(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
Joshua 10:1–6, “Now it came to pass, when Adonizedek king of Jerusalem had heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed it; as he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king; and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel, and were among them; That they feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, as one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all the men thereof were mighty. Wherefore Adonizedek king of Jerusalem sent unto Hoham king of Hebron, and unto Piram king of Jarmuth, and unto Japhia king of Lachish, and unto Debir king of Eglon, saying, Come up unto me, and help me, that we may smite Gibeon: for it hath made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel. Therefore the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, the king of Eglon, gathered themselves together, and went up, they and all their hosts, and encamped before Gibeon, and made war against it. And the men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to the camp to Gilgal, saying, Slack 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 mountains are gathered together against us.”
All the kings of the city states in Canaan were afraid for they had heard of the power and majesty of the Lord. They had, in fact, been waiting many years for Israel to arrive in their territory. They also had recent news to add to their fears when Israel battled against an decisively defeated some of the strongest local nations. They decided Gibeon’s surrender to Israel was the last sign that something had to be done quickly. They knew that they wouldn’t be able to trick Israel again so the formed an alliance to punish the people from Gibeon and then force a major battle on Israel rather than wait for the invading armies to pick them off one by one. Their first task was to show all the other people that betraying their own people, in a similar manner to the people from Gibeon was unacceptable so they went to punish Gibeon. The Gibeonites had a treaty with Israel so they called on Israel for help against this major threat. While it may have seemed as though the local kings and leaders were conspiring together to prevent Israel from carrying out the Lord’s will, He was still in control and had constructed the conditions so that Israel could conduct their campaign in one major battle than in many smaller battles.
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