Joshua 10

 Read Joshua 10.  You will want a map handy for this chapter (click here for one).

Who? The kings of the hill country and their people, Joshua and the Israelites, the Gibeonites.

What? The 5 kings of the hill country form an alliance and attack Gibeon.  God and the Israelites defeat the alliance and then go on to defeat other cities in the area.

When? After the covenant with the Gibeonites is made

Where? The hill country to the southwest of Jericho

Why? The alliance attacks Gibeon because they are afraid of the Israelites and they also “feared greatly because Gibeon was a great city” (v. 2)

How? The alliance joins together and camps near Gibeon to attack it.  Joshua and the Israelites march from Gilgal to defend them.  The Lord fights for Israel using hailstones and also causing the sun to stand still in the sky for a day so that the battle can be completed.  Once these five kings are dealt with, Israel moves from one city to the next, defeating the cities in the area.

Some notes:

(vv.1-5) “Adoni-zedek” means “my Lord in righteous”.  His predecessor is Melchizedek, which means “king of righteousness," who was king of Salem.  This is the first time the city is called Jerusalem in Scripture.  Melchizedek was king in Abraham’s time (Genesis 14).  Remember that this is a time of “city-states," each having their own king.  The five kings mentioned here are of cities in the hill country of the South in Israel.  They are all Amorites (Genesis 15:16).  (See also Deuteronomy 11:25.)

(vv. 6-11) The Lord tells Joshua to go up and fight.  He commands Joshua not to fear and tells him that it is a “done deal” that Israel will defeat the Amorites.  They are to stand firm because the Lord is faithful.  As my friend put it, “When we aren’t choosing faith, we are listening to the enemy.”  Note that even though the people had made a mistake in making a covenant with Gibeon, the Lord honors it and protects Gibeon.  Joshua also fully honors the covenant by bringing the whole fighting force to defend Gibeon.  Gilgal is in the Jordan valley while Gibeon is on the top of a mountain 15-20 miles to the west.  This would have been an uphill march the whole way.  The Israelites would have been tired by the time they reached Gibeon, but the Lord handled the battle by throwing them into confusion and then destroying them with hailstones.  Note God’s amazing aim.  In the midst of a battle, only the Amorites were hit by the hailstones.  He is sovereign and knows exactly what He is doing.  The ultimate victory is the Lord’s, as always.  (See Psalm 18 for more on this and the use of nature for God’s victory.  See also Isaiah 28:21.)

(vv. 12-15) Joshua prays to the Lord for the sun to stand still so that they can finish the battle.  God answers him with a miracle.  Many debate how this could have happened, scientifically, but we just need to know that God controls His creation and can do with it whatever He wills.  The Lord was fighting for Israel.  (See Deuteronomy 20 for rules of warfare.)

(vv. 16-21) Here, the timeline rejoins the action in verse 5.  The kings show their cowardice as they leave their people to fight without them.  Joshua continually emphasizes that God is fighting the battle and He is the One who will be victorious.  Notice that, unlike the kings, Joshua is out front leading the army of the Lord.  The army of Israel is following Joshua as he follows the Lord.  They finish the battle and no one in the land can speak against the army of the Lord.

(vv. 22-27) The kings of the alliance must be dealt with.  God had ordered complete destruction, including the kings.  When the leaders of Israel put their feet on the necks of the kings, this symbolizes Israel’s victory against them and also the promised assurance of future conquest.  Notice that Joshua commands the people not to fear.  This has been commanded by God and passed on to the people of God throughout Joshua.  Courage is a deliberate choice.  We must choose to put our faith in God’s sovereignty and faithfulness.  As John MacArthur says in his study of Joshua, “Fear is the enemy of God’s people because it moves them away from faith and toward disobedience.”  We, like Israel, must choose faith and obedience  (See 2 Timothy 1:6-12).  Finally, here we have the fifth “heap of stones” in Joshua, piled at the entrance to the burial cave of the rebellious kings.

(vv. 28-43) The Israelites continue to conquer in this area (be sure to consult a map.)  They take Makkedah, Libnah, Lachish, Eglon, Hebron, and Debir.  They also fight the king of Gezer, even though they do not go to Gezer itself.  You will need to note that the Israelites return to Gilgal after this campaign and do not leave a garrison to hold these cities.  Later, in Judges especially, we will notice that there are still Canaanites in this area that need to be defeated.  Gezer is especially problematic (see Joshua 16:10 and Judges 1:29).  Hebron is later taken fully by Caleb and his brothers from the tribe of Judah.  We will discuss this further as we go along in Joshua and Judges.  In v. 40, note that “all the land” is talking about the specifics listed after that phrase, not all of the Promised Land.  All this land is taken because the Lord fought for Israel.  

Question 1: Why do you think the Canaanites attacked the Gibeonites rather than directly attacking Israel?  What do we learn about integrity and honor?  They were the weaker party.  Israel shows integrity and honor, even though it is hard, even though Gibeon deceived them, even though they had cursed them and made them slaves, they still go to defend them.  Having integrity is about what you do when things are hard or when no one is looking.  Honor is about keeping your word, no matter what.

Questions 2:  What ways does God fight for Israel in the battles in this chapter?  In what ways does Joshua and the Israelites show faith and fruit form lessons learned in previous battles here?  He throws the enemy into confusion, kills them with hailstones, and makes the sun stand still so that the battle continues until it is done.  Joshua and the Israelites fight obediently behind the Lord.  They know that He is in charge and He will fight and direct the battle.

Applications:  We need to keep our word, showing integrity and honor in our behavior so that we bring glory to the Lord.  We need to choose courage over fear, faithfulness over doubt, and obedience over disobedience, even when it is hard work.  

One last bit of application is drawn from “Lessons on Sanctification” from Dr. Alan Cairns.  The battles fought here give us insight into our own sanctification.  A few points he makes: 1. sanctification doesn’t always happen in a crisis and a lull doesn’t mean we have had complete victory, 2. when the big battles are won, there are still little ones to fight, 3. we can only pursue and hunt down our sins as we follow our Savior (remember that Joshua is a type of Christ), 4. we can’t destroy every sin at once, but we should track them all down.  As we learn about Israel and the process of conquering the Promised Land, let’s remember that we can draw lessons about conquering sin as well.