The U.S. Civil War was the most devastating in American history. From 1861 to 1865 – the War dragged on for four long years. Part of the reason it lasted so long was that Union Generals would delay and postpone and stall, saying that they were so outnumbered they needed more time to prepare.
Someone once asked Lincoln how large the Confederate army was and he replied: “They must have over a million soldiers.” The questioner was shocked. That seemed way too high an estimate of the enemy soldiers. So the questioner asked how Lincoln had arrived at that number. "Well," he replied, "we have about ½ million soldiers. And every time I ask my Generals to fight they tell me they’re outnumbered 2 to 1. So the Confederates must have at least a 1 million soldiers.”
Too often, his generals just wouldn’t fight - that is until General Ulysses S. Grant took command. Grant would fight! In April of 1865 Lincoln sent Grant a telegraph that read: “General Sheridan says, ‘If the thing is pressed, I think that Lee will surrender.’ Let the thing be pressed.” Grant pressed the thing… and 2 days later – at Appomattox - Robert E. Lee surrendered. (Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln, the War Years).
In our story today, we read about the battle of the 5 kings. Up until now, Joshua has fought his enemies one on one – first Jericho and then Ai. Observing this, the Canaanite city of Gibeon saw the hand-writing on the wall and realized they needed to do something drastic or they would be destroyed as well. So they tricked Joshua into making a treaty with them.
When the king of Jerusalem heard of Gibeon's surrender, he was so furious that he formed an alliance with 4 other kings and set out to punish Gibeon… and then to turn and attack Joshua.
Apparently, this had intimidated Joshua because: “… the LORD said to Joshua, "Do NOT fear them, for I have given them into your hands. Not a man of them shall stand before you.” Joshua 10:8
Why shouldn’t Joshua have been afraid? Because God would be there to fight FOR Israel. First “the LORD threw them into a panic before Israel...” (Joshua 10:10). Then “the LORD threw down large stones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died. There were more who died because of the hailstones than the sons of Israel killed with the sword. (Joshua 10:11)
And lastly, in response to Joshua’s prayer “…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. There has been no day like it before or since, when the LORD heeded the voice of a man, for the LORD fought for Israel.” Joshua 10:13-14
With God’s help… Joshua pressed the thing… and 5 kings were destroyed.
Now, as you might imagine, skeptics have serious problems with this. They can imagine the 5 kings panicking… that happens all the time in war. And they might even grant that hailstones could have fallen at the just right time… and that these hailstone could kill men on the battlefield. (There have been documented cases of huge hailstones destroying homes, cars, and even killing people. https://www.neverthirsty.org/bible-qa/qa-archives/question/how-did-the-sun-stand-still-in-joshua-10-12-14/)
But when you get to the issue of the Sun standing still in the sky for 24 hours… well, now you begin to push people’s buttons. Why? The surface of the earth - at the equator - moves at a speed of roughly 1,000 mph. And the Earth orbits the Sun at an average speed of 67,000 mph. For the sun to stand still in the sky… the earth would have to stop revolving, or at least slow down dramatically. Gravity would be suspended, and (in theory) the world would collapse. Just to get a small idea of how that would work, imagine going down the road at 80 mph with your car loaded with all kind of boxes and loose materials. Suddenly you have to stop to avoid a deer in the road. If you can visualize the chaos of items flying all over inside your car as it stops at that speed… well, you can have a vague idea of what would happen if the earth stopped and stood still in the heavens.
ILLUS: The scorn that many skeptics feel for this Bible miracle was reflected in a 1960 movie “Inherit the Wind” where the script had a lawyer mocking a man on the stand who had said he believed that the sun stood still for Joshua. The lawyer dramatically destroyed this witness with these words: “Now, if what you say actually happened – if Joshua stopped the sun in the sky – the earth stopped spinning on its axis, continents toppled over one another, mountains flew into space, and the earth, shriveled to a cinder, crashed into the sun. Now, how come they missed that little tidbit of news?”
What was that lawyer saying? He was saying that science doesn’t allow for things like that to happen!!! This is a bizarre miracle defies all the known laws of physics.
Well now… that's pretty intimidating. How can we, as Christians, respond to such a powerful scientific observation as that is? Well I’m going to give you a deep theological statement. I've worked on statement all week long, and you might want to write it down (because its so impressive). This deep theological statement will fully answer the objections of the skeptics with one powerful blow. Are you ready? Here it is:
We believe that our God can walk and chew gum at the same time.
We believe that the God Who created the world in 6 days, Who designed everything that exists, and Who holds everything in the palm of His hand, can do anything He wants anytime He wants without asking our permission. Hebrews 1:3 tells us Jesus “upholds the universe by the word of his power.”
The problem here is that skeptics can’t imagine a God who could defy the laws of physics. But in fact, every miracle in Scripture defies the Laws of Physics: the Creation; Noah’s Flood; the parting of the Red Sea; the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace; the feeding of the 5000; raising people from the dead; and (ultimately) the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. THEY ALL DEFY the Laws of Physics. That’s why they’re called miracles.
You see, the laws of physics aren’t really Laws. It’s not like some legislative body had gathered and passed laws that governed the universe that we need to obey… or we get fined or pay a ticket. The laws of physics are essentially observations of what normally happens in nature. You can count on these things happening time after time after time. But such laws aren’t always ironclad.
ILLUS: For example, (holding up a tennis ball, handing it to a member of the audience and asking them to throw it gently into the air) What happened? He threw the ball into the air, and it came back down. What goes up must come down. It happens every time we do that. In physics, it’s called the Law of Gravity. But does the law of gravity always apply? Well… consider this scenario: if I go to the International Space Station, put on a space suit and take a walk outside with some kind of ball in my hand… what would happen if I threw that ball “up”? It wouldn’t come back “down” would it? Why not? I’ve just “defied” the Law of Gravity. How could I do that? Well, something changed. What is that something that changed? Space. In space, there is little if any gravity to exert a pull on that ball to bring it back “down.” Something changed.
Now, when it comes to Biblical miracles, the laws of physics have been violated because something “changed.” And what had changed was this: God showed up. God created the laws of physics… and so He can CHANGE them as He desires.
Now that said, is there any PROOF of the Biblical statement that Sun stood still? Well, do you remember that snide comment by the lawyer in “Inherit the Wind” where he said “How come they missed that little tidbit of news?” Well, I’m wondering how the writer of that bizarre movie script happened to miss the following tidbits of news from history.
• The Greek historian Herodotus (more than 400 years before Christ) wrote that when he visited Egypt, the priests there showed him an ancient manuscript which told the story of a day which lasted about twice as long as a normal day.
• French intellectual, Fernand Crombette translated many of the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics and found that among those hieroglyphics is the story of Joshua’s long day.
• There was a Chinese account from an ancient manuscript (now lost) that recounted a period of time during the reign of Emperor Yau (coincides with the days of Joshua), when the sun stood still.
• And, on the other side of the world, the Aztecs tell and other ancient Indian cultures (in Southern, Middle and Northern America) that all tell of a time when there was a “Long Night” where the sun refused to rise in the sky. (http://www.geocentricity.com/astronomy_of_bible/jld/)
So yeah, there’s proof that the sun once stood still in the sky in answer to Joshua’s prayer. In fact, that’s exactly what God declared: “There has been no day like it before or since, when the LORD heeded the voice of a man, for the LORD fought for Israel.” Joshua 10:14
Joshua prayed to God said… “I want to PRESS THE THING.” I want to finish this fight now… not later. I don’t want these men to run away to fight another day. I want the Sun to stand still until this is finished… now!
Now, why would God include this story in Scripture? What can we learn from what happened that day? Well, it can be summed up in that one scripture: “There has been no day like it before or since, when the LORD heeded the voice of a man, for the LORD fought for Israel.” Joshua 10:14
God heeded the voice of a man, and God fought for His people.
Now, we live in a harsh world. People are gonna hurt us, insult us, persecute us, rob us. You name it, if folks can think of something evil to do… they’ do it. Evil exists and we won’t entirely escape it. And Jesus was very honest about this: "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33
This story of Sun standing still is important to us because we need to realize that God stepped up and did a mighty thing all because Joshua asked Him to. So, what’s God trying to tell us? He’s telling us He’s powerful enough to do anything that needs to be done.
In Romans 8:31-39 we read this “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
I read a man’s sermon on the internet, and it’s good stuff. He said “God will stop nature for you, and He will help you to cause your enemies to become your footstool! How do I know? Because …on a hill called Calvary there stood an old rugged cross the emblem of suffering and shame. It was on a Friday when they crucified My Savior. They had beaten Him, and insulted Him, and mistreated Him, and then they nailed him to a Cross.
Around the ninth hour Jesus cried with a Loud voice saying – “Eloi, Eloi, Lama-Sabach-Thani,” which means “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Then he cried with a loud voice and gave up the Ghost. He hung his head and there he Died.
And Bible says from the 6th until the 9th hour there was darkness in the land. From Noon until 3:00 pm…. the Sun Refused to Shine.
In Joshua’s day God made the to Stand Still, and it gave His people victory. And on that dreadful Friday when Jesus died on the cross, the Sun was in its place… but it refused to Shine. It was on THAT DAY - God gave YOU the victory! What a Mighty God We Serve!” (adapted from a sermon by Wayne Lawson-sermoncentral.com)
God can do anything, from parting the Red Sea to raising the dead from the grave… including causing the Sun to stand still in the sky. But the most powerful thing He has done is to raise Jesus from the dead to give us hope for an eternal life with Him. God can do anything… and He already has done so for you.
