Joshua 10 Devotional
By Pastor Lawrence

Soon after making this very hasty covenant with the Gibeonites, Israel had to defend her new bedfellow when the King of Jerusalem gathered her own alliance of Amorite nations to attack their unsuspecting neighbor. It is an interesting insight to know that the enemies of God attacked Gibeah out of fear of the Israelites. Nevertheless, the Israelites were also afraid of this new coalition, so the Lord had to exhort Joshua once again not to fear them but to trust that the Lord had given them into his hands. And, clearly, the Lord’s hands could be seen in every aspect of the battle, for on the day of the attack, the Lord threw the enemy into a panic, rained great hailstones upon them from heaven and even caused the sun and the moon to stand still in the sky to allow Israel to finish them off. The author of the book tells the reader that the Lord did this in response to the plea of Joshua who lifted up his desires unto God and the Lord heeded his voice in such an astounding way.

Near the end of the battle, Joshua’s forces capture and detain the five Amorite kings who were hiding in a cave until Isarel had finished off the rest of their enemies. Afterwards, Joshua had his chief men of war put their feet upon the kings’ necks once again exhorting them not to be afraid of the enemy promising them that the Lord would do the same to all their enemies. Then after striking them down, and hanging them until evening, the Israelites threw their dead bodies back into the same cave in which they had been hiding and covered their dark grave with stones as a reminder of what God would do to all His enemies.

The rest of the chapter recounts how Israel gained the victory over a number of southern cities, killing their kings and devoting everything to destruction just as the Lord had commanded. Clearly, this is one of the high-water marks in the history of Israel when God’s people obeyed the Lord and fully entered into the fruit of the Lord’s blessings. This is just a snapshot of God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule and blessing. Here, Joshua, whose Hebrew name is translated in the Greek as Jesus, serves as a sign of the one who would come and conquer all of his and our enemies. Not a king or a nation would be able to stand before his great power and glory. Even this day, we need a fresh reminder that we are going out under the banner of his unchallenged power and authority over all the nations of the world.