Still talking about Joshua this week,
and the ways that God used Joshua to lead Israel
into the land that God had promised them.
Let me give you a short recap
of where we've been so far this week.
So God called Joshua to replace Moses.
He told him to be strong and courageous
because the Lord was going be with him,
just like the Lord is with you wherever you go.
Then they went in to take Jericho,
that was the first big enemy that they needed to take down
on their way into the Promised Land.
Some great lessons to be learned there about trusting God,
taking God at his word, even if it seems so impossible
that God is going to fulfill his promise
just the way he said.
But it's just a wonderful example
of how we can take God at his word.
Which is really a great definition of what faith is.
Faith is really just taking God at his word.
Holding on to a promise that God says
and believing it is going to come true
even if I can't see how it's going happen.
So they go into Jericho.
And then then they go to their next enemy
which is tiny little Ai, and they are defeated,
because of a man named Achan who had taken things
that he shouldn't have when they went into Jericho
and some very powerful lessons there
on the consequences that come
when we step away from God's guidance,
and also of some very powerful lessons
on the abundance of God's forgiveness,
and how much of our sin it really does cover,
and it covers everything,
no matter the damage that it creates.
So then after the defeat at Ai, they moved on.
And they decided to, Joshua led the people, he said,
"You know what, we've all learned a very important lesson
"here, let's just all, out loud,
"verbally say that we love the Lord and we trust him."
And they renewed their faith in him at a mountain
and then they went on to the next enemy,
which wasn't just one enemy.
It was five enemies.
So a lot of the other nations in the area
had begun to hear about what the Israelites were doing
to all these enemies on the way to the Promised Land
and they became very afraid, thinking,
"We're never going to be able to take them down."
So one king, Adoni-Zedek, that's his name, Adoni-Zedek,
had the idea, "What if a bunch of us rally together?
"Maybe all of us together can take them down."
And so he gathered four of his buddies
who were overseeing other countries and he made the case.
And they said, "You bet.
"Let's do this.
"Let's all rally together and let's take on Israel,
"and it will be really, really, really, really great."
And they were even very strategic in it.
They went after a new ally that the Israelites
accidentally gained along the way, the Gibeonites.
There's another long story there
which we won't dig into much today.
But the Gibeonites eventually became wood cutters
for the Israelites, again, a lot of details there
that we're not going to cover today.
But, the five kings got together and they said,
"We're going to go after these Gibeonites.
"And we're going to see if the Israelites
"are really going to defend them."
So they went after the Gibeonites and the Israelites
who had made a covenant with them and said,
"We're going to defend you no matter what."
They came in.
And they went in against this larger army of the Amorites.
And a couple of really, really interesting things happened.
Remember, God had promised that no enemy
was going to be able to stand in their way.
And boy, did we see that happen really powerfully
in this interaction with these five kings
and larger army that came after them.
So the Israelites advanced against them.
And then it says a couple of different things happened.
It says that God intervened in this particular battle
in a couple of different ways, some very unique ways.
And one of the ways was he sent hail,
hailstones down from the skies and he was, like,
picking off the enemy with these hailstones.
Just (breath whooshing), just like that,
so God was doing that,
the Israelites didn't need to do anything.
And then God also, the enemies had chariots
that they were riding into battle with,
against the Israelites.
And God made the wheels fall off their chariots.
Just like that.
So the hailstones are coming down.
The wheels are falling off the chariots
and so God is fighting for Israel.
In some really cool ways.
It must have given really strong encouragement
to the Israelites who are going through this.
They see this chariot coming at them and suddenly
the wheels fall off and they can't do anything against them.
Or they're about to be taken down by one of these enemies
and a hailstone just, (breath whooshes) just takes 'em out
and they don't have to worry about them.
But then there's something else
that's interesting that happens.
After we read through the account of the entire battle,
it gives us some insight
into something else that happened that day.
And it says, "The sun stood still."
They apparently needed more time for the battle.
They wanted to get the battle done before it turned dark
and would become more difficult to go against them.
And so Joshua prayed.
He prayed to God and he said,
"God, would you please cause the sun to stand still?
"So it doesn't set.
"Stop the sun from moving."
(chuckles) That's an unusual prayer.
But God answered the prayer.
And scripture takes specific note of that.
Where it says, it makes a specific point
that the Lord listened to a human being.
That was a bold, outrageous prayer.
But it served God's people.
And it was done with full respect for God,
in wanting everyone to see what a great God we have,
and God chose to answer that prayer.
And that's a strong encouragement for us in our prayers too.
There are maybe things that you feel like,
"Well, maybe I should pray about this."
But you think, "You know what, it's no use,
"because nothing can happen."
There's no way that this particular thing could ever happen.
There's no way the money could come in.
There's no way the person can get well.
There's no way that this situation is going to turn out well.
You know what?
I wonder if Joshua had many of those same thoughts.
And yet he decided to pray anyway.
For something really unusual, really big and almost,
well not almost impossible, but impossible.
And he prayed, and God listened.
Just like he always listens to you.
And he will always answer with love.
One of the greatest examples of that,
or the greatest proofs of that
is when Jesus, himself, is praying.
He's in the Garden of Gethsemane and he is praying.
And what is he praying for?
He's praying, "Dear God,
"I don't want to have to go through with this.
"I do not want to have to go to the cross."
And why, for the same reason you and I
wouldn't want to go to a cross, because it was gonna hurt.
And for him, he was going to be punished for something
that he never did.
And with a hell that we can't even imagine.
And he prayed, "Dear God, take this away from me.
"I don't want to do this."
But then he added, he ended the prayer with,
"But, not my will, but your will Father in Heaven."
And how did his Father in Heaven answer that prayer?
With a no.
He said no to Jesus.
He said no to his son.
No to his son's very heartfelt prayer, and why?
Because he wanted to show you, very definitively,
that he will always say yes to you.
Always say yes to loving you and caring for you
in the way that he knows is best.
He always will, so be bold with your prayers.
I mean, that's a great application from this one.
And then there's another line in this battle.
It says, very simply that,
"Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel."
It was obvious to everyone that day.
It's like, wow, something extraordinary is happening here.
God is fighting for us.
It was so obvious.
The same is true in your life.
The Lord is fighting for you.
Today.
And what's the proof?
Well it's the day that the sun stopped shining.
Because when Jesus was dying,
when he was hanging on the cross in the middle of the day,
something unusual happened that day too.
The sun stopped shining.
It didn't stay shining, it stopped.
You know the sun doesn't have emotions, but if it did,
maybe it was because it just felt so sad
to see its creator dying right there in front of him.
The sun stopped shining.
The day that Jesus died.
The day that Jesus showed he will always fight for you
no matter what it costs him.
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