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The Day the Sun Stood Still — Joshua 10:1–14 · Crosswalk

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Jesus tells us to take up our cross and follow
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Him. You're listening to Crosswalk with Pastor
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Steve Winnery. Crosswalk is the radio ministry
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of Calvary Chapel Tri -Cities and it is our aim
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to lead you to the cross through the teaching
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of God's Word. All right, we're in Joshua chapter
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10 Joshua chapter 10, I got my computer up here
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because I'm gonna run the show Because we're
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doing science Joshua chapter 10, you're gonna
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see why the let's see gosh, I can't remember
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the last time that we got together But basically
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what had happened in chapter nine was Joshua,
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once again, had not prayed and the people of
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Gibeon, which is a city about eight miles northwest
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of Jerusalem. So when you think of Jerusalem,
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it's kind of smack in the middle of the nation
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of Israel with the Dead Sea on one side and then
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the lowlands of Judah on the other side and Gibeon
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is a little bit northwest. Jerusalem they send
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guys as a basically a caravan they pretend like
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they've come and come from a very long distance
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it's less than probably it's probably it's less
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than 30 miles for sure probably less than 20
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miles from Givient to where Josh was camped at
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Gilgal they come down say that we've come from
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a far journey and you remember that these guys
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swallowed the story because they grabbed old
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moldy bread, and they got worn out sandals, and
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all this stuff. And they said that they wanted
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to make a covenant with the people of Israel.
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So they trick him into a covenant, and when Joshua
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finds out that they're lying through their teeth,
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he honors the covenant. And that's where we left
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off in chapter nine. And obviously the reason
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that ends up happening with Joshua and with the
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people of Israel, and they're pretty torqued
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about it. So the nation itself is mad about the
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whole thing after it's all done. The reason that
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happened to them is because of prayerlessness.
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Chapter 10 is all about what takes place and
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the obligations that the people of Israel are
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bound to because of their prayerlessness in chapter
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9. We'll go through and get into it. Let's pray
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before we do. Father, we just again want to come
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before you and Lord, we love you. We thank you
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for your word. We thank you for all the really
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cool illustrations that we have in the book of
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Joshua. all the examples of what it is to fight
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the battles that we fight in the world that we're
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living in. And Lord, as we're going through and
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looking at chapter 10 especially, we just pray
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that you'd be speaking to our hearts, God, that
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you'd use the study, you'd use all my silly science,
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and Father, that you just bless your people as
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we're going through this. And we just ask that
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you do this all in the name of Jesus, amen. Okay,
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Joshua chapter 10. It says, now it came to pass
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when Adonai Zdech King of Jerusalem heard how
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Joshua had taken Ai and had utterly destroyed
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it as he had done to Jericho and its king. So
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he had done to Ai and its king and how the inhabitants
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of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were
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among them that they feared greatly because Gibeon
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was a great city like one of the royal cities
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and because it was greater than Ai and all its
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men were mighty. Therefore Adonai -Zedek king
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of Jerusalem sent to Hoham King of Hebron, or
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Hebron, Purim, King of Jarmoth, Japhia, King
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of Lachish, and Deborah, King of Eglon, saying,
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come up to me and help me, that we may attack
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Gibeon, for it has made peace with Joshua and
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with the children of Israel. Therefore the five
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kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem,
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the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmoth, the
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king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon, gathered
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together and went up, they and all their armies
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and camped before. Kings of the Amorites who
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dwell in the mountains have gathered together
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Against us and so in verses one through five
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you have the basically the panic of the five
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kings One of the things that's interesting about
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the passage is the name of the king of Jerusalem
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Now this is Jerusalem right and so this is Jerusalem
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before Joshua has conquered it. It's also Jerusalem
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before David goes in and reconquers it later
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on. It's conquered by Joshua, and then it's given
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back over, and it has to be reconquered by David.
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And that's finally when it went into Israeli
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hands and stayed there. This is also Jerusalem
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that Melchizedek came from. Back in the book
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of Genesis, it's called Salem, which means peace.
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Shalom or salam in Arabic means peace. That's
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what Salem means. And so this is Adonai Zidak.
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You know what Adonai means? It's the term they
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use to replace the name of God when you're using
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the Tetragrammaton, when you're using YHWH in
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Hebrew, which would probably be pronounced Yahweh,
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but we don't know that for sure. And so when
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a Jew goes through and reads the Old Testament,
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when he gets to the name of God, that YHWH, he
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replaces it with Adonai, which means Lord. And
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Sedeq, means righteousness. This guy's name literally
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means Lord of righteousness and he's the king
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of Jerusalem. What's that sound like? Sounds
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like a copy of Jesus, right? Because Jesus is
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the Lord of righteousness and he is the one who's
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gonna be king of Jerusalem. And you'll remember
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when we started the book of Joshua, one of the
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things that I told you is that this parallels
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the book of Revelation. And so you have a king
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who is against the God of the Bible, who has
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a name that's a messianic name, who's the king
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of Jerusalem. So what's that sound like? He's
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a false king of Jerusalem, in the sense that
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he's not the one that sent there from God. So
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this is a picture of the Antichrist. He's got
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five kings with him, right? Let me go through,
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and these are the kings of the Amorites. And
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so let me go through and talk to you about the
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king of the Amorites. On the other side of the
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Jordan River, Before they came into the land
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of Israel, they took out two of the kings of
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the Amorites. It was Sion and Og. Og specifically
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being one of the guys that was a giant and all
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that stuff. That's out of the... Book of Deuteronomy
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and some other passages. So Sion and Og were
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two of the kings of the Amorites. And then when
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they come across the Jordan River, they take
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out Jericho. It's another king of the Amorites.
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Then they take out Ai. That's another king of
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the Amorites. And then they have this whole thing
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with Gibeon. Gibeon is another Amorite kingdom.
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So you've got five of those that Joshua's already
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dealt with, and now he's dealing with five more
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in the southern lowlands of Israel. or of Canaan
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at this point, because it's not Israel yet. So
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that's a total of how many? Ten? You know how
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many kingdoms of the Antichrist fight against
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Jesus? Ten. So that's interesting. Those all
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go together. Well, one other thing that we'll
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get into when we get to the end of the chapter,
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because we're not getting there tonight, but
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when we get to the end of the chapter, these
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kings, after the battle with Joshua, end up hiding
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in caves. And if you know the book of Revelation,
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that's interesting too, because that's exactly
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where the kings end up going at the second coming
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of Christ. In any case, Adonai Zedek and all
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his pals decide that they're going to come up
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against Gibeon. They don't want to come up against
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Joshua. They want to punish Gibeon for the fact
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that they were traitors to the Amorite alliances.
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And so when you get down to verse six, it says
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the men of Gibeon sent to Joshua at the camp
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at Gilgal saying, do not forsake your servants,
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come up to us quickly, save us and help us for
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all the kings of the Amorites who dwell in the
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mountains have gathered together against us.
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So Joshua. ascended from Gilgal he and all the
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people of war with him and all the mighty men
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of valor and the Lord said to Joshua do not fear
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them for I've delivered them into your hand not
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a man of them shall stand before you and so when
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they get called upon by the gibby knights Joshua
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takes off and he comes up to give aid to these
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guys and basically you got a situation where
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these guys are obligated or excuse me obligated
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to the people of Gibeon because of the covenant
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that they've made. They're unequally yoked and
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now they've got to keep their promises. They've
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got to keep their vows. And now they're not fighting
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against the Amorites in the sense of the Gibeonites.
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They're fighting for them against the rest of
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the Canaanites. And God takes this whole thing
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and he fixes it up. But this would not be an
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issue if they hadn't made this covenant in the
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first place. And they probably wouldn't have
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been facing five kings all at the same time.
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They would have probably been picking them off
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one at a time. And what I'm telling you is that
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things probably would have been a whole lot easier
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for Israel if Joshua had been praying in the
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first place. And obviously, that's a good exhortation
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for each one of us. Most of the things that we
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got going on in our lives would have gone a whole
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lot easier if we'd been praying in the first
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place, right? And just going to the Lord and
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asking him for some direction. So something obviously
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that we need to do God speaks to Joshua tells
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him that he's gonna whoop up on these guys and
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that they don't have to worry about anything
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which again is great because now you have Joshua
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in a situation where he's actually seeking God
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obviously and God's answering him and so in verses
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9 through 13 you have the Text talking about
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Joshua's victory over these guys. So Joshua therefore
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came upon them suddenly having marched all night
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from Gilgal. So the Lord routed them before Israel,
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killed them with a great slaughter at Gibeon,
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chased them along the road that goes to Beth
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-Huron, and struck them down as far as Azekah
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and Makkah. And I don't know if you have Bible
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or maps in the back of your Bible that picture
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Azekah, but basically you've got on the coast
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is Ashdod. about the middle of Israel is Jerusalem
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with the Dead Sea on this side, and in between
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Ashdod and Jerusalem is Azekah. And so basically
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they go to battle with the Magibian, they chase
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them out of the mountains, they chase them down
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through the valleys, and into the valley of what's
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called Sharon, or the Valley of Sharon, if you
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read your Old Testament and you're familiar with
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that. The Jews call it Sharon. In any case, Joshua
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wince this whole thing verse 11 it says and it
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happened remember this battle started in the
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morning early in the morning Joshua had come
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up with his army overnight and it happened as
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they fled before Israel and were on the descent
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of Bethharon that the Lord cast down large hailstones
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from heaven on them as far as Azekah and they
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died there were more who died from the hailstones
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Then the children of Israel killed with a sword.
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Then Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when
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the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the
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children of Israel. And he said in the sight
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of Israel, Son, stand still over Gibeon, moon
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in the valley of Aijalon. So the sun stood still
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and the moon stopped till the people had revenge
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upon their enemies. Is this not written in the
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book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the
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midst of heaven. and did not hasten to go down
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for about a whole day. And there's been no day
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like that before it or after it that the Lord
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heeded the voice of the man, for the Lord fought
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for Israel. Then Joshua returned and all Israel
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with him to the camp at Gilgal. But these five
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kings had fled and hidden themselves in a cave
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at Macadam. And we'll get into the text later
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on. I don't know if we'll get into it tonight.
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This is one of those passages in the Bible that
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people have huge problems with. And obviously
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the whole idea of the sun standing still in the
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sky is something that's problematic for anybody
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who knows anything about science and orbital
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mechanics and that kind of stuff. And so this
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is one of those areas where people come to the
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Bible and they go, the Bible's full of mythology
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and just stories and that kind of thing and they
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use it to beat up on Christians. Christians who
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know the Lord understand that God is God and
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he can do anything that he wants. If you can
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get past Genesis chapter one in the beginning,
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God created the heavens and the earth. Once you
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get past that one, the rest of the stories in
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the Bible don't matter. If you've got somebody
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speaking everything in the universe into existence,
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we don't even know the extent of the universe
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yet. You have somebody speaking everything in
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the universe into existence. You're not gonna
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have a problem with the rotation of the earth
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and the sun standing still and all that kind
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of stuff. God can do anything he's thinking pleases,
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right? And so most times Christians will look
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at this and they'll go, okay, God can do that
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and I don't care what you say about that. And
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so we just get an obstinate, you know, type of
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attitude. This is the attitude that my wife gets
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towards every single one of these things. She
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doesn't need a bunch of explanations. She just,
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God can do what he wants. So why do we have to
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talk about all this stuff, right? And the reason
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we have to talk about it is because we're obligated
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to give reasonable answers to everyone who asks
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a question about the hope that's within us. There's
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a passage in 1 Peter chapter 3, most of you guys
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know that's what I'm quoting from, and it says
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this. Study, or excuse me, where are we at? Verse
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15. Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and
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always be ready to give a defense. That word
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defense there is, it's the word apologia in Greek,
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and it means a reasoned answer, basically. Something
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that comes from the word, basically. A reasoned
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answer. Always be ready to give a defense to
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everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that's
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in you with meekness and fear. Again, having
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a good conscience that when they defame you as
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evildoers, those who revile your good conduct
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in Christ may be ashamed. And so we need to be
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able to give reasonable answers to people who
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ask us questions. And we're not going to know
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all the mechanisms that God uses for everything,
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but one of the things that you see throughout
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the Old Testament is that God uses naturalistic
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situations to perform his will. And let me just
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give you a New Testament example. Jesus is going
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to raise Lazarus from the dead. Do you know what
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happens before he raises Lazarus from the dead?
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Lazarus dies, yeah. And then what happens to
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him? What happens to Lazarus after he dies? Put
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a minute to him, they roll a stone in front of
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him. And so before Jesus is going to raise Lazarus
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from the dead, what does he ask the people to
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do? Roll the stone away. Did he have to do that?
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No, he's a guy who spoke the universe into existence.
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He could have just done this. He didn't even
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have to do that. He could have made the stone
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just disappear. He could have done whatever he
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wants. But what he did was he used the... people
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who were there to accomplish his purposes. And
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then he spoke to Lazarus and said, Lazarus, come
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forth. And the classic statement of that is there's
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a reason he spoke one name because if he hadn't
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spoken one name, Lazarus, come forth, everybody
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would have come forth and there would have been
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a general resurrection. And so Jesus uses naturalistic
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things to get things accomplished. And again,
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that throughout scripture. So with the flood,
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God uses water. Where'd he get the water from?
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The waters come from the ocean. We know where
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the water is now. It didn't necessarily come
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from the oceans, but the water's in the oceans.
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And the Bible teaches that the water used to
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be under the land, and that there used to be
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a spring -like system that watered the face of
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the planet, and the fountains of the great deep
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broke up, and God uses water to flood the planet.
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And so he's using stuff. And when he's doing
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that stuff, there are things that are happening,
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and this is, I'm gonna go off on all kinds of
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things now. But the Earth is cracked. You realize
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that the Earth is the only planet, the only rocky
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planet that's cracked. Do you know this? There's
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no plate tectonics on Venus. There's no plate
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tectonics on Mercury. And there's no plate tectonics
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on Mars. It's only on the Earth. The Earth is
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the only rocky planet that's cracked. And the
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other planets, Jupiter and Neptune and... Uranus
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and those planets they're gas planets and so
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they don't have that stuff going on And so where
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why is the earth cracked and nothing else is
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cracked what's going on here? and so you guys
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have heard of plate tectonics and the the oceanic
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plate goes underneath the Continental plate and
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again, this is something that is unique to the
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earth. So something cracked the earth So what
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did that and it could have been God just going
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and cracking it but it looks like that's how
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the whole cataclysm of the flood took place.
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There are other things that can crack a planet,
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and that's interesting stuff. And again, I don't
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know how God started the flood. I don't know
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how that whole thing took place. I've got some
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different ideas about that, but I don't know
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for sure. All we have is what you find in scripture.
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And again, we're not gonna know all the mechanisms
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for this stuff, but a lot of times people are
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looking at the Bible and they're saying mythology
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when that's just nonsense. What we got is a God
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who's involved in this stuff. When God wants
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to punish Israel, what God does is he uses the
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hammer of the Babylonians. He flat out calls
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them that. You're my hammer, and I'm going to
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use it on the people of Israel. And so again,
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you got these things where God is using naturalistic
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things to get something done and that may be
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the case with this. I could go on about other
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stuff. A lot of times people like to make fun
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of the virgin birth and stuff as if Joseph didn't
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know where babies came from or Mary didn't know
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where babies came from or the people who were
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first Christians didn't know where babies came
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from. That's not the case. Mary had a stigma
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on her life for the rest of her life because
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she wasn't married. when she was pregnant with
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Jesus. And you see that stigma coming out, for
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example, in John chapter eight, when the Pharisees,
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when the Jews say, we weren't born of fornication
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in the passage. And they're talking about Jesus'
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mother. And up until that point, the conversation
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was pretty civil. And then at that point, Jesus
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starts calling them sons of the devil. And he
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just really gets on him. That's because they're
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talking about his mom. and lying about her, right?
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Slandering her. And so again, you have that kind
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of stuff. One of the things that you have with
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this passage is Joshua comes up with a prayer.
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The sun stands still over Gibeon Moon in the
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valley of Eijalon. He's been prayerless a couple
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of different times up until this point. And all
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of a sudden, he gets prayerful. And what God
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does is he answers and the reason that God answers
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is because Joshua is praying and he's praying
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according to the will of God. It was God's will
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that these armies be taken out. And so God answers
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the prayer and he answers it in a pretty magnificent
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way with the son standing still up in the heavens.
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One of the things that obviously we can learn
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from that is that God obviously answers prayer.
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Jesus in Matthew chapter 7 said, ask and it will
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be given to you, seek and you will find, knock
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and the door will be opened to you. And if you've
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been here for any amount of time, you know that's
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a command. It's in what's called the imperative.
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And it's in a tense that means you're to do it
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and keep doing it. It literally says ask and
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keep asking. And it will be given to you. Seek
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and keep seeking. And you'll find knock and keep
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knocking. And the door will be open to you. And
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so it's a command from God that we come to him
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and we ask for whatever. And Jesus makes that
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statement. later on in the Gospels too. Whatever
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you can come and ask God for. Now God has the
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option of saying no, but he's also got the option
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of saying yes. And when we pray according to
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his will, we know that we have the things that
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we ask for. And apparently Joshua was praying
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according to God's will. And so you've got that.
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Okay, so we need to have an answer for this.
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And so how did the son stand still? And one of
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the first things that you get when you talk to
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people about this stuff, anybody who knows anything
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about the Copernican theory or the Copernican
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position on the solar system. It used to be that
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the church and actually all of science held to
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what was called the Ptolemaic theory of the solar
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system. That was the idea that the sun and the
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moon and all the planets circled the earth and
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the earth was the center of the universe or of
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the solar system at the very least. And there's
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problems with that when you look at the sky because
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the planets don't circle right. If the planets
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were just circling the earth, what they would
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do is you would see them going across, actually
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going this way, going across the sky like this,
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and that's all they would do. they would circle
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the earth. The moon actually is going, let's
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see, the moon is actually going this direction.
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You have some of the same thing with the planets.
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But what the planets do when you look up at them
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is they go in a certain motion across the skies,
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across the background of the stars, but then
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sometimes they stop, they reverse themselves
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and they do little loops in the sky. It's called
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retrograde motion. It was a huge problem for
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the Ptolemaic system and so they came up with
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what were called epicycles. And every time that
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they thought that they had it all figured out,
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there would be another problem in the observations
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and they'd add more epicycles. They'd keep piling
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on this theory to try to hold on to it for as
22:57
long as possible until a guy named Copernicus
23:00
came along and he said, hey, maybe the planets
23:03
aren't circling the earth. Maybe the earth and
23:06
all the planets are in motion around another
23:08
body. Maybe we're going around the sun. Okay.
23:12
And so that actually explains. all the motions
23:15
of the planets and it's actually a much simpler
23:19
answer to how the planets move, right? So you
23:22
have this whole thing between the Ptolemaic system
23:24
and the Copernican system. The Ptolemaic system
23:26
is not biblical. It was Greek, okay? And so when
23:32
people talk about the battles between Galileo
23:35
and the church, you're not fighting between Galileo
23:38
and the Bible. In fact, Galileo used the Bible
23:41
to talk to the Pope about the Copernican system.
23:46
And so he wasn't fighting the Bible, he was fighting
23:50
Greek philosophy that Christians had taken up
23:54
and decided was the truth. Okay, so you have
23:57
that. You've been listening to Crosswalk with
24:06
Pastor Steve Winnery. Crosswalk is the radio
24:08
ministry of Cowrie Chapel Tri -Cities in Kennewet,
24:11
Washington. If you're wanting to know more about
24:13
what it means to follow Christ, then please contact
24:15
our church office by phone at 509 -736 -2086.
24:21
You can also look us up online at calvary -tricities
24:24
.org. Calvary Chapel Tri -Cities is offering
24:27
two in -person training courses for those seeking
24:30
to serve in missions or ministry. The School
24:33
of Missions starts with 12 weeks of classroom
24:35
-style learning and local outreach in the Tri
24:37
-Cities, Washington, followed by a 10 -week cross
24:40
-cultural mission outreach. The School of Ministry,
24:42
this course is 18 weeks of in -person learning
24:45
environment followed by a four -week mission
24:48
trip. Find out more at calvarytrainingcenternw
24:51
.com.