seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Joshua 10:1 Now Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem heard that Joshua had taken Ai and totally destroyed it, doing to Ai and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king, and that the people of Gibeon had made a treaty of peace with Israel and had become their allies. 2 He and his people were very much alarmed at this, because Gibeon was an important city, like one of the royal cities; it was larger than Ai, and all its men were good fighters. 3 So Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem appealed to Hoham king of Hebron, Piram king of Jarmuth, Japhia king of Lachish and Debir king of Eglon. 4 “Come up and help me attack Gibeon,” he said, “because it has made peace with Joshua and the Israelites.”
5 Then the five kings of the Amorites—the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish and Eglon—joined forces. They moved up with all their troops and took up positions against Gibeon and attacked it.
6 The Gibeonites then sent word to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal: “Do not abandon your servants. Come up to us quickly and save us! Help us, because all the Amorite kings from the hill country have joined forces against us.”
7 So Joshua marched up from Gilgal with his entire army, including all the best fighting men. 8 The Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you.”
9 After an all-night march from Gilgal, Joshua took them by surprise. 10 The Lord threw them into confusion before Israel, so Joshua and the Israelites defeated them completely at Gibeon. Israel pursued them along the road going up to Beth Horon and cut them down all the way to Azekah and Makkedah. 11 As they fled before Israel on the road down from Beth Horon to Azekah, the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them, and more of them died from the hail than were killed by the swords of the Israelites.
12 On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel:
“Sun, stand still over Gibeon,
and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”
13 So the sun stood still,
and the moon stopped,
till the nation avenged itself on its enemies,
and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”
13 So the sun stood still,
and the moon stopped,
till the nation avenged itself on its enemies,
as it is written in the Book of Jashar.
The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. 14 There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!
15 Then Joshua returned with all Israel to the camp at Gilgal.
Here's the link to the commentary.Do not fear them: This was a command. Though Joshua had reason to fear because Israel faced a confederation of five kings, God commanded Joshua to not fear his enemies.
I have delivered them into your hand; not a man of them shall stand before you: The command was joined to a promise. Joshua could obey God’s command to not fear because he had God’s promise of victory.
Having marched all night from Gilgal: This took hard work and initiative on Joshua’s part. The march from Gilgal to Gibeon involved a climb of 3,300 feet (1,000 meters), over a distance of about 20 miles (32 kilometers). This was eight to ten hours of hard marching, all through the night.
Check out verse 11. God sent hailstones to aid Joshua and his troops. God sent Air Cover!!!!!
The Lord cast down large hailstones from heaven: The hailstones that killed the retreating armies of the Canaanites were obviously miraculous. The hail itself could have been a phenomenon of nature, but its aim and timing were evidence of the hand of God.
“The Canaanites, who worshipped nature deities, must have thought that their own gods were aiding the Israelites.” (Madvig)
In Worlds in Collision, Immanuel Velikovsky suggested that this rain of hailstones was actually a sustained meteor show, the train of a comet. He also theorized that the passing of the comet was related to the next amazing work of God for Israel and Joshua.
Check out verse 12 &13. The sun stood still!!!!
“Sun, stand still over Gibeon; and Moon, in the Valley of Aijalon.” So the sun stood still: Seeing God’s miraculous hand in action gave Joshua the boldness to ask for an even more remarkable miracle — to keep the day going, to keep the sun from setting, so that Israel had time to accomplish a complete victory before darkness fell.
The sun and the moon had long stood as silent witnesses to the sin, wickedness, and demonic religion of these Canaanites. Now, under the command of God, they helped Joshua to complete this victory over the Canaanites.
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: In a completely unique miracle, God answered Joshua’s bold prayer and the Lord fought for Israel in a unique way during Israel’s conquest of Canaan.
I binged "how did the sun stand still in Joshua". One of the first responses was... "The sun always stands still; the earth does the revolving"... oh, so true, right?
Check out verse 11 again. Before the sun stood still for a day, there were hailstones. This was a natural occurrence that coincided with the battle.
So far, water moved out of the way for Joshua and his men. This was when they crossed the Jordan on dry ground. Stone walls fell down at Joshua's command at Jericho. They had a problem and suffered a small defeat but wound up hanging the king of Ai on a pole.
Everyone heard about the Israelites. Everyone heard about how ferocious they were. Five kings created an alliance against Joshua and his troops. Even then those five kings and the troops they commanded must have been shaking in their sandals.
When the hail started to fall.... I'm pretty sure someone said Joshua called down rocks from Heaven.
And then... the sun stood still... for Joshua and his troops.
Consider this... if a meteorite of great dimension with a large dragging tail... flew into earth's atmosphere... could it cause a drag on the rotation of the earth?
If the meteorite came in at an angle opposite the earth's rotation... could it slow the rotation down for a few hours?
I bet it would.
The earth stood still... because something held it still.
God made the earth stand still!
The humans on earth [flat earthers at the time] said...
The Sun Stood Still!
