Since miraculously crossing over the Jordan River (Joshua 3-4), Israel had conquered the cities of Jericho (Joshua 6) and Ai (Joshua 7-8). Israel’s victories over these two cities caused fear in the kings who were still residing in the hills, lowlands, and coastal plains (9:1). Because Israel was completely destroying their enemies, these kings decided that they should form one army so that they might have a better chance at defending themselves against Joshua and the nation of Israel (9:2). Not all the kings were convinced that they could defeat Israel so instead of joining in an alliance with the other the kings, the inhabitants of Gibeon decided to make peace with Israel. The Gibeonites devised a plan to trick Israel into thinking that they were a people who lived very far away so that Israel would make a promise not to destroy them (9:3-6). When this group of people first approached the leaders of Israel they were skeptical (9:7), but the group of travelers assured them that they had come because of all the great things they had heard concerning the great God of Israel (9:8-13). Rather than seeking the counsel of the Lord in this matter, the leaders of Israel quickly made a covenant of peace with the Gibeonites and promised not to destroy them (9:14-15). God had already commanded Israel not to make any covenants with the inhabitants of Canaan, but to destroy them (see Deuteronomy 7:1-2). Israel’s covenant with the Gibeonites would be considered an act of disobedience since they did not seek the Lord in their decision. A couple of days later, Israel found out that the Gibeonites actually resided in Canaan and not outside Canaan as they had said (9:16). When the children of Israel traveled to their cities, they did not attack them because of the covenant they had made with them; however, Joshua declared that the Gibeonites would become woodcutters and water carriers for Israel (9:17-27).
The news of Israel’s victories and their treaty with the Gibeonites continued to spread throughout the region and Adoni-Zedek (king of Jerusalem) joined with four other cities to attack Gibeon for their traitorous actions (10:1-5). Upon hearing about the plans of these five cities to attack them, the men of Gibeon begged Joshua and his army to help them (10:6). Joshua agreed to defend them and the army of Israel destroyed the five-city coalition (10:7-10); furthermore, as the enemy army retreated, God miraculously sent down large hailstones from heaven to destroy these people so that “there were more who died from the hailstones than the children of Israel killed with the sword” (10:11). Another miracle had also taken place that day in order for Israel to destroy their enemies. Joshua had prayed that the sun would stand still over Gibeon until Israel had taken revenge on their enemies (10:12-13). Although this miracle is scientifically unexplainable, it is easily explained when one considers that the all-powerful God slowed down the earth’s rotation so that it made a full rotation in 48 hours instead of 24 hours. The extra daylight allowed Joshua and Israel to defeat their enemies before the sun went down. This miraculous event was unlike any other (10:14) and was also recorded in the Book of Jasher, a collection of Hebrew songs to celebrate the accomplishments of Israel’s leaders. The five kings who had aligned themselves together against Gibeon were captured and Joshua killed them, left them hang on trees until evening, and then threw their bodies into the caves where they had been found hiding (10:16-27). After conquering these five cities, Joshua quickly moved into the rest of southern Canaan and conquered Makkedah (10:28), Libnah (10:29-30), Lachish (10:31-33), Eglon (10:34-35), Hebron (10:36-37), and Debir (10:38-39). Joshua, led by the mighty hand of the Lord, had conquered the southern part of Canaan (10:40-43) and were now poised to overtake the northern region.
Dear God, thank You for being faithful to Your people even when we are not faithful.
