08/22/2008
Joshua 10:12 - 14 (HCSB) 12On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to the Israelites, Joshua spoke to the LORD in the presence of Israel:
“Sun, stand still over Gibeon,
and moon, over the valley of Aijalon.”
13 And the sun stood still
and the moon stopped,
until the nation took vengeance on its enemies.
Isn’t this written in the Book of Jashar?
So the sun stopped
in the middle of the sky
and delayed its setting
almost a full day.
14There has been no day like it before or since, when the LORD listened to the voice of a man, because the LORD fought for Israel.
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During one of the battles Israel fought, Joshua asked that the daylight remain until the battle had been completed. This was important because battles would usually cease after dark (out of necessity), allowing retreating armies to find refuge or regroup. In order for an advancing army to maintain its momentum, daylight was imperative.
Now today--actually since the time of Copernicus--we would naturally say that this is an impossible feat; because we know the earth rotates on an axis and also orbits the sun. We also know the sun is orbiting the center of our galaxy (the Milky Way). So, our natural inclination is to simply pass this account off as myth or fable.
There is a commercial that aired recently – I honestly can’t tell you what it was advertising – in which the earth stopped spinning for just a brief moment. There were several brief scenes of the resulting calamity: people falling over, water sloshing about violently, trees shaking and so forth. This is the very least of what we would expect if the earth actually stopped spinning. Geologists would tell you that there would be massive shifts in the tectonic plates causing all sorts of geologic upheaval. Oceans and lakes would shift engulfing thousands of miles of land.
It would be easy to gloss over this story as simply anecdotal—simple, that is, if you forget the awesome power of our God. What I mean is this, Our God created time, space, gravity, all the laws of physics. And if he could create them, surely he can manipulate them at his will.
I refer you again to the necessity of daylight in ancient battles. God had promised this land to Israel. In this particular battle, five kings have attacked and Israel is responding. Early in the battle, Israel gains the advantage, but if retreating armies are allowed to escape under darkness, the battles will not be won.
At Joshua’s request, God, with a mere whisper, warped the laws of motion and physics so that the son stood still for the duration of an extra day. There was no geologic cataclysm, not oceanic upheaval—only the son stood in its place.
So many people want God to be limited by time, space, and physics. It is impossible for us to conceive anything that transcends these and therefore, we tend to limit God to the creation-rather than limit the creation to God. We must remember that our God is the creator of all things, just as a child builds a tower with tinker toys, the creation cannot comprehend the creator, but He has the authority and power to adjust any part of it as He sees fit.
Jeff Justus
Cleff Publishing
www.cleffpublishing.com
©2008 Cleff Publishing, all rights reserved.
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