Five Amorite kings joined forces to fight against Joshua and the children of Israel (Joshua 10:5). The Israelite army marched through the night from Gilgal to Gibeon, catching the Amorites by surprise and throwing them into a panic so that they fled (10:8-10).

As the Amorites fled down the Valley of Beth-Horon, they encountered a violent hailstorm; “there were more who died because of the hailstones than the Israelites killed with the sword” (10:11). The weather has been a factor in many a battle throughout history: but in this case, the text insists that this was divine intervention. “the Lord threw down huge stones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died” (10:11).

And indeed, the text indicates that it was not simply the Israelite surprise attack that confused and routed the Amorites; “the Lord threw them into panic before Israel” (10:10). In the midst of the chaos of battle, the chief actor was God: it was the Lord who defeated the Amorite army, it was the Lord who caused the panic, it was the Lord who killed the majority of the casualties with hailstones from heaven.

We are used to supposing that vivid situations like this were really just the coincidence of a battle and a hailstorm, for God really doesn’t take such a major role in events. Yet if we think that way, it’s just a short step further to the place where we conclude that God really does not take action at all. How much, I wonder, does that conclusion prevent us from having eyes to see what God is doing? If we have prejudged that God does not intervene in human events, we will automatically explain away these events as an effective surprise attack and an unexpected hailstorm. If we do that often enough, we will eventually train ourselves to a kind of blindness, where we will never be able to see the hand of God acting in our midst.

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Open our eyes, Lord, to see what you are doing in this world: and open our hearts and minds to recognize that ever so many events take place specifically because you have decided to make them happen. As you reign in this world, O God, so reign in our hearts, forever.