January 4, 2024

Though Gibeon lied to make a peace deal with Israel and became their servants, now Israel had power over them, so they became their protectors. Five kings got angry over Gibeon giving in to Israel because, according to them, they were a powerful royal city in Canaan, so they decided to destroy them. The Gibeonites sent word to Joshua that those kings had camped near them to make war. So Israel, now being an ally of Gibeon, didn’t sleep and traveled all night to come to their defense. They killed many of them at Gibeon, and the kings decided to flee. As they fled, God opened the sky and rained down hail and killed more by that means than were killed by the sword. Joshua wanted to finish the job, so he prayed that God would make the sun stand still and the moon stay in its place. God answered his prayer! That must have been weird.

There’s more to this story, but here is the takeaway: When you leave the world behind and become a servant of God, there are some things you can expect. 1) The enemy will get angry and pursue you; God will protect you like Israel did Gibeon. You must do your part and call on him, but God will avenge you. 2) It’s best not to be God’s enemy by worshipping objects or spiritual beings. He is jealous and will come against you by any means necessary. He used Israel to take them out because they didn’t worship him. 3) God is in control and can use the elements to his advantage! Hail raining down, and the sun standing still? Wow!

And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel. Joshua 10:13-14