Joshua 10 The sun stopped in the middle of the sky

seekeroftruth

Well-Known Member
Joshua 10:6 The Gibeonites then sent word to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal: “Do not abandon your servants. Come up to us quickly and save us! Help us, because all the Amorite kings from the hill country have joined forces against us.”

7 So Joshua marched up from Gilgal with his entire army, including all the best fighting men. 8 The Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you.”

9 After an all-night march from Gilgal, Joshua took them by surprise. 10 The Lord threw them into confusion before Israel, so Joshua and the Israelites defeated them completely at Gibeon. Israel pursued them along the road going up to Beth Horon and cut them down all the way to Azekah and Makkedah. 11 As they fled before Israel on the road down from Beth Horon to Azekah, the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them, and more of them died from the hail than were killed by the swords of the Israelites.

12 On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel:

“Sun, stand still over Gibeon,
and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”
13 So the sun stood still,
and the moon stopped,
till the nation avenged itself
on(b) its enemies,
as it is written in the Book of Jashar.

The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. 14 There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!

15 Then Joshua returned with all Israel to the camp at Gilgal.​

b. Joshua 10:13 Or nation triumphed over

Wait... did you see that? The sun stood still! A killer hail storm killed more people than the battle!

I found this at Bible.org.

Our text tells us Joshua and his men marched all night, about 25 miles and all uphill (some 4,000 feet) over steep and difficult terrain. This meant, with no opportunity to rest, his fighting men would be tired. They would certainly need the sovereign strength of the Lord. By marching under cover of darkness, Joshua was able to take the enemy by surprise and this created disorder in the enemies camp. Further, God sent hailstones to kill even more than Joshua and his army were able to put to death.​

I confess that I have not great convictions as to what happened, and as I read the various articles and books available, I sense that no one else has very strong convictions on this point, either. I do not believe the words are poetry, in spite of their having been in the book of Jashar, a largely poetical book. I doubt if the earth actually stopped its rotation, even more that the sun and moon actually stopped in their passage through space. I tend to think that other phenomenal were used by God to prolong daylight, but I do not know, and all I can say is that I am content to wait until God himself reveals precisely what happened. What is certain is that God did something to give the Jewish armies a complete and decisive victory.​

I don't know whether God made the earth stop in it's trip around the sun or the moon stop in it's trip around the earth. I don't believe if it was mass hypnosis as one of my old preachers suggested for non-believers. It would be much easier to believe that the God who created the heavens and earth could press a pause button somewhere and put everything on hold for a few hours. God controls time. God controls the universe. The earth's rotation and track around the sun, the length of the day is all within God's control, IMHO.

I remember my math teacher saying "if it's not broken, don't try to fix it" when solving for pi. Why is it? Everyone is willing to accept that there's no solution for Pi ever, no matter how long you work on it.... but they don't believe that God created everything and He can change the length of the day that He created and He can create a hail storm to help His chosen people take ownership of the land He promised to their families.

I believe God made the sun stop in the middle of the sky. It makes sense to me.

:coffee:
 
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