(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
Joshua 10:7–14, “So Joshua ascended from Gilgal, he, and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valour. And the LORD said unto Joshua, Fear them not: for I have delivered them into thine hand; there shall not a man of them stand before thee. Joshua therefore came unto them suddenly, and went up from Gilgal all night. And the LORD discomfited them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goeth up to Bethhoron, and smote them to Azekah, and unto Makkedah. And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Bethhoron, that the LORD cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died: they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword. Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel.”
When Joshua received the message from the people in Gibeon, he went from Gilgal to to help them with his best troops. It seems as though the Israelis had established a base at Gilgal while they were organising and carrying out their invasion of the Promised Land. They were confronted by a large army made up of a coalition of strong city states. However, the Lord encouraged Joshua again, reminding of the promise he had been given before. Joshua had nothing to fear as long as he obeyed the Lord and kept his heart and mind focused on the Law of the Lord. Joshua ambushed this large army and inflicted a major defeat on them. He came to the battle by night and attacked them at dawn before they had time to establish proper battle order. The army that came to fight Joshua was so large and the rout so convincing that it seemed as though Joshua would not be able to mop up properly after the battle an many of the enemy troops would escape. The Lord had a miraculous plan to overcome this issue. First the Lord brought about some kind of hailstorm with massive stones falling out of heaven, eliminating many of the enemy troops and then the Lord caused the earth to stop rotating for a period of about twenty four hours allowing the Israeli troops the extra time to complete the destruction of the major forces allied agains them in the drive to invade the Promised Land. The Lord had already established the rotation of the earth to form day and night so it was a simple matter for Him to suspend that natural cycle for the required period of time.
No comments:
Post a Comment