God told Joshua and the Israelites to completely wipe out the people of the lands they were to occupy. The people of Gibeon heard of how the Israelites had defeated other towns and they "resorted to deception to save themselves." They put on ragged clothes and worn out sandals and brought moldy bread, making it seem as if they had come from a distant country. They said: “Your servants have come from a very distant country. We have heard of the might of the Lord your God and of all he did in Egypt. We have also heard what he did to the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan River. So our elders and all our people instructed us, ‘Take supplies for a long journey. Go meet with the people of Israel and tell them, “We are your servants; please make a treaty with us. This bread was hot from the ovens when we left our homes. But now, as you can see, it is dry and moldy. These wineskins were new when we filled them, but now they are old and split open. And our clothing and sandals are worn out from our very long journey.”
The next verses tell of what the leaders did, and what we so often do:
Joshua 9:14 So the Israelites examined their food, but they did not consult the Lord. 15 Then Joshua made a peace treaty with them and guaranteed their safety, and the leaders of the community ratified their agreement with a binding oath.
How often have I done the same thing? Examined something based upon how it appeared without asking God what to do. All too many times, I'm afraid.
The next section talks of a "natural phenomena" that occurred. Instead of paraphrasing, I'll just copy the story. As a side note, just before this story, it says that as the Israelites chased the enemy and "the Lord destroyed the enemy with a terrible hailstorm that killed more of the enemy than Israel killed with the sword." This is probably another natural phenomena - If you are chasing the enemy, I would think you are pretty close to them. Imagine the hailstorm not falling on you, but continuing to fall just in front of you.
12 On the day the Lord gave the Israelites victory over the Amorites, Joshua prayed to the Lord in front of all the people of Israel. He said,
“Let the sun stand still over Gibeon,
and the moon over the valley of Aijalon.”
13 So the sun stood still and the moon stayed in place until the nation of Israel had defeated its enemies.
Is this event not recorded in The Book of Jashar? The sun stayed in the middle of the sky, and it did not set as on a normal day.14 There has never been a day like this one before or since, when the Lord answered such a prayer. Surely the Lord fought for Israel that day!
I did a google search to see if there was any record, historically, of this natural phenomena and discovered the following article. I'll let Cooper read that and let us know his thoughts...http://brethrenassembly.com/archives/713
The pastor makes very good points in the article. I wanted to do more reasearch but there are too many results and too little time. WHat he says its quite possible, except i do not like how he had to go back to alternate translations of the reference. By doing that you can prove anything about the Bible.
ReplyDeleteCooper