The Lord Wants to Fight Our Battles

Joshua 10:1–15
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Fear gripped the heart of Adonizedek, the king of Jerusalem, when he heard of Joshua’s destruction of Ai and that the Gibeonites had entered an alliance with Israel (vv. 1-2). He knew that if the advances of Israel’s armies continued without challenge, Jerusalem would soon be surrounded and captured. Therefore, Adonizedek rallied the support of four other Amorite kings, who brought up their armies to Gibeon to make war against it (vv. 3-4). They wanted to punish the Gibeonites for joining the Israelites and at the same time destroy Israel’s newly acquired support.

Faced with certain slaughter, the Gibeonites sent a runner to tell Joshua in Gilgal (v. 6). Responding immediately to Gibeon’s call for help, Joshua and his army went up to Gilgal to meet the foes (v. 7).  Joshua sensed he had the break that he needed. All the Amorite armies were camped in these open fields outside Gibeon. An Israelite victory would break the backs of the enemy forces.

It was early morning and still dark when Joshua and his troops searched Gibeon. He came upon the enemy suddenly and panic broke out among the Amorites. Many were slain and the others fled (vv. 9-10). However, they were not able to escape as God caused large hailstones to fall on them (v. 11). With deadly precision more Amorites were killed by hailstones than by Israel’s sword. Joshua knew that they only had 12 hours of daylight and they needed more time to see total annihilation of his foes. He requested the sun and moon to stand still, and his request was answered (vv. 12-13).

Application

When I get into a battle of life do I seek the Lord’s help or try to conquer the foe myself?