Much War (Part B)

The Roman armor that Paul used to illustrate how the Christian is to be armed has no protection in the back. It's on purpose. So if you turn your back, you're exposed. And if you're running, you're getting tired.

So if you're exposed and tired, and you die that way. I think that's a very good lesson for us. If God has brought something into our life and we've got to deal with this, then that is it. We have to deal with this.

So easy to stand here and say, nothing to go out, have to do it. But it is something that we believers have been doing for centuries. And I know I mentioned this in earlier chapters, is not grounds enough to have God withhold judgment. You can be as civilized, you can have all the technology you want, you can be as interested in human beings. So that's the truth.

You can have all the technology you want, you can be as interested in humanity's needs as you want. But if you're not right with God, you are against Him. And so, again, in the great tribulation period, which is coming, there will be many sophisticated people and cities and the technological advancements that will exist more than ever. And yet they will still sin, they will still die, and they still will choose to blaspheme. And so as we look at this judgment coming in on the cities of Canaan, and we say, so what?

They were big cities. They were also big blasphemers. Verse 3, Therefore Adonai-Zedek, king of Jerusalem, Sentur-horam, king of Hebron, Pyram, king of Jarmuth, Japhia, king of Lachish, and Deber, king of Eglon, saying, Come up to me and help me that we may attack Gibeon, for it has made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel. And so Adonai-Zedek, he puts together this confederation of kings to come attack Gibeon for siding with Joshua. The Gibeonites had overcome the threat of Israel just to fall victim to another threat. They're stuck in the middle again. Such is life.

These things happened. Where will you land? Will you land on your feet or on your head when life tosses you out the window of the peace that maybe you have been enjoying for so long? And so they call to God's people, the Gibeonites do, trusting God's people rather than their neighbors.

That's how we want it. We would like unbelievers to trust us more than fellow unbelievers. We would like when things get serious about their own mortality and about God, we would like for the unbeliever to feel comfortable enough to come to us and not go to the world. He mentions Hebron here in verse 3. We'll get a lot of that when we get to chapter 14 when Caleb says, let me take Hebron, the land of the giants. You know, it just, the taste has never got out of Caleb's mouth. That whole thing about there are giants there and we're like grasshoppers, that just never, he never let that get away from him. And when he gets into promised lands, I want the land where the giants are.

I'm 80 years old. I'm still able to take these guys out and he does it and just, you got to love that man Caleb. I've seen so many parents, I think, name their kids Caleb.

I hope that's the motive more than, well, I like the name, sounds good. Well, that's fine, but I hope you understand the man. Verse 5. He was a gentle man too, incidentally. His daughter will come to him.

Give me the springs and he does and I just love that character. Anyway, verse 5, therefore, the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuah, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon, gathered together and went up. They and all their armies camped before Gibeon and made war with it. So the southern campaign is beginning ahead of schedule. Joshua doesn't see this coming.

He's got this, his own pace he's working at, Jericho, Ai, Bethel, all right, Gibeon, and he's working at his pace. God is saying, you need to push this up some. So here they are going to find themselves in the territory where 40 years ago their ancestors were afraid to touch.

Now they're going to go in. Now we today, of course, we face conjoined enemies of truth. So I have to say this so we don't, again, you can see though it's just the book of Joshua and he's talking about the conquest of the Jews.

The conquest is still on. It's internal and it's external. For example, we have the, you know, the fruit of the spirit. Well, that doesn't just fall into our lap.

How many of you are just, I'm just a gentle person? Well, you may get that one right, but you might not get the long suffering right, or one of the others, or discernment, or whatever we have to fight for. But the external threats that we face, militant atheism, I mean, atheism used to be, I don't believe in God, leave me alone.

Now it's becoming, I don't believe in God, I'm going to make sure no one else believes in God, I'm going to do whatever I can to stop anybody from believing God. We also have to deal with militant homosexuals who are determined not only to get others to accept homosexuality, but to applaud it, to bless it, to celebrate it, to parade it, and beyond. Militant liberals who just have lost their minds, they think they're smarter and better than everybody else and they have no proof and they know it, but it doesn't stop them. Then of course, militant Islam, nothing new there, but she's got advocates now. And then there is the militant media. Notice I did not say mainstream, I can say that.

There are some pockets of media that are not against righteousness and truth, but it's expanded and so it's not only your major news networks, it is Vimeo and YouTube and Tweeter and all the rest of them. It's just such an age, this generation is just so unfortunate. I mean, when I was born, things were named like, you know, the tiger, you know, the hawk, and now it's Facebook.

Anybody got a Tweeter for me? I'm sorry, I don't know if you're catching it, but I am catching it. So you should be, you should be, wait, that name is corny, spineless. I mean, how would you like to be, you know, an athlete and they called you the tulip. Here comes the tulip, everybody, this guy's ferocious.

Okay, I forgot I'm here, I just kind of have my own little rant because I go do these things. Anyway, coming back to this, this confederation of conjoined enemies that I've listed, then there's our own flesh, woohoo, got to love that. We hate the flesh, our own flesh, our own tendency to do wrong, when we know we're wrong, you know, I know this is not honest and we're doing it anyway. Section 724, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Much war, that's what the New Testament tells us. You read the epistles, you don't walk away feeling good about yourself.

You walk away and say, I got work to do, I've got no time to feel sorry for my sinful state, I've got work to do. Verse 6, and the men of Gibeon sent to Joshua at the camp at Gilgal saying, do not forsake your servants, come up to us quickly, save us and help us, for all the kings of the Amorites who dwell in the mountains have gathered against us. Joshua, here's your chance to let the Gibeonites perish for pulling that move on you.

Don't go or delay, you know, I got to make some butter or something. But he's too noble a man to do any such thing. He gave his word to the Lord, to men in the presence of the Lord. Remember David, David wouldn't kill Saul if he said, oh man, kill that guy. And David, I will not touch the Lord's anointed. He had these convictions from the Lord and he did not move away from them. As he got older, of course, and into the palace, the temptation was so intense for that man that he, we learn, we learn it's not enough to know, it's not enough to want. Solomon knew more than anybody in his day and it wasn't enough. Solomon wrote, can a man take fire to his bosom and not set himself on fire?

And that's exactly what he did. Also, Gibeon, 16 miles away, uphill, incidentally, the language will tell us that in verse 7, but before we get there, don't look, don't look, we'll get there. This could be a trap, Joshua, they're coming, you know, the confederation is coming to attack us, that would put Joshua right in the middle of the Gibeonites and these kings. Joshua, what is the solution? Because I'm sure his general said, if we go there, we're going to, what if these Gibeonites break the treaty? They don't serve the Lord.

Joshua said, I got a solution for that. Big battalions of God. He will take all the men with him, all the forces he has, he will put his rear guard there on Gideon and he will deal with the kings. Verse 7, so Joshua ascended from Gilgal, he and all the people of war with him and all the mighty men of valor. So you see he's going uphill and as I like to say, I mean some, you know, when I went to Israel, all the other groups had buses. I went with somebody who wanted to walk, it was like an exercise nut, he wanted to walk everywhere. And so we did. And so anyway, it's uphill everywhere and that's what I got out of the whole thing. How is Israel?

I'll tell you, my legs stopped throbbing. Anyhow, in verse 6, the trap and verse 7 is where we are, all the people of war. That would include support personnel, reserve forces. You have to have these things, the beans, bullets and bandages, you've got to have them or else you lose. If you don't win in two minutes, then you're going to run out of beans, bullets and bandages and that'll be it for you. So he's taking all the people of war and in addition to them, all the mighty men of valor, Nazis and troops and perhaps his elite forces, he's going in heavy. Not a little operation for Joshua, verse 8, and Yahweh said to Joshua, do not fear them for I've delivered them into your hand. No man of them shall stand before you. Those were not orders to sit back and relax.

He still had to walk, had to walk at night and uphill. And so what is happening? God is bringing the targets into range. The opportunity from misfortune, Gibeon started this whole mess by deceiving Joshua, the king saying we can't settle for that, let's go get the Gibeonites, and Gibeonites said, Joshua, come help us and he comes and helps them. This is Romans chapter 8 for us, verse 28, I like to read it, you know it, but I can read it better than you. I'm kidding, I'm sorry.

I hope I go to my grave with still a little childishness in me, anyhow. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. And this is, we're seeing this illustrated, the Gibeonites deceived the Jews, that's the bad news. But they were made woodcutters and water haulers, hods, you know, like a brick hard, they had to lug the stuff for the temple.

You know, you need wood for the sacrifices, to burn the sacrifices, you need the water for the cleansing, and in case the fire gets out of control, not true, but you still have to have these things. And so Joshua begins right away, fine, you deceived us, we're going to make, we're going to get something out of you for this, so he makes, he enslaves them to this. And then here now, the Jews did not have to slaughter the Gibeonites, that's a positive from our perspective.

But unintentionally again, they served as a trap to draw out the kings of the land from their fortified cities. This would make it so much easier for Joshua and his forces to meet the opponent on the field of battle, rather than having to storm the gates. And so, it's a very, it's an interesting little piece of scripture, he says, not a man of them shall stand before you. And again, the cooperation between God and man, of course with miraculous intervention, again Deuteronomy chapter 11, no man shall be able to stand against you, Yahweh your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread just as he has said to you. But Jesus says it this way, he condenses the whole thing, without me you can do nothing.

Without me you can do nothing, John 5, 15. Now verse 9, Joshua therefore came upon them suddenly, having marched all night from Gilgal, and there's the forced march, it's about 16 miles as the crow flies from Gilgal to Gibeon, but they're not going as the crow flies, they're going as the infantry marches. And he's going at night for the element of surprise. You gotta love this man, he's just, what does the job call for? What is needed for me to win without sinning?

And this is what he does. In the morning, when the confederation finds out Joshua is there in force, that sickening feeling has to hit them because they realize the Jews were men of their word and men of the sword. And again, in force, verse 10, so Yahweh routed them before Israel, killed them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, chased them along the road that goes to Beth-Haran, and struck them down as far as Azekah and Makkida. Interesting, we'll also come across that he struck them down, struck them down, repeated through this chapter, just the hard work that's necessary to be the Christian that we want to be. And I think that's the first thing we have to face, if we're going to be called upon to share the gospel, we're going to have to work hard.

And I know many of you do, I know that without hesitation. We learn from Ephesians chapter 6, again, Ephesians, that if we flee the battle, if we just turn our backs and run from the battle, we will die tired, you get that? The Roman armor that Paul used to illustrate how the Christian is to be armed has no protection in the back, it's on purpose.

So if you turn your back, you're exposed, and if you're running, you're getting tired. So if you're exposed and tired, and you die that way, I think that's a very good lesson for us. If God has brought something into our life and we've got to deal with this, then that is it, we have to deal with this.

So easy to stand here and say it, another thing to go out and have to do it. But it is something that we believers have been doing for centuries. So this lesson, again, if we flee in battle, we die tired. We are to stand, face whatever is before us, the Lord will fight for us and with us. The theater of battle is now spreading and it's spreading for miles. If you did straight lines, as much as 30, 35 miles away from Gibeon, but it's in all circles and all sorts of areas, it's a big battlefield, which means there were large forces on the field.

This was not just a gang fight. And verse 11 continues our story, it happened as they fled before Israel and were on the descent of Beth-Haron, that the Lord cast down large hailstones from heaven on them as far as Azekah and they died. There were more who died from the hailstones than the children of Israel killed with the sword.

Well, there's the air support for ground troops and well, the body count went to the Lord. I mean, it was his judgment, again, a type of the great tribulation period because evidently these people in Canaan did not understand the concept of a white flag, just like the civilized people of the great tribulation period will not understand the concept of waving before God the I surrender flag as we who believe have done. Revelation 16, 21, and great hail from heaven fell upon men. Each hailstone about the weight of a talent, men blaspheme God because of the plague of the hail. Since that plague was exceedingly great, they just doubled down against God. They hated him more instead of just repenting. And so don't feel this bleeding, you know, all these poor Canaanites. These were wicked people taking their children to the fire of these fake demonic gods that they had made up in their heads and many other such things they did that the righteous did not even want to record for us.

Mention it here and there and that's enough. You remember we went to Ezekiel and Ezekiel had some strong words for those fake gods and well, he was right. Verse 12, then Joshua spoke to Yahweh in the day when Yahweh delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel and he said in the sight of Israel, son, stand still over Gibeon and moon in the valley of Agilon. Of course, in the English it sounds like it's a father telling his boy to stop moving around.

Son stand still. But it's of course the solar that star up in the sky that causes us to get sunglasses. This Joshua realizing I need more daylight. The battle probably started in the morning. Remember he marches all night and at daylight they're probably beginning their engagement. There's another hint coming up but to that point, not that important a point, what is standing out to us is that Joshua wants to finish the work. He sees this opportunity, this target rich environment. Not going to get this chance again, he's got to be thinking and the sun's going down. How much daylight do I have left? And so he calls to God a battlefield prayer, Lord, I need more light. And his language is interesting, but we'll get to the language in a minute. But Jesus says this, I must work the works of him who sent me while it is day.

The night is coming when no one can work. So you put these things together as a believer and you say, okay, I'm understanding more and more about what it takes to wage war. This Joshua calling out to God, asking this, Joshua spoke to Yahweh in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites, verse 12, before the children of Israel and said in the sight of Israel, sun stand still over Gibeon and moon in the valley of Agilon.

He wasn't afraid to fail in front of people, pursuing the will of God. That wasn't saying I'm going to do something crazy, although this is pretty close. I mean, you should stand up and say, I'm going to have the sun and the moon stop doing what they do so I can finish these guys off.

It's like, right, you go with that, pastor, I'll be out in the car. So he says, sun stand still over Gibeon, very specific, moon in the valley of Agilon. Now the sun and the moon, they tug on the earth's mass. There are a few things involved in inertia, not inertia, but what is it? Things in motion, stay in motion kind of stuff, all this stuff is happening, the tide swooshing around everything. But these two bodies in the sky are very much involved in daylight and nighttime. Joshua, the word that he uses when he says stand still, it means in the Hebrew, stop working, stop doing what you're doing, pause.

And that is, you say, well, it can mean a few other things, all still coming to that conclusion, sit still, something like that. The result is clear. He gets daylight extended for about 24 hours. It's quite remarkable it is a miracle. Joshua knew the Lord was right there with him. How did he know that? Joshua 1, 9, have I not commanded you? God said to Joshua, be strong and of good courage, do not be afraid or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. It's easy to not be afraid when there's nothing frightening you.

It's another thing when there's something about to bite into you. Now Azulon, this valley where he wanted the moon to stay still, keeping them in concert of course, about nine miles southwest of Gibeon, and that would put the sun's location over Gibeon in suggestion in the morning. It's moving in that direction. Anyway, verse 13, so the sun stood still and the moon stopped till all the people had revenge upon their enemies. Is this not written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day. Now the skeptics come along and how do you deal with a skeptic that's got all of this, you know, skepticism?

Well, it's very, you have to be mature dealing with them and you just say it's easy peasy Japanesey for God, that's all. I mean really, what are you, what are we going to debate? In the beginning God said, let there be light. Let's see you do that without touching anything.

No clapping either, no little tricks you might come up with. It's nothing for God, but of course they don't want there to be a God like this. So they in argument try to come up with anything they can to make it not possible. So evidently Joshua knew that the sun and moon were very much involved in concert with the earth's rotation and day and night. And incidentally, if God does, if he did it this way, I mean God could have just, okay, fine, just like that. Or he could have said the sun was gravitational pull on things, could have just slowly slowed everything down so no one felt it happening because if he just jammed on the brakes, everybody would have tipped over.

That would have been embarrassing. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Joshua. Cross Reference is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. If you're interested in more information about this ministry, please visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com.

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