Alright, so Joshua chapter 10. We're going to look at chapter 10 and, Lord willing, at chapter 11 tonight, and this will kind of wrap up the invasion and conquest. The second half of the book narrates the division of the land and has several narrative episodes within it, and we'll look at those kind of in order, but we'll move through the second half of the book fairly quickly. You might feel like, well, the invasion just began, how can it already almost be over? I mean, they just took Jericho in chapter 6, and how can we already be done conquering the land in chapter 11? And the answer is God's providence. God's sovereignty in all these battles and engagements. And we're going to see that multiple times in the two chapters we look at this evening. When you think about the invasion and conquest of the land, you need to have in your mind a picture of the land of Palestine, the land of Canaan. You need to see Israel coming in across the Jordan River on the east border of Canaan, coming to the city of Jericho. Immediately after that, having the engagement at Ai. the covenant that is made with Gibeon in chapter 9 secures the greater part of the center of the land. And then there will be a southern campaign and a northern campaign, and that will conclude the major military engagements. Now all of that unfolds pretty quickly in the book, but it would have lasted between six and a half and seven and a half years. We can do the math later when we hear Caleb's speech in chapter 14. And we'll show you that when we get there. Let's start by reading the text. Chapter 10, beginning, we'll read the first 15 verses. As soon as Adonai Zedek, king of Jerusalem, heard how Joshua had captured Ai and had devoted it to destruction, doing to Ai and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king, and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were among them, he feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, like one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all its men were warriors. So Adonai Zedek, king of Jerusalem, sent to Hoham, king of Hebron, to Piram, king of Jarmath, to Japhia, king of Lachish, and to Debar, king of Eglon, saying, Come up to me and help me, and let us strike Gibeon, for it has made peace with Joshua and with the people of Israel. Then the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmath, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon, gathered their forces and went up with all their armies and encamped against Gibeon and made war against it. The men of Gibeon sent to Joshua at the camp in Gilgal, saying, Do not relax your hand from your servants. Come up to us quickly and save us and help us, for all the kings of the Amorites who dwell in the hill country are gathered against us. So Joshua went up from Gilgal, he and all the people who were with him, and all the mighty men of valor. And Yahweh said to Joshua, Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands. Not a man of them shall stand before you. So Joshua came upon them suddenly, having marched up all night from Gilgal. And Yahweh threw them into a panic before Israel, who struck them with a great blow at Gibeon, and chased them by the way at the ascent of Beth-horon, and struck them as far as Ezekiah and Machedah. And as they fled before Israel, while they were going down the ascent before Beth Horon, Yahweh threw down large stones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died. There were more who died because of the hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with a sword. At that time, Joshua spoke to Yahweh in the day when Yahweh gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Son, stand still at Gibeon, and moon in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still. And the moon stopped until the nation took vengeance on their enemies. Is this not written in the book of Jasher? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day. There has been no day like it before or since when Yahweh heeded the voice of a man, for Yahweh fought for Israel." So Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp at Gilgal. Before we jump into this text, I feel like I need to burst a bubble that may come up later, lest anyone come up to me after class and say, you know, NASA has discovered that we're missing like this two days or day and a half. I forget what it is. Some of you have seen this article on the Internet. It's been circling for like 15 years. I've known of it. And it is that they've calculated things in the heavens and they've and they've discovered that this missing day from the book of Joshua and the missing hours from Hezekiah's illness and I hate to burst your bubble, but that's an urban legend. That's not actually true. Nothing like that's ever happened at NASA or anywhere else. And actually, there's no way even to do that. It's probably even a misunderstanding of what's going on in Chapter 10, although we'll deal with that in a minute. But that's not the point. The point of this story does not hinge upon us being able to find a missing day in Earth's calendar. And if that's where our focus is, we're liable to be distracted from what is the real point. The highlight of the narrative that we just read is the fact that Yahweh listened to a man. And you and I may say, well, what's the big deal in that? We pray all the time and the Lord listens to us and answers our prayers. In fact, it happens so often that we tend to take for granted what an extraordinary blessing and privilege that really is. I mean, think about what Jesus says in Mark chapter 11. If you have faith, you will say to this mountain, be removed and cast into the sea and it will obey you. And we think that couldn't happen. But here it does. Joshua speaks to Yahweh and addresses the movement of the sun and the moon. And the Lord does as Joshua asks. And that's truly remarkable. The focus is upon God's willingness to hear the prayers of His people and to answer those prayers for His own glory. And so that's really what we want to take away here. Now, you'll notice here, at the beginning of chapter 10, the resumption of the narrative that began in chapter 9, verses 1 and 2. If you go back a page or so to chapter 9, you'll see in verse 1, as soon as all the kings who were beyond the Jordan, in the hill country and in the lowland, all along the coast of the great sea toward Lebanon, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites heard of this, they gathered together as one to fight against Joshua and Israel. And then there is the episode with the people of Gibeon. And now here in chapter 10, we've resumed the narrative about the Canaanite coalition. Chapter 10, there is a southern coalition of kings. Five kings, the five most powerful kings of the Amorites in the south. And in chapter 11, there will be a similar coalition in the north. And as we mentioned before, here I'll say again, this coalition was a strategic decision by the Canaanite kings. They believed it was the only chance they had to survive. And God took their best laid plans and used it to defeat them. Because guess what happens? When you have five kings who take their armies out of their city-states, gather them into one massive force, and carry them into the field, and God defeats all of those kings at one time, all you're having to do is mop up whatever's left. Right? They believed it was their best chance to win. But in fact, it proved to be the means that God used to hasten their defeat. And the campaign could have been a lot longer had they not done this. So in the providence of God, the most frightening thing that could happen in a military conflict proves to be the means that God uses to bring about victory. I want you to think about that for a second. Because there are no generals in the room right now, I don't think, unless one of you is a retired general, right? None of us are expecting to go out on the field of battle tomorrow, but every one of us is engaged in spiritual warfare with the forces of wickedness in heavenly places every single day, whether you know it or not. And that's one of the problems with a lot of Christianity today is they're in a war and they don't realize it. And therefore they're losing the fight. We're engaged in spiritual warfare every day. And sometimes the things that frighten us the most are the very things that God is going to use as the means to give His people victory. And that's the case here. I mean, imagine the hearts of the people as they hear, these five kings have gathered together an impressive army. And they're marching on Gibeon. And now, Joshua and the leader swore peace with these people. And now our soldiers are going to have to go to the front lines against this massive force and defend people that we were supposed to execute. I mean, imagine keeping this vow at this point. If the people were unhappy in chapter 9, which they were, you'll recall, They've got to be even more unhappy now when they find out in chapter 10, Gibeon is under siege and we're the ones who've got to go do something about it. We're going to risk our lives for people that lied to us. And not only lied to us, but people that were under the judgment of God and were supposed to be executed. Now, you can imagine the frustration, the fear, the dissension, and God is using all of that. to bring about the downfall of the Canaanites. Remember that the next time everything seems to be falling apart in your life, in the world, every time the forces of evil seem to be gathering together and they're at the door, and I just feel overwhelmed and I don't know what I'm going to do. Remember that oftentimes the strategy that the evil one is using as his last ditch effort to win is God's means providentially of bringing about salvation. That's encouraging to me. These kings go against Gibeon, because Gibeon is an impressive city, a royal city, a city where all of the men are warriors. Probably a little bit of hyperbole there, but you can understand the point that's being made, right? And the Amorites are going to destroy Gibeon to make sure Gibeon doesn't reinforce Israel. They want to create a foothold. They need a victory against Israel, and they like their chances against Gibeon better than Israel. I don't blame them in that, right? Gibeon sends word to Israel, verse 6, come and help us. Don't forget the promise you made, even though you weren't supposed to make it. You've got to be true to your word. Your God is a God of truth. He's a God who requires honesty. And sure enough, Joshua verse 7 goes up from Gilgal. He and all the people of war and all the mighty men of valor. And then here comes Yahweh. And what does the Lord say to Joshua? He says, see, this is why you should have prayed before you took that vow. This is the mess that your own sinful stupidity has gotten you in. You see, that's what the Lord would have said if the Lord were like us. And thank God that He is not. I mean, I cannot imagine how hard I would have to bite my tongue in this moment not to say something like that, right? Because that's just how sinful and petty we are. I just want to stick that barb in, right, and say, I told you so. I told you this was a bad idea. You should have listened and now look at the problem that we've got. But that's not what the Lord does, because the Lord is not like us. We're called to be like Him, but think. God, He is not like us. Verse 8, The Lord said to Joshua, Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands. Not a man of them shall stand before you. Does that sound familiar? That's chapter 1. That's chapter 1 in verse 5. Now this is an application that I was going to do at the end of class, but I'm going to need to make it here because I don't know if we'll get to it by the end of class. One of the remarkable things about Scripture is the way in which God reassures His people, not by revealing new truth, but by reminding us of old truth. And this is so important. This is why we memorize Scripture. This is why we read Scripture. is so that the Holy Spirit has access to all of this Word that we have hidden in our hearts and brings it to bear in important moments of our lives. See, if you are not committed regularly to reading the Bible, if you're not committing portions of Scripture to memory, you are impoverishing yourself. Because the Holy Spirit's role here is not to come in and reveal to you all of the things that you should have known and could have known, but chose not to know. The Holy Spirit comes in to refresh, renew, remind us of the truths that God has revealed before. And the Lord doesn't come in and tell Joshua anything new. He tells him the same thing that He told him when they were still on the east side of the Jordan River. But he reminds him of that to say, I have been faithful to you to this point and I will be faithful still. And this battle is already won. It looks like you're going to have to go out and fight and you will, but I've already won the victory. You will walk through the valley of the shadow of death, but the shepherd has already gone before you and he has defeated every frightening thing that you will ever find there. That's powerful. In the New Testament, you've got Paul and Peter doing the same thing. Peter saying, I will not be negligent to remind you of these things, though you know them well. Why? Because he knows that the church is comforted and strengthened and helped by old truth. When I was very new in the ministry, in the first several years of ministry, I was very self-conscious about preaching sermons that I felt like everybody in the congregation already knew. You know, you want to stand up and feel like they're going to think you're brilliant, right? You want to stand up and everybody go, wow, what insight he has after this week of study, right? I would be very self-conscious if I got to the end of a sermon and felt like nobody learned anything new there. But the reality is, that even if nobody ever learned anything new in those sermons, if you're a Christian, you should still be comforted and encouraged and helped as the Holy Spirit applies those old truths in fresh ways in your life, in that moment of need. And we have this fascination with shiny things, you know. We chase what is new, what is trendy. We want new phones. We want new cars. We want new computers. And I've got to tell you, when it comes to theology, what you want is very, very old. When it comes to truth, what you want is very, very old. And when it comes to comfort, you don't want to find your comfort in the latest thing that's off of an assembly line. You want to find your comfort in the Word of God that has stood the test of time for almost 4,000 years now. And that's an important reminder. Now, here's another application that we're going to get to at the end of class, except we're going to go ahead and do it now. And that's in verse 9. What does Joshua do when the Lord says, the battle is won? Joshua goes out and marches all night and fights a battle. What a lack of faith that boy has, right? I mean, didn't God just say the battle was already won? He should have gone back to bed and slept in the next morning. No. See, there is this foolish idea that people have that if we have a high view of God's sovereignty, remember what sovereignty means, right? It's God's authority and control over everything in life, in this world. There is not one maverick molecule, as R.C. Sproul likes to say, right? And people are afraid if we have this high view of God's sovereignty, if we say that He's not only in charge of it, He's in control of everything, even evil is restrained by His hand. If we believe that, well, we're going to just throw up our hands. Because what's the point? Why would you pray? God's already decided what He's going to do. Why would you pray? Why would you evangelize? God's already decided who He's going to save, who He's not going to save. Why would you evangelize? Why would you do anything? Why would you obey God's law at all? God's either going to save you or He's not going to save you, and your involvement doesn't really matter at all. And I'm telling you, that is a straw man that is absolutely not grounded in anything in Scripture. Because all over the Bible, you have these kind of statements where God says, this is already done, now go claim it. All over the Bible. And my response to that would be, you pray because God is in control. And why would you pray if He's not? You evangelize because God has promised His Word will not return void. And He has determined He will save people. And guess what? When you preach the Word to them, they're going to get saved whether they want to or not. This is why we obey the Lord. is because God is sovereign. God is in control. When Joshua hears this, he doesn't say, wow, this is great. I'm going to get a good night's rest and I'm going to sleep late tomorrow. He says, let's gird up our loins and get out there and march all night. We want to get this battle started early because it's going to go well. And that should be our attitude. That when we hear Jesus say, the gates of Hades will not prevail against my church, boy, we need to have some bold humility in going out into this world. Because it's not saying that Hades will not prevail against the gates of the church as if we are under assault. No, no. The kingdom of darkness is under assault and the forces of good are triumphing. You won't get that idea on 24 hour news, but you'll get that idea real clear, real quick if you spend some time reading your Bible. Randy. that we review at the beginning of that prayer, review what we know God has already done for us, that strengthens us and encourages us and gives us the faith to ask Him for those things that we want in our lives. Amen. Absolutely. Some of you may use the acronym ACTS, A-C-T-S, to organize your prayers. I encourage that often when I teach on prayer. Adoration, you start with worship. You just praise God for being God. Confession, you own up to your sins. He knows them anyway. And turn them to him and pray for his mercy that he has promised you in Jesus Christ. Thanksgiving, because God's faithfulness places, it gives us a context for supplication, which is asking things of him. And often, I think a lot of us, when we pray, we get right to the supplication and we rarely get beyond it. I'm praying because I need something. And once I've done asking for that, well, I've got a lot to do today, Lord, you understand, you know. I think that's right. Thanksgiving before we ask. is setting parameters, if you will. Gives context for God's faithfulness in our lives. Very good. Very good. Verse 10. The Lord threw them into a panic before Israel, who struck them down with a great blow at Gibeon, chased them by the way of the ascent to Beth Horon, struck them as far as Ezekiah and Makeda. If you're reading the ESV or many English translations, you'll notice that God is the subject of all four verbs in that sentence. And that seems to be the best way to translate the Hebrew there. The Lord throws them into a panic. The Lord strikes them a great blow. The Lord chases them by the way. The Lord strikes them down. And as they fled before Israel while they were going down the ascent of Beth Horon, the Lord threw down large hell stones from heaven on them as far as Ezekiel and they died. I mean, God is very involved in this battle. Probably just a coincidence that they have this massive hailstorm with hailstorms the size that kill men. Just a coincidence, right? Or there are no coincidences. Do you realize that the same God who did that then rules over heaven and earth today? Now, we may not feel that. We may say, well, then He could cure the people that we've just prayed about, right? He could cure them just like that. Why doesn't He? Because in his mercy, he doesn't want us to live forever in a world that's cursed by sin. Because death is an enemy that he uses as a means for good in our life to bring us to him. Because he wants us to be so sick of this world that we'll actually long for heaven and we'll see the contrast between the misery of this moment and the glory of that one. I mean, that's a few of the reasons he might not. We look at our lives as if my greatest need at this moment is for God to do what I think is best when we need to be saying, Lord, You know what is best. Let my will be to do Your will and to embrace Your will. That doesn't mean we don't pray for healing. That doesn't mean we don't pray for deliverance. It doesn't mean we don't pray for help. But it means we pray recognizing that if God says no to that prayer, He's saying yes to something that we wish we'd had the wisdom to pray for in the first place. Right? There were more who died because of the hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with the sword. Just in case the Israelites begin to look around at this battlefield and say, we're getting really good at this. You know, we were not known as a warrior people before, but boy, we're really getting good at this. No, you're not. Weather is killing more people than you are. You're practically incompetent with a sword. Thank God that he is not. Right? and then at that time. I want you to notice in verse 12 that even though the wording of the prayer makes it sound almost as if Joshua is speaking to the Son, he's not. He's speaking to Yahweh. Joshua said to Yahweh, spoke to the Lord in that day, Son, stand still at Gibeon. This is akin to what the later Joshua better known as Jesus, will do when he addresses the winds and the waves and says, stop, stop. And they obey then and they obey here. And that's remarkable. Now, how do we understand this? People will say, well, there's obviously some accommodative language used here because the sun's not moving at all. The earth is moving around it. And yet it says the sun stood still and the moon stood still. And yes, of course, there's accommodative language. This is described from the perspective of a human being standing on planet Earth. That doesn't mean that the Bible has errors in it. That doesn't mean that the Bible is untrue. It simply means that we today, even knowing what we know about this solar system, say the sun rises at 7 a.m. and it's setting at like 3 p.m. I mean, what's up with that? It's not quite 3 p.m., but it feels like it, right? We use that language even though we know that's not technically correct. That's accommodative language, right? There's no problem with that. The question is, how do we even understand what happens here? And I think the sanctified answer is first, we don't know. I don't know how God did that. Do you actually realize what would happen if the earth stopped spinning on its axis? That'd be fun, right? I have no idea how God did this. I will tell you there's an interesting possibility here. that may not make a lot of sense to you, and that's fine because I'm not advocating for it, I'm just mentioning it. If you like to read, and some of you do, you're going to run across this in the literature. The Hebrew word that's being used for stand still is a word that basically means cease what you're doing. And it could be describing the movement of the sun. In other words, lengthen the light. Or it could be referring to darkening the sun. In other words, prolonging the darkness. Joshua marches all night and attacks early. And when the victory is unfolding, the panic that has set into the enemy camp, Joshua may be trying to preserve the conditions of that panic and give Israel the tactical advantage of darkness. And by the way, even though you may say, what? Surely that can't be what it means. If you sit down and take some time and read it, you'll see that that's actually a perfectly plausible way of reading it. I don't know that that's what happened, by the way. I think it's probably more likely the traditional view is correct. And that what happens is the period of sunlight is extended for almost a whole day, whatever that means. That's not a precise figure. But for a period of time longer than normal, God preserves light. or darkness, but whichever way that works, it is to Israel's advantage. It is in order to press the tactical advantage that they have on the battlefield so that the enemies can be thoroughly routed. There is a point here, it's a secondary point, but I think it's worth mentioning now that we're working through the historical literature. You're going to see a recurring minor theme in the Old Testament of pressing the advantage. You're going to see this in some interesting places. There's even going to be kind of a bizarre episode where Elisha, at the end of his life, is going to call the king of Israel in. to his bedchamber, right? He's in his sickbed. He's about to die. And he hands him arrows and he says, strike the ground. And this is the sign of God's victory over Syria. And the king strikes three times and stops. And Elisha rebukes him and says, you should have struck six or seven times and then the Lord would have thoroughly routed Syria, but now you're not going to get complete victory. You say, what in the world does that mean? Well, it kind of fits in this larger motif of when the people of God go after the battle that God has called them to, they're to press the advantage. There's no such thing as lukewarm Christianity. The Laodiceans find this out the hard way. Jesus sends them a letter and says, you disgust me. I'm going to vomit you out of my mouth. That's not a good sign when Jesus says something like that to a local church. You just don't have that kind of thing. When the battle is being won, you press. When the battle is being fought, you press. You think about that with regard to your battle with sin. We are far too passive with regard to our battle against sin. And I say we, I mean me in that. John Owen said, be killing sin or sin will be killing you. It's one or the other. You're in a dogfight and this is a battle you cannot afford to lose. You don't get passive about that. You don't settle for minor victories. You press the advantage. That's what Joshua's doing on the battlefield here. Lord, give us light or dark or whatever he's saying. Son, stop. and let us press the battle. And here's a fascinating thing, verse 13, the editor, or perhaps the later narrator, I suspect that this is written very closely after Joshua's time. This may be a later copyist, I don't know. But at some point after this, he mentions the further corroboration of this seemingly impossible to believe story in a non-biblical book, a non-canonical book, the book of Jasher. We say, what is the Book of Joshua? Well, I don't know. I don't have a copy of it. Nobody has a copy of it anymore. But the original readers of the Book of Joshua knew exactly what it was. I mean, this would be like saying, by the way, if you don't believe me, go check this book out at the library, because it talks about that day too. There is historical corroboration. And whatever this phenomenon is, I take it to be a historical phenomenon, by the way, you will hear some skeptical liberal scholars who will say, well, this didn't really happen. You know, this is just kind of figurative. And I'm telling you, the Bible says it happened. And that ought to be enough for you if you're a Christian. The Bible says it happened. You ought to believe it, right? And in areas where it's clearly poetic. There's no clearing it up. Absolutely. Like in Isaiah 13. That's right. And then when Christ prophesied it again in 24 Matthew. When he says the sun will be turned to darkness, the moon will be turned to blood, things like that. And it's clearly set in a poetic, prophetic context. And there we even have the advantage of seeing how those prophetic contexts are interpreted later. Acts 2, Peter says on the day of Pentecost, what you're seeing right now is what Joel spoke about. The sun will be turned to darkness, the moon to blood. And you say, that didn't happen on the day of Pentecost. It did. It still conjures up with the sun, the moon, and the stars, God's wrath. Exactly. It's cosmic forces at work. That's exactly right. Nanette. I was thinking as you were reading that, that in Genesis, you could say that was the light. Then he can stop the sun. He can turn out the light. Or he can, remember this, in Genesis chapter 1, regardless of how you look at the creation narrative, all of us should be able to affirm that the sun is not the ultimate source of light because you have light on day one and you don't have a sun until day four. God uses the sun as a placeholder. But if God wants it to be light, God can make it light. And let me tell you something, if God wanted to stop the world on its axis, which is not what I necessarily think happens here, but let me tell you something, God can do that because he's God. He can do anything. Don't get into some kind of foolish debate about this passage where you think that you are obligated to argue that that's exactly what the Lord did. Obviously, He stopped the earth on its axis. We know that with our scientific enlightenment. That scientific enlightenment is not going to look so enlightened 200 years from now. But guess what? If the world still stands 200 years from now, Joshua chapter 10 is still going to tell this story, right? And we'll be just as obligated to believe it then as we are now. There had been no day like that before or since when Yahweh heeded the voice of a man because Yahweh fought for Israel. And again, I don't want to overplay the parallel with Jesus stilling the storm because there Jesus is not praying to the Father to still the storm. He's stopping the storm himself. And here Joshua is praying for Yahweh to do this. And yet there are some interesting parallels, I think. And in a certain respect, I think that Joshua as a type of Christ may be foreshadowing even that event. Verse 16, yeah, we're not going to get through two chapters tonight. These five kings fled and hid themselves in the cave at Makeda. And it was told to Joshua, the five kings have been found hidden in the cave at Makeda. And Joshua said, roll large stones against the mouth of the cave and set men by it to guard it, but do not stay there yourselves. Pursue your enemies, attack their rear guard, do not let them enter their cities, for Yahweh your God has given them into your hand. When Joshua and the sons of Israel had finished striking them a great blow until they were wiped out, and when the remnant that remained of them had entered into the fortified cities, then all the people returned safe to Joshua in the camp at Machedah. Not a man moved his tongue against any of the people of Israel." And then Joshua said, Open the mouth of the cave and bring those five kings out to me from the cave. And they did so, and brought those five kings out to him from the cave, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmath, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon. And when they brought those kings out to Joshua, Joshua summoned all the men of Israel and said to the chiefs of the men of war who had gone with him, Come near, put your feet on the necks of these kings. And they came near and put their feet on their necks. And Joshua said to them, Do not be afraid or dismayed. Be strong and courageous, for thus Yahweh will do to all your enemies against whom you fight. And afterward Joshua struck them and put them to death, and he hanged them on five trees, and they hung on the trees until evening. But at the time of the going down of the sun, Joshua commanded, and they took them down from the trees and threw them into the cave where they had hidden themselves, and they set large stones against the mouth of the cave, which remain to this very day. As for Machedah, Joshua captured it on that day and struck it and its king with the edge of the sword. He devoted to destruction every person in it. He left none remaining, and he did to the king of Machedah just as he had done to the king of Jericho." This may seem barbaric, but let me tell you something. You just ran across a profoundly Christological passage. And if it strikes you as barbaric, you need to bear in mind that number one, this is exactly what God has commanded. Therefore, it's a matter of obedience. And secondly, God has commanded it because these people are famously, notoriously, idolatrous, immoral and wicked. They are under the judgment of God 400 plus years earlier. God tells Abraham, you're not going to go into Canaan yet and possess it because the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. In this generation, it is complete and the day of judgment has come and there is no injustice in what God is doing. The five kings who organized this coalition have fled into a cave. They've barricaded themselves there. And Joshua says, that's fine. Let them hide in the cave. Roll a stone in front of it and keep pressing the pursuit. And did you notice what he said? Verse 19. Do not stay there yourselves. Pursue your enemies. Attack their rear guard. Do not let them enter their cities for the Lord your God has given them into your hand. If the Lord your God has given them into your hand, why do you have to be told, don't let them enter the cities? Because divine sovereignty and human responsibility correspond. God has given them into your hand, so go get them. Don't be slack. Don't prop your feet up. Go do your job because you can be confident that you will succeed because God has given them into your hand. Do you see that? Don't ever let someone tell you that Calvinism or some high view of God's sovereignty undermines the urgency of prayer and evangelism and obedience. It's the exact opposite. The exact opposite is the case. And so they press the advantage and they chase them in as far as they can. Some of them escape into cities. And yet God gives victory to these people. Right. Don? This doesn't have to do with anything really, but I'm the kind of person that has to wrap his mind around something to say I know it. I won't say I know something if I almost know it. That's not knowing something. Right. The Lord stopped me from drinking over 55 years ago. If I told people how much I drank, they'd be sure I was lying because I can't even believe myself how much I drank. I could float the biggest ship you could think of. My liver's fine, my kidneys are fine. I don't understand it at all. I don't even begin to wrap my mind around it. I don't understand it at all. But it is. God is good. So I couldn't go anywhere without colliding with that. I mean, I couldn't escape that if I wanted to. And it's just such a great illustration. I still don't understand it, but I know that it is. All of us should be able to have things in our life where we look and say, if I didn't already believe and know that God is sovereign, I would have to believe it because of how He's worked in my life and how good He's been to me and how He has brought deliverance out of chaos. And He's doing that in Israel's history as well. So Joshua comes back to Makeda, and they roll the stone back, they bring the kings out, and Joshua says to his men, I want you to come over here, and we're going to stretch these guys out on the ground, and you're going to put your foot on the back of their neck. Everybody knows what that means, right? A puppy knows what that means. You've ever seen a dog assert dominance, right? He's going to put one of the other dogs on the ground, and he's going to put his mouth around his throat or the back of his neck. And he's going to say, I'm in charge, not you. And look at what the Lord is saying here. Verse 25, Do not be afraid or dismayed. Be strong and courageous. For thus Yahweh will do to all the enemies against whom you fight. Now the sad thing is, when we get into the book of Judges, we're going to find that the people did not fully believe that. They certainly didn't act as if they fully believed it because there are going to be enemies that they don't overcome and that's going to be on them. But Joshua is giving them the same message that God gave him back in chapter one, and he's given them graphic examples of the supremacy of their God over all enemies. And then what does he do? He kills them. He hangs them on a tree until evening. He puts them into a cave and he rolls a large stone over the mouth of the cave. But did you notice they remain there to this day? Does anybody see a parallel there? I know you do. Now, here's the reversal of that story in the New Testament. In the New Testament, it will not be the wicked king. but it will be the righteous conqueror. The wicked king will kill Joshua, the righteous conqueror. He will hang his body on a tree until evening. He will place his body in a tomb, a cave, and roll a large stone over the mouth of that grave. And the third day, that stone is going to be moved and his body is not there to this day. Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. Those kings belonged on that tree. Our king did not, but thank God he was there. Do you see that? Do you see how God has structured everything in human history to point us ahead to Christ? to reinforce that this is what's coming, or this is what is being. This is what you desperately need. You and I are not Joshua in this story. We are the wicked. Right? Jesus is the greater Joshua, who not only puts to death the enemies of the people of God, but is himself put to death so that those enemies might be defeated. Joshua, in this story, wins with the sword. Jesus will win by means of the cross. By means of being killed and then rising again. There is a lot of Christ in the book of Joshua. And I hope you've seen that through this first half of the book. I hope you've seen that. Alright, we've got just a few minutes left. Let's read through this last part of the chapter and wrap up. Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Makeda to Libna and fought against Libna. And Yahweh gave it also and its king into the hand of Israel. And he struck it with the edge of the sword and every person in it. He left none remaining in it. And he did to its king as he had done to the king of Jericho. Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Libna to Lachish, and laid siege to it, and fought against it. Then Yahweh gave Lachish into the hand of Israel, and He captured it on the second day, and struck it with the edge of the sword, and every person in it, as He had done to Libna." Then Horam king of Gezer came up to help Lachish. And Joshua struck him and his people until he left, none remaining. Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Lachish to Eglon. And they laid siege to it and fought against it. And they captured it on that day and struck it with the edge of the sword. And he devoted every person in it to destruction that day, as he had done to Lachish. Then Joshua and all Israel with him went up from Eglon to Hebron, and they fought against it and captured it and struck it with the edge of the sword and its king and its towns and every person in it. He left none remaining as he had done to Eglon and devoted it to destruction and every person in it. Then Joshua and all Israel with him turned back to Deborah and fought against it, and he captured it with its king and all its towns. And they struck them with the edge of the sword and devoted to destruction every person in it. He left none remaining, just as he had done to Hebron and to Libnah and its king, so he did to Deborah and its king." So Joshua struck the whole land, the hill country, and the Negev, and the low land, and the slopes, and all their kings. He left none remaining, but devoted to destruction all that breathed, just as Yahweh, God of Israel, had commanded. And Joshua struck them from Kadesh Barnea, as far as Gaza, and all the country of Goshen, as far as Gibeon. And Joshua captured all these kings and their land at one time, because Yahweh, God of Israel, fought for Israel. Then Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp at Gilgal. Now that may seem a little tedious to say, wow, that's just a series of cities and what they did, and they basically did the same thing in every place. But understand the significance of it. Three things. Number one, fairy tales start a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. They happen in undescribed locations at indefinite times with people that we can never truly locate. And the Bible happens in real places that are dateable, that are observable. This is history. It's not mythology. Secondly, this is obedience to the Lord's command. We're going to see this affirmed at the end of the Northern Campaign in chapter 11 next week. Joshua obeys the Lord. Fully, perfectly, does Israel accomplish the conquest? No. We'll see that at the beginning of the book of Judges. But by and large, Joshua is faithful to the Lord, and the generation of the conquest does everything well except one thing, and that is teach their children. Third, the Lord is fighting for Israel, and that is why they win. and you see the faithfulness of God in city after city, town after town, as one king after another falls, you are seeing God's victory in their life. And they are able to press the battle and succeed because God is with them. There are two different Hebrew words that can be used here. The one that is used refers to attacking and conquering, but not possessing. They're moving through a lot of this area, they're attacking it, but they're not leaving people there to settle it, to colonize it. That will come later, and as we'll find out, some of these cities will be retaken by Canaanites. And some of these battles will have to be re-fought. And you may say, well, then where is the faithfulness of God? That is no fault of the faithfulness of God. This is the faithfulness of God that reassures those future battles that usually have to be fought because of Israel's failures, as we'll see. But nonetheless, God is faithful in this moment. All right. Does that make sense, Nancy? In the overall scheme of things, I doubt that this matters a bit, but I'm trying to picture, should they decapitate people? Some of them. Probably. Decapitation was not the usual method of execution, but it certainly is attested in the Old Testament, so I'd say it's possible. Strong sword arms after a while. That's right. And very bloody. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. Bob. We talked about the importance of obedience. the faithfulness of God bringing victory. Then it talks about the opposite of that is disobedience brought to failure. Absolutely. That's exactly right. And this is all, I mean, they're not obeying in order to obtain favor. They're obeying because they've obtained favor. And yet that obedience still brings blessings or disobedience brings curses. And there's a principle there that we need to see even today. We're not a theocracy. Right? We're pilgrims and sojourners in a foreign land. And yet, guess what? There's still a principle that applies. That obedience brings blessing into the people of God's life. Right? Not in the way that the Word of Faith preachers want you to believe that. That's just silly. Right? Fatal. But nonetheless, God does bless His people through obedience. And disobedience is sure enough going to bring God's discipline into your life. Right? Read Hebrews 12. So it's a principle we'll see over and over. Yeah, in this section. Alright, very good. Let's close with prayer. Our God and Father, we marvel at the pictures of Christ, at the ways in which we see Your purpose, Your power working out in the history of Your people. We thank You, O God, for the passage that we've looked at this evening. We marvel at Your ability to make the sun and the moon stand still, however You did. We confess that it is true. We confess that we believe. because we believe that nothing that you purpose to do will ever be impossible for you, and that everything that you promise, you will indeed perform. We pray that you would be with us, Lord, that this truth might rest within our hearts and sink deep, that our lives might be faithful to you, strengthened by your grace, and fruitful for the glory of your great name. Bless us and keep us, O Lord, we pray in Jesus' holy name. Amen.