Joshua chapter 10 this morning, all right. So we're picking up where we were two weeks ago where we went through Joshua chapter 9. In Joshua 9 we had the Gibeonite deception, and that's a central element really to understanding what's going on in chapter 10. The Gibeonites are people in the land of Canaan. They had understood what their fate was, that God had told them that they're to be destroyed. All the people in the land were devoted to destruction. They were going to be destroyed. So they came up with this plan to make it seem like they had come from outside the land so they can make a treaty with them and not be destroyed. Israel didn't go to God first, as they should have. And so they make the covenant with the Gibeonites. So the plan in that sense worked. Then it's figured out. They wrestle through what they're going to do. You know, they're going to honor the covenant. And the Gibeonites become servants. They're choppers of wood, gatherers of water. but it relates to this chapter. I'm going to read through the whole chapter, which is 45 verses. So it's going to take a little bit, but follow along and then we'll go back through and we won't read through it all as we go through it, but I think it's important that we always read the Word of God and it be central. So Joshua chapter 10. 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, Japhia king of Lachish and Debir 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 Yarmouth, 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. And 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 of war with him and all the mighty men of valor. And 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. So Joshua came upon them suddenly, having marched up all night from Gilgal. And the Lord threw them into a panic before Israel, who struck them with a great blow at Gibeon, and chased them by way of the ascent of Beth-horon, and struck them as far as Ezekiah and Makedah. And as they fled before Israel, while they were going down the ascent of Beth-horon, the Lord threw down large stones from heaven on them as far as Ezekiah, and they died. There were more who died because of the hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with the sword. At that time, Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord 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 Jashar, 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 the Lord heeded the voice of a man for the Lord fought for Israel. So Joshua returned and all Israel with him to the camp at Gilgal. 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 them. But 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. When Joshua and the sons of Israel had finished striking them with 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 Machedda. Not a man moved his tongue against any of the people of Israel. 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 Yarmouth, 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. Then 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 the Lord 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 remained to this very day. As for Makeda, 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 Makeda just as he had done to the king of Jericho. Then Joshua and all Israel with him passed on from Machedda to Libna, and he fought against Libna. And the Lord 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. And the Lord 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 Debir 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 Libna and its king, so he did to Debir and to its king. So Joshua struck the whole land, the hill country and the Negev, and the lowland and the slopes and all their kings. He left none remaining, but devoted to destruction all that breathed. just as the Lord God of Israel 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 the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel. Then Joshua returned and all Israel with him to the camp at Gilgal. So when we covered chapter 9, we noted at the time how the writer left us hanging, if you remember, after verse 2. Joshua 9 said, against Israel prior to the action of the Gibeonites. But the action of the Gibeonites changed that. So as we open in chapter 10, we see a change in that plan due to the covenant Gibeon now has with Israel. So the plan is no longer for those kings to gather and fight against Israel. They're going to gather and fight against Gibeon. In verse 4, Adonai Zedek, king of Jerusalem, says to the other kings, 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." So Adonai Zedek understands that really geographically Jerusalem is likely next if Israel heads south. They've cut across, as we talked about, the central campaign is in the first you know, eight chapters of the book of Joshua, and they've come into that area and controlled that, and if they're going to either go north or south, and if they go south, Jerusalem is likely the next city to be attacked. So he's gathered these armies together, the other kings of the Amorites from the hill country, to go up against Gibeon. And we saw in chapter 9, if you will remember, in verse 17, that there were some other cities other than Gibeon that were aligned with Gibeon. Shephira or Kephira, Beroth, and Kiriath Yareem, these other cities that were southwest of Gibeon. You can see on the map, five or six miles southwest is Kephira and Kiriath Yareem. Beroth is uncertain, although this map has it just below, south of Gibeon. So then you had the five cities that's repeated throughout, you know, of Jerusalem, Hebron, Yarmouth, Lachish, and Eglon, all coming up to the north to attack Gibeon. This gives you kind of a closer idea of what's going on. It's probably not too hard to see. There's little white lines on this map that are the main travel routes that are going on. So if you look at Jerusalem in the center, You'll see a travel route that kind of heads off to the east and goes over towards Gilgal and Jericho. And that's where Israel's encamped. So it's not like anybody could come in or out of Jerusalem, because you're not going to really go into the wilderness area there. But it's not like anybody could come in from the east unless Israel lets them, or nobody's getting out unless Israel lets them. They control that path out to the east. By conquering Ai and Bethel up to the north, Israel had already taken the northern route that comes in down to Jerusalem. So they're kind of controlling that as well. And then with them aligning with Gibeon, you see on the map being slightly to the west and northwest, there was these routes that came in from the west, and one comes in through Kiriath Yarim, and one kind of comes in that way, then forks up and then comes down. But that too is aligned with Israel, right? So Jerusalem, whether it's trade or anybody to help them, can't really get help from the North, the West, or the East. They only can really get help from the South. So they're cut off. And I know that the passage doesn't talk about it, but I think when it talks about the geography, we're supposed to make the geographic connections. So that's why it's important for us to kind of understand that. So you have this federation that's coming up to attack Gibeon. We don't know exactly why other than that because they had made that covenant with Israel. But I mean, we can strategically understand it would open up trade routes and travel routes and start to push back against Israel. So that's what's happening. Gibeon, the men of Gibeon then send to Joshua at Gilgal saying, do not relax your hand from your servants. Come up to us quickly and save us and help us. They're using language similar to what they used in chapter 9, verse 25, when they made the covenant. They said, we are in your hand. And part of that is saying, do with us what you see fit. We are in your control. And here, they're saying, don't relax your hand. Don't let us out. Don't drop us. The NIV says, don't abandon us. So I think that's the wordplay or word understanding of what's going on. Live up to your covenant, please. And there's an urgency you can pick up at the end of that, right? Come up to us quickly. Save us. Help us. If we think back of verse two had said, Gibeon was a city where the men were warriors. This isn't a wimpy town that's, oh no, these people are coming against us. This is a town of warrior men that recognizes how outnumbered they are with these five Amorite kings coming up against them. So they're crying out for urgent response from Israel. And then we get to verse 7. You know, Israel has a little bit of a challenge, and we talked about that in chapter 9, whether they would live up to that covenant. And they have it again here in a way, even though the text doesn't, you know, delve into that so much, but there certainly could have been an argument to go, leave them, let them, let whatever happens to them, you know, they deceived us making that covenant, this is our way out, and maybe it's God's way out, we never know. But that's not what they do. God had made it clear, and we showed other passages, that the covenant, that Israel was supposed to abide by it, and Joshua abides by it. They don't see this as an easy way out, just to let the Gibeonites receive their own fate. They're going to honor that treaty, and they respond quickly. He and all the people with him, and all the mighty men of valor, they go up from Gilgal. They're going to honor it. And you get to verse 8 where you have God's response then. And we need to read the word closely. I mean, God is not giving some new revelation, new promise to Joshua. He's reiterating what he's been telling Joshua all along. These are the same words from Joshua 1, where he talked repeatedly about, I'm gonna give you the land, which he said there, I've given them into your hands. And he repeats in there, don't fear, do not fear, be strong and courageous. And in verse five, he specifically almost uses the exact same line. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. It's almost identical to, not a man of them shall stand before you. So he's reassuring Joshua with those promises that he'd given him before in Joshua 1 and even elsewhere. Dale Ralph Davis in his commentary said this, and I have it on the screen for you. Such is the usual way God has of reassuring his children, not by unveiling to them some new truth previously unknown, but by reaffirming promises already given, which somehow take on special power because of the present pressing need. That is what God's people usually need. Not new truth, but old truth freshly applied to their current need. That's really good and true. It can leave a little waffling about can we even get new truth, which I'm sure he wouldn't be arguing that, but what he's talking about is just that reassurance of those promises. We don't need to go and say, God, you need to show me more, give me more information, or to understand things. We go back to God's word, which is everything we need, it is sufficient, and we look at those promises that are to us, not to other entities, but that are applicable to us. And we can, in a sense, claim those promises, hold to those promises. As I was preparing this week, it made me think of the hymn we used to sing. I don't necessarily mean our body, but we would sing, standing, standing, standing on the promises of God, my savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing on the promises of God. I mean, that's what he's reminding of, those promises and to stand on them. And it's so true and something we need to keep in mind whenever we're in those times of difficulty. So then, God has promised them victory. That's hugely important. He'd already promised them. He reassured them with that promise. And what was then going to be Joshua's response? God has promised that they're going to have victory over these enemies. None are going to stand against him. It didn't make Joshua passive. And I think that's important for us to keep in mind. It didn't make him passive. It energized him. He immediately went into action. They marched all night from Gilgal. They didn't wait days or whatever. They marched all night from Gilgal to Gibeon. And you can see on the map that it's a march from the east to the west. It's about 18 miles, probably a good seven-hour march at night, at least. And further, if they went to the other cities and had some men in Kefirah and Kiryat Yarim, would have been another four or five miles, another hour or two of time on that march. But they didn't sleep. They marched all night. And that, for me, applicationally, as I was reading this and thinking about it this week, is that It just, we need to understand, it's important for every believer to understand the sovereignty of God, that God is in control of all things. That's a fundamental basic element that we all need to understand. And I think we understand why that's important, that when we understand He's going to accomplish His purposes, that He's in control, it eliminates that anxiety like we saw in the call to worship. We can be like the the weaned child before the mother and just kind of like, in a sense, sleeping on her and not being worried and trusting that she will provide the food. We can trust that God has got everything in control. But next to that is that we don't want to misunderstand the sovereignty of God and the implication of it. The implication of it does not mean that God has everything in control and I then don't have to do anything or I can be passive. It's not supposed to do that. And it's a common problem that we have. We may think of it, well, God's in control of salvation, so does it really matter if I share the gospel with him? He's going to save him if he wants to. terribly unbiblical thought and incorrect. God is in control of salvation, but we're still called, you know, to share. You know, we have to, you know, if you read Romans 10, it takes somebody going out and preaching the word to them. That's the means that God uses, even though he is behind the scenes with the Spirit working that work. And there's just other things in our sanctification. You know, God is at work in us, sanctifying us, but we This can't be totally passive. We have to do the things God has commanded of being in his word and in prayer and gathering together and fellowshipping and all the means that God has decreed for us to use. Yes, we leave the results and certain things to him, but it should never lead to passiveness and it didn't lead to passiveness for Joshua. They marched up all night. They went right after it and came quickly to Gibeon's aid. And then we see in verse 10, and we'll spend some time on verse 10, it says, and the Lord threw them into a panic before Israel, who struck them with a great blow at Gibeon, and chased them by the way of the ascent of Bet-Horon, and struck them as far as Ezekiah and Makeda. I underlined the four verbs in there of threw, and struck, and chased, and then struck again. And it's clear from the very opening of the verse of the first verb, who the subject is. God is the subject. The Lord threw them into a panic. There is actually debate on who is the subject of the remaining three verbs. Is it God or is it Israel or Joshua and Israel? Who is striking them with the great blow at Gibeon? Who's chasing them? Who's striking them as far as Ezekiel and Makeda? We're using the English Standard Version and that really takes the position that this is Israel. So the who is referring to the last, I guess you'd say, noun of Israel right before it. So it's Israel who strikes them with the great blow and chases them and strikes them as far as Ezekiel and Makeda. And they can get that. I think there's some contextual reason for that in the passage that you can see in verse 12 and in verses 19 to 20. In 12, it talks about how the Amorites have been given over to the sons of Israel. In verse 19, they're to pursue them, pursue and chase the enemies. And you have almost the same exact phrase in 20, striking them with a great blow. When Joshua and the sons of Israel had finished striking them with a great blow, it's almost the same thing as the second verb, you know, who struck them with a great blow. So, I mean, there's a very logical reason of why those other three verbs can be Israel as the subject. But, I will say, and should be noted, some of us use the New American Standard Bible, and if you read the New American Standard Bible, you're not gonna see it understood that way. The translators believe God is the subject of all the four verbs. So as you can see on the screen, it says, and the Lord confounded them before Israel, and he slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and pursued them by the way of the ascent of Bet-Horon, and struck them as far as Ezekiel and Makeda. So is it a matter of right or wrong, of a really big deal? No. I think this is really what is the intention of the author? Is he attributing it to Israel or God? You know, and even if he's attributing it to Israel, I think we understand throughout the passage that the God of Israel fought for Israel. So God's the one fighting for them. You know, God's the one that uses the hailstones, as we'll see in the following verses, which do strike them by the way of the ascent of Beth-Horon and strike them as far as Ezekiel and Makeda. So that hailstorm goes that distance as well. As you think about, too, and understanding what's going on, you don't just have God, and we'll see a little phrase related to this later, but you don't just have God doing that part of it in terms of the hailstones and the sun and the moon, God is involved in really the hand-to-hand combat, even though the verse doesn't talk about it. And the reason I would say that is, over and over again as it goes through these passages, you have this either disproportionate loss of men or no loss of men for Israel, and because God is fighting for them. And to me, that would include every little one-on-one battle of two men and the sword, God is involved in that battle and giving them the victory. So it's not as though each individual man won that battle and all of that. All of this is God's doing. So whether it's initially Israel, ultimately this is all God, even if Israel is just kind of the agent the earthly agent fulfilling that. So all the credit is due to God, and it's the same in our sanctification. All the credit's due for God. It's the reason why in Revelation, in a sense, we throw the crowns back down before the Lord, because He's the one that deserves all the glory. So either way, with the translators, but just wanted you to be aware of that in verse 10. So then, you know, God's thrown them into a panic, and we know this chapter has got multiple miracles going on that are really unlike things we see, you know, elsewhere in scripture. And it says in verse 11, as they fled before Israel while they were going down the ascent of Bet-Horon, the Lord threw down large stones from heaven on them as far as Ezekiah, and they died. There were more who died because of the hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with the sword. So I mean, the map doesn't have the, you know, a mileage scale or whatever, but I mean, if you're looking Gibeon to Ezekiel or upper or lower Beth Horon down to Ezekiel, it's probably nearly 20 miles. So this is a massive, massive storm that God is using to hit them. You can kind of see it in the kind of an orange-ish shading on the map or reddish-orange shading that starts around Gibeon, goes westward, and then down to Ezekiel. So that's the area of the storm that verse 11 describes. The battle's on. Israel's pursuing the fleeing armies. The armies are going down the ascent. In other words, they're descending. It's just, I don't know why it says it that way, but they're descending from upper Beth Horon to lower Beth Horon. Obviously, upper Beth Horon's on a higher plateau, and they go down to lower Beth Horon. And while these enemies are fleeing, God starts picking them off with these large hailstones. You know, and not only is, in a sense, you have a miracle with the weather there going on, but then you also have a selectivity. God, these hailstones aren't just a massive storm. These hailstones are hitting Amorites. They're not hitting Israelites. So Amorites are dying over this 20-mile stretch, and Israelites aren't even getting hit. You know, so it's just this target zone, I guess, for lack of better words. So you have this amazing miracle that God is doing. He's not It's part of giving them into their hand and not letting them all get back to their cities. Ezekiel, Yarmouth are right in almost the same area, and those are the nearest. Yarmouth would be the nearest city. So God is fighting for Israel in that. So you have that amazing miracle with the hailstones and how it's killing Amorites but not Israelites. The size of them obviously had to be something remarkable. And then you get to something that even just takes it to a whole new level as we get to verse 12 and 13. It says, At that time Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord 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 Eishalon. And the sun stood still and the moon stopped until the nation took vengeance on their enemies. It's pretty straightforward. I mean, there's some people that want to try to argue this is poetic, and it was just a way of saying Israel accomplished a lot in more than a normal day's work in one day's time. That doesn't work with the text. I mean, it makes it so clear in 13, and the sun stood still, and the moon stopped. The latter half of 13, the sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day. This is a longer day. How it happened? God did it. I don't know. What all he did, I don't know. I don't know the science of it. He doesn't tell us the science of it. We just know that God's word is true and it tells you what happened. The sun stopped. The moon stopped. God was giving Israel victory. He gave them a longer day to accomplish this. Just amazing. God heeded the voice of a man, it says in verse 14. There had been no day like it before or since. You know, this isn't that God never answers prayer. We know God answers prayer. But there's never been a day like this. You know, this is God answering a prayer that is about altering the normal course of nature. You know, you're altering what normally happens here of the earth spinning and the rotation around the sun. All of that, in a sense, is functioned I'm not going to say on autopilot, but under God's control fixed, as we know, is suddenly not. So it's much greater than really the causing of a weather storm and hailstones. This is something crazy. And how it works, that's why people go like, this can't be, how can the spinning earth stop? Because something in motion, I don't know my science, Luke. Something in motion stays in motion in a sense. You're going at the equator at 1,000 miles an hour or whatever and you just stop. It's like a car, you don't hit the brakes and just stop. Your momentum keeps you going. How did he do that? It's God. I'm not worried about how he did it. God can do anything. He can speak a world and a universe into existence. He can stop anything. He can stop gravity. He can stop motion. He can do whatever he wants. That's the power of God. So it's like we never want to bog down on what exactly happened or what are these other theories or spend my time studying theories. It's like this should drive you to go, what an awesome God we have that is in control of all things, including the the, you know, the heavens and the spinning of the earth and the rotation around the sun. Amazing. So it gives them the time to defeat the kings. And in verse, just verse 15, it kind of closed and it's kind of like he did a section and then he went back into that time period. So verse 15 talked about, I think I'm going back to Gilgal, but that's going to actually happen a little bit later. So as we get into verse 16, they find the five kings. They'd hid together, as we read earlier. Israel traps them in the caves. And you look at verse 21, I kind of briefly alluded to this. It says in 20, when Joshua and the sons had finished striking them with the great blow until they were wiped out and when the remnant had remained of them and entered into the fortified cities, then all the people returned safe to Joshua. And I mean, that seems to me to be saying if all the people is the warriors and if all the warriors are returning safe to Joshua, all the warriors were not getting killed by hell stones, were not getting killed by Amorites. You know, you have whatever this hundreds of thousands of death toll over here and zero over here on Israelite side. This is God doing all part of his amazing miracle, and like I said, from the sun and the moon to the weather and the hailstorm down to the hand-to-hand combat. God is fighting for Israel and giving them the victory. Joshua then turns this kind of into a bit of a teaching lesson with the five kings, where they bring them out of the cave. He has the chiefs of the men of war put their feet on the king's necks, it said. Joshua then tells them, you know, do not be afraid or dismayed. Be strong and courageous. Same words that God had told Joshua in chapter 1. For thus the Lord will do to all your enemies against whom you fight. So Joshua uses this as a teaching lesson to the chiefs of the men of war and the people of Israel that are gathered there. And then he puts them to death, and she strikes them in verse 26, puts them to death, hangs them on the trees until sundown, and then takes them down. And then creates a bit of a memorial at the mouth of the cave, piles, puts the bodies back in there, puts the rocks back up in terms of that was still there to the time of this, the book was written. So Joshua makes really multiple teaching lessons with the cave and then just in front of them with the killing of those kings, that they are going to be subject to Israel if Israel does what they're supposed to do. If the Lord, you know, the Lord will do his part. He will do to all their enemies against whom you fight. And I think there's whom you fight is what we'll find out that Israel didn't always do, right, as we'll see later in Joshua. And then when we get to Judges, it's atrocious how they stop fighting. But Israel had a role to play in that. God wasn't going to do this and then be passive, as we talked about earlier. Then you have a section that starts to close, chapter 10, really going through the rest of the southern campaign, going through the different cities, killing of additional kings, and cities that join in. I don't want to go through all of that, but what I want you to see is that the writer stresses to us the obedience to God's command to Israel. And he'll point that out over and over again. And this isn't them being... It's not any type of genocide or them really just being mean and killing these people. God had instructed them to kill all the people, man, woman, and child, in those cities because of their sin. This is the judgment of God. And Israel and Joshua are going to be obedient to that. So you'll see this over and over. He devoted to destruction every person in it. He left none remaining, as it says in verse 20. He wants us to make sure we see that. And we see it in verse 30, he struck Libna with the edge of the sword, every person in it, left none remaining. As you get to Lachish, struck it with the edge of the sword and every person in it, just as he had done to Libna. And then when Horam, king of Gezer comes out, wasn't even one of the original five Amorite kings that were in this little federation, but he comes up to help and Joshua strikes him and his people until he leaves none remaining. Then as he goes on to Eglon, it says, he struck it with the edge of the sword and he devoted every person in it to destruction that day. Just over and over again, the writer stressing that to us. Verse 37, talking about Hebron, he devoted to destruction every person in it. When you get to Debir, in verse 39, devoted to destruction every person in it. We're not going to miss that. In verse 40, it talks about Joshua struck the whole land, the hill country, and the Negev, and the lowland, and slopes, and all their kings. He left none remaining, but devoted to destruction all that breathed. just as the Lord God of Israel commanded. So Israel's walking in obedience to all those commands that they'd had given to them in Deuteronomy that we saw a couple messages ago of how important that was for them to walk in obedience. And they'd covenanted to do that and they're fulfilling what God has commanded them to do. And it's all because the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel in verse 42. That's the reason for all this success. The reason that Joshua captured all these kings and all this land at one time was because God was fighting for Israel all throughout. Right. And then it says Joshua returned in all Israel to the camp of Gilgal. So in verse 43, when it says how they return to Gilgal, I want to bring up something that's not so much central to this passage, but it is central for our understanding as we get later into Joshua and Judges. So they defeat all these kings in these cities, they capture all these cities, and then they go back to Gilgal, right? It's important to understand what the word capture is. So they defeat them, So they come, attack, defeat, but they didn't possess. Capture and possess are not the same things. To capture is, like I said, is defeating them. You know, to possess is to then own, to live in, to, you know... And they didn't do that. They didn't move into these cities right away. There's a gap. And likely, other Canaanites moved back into these cities fairly quickly because they didn't destroy them. There's only a few cities that are actually destroyed and burned down, like Jericho, Hazor, There's only one other one. Anyways, so most of the time the cities are left, right, and the walls are all there, so someone's got to move back in. But Joshua 1947 is just a little bit helpful to understand a distinction between capture and possess, and you'll just need that in terms of understanding what's going on in Israel, because it's not like they fulfilled everything by just feeding these people. They still didn't possess the land yet. And it said, when the territory of the people of Dan was lost to them, the people of Dan went up and fought against Leshem, and after capturing it and striking it with the sword, so capturing it involves, you know, attacking, striking with, you know, they took possession of it and settled in it. So taking possession is really the idea of settling in it, and that is not taking place yet for Israel in the land in Joshua chapter 10. So what is our takeaway? What's our application? What are we supposed to learn from this chapter? I think most often in Old Testament studies, you know, we're taught in Sunday school and we usually get the wrong lesson. We get the wrong lesson of David and Goliath. We often have the very wrong lesson. I would say the wrong lesson is it is not at all the lesson that God promises to perform miracles for us. That's not the lesson. I mean, the miracle that God did for Israel You know, obviously the sun and the moon was unique, but even the other ones, God's not promising that, you know, miraculous outcomes for us. Nor is, I think, our focus to really be, you know, the whole point of this is so I'm supposed to understand the longest day and I can use that in interactions with non-believers in order to prove the Bible is true. It's like, no, that's not what, that's not It's not that apologetics are wrong or bad in any way, but we don't need to use outside things to prove the Bible is true. The Bible is true. We could just go to the Bible and let the Bible speak for itself. We don't have to sit there and try to figure out and use things that prove it is true, because then you're just ending up in an argument anyways that's, well, does this correspond or not? Historians think this happened 50 years later, so then the Bible's not true. And it's like, no, the Bible is true. It claims to be true. And when it speaks of history, it's true. When it speaks of science, it's true, even though it's not a history or a science book. But when it covers it, it's true. These people existed. These events took place. But the whole point of this is not about apologetics. What I see, as I really thought about it more, was that you really see the greatness of God as seen in his covenant faithfulness to Israel. That's what you see going on, is the greatness of God, and thirdly, you would see would be the response of Israel and Joshua. But you see the greatness of God in those first eight verses really is his providence, how God worked the events with the Gibeonites, how that changed the thinking of the kings and the changes of their plans, and how God used all that, how God in a sense was turning the hearts of the kings wherever he wanted. I mean, God is providentially behind that. He doesn't take the blame for their sin at all. He's not. It's their own desires and their own sin causing Him to act. But God, beyond our understanding, providentially is able to work and turn them to do whatever He wants while they're still culpable for everything they do. And that's what happens there, is He's providentially working all this out. And then you see, really, not just providential, you see direct you know, where one is kind of ordinary means you have the extraordinary, the direct, the sovereign things he's doing in 9 through 15, the miracles with with throwing them into a panic with the storm and the hailstones, and the hailstones only hitting Amorites and not Israelites, of just how everything related to that storm and chasing them, and the longest day, the sun and the moon standing still, and down to the hand-to-hand combat. God is sovereignly working for Israel. He's the hero of the story, not Joshua, not Israel. But it drove me to then be thinking about God and how great is our God. And when I think of God, am I thinking of God accurately in who he is and how scripture describes him? In Psalm 24, 8 was a verse that some commentators brought out. Who is this king of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. So we have to ask ourselves, when we think of God, are we thinking of the God of the Bible or are we thinking of God of our own making of our minds? Are we thinking of a God that's very soft and fluffy and forgiving? And I'd almost say that that's like a sanctified grandma that just gives you what you want and loves you and hugs you. And a lot of those things are true about God, but God is also strong and mighty, mighty in battle. He's a warrior. He's a holy God, a just God, a God of judgment. And we need to understand and embrace the whole picture. And I'm not at all saying, yes, scripture is clear. God is love. God is gracious and compassionate and slow to anger. He's rich in love. Jesus is the lamb of God who comes to save. But He's also strong and mighty. Jesus is also the Lion of Judah, right? He's also the King of Kings. He's going to put everything in subjection to Him. We need to make sure that we understand accurately and worship accurately the God of the Bible, both His love and His holiness. you know, Jesus, as much as, you know, we are to, we're to both love God and we're both to fear God, right? There's that reverential awe of understanding how awesome he is. And there's a sense where we should recognize we don't want to sin before God. We don't want his judgment on us, even on an earthly sense, even though if we're saved, we don't have a, eternal punishment of hell, but we still have earthly consequences, and we don't want that, right? God is going to judge us, and we have implications for our sins, but even more so for the world. We are recipients of His love and His mercy. The world is not, and we need to make sure we understand that, because it also drives our interaction with the world. And we've got to wrestle with those passages in Scripture. Nahum chapter 1, in verses 2 to 6. We've got to make sure that this is also our understanding of God, that the Lord is a jealous and avenging God. The Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry. He dries up all the rivers. Bashan and Carmel wither. The bloom of Lebanon withers. The mountains quake before him. The hills melt. The earth heaves before him. The world and all who dwell in it, who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire and the rocks are broken into pieces by him. You know, Revelation 19, as we get near the obviously the end of the Bible and the end of events going on, and this is speaking of Christ here in Revelation 19, verses 11 to 16, and it says, I saw the heaven open and behold a white horse. The one sitting on it is called faithful and true. And in righteousness, he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe, dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the Word of God. And the armies of heaven are reigned in fine linen, white and pure, or following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh, he has a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Is that part of our picture of who Christ is and part of our picture of understanding of God? It needs to be. We need to remember that, yes, Christ is gentle and tender and compassionate, but he is also the one who's going to judge the world because of their sin. And we need to embrace both, understand both, and let both impact how we live for him. The third thing that I would say, the lesson that I take away from this, is really then having the proper response to the greatness of God, the faithfulness of God. Joshua and Israel did as God commanded. We talked about that, how they devoted to destruction those people. They did as God commanded, which led to good success. I don't really, I even hesitated using the word success, but I felt like I had to use the word success because Joshua 1, 7 and 8 uses the word good success as part of that. So I think we should use that as well, but we don't want to misunderstand what success means because it's not earthly success. It's not God promising us earthly victories, doesn't promise that we're going to graduate first in our class, or we're going to win the championship, or we're going to get the scholarship, or blah, blah, blah, blah. It's not about that. It's not earthly things. It doesn't mean financial things that we're going to be wealthy. It doesn't mean health things that we're going to be healthy. It doesn't even promise us spiritual success in the sense of large ministry. We're not promised that at all. It just means doing the good works that God has prepared beforehand for us to walk in, right? So in Joshua 1, 7, 8, he had told them at the beginning, told Joshua, be strong and courageous, be careful to do according to all that the law that Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success. So the point, I mean, is when we focus and meditate on the greatness of God and His faithfulness to His covenant, His faithfulness to Israel, His faithfulness to the church, it should drive in us a desired obedience, drive us into action such that when we get to the end of life, we will hear, well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master. Israel did what they were tasked to do, to take possession of the land by putting to death the inhabitants, to trust in God, to not fear, to be strong and courageous, right? You know, we are in a different position as the church, but we have almost those same tasks other than in a sense of putting to death the enemies in the land. We're supposed to put to death the remaining sin in our life, but we're still to trust God, to not fear, to be strong and courageous, and trust Him in all these things. So may that be what we take away, and may that be our focus this week, is walking in obedience to our faithful God and trusting in Him. So let's pray this morning. Father, we've seen in your Word this morning your greatness, both in your providence, how you worked things out with the kings and turned their heart how you wish to accomplish your purpose in order to in one day give, or in just a matter of a few days, give Israel so much victory in the land. And how you did your sovereign acts, just incredible miracles with the hailstorm, with the stopping of the sun and the moon and defeating the enemies, how you fought for Israel, God, just amazing what your word shows us this morning, that you are strong and mighty, that there is no one like our God, and that you are a God of judgment, of holiness, of justice. We thank you that you're also a God of mercy and of love. and that those who have put their faith and trust in you, that that judgment, that punishment for the sin has been borne by Christ on the cross and that we will not bear it. We thank you for the salvation we have through your son, Jesus Christ. And if any here have not put their faith and trust in you, that today will be the day they do that. But we're also mindful that those who haven't put their faith and trust in you are then subject to that wrath, that pouring out of your judgment. God, and may that be a sobering thought for us. May it lead us to share the truth of the gospel to them, to pray for their salvation, to cry out for you to do a work in their lives. Lord, and may we just walk in obedience to you like the Israelites were doing at this point in time. May we do that in our walk until that day when we stand before you. We ask these things in your son's name, amen.