3 Responses to “Reflecting the Book”

1. gulmir on April 6th, 2007 10:21 pm

   so nice job what u peopol r doing god blease on u keep it up for the benefit of mankind and mak sure to partespat of ur inventiones for benifit of mankind .
   thanx.
   GUL. karachi pakistan

2. Alex on April 25th, 2007 4:02 am

   Thank You

3. John on June 30th, 2007 1:34 pm

   The Israelite troops come upon the Canaanites laying siege to Gibeon. They were probably startled to see the Israelites arriving in the morning, without warning. Usually, in those days, battles ceased and army’s camped when the sun went down. So they would not have considered that Israel might advance on them at night. But Joshua was propelled by a promise he knew to be solid gold, because it came from God Himself. And this is such a thing: an all night march up hill, covering about 30 miles in a night, and then, when his troops have to be exhausted and wanting rest, then – then! – he joins the battle. All because of the promise of God.

   Startled, the Canaanites panic. The Israelite soldiers tear into them with a vengeance. They pursue them down one road, called the ascent of Beth-horon. While they’re doing that, many of the other Canaanite troops flee down another road, called “the descent of Beth-horon.” Rather than let them get away, God intervenes. This is the decisive battle. Completely unplanned by Israel. Israel probably thought they could pick off the Canaanite cities one by one but here they are, facing a coalition of all the armies of the south of Canaan. Too many for them to handle. But this was not unplanned by God. And now the Lord joins in the battle, openly. God rains down huge hailstones, large enough to kill a man. The Israelites were chasing down part of the Canaanites going one way while the artillery of heaven was taking care of those fleeing the other way. God turned that road into a highway of death. That was, after all, what He had promised, that not a man of them would be left standing. To keep His promise, God had to intervene.

   This was, what they used to call in the first Gulf War, “a target rich environment.” It might sound glib, when we’re talking about killing, but there was just so much to do but so little time! Imagine, though, Joshua and the troops had marched all night long, double-time, apparently covering 30 miles in a night, and then without rest they are thrown into the battle. With surprise on their side, everything is going their way. But you’d think that after an all-night march and a full day of fighting, chasing the Canaanites down one road while God pelted them with huge hailstones the other way, you’d think they’d be utterly exhausted. But Joshua looks, sees that this is the opportunity; they have the enemy on the run; momentum is on their side. If they stop now, all that could be lost. The sun is going down. Descending over the valley of Aijalon.

   This is “the day” it says in verse 12. Israel has been passing down the story about how God made a promise to Abraham that they would have this land, they would have as many descendants as the stars in space, that they would be a blessing to the nations – they’ve been passing down that story for about 500 years, through Isaac’s and Jacob’s wanderings; through their refuge in Egypt that turned into a prison for slavery; through their wanderings in the desert, now, it says, this was “the day.” But Joshua looks, and “the day” is about to end. So after a full night’s march and a full day’s fighting behind him but with the promise of God still in front of Him, he does something as bold as bold can be. In full sight and hearing of his troops, he speaks to the sun and the moon and commands them to stop. If it doesn’t happen, he’s a made a fool in front of his troops. But he knows that this is “the day” and there is yet so much more to do, so it simply must continue. God’s promise has waited so long to come to pass. God had promised to Joshua that very day they would have their victory. So he does the only logical thing: extend the day.

   And it does. We don’t know how. Did the earth stop rotating? Did it tilt more so that Israel was further north, like Alaska and Sweden are today, having some days in which they get no night? Did the sun and the moon shift in space so that they were in the same place relative to Israel? We don’t know. And that’s not the point of this story. The point is that God kept His promise. It didn’t look like He could. It didn’t look like He could make a nation out of an old man named Abraham and an old and barren woman named Sarah. But He did. It didn’t look like He could give them the land and certainly not on this day, against so many. Even if they were able to take them by surprise, there were just so many of them; Israel couldn’t possibly chase them all down and they just didn’t have the time. But God had promised, and His promise was as good as He is.

   This was “the day”, the day that God kept His promise. And to do so He acted on the words of Joshua. Notice that Joshua did not pray to God for Him to stop the sun and moon. Joshua spoke directly to the sun and moon. Just as a later Joshua would speak to the wind and waves and tell them to be cease, be still. But this merely human Joshua had no power, in and of himself, to make the sun and moon stop. And yet God worked through that speaking. God acted on the words of a man and altered the natural course of the universe. To Him it is no different than us stopping a clock for an hour and starting it again. We can adjust it at our will and so God can adjust nature at His will. That’s not the surprising thing. That’s not what the author, in verse 14, is marveling at. What’s surprising is that He did it at the behest of a man; at the behest of Joshua. There has been no day like it, the inspired prophet tells us, when a mere man – with no power to slow a single molecule – spoke and God acted.

   The marvel is that God delights to work through human actions, especially when He’s fulfilling His promise; that even though He could crush the Canaanites in a way that involved no human actions, as with Elijah just having fire come down from heaven, He prefers to act through our words and actions. That’s why He invites us to pray. To come to Him and seek to be involved in what He is bringing about on the earth. We don’t pray just to flee the realities of this world; just to seek comfort from the pain we experience in the world – even though sometimes we need that too. But we pray to transform this world. We pray that God would act, even intrude miraculously into the spiritual deadness of natural people; that He would change the course of nature and bring His kingdom on earth. And when that happens, when that happens, when God does what only He can do but through what we are ardently striving to do, then the battle is over, the promise is fulfilled, and we get to rest.

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