Joshua chapter 10 and we read
from verse 1. Now it came to pass when Adonai
Zedek, king of Jerusalem, had heard how Joshua had taken Ai
and had utterly destroyed it, as he had done to Jericho and
her king, so he had done to Ai and her king, and how the inhabitants
of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were among them, that
they feared greatly because Gibeon was a great city, as one of the
royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all
the men thereof were mighty. Wherefore Adonai Zedek, king
of Jerusalem, sent unto Hoham, king of Hebron, and unto Piram,
king of Jarmuth, and unto Japhia, king of Lashish, and unto Dabir,
king of Eglon, saying, Come up unto me, and help me, that we
may smite Gibeon, for it hath made peace with Joshua, and with
the children of Israel. Therefore the five kings of the
Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king
of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, the king of Eglon, gathered themselves
together and went up, they and all their hosts, and encamped
before Gibeon and made war against it. And the men of Gibeon sent
unto Joshua to the camp to Gilgal, saying, Slag not thy hand from
thy servants. Come up to us quickly, and save
us, and help us. For all the kings of the Amorites
that dwell in the mountains are gathered together against us.
So Joshua ascended from Gilgal, he and all the people of war
with him, and all the mighty men of valor. And the Lord said
unto Joshua, Fear them not, for I have delivered them into thine
hand. There shall not a man of them
stand before thee. Joshua therefore came unto them
suddenly, and went up from Gilgal all night. And the Lord discomfited
them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at
Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goeth up to Bethhoron,
and smote them to Azica, and unto Macheda. And it came to
pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going
down to Bethhoron, that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven
upon them, and to Azica, and they died. They were more which
died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew
with the sword. Then spake Joshua to the Lord
in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children
of Israel. And he said in the sight of Israel,
Son, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou moon in the valley of
Aja'alon. And the sun stood still, and
the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their
enemies. Is not this written in the book
of Jasher? So the son stood still in the
midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.
And there was no day like that, before it or after it, that the
Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man, for the Lord fought
for Israel. And Joshua returned, and all
Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal. Amen, may the Lord
bless to us this reading from his word. We sometimes use the word providence
to describe how the Lord governs and orders the events of our
lives. And indeed, the happenings and
circumstances of the whole world. Our God, having created the world,
governs the world according to his will and pleasure. He created
it, it is his, and he governs it every day. He is constantly upholding and
managing the affairs of this world. And we learn that nothing
is too big or too difficult for him to manage, to fix, or to
overrule. And when we speak of the Lord's
government, be it in nature, in the world, or grace in the
gospel and his dealings with his people, We say, the Lord
by his providence has ordered all things in heaven and in earth. This is the God that we worship. The Lord by his providence has
ordered and managed and manages all things in heaven and in earth. So that's the word providence
and that's what we mean when we speak about providence. In
today's passage we see several very clear examples of God's
providence or ordering of events and circumstances to the accomplishment
of his will. In the land of Canaan, many of
the major cities had their own kings. These were not kings of
countries, but they were kings of cities. And here we learn
that five Amorite kings, the Amorites were one of the peoples
that lived in Canaan. I think there were seven distinct
peoples or tribes that lived in Canaan. these tribes, these nations,
each had their major cities and over each city was a king. And here were five Amorite kings
and we are told that they made an alliance to attack Gibeon
the city of Gibeon and the Gibeonites. Now I hope you remember from
last week, these were the Gibeonites that dressed up in old clothes
and old sandals and took old bread and came to Joshua and
said, we'd like to make a truce with you. We'd like to make an
alliance. We've come from far, far away and we want to be at
peace with you. and Joshua had agreed to make
peace with the Gibeonites only to discover that they were the
city right next door and he probably shouldn't have been making any
truce with them at all. These were the people that had
tricked Joshua into not attacking them. The Amorite kings were
angry about the treaty that the Gibeonites had made and likely
they wanted to punish the Gibeonites and to make an example of them
in case there were any other cities round about that wanted
to try to do the same thing and make a treaty with Joshua and
with Israel. So when these Amorite kings came
up to do battle with Gibeon, the Gibeonites sent to Joshua
and asked for help. They said, our city is besieged. Come and help us. Don't slack.
Don't be slow. Come and help us quickly because
we're in trouble. And the Lord tells Joshua to
go up against these five kings and not to be afraid of them.
For, says the Lord, fear them not, for I have delivered them
into thine hand. There shall not a man of them
stand before thee. So here's the first act of providence
that I want to mention to you. Joshua, was probably wondering
after these events, the defeat of Jericho, the defeat of Ai,
the interaction with the Gibeonites, he was probably wondering what
his next plan would be for advancing into Canaan. Should he go city
by city? Which direction should he go
in? And when should they move? Here were the people, they were
still at Gilgal, where they had encamped. And like us, he was
confronted with a number of options. How would he know what to do? How would he know what path to
take? What road to take? Do you see
what the Lord did here? He stirred up these five kings
to come out and fight against Gibeon, They did so for all their own
reasons, but he used that event to oblige Joshua to assist the
Gibeonites so that the children of Israel could defeat all the
armies of all the neighbouring cities in one single battle. Joshua was annoyed that he'd
been tricked by the Gibeonites. But the Lord used the folly even
of that incident to bring about even greater good for his people
than could otherwise have been accomplished. And even before
the battle began, God told Joshua that, I have delivered them into
thine hand. I have delivered them, nor I
shall, nor I might, but have. God had planned for this outcome
all along. Now, here's a question for you
to think about. When do you think God began to
put this plan together? Do you think it was before or
after the five kings besieged Gibeon? Do you think God put
his plan together that he would deliver all these five kings
into the hands of Joshua before or after Joshua had made the
treaty with the Gibeonites? Or was it before or after the
Gibeonites had devised their scheme of deceit for the children
of Israel? The truth is that God's government
of the world and his arrangement of all things, his providence
for the sake and for the salvation of his people can always be traced
back to God's eternal and sovereign will, his purpose to do his people
good. And the lesson for us here is
that we make mistakes, like doing a deal with the Gibeonites when
we shouldn't have done, being deceived by this world when we
shouldn't be, doing things wrong that we shouldn't do. But the
Lord says, don't be afraid. I will deliver you. I love you. And today you're going to see
my power displayed in ways that you can't imagine. And that's
exactly what happened. The Lord again provided assistance
to Israel. We're told Jehovah discomfited. That means he made life very
difficult for the Amorites before Israel. And exactly what he did
and what means he used to do that is not said. Perhaps that's
a reference to the stones that fell or the hailstones that fell. Or maybe he gave them bad dreams
or visions that made the Amorite soldiers afraid and anxious.
But when Joshua's army appeared before them, they couldn't resist. Even although there were five
kings with five armies, and there was a great slaughter, the Amorites
fled before Israel, and as they did so, God rained down stones
and hail upon them. which killed many more. In fact, we're told that more
died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew
with the sword. So here was the way in which
God dealt with the circumstances of the situation that existed
in order to bring good for his people. And we can track that
back and recognise that these are the ways that the Lord accomplishes
his will. But here's another act of providence
that we see. Joshua realised as the day of
this battle progressed, as the Amorites were running away, he
realised that they would escape into the darkness as night fell. He therefore prayed for an extraordinary
thing. He asked God to extend the length
and the light of the day. In the presence of the people
and with a strong faith, Joshua called on the sun and moon to
stand still. And then we read these words. And the sun stood still, and
the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their
enemies. Now I can't explain how that
happened but I do not doubt that God is able to do exactly what
he wishes with his own creation. I don't know how the sun and
the moon could stand still in the sky. I don't know how that
works with the fact that we live in a world that rotates. I don't know how that all can
come together. But I do know this, that God
can do what he wills, what he wishes, with his own creation. In a few weeks time, in our study
in Isaiah, we're going to be reading about Hezekiah and how
the shadow of the sun went backward on his sundial. Again, another
extraordinary and amazing thing. But this is God's world. and
he is able to do with it exceedingly abundantly above all that we
ask or think according to the power that worketh in us. There's
a little reference here towards the end of our reading about
the book of Jasher and maybe you're wondering what that book
is. Me too. It's sometimes thought
to be, by some of the Jewish writers, a reference to one of
the books of Moses, or like an alternative name for one of the
books of Moses. But perhaps more likely, it's
a lost book, which may have been a history or a chronicle in song
or in poetry form of Israel's past. There are two mentions
of the book of Jasher in the scriptures. Here in this 10th
chapter of Joshua and also in 2 Samuel 1, verse 18. And there it's in the context
of the death of Saul and of Jonathan. It's David there that makes reference
to it. But that's the book of Jasher,
whatever it may be. It wasn't an inspired book and
therefore it's not in the scope of the scriptures that we have.
But do you see how God's providence or governing of his world is
not simply randomly occurring events. Sometimes that's what
life feels like, as if it's just things that happen to us and
we go through our day or we go through our experience and things
just happen. But what this tells us is that
God is managing the big things and the little things. the secret
things and the revealed things, the good things and the bad things,
the natural things and the supernatural things. And he is managing them
all to bring about his will and to accomplish his purpose to
bless his people. And we ought to be comforted
and encouraged with that knowledge. This is the God we worship. and
in whom we trust to save and deliver us from all our sin and
from all our trouble. And I just want to make another
very similar point in closing. Remember the Gibeonites? That's
these people from the city of Gibeon that made a truce with
Joshua and deceived the children of Israel with their old clothes
and their old shoes and their old bread. The Gibeonites, when
they were attacked by the five Amorite kings, they called on
Joshua to come and deliver them when they were threatened by
their enemies. Once upon a time these Gibeonites
were friends with the Amorite people but God placed it in their
hearts to leave their old ways and to make a new alliance with
Joshua and with the God of Israel. As soon as they did this, their
old friends, the Amorites, they felt betrayed and they rose up
against them as enemies. And there's a picture here about
what happens when we become a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. As
soon as a person is brought into the family of God, As soon as
a person is brought into that nation which is the people of
God, believers, brought in by faith, the devil and the world
besiege and attack the prize that they have lost. Jesus says,
John chapter 15, if the world hate you, ye know that it hated
me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the
world would love his own. But because ye are not of the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the
world hateth you. That little city of Gibeon knew
that it was no match for the five kings. But the Gibeonites
now had a new friend in Joshua, and a saviour who would come
to their help and deliverance. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
saviour and deliverer in this world and for all eternity. Our journey in this life might
sometimes seem random and aimless, but when we have committed our
life into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ, He is the Captain
and the King who provides for, who protects and who preserves
our lives and our souls in this world and the next. The Gibeonites
trusted in the promise made by Joshua. Let our trust be in our
Joshua, Jesus Christ. He will supply all our need. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us. Amen.