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Joshua Commands the Sun
1King Adonizedek of Jerusalem heard that Joshua had captured and destroyed the town of Ai, and then killed its king as he had done at Jericho. He also learned that the Gibeonites had signed a peace treaty with Israel. 2This frightened Adonizedek and his people. They knew that Gibeon was a large town, as big as the towns that had kings, and even bigger than the town of Ai had been. And all of the men of Gibeon were warriors. 3So Adonizedek sent messages to the kings of four other towns: King Hoham of Hebron, King Piram of Jarmuth, King Japhia of Lachish, and King Debir of Eglon. The messages said, 4“The Gibeonites have signed a peace treaty with Joshua and the Israelites. Come and help me attack Gibeon!”
5When these five Amorite kings called their armies together and attacked Gibeon, 6the Gibeonites sent a message to the Israelite camp at Gilgal: “Joshua, please come and rescue us! The Amorite kings from the hill country have joined together and are attacking us. We are your servants, so don't let us down. Please hurry!”
7Joshua and his army, including his best warriors, left Gilgal. 8“Joshua,” the Lord said, “don't be afraid of the Amorites. They will run away when you attack, and I will help you defeat them.”
9Joshua marched all night from Gilgal to Gibeon and made a surprise attack on the Amorite camp. 10The Lord made the enemy panic, and the Israelites started killing them right and left. They chased the Amorite troops up the road to Beth-Horon and kept on killing them, until they reached the towns of Azekah and Makkedah. 11And while these troops were going down through Beth-Horon Pass, the Lord made huge hailstones fall on them all the way to Azekah. More of the enemy soldiers died from the hail than from the Israelite weapons.
12-13 The Lord was helping the Israelites defeat the Amorites that day. So about noon, Joshua prayed to the Lord loud enough for the Israelites to hear:
“Our Lord, make the sun stop
in the sky over Gibeon,
and the moon stand still
over Aijalon Valley.”
So the sun and the moon
stopped and stood still
until Israel defeated its enemies.
This poem can be found in The Book of Jashar. The sun stood still and didn't go down for about a whole day. 14Never before and never since has the Lord done anything like that for someone who prayed. The Lord was really fighting for Israel.
15After the battle, Joshua and the Israelites went back to their camp at Gilgal.
Reflect
There it is again. That amazing statement of God to the people of Israel – not to be afraid. The enemy armies have gathered and Joshua and his armies again must stand against a force that far outnumbers them. Their anxiety and fears are to be expected so once again God says to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hands. Not one of them will be able to withstand you.”
The challenge of this passage is in the faith that is revealed. It is risky, all out. In fact it is putting their faith to the test. This is not simply an act of resting in a belief system or checking off the boxes of the doctrines we affirm. It is putting legs to faith and trusting in a God who is at work and actively present.
Too often in Canadian Christianity we live as if the purpose of our faith is to get safely to our death without any serious mishaps. What a tragic heresy! A God who is all present and active in our world calls us to live more dangerously than that. He wants us to live deeply as salt and light in the world. It is not a safe tourist trip we have been called to. It is a life of adventure travel. Only then can his power be displayed in each moment of our lives. Our job is to live such a dependency with him that the only way things happen in our lives is because of him.
That is why Joshua’s bold prayer in verse 12-13 is so remarkable. It captures a moment when Joshua, in faith, asked the impossible. It was a request to alter time so that Joshua could protect their new allies. And we are told that the sun stood still. We don’t know how. But God did it. The world watched as time stopped and allowed the people of God to protect their new allies. Now that takes courage. That takes faith!
Respond
God of all faith, the present, the future and the past. Grant us the courage to live a faith worth living. Make us willing, with the help of your Spirit, to go to places we do not want to go. Lead us and walk with us in such a way that at the end of our lives we can say, “What an adventure!”
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Gary Nelson
Gary Nelson joined Tyndale University College & Seminary as President and Vice Chancellor in 2010 after serving in various pastoral roles and most recently as head of an international mission and development organization. Previous to that leadership role, he was involved in the revitalizing and renewing of an historic downtown church into a creative and dynamic contemporary congregation. Gary’s teaching and speaking has takes him around the world focusing on themes of missional living as the church, urban missiology and leadership. Publications: His writings include a coauthored book entitled Future Faith Churches: The Power of a Reconnected Gospel for the 21st Century (Woodlake Press, 1997) with Don Posterski.