Joshua chapter 10. All right,
let's begin with seeking the Lord's blessing. Heavenly Father,
thank you for this opportunity to gather in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray that indeed that
is the name in which we have gathered. For there is no other
name worthy of gathering around. By your spirit, Lord, set our
hearts, our affections, and our attention on the Lord Jesus Christ,
that we may see him in all the scriptures. In Christ's name
we pray it, amen. All right, Joshua chapter 10. Let's read the first 15 verses. Now Adonai Zedek, king of Jerusalem,
heard that Joshua had taken Ai and totally destroyed it, doing
to Ai and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king,
and that the people of Gibeon had made a treaty of peace with
Israel and were living near them. He and his people were very much
alarmed at this because Gibeon was an important city, like one
of the royal cities. It was larger than Ai, and all
its men were good fighters. So Adonai Zedek, king of Jerusalem,
appealed to Hoham king of Hebron, Piram king of Jarmuth, Japhia
king of Lachish, and Debor king of Eglon. Come up and help me
attack Gibeon, he said, because it has made peace with Joshua
and the Israelites. Then the five kings of the Amorites,
the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglin,
joined forces. They moved up with all their
troops and took up positions against Gibeon and attacked it. The Gibeons then sent word to
Joshua in the camp at Gilgal. Do not abandon your servants.
Come up to us quickly and save us. Help us. because all the
Amorite kings from the hill country have joined forces against us. So Joshua marched up from Gilgal
with his entire army, including all the best fighting men. The
Lord said to Joshua, do not be afraid of them. I have given
them into your hand. Not one of them will be able
to withstand you. After an all-night march from
Gilgal, Joshua took them by surprise. The Lord threw them into confusion
before Israel, who defeated them in a great victory at Gibeon.
Israel pursued them along the road going up to Beth Horon and
cut them down all the way to Azekah and Machedah. And they
fled before Israel on the road down from Beth Horon to Azekah. As they fled, the Lord hurled
large hailstones down on them from the sky, and more of them
died from the hailstones than were killed by the swords of
the Israelites. On the day the Lord gave the
Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence
of Israel, O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the
valley of Eishalon. So the sun stood still and the
moon stopped till the nation avenged itself on its enemies,
as it is written in the book of Jeshur. The sun stopped in
the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day.
There has never been a day like it before or since. A day when
the Lord listened to a man. Surely the Lord was fighting
for Israel. Then Joshua returned with all
Israel to the camp at Gilgal. Chapter 10 records for us the
defeat of what is probably the remainder of the notable cities
and their leaders and armies in the land of promise, defeated
by Joshua in the Israeli army. And it records what in the eyes
of man is one of the more notable miracles recorded in the scriptures. To wit, that the sun and the
moon stood still, and that for a day. And whether that means
roughly 12 hours, which we would call daytime, or 24 hours. The
scriptures don't make clear. But it's rather obvious. The
reason for it was that in pursuing their enemies, Joshua was concerned
that they would lose the light before they were able to get
the job finished. And he called on God to preserve
the light, the daytime. Now what this pictures for us,
the whole of the story, is the warfare of the world against
the people of God, even against those who merely side with the
people of God. You remember in chapter nine
that the Gibeonites came to Joshua and the leaders of Israel, and
pretended that they were from a far-off country. They were
not citizens or inhabitants of the Promised Land. And they did
that because they understood that the job given to Joshua
and the Israelites was to utterly destroy everyone living within
that area that had been promised to Abraham. Well, they didn't
want to die. And the record so far favored
the Israelites. They had destroyed everyone that
they had come up against. So they went, pretended to be
from somewhere else, and said, we don't want any trouble from
you, and we're not going to cause you any trouble, so let's make
a treaty. And in the process, it says,
Joshua and the leaders of Israel, they did not inquire of the Lord.
Therefore, they were deceived. The Lord would have told them
who these people were. They lived in a city not too many miles
north of Jerusalem, a city called Gibeon. Nonetheless, a treaty
was made to them, an oath was sworn to them that they would
do them no harm. And when it was found out that
these Gibeonites were indeed right there from nearby. Joshua and the Israelites did
not go back on their word. In fact, it says at the end of
chapter nine, verse 26, so Joshua saved them, the Gibeonites, from
the Israelites. I am sure when the army heard
about this and realized that Joshua and the elders of Israel
had been lied to and deceived, they thought, well, we'll fix
this. And Joshua said, no, an oath has been made. A covenant
has been established and we will not harm them. And so they did. However, when this king, now
we're back in chapter 10, when this king named Adonai Zedek,
he was the king of Jerusalem. Now one thing, the fact that
the city is identified as Jerusalem shows us that the book of Joshua
was not written right as the events were happening.
Why? Well, the city of Jerusalem was not called Jerusalem then.
It was called Salem, which is from the Hebrew word meaning
peace. Do you remember Melchizedek, whom Abraham met? He was called,
his name means king of righteousness, and he was the king of Salem. And most assume that was an ancient
name for Jerusalem. But it wasn't called Jerusalem
at the time of Joshua and the Israelites conquering. It wasn't
until they had possession of that city that it was named Jerusalem. But at any rate, Adonizek, you
know, tries to make or gets together several other kings to band up,
to join up against Joshua and the people of Israel. Now the
world has always been opposed to the people of God. Always. After all, the first murder recorded
in human history was a man of the world, Cain, rising up against
one of God's chosen, Abel. And why was Cain upset with Abel? Abel had not done anything to
Cain. But they both went to worship
the Lord. Cain By faith, according to the
book of Hebrews, because he actually believed God, he offered a better
sacrifice. Why was it better than Cain's?
Because it involved blood. The book of Hebrews says, without
the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. Now Abel had to know that that
lamb could not be his substitute. He understood that this lamb,
just like all the other animal sacrifices that have ever been
made according to the scriptures, all they did was point to the
Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Even as Old
Testament believers, they understood that all those sacrifices at
the temple did not actually take away sin, because you cannot
have an animal being a substitute for a human. Human sin requires human sacrifice. So they understood all those
sacrifices were just pictures. Nonetheless, Abel would not bring
a sacrifice that did not picture the real sacrifice to come. He took a sacrifice of blood.
Cain, he was like, well, he's like the world who
claims they believe God and worship God, but do not come to Him through
Christ. Who do not actually believe that
Jesus Christ is God in human flesh, who as a man obeyed God
perfectly, took upon himself the sin of God's elect. God laid
them there according to Isaiah 53. But he bore those sins in
the presence of God as a sacrifice and endured within himself all
the wrath, all the punishment that God can deal out against
sin. And so they come to God, like
Cain did, he came with some fruit, some vegetables, things that
did not involve blood, things in which a farmer might glory. I mean, farmers do that, don't
they? Yeah, I got 150 bushels an acre. Guy down the road, 110.
Doesn't know what he's doing. Neither one of them grew any
corn. They just planted seed. But Cain, he's like us. I don't want to put off on Cain
as though he's any worse than we are. But what happened is,
it says in Hebrews, God had respect to Abel and his offering. And the reason God had respect
to Abel is because he had respect to his offering, but not to Cain. Now how God revealed that, I
don't know. It may be nothing more than that
Abel, having presented a blood offering to the Lord, with faith,
believing in the promised one to come, his conscience was made
clear before God regarding his sin. But Cain brings his vegetables. God has no respect unto that.
There's no blood there. There's no death there. Consequently, for all the effort
that Cain put into his offering, He went away still with his conscience
under the sense of guilt and condemnation before God. That
may have been all that was meant. But you know, the world, and
in particular the religious world, just has a hard time with the
joy and the peace that are given to those who simply believe Christ. Because they don't have it. They don't have it. They have
no joy and peace unless they go to church and there's a whole
lot of entertainment going on, and they can get swept up into
the emotions of the entertainment. And it sustains them for a little
while, but then they get home, and the music starts to wear
off, and they're back to where they were, guilty in the sight
of God. And this envy, of what simple
believers in Christ have has always caused the world to react
in anger and violence. Now, these five kings, they didn't
like Joshua, and remember Joshua's a picture of Christ, because
Joshua and Jesus, that's the same name. And they didn't like
Joshua, they didn't like the Israelites, and they didn't like
the Gibeonites, who had sided and made treaty with the Israelites. Now, this frightened Adonai Zedek. and he thought something needed
to be done about it. Now, it's interesting to take
note of what this particular king's name meant. Adonai, or
sometimes English speakers pronounce it Adonai, it means my lord,
my lord. In English Bibles, we read from
the Psalms, the Lord said to my Lord, sit here till your enemies
are made a footstool for your feet. And the first the Lord
in that Psalm, it's written all in capitals, so that's a reference
to God's personal name, Jehovah or Yahweh or however you think
it's supposed to be pronounced. And then it says, so it's Yahweh
said to Adonai, my Lord. And that's what this word is
here in this man's name, my Lord. And then the Zedek is the Hebrew
word for righteousness or righteous. Now it's the same as in the name
Melchizedek, Melchizedek. King, tzedek, righteousness. So Melchizedek, his name means
king of righteousness. And this one person's name means
my Lord is righteousness or is righteous. And that's why the
world does not like Christ and his people. Because, first of
all, they do not recognize that Jesus is Lord. We could very well, and in our
hearts we're saying it, though we say it in English, we look
at our Lord Jesus Christ and we say, Adonai, my Lord. Thomas. Doubting Thomas. When the Lord showed him the
wounds in his hands and his feet and his side, he bowed down before
the Lord and he said, my Lord and my God, which if it had been
in Hebrew would have been something like Adonai Eli. The little I at the end is the
way Hebrews shows a possessive noun. My Lord, Adonai, my God, Eli. But the world wants to take those names to itself. I've often said that atheists
misspell what they really are. They're atheists. They believe
themselves to be God, and they prove it by bringing the God
of Scriptures under judgment. And I'll be more honest, instead
of saying there is no God, they just say, I don't like the God
of the Bible. That's what they don't like. And the kings of those days were
really big in calling themselves by such lofty names. They deified
themselves. And therefore, when the king
is named Donizete, he's taking that name to himself, meaning
that that's what people ought to say about him. He is the Lord,
the righteous one. But what does the Scripture teach
us in the book of Jeremiah? And this is the name by which
He, speaking of the Promised One to come, this is the name
by which He shall be called Jehovah, our righteousness. And indeed, our Lord Jesus Christ,
whose name means that Jehovah saves or Jehovah is salvation.
But Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 1, He has made unto us wisdom
from God, that is, He is our righteousness. The whole world is trying to
establish its own righteousness. The whole world is trying to
say, we are righteous. They want to prove to God they're
righteous, and they're doing everything they can to prove
it. But the believer says, I am not righteous. Christ is my righteousness. What is your plea before God? Brother Milton Howard sings a
song, and I hope I can remember the words off the top of my head.
When I at the gate of hell appear, answer the challenge, what right
have you here? What have you to offer? What is your plea? In blessed
assurance, my answer will be, all that I have is Jesus. All that I want is Jesus. All that I need, all that I played
is Jesus. but not the world, and they don't
like it, that Jesus Christ is the only one who has the right
to such a name as Adonai Zedek. Well, all of them come up against
Joshua and the Israelites, or they come up against Gibeon.
Gibeon sends out word for help, and because of the oath that
was made to them, and the treaty established with them, Joshua
and the Israelites are compelled to answer and bring help. And
God tells Joshua to do this. Now, I'm not going to get into
all that that might picture. In our teaching on the subject of
the Gibeonites from Joshua 9, we did not consider them to be
true believers. They were those who, for whatever
reason, aligned themselves with the people of God. They picture
those, and every church has them, people who say they believe,
who claim themselves to be Christians, and outwardly they are, but there's
nothing really in them. That is, there's been no work
of God in them. They're just associated with
the people of God. But what we want to look at for
just the next few minutes is how God brought victory to Joshua
and to the army of Israel. Got to get to the right page
of notes. I skipped over a whole lot when I said we're not going
to talk about what it means that they called on Gibeon. Now, most people read this story,
and here's the big thing to them. In the midst of the battle, Joshua
called for the sun and the moon to stand still, and it did. I'm not going to deny that that
is a big deal. And what is interesting is it's
such a remarkable miracle that unbelievers have a hard time
figuring out what to do with it, particularly religious unbelievers,
Christian religious unbelievers. They're embarrassed by it. And
they're embarrassed by it because that doesn't sound possible. And the reason it doesn't sound
possible to them is that the God that they believe in, no
matter that they call themselves Christians or anything else,
the God they believe in can't do that. And so they come up with a whole
lot of explanations. And you know, I read quite a
bit about scientists, archaeologists, and whatnot, who they go out
and find something that they think contradicts the Bible,
and there's nothing they love to find more. Really. If they dig up something that
they believe undermines what the Bible says, man, they're
going to get a paper published. They can do that. Now, you find
something that confirms the Scriptures, you'll have a harder time getting
that published, because nobody wants any of that. But they look
at this story and they say, well, that wouldn't happen. And they
come up with, well, here's what, quote, really happened. I always
know, when I'm reading these articles, what really happened
in the Garden of Eden. And I say, well, it's right here
in Genesis 1 through 3. That's what happened in the Garden
of Eden. What really happened at the Red Sea? Well, that's
over here in Exodus. I can't tell you the chapter.
I don't have that much memory. But it's in one of the earlier
chapters of Exodus. That's what really happened.
What really happened on this day of battle with King Adonai,
Zedek, and the others? It's what's written here. Some said it was an eclipse.
Well, that would hardly be helpful. Darken the skies? Also, and I
was reading about this as I was preparing here earlier, in the
time period from, I think they said 2000 B.C. until 6000 A.D.,
an 8,000 year period, the longest eclipse will be about seven minutes,
seven and a half minutes. Hardly sufficient time to wrap
up a battle. But it's obvious it wasn't darkness
that Joshua needs to fight a battle, it's daylight. Consequently,
an eclipse wouldn't even serve his purpose. And I've read other
ones. I've read ones that say, well,
this is poetical. It comes from this book, the book of Jasher. And there
is no copy of that that anybody's ever found. But it was copied
from that book, a poetic telling of the story. And poetry is never
to be taken literally. Oh, why not? I understand poetry
uses symbolism, it uses a lot more metaphor and all that, but
we're able to figure that out. This doesn't say, I mean, what
it says is, O sun, stand still over Gibeon. Well, it's hard
to understand about that. What poetic interpretation could
you put on that? It's just a poetic way of saying,
the sun stood still over Gibeon. and the moon over the valley
of Aijalon. Turn over to Mark 9, verse 23. And if we will believe what is
written here, then this story of Joshua and the sun standing
still, we'll have no problem taking it as a historical record
of something that happened on a particular day. This is the story of the boy
who was demon-possessed, and his father brought him first
to the disciples, and they couldn't cast the demon out. And so he
comes to the Lord, and he describes what happens, and then he says, In verse 22, if you can do anything,
take pity on us and help us. And the Lord said, if you can,
said Jesus, everything is possible for him who believes. Now, He's
not saying that a believer can do anything. What He means is,
in the eyes of a believer or in the thoughts of a believer,
anything can be done by God. All things are possible with
God. If He spoke the heavens and the
earth into existence, and He was the one that set the sun
in its place and the moon in its place, is it going to be
difficult for Him? to stop the natural process? You have to understand, to us,
things are miracles when they don't follow the pattern that
normally has. But there's no such thing as
a miracle to God. I said, it's as easy for Him
to make a rock float as it is for Him to make it fall. He's
the author of gravity, and He can suspend that if He wants
to. All it takes is a word. All it took was words to bring
it into existence and it takes nothing more on his part to make
it change its normal state of affairs. Now, for a long time
I thought this certainly is a notable miracle because there is no record anywhere
else in the world of an extra long day like this one must have
been. And so I thought to myself, well,
not only can the Lord, and He could do this, understand, once
you're a believer, a believer in the God of Scripture, all
things are possible. That means, if there's no record,
and believe me, if a day went on, an extra 12 hours or 24 hours,
daylight, Somebody would have written it
down. That would have been a big event, right? Thinking, I've
not heard of any such testimony. So, it's plausible to think that
right there where Joshua and the army was, the sun stopped
and so did the moon, but things went on quite normally in the
rest of the world. And God was able to reconcile
it all so that by the next day, everything was back on schedule. You say, that can't be done.
You can't do it and I can't do it. But all God has to do is
say that's the way it is. And that's the way it is. However,
in studying, I found out that there are some records. I don't
know how accurate they are, because people can say anything. But
some of those who were here early, that is, Europeans who were here
early on in the settlement of the Americas, they say that there
was records of an extra long night. Because remember, it would
have been night to them, the other side of the world. And
there is a story in Egypt of an extra long day. Now, are these stories reliable? I don't know. The point is, it
doesn't matter to me. He could have stopped the whole
earth. He could have Made it stop in one spot and
not another, if that's the way to put it. Or that is, that things
did not progress normally in that region where Joshua was,
because he's the one that needed light, you know. Egypt didn't
need extra light. Whatever Britain was back then
didn't need extra light. Just right here, he did it for
them. God can do that kind of thing.
That's the point of faith. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? So, we can dispense with worrying
about that. Here's the biggest issue though.
That's not what the Bible says was so notable about that day. Verse 14, there has never been
a day like it before or since. That's right. Never has been
a day like that, before that day, that got extended by at
least 12 hours, we'll say. But that's not what the Bible
goes on to mention. A day when the Lord listened
to a man. Because it says Joshua spoke
to the Lord in the presence of the Israelites and said, sun
stand still, moon stand still. And God listened. Do you know how much more of
a miracle that is than the sun standing still? God listened
to a man. And what man did he listen to? Joshua, the picture of our Lord
Jesus. Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're
doing. And God listened. No one involved in the crucifixion
of Christ paid for what they did. Because the Lord has never asked
his Father for anything and not gotten it. He is the man that the Lord listens
to. It is so silly, listen to me,
it is so silly when we are called upon by, well it's the Roman
church that does it the most, I don't know if anybody else,
you need to pray to Saint so-and-so. Why? He's not the man the Lord
listens to. There's one God and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And now it says that our Lord
is at the right hand of God, making intercession for us. And God's listening. You think on that? God listens
to that man. You say, well, that man is God.
I know. But it's His manhood that is
so remarkable to us, that God could become man. Say, how did
He do that? Well, I don't know that God could
explain it in a way that we'd understand it, but it happened.
And yet He is seated at the right hand of the Father. He makes
intercession for us. The father listens, five bleeding
wounds he bears, received on Calvary. They pour effectual
prayers, they strongly plead for me. Forgive him, oh forgive,
they cry, nor let that ransomed sinner die. The father hears
him pray, his dear anointed one. He cannot turn away the pleadings
of his son. If Christ is speaking for me,
I don't need anyone else to say a word. There has never been a day like
that before, nor since, a day when God listened to a man. And you and I live in that day. All authority in heaven and earth
been given unto Christ. Whatever He says, God does. All right, you're dismissed.