And Jehovah discomfited them before Israel, and smote them [with] a great slaughter at Gibeon; and he chased them on the way of the ascent of Beth-horon, and smote them up to Azekah and Makkedah.
Five kings marched on Gibeon to punish a small city that had switched sides. They met Israel's army instead — and behind that army, the Lord Himself, which raises the question this chapter answers: whose victory was this?
The five kings did not attack Israel. They attacked the city Israel had sworn to protect one chapter earlier. Commentators trace the crisis back to that treaty:
In chapter 10 we find Israel in a very difficult situation. It came as a direct result of their failure in chapter 9. The king of Jerusalem hears about Gibeon's peace deal with Israel. He forms an alliance with four other kings of the Amorites and attacks the Gibeonites. The Gibeonites in turn send messengers to Joshua saying, "come up to us quickly, and save us, and help us" (v. 6). What should Joshua do? Break his peace deal with the Gibeonites? Or argue that it was void because they had lied?
Yet the trap became God's opportunity. Joshua kept his word, and God turned a mistake into one decisive campaign:
It was certainly God who was behind all this, for in this way Joshua could defeat five kings at once. Notice that they went up from Gilgal, the place of self-judgment (v.7). And the Lord gave His word to Joshua: He had delivered the enemies into Israel's hand, so that none could stand before them (v.8).
Joshua did not march out hoping to win. God had told him the outcome before the first sword was drawn. That changes what a battle means:
This peace with the Gibeonites only brought fresh attacks on Israel. But now all is plain. Jehovah says to Joshua, "Do not fear them, for I have delivered them into your hand." This is all that conflict means for anyone who walks in the Spirit before God. There must be conflict, but conflict is only victory. It is the Lord who has delivered the enemy into our hands; none can stand before us.
The march began at Gilgal. From that, the same writer draws a rule for how Israel's wars go:
But the camp is the starting point for victory, and after a triumph the way back to true strength is always to Gilgal. It is not there that the enemy attacks us, if we are faithful. Whatever moves our enemies make, the attack will come from our side.
A word of assurance did not make Joshua passive. It sent him against the enemy at once:
The power of the five kings was broken suddenly and completely. The Lord had said to Joshua, "Do not fear them, for I have delivered them into your hand; not a man of them shall stand before you." So Joshua came upon them without warning. Strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, Israel attacked the enemy, "and the Lord threw them into a panic before Israel." Faith in God gives unquenchable energy to God's people. Faith's victories come when God's people carry out His purposes.
The panic was His; the swords were theirs. One writer stresses that God chose to share the work He could have finished alone:
Everything about that day's action is felt to be Jehovah's doing! He uses His people, and in a sense it was gracious of Him to do so. He could have done it all without them, as He did at the Red Sea. But He chose to use His people, in keeping with the way He was working then... it is short-sighted and irreverent folly to miss the honour of being used in the Lord's work of that day — clearing the land of what was an ulcer and a plague spot, not only for that place but for the whole earth. That is what the Canaanites were. If there was to be a people of God at all, what other way was open than sweeping the land clean of the world-polluting Canaanites?
The place names in the verse carry meanings. Read that way, they trace the shape of the defeat:
Joshua, remembering the oath of the Lord, hurries out against the Canaanite army. He strikes them with a great slaughter and pursues them along the way of Beth-horon (the "place of wrath"), as far as Azekah ("fencing round") and Makkedah ("bowing the head"). So God defeats His enemies, and they are like cattle in the hands of the slaughterer.
- Failure: The five kings attacked because Israel had made a treaty with Gibeon. The crisis of chapter 10 grew straight out of the mistake of chapter 9.
- Mercy: God met the mess with a promise, not a rebuke: "Do not fear them, for I have delivered them into your hand."
- Starting point: The march began at Gilgal, the place of self-judgment. That camp, not the battlefield, is where victory starts.
- Energy: Being sure of the outcome did not slow Joshua down. It drove him to a sudden attack. Faith gives God's people unquenchable energy.
- Glory: The Lord threw the enemy into panic, and Israel struck. He could have acted alone, as at the Red Sea. Instead He honoured His people by using them.
And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, -- they were at the descent of Beth-horon, -- that Jehovah cast down great stones from heaven upon them up to Azekah, and they died. They were more who died with the hailstones than they whom the children of Israel had slain with the sword.
Israel had come to rescue Gibeon, and by morning the enemy kings were running down the steep pass at Beth-horon. Then the battle left human hands — stones fell from the sky, and they killed more men than Israel's swords did.
The hail fell on the road where both armies were running. It struck only one of them:
What a glorious day for Israel. The combined forces flee, Joshua wields his sword with might from Jehovah. The "Captain of the host" is with him. And that is not enough. Jehovah Himself appears apart from any human instrument and so completes the victory. The Lord of creation commands and nature obeys. The hailstones strike not Israel, but the fleeing enemy. Each stone has its own special message. It tells Israelite from Canaanite. The sword of Israel and the great stones of Jehovah are both guided by the same mighty and unerring Hand. Once before God stepped in like this for His people; then the hail was mixed with fire (Ex. 9:24). Then the people were slaves; now they are conquerors.
Where did such stones come from? One writer answers from God's words in the book of Job:
And He shows that God has a store that man knows nothing about, which acts whenever it pleases God. "Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?" Look at the case of the Amorites. On the way to Beth-horon they fell by the hailstones that God rained on them.
God had promised to give the enemy into Joshua's hands. Yet the sky killed more men than Israel's swords did. One writer sets this miracle beside the fall of Jericho's walls:
Jehovah says, "into your hands," yet the hailstones destroyed more than the sword of Israel. This may not have looked as supernatural as the falling of the walls of Jericho. But faith sees the same hand in both. The former event was contrary to the common law of nature. The latter was the power of God using nature beyond its ordinary limit. In each there was a direct intervention of nature's God.
God did not need Israel's army that day, yet He used it:
How truly the whole intervention of that day is felt to be Jehovah's doing! He uses His people. In a certain sense it was a gracious thing that He should. He could now, as at the Red Sea, have done everything without them. But He would employ the people of God according to the dispensation... it is short-sighted and irreverent folly to overlook the honour of being used to do the Lord's work of that day.
This was not just a battle. One writer places the day among the times God handled the punishment of evil Himself:
The sword of Joshua was really the sword of the Lord. The victories of the great Captain of Israel were really the judgment of God. So we see the Lord God Himself directly step in. He casts hailstones down from heaven in the battle of Gibeon... It had been so in earlier days of judgment, for "vengeance belongs to God." God is the Judge... It was the Lord Himself who let out the waters of Noah. It was the Lord Himself who rained fire and brimstone on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Israel's own failure had led to this battle. Joshua kept his word to Gibeon and marched anyway:
God did not abandon His people. He responded to humiliation and self-judgment. He graciously stepped in and granted a remarkable victory. And He did it in such a way that the glory was all His: "there were more who died because of the hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with the sword."
One writer reads this day as a preview of a battle still to come:
In the days of Joshua, Jehovah cast down great stones from heaven upon the enemy. In Deborah's time the very stars in their courses fought against Sisera. So will it be in the day to come. His thunderbolts will do fearful damage among the enemies of His people (Joshua 10:11; Judges 5:20). Heaven itself will open, as it were, and pour down destruction upon them.
- Stored — the hail was not lucky weather. It came from a store God keeps "for the day of battle and war."
- Aimed — every stone told Israelite from Canaanite. One Hand guided both Israel's sword and heaven's stones.
- Shared — God could have done it all alone, as at the Red Sea, yet He honoured His people by using them.
- Undeserved — the victory followed Israel's own failure, and God shaped it so the glory went to Him, not to them.
- Coming — God still keeps this weapon in reserve. What fell at Beth-horon previews the judgment He will yet pour out.