Trusting in God for the Impossible

Statement of Intent: I intend to show how this passage directly applies to Christians today and how they can refer to it to help strengthen their faith. I also hope to show that the God of the Old Testament is the same God from the New Testament and is the same today. I plan to show how this passage holds many truths in it that are still clear today.

Introduction: In Joshua chapter 9 Israel entered into a treaty with the Gibeonites under the assumption that they were from a far off place and of no threat. The Gibeonites deceived Joshua and Israel because they were actually neighbors with Israel disguised as foreigners. Joshua made a covenant before the Lord though that Israel would not harm the Gibeonite people. Therefore God made Israel keep their word even though they were deceived. That is the context for our story. Joshua 10:1-14 tells us the story of five Amorite kings making a coalition against Gibeon and attacking it. The Gibeonites ask Joshua to not abandon their servants. After the treaty with the Gibeonites Israel, in return for not killing the Gibeonites for their treachery, made them into servants of Israel. The five kings surrounded Gibeon and as Joshua was marching his army towards Gibeon the Lord God told him to not be afraid. Joshua was faithful to the Gibeonites and trusted in Yahweh so God helped him gain the victory over the five Amorite kings who are Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem, Hoham king of Hebron, Piram king of Jarmuth, Japhia king of Lachish, and Debir king of Eglon.

Outline of Joshua 10:1-14

1. In life there will be times when God sends us into impossible situations (10:1-5)
A. Gibeon was surrounded and Joshua was going to join them in battle from all sides (10:5)
1. Joshua and Gibeon were outnumbered
2. Joshua and his army were unfamiliar with Gibeon
B. Joshua and his army had a long journey to Gibeon that took all night
1. Gibeon was around 20 miles away from where Joshua was in Gilgal (David Guzik)
2. Gibeon was also 3,300 feet higher in altitude than Gilgal (David Guzik)

Summary:
God likes to send us into uneasy and often difficult situations to make us more dependent on him. Trials and tribulations are methods God uses to make us more like him. In Another lesson to be learned from this point is that we are to be people of our word even if we are tricked into an agreement. As Christians we are to be people of integrity and Joshua shows us how to be true to our word even when we are cheated. Another important thing to note is that God was providentially at work in the formation of the confederation between the five Amorite kings. Matthew Henry in his commentary of Joshua 10 thinks that Joshua waited for the Canaanites to be the aggressors; let them first make an onset upon Israel, or the allies of Israel, and then their destruction will be, or at least will appear to be, the more just and more justifiable. In order for Israel to drive the Canaanites out from the Promised Land this battle had to take place. Sometimes in our lives events happen that seem random and tragic to us, but later on in life we realize that without those events we wouldn't be the people we are today. God uses bad situations and turns them into blessings for us. Something else to acknowledge from verses 1-5 is that the march to the battle was tough. According to David Guzik the march from Gilgal to Gibeon involved a climb of 3,300 feet, and the distance was about twenty miles, taking eight to ten hours of hard marching, all through the night. The march from Gilgal to Gibeon normally took three days according to Joshua 9:17. So not only was the battle hard but the journey was extremely agonizing too. Sometimes the journey to ministry or to our calling is very hard. There might be times when we are low on finances or lack the people with the skills to help us meet our goals to even get us to the battlefield in our life.

2. When trouble comes when can either trust God or run away (10:6-9)
A. Joshua chose to trust God (10:7)
1. Before God even called Joshua to not be afraid he had already started marching towards Gibeon respecting his covenant with the Gibeonites
2. Throughout the whole battle Joshua is "strong and courageous" as God had commanded him to be
B. Had Joshua had chosen to run away from Gibeon two results would have occurred (10:6-7)
1. The Gibeonites would have surely perished (10:6)
a. The Gibeonites were outnumbered 5-1
b. They were also surrounded
2. The wrath of God would have fallen on Israel and Joshua for two reasons
a. Firstly because they would have not kept their covenant with the Gibeons
b. Secondly because they would have not have trusted God

Summary:
When God sends us into impossible situations as mentioned in the first point there are two responses we give to God; we either trust God to help us through the situation or we run away from the situation. Joshua and Israel had a covenant responsibility before God to help the Gibeonites if they ever called upon Israel for help. The Gibeonites were allies of Israel and Israel's servants. Joshua put his trust in God when he was faced with the battle before him. When we trust in God he will help us through our situations that seem impossible to us because we can't see the future outcome of our situations. God knows the future and tells us that he has already won the battle for us. When we trust God we will see miracles and the power of God like we have never seen before. However, if we don't trust God and we try to rely on ourselves or run away from our lives, God will not bless us. When we don't trust God there will be consequences. If Joshua had run away from his impossible situation, the allies of Israel would have died and the Canaanites would still have a good amount of control over the Promised Land. When we run away from our seemingly impossible situations we miss out on what God has in store for us.

3. When we trust God he will come through in miraculous ways (10:10-14)
A. God threw Joshua's enemies into confusion (10:10)
1. The Amorite allies were frightened probably by a fearful storm of lightning and thunder. (Jamieson Fausset Brown)
2. The effect of this miracle was that the 5-army confederation was defeated and fled for their lives
B. When the confederation army fled to Beth-Horon, God sent a hailstorm to kill them (10:11)
1. Verse 11 states that God hurled "large hailstones"
a. John Wesley thinks that these hailstones were hailstones of extraordinary greatness, cast down with that certainty, as to hit the Canaanites and not their pursuers the Israelites.
b. According to Wesley, the historian Josephus affirms that thunder and lightning were mixed with the hail.
2. Verse 11 also says that more people in the confederate army died from the hailstones than by Joshua's army
C. God stopped the sun and moon so that Joshua would have close to 24 hours of more daylight to defeat his enemy (10:13-14)
1. The extra day gave Joshua time to totally eradicate the confederate army, not just defeat them.
2. This miracle showed the power of God not only to all of the people involved in the battle, but to everyone on earth

Summary:
Verses 10-14 shows the power of God and how much he cares to help his people when they are in need. Although God does not do some of the same amazing miracles he did in the Old Testament like the parting of the Red Sea, the Fall of Jericho, or the extra 24 hours light God gave Joshua; he still does miracles all the time. These four verses if anything tells us that God is able to do anything he needs to do to help us through life. If he can keep the sun in place for an extra day he can help you through your everyday problems. God loves nothing more than when we are vulnerable and have to trust on God. That's when he gets to show off and provide us with what we need. The process of following God is not easy but the rewards are great. After enduring the trials Joshua had before him and trusting God till the end, he was delivered from the hands of the Canaanites and gained a huge step in winning back the Promised Land for Israel. John Gill describes the courage Joshua had when he declared his prayer to God in his commentary when he says "and he said, in the sight of Israel; in their presence, and in the hearing of great numbers, being under a divine impulse, and having strong faith in the working of the miracle, after related, and that it would be according to his word; he was bold to say what he did, being fully persuaded he should not be disappointed, and made ashamed" It can be hard to stand up for our faith in front of everyone we know, but when we take that bold step forward and trust in the Lord he will answer us.

Conclusion:
There are many applications from this passage that we can use in our lives. Firstly we must understand from these verses that God is going to willingly send us into difficult situations in order to build us up. As believers there are two responses we can give to God when we are put in those situations. Joshua gave the right response in this passage, which is the response of trusting in God. If we can't learn to trust in God we will never grow in Christ as God intended us to grow and also we will miss out on many opportunities that God has prepared to us. Also when we choose the right response instead of the wrong one, which is not trusting God and running away from the situation, we get to see God work in our lives in ways we have never seen before. The last lesson to be learned from Joshua 10:1-14 is that God is able. He is able in every way to meet our needs, but he can't do that until we put all of our dependence on him.

Bibliography

Gill, John. "EXPOSITION OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS." God Rules. 1810. 5 Mar. 2006 .

Guzik, David. "Joshua 10 - The Southern Kings Conquered." Enduring Word. 2001. Enduring Word Media. 4 Mar. 2006 .

Henry, Matthew. "Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible." Crosswalk. 1706. 3 Mar. 2006 .

Jamieson, Robert, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown. "Commentary Critical and Explanatory-Chapter 10." Crosswalk. 1871. 4 Mar. 2006 .

Wesley, John. "John Wesley's Explanatory Notes." Crosswalk. 1765. 4 Mar. 2006 .