O Sun Stand Still

Joshua 10:1-12:24
Key Verse 10:12-13

"On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel: "O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon."  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."

In the passage for today we can learn from Joshua how we can live a fruitful life using one life-time chance. We would like to think about the secrets of Joshua's fruitful life in five ways: 1) his commission, 2) his conviction, 3) his concentration, 4) his continuation, and 5) his completion. 

First, His commission (Genesis 15:161) 

Joshua was largely successful first because he had a clear sense of mission. What was his mission? Two Bible verses stand out for an answer: Genesis 15:16 and Joshua 10:1. Genesis 15:16 reads, "In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure." Let us also read v. 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 were living near them." Here we see the name of the king of Jerusalem Adoni-Zedek. He was a leader among the five Amorite kings. At first glance these kings looked gorgeous, perhaps wearing gorgeous royal robes, with gorgeous crowns on their heads, riding royal bulletproof limos, and living in royal mansions. But, in God's eyes, they were objects of God's wrath. In fact, by the time Joshua came to clear up the land, their sin reached its full measure. Joshua's mission then was to remove them from the land and build the rule of God. The meaning of the title of the King of Jerusalem, "Adoni Zedek," defines Joshua's mission further. Adoni-Zedek means "The lord is righteous." Imagine a heathen king steeped in a sinful lifestyle going by a noble title like "the Lord is righteousness!" He is like a pig named Napoleon in George Orwell's Animal Farm filling a leadership position! Or characteristically he is like a con man putting a pile of manure in a nice package, wrapping it up with gorgeous wrapping paper and giving it a nice brand-name like Chanel or Dolce and Gabbana. What is more amazing is that just as pigs like everything that stinks, so also a lot of people buy what these kings put out for sale. As the Lord imports the Israelites into the Promised Land, the Lord saw the danger that the Israelites, as naive as they were, could also be deceived by these evil kings. So it behooved Joshua to rid completely the land of them. 

Similarly in our own generation we find a lot of modern day Adoni-Zedeks (AZ) everywhere - in blockbuster movies, TV programs, magazines, Internet, school system, government sectors, religions, and much more. The list is complete: A to Z. What is on the list? We find an answer to this question in what the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:8, "What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ..." In addressing the Corinthians the Apostle Paul said the same thing when he said in 2 Corinthians 2:14, "But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him." In many ways the book of Joshua in the Old Testament Scriptures resembles the book of Acts in the New Testament Scriptures. Just as Joshua went in triumphal procession to rid the land of what is stinky, the Apostle Paul went through the mission fields to spread everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Say, "Fragrance of the knowledge of Jesus Christ!" Jesus makes man's life fragrant. All other things, teachings, and lifestyles eventually make man's life stink. But Jesus is different. The high calling to spread the fragrance of the knowledge of Jesus then is our mission in our generation. Just as the five kings of the Amorites–the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish and Eglon–joined forces, moved up with all their troops and took up positions against Gibeon and attacked it, so also there are tons of enemies of Jesus who take up their positions to fight against the fragrance of the knowledge of Jesus Christ! Are you ready to cleanse yourself of these AZs, and participate in this holy battle against modern day AZs? If so, how much are you committed? This question is very important because it is the most important key to living a life which is truly sweet, fragrant, and altogether lovely, bearing fragrant fruit that lasts forever!

Second, Conviction (8)

The second reason why Joshua was efficient in getting God's work done is his deep conviction for the victory in the Lord. One of the greatest retardants of the process of God's work to be done is a lingering doubt about the outcome of a battle. By the same token the deeper conviction a man has, the more likely it is for one to complete the work successfully. 

Deep conviction does not come from man but from the Lord. Look at v. 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.’" Thus far the Lord exhorted Joshua with the same exhortations like a number of times. This time as well he repeated the same words of encouragement. He did this because Joshua encountered fresh new challenges which required new strengths and new resolve. 

In exhorting Joshua, the Lord planted in Joshua one important vision: the vision of victory. As far as the Lord was concerned this vision was as good as completed. All Joshua needed to do was to go and pick up the victory. 

We can apply this vision to us when we think about the way the Lord God does his work. After all, the battle Joshua was called to fight was the Lord's, not Joshua's. Therefore it is extremely important for us to think about the way the Lord fights His battle. How does he fight the battle? We can say that the way he fights His battle is to think forward, backward, and then forward–he looks forward into the future to see the end, comes back to the present to see the end from the beginning, and then moves forward to pick up the result as he had originally planned out. In Isaiah 46:10 Isaiah expressed this concept: Isaiah 46:10, "I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please." Therefore in each of us going out to fight the Lord's battle, it is extremely important to see this vision in advance, and then go out. Today and tomorrow, we are going to pray and work to pioneer 561 American and 250 Canadian college campuses. In working for this prayer topic, it is extremely important for us to understand that as far as God is concerned this vision is as good as completed. Notice that this is not just a psychological manipulation but the way God does his business. In John 6:6 for example, we read, "He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do." This passage talks about Jesus feeding the five thousand people with two small fish and five small loaves of bread. Here in John 6:6 we see the expression: "he already had in mind what he was going to do." Already in Jesus' mind, the vision to feed the 5,000 was completed. The only thing that needs to be done is for his disciples to understand this vision and work accordingly. The bottom line here is that God never makes a mistake. There is no oops in God. Of course we err, but in getting his work done, as we put faith in Him, he makes and fulfills a winning plan by taking into consideration even our mistakes and errors. 

"Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you." When the Lord exhorted Joshua like this, he did not mean to boost up Joshua's spirit with words alone but also with a firm decision to assist Joshua with all kinds of practical assists. What practical assists did the Lord provide for Joshua? Throughout the passage for today we see the Lord offering Joshua all kinds of helps. Here are a few of them, of which Joshua 10:10-13 is most interesting: "[T]he Lord threw them into confusion; the Lord hurled large hailstones down; On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel: ‘O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.’ 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." This miracle is fabulous. And what help can be more practical than the sun and moon stopping for a whole day? 

But let us not forget that the Lord God offered this help as Joshua prayed. How did he pray? He prayed with absolute faith. In other words he was so deeply convicted of the Lord being with him that without entertaining even an inkling of doubt, he prayed to the Lord to let the sun stand still! And the Lord answered his prayer because it was based on his deep conviction. Thus in addition to saying, "Conviction breeds conviction," we have this to say: "Conviction changes the courses of everything, even the order of nature!"

Does the Lord's practical help stop at changing the orders in the physical universe like the movements of sun, moon, or stars? No. Why no? I would like to have all of us read five verses: 

10:30, "The LORD also gave that city and its king into Israel's hand." 10:32, "The LORD handed Lachish over to Israel, and Joshua took it on the second day." 10:42, "All these kings and their lands Joshua conquered in one campaign, because the LORD, the God of Israel, fought for Israel." 11:7-8, "So Joshua and his whole army came against them suddenly at the Waters of Merom and attacked them, and the LORD gave them into the hand of Israel." 11:20, "For it was the LORD himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy, as the LORD had commanded Moses."

These verses tell us that the Lord can do everything to help us. There is nothing he could not do. All things are possible with him. He can even harden his enemies so they would rebel, come to us, and as we give God's word, fall before God's word, and depending on God's will, either be saved or be set aside. 

"Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you." This observation then teaches us that the Lord's words of exhortation are never an empty package. The Lord always backs up his words of exhortation with all kinds of practical assists. It is with this conviction that we can go for the Lord's battle daily and fight for God's name's sake.

Third, Concentration

In the life of Joshua, especially as we see him fighting for the Lord against the Amorite kings, the southern cities, and the northern kingdoms, we see another element of his great success, which we can call "the Spirit of Concentration." He poured all of his efforts on the Lord's mission so fully that he was able to achieve so much even in a short period of time.

But when we actually try to follow Joshua's example in our daily lives, it is not easy for us to concentrate on what the Lord wants us to do. In getting our homework done, in pursuing school studies, in helping sheep to grow, and in pioneering a college campus or a nation, we find so many distractions, interruptions, or frustrations. So instead of pouring ourselves fully on the task before us we end up wasting lots of resources, achieving nothing.  

At first, however, the situation was not different from Joshua’s either. In the passage we see Joshua pouring out his best fully. He works more than full time. He is like a Concord airplane which cruises almost 7 times faster than the speed of sound. The ratio of his  performance in a limited period of time is so high that we can hardly believe what we read in Joshua 10-12. We know by the time he did this he was in his nineties. In 2 Samuel 19:32 we see the Bible describing Mr. Barzillai who is 80 years old as "very old." But Joshua was not in his eighties but nineties! Yet, he was fighting the Lord's battle over Gibeon and the Valley of Aijalon just like a 19 year old! He performs like a superman! Then we wonder, "Oh, my God. How could he perform so superbly?  How could he work so hard and fulfill so much in such a short period of time?" 

But, when we examine his life so far, until he was able to function like this, he had to undergo a lot of discipline in all different kinds of hardships. For example, under Moses, he had to receive discipleship training for 40 years. Forty years of discipleship training? Wow! It has been said, "Stop learning; start earning!" But Joshua learned for forty long years, achieving nothing but learning! This is amazing. After he took over the leadership, as well, his training continued. In the Jericho battle he had to go through strict discipline, all under the leadership of the Lord. In fighting against Ai, he failed so miserably that he fell facedown and cried out to the Lord ever so bitterly. And boy, in the battle against Gibeon he botched the matter so shamefully! So feeling greatly embarrassed he asked the Gibeonites: "Why did you deceive us?" Yet, through these painful moments, he demonstrated one important quality: steadfastness. He remained faithful to the Lord. He did not give up. He stayed on course. As he continued on with the life of mission, the Lord God eventually helped him to perform superbly. So we have this principle: thorough preparations are the mother of thorough performance. 

Now we can talk about concentration specifically. By definition, concentration has two elements: focusing and resourcing. It is to identify our goal clearly, to pour all resources (time, energy, thoughts, attention, people, etc.) on that goal. For us, concentration comes on focusing on one mission: college students. And concentration comes by pouring our physical and spiritual resources on one focus: college campus mission. 

Last Tuesday we had a monthly Bible academy at CSULB. The previous time, we had more than 12 new students attending. But this time more than 20 students attended. As shepherdess Julie Jesmer shared, in the past we did not know how to advertise ourselves, how to invite students, and how to work with the school administration. But nowadays the Lord God gave us the wisdom on how to serve college students. This increase in productivity came through concentration. As we kept focusing on college campus and keep pouring out our efforts like this, the Lord will continue to increase our productivity. As we keep doing like this, the Lord will eventually help us fully pioneer all North American college campuses. Soon we will see powerful disciples arising in CSULB, APU, USC, UCLA, and all other colleges. As we keep concentrating our efforts fully, it will be only a matter of time that we can hold a Bible conference at the CSULB Pyramid building with more than 5,000 students in attendance! 

Fourth, Continuation 

One consistent trait we find in the life of Joshua is the principle of continuation. Joshua was largely successful, and the Lord was pleased with Joshua because he had the spirit of continuation. What do we exactly mean by the spirit of continuation? Joshua 10:19 explains this eloquently: "But don't stop! Pursue your enemies, attack them from the rear and don't let them reach their cities, for the LORD your God has given them into your hand." The key is found in the expression, "Don't stop." Say, "Don't stop!" Then, Joshua said to his army, "Pursue, attack, and don't let them reach their cities." (Also note the expression "move on" repeating three times in Joshua 10:29,31,34.)

When Jesus came he also served the flock with the same spirit of continuation. Sheep are good at going astray. Having gone astray, it gets stuck in an odd place where it is hard to find its way out. So what did Jesus do? As he mentioned in the parable of the lost sheep in Luke 15, he went to look for a sheep until he finds it, for Luke 15:4 reads, "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?" The expression "go after the lost sheep until he finds it" means "pursue sheep until you find it." The command to attack is reminiscent of Jesus' fieldwork training. First he raised 12. Then he raised 72 more. He then sent them out two by two in waves. This was like an army general sending out phantom jet-fighters into the battle fields dropping bombs again and again. It has been said that offense is the best defense. As this saying goes, in fighting the Lord's battles, Jesus never remained passive. He was proactive. Even if the environment was dark, Jesus never despaired. Positively he made disciples, sent them out, attacked the wickedness of the generation with the message of the gospel, and saved souls. The command saying, "Don't let them reach their cities" can be called the strategy of depriving enemies of their comfort zone, the zone where they could hide, and never come out. Once the enemies go into the cities, they will find plenty of places to hide. Then the war becomes really difficult. It will turn out to be a guerilla war. And guerrilla war in a city is really hard to fight. Ultimately "their cities" refer to the present world which is marked out for destruction. A similar idea is found in Joshua 8:8, which says, "When you have taken the city set it on fire." In Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyun also depicted this world as the city of destruction. For this reason Joshua's command–"Don't let them reach their cities" and capture the enemies before they reach their cities–gives us the wisdom to catch sheep before they get into the mainstream of the world and hide there. This practically means the wisdom to find students and invite them to Jesus before they graduate from the college. 

Having said all this, we come back to the command, "Don't stop." Our prayer topic is not an easy one, for we pray to pioneer all American college campuses, produce 2 million Bible teachers and send away 1 million missionaries. How can we fulfill this prayer topic? The answer is clear: don't stop what we have been doing. And we must continue on with what we have been doing: serving 1:1, disciple-making, and missionary-sending ministry.

Fifth, Completion

As the injunction, "Don't stop" suggests, the next secret that naturally should follow in living a fruitful life is the spirit of completion. We must continue to obey the Lord's command until we get the work done. A lot of people begin, but not all finish. But Joshua was a man who knows what it is to finish. In finishing the work from the Lord, he finished the work completely. He did not leave the work undone. And one of the essential elements in getting the work completed is thoroughness. In God's eyes, this component is so important that the word completely or totally is repeated again and again. The Bible passages addressing this point include the following: 

10:20, "So Joshua and the Israelites destroyed them completely-almost to a man." 10:28, "That day Joshua took Makkedah. He put the city and its king to the sword and totally destroyed everyone in it. He left no survivors. And he did to the king of Makkedah as he had done to the king of Jericho." 10:30, "The LORD also gave that city and its king into Israel's hand. The city and everyone in it Joshua put to the sword. He left no survivors there. And he did to its king as he had done to the king of Jericho. 10:33, "Meanwhile, Horam king of Gezer had come up to help Lachish, but Joshua defeated him and his army-until no survivors were left." 10:35, "They captured it that same day and put it to the sword and totally destroyed everyone in it, just as they had done to Lachish." 10;37-40, "They took the city and put it to the sword, together with its king, its villages and everyone in it. They left no survivors. Just as at Eglon, they totally destroyed it and everyone in it. Then Joshua and all Israel with him turned around and attacked Debir. They took the city, its king and its villages, and put them to the sword. Everyone in it they totally destroyed. They left no survivors. They did to Debir and its king as they had done to Libnah and its king and to Hebron. So Joshua subdued the whole region, including the hill country, the Negev, the western foothills and the mountain slopes, together with all their kings. He left no survivors. He totally destroyed all who breathed, just as the LORD, the God of Israel, had commanded." 

This tells us two things: first as we pray for the world campus mission we should not leave even one college campus unpioneered. Second, in making a disciple we must pray that he or she would obey Jesus fully. Toward this goal, we hold a discipleship conference in MSU during the last weekend of May. Let us pray to support and serve this conference by sending at least one tenth of us as our representatives. 

Sixth, Conclusion

What was the end product of Joshua's complete obedience? Joshua 11:6 and 23b ring out the answer. "The LORD said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid of them, because by this time tomorrow I will hand all of them over to Israel, slain. You are to hamstring their horses and burn their chariots."" In defeating the northern kings, who came out with sophisticated machineries like chariots or horses, the Lord God issued a strange command: hamstring their horses and burn their chariots. Why did the Lord command like this? The answer is obvious. The Lord God did not want his children to rely on worldly means such as chariots or horses. Rather the Lord called them to trust in the Lord and live by faith in the Lord. The Lord is not the Lord of war. He is the Lord of peace. But these Canaanite kings fought each other with guns and knives. They were a bunch of gangbangers who turned an otherwise peaceful world into an animal farm where the principle of the survival of the fittest rules. The Lord God hates this. So by ridding the land of these war machines, the Lord God chose to create a really civil society where real ladies and real gentlemen live together in great peace. 

This vision for a truly sane society is more vividly described in Joshua 11:23. "So Joshua took the entire land, just as the LORD had directed Moses, and he gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal divisions. Then the land had rest from war." Here the key word to remember is "rest". The land was noisy. It was filled with war cries. But now it came to rest. One word: On sun stand still