We skip over the sun-stopping thingy in Joshua. It's been done to death. Instead, we skip to the end of the book for some oddly interesting things.
Jos 23:14-16 - And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one thing has failed of all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you; all have come to pass for you, not one of them has failed. But just as all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the LORD will bring upon you all the bad things, until he has destroyed you from this good land that the LORD your God has given you. If you transgress the covenant of the LORD your God, which he enjoined on you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from the good land that he has given to you.
Jos 24:27 - Joshua said to all the people, "See, this stone shall be a witness against us; for it has heard all the words of the LORD that he spoke to us; therefore it shall be a witness against you, if you deal falsely with your God."
This is part of Joshua's "farewell" before he died.
Let's check this out. God promised what? That if his commands weren't obeyed, he'd abandon Israel. They enslaved one group of people they were supposed to be exterminating (Jos 9:22-27), and he didn't abandon them. Also, here Joshua tells Israel once again that God will make Israel perish quickly if they stray.
We all know that they later strayed, and they weren't destroyed. Is this god consistent, or what?
But what about this last bit? It looks rather Pagan, to me. Actually, it seems more like animism, the idea that all things in nature are alive and have spirits in them. It certainly seems to be quite far removed from the "monotheism" that the Middle Eastern religions claim to have been.
