What Happened When the Sun Stood Still? — Joshua 10 (Session 12)

In this verse-by-verse study of Joshua 10, Reasoning Through the Bible looks at one of the most dramatic miracles in the book of Joshua: the day God made the sun stand still. After the Gibeonites made peace with Israel, five Amorite kings banded together to attack them. Joshua came to their defense, and the Lord fought for Israel through battle, confusion, hailstones, and a miraculous extension of daylight.

This session explores why the kings feared Israel, why opposition often increases when people make peace with God, and why the Lord’s work sometimes requires hard, exhausting effort. At Jericho, God brought the walls down easily. In Joshua 10, Israel marches all night, fights a long battle, and still depends completely on the Lord for victory.

The study also addresses the miracle of the sun standing still, God’s control over nature, how Joshua 10 relates to conversations about the Bible and science, and why Christians do not need to be afraid of true science. The chapter closes with the defeat of the five kings, the seriousness of God’s judgment, and the need to deal with sin directly rather than compromise with the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Topics in this episode include:

• Joshua 10 study
• the sun standing still
• God fighting for Israel
• five kings against Gibeon
• faith when enemies gather
• God’s control over nature
• Bible and science
• dealing with sin directly
• Jesus and the curse of the tree
• trusting God in hard ministry

Reasoning Through the Bible is a verse-by-verse Bible teaching ministry committed to careful exposition, biblical context, and faithful application.

Questions in this session: 

• How can we trust the Lord and not be afraid? 
• Why would the Lord ask us to work hard?
• Are science and faith in opposition? 
• When we pray, do we pray with confidence? 
• Can we be worldly and carnal and still be righteous? 

Learn more about RTTB:  Reasoning Through the Bible – Straightforward with some Critical Thinking

Transcript

Welcome to Joshua's Conquest

Speaker 1 0:17

Hello and welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible podcast . We've been working our way verse by verse through the book of Joshua and , if you remember , joshua was leading the people of Israel through the promised land , conquering the cities . In the promised land they came up against Jericho and the walls of Jericho fell and we said Jericho represented the world . Then they went to little Ai and they were defeated in little Ai because of a hidden sin . So Ai represents the flesh . And then they were up against some Gibeonites who lied to them to make peace . The devil is a liar . So we have here . Israel has met in the promised land , the world , the flesh and the devil . Now Joshua 10 is where we are today and we're going to start off here talking about the things that Joshua was up against as the kings band together against Joshua . So , steve , if you could read the first five verses of Joshua , chapter 10 .

Speaker 2 1:16

Now it came about when Adonai Zelech , king of Jerusalem , heard that Joshua had captured Ai and had utterly destroyed it just as he had done to Jericho and its king , so he had done to Ai and its king , and that the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were within their land . That he feared greatly because Gibeon was a city , like one of the royal cities , and because it was greater than Ai and all its men were mighty . Therefore , adonai Zedek , king of Jerusalem , sent word to Hohen , king of Hebron , and to Hiram , king of Jarmuth , and Jophia , king of Lachish , and to Debir , king of Eglon , saying Come up with me and help me and let us attack Gibeon , for it has made peace with Joshua and with its sons of Israel . So the five kings of the Amorites , the king of Jerusalem , the king of Hebron , the king of Jarmuth , the king of Lachish and the king of Eglon gathered together and went up , they with their armies , and camped by Gibeon and fought against it .

Speaker 1 2:25

So in the first two verses we have here these kings in the land heard of the victories that Israel was having , and it says at the beginning of verse 2 , they feared greatly . Remember way back earlier when Moses first sent out the 12 spies and they came back and what did they ?

Speaker 2 2:44

say Well . 10 of them said no way , there's giants in the land . There's no way we're going to take it . But two of them , caleb and Joshua , said no , the Lord's with us , we need to go ahead and go in and take it .

Speaker 1 2:56

So the people of Israel 10 of them were afraid there's giants in the land . We're like grasshoppers . They were afraid of going into the promised land . Well , here , once they're there chapter 10 , verse 2, . The people in the land were more afraid of Israel than Israel was of them . So isn't it ironic that Israel would fail to go in and take God's best out of fear , when really the people on the other side that were their enemies were more afraid than Israel was ? So how can we not fall into that same trap ? How can we trust in the Lord and not be afraid ?

Speaker 2 3:33

Well , I think part of this , glenn , is what I call projecting , where sometimes you project what you think other people are thinking . Through that you can reach fear of yourself or think that , well , this is what that person is thinking , this is what they are , and so , therefore , you're hesitant to address them or to converse with them , because you're projecting something that you think is happening , but in reality , in our Christian lives , god has gone before us , just like God has gone before the people of Israel . So we should learn to trust in God , trust in his word , trust in his promises , and not project necessarily on something that we really don't know .

Speaker 1 4:17

God is faithful and we can trust him . So we have here , in these first five verses of chapter 10 , there's these five kings . They band together against the people of Gibeon , and the people of Gibeon were the people that had made peace with Israel . They were the ones that tricked Israel and made a peace treaty with them . I find it ironic here that these kings come up against Gibeon because Gibeon had made peace with God . Why would they care whether Gibeon had made peace with God ? They got angry at them after they made peace with God . Why would somebody do that ? Why would somebody get angry because somebody close to them suddenly starts following the Lord ? Have you ever seen in our day people that are just going through life and then somebody becomes a Christian in their life , in their family or in their circle of friends and suddenly now their friends are turned on them ? Who do you think you are following God ? I've never quite understood why that would be the case , other than this basic rebellion against God .

Speaker 2 5:23

I think , possibly sometimes too , it's out of fear , in that this person or this family member now has what many times will be like an assurance or a peace about them . Their life has changed and yet the person who hasn't followed the Lord , their life is still the same and they see , it could be a little bit of jealousy , could be a little bit of fear as well , and that this person now has something that I don't have .

Speaker 1 5:51

You ever see somebody become a Christian and then their circle of friends changes . You ever see that when the old friends suddenly just don't want to hang around with them anymore , but now there's a new circle of friends in the body of Christ . I found that to happen many times , I know when I was saved . It wasn't that I was necessarily pushing away my old friends , it's just some of the things they were doing . I didn't want to do those things anymore and suddenly they didn't want to hang around me as much anymore and it was kind of a mutual thing . You just lose some friends , but it's because they didn't want to hang around me and I didn't want to hang around them because of the things they were doing .

Speaker 2 6:29

I wasn't part of the party anymore and it could have been that they felt a little bit of guilt of knowing we really shouldn't be doing this and you were a reminder of them for that .

Speaker 1 6:39

In verse one , these kings knew what Joshua was doing . Do the non-Christians know what God's doing and what the Christians are doing ? It just seems like the non-Christians have a fairly good idea about what Christianity is enough to where , if somebody starts following it , they become interested . The next verses we have here where Gibeon calls for help . And in verse 6 , gibeon calls in its agreement and asks for Joshua's help . And in verse 7 , joshua goes up with his army to meet them . In verse 8 , it says the Lord said to Joshua Do not fear them , for I have given them into your hands . Not one of them shall stand before you . If you could read , steve , start in verse 9 and read through verse 15 .

Speaker 2 7:26

So Joshua came upon them suddenly by marching all night from Gilgal , and the Lord confounded them before Israel and he slew them with a great slaughter of Gibeon and pursued them by the way of the ascent to Beth-haran and struck them as far as Azaka and Makada .

Speaker 2 7:45

They fled before Israel . While they were in the descent of Beth-horan , the Lord threw large stones from heaven on them as far as Azaka , and they died . There were more who died from the hailstones than those whom the sons of Israel killed with the sword . Then Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the sons of Israel . Then he said in the sight of Israel O sun stand still at Gibeon and O moon in the valley of Ajan . So the sun stood still and the moon stopped until the nation avenged themselves of their enemies . Is it not written in the book of Joshua ? And the sun stopped in the middle of the sky and did not hasten to go down about a whole day . There was no day like that before it or after it , when the Lord listened to the voice of a man , for the Lord fought for Israel .

Speaker 1 8:45

Then Joshua , and all Israel with him , Back in verse 9 , how long did they march ?

Speaker 2 8:54

It says they marched all night , Yep all night .

Speaker 1 8:56

So they marched all night , and then the next day they go into this battle . That lasted so long that Joshua asked the sun to stand still so that they could fight for about a whole day . It says so how long does that make them awake ? All of one night and then a whole nother day ? They're awake for about 48 hours approximately . Then they're fighting for most of a day , which is very grueling physical work . How tired do you think they ?

Speaker 2 9:25

were Probably exhausted in many , many ways . This was physical , close contact combat . This wasn't like we have today , or even where they're at a distance , they're in amongst each other , hand-to-hand combat .

Speaker 1 9:39

This all-night march . The commentators tell us that this was uphill , so they were

Five Kings Band Together

Speaker 1 9:45

marching uphill for a long march , and then they go straight into a long , 20 , 24-hour battle , very , very physically demanding , back at Jericho . How hard was it for the people of Israel to take Jericho ? What did they have to do there ?

Speaker 2 10:01

Marched around the city for seven days , one time a day for seven days one time a day for seven days .

Speaker 1 10:06

So it was relatively easy . The walls just fell down . Why is it that God would ? Back at Jericho , it was really easy . Walls fall down . Take the city . But here it's like Long uphill march , long battle , a lot of work , 20 hours , 24 hours , 48 hours , a lot of work . Why would God not make the walls fall down here In other places ? In the Old Testament there was one battle where God scared off an entire army with false noises of a coming army in the middle of the night . How come God can't do that here ? Why would God have them work so much here but just give them Jericho , many things like this .

Speaker 2 10:50

it builds character . It builds faith in God , trusting in God . They had to trust that God was going to take down the walls of Jericho just by doing what they were told them to do . Same thing here in regards to trusting what God is going to be with them , but God works in different ways .

Speaker 1 11:09

Sometimes the Lord's work is easy . We just sit and God knocks the walls down and we move on . Other times , the Lord's work is work . Sometimes it's a lot of work , a lot of hard work .

Speaker 2 11:22

And then , of course , what happened after that easy victory at Jericho ? They got a little bit confident , too confident , and went up without the Lord at Ai and got whipped , so to speak , there at Ai . So the Lord works in different ways .

Speaker 1 11:39

So in this chapter , god again tells them I'm giving you this land , I'm giving you this land , I'm giving you victory here , but then they have to go out and do a very physically grueling work to obtain it . Is that ever the case with us ? Is there ever a case where we're put into a ministry and it really turns into a lot of work ? Do you think the people here in Joshua were tired , absolutely ? Do we ever get tired of doing God's work ? Have you ever been in a ministry that Lord ? Not sure I signed up for this . I'm tired . Is it still worth continuing , or should we give up and wait for God to knock the walls down ?

Speaker 2 12:17

I think it's always worth continuing because when you finally do see that victory , it restores your faith , it builds your faith , it builds your confidence . It's a teaching moment to know that God hasn't left you . He was there the whole time . And also to see the way that it happened is something that builds your faith as well , such as how , the way this happened , if you look at verse 10 and 11 , it says the Lord confounded them before Israel and he slew them with a great slaughter .

Speaker 1 12:48

So who actually gets the credit for the victory here ? God does , god does . There's a list of things in verses 10 and 11 that God does . Let's see if we can count them . It says he routed them or confounded them , threw them into a panic . What else did he do ? He killed some with a great slaughter . They chased some of them down the road , struck them down and then used hailstones . So he provided these miracles In verse 11 , the hailstones In verse 13, . The sun stands still . What miracles does God do for us as we go about our ministry ? Does God do miraculous things for us ? We might not see sun standing still , but what can we count as God's hand moving in our lives when we do ministry ? He gives us life and breath . That's miraculous .

Speaker 2 13:36

When it said here that he confounded the enemy . That's something that they might not have seen at the time , but they realized later . Same thing Sometimes we might not see exactly how God is working at the time , but later afterwards we go oh okay , that's what was going on or that's why this happened . I think it's key also in that giving God the credit when the credit is due is a key point as well .

Speaker 1 14:02

In verse 13 , it says the sun stood still . Imagine this God stopped the solar system here for Joshua . Would it ever be the case that God stops the entire solar system because one person needed something ? Would God do such a thing ? Well , he did it at least once . Did it at least once . Some of the older cultural things in the Western world talks about God's providence . God's providence is working out situations in our lives to provide things , and we can trust God to do those things God provides for us . Are our requests ever so small that God's ?

Speaker 2 14:41

not going to care . No , because Scripture even tells us that he knows when the sparrow falls . He knows the little minute things that are going on . That's one of the things that makes Him God . So he knows all the minute things that are going on in our life and hears all of our prayers .

Speaker 1 14:56

Now , one of the things that we're told happened was the Canaanites worshiped the sun and the moon . That was one of the things they worshiped . What significance is it here that Joshua was able to command the sun ? What does that ?

Speaker 2 15:10

show the people of Canaan . It shows them that the God of Israel , yahweh , is in control over the sun and the moon , and not their gods . Their sun god or their moon god that they worship , that Yahweh has control over it , not their gods , their sun god or their moon god that they worship , that Yahweh has control over it , not their gods .

Speaker 1 15:26

Here . I'd like to take just a couple of minutes and do just a little bit of a theological rabbit trail . This passage here in Joshua , chapter 10 , where the sun stands , still actually came into play at a particular point in church history and it helps us learn between Christianity and science . There's sometimes people will pit the Bible up against science . Here I think we can learn a few things .

Speaker 1 15:51

There was a point in history where a man named Galileo published a book , and in his book he'd been looking through his telescope and he published a theory that cut against the grain of the prevailing scientific theory of the time . The prevailing scientific theory said that the earth stood still and the sun moved around it , and Galileo came up with the opposite theory . He said it's probably that the sun is the one that's standing still and the earth's moving around it , and because of that it cut against many centuries of cosmology that was being taught in the universities at the time . There was a man from the church , his name was Bellarmine . This man , bellarmine , came up and said well , we know from the Bible that the sun's moving around the earth , and one of the passages he quoted was right here in Joshua 10 , verse 12 . The sun stood still . His reasoning was the sun can't stand still unless it's moving . He also quoted a verse over in Ecclesiastes , chapter 1 , that says the sun rises , the sun sets and it returns again to the place that it started . So this man from the church Bellarmine took the Bible and refuted a scientific theory at the time , saying that the Bible teaches one thing , and was speaking against the science . Well , here we are ,

The Sun Stands Still

Speaker 1 17:14

400 years after Galileo , and I don't know anyone that picks up a Bible today and uses these verses to say that it's really the sun moving around the earth .

Speaker 1 17:25

We've changed our interpretation of the scripture . We've changed our view of what the scriptures are saying and we don't have any problem with that . There's no problem here with the science , because it's just done from the observer's standpoint . If you're standing on the earth , the sun did stand still and that's a miracle . That actually happened , and the passage over in Ecclesiastes is using poetic language , and then we just move on . If you're standing on the earth , the sun comes back around again to where it started . There's no scientific issue with that . But we can learn some things . We adjust our Bible interpretation based on science sometimes , and I hope that's not a shock to any of our listeners . Sometimes we have to adjust what we're teaching from the Bible based on the science . But now wait just a minute . Sometimes it's the other way around .

Speaker 1 18:13

That same book by Galileo , where he talked about the sun and the earth . He also theorized that the ocean tides were being caused by sloshing and he even refuted the general idea that the moon could be causing the tide movements . This was before Newton's gravitational theories , and Galileo spoke against the idea that gravity could be causing the tides . He called that childish and occultic that the moon could be causing the tides to move from a great distance away . So the great scientist was right in one area and wrong in another . Here we are , 400 years later and no one believes that the ocean tides are caused by sloshing . Everyone believes it's done by the moon's gravity .

Speaker 1 19:03

Sometimes Science is wrong and sometimes the theologians are wrong . And I can stand here on 3,000 years of theology and say we've done pretty good over 3,000 years . I'm going to hold to what my Bible teaches . Thank you very much . And if we look at what happens in the science , it has changed tremendously . My college astronomy textbook is so outdated that it's only good for a doorstop . So the

Bible vs Science: Theological Context

Speaker 1 19:31

science changes quickly . I'm just trying to say here very briefly that as Christians we don't need to be afraid of science .

Speaker 2 19:39

You'll often hear somebody say that something is settled science . True scientists and people that truly believe in science know that science is never settled . That's what makes it science . There's always a pursuit to find out how things work , what things are . That's what science means is knowledge and gaining that knowledge . So anytime somebody says there's settled science , kind of be a little bit cautious of them as well . The Bible is not a science book from that perspective . It's teaching us theological things . It's teaching us about God . Some people try and take it out of context and try and put it into this scientific type of overview . Therefore they can take it against it and say the scripture is anti-science and when it's really not .

Speaker 1 20:33

It's really not . It's true that there are things in science that I can't figure out how it would ever change . I don't think anybody's going to come up next week and saying that friction doesn't exist . But at the same time , there were things that were taught all of my life that have , in recent years , come out that the scientists said well , no , we were wrong . This happens fairly routinely . Galileo was wrong about the ocean tides . So these things happen , and sometimes we just have to take our Bible interpretation with a little bit of humility . The things in theology and the Bible that will never change are the spiritual teachings , such as the deity of Christ and monotheism , those things we can stand on 3,000 years of theology that are rock solid . So , moving along in Joshua , chapter 10 , it says in verse 11 that the Lord killed some of them with large hailstones . These people worship the sun and the moon and the heavens . Isn't it ironic that God killed them with hailstones from ?

Speaker 2 21:32

heaven .

Speaker 1 21:33

Who controls nature ? Over in Job , chapter 38 , god says he uses snow and hailstones as weapons against people . And you remember over in the New Testament , who controlled nature in the New Testament ?

Speaker 2 21:47

Jesus did . He calmed the waters as he walked across it and as the disciples were scared because they were scared that they were going to sink he spoke and the waters were calmed .

Speaker 1 21:59

Remember when they were fishing and he said cast the net on the right side of the boat . He controlled the fish . He withered a fig tree , he raised the dead . Who is the only one that can control ?

Speaker 2 22:10

nature . God Almighty , the God Most High , the God of Israel .

Speaker 1 22:16

So when Jesus controls nature , what does that tell us ?

Speaker 2 22:20

That he's God .

Speaker 1 22:21

That he's God . Here in Joshua 10 , he kills some of them with hailstones . Well , if he killed some of them with hailstones , why did he have a march all night and fight for 24 hours ? Why not just wave a magic hailstone wand and kill all these people ? Why don't you just zap them , without Israel having to do all the work ?

Speaker 2 22:41

Well , again I think we've talked a little bit about it but also the way that God works is not just for the Israelites' sake , but it's also a demonstration to the non-believing nations that are there too , that he is the God , the one that's over nature and over the other gods that they worship .

Speaker 1 23:01

One of the reasons I asked this question why would God do X , Y , Z is because these questions come up periodically and it's just natural . Why would God do this ? Why would God do this or that or the other thing ? And I think that's really a trap . I think it's a problem to ask those questions simply because we don't know why God does things and I have no issue with that . Because I don't know why I do things , and all of us are that way .

Speaker 1 23:27

All of us wake up one day and slap our forehead and say why in the world did I do that ? Why did I act that way ? I shouldn't have done that . So we don't even know the motivation that's in ourselves , let alone the motivation that's in God . A finite human will never completely understand an infinite God . The finite can never understand the infinite , and God is infinite . We're finite , and so asking why questions to a God is worse than the two-year-old saying why , when the parent tells them to do things , and eventually the parent just says because I said so and because the parent has a wise reason for it , but trying to explain it to a two-year-old , they're just not going to understand , and the two-year-old doesn't want to listen to the explanations that the parent gave them , maybe five times before .

Speaker 2 24:16

Finally , it gets to the point of just because I said so , not because that's what they started off with , but because the two-year-old didn't want to accept the reasons why .

Speaker 1 24:26

Now , in verse 16 of Joshua 10 , five kings . They flee and hide themselves in a cave . And in verse 18 , joshua seals them in this cave and this cave ended up being their grave . Joshua brings them out , judges them , executes them , puts them back in the cave and seals it them executes them , puts them back in the cave and seals it . The spiritual application here is profound . These kings were running from God and they ran and hid in a cave and that cave ended up being their tomb . It ended up being their trap . Isn't that ironic ? Is it ever the case that the things that you and I use to run from God end up being a prison ? We think they're an escape from God , but that escape ends up being a prison . I find that very profound .

Speaker 1 25:17

Now the rest of chapter 10 and on into verse 11 , it gets very

Kings Hiding in a Cave

Speaker 1 25:22

ugly . It has a lot of fighting , battles , killing . Chapter 10 , verse 20 , joshua and Israel maderael made , it says , a very great slaughter . They killed kings and hung them on trees . They killed the people of several cities makita , libna , lakish , geyser , eglon , hebron , debir . It was very violent , very bloody . They killed everyone . It . It says , the world , the flesh and the devil are very ugly . Is there a nice way to deal with the world and the flesh ?

Speaker 2 25:55

No , and as you fight against it , things do get ugly many , many times .

Speaker 1 26:01

Can we compromise and make deals with the world , the flesh and the devil ?

Speaker 2 26:05

No , because they're not on our side . They don't have the best interest for us . God does . God has the best interest and we can trust him . The world doesn't . The world is an enemy of God and sometimes we or not sometimes all the time , if we're Christians we're in the middle of that and the world is trying to get actually to God through us .

Speaker 1 26:25

I'll admit this passage . It's ugly . Slaughtering people is very ugly . It's brutal . How should we deal with when we wake up in the morning and find out , oh my goodness , there's sin in my life . Do I play with it ? Do I do a small ? Well , maybe I can just take an aspirin , or what do ?

Speaker 2 26:43

I do . To get rid of it , you need to address it head on , slaughter it metaphorically and get it out of your life .

Speaker 1 26:51

These people in Canaan . They had idol worshipers that had mixed sex and worship . They had mixed child sacrifice . It was very ugly . The only way to get rid of these things is to deal with it drastically and again . What we had talked about in one of our previous sessions was that in the New Testament Jesus it's hyperbole , but he's saying pluck out your eye , cut off your hand if they cause you to sin . The message here is clear Don't play around with sin . God wants it gone .

Speaker 2 27:22

Well , and it's dealing with it head on . Like you say , it's not playing with it , it's not trying to skirt it , it's dealing with it head on . The opposite of that , though , is that the opposition were coming at them . They continued to resist . Even as these battles were being won , they kept coming . They kept coming after Israel and wanting to fight , coming after Israel and wanting to fight . The world is that same way . The world is relentless , and the world is going to continue to come at us , and we have to face it head on , and sometimes it's going to be a mess dealing with it , but it also shows our other friends and family that we are dealing with it , and we're dealing with it head on Towards the end of chapter 10 , verses 26 and 27, .

Speaker 1 28:10

There's these five kings' bodies were hanging on trees , but Joshua took them down at sundown . Do you remember what the Old Testament law said about bodies on a tree ? Cursed Deuteronomy , chapter 21 says that bodies are not supposed to be left on a tree overnight . That we need to make clear is that's what he's doing , is actually following the Old

Dealing With Sin Head-On

Speaker 1 28:37

Testament law back in Deuteronomy , who else hung on a tree over in the New Testament ? Jesus , our Lord and Savior . When was Jesus taken down In the evening before sunset Before sundown Before sundown so , even in death , jesus followed the law .

Speaker 1 28:51

And , as you pointed out , deuteronomy says anyone hangs on a tree is cursed , and Jesus was cursed because he took our sins . And one last thing we can notice here on into chapter 11 , verse 41 , listing these cities that they took . They took Kadesh . Barnea is one of the places in the list . Here's a trivia question for you , steve Do you remember what happened previously in our story at Kadesh Barnea ?

Speaker 2 29:17

Kadesh . Barnea is where Israel had come whenever they were in the wilderness . And I'm going on memory here , but didn't they complain to God there , or something ?

Speaker 1 29:30

You get extra points . Kadesh Barnea was the place from which they sent out the 12 spies . They came back saying there's giants in the land and we can't defeat them . Well , here they finally get to the place , the same spot , kadesh Barnea , and now they've defeated them . So we can do what God promised , as long as we trust God . That gets us up to the end of chapter 10 . Next time we'll start in chapter 11 . We get the conquest and the dividing of the land .

Speaker 2 29:57

Thank you so much for listening to Reasoning Through the Bible and we will see you in our next session . Thank you .