I sat down to study this past week and it didn t take too long for a song to come to mind. The song goes: In heavenly armour we'll enter the land The battle belongs to the Lord No weapon that's fashioned against us shall stand The battle belongs to the Lord We sing glory and honor Power and strength to the Lord (If weren t living in the 90 s or weren t listening to Christian music in the 90 s, that s OK. Maybe on the way home you can pull up on your phone some classics from Petra, Sandi Patty, or Twila Paris, and don t get me going on DC Talk). But the song, The battle belongs to the Lord, is an old song that I think is really appropriate to get us thinking about our passage today. For within Joshua 10 and the next couple of chapters we re given a picture of the Israelites conquering one city after another. But in reality, it s the Lord who is giving the victory. This is far more than a Israelite history, but when a lot of people think about the Lord in 2017, I would say that most don t picture the Lord as One who is mighty in battle. Many don t see the Lord as a Warrior. Many have an image of Jesus, meek and mild, with perfect hair and a nice pair of sandals. But the God that we serve is far greater than that and is the Almighty God of all the earth. And the God that we see in the book of Joshua is the same God that we serve today. Keep that in mind as we turn our attention to Joshua 10. We pick up in the book of Joshua with a familiar narrative people in the land of Canaan are scared. Because for the past several weeks the Israelite army has been conquering every city in their path. But as we get to Joshua 10, they re scared for entirely different reason. The region of Gibeon, which was within the land of Canaan, has recently fooled the Israelites into making a covenant with them. We left off last week in the book Joshua with the Israelites making a covenant with the people of Gibeon. The Gibeonites had fooled the Israelites, which we talked about last week, and because of that covenant/oath they weren t destroyed. Instead of fighting against the Israelites, who was a foreign enemy, they had come under the Israelites protection. And this is what causes concern within the land Canaan as we get to chapter 10. Because Gibeon was no pushover, they weren t a featherweight city within the land. They were a powerhouse! Read Joshua 10:1-5 A great city in the region, a royal city, doesn t join in partnership with everyone else. Instead, Gibeon forfeits and joins the opposition. Everyone within the land of 1
Canaan, they re looking for allies, they re looking for some help. And everyone thinks they have an ally in Gibeon but then word gets out they ve joined forces with the Israelites. That s like playing the game of Risk and you think you ve got an Ally in a neighboring country. You trust them. You don t attack them because they don t threaten you. Then all of a sudden they make some questionable move and you have to go on the attack before they wipe you out. That s exactly what happens here with the inhabitants of Gibeon. When they made a covenant with the Israelites that broke whatever trust/loyalty they had previously had with everyone else in the land of Canaan. And the surrounding Kings look at that say, We have got to do something. Israel isn t getting weaker they re getting stronger. Before picking a fight with the overwhelming army of Israel let s gather together and take out Gibeon. So five kings assemble their troops and go to war against Gibeon. We ll keep on reading and see how Israel and the Lord respond to this assault. Read Joshua 10:6-15 Gibeon has a moment of panic. Last week when we looked at Joshua 9, we saw that in a moment of desperation Gibeon deceived the Israelites into making a covenant. It was a commitment that the Israelites would not bring harm to Gibeon but apparently it was also a commitment that they would not passively let anyone else bring harm to Gibeon. A messenger relays the information to Joshua and immediately he rises to his feet, assembles his troops, and gets ready to make the journey towards Gibeon. And the Lord gives Joshua some reassurance that there s no need to be afraid because the Lord guarantees there will be a victory; not a single person will be able to stand against him. This is not new information, the Lord has repeatedly within this book given this command and this promise. He has told Joshua several times not to fear and also that victory is certain. Joshua 1:9 tells us, Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Joshua 8:1 says, Do not fear and do not be dismayed I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, his city, and his land. 2
And then we see here in Joshua 10:8 the Lord saying, Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands. Not a man of them shall stand before you. The reason that I bring the repetition up is because if Joshua needed to hear the same thing over and over again, there s a high probability that we do too. My guess or better yet, my guarantee is that when the Lord repeated the same thing to Joshua, Joshua did not roll his eyes and go, I know you ve already told me this. I guarantee that! There s a higher probability that Joshua took encouragement each time he heard those things from the Lord. And I have found that in my own life it is highly encouraging to have the words of the Lord playing on repeat in my own my own mind. It s not enough for me to just hear them once. I can hear the words of Matthew 28 where I m told to, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Or I can listen to the words of 2 Timothy 3:12 where I m guaranteed that, Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. And I can find the encouragement that is found in 1 Peter 4:13 that says, rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. I can hear that and I do find encouragement in those statements of truth. But when I m actually faced with affliction, when I do share Christ s sufferings, if the truth of God s Word hasn t sunk deep within me, if I m not convicted and convinced of the truth, I will abandon my mission. But if I m going to stay encouraged, if I m going to stay on the path that God has called me to, I need to be told things of truth repeatedly. I need to have the words of the Lord playing on repeat as I head into the office for the day, as I step into my home to lead my family, and as I encounter various difficulties in multiple settings. I not only need to hear what the Lord has said, I need to hear again and again and again We all do. So, my desire for you is that you would come every Sunday morning to hear truth proclaimed and repeated to you in this morning service but also in the Sunday 3
School hour. My desire is that you would be involved in a small group and tied closely in relationship to other followers of Jesus Christ where truth would be proclaimed and repeated. This isn t just for adults either; I believe it s really important that our students are involved in our ministries to students (Sunday School, Kid s Kingdom, Student Ministries). And parents, you have an incredibly important role in your child s life as well, it s not enough to be just taught here. Teaching/repeating/demonstrating the truth of God s Word must be put on display for children to see and to hear. And then to keep on going it is crucial that all of you would personally be taking the time to be disciplined in proclaiming and repeating truth to yourself as you read God s Word and meditate on it persistently. It s not enough to hear truth once; to go further, it s not enough to hear truth once a week. *Take for example exploring a city that you ve never been to before. How often do you look at the map or the GPS? Now, I don t know about you but I am paying close attention to where the GPS tells me to go when I m in an area that I m unfamiliar with. And sure, there are plenty of times that it needs to recalculate, and that s when I listen to the directions and get back on the path that I am supposed to be on. I need to hear the truth, the truth needs to be repeated to me, and then repeated again, and then repeated again. Likewise, we all need to hear the commands and the promises of God again and again. And that is what Joshua received on the way to help the inhabitants of Gibeon; he received the command do not fear and he received the promise, I have given them into your hands. A message that he had heard before, but I m convinced that it was encouragement to hear it again. And I image that it s a message that passes through the entire army for they were so filled with the Lord s promise of victory even an allnight march up from Gilgal to Gibeon would not leave Joshua s forces too weary for fighting. And then you keep on reading and see the miraculous arrival of great hailstones that killed a majority of the enemy. It was obvious that the Lord was on their side fulfilling the promise that He had given to Joshua. Imagine that scene with me: Joshua and the Israelite army arrive suddenly to defend Gibeon and the Lord throws their opponent into confusion. The armies of these five kings start experiencing defeat and so they turn to run and as their escaping there s a dramatic shift in the weather. Now I m not sure if there s thunder & lightning, along with some heavy rain, but we do know that hailstones, big ones, start falling from the sky and taking out the opposition. And we re told, there were more who died because of the hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with the sword. Now, in saying that, it does not mean that Israel s military courage is insignificant or meaningless. But what it does, it demonstrates that they are working in the larger context of God s miraculous intervention. Is the 4
Lord at work? Absolutely! Are the Israelites working? Of course they are. The Israelites have aligned themselves, by God s grace, to work in union with the living God; to submit themselves to the desires and to the will of the Lord. And working within the will of the Lord Joshua asked for something that had never happened before: Joshua asked for the sun to stand still. And that has led to a lot of debates of what truly happened that day and people have come to different conclusions. 1 Some say that it s simply words of poetry. It s not actually literal and that all Joshua was doing was using poetical language to emphasize the significance of the day and how the day seemed longer. I don t think that s the case because within the sentences before it tells us of the miracle of hailstones destroying a considerable amount of the opposing army. If that s not poetry but literal, then why should the stopping of the sun not be taken literal too? 2 Others have said that was only a refraction of the sun s rays that made it seem as if the sun and moon were out of their regular places. That it was a miracle, but sun didn t actually stop but only passed the light a further distance than it typically travels. 3 Now you can call me simple, but I believe the sun and the moon (or perhaps the entire earth) stood still that day. God is an omnipotent God (which means he s allpowerful). And if God is all-powerful, then he can easily stop the sun and moon or earth or anything else for that matter. We observe in the New Testament that Jesus calms a storm by His words. He takes 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, and feeds over 5,000 people. He s at a wedding party and they run out of wine, so Jesus serves them by turning their water into wine. We re told in Colossian 1 that everything is created by Jesus, through Jesus, for Jesus, and Jesus holds everything together. And if wants to hold the sun still for a day, he s able to do so. There is nothing that our God is incapable of. NOTHING IS OUT OF HIS REACH! We serve a BIG God! There is nothing that is too great for our God for He is able to do far more than anything we can ever ask for or even think of. We simply have to ask. Now we do have to ask the right questions. James 4 warns of that, You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. (James 4:2-3) Joshua spoke that day to the Lord but it wasn t to fulfill his own passions. It was to accomplish the desires of the Lord. The Lord had given the enemy into his hands and he could use a little more daylight to ensure the victory. So the Lord gave it to him. And our text doesn t exaggerate when it tells us there has been no day like it 5
before or since, when the Lord heeded the voice of a man, for the LORD fought Israel. That was a huge day in the history of God s people. Just as a side note, you see that it mentions the Book of Jashar. It s mentioned here and mentioned again in 2 Samuel 1. It s believed to be a collection of poems and songs that were recorded about certain individuals and actions that took place throughout Israel s history. God did not preserve that particular book but gave us everything that we need to know about Israel and His workings among them within the pages of our Bible. And what Joshua 10 tells us next is that the five kings who had originally gathered to fight against Gibeon go and hide within a cave. Joshua s men discover this, roll a large stone over the entrance, destroy the rest of the armies who are still on the run, and then come back to the cave. Each of those kings are then put to death. Like Jericho, and like Ai, the leaders and their kingdoms were devoted to destruction. Then pace really starts to quicken once we get to the end of chapter 10. So far in chapters 1-10 we ve received a lot detail regarding every single event that has taken place. But once we get to the end of the tenth chapter, the victories that take place moving forward into the Promise Land are summarized. I m not going to read 11-12 this morning or in any worship services to come, but I encourage you to look through it on your own. And if you were to read through it you would see numerous regions/cities conquered, along with 31 kings dethroned. God is fulfilling His promise to the Israelites in giving them the land of Canaan. Application: As we look through this portion of Scripture, I think there is one question that we need to ask ourselves in order to evaluate our own lives. (There are a lot of question I could ask but I want to consider just this one for your personal growth). Like the philosopher Socrates once said, "An unexamined life is not worth living." Let s take a few minutes and examine our lives in order that we might make the changes where needed and seek to grow in areas where we are weak. My question is this: How big is your God? Now, in asking that, I m not saying there are multiple gods of various sizes and capabilities. I affirm what 1 Corinthians 8:6 says, there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. There is only one God. The Word of God is very straightforward on that. And He is a big God who is capable of doing big things, miraculous things. He is able to 6
accomplish whatever He desires; He is the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). There is nothing too big for Him, nothing too significant for Him. So really, my question to you is does your life reflect the bigness of our God? Do you live in such a way that demonstrates that you believe, that you have faith, that the God that you serve is the Almighty God of all heaven and of all the earth? How you answer this question is a big determining factor in how you live your life. Because the size of your faith will determine the boldness of your actions. If Joshua doubted the power of the Lord, there s no way he makes that trip to Gibeon, and definitely there s no way He makes that request to God to keep the sun in place for a little while longer. But because he had a big faith, because he knew that the God that he served was a big God, he could take bold actions when he needed to. When we carry this small opinion or small understanding of God, we will be crippled by fear. Instead of following the commands of God, instead of trusting in the promises that the Lord has given us, we will run and hide because we re not actually confident that God will be able to come through with what He says He will do. A small view of God leads you to half-heartedly following after Him, trusting Him only where it s convenient and where you have no other choice. It leads you to living a life that is lukewarm where you re not necessarily rejecting the Lord, but you re life s purpose isn t focused on bringing glory to the Lord either. And in the book of Revelation, Jesus talks about a church like this. There s a church in the city of Laodicea, that s doing some decent things, there s no mention of any horrible sins. But they re lukewarm; they re not absolutely dependent on the Lord, their faith isn t propelling them to take a bold stand for the Lord and because of that, this is what Jesus says, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. There are some actions within the church that make Jesus weep. There are some actions within the church that make Jesus angry. And according to this text, Revelation 3, there are some actions within the church that make Jesus sick I will spit you out of my mouth. God is a big God. Joshua 10, 11, 12 point to the reality that the God that we serve is the Almighty God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. It reveals to us that He is a greater King than any king who has ever existed. He is a stronger Warrior that no army can oppose. We cannot look at this; we must not look at this, and shrug our shoulders and go, big deal. Cool story I ve got things to do. My prayer is that you would be a faith-filled individual, that is deeply grounded in the reality that the God that we serve is all-powerful, that there is nothing that He 7
cannot accomplish, and that by faith you would take risks where God calls you to take risk. The Christian life is not a safe life; often times it s not a comfortable life. Look at all of the Apostles (Peter, James, John, Andrew, Philip, Matthew and so on ). Their lives didn t end comfortably! They believed in the bigness of God and most of them lost their lives for it. But I guarantee, if they were able to stand here this morning, they would testify to fact that it was worth. Serving God, following Jesus wholeheartedly is worth it. Every other pursuit in life is empty, it s safer for sure, but it s empty. So I ask you the question again, How big is your God? Where does your life testify to fact that you serve a big God that is capable of doing big things? Conclusion: For some of you that may be a time of rejoicing to think through where you have followed after the Lord and you ve gotten a front row seat to see God at work in your life and around your life. And I want to encourage you, keep going. May your testimony continue to bring glory to the Name of God. And for others of you, you may say I believe but it would be highly appropriate for you to cry out to God saying that I believe, but God help me with my unbelief. You believe that God is big but the actions of your life don t reflect that. So I would challenge you that when we stand to sing in just a moment, that you would take some time to confess that to God. He longs to hear from. Everyone who has placed their faith in Christ is adopted into the family of God, we are now sons and daughter of the Most High God, and He longs to have a conversation with you. Cry out to Him today. And for anyone else that may simply be asking the questions about who the God of the Bible is or curious to discover what it looks like to put your life in His hands, to trust Him, to follow Him completely and fully let me just say to you that this is a safe place to ask those questions, to explore Christianity, and to have people love you as you seek to understand who God is. You may be afraid to ask deep questions, but I pray that you would have the courage to ask anyways. Because I m certain that on the other side of that question (whether you re asking me, the person that you came with, or many other people within our church), on the other side of that question you ll find a person who is eager to go in greater detail about the greatness of our God! My hope for you and for all of you is that we would see that the God that we serve is Mighty; He is a big God! And that we would leave this place with a higher desire to live our lives reflecting what we believe about the bigness of our God and knowing that regardless of how difficult our circumstance become, the battle belongs to the Lord. 8