The Sun Stands Still / Treaty With The Gibeonites (Joshua Chapters 9-10)

Israel’s Mistake in Making a Treaty with the Gibeonites

All right, so tonight we're gonna be studying Joshua chapter 9 and then Chapter 10. So before we turn to Joshua 9 Let's go to Exodus 23 because there's a couple verses in Exodus 23 That really set the context for why the events of chapter 9 are bad so Israel is gonna make another mistake and.

And.

Exodus 23 is going to tell us what that mistake is. This isn't probably one of the most well-known stories in Joshua the treaty that Israel makes with the Gibeonites. Who's really familiar with this?

Story probably not too many. To some extent this treaty they're they're tricked into it. Israel should have been more cautious than to make this Agreement, but with life just like in warfare. People lie, we just have to recognize that every day people we come into contact with people will lie to us.

In warfare, certainly there's propaganda. There's lies in order to gain advantage. People will lie to you so that you'll let your guard down. Unbelievers will lie to Christians in order to try to manipulate us.

So after we look at this passage, we'll try to make some application. Things to be careful for so you're in Exodus 23. Let's look at verses 31 through 33 because Israel got played Joshua the leaders of Israel.

They got played and they are now in a very difficult situation. So the Lord speaking to Israel Exodus 23 31 he says and I will set your bounds from the Red Sea. Or from the Red Sea to the sea. Philistia from the desert to the river.

For I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand and you shall drive Them out before you and you shall make no covenant with them. This is the significant part. You shall make no covenant or you could say you shall make no treaty with them nor with their gods.

They shall not dwell in your land. Lest they make you sin against me for if you serve their gods It will surely be a snare to you. So this was the warning From God don't make any agreements with the people of the land of Canaan.

Why? Because the whole point was that Israel's to possess the land and drive them all out. So don't make any deals and allow them to stay. Because if you do it's going to cause problems later on down the road.

So with that in mind Let's listen to what Israel did In Joshua chapter 9. We'll listen to verses 1 through 18.

The Gibeonites Deceive Joshua and Israel Keeps Its Oath

And it came to pass When all the kings who are on this side of the Jordan in the hills and in the lowland and in all the coasts of the great sea toward Lebanon The Hittite the Amorite the Canaanite the Perizzite the Hivite and the Jebusite heard about it That they gathered together to fight with Joshua and Israel with one accord.

But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai they worked craftily and Went and pretended to be ambassadors. And they took old sacks on their donkeys old wineskins torn and mended Old and patched sandals on their feet and old garments on themselves And all the bread of their provision was dry and moldy.

And they went to Joshua to the camp at Gilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel.

We have come from a far country now.

Therefore make a covenant with us and the men of Israel said to the Hivites.

Perhaps you dwell among us. So, how can we make a covenant with you?

But they said to Joshua.

We are your servants and.

Joshua said to them.

Who are you and where do you come from?

From a very far country your servants have come because of the name of the Lord your God. For we have heard of his fame and all that he did in Egypt and All that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan Who was at Ashteroth?

Therefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us saying Take provisions with you for the journey and go to meet them and say to them We are your servants. Now therefore make a covenant with us.

This bread of ours we took hot for our provision from our houses on the day We departed to come to you. But now look it is dry and moldy and these Wineskins, which we filled were new and see they are torn and these our garments and our sandals have become Old because of the very long journey.

Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions, but they did not ask counsel of the Lord. So Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live and the rulers of the congregation swore to them.

And it happened at the end of three days After they had made a covenant with them that they heard that they were their neighbors who dwelt near them. Then the children of Israel journeyed and came to their cities on the third day.

Now their cities were Gibeon Kefirah Beirath and Kirgath Jeorim. But the children of Israel did not attack them because the rulers of the congregation had sworn to them by the Lord God of Israel. And all the congregation complained against the rulers.

Okay, so you see what's what's going on here? Joshua is like who are you? Oh, we came from far away. And was any of that true? No.

No.

So who were the Gibeonites it actually tells us in there calls them the Gibeonites and then it calls them what? Hivites, right. So they were Hivites who lived in the city called Gibeon, which means a hill city.

It's about five miles from Jerusalem. So they're their neighbors, but they're making it out to be that they came from this long. You know this far journey and it's all a way to get the protection of Joshua and Joshua totally gets gets scammed.

So Gibeon is inhabited by the Hivites who are descendants of Canaan who is the son of Ham? And if you remember back in the book of Genesis a Curse was placed on the line of Ham in Canaan. Genesis 9 25 says cursed be Canaan a servant of servants.

He shall be to his brethren and wouldn't you know, that's exactly what happens here in the end. They try to make the best of it and they agree the Hivites do to be Israel's servants. Which is what Noah prophesied all the way back in Genesis 9.

So Should Israel have made the covenant or made this agreement? No, obviously obviously not. I'm just just one comment on this idea of a cursed nation. So the line of Ham the line of Canaan, what does it mean that they're cursed?

Not blessed by God, right? There's no future for them in the the plan of God. Does that mean every individual? Who's descended from Canaan. Every individual Hivite is automatically cursed.

No.

Because we already saw with Rahab a non Israelite it doesn't matter what group they're from a non Israelite can convert and become part of the nation of Israel, so Theoretically you could be a Hivite a Gibeonite and you could still Still be blessed by God as an individual.

But as a group they were not they were not blessed by God. So from their point of view what the Gibeonites did if you look at it. They dressed themselves up in these old raggedy clothes. It looked like they really did make this long journey and from their point of view.

This is actually a pretty clever trick but not obviously not saying it was right, but it worked and because Israel made a vow Before God and they made a treaty with them and swore before God what are they going to do?

Well, they got to keep their word and Despite all of Israel's failures and the mistakes that they seem to make one after another You have to respect the fact that they kept their word. I Mean, what if what if you were Joshua?

What if you were one of the leaders? I could easily see somebody today in a similar situation. So yeah, I took a vow before God, but I didn't realize. This was the case, you know, I took a vow before God but new information has come to light.

But and even though that is true, they still didn't break their vow. So I think that's something that we can learn. Because today taking vows, which is probably unwise to begin with but when we make vows before God It's just not taken as seriously today.

People will take vows before God and they'll break them. What's probably the most common? Vow that's Taken before God by Christians and broken. Right. Yeah, I they take a vow through good times and bad.

Through.

Until death do us part and those vows are not Kept so I think something has to be said for Israel in in keeping their word. But this kind of behavior making covenants with the people of the land sparing different tribes this caused Many many problems for the Israelites going forward.

So it's always best to obey God at the first to avoid problems. Later on it seemed like the thing to do to make this agreement.

But.

Now the whole congregation of Israel is angry with Joshua and the people are Murmuring and complaining just like the people murmured and complained against Moses. So now Joshua is at risk of being in the same situation.

Moses was it was kind of his fault, right? I mean, we've got a clear word from the Lord. Don't make any treaties. And as soon as they're in the land, they're making treaties. I Don't know about you. But when you read that what are these people thinking?

But then you look at commands in Scripture today that maybe we don't always follow to the T and. That's just the way the way people are any questions so far. So we all understand what's going on with with Israel and the Gibeonites.

All right.

One commentator says this. It was fear which drove the Gibeonites to act as they did. They sought for union with God's people not for its own sake. But to save their lives Rahab's motives were higher.

Hence. She was fully adopted into Israel. The Gibeonites However remained forever Their servants. Now, why were Rahab's motives higher?

Okay.

Well, I was Ruth but Yeah, same same idea. Yeah, right. I mean Rahab did show a Fear of God not just a fear of hey, you you're gonna come in and wipe us all out. So Rahab did seem to have a love for God.

Where the Gibeonites this is purely a Practical move just to save save their own skin. One final note on the Gibeonites. Gibeon did become an Israelite city. It was located in the land of Benjamin. So after Israel conquered Canaan this became a city the the high bites remained There and later on when Nehemiah Rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem the Gibeonites who were high bites did help Nehemiah in building the wall.

So of all the people that Israel spared They weren't the worst of them. Okay, they're not bad people. It doesn't seem like a lot of the tribes from the land of Canaan God wanted them out because they were committing all sorts of abominations the the Gibeonites.

They don't seem Half bad, I think is a fair thing to say. All right. So what's the application for us? Can any of you think of any any? Applications.

Ray.

Right, yep.

That's one thing that was brought out in that passage that they didn't seek the Lord which Were we just talking about this a week or two ago? Yeah, they didn't inquire of the Lord and it blew up in their face and now once again They're going forward making these very significant decisions not seeking the Lord's same thing.

And that's gonna happen with us if we make a big decision in our life a new job. Someone's getting married to somebody you're moving To a new place and just whatever the big to buying a house if you don't Consult the Lord pray about it and seek God's will.

Usually it doesn't turn out so well. All right. So the Gibeonites deceived Joshua. I think another application is we need to have a healthy degree of skepticism. Just people we meet people we partner with or come into contact with it's not that we just assume that people are lying to us.

But you know, you've got to be careful one thing about Christians. Christians are Good natured people honest but sometimes we can be naive and we can think the best of people and Really? They're trying to pull the wool over our eyes.

So I think we need to have a healthy degree of skepticism. This created all sorts of problems in the next chapter chapter 10. Because Israel made this treaty with the Gibeonites this coalition a coalition of five kings Finds out they come against Gibeon, but now because Israel has made a treaty with them.

What does that mean? Yeah, the five Kings are gonna attack Gibeon, but now Israel has to defend the Gibeonites. They really don't want to be doing this. This is just adding more problems they have enough to deal with and honestly without Divine intervention.

I don't think Israel would have won the battle. I mean five. Five nations five kings. I don't think they would have won if it wasn't for the Lord. So another application for us is be careful who you enter into Partnerships with be careful who you enter into agreements with.

Always.

Hesitant to comment on current events, but take the current situation with Russia in Ukraine. Now that our nation's leaders no matter what you think about all that. Now that our nation's leaders have decided to back up Ukraine and arm Ukraine.

Now we do run the risk of getting into a full-scale war with Russia and if the United States Gets involved in an all-out war with Russia. That would likely be World War three. This is what is this what the American people want.

I Don't think it's what the American people want just like the Israelites. The the people didn't want this treaty, but the leaders went ahead and did it.

Anyway.

So.

We need to be careful. And again, whatever you think about it. Clearly our leaders don't seem to be seek inquiring of the Lord when making these decisions. This doesn't just happen with nations. That happens with People on a personal level especially with young people so Adults do this too.

But maybe you have a friend or a family member and they tell you lies. Or they tell you half truths to try to get you on their side. Right. They tell you half of the story to get you on their side and now you're connected to them.

And now you're now you have these people that you're against because your friend or family member has a squabble now. You're against them. You don't even really know them. It's your partnership with your Friend that has led you into this conflict.

So I think we should be careful and try to avoid that all right. Chapter 10 as the result of the Gibeonites lying to Israel. This is what happens. So now we're going to listen to Joshua 10 verses 1 through 14.

The Battle of Gibeon and the Sun Standing Still

Now it came to pass when Adonai Zedek king of Jerusalem Heard how Joshua had taken Ai and had utterly destroyed it as he had done to Jericho and its king So he had done to Ai and its 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 Like one of the royal cities and because it was greater than Ai and all its men were mighty.

Therefore Adonai Zedek king of Jerusalem sent to Hohem king of Hebron Pyram king of Jarmath Jephiah king of Lachish and Debo king of Egla saying.

Come up to me and help me that we may attack Gibeon. Britain has 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 Jarmath the king of Lachish and the king of Eglon gathered together and went up they and all their armies and camp before Gibeon and Made war against it and the men of Gibeon sent to Joshua at the camp at Gilgal.

Do not forsake your servants come up to us quickly Save us and help us for all the kings of the Emirates who dwell in the mountains have gathered together against us. So Joshua ascended from Gilgal he and all the people of war with him and all the mighty men of valor and.

The Lord said to Joshua do not fear them for I have delivered them into your hand Not a man of them shall stand before you.

Joshua therefore came upon them suddenly having marched all night from Gilgal. So the Lord routed them before Israel killed them with a great slaughter at Gibeon chased them along the road that goes to Beth Horon and Struck them down as far as a Zika and Makeda.

And it happened as they fled before Israel and were on the descent of Beth Horon. But the Lord passed down large hailstones from heaven on them As far as a Zika and they died. There were more who died from the hailstones than the children of Israel killed with the sword.

Then.

Joshua spoke 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.

Son. Stand still over Gibeon and moon in the valley of Agelon.

The Sun stood still and the moon stopped till the people had revenge upon their enemies. Is this not written in the book of Jasher? So the Sun stood still in the midst of heaven and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day and There has been no day like that Before it or after it that the Lord heeded the voice of a man.

For the Lord fought for Israel, there's three things we're going to cover in this passage. Number one Joshua. Causing the Sun to stand still so that's sort of the main event. That's what people remember out of Joshua chapters 9 and 10 there was another miracle.

Did you catch the other miracle? Hailstones now, there's nothing necessarily Miraculous about hail in and of itself, but this hail yes, it was from God and then there's this mention of the book of Jasher or Jasher.

Who knows the book of Jasher? Does any has anyone ever read the book of Jasher? It's not in your Bible so you probably never read it, okay. All right. Look at Joshua 10 verse 13 Says so the Sun stood still and the moon stopped till the people had revenge upon their enemies.

Is this not written in the book of Jasher so some people have made a really big deal about this that the Bible mentions this Non-canonical book now first. What is what is the canon? We talked about this in Sunday school a week or two ago the canon of Scripture is what.

Right. These are the books that are inspired by God. So Genesis through Revelation the 66 books that are in your Bible that that is the canon. Okay, so those are canonical books Joshua the Gospel of John Second Timothy, these are canonical books.

Joshua is not so Joshua is not in or excuse me Jasher that book is not inspired by God. And it's not so it's not in your Bible, but the Bible makes reference to it. So that has caused some people to start drawing conclusions.

Well, I mean the Bible mentions this book is This book supposed to be in the Bible. Some people think that that hey if the Bible mentions it maybe. Maybe we're missing a book or two. How many of you have ever come into contact with somebody?

Who says that hey, you know the Bible? There's actually a lot of missing books that are not in your Bible who's ever heard that.

Okay.

Yeah, well the Dead Sea Scrolls contains some biblical books and I think some of them. Some of them are not.

Yes.

The Apocrypha by some people's.

Estimation right.

Right.

So the Catholic Church contains the Apocrypha which is an extra I think an extra 14 books depending on how you categorize them but there will be people that You might come across will say the book of Jasher or the book of the Gospel of Thomas or they have all these books That are supposedly supposed to be in the Bible.

Well. Just kind of tune that out. That's not the case just because it mentions the book of Jasher. Doesn't prove anything. What do we know about the book of Jasher? It mentions the Sun standing still.

Okay. Now did that really happen? Yes, does that make a scripture?

No.

You could write a book and Include true events even biblical events. It doesn't make a scripture now. Jasher was written before Joshua obviously because Joshua is referencing Jasher, but. It's a lot to do about nothing basically.

There's about I think 10 or 11 books that the Bible references that are not Not actually included in Scripture. Does anyone know some of the others? For example first Kings chapter 11 verse 41. Mentions the book called the Acts of Solomon.

Now in our Bibles, we have the Acts of the Apostles, but the Acts of Solomon is not a biblical book, so all of that to say this the book of Jasher you know it existed at one time and Then the Bible made reference to it.

That's interesting, but it It doesn't really mean anything beyond that. But because the Bible mentioned it, you know what people do there have been forgeries throughout the centuries. Well, the Bible mentions this so I'm gonna write a book called the book of Jasher and people have tried to pass it off.

As hey, we have the book of Jasher but those. Those copies that are out. There are probably just forgeries people wrote after the fact. Okay, so a lot to do about nothing. And you haven't heard any of this right this is new to most of you so okay.

It's probably a good thing, but now you know if someone tries to tell you that now, you know. The second thing I want to touch on here in chapter 10 is the miracle of the hailstones. You've probably seen hailstones the size of what pebbles.

Right about this big maybe. What's the biggest hailstone you've ever seen?

Right.

Right. Yeah, that's usually what you'll hear that Golfball-sized hail is about the as big as it gets. These are a lot bigger obviously. Why? Yeah, so, I mean, I guess a golf ball falling from the sky theoretically could kill somebody but I mean this would be Softball size at least basketball size maybe maybe bigger.

Do we have a record of other Miraculous hailstorms in Scripture. Actually, we've already gone through. One what was that?

Yep.

The book of Exodus chapter 9. It says that the Lord rained down Hail upon the land of Egypt. So that was the seventh plague in Egypt and the hail was so large it killed both man and beast. So must have been pretty big now.

It happened again here in Joshua. It's gonna happen again in our future too. When when is the next judgment of hail going to be. Who knows? I bet you know what book it's in. Okay, it's during the tribulation so it's in the book of Revelation chapter 16 and it talks about hail the the size of what?

Remembers.

Hail the size of well, I'm asking because I forgot what it says. But I remember the size if you look it up. It appears that the hailstones are going to be about 75 to 100 pounds. So when that happens and during the tribulation, I mean a hundred pounds falling from the sky I mean that's gonna destroy whatever.

Whatever it is. So God has used this judgment of hail in the past. He uses it again here. We know it's miraculous because verse 11 of Joshua 10 says that the Lord cast down large hailstones from heaven on them.

So God is the source number one. Number two the size was abnormally large so big that it killed the people and then number three It only seemed to fall on Israel's enemies so that kind of proves it right there that this was a Miraculous judgment by God, but it almost gets forgotten.

You could read through this and it doesn't really seem all that significant because of this Massive miracle here in chapter 10 Joshua commanding the Son to stand still. I wonder I I guess I have to believe that God moved him the Holy Spirit.

Prompted him to command because this isn't something that well, you've never seen anyone do this. Talent yes. Thank you Hail the size of the talent. So Joshua commands the Son to stand still. Look at verse 12.

Then Joshua spoke 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 son stand still over Gibeon and moon in the valley of Ajalon so the Sun stood still and the moon stopped till the people had revenge upon Their enemies.

And how long did it stop for how long did it last? About a whole day. So given the complexity of what we talked about this before but it what it would require I don't know. What would you say the physics of it?

I don't know the astronomy, but how complex this miracle would be. Nothing compares to it except God creating the heavens and the earth. X knee. Hello out of nothing. To me the old that's the only miracle that well, that's even greater.

But that's the only thing that comes close. So, how did God do it? I want to ask you. How did God pull this off? How did he cause the Sun to stand still with the earth's? Rotation and Everything. How did God do it?

Yeah, right you can do yeah, he can do anything like there's no there's no answer. It's a miracle. There's there's no rational or natural Explanation this is purely Supernatural so God is taking even with the hail.

God is taking a natural occurrence and sort of super sizing it into a supernatural Event so this some commentators have said this. And I always get a kick out of this. I should probably not even pay this any mind.

But I was reading John MacArthur's notes on this and he said some commentators have said that. Maybe this was an eclipse that hid the Sun keeping its heat from Joshua's worn soldiers and allowing Coolness for battle, you know, maybe that's what happened.

It was just an eclipse. Well, how do you know it wasn't just in the clips?

Yeah.

Yes. Yeah, that's one thing. And a clips last what five ten minutes.

Right.

Yeah, well that that was what I was thinking like. How do we know it wasn't a clip. Because it says it wasn't. Doesn't say that it was an eclipse. This is sort of like the swoon theory of the resurrection.

Who's heard of the swoon theory, you know. Jesus died and he was buried three days rose again. But so there's all these people out there that thing that Jesus just swooned. He didn't really die. It just looked like he was dead and they put him in the tomb and because the tomb was cool.

And he kind of was rejuvenated in the tomb and then he he walked out and he recovered. I Mean I what possesses people to do that.

Right.

Right, yeah, yeah. Jesus was. You would have been pretty weak you would think but he was able to move this massive stone and. Yeah, it really makes you kind of shake your head. But you know what? I think it is.

The Bible talks about those who have a form of godliness, but they deny the power. That they want their religion. They want to feel spiritual. They want to call themselves Christians even and have their.

Stuff.

But they don't actually want to acknowledge the power of God because as soon as you acknowledge That God is who the Bible says he is.

That's.

That's that's a scary thought to some people so I think that's what drives it. Right, I have no no no idea. But it is an amazing an amazing thing. So We are evangelical Christians. Bible believe in Christians.

One of the things that sets us apart is we believe the scripture is In error, it's without error and we take the Bible what? Literally, yeah, it means what it says says what it means and it's so much more simple that way That you just read it and say yeah.

That's what happens because that's what happened because that's what it says. I Mean, that's a revolutionary idea that you just believe it for.

Yeah.

So these are some of the the conclusions some of the takeaways. Even though God's people made a covenant with Gibeon when they shouldn't have The Lord is still faithful to keep his covenant with Israel, even though Israel's breaking their end right and left God is still faithful to them.

The lessons we're learning are to always seek God before making big decisions. I suspect somebody in this room over the next few weeks or the next month is gonna have a big decision to make. Just remember Inquire of the Lord pray about it.

See if the Bible Addresses it any principles you can take. It's easy to say that but then forget about it when you're making decisions. Be careful, there's another thing be careful about those who would lie to us to Gain an advantage over us to manipulate us.

Have that healthy degree of skepticism be careful who you make alliances with. The scripture says do not be unequally yoked together. That doesn't just mean marriage. I think it applies to anything that business partnerships.

You don't want to be yoked together with somebody who's ungodly because then they're gonna make decisions and you're gonna be standing right next To them and you're gonna be responsible Along side of them.

So do not enter into partnerships with with the world and Then if we do make mistakes and we will if we seek God if we get back on track He's able to do amazing things in spite of our failures. I'll close with verses 13 and 14.

This is what God did with Israel. They made yet another mistake and this is what God does to deliver them. So the Sun stood still and the moon stopped till the people had revenge upon their enemies. Is this not written in the book of Jasher?

So the Sun stood still in the midst of heaven and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day. And there has been no day like that Before it or after it that the Lord heeded the voice of a man for the Lord fought for Israel.