal in order that the Father may be glorified through the Son. When God hears our prayers, we are asking in accordance to His will.

When we come to God and ask something of Him, if it isn’t according to His will, He will not give it to us. As James tells us, “You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures” (James 4:3).

In this instance, Joshua asked for a miracle that would allow Israel to achieve God’s goal of destroying the Amorite armies. So, yes, God did listen to a man, but that wasn’t the miracle. The miracle is what God did—causing the sun to stand still for almost an entire day.

Conclusion

As we consider this passage, what stands out is that if we are doing God’s business, He will be quick to assure us of success in His eyes, and He will equip us and lead us in doing that which He calls us to do. When the day is over, and the task has been completed, we will only be able to look at God in awe and wonder, and give Him praise and glory.

Are we allowing God to do the miraculous in our lives?