July 5th, 2020 - Grace Benson & Vail Sermon - Joshua 10:5-13 A 5 king alliance army is a pretty intimidating thing. To face the battle, Joshua and his army needed 2 things: information and courage. They received both from God. I’ve never dealt with a military battle, probably most of you have not either, though some in the military may have been in similar situations. But we all have battles in life. We need information and courage. Today, from the story of Joshua we can learn that the God of the Bible is a source for information and courage you won’t find anywhere else. He will prepare you for the battles of life. Joshua first received his intelligence information from a messenger of Gibeon, an ally of Israel. He heard that a Amorite 5 king alliance had attacked them. That if they didn’t get help soon, they’d be defeated. So, Joshua and his soldiers quickly prepared their equipment, their weapons and defenses, and brought some supplies. They left their wives and children knowing that they were going to fight to the death. I’ll just pause there on July 5th and say a word of appreciation for any who have served in our nation’s military. We all are blessed to live in a country that provides many freedoms, and much of it as a result of soldiers willing and able to leave their families, to take stock of their weapons and defenses and supplies, and go off to what they know very well could be a fight to the death. In any military conflict, whoever has more accurate information has a huge advantage. Joshua received an extra source of military intelligence above and beyond what most experience. Verse 8. “The LORD said to Joshua.” The LORD can do that when he wants. He can talk to people and reveal information. What he told Joshua was incredibly useful. The LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid.” That’s a very often repeated phrase in the Bible, and usually, it’s said by God right at the moment when it makes a lot of sense to be afraid. Joshua and his soldiers were going to war, where other soldiers would try to use their swords and weapons to kill them. The natural response is to be afraid. But God had a very good reason to say, “Do not be afraid.” “I have given them into your hand, not one of them will stand in your presence.” At this point in the series of events, God made a promise. You will win the battle. Useful information about the future results, yet notice; God still required Joshua and his army to go and fight. He didn’t decide to just wipe the enemy army out with an angel attack. He can do that, and has a very few times. But typically, he wants people to be active in carrying out his desired results. God made a promise, and he invited Joshua to respond to the promise with faith and action. He invited Joshua to believe that if he went forward into a dangerous situation, God would do what he said. That in the face of swords and danger, God’s promise would come true. The same is true for you. When you are facing a battle in life, God can give you helpful information like he did or Joshua. He can do that. He does not promise to speak audibly to you like he did Joshua, he seems not to prefer that. But he has communicated to you in his revealed Word, the Bible. For the various battles, wars, struggles you face; he has said something about it in the Bible. You can seek the Word of the Lord and see how it applies to whatever battle you face. He gives information that explains the battles with a level of clarity that you won’t find anywhere else.
But don’t expect that God will just fight your battles entirely for you. Expect God to invite you to respond to his promises with a combination of faith and action. He will be your sense not only of information, but also courage to face the difficult moments of life. Example; you are having relational difficulty with a spouse, and you feel that if you bring up the conflict, it will turn into a battle or maybe even an outright war. You’re worried and you avoid the conflict and it doesn’t get better. The Bible actually has some useful information about that kind of battle. The real reason you fight with a spouse has to do with the inordinate amount of selfishness that each of you bring to the relationship. Unless that is dealt with, you’ll only be putting bandaids on death wounds. But the Bible says; there is a powerful resource that actually puts to death selfishness inside you and gives care and kindness in its place. The Bible gets you to look at other people differently, this person who you are struggling and battling with is destined to live forever, and God wants them to live with him in startling glory. That information can’t help but shade and color the way you see someone. Then with that information, God wants you to act with faith and even courage. Like Joshua, God doesn’t fight the battle for you. He still wants you to act, to go forward, but with trust in his promises. Act as if the person is headed for glory, even when they are acting like they’re headed for hell. Trust that God can get them where they need to be, and treat them like their eternal destiny with God requires. Learn from Joshua. God gave Joshua a promise, Joshua responded with a faith which included dangerous and risky and courageous activity. Even with the promise of God, it was courageous to go into the swords and arrows and fight. Joshua went, and God started to carry out his promise. The men of Israel marched all night and caught the Amorites by surprise. They panicked and fled. Then the LORD got involved, he hurled large hailstones at them. And the ones who died from the hailstones were more than the ones who died by the sword. This is like an ultimate weapon that there really is no defenses against. What could they do when God decided to throw hailstones at them? How do you think God’ aim was? Think he missed 10% or 25% and only hit 75%. I think he did fine with his aim to carry out what he determined should happen. God determined that the Amorites’ time of grace had come to an end; that by sword or by hailstone, this day their lives in this world would end, and they would stand before him for judgment. In his power and wisdom he made that determination; just like he does with every other person who’s ever lived. He never desires evil or even death; but he allows it; and has the right to determine the day and the way that every human life will end. God made a promise to Joshua, Joshua responded in faith, and things were going well. But then Joshua noticed a problem. The sun was going down. The promise God made hadn’t been fully carried out. If the sun went down, Joshua’s army would have a much harder task. Hard enough fighting in the light, nearly impossible to do in the dark. They didn’t even have electric lights back then or flashlights. Military history is filled with examples of generals and armies that could have advanced and struck a major decisive blow, but for one reason or another had to stop and it allowed the enemy army to regroup and fight another day. So Joshua sized up the situation. He had a promise from God, you will defeat them. The sun was going down. And Joshua responded with one of the boldest commands ever made. He said in the
sight of all Israel. “Sun, take a rest. Moon, take a break. I’ve got some work to do and I need you to just wait until I’m finished.” And God listened to the voice of Joshua. The sun stood still and didn’t move for about a whole day. God did an amazing miracle to allow his promise to come true. Exactly how this happened I won’t try to explain. Could have been a few different ways God accomplished the miracle. There are historical records from places like China, India, Mexico, Native Americans that talk about a long day taking place roughly 3300 years ago.. We’re not told the details, God made it happen. He did a miracle that moved the forces of planetary and sun movement and light shining which are usually so firm and fixed. And he did it in response to an ordinary man, Joshua. He did it to allow a promise he had made to be totally fulfilled. Notice that Joshua said this out in the open. He didn’t make this a quiet small thing, in case the prayer didn’t get answered he’d look pretty foolish. He spoke it loudly in full hearing of the people of Israel. He actually didn’t address God, but he commanded the sun and the moon, expecting them to listen to him. This is actually what we were made for; to have dominion over the natural created world that God made. To be rulers and masters of the universe. Now, God curbs our power over nature because of our sinfulness. Yet he showed with Joshua that he is willing to allow the command of a mortal man, acting according to his faith and trust in the promises of God, to be granted. The sun listened to Joshua because God decided it should. Now, what does this mean for us? First of all, if you command the sun to stand still today, it probably won’t happen. If suddenly I look at the the clock and it says 10:00 pm and the sun is shining, I guess I’ll assume that one of you made the command and God allowed it. But most likely, God will not grant that command, and he has good reason not to. Yet, what promises has God clearly spoken to you? How can you be bold like Joshua in sizing up the situation you find yourself in and in making bold commands to the universe around you so that God’s promises can come true for you? When do you find yourself in a situation where you are fearful, and you think, God’s promises can’t come true for me? Very often we respond in those times when it looks like the sun is setting on our dreams, and rather than having faith, we lose hope. We say, God isn’t going to do what he said. I guess I can’t trust him, I guess I’ll have to take my life and my battles into my own hands and find my own solution. We fail to trust God like we should. We need to admit our irrational lack of trust in a God who can stop the sun if he wants. We need to get honest that our lack of faith makes us in danger of being the Amorites in this story, not the Israelites. All of us because of our lack of confidence in God, should be doomed to fight a losing battle with our guilt and shame and anger; doomed to an eternally losing battle with all that is evil. Our only way to avoid that destination is to respond to life’s battles with trust and faith. So, how can you respond to life’s battles in faith like Joshua? How can you expect God to move heaven and earth itself in order to bless you and totally defeat your enemies? Starts with realizing that God has already moved heaven and earth to make an impossible promise come true for you. God says, I want you to be mine. I want you to know a unity with me that you were designed for. But your rebellion and the terrible consequences lead you to place where it looks as if the sun is setting on the desire of God for you. Like Adam and Eve before you, you make choices to join the
enemy of God; to listen to the rebellion and join it. How in the world could God make his promise come true of friendship between himself and people? Not by stopping the sun or earth or moon. But by sending his Son. It should be impossible that God himself could be contained in such a frail and fragile human body. But there he was. He grew to become the one person who was given the absolute right to command wind and waves and they listened. Jesus could be trusted to have that kind of power and not misuse it. But he didn’t come to use his power to stop the sun from moving. He never once stopped the sun to win a great military victory though he could have if he wanted. He came to stop the rebellion of people against God from spreading and destroying souls. He came to let the gravity of human sin pull him down to death. On the cross, Jesus set aside his right to command the sun, the moon, the angels. He instead became willing to die. His death was infinitely worse than death by sword in battle or hailstones from the sky. His death was the wrath of God over all human rebellion being enforced upon him. But then in the most astounding miracle of them all; he rose from death. He pressed pause on death. Now any who die connected to him, trusting in him; they don’t really die, they keep on living with him, and even their bodies will be given back to them one day. Jesus saw the promise of life with God for you slipping away under the horizon of sin, and by dying and rising he has commanded it to stop. Death, stop taking people away from God. And death has to listen. That’s your invitation to trust in Jesus like Joshua did. To trust him first with your guilt and fear before God; but then also to work on trusting him more and more in every battle that makes you afraid in life. You face all kinds of unique battles, no one else deals with the specific struggles and challenges that you do. But the same Lord of Joshua offers himself to you to be a source of information and advice; of courage and strength. So, spend some time considering the specific battles you know you face that make you afraid; ask for the strength of Jesus yourself. Here’s a few examples. You may not be a general and army leader like Joshua, but all of us have vocations. God has given you specific tasks for you to do. And God has given you certain promises that apply to those specific areas of service and responsibility. We cannot expect that we will be as famously successful as Joshua in our jobs and roles. God has not promised us any such thing. But he does say to parents: Bring up your children in such a way that they will spend eternity in glory. He says to employees, serve your boss as if serving the Lord. He says to children, respect your teachers and parents. He says to bosses, treat those under you fairly. You may look at the landscape of your life and say, the sun is setting on that promise. I’ve failed, it’s just too challenging to live that way. God invites you to ask for resources, whatever it takes to follow his will. For a parent; ask God to help your children know him. If he can arrange the details of the solar system for Joshua, he might be able to arrange the details of your parenting life to fulfill his desire for you to be a parent who brings your children to Jesus. Trust him, put faith in him. Do not be afraid. Another example: God tells us to respond to insult with blessing. To bless those who curse us. You may get insulted and you can’t help but respond with anger, defensiveness, and even words of cursing in return. You may say, the sun is setting on that promise of God to remake my inner person so that I can respond to insult with blessing. God invites you to come to him. If he could cause the sun to stop for Joshua, do you think he can change you from the inside out so that you actually do the
things he desires you to do? Trust him. Do not be afraid of the inner battle you face against your own sinfulness. God will keep his promises. It might take death and resurrection to get you there, but he’ll do it. Trust him, be confident in the face of danger. When you hear from the LORD in the Bible, realize that it’s not a book about how to stop the sun. It’s a book about how through Christ, you do not need to be afraid of all that is frightening. In Christ you have power available to move death out of the way of life with him. You have a soldier who will fight your toughest battles, internal and external. He will give total victory for you over your every enemy, just like he stopped the sun to give total victory to Joshua. You have Jesus. So trust him, and do not be afraid. Not one of his promises to you will ever fall short.