Well, if you have a copy of God's Word, we're going to be in
Joshua chapter 10, so turn there.
And while you're turning there, let me say it's a joy to be with
you guys. Obviously, I've known of the
church and it's it's great just to get a chance to get out here
and to see what's going on. I've known Ashoka Michelle a
long time and you guys got some wonderful people in getting
Ashoka Michelle. And so it's just great to see
you guys again. Heard you rush the floor last
night. Is that true?
Yeah, OK. I want that same kind of energy
right now while I preach. I am thankful to be here on a
day after the, the the devil's lost.
And so that's a, that's a good thing.
That's the key to the sermon today.
The devil always loses. And so we'll be encouraged by
that. But it really is a joy to be
with you, thankful for your partnership in the gospel.
It's always a privilege to open God's Word with God's people,
and particularly this is a a wonderful.
Text that we're going to look at today.
Now it's a it's a fascinating text and it, it might be even a
bit of a tough text to hear, possibly even understand.
Some have used this passage to sell books where they have
wildly missed what's going on here in the text.
But though this is a tough passage, if we can recognize
what's going on here, we will see that in a fallen world, in a
tough world, in a broken world, this text is glorious.
And it speaks to us of things we must come to know and let shape
who we are, because it's a text by way of narrative that will
help us see that the the people of God have real enemies.
We just prayed about that. Enemies that we bring on
ourselves by our own sins, but also enemies without who plot
against us because we live in a fallen world.
And it's vital for us to remember that when we come to
the Bible, when we come to places like Joshua, we are
coming to real stories. This is a real story that we
have a spirit inspired account of.
These are real happenings. This is not a cartoon.
This is not a fable. And through it all though, this
morning we're going to see the promises of God for his people.
Because in the background of this text, really all over this
text are the promises we find in places like Genesis 12 and
Genesis 15, promises that God has made to Abraham.
And it says this in Genesis 12/3.
He says, I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors
you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will
be blessed. Then Genesis 1513 through 16
says this. And the Lord said to Abram, know
for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in the land
that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be
afflicted for 400 years. But I will bring judgment on the
nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out
with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your
father's in peace. You shall be buried in a good
old age, and they shall come back here in the 4th generation.
For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.
Brothers and sisters, that's where we have come this morning.
And God's redemptive plan in Joshua chapter 10, the iniquity
of the Amorites is complete, as we're going to see the kings of
the Amorites take their stand against God's man and against
God's people. Now Leviticus 18 deals details
for us. What are the sins of the
Amorites? What is their iniquity?
They have defiled the land by idolatry.
They have indulged in what can only be called repulsive,
sexually immoral practices. They've actually sacrificed
their own children to a fake God named Molech.
And yet God's promises ring true.
He will protect his own, and he will even bless the nations that
bless his people. And he's going to do so through
a mediator warrior. So then this morning, as the
spiritual descendants of Abraham, I want to turn our
attention to the Word. As we do, I want us to remember
God is patient. He has given 400 years to the
amorite. He is patient.
He is slow to anger. He is abounding in steadfast
love. But he will by no means clear
the guilty time comes when he will no way and no way excuse
their sins of idolatry, of sexual immorality, and of child
sacrifice. He will deal with it.
I'm going to see that here in Joshua 10.
And so let's read the Word. And then after we read again,
I'll pray a brief prayer. The author writes this as he's
carried along by the Holy Spirit.
And as soon as Adonizedek the king of Jerusalem, heard how
Joshua had captured AI and devoted to destruction, doing
the AI and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king,
and how the inhabitants of Gibeon made peace with Israel
and were among them, he feared greatly because Gibeon was a
great city, like one of the royal cities, and because it was
greater than AI, and all its men were warriors.
So Adonizadet king of Jerusalem, sent to Hoham, king of Hebron,
to Parum, king of Jarmouth, and to Jaffe a king of Lakish, and
to the Beer king of Eglon, saying, Come up to me and help
me, and let us strike Gibeon, for it has made peace with
Joshua and with the people of Israel.
Then the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem,
the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmouth, the king of Lakish,
and the king of Eglon, gathered their forces and went up with
all their armies and encamped against Gibeon and made war
against it. And the men of Gibeon sent to
Joshua the camp in Gilgal, saying, Do not relax your hand
from your servants. Come up to us quickly and save
us and help us, for all the kings of the Amorites who dwell
in the Hill Country are gathered against us.
So Joshua went up from Gilgal, he and all the people of war
with him, and all the mighty men of valor.
And the Lord said to Joshua, Do not fear them, for I have given
them into your hands. Not a man of them shall stand
before you. So Joshua came upon them
suddenly, having marched up all night from Gilgal.
And the Lord threw them into a panic before Israel, who struck
them with a great blow at Gibeon, and chased them on the
way of the scent of Beth Iran, and struck them as far as Azaca
and Makeda. And as they fled before Israel,
while they were going down the ascent of Beth Iran, the Lord
threw down large stones from heaven on them as far as Azaca,
and they died. There were more who died because
of the hailstones and the sons of Israel killed with the sword.
At that time Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord
gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel.
And he said, in the sight of Israel sun stand still at Gibeon
moon in the valley of Azerlan. And the sun stood still, and the
moon stopped until the nation took vengeance on their enemies.
Is this not written in the book of Jashar?
The sun stopped in the midst of the heaven, and did not hurry to
set for about a whole day. There has been no day like it
before or since when the Lord heeded the voice of a man, for
the Lord fought for Israel. So, Joshua?
Returned and all Israel with him to the camp of Gilgal.
These 5 kings fled and hid themselves in the caves of
Makeda. And it was told to Joshua, The
five kings have been found hidden in The Cave of Makeda.
And Joshua said, Roll large stones against the mouth of The
Cave and set men to guard it. But do not stay there
yourselves. Pursue your enemies, attack
their rearguard. Do not let them into their
cities, for the Lord your God has given them into your hand.
Joshua and the sons of Israel had finished striking them with
a great blow until they were wiped out.
And when the remnant that remained of them had entered
into the fortified cities, then all the people returned safe to
Joshua. In the camp of Makeda, not a man
moved his tongue against any of the people of Israel.
And Joshua said, Open the mouth of The Cave and bring those 5
kings out to me from The Cave. And they did so.
And they brought those 5 kings out to him from The Cave.
The king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmouth,
the king of the Quiche, and the king of Eglon, when they brought
those kings out to Joshua, Joshua summoned all the men of
Israel and said to the chiefs of the men of war who had gone with
him, Come near and put your feet on the next of these kings.
And they came near, and they put their feet on their necks.
Joshua said to them, Do not be afraid or dismayed.
Be strong and courageous, for thus the Lord will do to all
your enemies against whom you fight.
And afterward Joshua struck them and put them to death, and he
hanged them on five trees, and they hung on the trees until
evening. But at the time of the going
down of the sun, Joshua commanded.
And they took them down from the trees, and they threw them into
The Cave where they had hidden themselves.
And they set large stones against the mouth of The Cave,
which remain to this very day. Let's pray and ask for God's
help as we turn to His word, Father.
But we know these things have been written down for us upon
whom the ends of the ages has come.
So Father, would you help us now?
Father, now would you show us yourself?
You show us our sin and then would you show us our Savior?
Father, now please sanctify us in the truth.
We know your word is true. We pray this in Jesus name,
Amen. As I mentioned a minute ago, I
grew up with three brothers, no sisters.
My poor mom basically lived in in a male dormitory and we love
to fight. We fought all the time.
We were big WWF wrestling fans. I don't know if there's anybody
in here like that. They say confession is good for
the soul, but we grew up in a Christian home as well.
So not only did we love wrestling, we loved reading
stories like the one we just read, and also the Samson story
and the David and Goliath story and on and on.
I could go. At that point in our lives, we
cared a little bit less about Isaac trying to find a wife.
But when you bring together young boys who are WWF fans and
stories like this, we grew up wondering things like this.
What would have happened if Samson had fought Goliath?
What would happen if Joshua and the Pharaoh got into hand to
hand combat? And if we had ever been given
toy action figures of these characters like we were Hulk
Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior, we would have pitted them
against one another with our boyish imagination.
You know, years ago, a pastor alerted to me, alerted me to an
article about manufacturers who were just trying to capture on
that sort of imagination. They were producing little Bible
action figures like Samson and Goliath and Joshua and David,
with the Jesus action figure expected to be the runaway
bestseller. And one of the things this
article posed to the toy maker as what happens if these toys
get mixed in with the other toys?
What do you do if a child pits Spider Man against Jesus in a
showdown and the maker of the toy simply answered?
In that case, I would hope that the parents would step in and
put Jesus in a safe place. To this that pastor lamented the
world emperor of Revelation 19. The sovereign of all the
universe having to be protected by parents from leftover Spider
Man action figures. Think about the irony of that
statement. And I'm afraid if we,
particularly for those of us who have grown up in the church,
watching things like Hanna Barbera cartoons and, you know,
going to Vacation Bible School and seeing flannel graph cutouts
of cartoon characters of the Bible and then later on having
vegetables, vegetables of all things, portraying biblical
characters. We can sometimes miss the
reality of what is going on in the scriptures and then we can
certainly miss what is going on in a story like this one.
I mean, we don't have to look forward to see we do not live in
a fairy tale. World.
This ain't Disney. Sadly.
Disney ain't Disney anymore. But we live in a real world, a
fallen one. We have real enemies that seek
to destroy us, to enslave us. Many of these enemies are
internal enemies of our own sinful appetites that want to
lead us to destruction. Sins like lust and greed and
selfishness and foolishness and anger and obsession with the
approval of others. But we also have external
enemies because of the fall and because of the curse of sin,
things like sickness and disease and conflict and war.
And behind it all there are principalities and powers.
And there is an accuser that the Bible tells us once nothing more
than to sift us like wheat. And I'm afraid if we view
biblical truth through the lens of a cartoon or through the lens
of figurines, we're going to miss exactly what is going on
here in Joshua 10. We're going to miss how serious
the war is. But more than that, we're going
to fail to understand that God fights for us and he does so
through a mediator who has come to defeat all of our enemies.
And that's what I want to focus in on this morning.
The Lord fights for his people, and He does so through a go
between man, through a mediator warrior, for through someone who
will speak to God on behalf of the people and who will fight
for God on behalf. Of the people.
Now here's the context of where we are in Joshua chapter 10.
Joshua and God's chosen people, Israel, they've come out of
slavery in Egypt. They are continuing the conquest
of the promised land. They're told they're to rid the
land, the rid the land of sin and idolatry.
God has given them some major victories over cities like AI
and Jericho. But we've also seen the people
have been disobedient. At least some of the Israelites
have been disobedient, like a man named Akin.
And then in Chapter 9, we see that the Gibeonites who rightly
fear Israel, they make a peace treaty with her.
And now we're going to see God's people act decisively in order
to honor that treaty. And more than that, we're going
to see the Lord himself act decisively in order to keep it.
And that leads us to the first part of the text.
I want to break this down, really just four scenes that we
see in these verses. And the first one is this.
We see the plot against Israel. Look at verse one again.
As soon as Adonizedek the king of Jerusalem, heard how Joshua
had captured AI and devoted it to destruction, doing the AI and
its king as he had done to Jericho and its king, and how
the inhabitants of Gibeon made peace with Israel were among
them, he feared greatly because Gibeon was a great city, like
one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than AI
and all its men were warriors. So Adonizedek, the king of
Jerusalem, he sends to Hohem, king of Hebron, to Pyram, king
of Jarmouth, Jaffa, king of Lakishin, Dabir, king of Eglon,
saying come up to me and help me and let us strike Gibeon for it
has made peace with Joshua, with the people of Israel.
And then these 5 kings you see there at the end of verse 5,
they gather their forces and they go up with their armies and
they make war against Gibeon. Reports come to the king of
Jerusalem, Adonizedek, that Israel is laying waste to the
land. They've sacked AI, they've
sacked Jericho, and now they've made a peace treaty with this
impressive city, Gibeon. And so Adonizedek fears greatly.
He knows Israel poses a threat to him.
He knows Israel poses a threat to his possessions and
ironically it is the King of Jerusalem who is rallying a evil
access if you will, of Amorite kings to come up against Gibeon
and then ultimately against Israel herself.
Interestingly, this is the first time the word Jerusalem shows up
in the Bible, though the city itself had appeared under
another name in Genesis 1418, it being that being the city of
Salem. Fascinatingly, there in Genesis
14, there is a king of Salem with a similar name.
His name is Melchizedek, which means the king of Righteousness.
But now there's a new king. His name is Adonizedek, or the
Lord of Righteousness. The author is showing us by way
of contrast how the iniquity of the Amorites is complete.
There once reigned a true ruler of righteousness in Salem who
blessed Abraham, but now there's a false ruler of righteousness
who seeks to do Abraham's descendants harm.
And this defection of Gibeon, A Amorite group itself, this
defection of Gibeon to Israel's side, is causing great fear, and
that's for good reason. We see here in the text, Gibeon
is an impressive city. It's larger than Bethel and AI.
It's closer to Jerusalem, so it's geographically strategic.
It's a royal city, meaning it also has a king, and it's famous
for all of its men being courageous in battle.
And yet they still readily and easily bowed the knee to Israel.
And so this fake ruler of righteousness is afraid.
Take notice, though, of what happens in the text.
Adonized a deck. Instead of taking the route of
Rahab, who turned to Israel's God, who turned to Yahweh in
faith, And instead of going the route of Gibeon, who's now
sought a peace treaty with Israel, instead of realizing
that those who bless Abraham's people will be blessed, instead
Adonized a deck plots against them.
Instead of joining Israel and their God, he seeks to to kill
them. He seeks to, to to move against
their allies by rallying these other 4 kings.
We see here something of what Paige read for us already this
morning. We see something of Psalm 2.
The nations are raging and the peoples are plotting in vain.
The kings of the earth are setting themselves and their
rulers against, are taking counsel together against the
Lord and against his anointed. But as we heard Paige read He
Who Sits. In the heavens laughs these 5
kings. They're taking their counsel
together, setting themselves up against Israel.
So take a moment to realize how significant it is that they fear
Israel. It demonstrates for us just how
powerful our God is. Israel is not some impressive
Kingdom, yet Israel is a group of slaves who have been
wandering in the wilderness for 40 years and more than that is
now. 5 kings and five peoples against one.
And yet they are formidable enough that they strike fear in
the five. And the question is why?
And the answer is pretty simple, because Yahweh is on their side.
Brothers and sisters, we learned something for our own
application this this morning for.
For for thinking through our own spiritual warfare in the
heavenly places, we know this morning that evil powers are
plotting against us. And yet as they plot against us,
our God in heaven laughs. Greater is he who is in US than
he who is in the world. That leads us to the second
scene of the text. We see the power of the Lord.
Look at verse 6. And the men of Gibeon sent to
Joshua the camp to Gilgal, saying, Do not relax your hand
from your servants. Come up to us quickly and save
us and help us for all the kings of the Amorites who dwell.
On the Hill. Country are gathered against us.
So Joshua went up from Gilgal, he and all the people of war
with him, and all the mighty men of valor.
And the Lord said to Joshua, Do not fear them, for I have given
them into your hands. Not a man of them shall stand
before you. So Joshua came upon them
suddenly, having marched up all night from Gilgal.
And the Lord threw them into a panic before Israel, who struck
them with a great blow at Gibeon, and chased them by the
way of ascent of Beth Iran, and struck them as far as Izaca and
Makeda. And as they fled before Israel,
they were going down the ascent of Beth Iran.
The Lord threw down large stones from heaven on them as far as
the Zaka, and they died. There were more who died because
of the hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with the
swords. There's a fascinating play on
words here. There's this urgent appeal made
from Gibeon. It's in the form of an emphatic
imperative. It could maybe even be better
understood. Not just please come save us,
but you must come save us. And the reason this is a play on
word is that the person they call to come save them is a man
whose name means the Lord saves, Yeshua, Joshua the Lord saves.
And the verb usage in verse 6 for help us is set in contrast
to the verb usage in verse 4 when Adonizedek is maliciously
calling on the other 4 kings to come help him.
This again is setting the contrast to highlight the
iniquity of the Amorites. We see the contrasting intents
of these two people. Israel comes to save the
Gibeonites, while the Amorite kings are seeking to do their
own people harm. So Gibeon says to Israel, hey
guys, that pact we made, it's time to make good on that pact.
They know that they cannot withstand the onslaught of the
five and they call for a formidable ally to come help
them in the fight. Years ago, I was a teenager at a
minor League Baseball game here in.
In. Zebulon, NC.
And they were these drunk guys in the stands who are mad at us
because we wouldn't stand up and do the wave.
So they were being belligerent. We thought they're so
belligerent right now that a fight's about to happen.
And I think I was like 14. I started to get pretty nervous
about it. These are older guys.
And then I just remembered what sitting next to me is my uncle,
who was an undercover cop in Atlanta.
He could bench press 500 lbs and as soon as he sat up there, as
soon as he stood up, they sat down.
Like this is what we do. If we're wise in combat, we get
a formidable ally to help us. That's exactly what Gibeon has
tried to do here and again for our own application this
morning. Thankfully, brothers and
sisters, for those of us who have been made right with God,
for those of us who have found peace with God through the
gospel, we've already sung it this morning.
We understand the right man is on our side.
The Lord of hosts is with us in the battle.
Now. Israel is helping Gibeon in the
fight. Joshua acts in accord with his
treaty. Immediately notice the urgency
to keep his word. They March up all night from
Gilgal. He hurries to help Gibeon.
And on his way, the Lord again, for at least the third time in
the book, reassures him. Do not fear.
God reminds them of His power, His presence, and his promises.
He says, I have already given them into your hand.
In fact, God speaks here in the past tense of how he's going to
deal with the Jerusalem coalition.
He has already determined the outcome.
He says to them, hey, this is exactly what is going to happen.
And so Joshua attacks early in the morning, but in keeping his
promises of the outcome, it is the Lord who is the subject of
all the verbs in verse 10. It is the Lord who throws the
enemy into a panic. It is he who strikes them with a
great blow. It is he who chases them down.
It is he who strikes them as far as Makeda.
This is the Lord's doing. He is the decisive actor in this
play. Moses has already had the people
sing a generation ago that the Lord is a man of war, and that
is true and notices weapons. But in one sense the Lord brings
rocks to a sword fight. And yet these aren't small
pebbles. His artillery are large
hailstones from heaven. These massive stones rain down
on the enemy as the divine warrior now decimates the
Jerusalem. 5 We see something vital for our own spiritual
warfare here. Yes, Israel.
Will still need to obey and fight.
They have hard work to do and so do we in our own in our own
spiritual battles. We have to put on the armor of
Ephesians 6 in order to take on the enemies and to dominate our
own sin, but be strengthened in the faith, friends, Israel along
with us. We fight from victory, not for
victory, because the outcome has already been determined.
Which leads us to the third scene.
We see the prayer of the mediator warrior.
Look at verse 12. At that time Joshua spoke to the
Lord in the day when the Lord gave the Amorites over to the
sons of Israel. And he said, in the sight of
Israel, sun stands still at Gibbean and moon in the valley
of Ashlon. And the sun stood still, and the
moon stopped until the nation took vengeance on their enemies.
Is this not written in the book of Joshua?
The sun stopped in the midst of the heaven and did not hurry to
set for about a whole day. There has been no day like it
before or since when the Lord heeded the voice of a man, for
the Lord fought for Israel. So Joshua returned in all Israel
with him and to the camp at Gilgal, and these 5 kings fled
and hid themselves in The Cave at Makeda.
These staggering events are happening at the exact same time
as the previous verses, and this is an astounding miracle of
cosmic proportions. Essentially, the sun stays up in
the sky for twice as long as normal so that the enemy can be
illuminated for Israel to exact its vengeance upon them.
Some obviously do not believe in the supernatural.
They would say this could not have happened.
Friends, if we believe that God created the heavens and the
earth, this is not impossible. He who made the laws of nature
can do as He desires with the laws of nature.
If He upholds the universe by the word of His power, then the
one who made science can make science do as He requires.
These verses, far from disproving the Bible, highlight
its own honesty and factuality. In fact, the author references
another work. He does exactly what we all have
to do in papers. He says, don't just take my word
for it. Look at the book of Jashar.
Now this was a non canonical book.
It's also mentioned in Second Samuel.
Most scholars believe it's a poetic retelling of the accounts
of the heroes of Israel. Men like Joshua.
Men like David. Yet verse 14, when the dust
settles, what is astounding is not that God has acted by
throwing massive stones out of heaven on the enemy.
What is astounding is that he has done so based upon the
appeal and interceding of a man of flesh and blood.
This isn't some fake illusion. This is not David Blaine making
you think he's levitating. It's not David Copperfield
making a jet plane disappear. This is not an illusion.
And the text marvels at this, says up to the point of this
writing, there has been no day like it.
We're at the voice of a man. The entire solar system stops.
Previous miracles like the stopping of the waters of the
Jordan, the victory of Jericho, both of these have happened
because of God's own divine initiative.
But here the tide turns and it all happens because of the
intercession of one man on behalf of his people.
For God hears and acts based upon the voice of his mediator.
And that leads us to the final part of the text.
We now see the plight of the enemy.
Look at verse 17. And it was told to Joshua, these
5 kings have been found in The Cave at Makeda.
And Joshua said, roll large stones against the mouth of The
Cave and set men by it to guard them, but do not stay there
yourselves. Pursue your enemies, attack
their rear guard. Do not let them enter their
cities, for the Lord your God has given them into your hand.
Joshua, the sons of Israel had finished striking them with a
great blow until they were wiped out, when the remnant they
remained of them and entered the fortified cities, and all the
people returned safe to Joshua. At the camp at Makeda, not a man
moved his tongue against any of the people of Israel.
So. The keys, the kings flee from
the battle, and Joshua has his men imprison them in The Cave
they have sought refuge in, and Joshua here gives it an emphatic
command. Again, his troops are not to
stop. There's another play on words
here in the Hebrew. He basically says to them, in
contrast to the sun and moon, do not stand still, and just as the
sun cannot make it down into its safe place, do not let your
enemy make it to their resting places either.
And so the men of Israel pursue the enemy.
And it now uses the same language of the men of Israel as
it is used for God in verse 10. They strike them with a great
blow until they are wiped out. And Israel's victory is so
decisive, they return to the camp in complete peace.
Literally no one would even move their tongue against the
Israelites. Similar to what happened in
Exodus 11/7, on the night when the death Angel passed over, it
said that on that night, not even a dog would sharpen its
tongue against Israel. That's how safe it had become.
Not even a dog would bark at them.
A cat maybe, but not a dog. Now, friends, I want us to see
the end of these kings. And as we prepare to read these
verses, these are stark verses, want you to realize as we read
these, this is exactly what the Lord is going to do to our
enemies in your struggles with principalities and powers that
are seeking to destroy you. This is what their end will be.
Verse 22 Then Joshua said, open the mouth of The Cave, bring
those 5 kings out to me from The Cave.
And they did so. And they brought those 5 kings
out to him from The Cave. The king of Jerusalem, the king
of Hebron, the king of Jeremoth, the king of Location, the king
of Eglon. And they brought those kings out
to Joshua. Joshua summoned all the men of
Israel and said to the chiefs of the men of war who had gone out
with him, Come near and put your feet on the necks of these
kings. And they came near, and they put
their feet on their necks. Joshua said to them, Do not be
afraid or dismayed, be strong, courageous.
For thus the liberal do to all your enemies against whom you
fight. And afterward Joshua struck them
and put them to death. And he hanged them on five
trees, and they hung on the trees until evening.
But at the time of the going down to the sun, Joshua
commanded, they took them down from the trees and threw them
into a cave where they had hidden themselves.
And they set large stones against the mouth of The Cave,
which remain to this very day. Joshua now deals with these who
have plotted against him, who have attacked his ally.
It's captivating the scene. He brings them out, He takes the
chiefs of the men of war, and he has them put their feet on the
next of these kings. This is an intentional act.
It's to symbolize the finality of victory, the decisiveness
they have. They have dominated so severely,
they have won in such a way that they have now made their enemies
their own footstool. And there's more going on than
even just that. There's echoes of Genesis 315
here, the promise that someday somebody born of the seed of the
woman of the seed of Eve would crush the serpent's head.
In the midst of this act, Joshua gives the men of Israel the same
reminder that God had given him, the same assurance that God had
given him in the battle. He says, do not be afraid, but
be strong and courageous, for the Lord will do this to all of
your enemies. And the final act is told with a
certain directness, is it not? Joshua deals with them, those
who had threatened his life, threatened his people,
threatened his allies. Joshua runs them through with a
sword, and then he hangs them up on five trees.
The hanging of the bodies on the trees is a symbolic way to show
the cursed fate of these 5 kings.
Deuteronomy tells us cursed as anyone who has hung on a tree.
The Bible is filled with Irene is now.
The bodies of these kings are taken and thrown into the very
place where they had sought refuge earlier they thought
would bring them. Safety has ended up as their own
tomb. And to the day of this riding,
this new rock sealed tomb is still there.
And it's at this point that the sun finally goes down on what
has been an extraordinary day, day that is so vividly
illustrated. The promises made to their
forefather Abraham. The iniquity of the Amorites is
complete and God's judgment is upon them.
So then I want to give four quick applications for us in the
New Covenant. The first one is this.
We face enemies, enemies within, enemies without.
We are in a war. Our battle is not against flesh
and blood. Our battle is against
principalities and powers who have aligned themselves against
us. Our battle is with our own sin.
We must make war with our sin. We must make war on our enemies
because they will certainly make war on us.
Let me just say a quick word about idolatry, the things in
your life that may be more precious to you than the Lord.
Be careful like these kings, that you don't end up thinking
that the very things that are give you refuge and safety.
Or maybe to say it for us this way, the things that you think
are going to bring you happiness and fulfillment, be careful that
those things don't end up being your own spiritual tune.
That leads to our second application.
Put on the armor of God. We need to know the truth.
We need to walk in holiness. We need to meditate on the
gospel. We need to stand firm in the
faith. You need to be strong in the
Word, vigilant in prayer. I would commend reading
Ephesians 6 later today. Think about putting on the armor
of God as we enter into this fight and enter into this battle
#3 entrust yourself and your enemies to the Lord.
We are to be active and responsible in our fight, and
yet we can rest at night knowing God is sovereign.
The text shows us that God fights for His people.
He will one day make every wrong right.
Ultimately, our only chance is. Full reliance upon Him and the
recognition that we cannot do this in our own power.
We are utterly dependent upon God to act in accord with who He
is and who and what He has said and what He has promised to us
in His Word. And then fourth application,
victory is coming. Do not fear, be strong and
courageous, for the Lord will do to all of our enemies what He
has done here, His past acts or previews of future grace for us.
They are a guarantee that our enemies within, our enemies
without, will one day be fully and finally dealt with.
It may not be in this life, but victory is coming.
And how do we know that's true? How do we know that our biggest
enemies will be dealt with? Sin within, powers without, as
we know that because we have an even better mediator warrior in
this text they say that they've never seen anything like this
God listening to the voice of a man.
But we have, we have heard of a man who bears this same name,
who will be on a boat and the winds and the waves will pick up
against it, and he will say to them, Be still, and creation
itself will listen to this man. Who is this man?
They ask that even the winds and the waves obey him.
We have heard of a man who stands before a grave containing
his friends. All those around are saying
there is no hope, it is over. This man is dead.
And this Joshua, this mediator, turns to his father, he turns to
the heavens, and he says this, I know that you always hear me.
And then he speaks to a corpse. Lazarus, come forth.
And he does, sadly, the nation's Rage Against them, the kings and
the rulers will take their stand against them, even Israel's
leaders themselves. Yeah, this is exactly how he
solves our sin problem. This is exactly how he takes on
our enemies. He does so as the true king and
Lord of righteousness, who has never sinned yet at the.
Cross. He becomes sin for us, so that
in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
He bears in His own body the judgement do our eternal enemies
of sin, and then He hands over to us in the great exchange a
righteousness that is not our own, if only we will turn to Him
by faith. If you're here this morning and
you're not a Christian, the only way that you can be made right
with the Holy God is by turning to this one in faith, by
trusting in him and him alone, if that's.
You There are plenty of people here who would like to talk to
you after the service about what it looks like to repent of your
sins and put your faith and your trust here and in here alone.
Brothers and sisters, for us on that cross, as he is drowning in
his own blood, He is. He is praying the Psalms.
He is praying for deliverance while Pagan occupiers of the
land stand around and make fun of him and the sun darkens and
goes down at midday. The earth shakes as he deals
with the curse by becoming a curse for us, as Paul reminds
the Galatians, cursed as anyone who has hung on a tree.
In that moment, the true king of righteousness now becomes the
king on the tree. And it looks as though he has
been rejected. It looks as though he has been
defeated. It looks as though God does not
hear him, and yet we're told in the book of Hebrews he cries
with loud cries to the one who is able to save him from certain
death. And on that first Easter
morning, he was. Heard.
Brothers, sisters, don't just marvel the fact that the sun
stayed up in the sky for a whole day.
Marvel at the fact that the sun went down at midday because the
Lord of Creation bowed his head and death and did so for sinners
like you and me. Don't just marvel at Joshua's
total victory of putting dead kings in the tomb covered by a
stone. Marvel that centuries later a
dead king walked out of a stone stone covered tomb.
There certainly has been no day like it.
Friends, we live in a world where we don't just have issues,
we have enemies. And we need something more than
therapeutic niceties to fix it. We're like the giving nights.
We need a warrior to come quickly.
We need a man whose name means the Lord saves.
And we have him. His name is Yeshua, Joshua,
Jesus. And there's a day coming when at
the voice of a man, the entire eastern sky is going to split
open. And on that day he is going to
enact total victory over his enemies, including the last of
these, death itself, as he will speak to the tombs.
And once again, God will listen to the voice of a man.
On that day, Revelation 6 tells us that what happened here in
Joshua 10 will happen again to our enemies.
It tells us that the kings of the earth will flee to the
caves. It says that they will beg for
the rocks to fall on them so they can hide themselves from
the wrath of the Lamb. Paul also speaks of this final
day when he writes to the Corinthians.
He says this. Then comes the end when he
delivers the Kingdom to God the Father, after destroying every
rule and every authority and power.
For he must reign until he has put all things, all his enemies,
under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed
is death, for God has put all things in subjection under his
feet. Brothers and sisters in a broken
fallen. World Do we believe that day is
coming? Or in some ways, are we just
watching Veggie Tales and trying to make ourselves feel better?
Do we really believe? What Paul tells the church at
Rome that soon the God of peace will crush Satan under your
feet. Friends, we should believe that
because the gospel is true, we are not just playing with action
figures. The right man is on our side.
The Lord of hosts is with us in the battle.
Let's pray and ask for the Lord to imprint these things upon our
minds and our hearts. Father, we we can say with the
psalmist, may it be true of us, some trust and Chariots and some
trust in horses, but we we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
Father, I pray for these brothers and sisters.
Father, I pray that you would be near and dear Father, I pray
where we need to be convicted. And Father, would you convict
us? And Father, will we need to be
encouraged? Would you please encourage us?
Father, make make in our lives this hope that we know is true.
Make it secure. Father, give us unwavering
confidence in your word and in your promises.
May we understand every single day as we wake up and we put our
head on the pillow that Jesus wins.
And someday, Father, he's coming back to set all things right.
May we live in light of that truth now.
And Father, would you, through US, help us to share that
message with others. Father, we live in a very broken
world. People need to know the hope of
the gospel. Father, would you use these
brothers and sisters? And Father, would you give them
favor in their evangelism? Father, as they move forward as
a church and as they continue to to build what the Lord is
building here, Father, would you, would you please help them
to speak this message to one another on days when some of the
Saints are wavering in their hope?
Father, would you help other brothers and sisters speak the
gospel to their lives? Father, we, we want your glory,
so we need your help. Would you help us now even as we
get a chance to observe the victory that we see in the
Gospel through baptism? Father, would you strengthen us
in the faith as we get a chance to observe that there has been
one who has taken from the Kingdom of darkness now unto the
Kingdom of the Beloved Son. Would you give us great faith
and great hope? We pray these things in Jesus
name, Amen.