Chapters 10-12 of Joshua, in whirlwind fashion from 10:28 onwards, detail the Israelites’ successful conquest of much of the land. It’s a hard read, so today’s passage is illustrative, and I’ve chosen it in part because it allows us to keep looking for those ‘echoes of grace’ tucked away in the narrative of battles and blood-letting.
It’s a dramatic story, and begins with five rival kings who unite against Joshua’s army. What is notable here is the contrast with the Gibeonites in the preceding chapter – especially in relation to their motivations for fighting. The Gibeonites were in awe of the fame of the Lord (9:9-10); these kings had heard only of the fame of Joshua (v4).
That Gibeon was able to make a peace treaty with the Israelites is illustrative of the reason for this conquest of the land, as we saw a couple of days ago. God was creating a holy nation, flourishing under his law, who would point to the glory of the Lord, and so cause others to worship this Lord, the one true God. The Gibeonites saw the Lord’s glory (not Joshua’s), and having made peace, they engaged in the worshipping life of Israel by tending to its altar (9:27).
The Amorite kings, however, simply saw this conflict as army versus army, a struggle for power and control. The Lord did not factor into their plans – which proved their undoing, as the Lord intervened to help the Israelites in two striking ways. First, a hailstorm hindered their army’s escape; then, more spectacularly, ‘time stood still’ (v13).
Scholars have long debated whether this actually happened; in the end, you either have to believe that God is able to work miracles, or he isn’t. This is not one which allows for an alternative ‘natural’ explanation. What it did mean is that, as the Amorite army headed eastwards up the hill towards Joshua’s army, the early morning sun would have been in their eyes – and if time ‘stopped’ for a while, would have remained so, putting them at serious disadvantage for the duration of the battle.
So, the narrator concludes: ‘Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!’ (v14) And whilst, after the coming of Christ, this no longer happens in military terms, it is true to say that we sometimes need the Lord to fight for us, even today. Not with armies, but with the powers of heaven to change situations, defend the weak or vulnerable, or bring justice where it has been denied.
Perhaps you can call to mind times when you have felt that the Lord has ‘fought for you’. Certainly many of our sisters and brothers who live with daily persecution need the Lord to ‘fight for them’, since they often have few resources to fight for themselves.
As Christians we are called to be peacemakers: but we have a Lord who is still for us, and loves his people, especially those who are suffering or forsaken by others. Let’s raise our faith today to pray that the Lord will intervene in situations where we need him to ‘fight for us’ – not with the weapons of war, but with prayer, and with the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17).