Ep. 53 - The Day the Sun Stood Still

Last we left the Israelites they had just made peace with the Gibeonites.  Now, the Israelites weren’t supposed to make peace with anyone living in Canaan…including the Gibeonites who lived smack dab in the middle of Canaan.  But the Gibeonites had come to the Israelites pretending to be from some far-off place.  And unfortunately, Joshua and the Israelite leaders fell for the trick and made peace with them.  Of course, their trick was found out very quickly.  And as punishment the Gibeonites would be servants for the rest of their days…which was pretty rough.  The only other things that they had to agree to was to worship the one true God, to stop doing bad things, and to become part of the Israelite nation where they would be treated just like anyone else (with a few exceptions of course).  Considering what could have happened, not a bad deal, right?  Now of course, all the other people who lived in Canaan were watching all this.  And they were probably all saying to themselves, ‘Wait a minute…peace is possible with the Israelites?  All we have to do is stop doing bad things, worship God, and become part of the Israelite nation?’  Yes!  Peace…a good peace where they could stay in their homes and cities…was possible with the Israelites.  If they just didn’t lie like the Gibeonites did…then there wouldn’t even be any punishment.  Amazing!  And so…with such a good deal on the table…this is when all the people who lived in Canaan immediately lined up to make peace with the Israelites just like the Gibeonites had done…right kidzos? 

Well unfortunately…no.  Just south of the city of Gibeon was the city of Jerusalem…which at that time was controlled by the Amorites.  And the Bible says that, “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;  (2)  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.” (10:1-2) So, instead of looking at what had happened with Gibeon as a chance for peace, the King of Jerusalem could only see that his enemies had gotten stronger.  The Gibeonites had switched sides!  And if the Israelites and the Gibeonites fought together, well they might be unstoppable.  And not only that, but what would happen if other people in Canaan made peace with the Israelites?  Gibeon’s peace might just be the beginning of a wave of peace treaties.  And if that happened, well the Amorites would be surrounded!  No…they had to stop this right now.  And even though none of this mattered because peace was on the table for them too, the King of Jerusalem decided that he would send a message to all the other people who lived in Canaan…and make an example out of Gibeon.

So, what did the King of Jerusalem do?  Well, he did what a lot of guys do when they’re in trouble…he called his buddies to him out.  Farther south from Jerusalem were four other Amorite cities - Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon…each one of these cities having its own Amorite king and it’s own Amorite army.  And the king of Jerusalem sent a message to them, saying, “Come up to me and help me, that we may attack Gibeon, for it has made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel.” (10:4) And the four Amorite kings agreed.  And so, the Amorite kings quickly combined their armies and marched on Gibeon.  Since the Israelites were all the way in Gilgal (which was way over on the east side of Canaan), the idea was to get a huge army together quickly, get to Gibeon as fast as possible, and defeat the city before the Israelites even knew anything was happening.  This would send a strong message to the everyone else in Canaan and let them know that if you made peace with with the Israelites then you would suffer the consequences. 

Now, of course the Gibeonites saw this and immediately realized that they were in big trouble.  The Gibeonites were a strong people, but they were no match for the combined army of five Amorite kings.  So, what did the Gibeonites do?  Well, the Gibeonites called their buddies - the Israelites.  Since they had become part of the Israelite nation, well that technically meant that they should be able to call on the Israelites to help them if they got into trouble.  And so, the Gibeonites immediately sent an urgent message to Joshua, saying, “Do not forsake your servants; come up to us quickly, save us and help us, for all the kings of the Amorites who dwell in the mountains have gathered together against us.” (10:6)

Now, if I were Joshua, I’d be very tempted to think to myself, ‘Boy…we just made peace with these tricky Gibeonites and they’re already making trouble for us.  We barely even know these people.  Should we really risk our lives here?’ But like we talked about in the last episode, back in those days keeping your word was a really big deal…and it seems that Joshua didn’t even hesitate to help the Gibeonites.  And the Bible says that Joshua, “ascended from Gilgal, he, and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valor.” (10:7) Of course, this time Joshua remembered to check with God first.  And God blessed the attack, and said to Joshua, “Do not fear them, for I have delivered them into your hand; not a man of them shall stand before you.” (10:8)

Now because the Gibeonites weren’t prepared for the Amorite attack, it was very possible that the city might surrender if they didn’t get help quickly.  Understanding this, Joshua rushed his army to get there as fast as possible.  What would have normally been a 3-day march was turned into an overnight march.  Early the next morning, Joshua and the Israelite army arrived at Gibeon.  In fact, the Israelites had arrived so quickly that it surprised the Amorite army.  And in any battle between armies…even today…the element of surprise is a big deal.  So even though the Amorites had a huge army (most likely a bigger army than the Israelite army), the Bible says that, “the Lord routed them before Israel, killed them with a great slaughter at Gibeon” (10:10) The overnight march had paid off…and with God’s blessing, the Israelites had defeated the huge Amorite army that had attacked Gibeon.

Now, once the Amorite army realized they were beaten, they began to run away.  And do you kidzos remember what we said a few episodes ago about how most of the deaths that happened in these ancient battles didn’t happen during the actual fighting…but happened when one side or the other started to run?  Yah, well this happened here too…but on a whole other level.  The Amorites started running away from Gibeon west to a mountain pass called Beth Horon…and of course the Israelites were chasing them and killing as many of them as they could to take full advantage of their victory.  When the Amorites got to the top of the mountain pass and started to go down the other side, God got in the action too.  As the Amorites were running down the mountain pass, the Bible says that, “the LORD cast down large hailstones from heaven on them.” (10:11) Huge hailstones start to come down out of the sky and land on the fleeing Amorites.  And these hailstones did a lot of damage.  In fact, it seems that more Amorites died of hailstones than from any of the fighting with the Israelites up to that point!  (10:11)

But even with all the hailstones coming down, and even with the Israelites continually attacking the Amorites as they ran, it still wasn’t enough.  As Joshua got to the top of the mountain pass and looked down at the fleeing Amorites, he realized that a whole bunch of them were going to get away.  Joshua looked at where the sun was in the sky and even though it was still morning, he knew that there just wasn’t enough time.  You see, normally in ancient battles when an army was running away, what limited the number soldiers that could be killed in one battle was how much daylight was left.  Armies could only kill what they could see.  So once the sun set, that was usually it.  Whoever hadn’t been killed by then would usually get away.  And the problem with that was that if lots of Amorites got away that day, well…they’d all just run to their mountain fortresses, rest up, and attack the Israelites on another day…not something that Joshua was looking forward to.  It was so frustrating because the Amorites were right there…but there were just too many of them and not enough time in the day.  So, what was Joshua going to do?

Well, seeing that God had already performed a big miracle that day with the hailstones, Joshua decided to go for broke…and ask God for one of the biggest miracles ever recorded in the Bible.  And Joshua spoke to God, and said, “Sun, stand still over Gibeon; And Moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.” (10:12) Joshua wanted the sun to stand still…for it to stop moving through the sky long enough to let the Israelites get as many Amorites as possible.  Wow…what a crazy thing to ask for!  Not only because…ya know…it’s the sun…but also because of what Joshua was really asking for.  Now, at that time, Joshua (and everybody else) probably didn’t know that the sun moving across the sky wasn’t actually the sun moving across the sky but really the earth spinning…which of course meant that what Joshua was actually asking for was for the earth to stop spinning.  And of course, Joshua also didn’t know that if the earth were to suddenly stop spinning that all kinds of crazy things would happen.  I mean…just go ahead and Google “what would happen if the earth stopped spinning” and see what pops up.  Within minutes and hours of the earth stopping there would be insane windstorms, huge tsunamis, disastrous earthquakes, monstrous volcanic eruptions…basically every natural disaster that you can think of would happen at record-breaking levels all over the earth and it would all happen at the same time.  This was a crazy thing that Joshua was asking God to do!  Surely God wasn’t going to stop the earth and risk causing all this havoc just because Joshua needed a little extra light for one single battle…was He?  Well, actually, He was.  Because the Bible says that, “the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day.” (10:13) We have no idea exactly how God did it…whether God actually stopped the earth from moving or did something else, but somehow God stopped the sun and the moon from moving across the sky.  Incredible!  What an amazingly powerful God that we serve! 

Now, even though God had just performed an incredible miracle, probably at first no one really noticed that anything had changed.  I mean, the sun doesn’t move so fast for us to notice minute-by-minute whether it’s moving or not.  So, the Israelites would have kept on chasing the Amorites and the Amorites would have kept running away as if nothing had changed.  But after an hour…two hours…three hours…people would have started to look at the sun and be like…hey, I’m starting to get kinda hungry for lunch…but it still looks like it’s still morning…the sun hasn’t moved a bit…what’s going on?  And that’s when word would have filtered down to the Israelite soldiers…Joshua had asked God to stop the sun and the moon…and it looks like God had said yes!  Wow!  A miraculous victory at Gibeon, hailstones coming out of the sky, the sun standing still… what a day…God was definitely on their side! 

Now while the Israelites would have been super encouraged by this incredible miracle, you can just imagine what the Amorites were going through.  The Amorites had sent a huge army to Gibeon…probably most of their soldiers…thinking that the worst that could happen would be that they’d lose the one battle and that even if they lost that battle that most of them should be able to run back to their fortress cities.  But, with the Israelites continually chasing them, and with the hailstones coming down on them, and now with this day going on forever…it seemed that they were going to lose big time.  And not only that, but the fake gods that were most worshipped in Canaan were Baal, the god of the sun, and Ashtoreth, the god of the moon…both of which seemed to be under the control of the Israelite God at the moment.  So not only was the army of the Amorites losing big time, but it seemed like the gods of the Amorites were losing too!  It really did seem to be all over for the Amorites.

And indeed it was.  In a last ditch move, the Amorites decided to split up and head back to their respective cities…who knows maybe this would confuse the Israelites a bit.  But of course it didn’t work, and the the Israelites didn’t let up.  Joshua told the Israelites, “pursue your enemies, and attack their rear guard. Do not allow them to enter their cities, for the LORD your God has delivered them into your hand.” (10:19) And by-and-large, this is exactly what the Israelites did.  With all the extra daylight that God had given them, the Israelites kept on chasing and killing the Amorites until “Joshua and the Israelites destroyed them completely – almost to a man” (10:20 NIV) Only a tiny few Amorites ever made it back to their fortified cities.  Not even the 5 Amorite kings survived.  In fact, it seems that when the kings saw how badly things were going, in true kingly fashion they abandoned their doomed army and tried to hide in some caves in a place called Makkedah.  But the Israelite army found them too and sealed them in their cave.  And then Joshua came by later in the (super long) day and, in front of all the army captains, killed the 5 kings, hung them from a tree, and then threw their bodies back into the cave…all the while telling them, “thus the LORD will do to all your enemies against whom you fight.” (10:25) Eventually, the sun started moving toward the horizon again.  And by the time that the sun finally set, the Israelites had completely defeated the Amorite army.  It had been the longest day ever, but the Israelites hadn’t wasted a minute of it…and they’d accomplished the biggest victory of any battle that they would ever fight in their invasion of Canaan.    

But of course, Joshua didn’t stop there.  After what I’m sure was a good night’s sleep, Joshua and the Israelite army continued moving forward.  With the Amorite army completely destroyed, the Amorites now had hardly any soldiers to defend their fortress cities.  So, instead of waiting around for the Amorites to find a way to drum up more soldiers, Joshua followed up this victory with relentless attacks.  And over the coming weeks and months, one-by-one the Israelite army attacked and defeated the vulnerable Amorite cities – Makkedah, Libnah, Lachish, Eglon, Hebron, and Debir – all huge fortress cities in the south of Canaan…all destroyed.  (BTW kidzos, if you want to see a helpful map of all these victories, you can find it at papasbiblestories.com in the Blog section in a post called “Map – Israelite Invasion of Canaan (Southern Campaign)”.  Go check that out.) And the Bible says that Joshua, “conquered all the land: the mountain country and the South and the lowland and the wilderness slopes, and all their kings.” (10:40) Joshua even continued south all the way to Kadesh Barnea…which if you kidzos will remember was the place where the Israelites had been turned away from entering the Promised Land more than 40 years before.  The string of victories was nothing short of amazing…especially since they’d happened so quickly one after the other.  And it was all thanks to God and all the incredible miracles that he’d done for the Israelites, and thanks to Joshua for being bold enough to ask for one of the craziest miracles ever recorded in the Bible. 

Alright kidzos, so this is quite the story, eh?  Huge victories…hailstones…the sun standing still, so what can we possibly learn from this crazy story?  How to fight while flaming hailstones are crashing in front of you?  Lol.  Well, I actually think there’s one really important lesson to take away here.  Ya know, Joshua really did ask God to do something crazy.  All Joshua really needed was some extra light…and that could have been done in a dozen different ways - he could have just asked for a super bright moon, he could have just asked for the Israelites to be able to see in the dark, he could have just asked for the pillar of fire to come back!  Any of these things would have gotten the job done and wouldn’t have needed the insanely crazy, physics defying miracle of stopping the sun.  But despite this, God still granted Joshua’s request…and the question is…why?  Why did God grant Joshua’s crazy request?

Well, first of all, God would probably never grant any prayer request if it had to be a smart prayer request.  God will always have a smarter and better way to do something than you would ever be able to think of.  But second of all, God is perfectly willing to answer big prayers…as long as it fits within God’s Will.  And this really is the secret sauce to prayer requests…are you asking for something that works towards what God already wants to do.  In Joshua’s case, God’s Will was very clear…God’s Will was for the Israelites to defeat the Amorites.  And Joshua’s prayer request, crazy as it was, was to help the Israelites do just that.  So, of course, God was going to grant Joshua’s request.  And the same thing goes for your prayer requests.  God is perfectly willing to answers your prayers too…even big ones…as long as they work towards God’s Will.  And what is God’s Will?  Well, that’s not always easy to understand.  But sometimes it is.  Like for example, God tells us in the Bible that we shouldn’t lie.  So, then it is definitely God’s Will that you don’t lie, right?  Now, if you pray for God to help you to stop lying…don’t you think that God is going to answer your prayer…even if it takes a big miracle?  Of course He is!  So don’t be afraid to pray for big things…because God is perfectly able to do big things…just like He did for Joshua all those years ago.