Joshua, Chapter 10,
Verse 1-2
1 Now when Adonizedek,
king of Jerusalem, heard that Joshua had captured Ai and put it under the ban,
and had done to that city and its king as he had done to Jericho and its king, and that the inhabitants of Gibeon had made their peace
with Israel, remaining among them, 2
there was great fear abroad, because Gibeon was a great city, like one of the royal
cities, greater even than Ai, and all its men were warriors.
Gibeon was going to get a
beat down by the Canaanite Kings because it had aligned with Israel. Joshua
showed he was a man of virtue by coming to the aid of Gibeon even if the treaty
was by trickery. Often you can tell the character of a person by how they treat
their past enemies and how they respond to overwhelming odds. Israel the
smallest of nations came to the defense of Gibeon to fight an enemy five times
larger but the faith of Joshua and his army multiplied their numbers. Faith is
always a great multiplier in overcoming odds take the story of Glen Cunningham
who beat the odds to go on to compete at the Olympics.
Glenn Verniss Cunningham (August 4, 1909 – March
10, 1988) was an American distance runner and athlete considered by many the
greatest American miler of all time. Cunningham was nicknamed the "Kansas
Flyer", the "Elkhart Express" and the "Iron Horse of
Kansas".
Cunningham's legs were very badly burned in an explosion
caused when someone accidentally put gasoline instead of kerosene in the can at
his schoolhouse when he was eight and his brother Floyd was thirteen. Floyd
died in the fire. When the doctors
recommended amputating Glenn's legs, he was so distressed his parents would
not allow it. The doctors predicted he might never walk normally again. He had
lost all the flesh on his knees and shins and all the toes on his left foot.
Also, his transverse arch was practically destroyed. However, his great
determination, coupled with hours upon hours of a new type of therapy, enabled
him to gradually regain the ability to walk and to proceed to run. It was in
the early summer of 1919 when he first tried to walk again, roughly two years
after the accident. He had a positive attitude as well as a strong religious
faith. His favorite Bible verse was Isaiah 40:31: "But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall
mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall
walk and not faint."
He competed in both the 1932 Summer Olympics as well as
the 1936 Summer Olympics. While on the ship traveling from the U.S. to Germany,
he was voted "Most Popular Athlete" by his fellow Olympians.
In 1934, he set the world record for the mile run at
4:06.8, which stood for three years.[1]
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