Read
And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped,
until the nation took vengeance on their enemies.
Is this not written in the Book of Jashar? The sun stopped in the midst of heaven and did not hurry to set for about a whole day.
Joshua 10:13
Reflect
There are a lot of stories in the Bible that people say are impossible, and I get it. If you’re depending on absolutes and lack faith, I agree that some of the stories are fantastic. Noah’s Ark, Jonah in the big fish, the walls of Jericho, the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah. These and so many others boggle the mind — if you think that God is limited within the universe He created. But that’s where they and I differ. I believe it all, and I don’t have to know how it happened. I just know that somehow and in some way, God did what the writers of the Bible say He did.
For example, there’s the story about how Joshua led the children of Israel in a battle against the armies of five kingdoms. In the face of massive odds against success, Joshua told his people not to fear, and he prayed to the Lord for victory in the coming battle. There are many interpretations of Joshua’s request of the Lord, but most of them end up with the sun standing still in the sky for an entire day. A lot is lost in the limited understanding of people in the time that the Bible was written. For example, at some point people started calling meteors “shooting stars” because that’s what they probably thought they were. Only later did we come to understand that those were meteors skimming along the Earth’s atmosphere.
In Joshua’s time, the sun and moon standing still in the sky might have been, as some scientists now believe, the first eclipse on record, pinpointed to October 30, 1207 B.C. Around the same time, the Bible records a massive hailstorm that rained down massive stones that killed a lot of the enemy soldiers. Regardless of what happened and how it happened, we do know that Joshua and his army were victorious, and that the Lord honored Joshua’s prayers in helping His people achieve victory that day.
What comforts me about this is that hailstorms, eclipses and seemingly stopping time for a day are all incredibly complex. A God who can do that can do anything, so my problems seem small by comparison. If I can trust that God did amazing things to save Joshua and the children of Israel, then I can trust Him to do what’s needed in the pressing issues of my life. I just need to have faith in Him, and I need to commit myself to stay within His will. He’ll do the rest.
Today, you might have major issues facing you that seem impossible to overcome. Our logic and reason will tell us that our problems are too big, or that God doesn’t care or isn’t able to handle them. But the God who “held the sun in the sky” can hold you in the palm of His hand. Set your worries aside, and allow Him to handle your problems and concerns in His perfect way.
Reflection copyright © 2022 Doug DeBolt.
Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
