NOTES for Jos 10:1-43

When the pagan kings threatened Gibeon, Joshua stood up to defend its inhabitants. However angry Joshua was with them for their deception, even in his anger he did not forget to honor the oath of alliance with Gibeon that he had made before the Lord.

To the five kings, the Gibeonites are apostates, and so they may wish to punish them even more strongly than to defend themselves against the Israelites. But Israel’s protection, even though obtained by deception, is not merely support from a powerful army. Decisively, it is the protection of the One who grants victories. The Gibeonites’ conversion, still insincere, became one of the first manifestations outside the Jewish people of a longing for the one God.

It is not so important for us to determine what natural phenomena lay behind the stones from heaven that fell upon the Canaanite army, or by what mechanism the heavenly bodies were halted during the battle. It is far more important to grasp what this passage of the biblical narrative emphasizes: the five kings were defeated by more than human strength alone. But now, as we read how the defeated kings who had opposed God were shut in a cave sealed with a stone, we can also remember that King who was likewise sealed by a stone in a burial cave, having freely died for sinful humanity which had opposed God.