The Prayer
“Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.” Joshua 10:12-13
What was Joshua Praying for?
Joshua was pursuing a coalition of enemy kings who had attacked their Gibeonite allies which were under their protection. Because he didn’t want the enemy to get away and have to fight them again, Joshua prayed so that he could continue pursuing his enemies.
Background information about Joshua
Joshua left Egypt with Moses and the rest of the Israelites. Slowly, over the years, Joshua rose to become Moses’ minister. Joshua and Caleb were the only two out of twelve men who had spied out the Promised Land. They believed that God could deliver the land to them, but the others didn’t believe. Because only two out of the twelve spies believed that the Lord could deliver the Promised Land to Israelites, they all had to wait forty years to enter the land of Promise and begin the conquest of the land that would one day be theirs. By the time this battle had come, Joshua was a hardened man of war and intent on finishing the conquest he had begun years earlier. Joshua had waited forty years to enter the Promised Land. He had fought numerous battles against walled cities like Jericho. He had battled giants like Og of Sihon, and constantly being outnumbered and outmatched, yet God still gave them victory. By this time in his life, Joshua was too eager to conquer the land to let the enemy slip away. Its one thing to declare war against an enemy and attack but when one is attacked by and enemy, there is a righteous anger and spirit of revenge that comes over a person when they strike back. This is what happened when Joshua prayed this prayer.
Key Elements of Joshua’s Prayer
1. Joshua understood what God’s desires for his people were at that time. It was at this particular time that God promised the Israelites they would inherit the land of Canaan and that he would drive out the people who currently lived there. The promise had been made to Abraham almost five hundred years earlier (See Genesis 15:13-21) and to Moses more than forty years earlier. (Exodus 3:8) It was again confirmed to Joshua,--as seen in Joshua 1:1-7. Now the time was at hand and God instructed Joshua to conquer the land and not to leave anyone alive. This was a harsh thing to do and other Jewish leaders like Saul could not bring themselves to do it and would be punished for it, (1 Samuel 15) but Joshua had set in his heart to do everything that the Lord had told him to do. He also did not want to have to fight the same enemy again later. This is why he asked for God’s help to finish what he had started. By praying this prayer, Joshua was practically guaranteed success, even though it seemed near impossible because it was directly in line with what God needed to be done.
2. Joshua believed God could answer his prayer, even though it seemed impossible. We should understand that even though something may seem impossible for God to perform and beyond the realms of natural science, if it is in line with God’s promise and we need it done to complete God’s will it indeed becomes possible for God to do. As humans, we sometimes limit God’s abilities in that we think that he can’t perform or is in the realm of our limited understanding of nature and science. What we have to understand is that God created the science that we understand and can supersede anytime he pleases. God caused the earth to rotate on its axis and he can cause it to stop at any time with no ill effects. It was God who mandated the earth to revolve around the sun and the moon around the earth, so he can cause any of these things to cease at his divine pleasure. The scriptures consistently tell us that nothing is impossible with God:
“But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible,” Matthew 19:26
“Jesus said unto him,’ If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.’” Mark 9:23
“For with God nothing shall be impossible.” Luke 1:37
We should never limit God because he does not limit himself. God loves to confound those who believe that there are things that he cannot do. Why? To show that he indeed is God.
“But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence."1 Corinthians 1:27-29
By the time God was finished answering Joshua’s prayers, the writer says that there had never been a day like it before, not until this day.. This means that it superseded all the prayers of Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and even Moses. Joshua dared to pray the greatest prayer ever and God met and answered him according to his faith. As the scriptures says:
“Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.” Matthew 9:29
If we dare to stretch our faith and pray great prayers, then God will dare to answer them. I can personally testify to God’s power in this way. When I was sick in the hospital and began bleeding and losing so much blood from ulcerative colitis, the alarms on the monitor sounded and the nurse came running into the room because she thought I was dying. She took my blood pressure and said that it was physically impossible for me to be alive because the pressure was so low that there was no natural way that my heart could be still pumping blood throughout my body. I looked at the nurse and smiled because I felt the warm anointing presence of God all over me and knew God had gone beyond science to keep me alive. I can tell you there is nothing impossible with God if you only believe.
Result of the Prayer
As a result of his prayer, the sun remained in the same place for the entire day and the Israelites were able to defeat the armies that had come out to fight against them. Joshua had also captured and killed the five kings who were the leaders of the enemy armies. Because of this great victory the children of Israel removed a major obstacle to achieving their goal of conquering the Promised Land and fulfilling their destiny. Joshua 10:14 gives us more information about the impressive results of Joshua's prayer:
“And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel.” Joshua 10:14
One of the reasons why this prayer was selected as one of the ten greatest prayers of the Bible is because it was said that there was never a day before or after when God listened to one man's prayer and fought for him. This shows the power that just one praying person can have. It also validates the power in James 5:16 statement: "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." Never underestimate the power that one righteous person has with God!
