And the men of Gibeon sent to Joshua, to the camp at Gilgal, saying, Withdraw not thy hand from thy servants come up to us quickly, and save us and help us; for all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the hill-country are gathered against us.
Gibeon, a Canaanite city, had tricked Joshua into a peace treaty by pretending to come from far away. Now the bill arrives: a desperate message from Gibeon under siege. The question is uncomfortable. When your own mistake creates a crisis for someone else, do you walk away or march in?
The kings of Canaan did not attack Israel. They attacked Gibeon, and only because Gibeon had made peace with Israel. One commentator draws the encouragement out of that tangle:
Gibeon becomes an object of attack; but the Lord accomplishes His designs. This is a great and gracious consolation. There is never ground to distrust the Lord, no matter what the circumstances may be. We may have been foolish, hasty, and drawn into a snare, but we are never justified in distrusting Him.
The siege answers Gibeon's new loyalty, and another writer sees a deeper enemy behind it:
Gibeon was no help to Israel. Instead they caused the remaining kings of Canaan to band together. Those kings wanted revenge on a city that in their eyes had turned traitor. Gibeon, now the servants of Israel, call on their masters for protection. This alliance brings immediate war. Satan resents Gibeon's submission to the word of God and to the people of God. He gathers his forces against them. But this only shows the presence of the great Captain of Israel's armies in greater glory.
Either answer to the plea carries a danger.
Suppose Israel did not go up, and let others cut the Gibeonites to pieces. That would free Israel from the consequences of their failure. But where would the needed humbling be? Would it be upright towards God or man? To go up, on the other hand, would look like a definite allowance of association with the world. Such dilemmas are common with Satan.
Joshua's answer settles the matter by refusing to fix one wrong with another:
Joshua seems to have understood that his difficult situation came from their failure. Adding more failure (by breaking his word) was not the right way to go. Again we see God's mercy after failure when there is an upright heart.
Israel expected Gibeon to be of use to them. The first thing the alliance produces is a demand on Israel's own strength:
This was the earliest result of peace with Gibeon. Joshua had to help them; they did not help Israel, as people had expected.
Yet the Gibeonites themselves come out of this better than they went in. Having lied their way into the treaty, they now stand by it at real cost:
Their first step proved faulty, but their second step brought them honour. They saw that peace with the people of God meant conflict with their neighbours on every side. Even so, they did not hesitate to show what they chose. They preferred peace, along with bond-service to Israel, to a return to their old footing with their former friends.
Gilgal was the camp Israel kept returning to, and the place where circumcision took place. One writer traces three movements tied to that camp:
It is not enough to be at Gilgal (Joshua 10:6), but there must also be the going up from Gilgal (verse 7), and the return to Gilgal (v. 15). Circumcision and Gilgal cannot be separated. Circumcision by itself is not enough to keep us from falling. And Gilgal without circumcision would be monasticism, because the natural man can find satisfaction in that.
So the message finds Joshua in the right camp. But the camp alone wins nothing. The march begins at Gilgal, and it has to end there too.
- Failure — The siege of Gibeon traces straight back to a hasty treaty. Consequences outlive the moment of the mistake.
- Fidelity — Joshua kept the promise, even though Gibeon tricked him into it. Breaking his word would only add a second failure to the first.
- Flip — Israel expected help from Gibeon. Instead Israel had to rescue Gibeon — the first result of that peace.
- Faithfulness — Gibeon chose bond-service under Israel over their old friends. That choice cost them, and it stands to their honour.
- From Gilgal — Being at Gilgal is not enough. The army must go up from it into the fight, and return to it afterwards.
So Joshua went up from Gilgal, he and all the people of war with him, even all the valiant men.
Gibeon's cry for help reaches Joshua at his camp, and he answers it by leading out his whole fighting force. The verse names the place he starts from: Gilgal. Commentators treat that one detail as the key to all that follows.
Gilgal was the camp Israel kept coming back to. Commentators read the name as a spiritual condition, not just a place on the map.
Notice that they sent to Gilgal, the first camp of Israel. Joshua and the people were at Gilgal, and from Gilgal they went up. At Gilgal they saw the memorials of God's power, and a direct message from Jehovah encouraged them as they went out to war. We are blessed if, in our own spiritual warfare, we go out from Gilgal — the place of self-judgment and of power.
Kelly sets the camp beside the circumcision that took place there. Each one, he says, answers to something in the Christian life:
In short, then, we have seen that putting self to death in practice is what answers to Gilgal, just as the judgment of the flesh is what answers to circumcision. So the constant camping at Gilgal means coming back again and again to put self to death before God. Putting self to death would be useless if that judgment had not already taken place in the cross of Christ.
Being at Gilgal did not keep Israel out of the Gibeonites' trap. So the going up in this verse matters as much as the place.
The Gibeonites found Joshua and the men of Israel at the camp at Gilgal (Joshua 9:6) when they came up to set their trap, and we have seen the result. What is so often missing is the practical application of the cross of Christ to every detail of life in the flesh… It is not enough to be at Gilgal (Joshua 10:6). There must also be the going up from Gilgal (verse 7), and the return to Gilgal (v. 15). Circumcision and Gilgal cannot be separated; circumcision by itself is not enough to keep us from falling.
Israel's failure over Gibeon now comes back on them. Rossier shows there was no safe option once the Gibeonites called for rescue.
What is Israel to do? Whichever way they turn, there is danger. If they stay at home and let others cut the Gibeonites to pieces, they escape the consequences of their failure — but where is the humbling they need? Would that be honest towards God or towards man? If they go up, on the other hand, it will look like openly accepting a link with the world… The only way out of the difficulty is simple dependence on God, worked out in the school of Gilgal.
Israel's mistake did not cancel God's purpose. Kelly draws out what that means for anyone who has blundered into a mess.
Gibeon becomes the target of attack, but Jehovah carries out His purposes. This is a great and gracious comfort. There is never any ground to distrust the Lord, whatever the circumstances may be. We may have been foolish and hasty, and drawn into a trap, but we are never right to distrust Him. When we clear Him of blame — which in such cases must mean taking the fault on ourselves — we gain a moral victory over our own souls. And victory over self is the direct road to victory over Satan.
Joshua takes his whole army out. From that point the chapter records God speaking, God answering, and God fighting.
Jehovah speaks to Joshua (v. 8), Joshua speaks to Jehovah (v. 12), and Jehovah answers him (v. 14). Encouragement, power and victory are the precious fruits of a dependence that keeps our souls in constant dealings with Him. Now the Lord no longer had to act against them, as He did at Ai; He could fight for them (vv. 11-14). And we see them win the most remarkable victory recorded in the word of God.
The attack on Gibeon backfired:
Satan resents Gibeon's submission to the word of God and to the people of God. He gathers his forces against them — but this only shows the presence of the great Captain of Israel's armies in greater glory.
- Start at Gilgal. It is the place of self-judgment and of power, where Israel saw the memorials of what God had done.
- Go up from Gilgal. The camp alone did not keep Israel out of the trap. What is so often missing is the cross applied to the details of daily life.
- Go up humbled. Israel had been foolish and caught in a trap, yet had no ground to distrust the Lord. Taking the fault on ourselves wins a moral victory over self.
- Go up dependent. God speaks to Joshua, Joshua speaks to God, God answers — and instead of acting against them as at Ai, He fights for them.
- Return to Gilgal. Circumcision and Gilgal cannot be separated. The same camp that sent them out received them back after the most remarkable victory in Scripture.
And Jehovah said to Joshua, Fear them not; for into thy hand have I given them not a man of them shall stand before thee.
The Gibeonites tricked Joshua into a treaty. Now a coalition of Amorite kings marches against the very city he is bound to protect. God speaks into that self-made mess first, before the march and before the battle. His word is not a battle plan. It is courage.
"Do not fear them" is not a one-off encouragement for a single crisis. It is the standing word God gives His people whenever an enemy is in front of them, in every stage of their history.
This word meets the ears of the people of God every time they have to do with the enemy, whether in Egypt (Ex. 14:13), or on the borders of the wilderness (Num. 14:9; Deut. 31:6, 8), or in Canaan under Joshua (Joshua 8:1; Joshua 10:8, 25; Joshua 11:6), or even in the time of ruin that marked the kingdom of Israel (2 Chr. 20:17; Isa. 7:4), and in the period after the exile (Neh. 4:14).
The crisis exists because of Joshua's own mistake. He did not repair one failure by committing another, and God met that honesty with kindness.
Joshua seems to have understood that his difficult situation was the result of their failure. Adding more failure, by breaking his word, was not the right way to go. Again we see God's mercy after failure when there is an upright heart. He says to Joshua, "Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands. Not a man of them shall stand before you."
The lesson runs further than one bad decision. Owning the fault is itself the first battle won.
There is never ground to distrust the Lord, no matter what the circumstances may be. We may have been foolish, hasty, and drawn into a snare, but we are never justified in distrusting Him. To justify Him in such a case must mean taking the fault on ourselves. When we do that, we gain a moral victory over our souls. And victory over self is the direct road to victory over Satan.
The verb is past tense: God has already given them over. The fight still has to happen, but God has settled its result in advance.
Jehovah says to Joshua, "Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands." This is all that conflict means for one 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.
Israel's failure did not stop God's plan. He used it. And the victory He promises to Joshua's hand He mostly wins Himself.
Israel might have been slow to press the war. God overrules everything, and uses their failure to carry out His purpose. Now, armed with a direct promise, they prepare to meet the confederate kings. "Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands. Not a man of them shall stand before you." Jehovah says "into your hands," yet the hailstones destroyed more than the sword of Israel. This may not have looked as openly supernatural as the falling of the walls of Jericho. But faith sees the same hand in both.
Judging yourself leaves you leaning on God. That dependence turns verse 8 into a two-way exchange: God speaks, Joshua answers, God answers back.
This judgment of self produces dependence. That dependence shows itself in a blessed exchange with God, one the soul had never tasted before to the same extent. Jehovah speaks to Joshua (v. 8), Joshua speaks to Jehovah (v. 12), and Jehovah answers him (v. 14). Encouragement, power and victory are the precious fruits of that dependence. It keeps our souls in constant dealings with Him.
What God says to Joshua in verse 8, Joshua says to the people in verse 25. A leader passes on the courage he first received.
Encouraged himself by the word of God (v. 8), he can encourage the people (v. 25). Makkedah, Libnah, Lachish, Gezer, Eglon, Hebron and Debir mark the stages of their victory. They take possession of their inheritance, and then "they return to the camp at Gilgal" (v. 43).
- Failure first. God speaks this verse to a man standing in a mess of his own making. His mercy meets an upright heart, not a flawless record.
- Own it. Owning the fault, not defending it, is the moral victory that opens the road to victory over the enemy.
- Given already. God speaks the promise in the past tense before anyone draws a sword. So for the one walking with God, conflict is only victory.
- His hand in yours. God says "into your hands," then kills more with hailstones than Israel kills with the sword. Faith sees the same hand in both.
- Then passed on. God's word encouraged Joshua. Joshua then encouraged the people with the very same words.
And Joshua came upon them suddenly; he went up from Gilgal all night.
Israel had made peace with Gibeon, and now five kings were closing in on that city. Verse 9 tells how Joshua answered the call: an all-night march up from Gilgal, then a surprise attack.
Gilgal was Israel's first camp in the land. What Israel saw there shaped how they went to war.
Notice that they sent word to Gilgal, the first camp of Israel. Joshua and the people were at Gilgal and from Gilgal they went up. At Gilgal they saw the memorials of God's power, and encouraged by a direct message from the Lord they went out to war. Blessed are we, if in our spiritual warfare we go out from Gilgal (the place of self-judgment and of power).
But camping at Gilgal had not stopped Gibeon from tricking Israel in the previous chapter.
Israel's safety does not consist in the mere fact of being at Gilgal. The Gibeonites found Joshua and the men of Israel at the camp at Gilgal when they went up to lay the trap, and we have seen the result. What is so often lacking is the practical application of the cross of Christ to all the details of life in the flesh. "Put to death therefore what is earthly in you." It is not enough to be at Gilgal, but there must also be the going up from Gilgal, and the return to Gilgal.
Rescuing Gibeon was not the obvious right move. Israel had made that alliance under deception, and either choice carried a cost.
The men of Gibeon send to Joshua at Gilgal saying, "Do not relax your hand from your servants." What is Israel to do? Danger is there, whatever course he takes. Suppose they did not go up, and let others cut the Gibeonites to pieces. That would free them from the consequences of their failure. But where would be the needed humbling? Would it be honest towards God or man? To go up, on the other hand, would look like clearly permitting association with the world. Such dilemmas are common with Satan. How many times he placed them in the pathway of the perfect Man! The only way out of the difficulty is by simple dependence on God, learned in the school of Gilgal.
The march followed a word from God. That word changes what conflict itself means.
This peace with the Gibeonites only brought fresh attacks on Israel. But now everything is clear. The Lord says to Joshua, "Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hand." This is all that conflict means for someone 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.
Five kings had joined forces in one campaign. That gathering had a cause behind it.
God Himself was behind all this, for in this way Joshua could defeat five kings at once.
Here is what the night march produced.
They marched all night from Gilgal and suddenly, unexpectedly, attacked the five kings and their armies. The enemy fled in confusion, for it was the Lord who fought for Israel and great numbers were slaughtered.
Gilgal shapes more than the march. It shapes the conversation running through the whole chapter.
This judgment of self produces dependence. That dependence shows itself in blessed communication with God — something the soul had not tasted before to the same extent. The Lord speaks to Joshua, Joshua speaks to the Lord, and the Lord answers him. Encouragement, power and victory are the precious fruits of that dependence. It keeps our souls in constant dealing with Him. Now the Lord was no longer forced to take sides against them as at Ai; He could fight for them.
- Gilgal first. The march starts where Israel first camped in the land. Gilgal is the place of self-judgment, and God's memorials stood there in plain sight.
- Gilgal is not enough. Camping there did not stop Gibeon's trick. There must be the going up from Gilgal, and the return to it.
- Word before march. God had already given the enemy into Joshua's hand. For one who walks in the Spirit, conflict is only victory.
- Speed under God's hand. One night march struck five kings at once. God stood behind it, and He fought for Israel while the enemy fled in confusion.
- Dependence bears fruit. Self-judgment produces dependence, and dependence opens conversation with God. He speaks, Joshua speaks, He answers — and He fights for them, not against them.
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.
Then spoke Joshua to Jehovah in the day when Jehovah gave up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand still upon Gibeon; And thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon!
Joshua speaks here in the middle of a battle he did not choose. He is defending Gibeon, the people who had tricked him. It raises two questions at once: why does a man dare to command the sky, and why does God listen to him?
One commentator starts further back, with self-judgment. He then traces the exchange it opened between God and Joshua.
This judgment of self produces dependence. That dependence shows itself in blessed fellowship with God — fellowship the soul had not tasted before to the same extent. Jehovah speaks to Joshua (v. 8), Joshua speaks to Jehovah (v. 12), and Jehovah answers him (v. 14)… The God of earth and heaven, the God of all creation, can declare in public that Israel is the object of His special favour. Yes — these very people who were beaten before Ai and deceived by Gibeon.
The order of the verse matters. Before Joshua said anything to the sun, he said something to the Lord.
In this act of Joshua we see the dependence, the boldness, and the power of faith… He spoke to Jehovah; here is dependence. Having learned the mind of Jehovah, he speaks with boldness in front of Israel. And God, at the word of a man, stops the sun and the moon in their course. This is the power of faith; that is, God responds to the faith He gives. And one of the most instructive points for us is this. Before Joshua told the sun and moon to stand still, he went first to God. There was prayer and dependence before the power.
Joshua addressed the sun and moon, but he was not speaking to them as powers. The One he honoured was the One who made them.
But notice the beauty of the truth. It was to Jehovah that Joshua spoke, not to the creature, for Him alone did he honour. How wonderfully free from all creature worship, even when God was about to use creation in such a marvellous way!… It was a memorable day in every way. The unbeliever sneers at it, no doubt, but it is the joy of every believer. I grant you that men of science have their difficulties, as they usually do with what is above them… Let us not try to measure God by difficulties. Let us measure difficulties by God.
The sun gets all the attention. But Joshua named the moon too, and that is the stranger half of what he asked for.
The earth stopped turning. Scripture speaks of the sun and moon just as we do, and as Joshua must have done… It is remarkable that he asked not for the stopping of the sun alone, but of sun and moon. That was the necessary effect of something he knew nothing about. Yet he asks for just what God's power, acting in the simplest way, would produce. Untaught by God, Joshua would have said, "Sun, stand still." Taught by God, he asks for sun and moon to do so… Suppose the moon had kept its normal apparent course while the earth stood still. That would have put the moon truly out of its place.
A common objection says it cannot have happened, because nature does not work that way. One writer answered with two questions of his own.
How sad to find people speaking of God as if He must be subject to any of these laws. We are told that with Him "nothing will be impossible." Again, we asked: "Was the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ not completely against that law of nature called the attraction of gravitation? And will the resurrection and rapture of the saints, when the Lord comes, not be completely against all the laws of natural philosophy?"
Commentators differ over how the long day happened — some suggest a slowed rotation, others a poetic description of a battle that ran on. One writer weighs those proposals and refuses them all.
These are the attempts of man, by which he tries to explain the supernatural by the natural. The occurrence is a miracle.
The nations of Canaan prayed to the sun and moon. That day they watched both obey an Israelite.
When Joshua told the sun to stand still, he was carrying out the purpose of God. God's power is almighty, and both sun and moon obey His command. The idolaters might cry to the sun and the moon for help, and to Baal and Ashtaroth. But Jehovah the Most High would show His people that the powers of heaven are only His servants.
No day like it has come since. One writer reads it as a picture of something still ahead.
There was no day like it, nor ever after, because the Lord listened to the voice of Joshua. The Lord fought for Israel… This is a prophetic type of the coming day of the Lord.
- Dependence first. God speaks, Joshua speaks, God answers. Fellowship restored after failure is why Joshua could ask at all.
- Prayer, then power. Joshua spoke to the Lord before he spoke to the sky; boldness came after he had learned God's mind.
- Worship kept clean. He commanded the creation but honoured only the Creator.
- The moon proves it. Asking for both sun and moon fits what God's power would do — a detail Joshua could not have known on his own.
- A day the world could see. The God of nature overruled the gods Canaan worshipped. One writer reads that day as a preview of the day of the Lord.
And the sun stood still, and the moon remained where it was, until the nation had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? And the sun remained standing in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a full day.
Israel is chasing the Amorite army, and daylight is running out before the victory is complete. The verse says the sun stopped for about a whole day, and it points to an outside record, the Book of Jashar, to back the claim.
A critic called this too violent a disturbance of the globe just to defeat an army. One writer answers that God had a public purpose:
But the object was not simply a means of defeating the army. It was a public testimony before the world that God stepped in for His people, would answer Joshua, and put honour on him. And the sacred writer says of it: "There has been no day like it before or since, when the LORD heeded the voice of a man, for the LORD fought for Israel."
The verse names both lights. The moon adds nothing to a day already full of sunlight. One commentator says that asking for the moon too shows God guided Joshua:
The earth stopped turning, and Scripture speaks of the sun and moon just as we do, and as Joshua must have done. We know well it is the earth which turns round, and yet we say "the sun rises, sets," and so on. It is remarkable that he asked for both sun and moon to stop, not the sun alone. That is the necessary effect of something he knew nothing about... Untaught by God, Joshua would have said, "Sun, stand still." Taught by God, he asks for sun and moon to do so. That is just what God's power would do, acting in the simplest way.
Behind the command stands a settled conviction about whose war this was:
He knew that judgment was God's work, and he would put it into His hands. He knew that God fought for Israel, and he would put the battle upon Him... He spoke to the heavens, commanding the sun and the moon. Wonderful! The Spirit, recording such a moment, pauses to admire it.
Another commentator points to the faith behind the words, and warns against hunting for how it was done:
He prayed that the daylight would last, and the night be held back, until he had won what he was chasing the enemy for. He got the answer he sought by the miraculous power of his faith. Looking into the natural means behind this supernatural effect can give no valuable results. Faith speaks its command in the sense Joshua gives the words. God gives His answer in the sense in which He understands them.
A woman told one writer that the account could not be true, because it breaks the laws of nature. He answered:
How sad to find people speaking of God as if He must be subject to any of these laws. We are told that with Him "nothing will be impossible." Again, we asked, "Was not the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ entirely contrary to that law of nature called gravity? And when the Lord comes, His people will rise and be caught up. Will that not also be entirely contrary to all the laws of science?" The fact is that if we leave God out of our calculations — God who is all-powerful, all-knowing, and everywhere present — there is no knowing how far into doubt and unbelief we may go.
Others have tried to reduce the day to poetry — a vivid way of describing one long, hard-fought battle. One commentator calls that an attempt of man to explain the supernatural by the natural. What the verse describes is a miracle.
The verse points to a song in an older book. One commentator asks why so vast a sign was needed for so plain a lesson:
How can it be emphasized enough for us that it is really the Lord who fights for Israel? All this magnificent display across the face of the heavens, to bring home to us what seems perhaps so simple a truth! So the quotation from the book of Jashar is fittingly a song, and the appeal is to the joyful experience of the "upright" (Jashar). Songs like these are easily remembered: the heart holds on to what it has welcomed this way.
One commentator reads the day as a preview of something still ahead:
There was no day like it, before or after, because the Lord listened to the voice of Joshua. The Lord fought for Israel. This is a prophetic picture of the coming day of the Lord.
- Voice — A man spoke and heaven obeyed. The reason given is simple: the Lord fought for Israel.
- Testimony — The point was not extra fighting hours. It was a public sign to the world that God had stepped in for His people.
- Taught — Joshua asked for sun and moon. That is what a stopped earth needs, and he could not have known it.
- Trust — The objection that this breaks natural law forgets that the God who made the laws is not bound by them.
- Tomorrow — One commentator reads that day as a preview of the day of the Lord, when He fights for His people again.
And there was no day like that before it or after it, that Jehovah hearkened to the voice of a man; for Jehovah fought for Israel.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp, to Gilgal.
Joshua 10:15 ends the account of Israel's greatest day of battle in an odd way. There is no monument and no march forward — the army walks back to the camp where it started, and the chapter turns on why.
This verse ends a quotation taken from an older record. One writer shows that it carries the second of two great facts, and that both facts return at the end of the chapter.
The quotation from the Book of Jasher (the book of the upright) ends at the fifteenth verse. It records two great facts, and both are stated again at the close of the chapter. The first great fact is this — "The LORD fought for Israel," which explains the people's success. The second is this — "And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp at Gilgal." This gives the key to Israel's inner state. It shows that the LORD could be with them in His might.
The name Gilgal carries the weight here. It was Israel's first camp in the land, and several key events of their entry happened there.
A place west of the Jordan, 'in the east border of Jericho,' where the Israelites camped after crossing the river. Here they set up the twelve memorial stones taken out of the Jordan. Here the Israelites were circumcised. This is a picture of the putting off of the body of the flesh — that is, of separation from the system in which man in the flesh lives. Here the reproach of Egypt was 'rolled away', and that is how the place got the name 'Gilgal'… Gilgal was not only the starting point in taking possession of the land. It was also the place to which Joshua returned again and again: it was the place of strength.
After a win like this, the obvious move is to push the camp forward. One commentator asks why Israel did the opposite, then answers his own question.
What is the force of Gilgal always coming up again? Why was the camp pitched there and not anywhere else? We might have expected the camp to be pushed forward. Israel had won their victories, so why do they always take the trouble of going back to that point?… The reason is most important. The old man has been judged in the cross. Because that is settled, we are always to rest on it, and always to dwell on what has been done there.
This verse is the last step of a three-part movement in the chapter. Each step counts, and simply being at the camp is only the first.
What is so often lacking is the practical application of the cross of Christ to all the details of life in the flesh. It is not enough to be at Gilgal (Joshua 10:6). There must also be the going up from Gilgal (verse 7), and the return to Gilgal (v. 15). Circumcision and Gilgal cannot be separated. Circumcision on its own is not enough to keep us from falling. And Gilgal without circumcision would be no more than a life of religious self-denial, for the natural man can find satisfaction in it.
The timing matters. This return came after a victory, not after a defeat.
And when is a better time to call this to mind, when is a better time to go back to Gilgal, than after the victory? Victory may puff up. It is hard to handle a day of praise with modesty. It is harder to use a victory than to gain it, as people have said… They laid the honours they had won on the altar of God, or at the feet of the Lord. They remembered their circumcision and renounced themselves. They were now an army of circumcised conquerors. Their victory was His.
Returning to Gilgal is not about beating yourself up. Kelly warns that such effort, cut loose from the cross, produces the opposite of humility.
Putting self to death would be useless unless the judgment had taken place in the cross of Christ… Take the man who does not have Christ crucified as the expression of his own total ruin, his judgment, and his means of deliverance by grace. He always thinks himself so much the better for his efforts in this way. Sometimes there is no more subtle trap than a man confessing a fault. He seems greater in his own eyes after he has done so than before. He claims a certain credit of lowliness for himself because he has owned himself wrong.
- Base. Gilgal was Israel's first camp in the land — the place of the memorial stones, and where the reproach of Egypt rolled away. It was their starting point and their place of strength.
- Out. They went up from Gilgal to fight; the victory belonged to the LORD, who fought for Israel.
- Back. Verse 15 records the return. That return is the key to Israel's state, and the reason the LORD could be with them in His might.
- Why. Winning puffs up. It is harder to use a victory than to gain it, so they laid the honours at the Lord's feet and renounced themselves.
- Ground. The return works only because of the cross. Self-judgment without Christ crucified makes a man think better of himself, not less.