Justifying Bible Accounts Through Human Reasoning Limits God’s Power
As Joshua leads the nation of Israel into the promised land, they defeat Gibeon in a most amazing battle. Though Joshua’s army does its part, God plays an even bigger role.
He orchestrates a hailstorm that pelts the Gibeon army with huge hailstones, killing many of them, even more than Joshua’s army kills.
The Sun Stops Moving
Even more so, Joshua prays for more daylight to enable the fighting to continue. This will allow his army to secure a victory and prevent the remaining enemy forces from scurrying away under the cover of darkness.
Do you know what happens? God stops the sun from moving. Yep. It stays in the middle of the sky for a full day.
Some people read this account and don’t know what to make of it. It seems too incredible to accept. They attempt to explain away God’s power with man-made logic.
The Sun Moves Backwards
However, this isn’t the only time something like this happens. Much later we read about King Hezekiah. He becomes deathly ill and God tells him to put his affairs in order.
Hezekiah doesn’t. Instead he prays for more time. God hears his prayer and promises to give him fifteen more years.
To offer proof of God’s power to do as he promised, he makes the sun move backward for a while. Then everything returns to normal.
The sun moves forward again and Hezekiah lives another fifteen years (Isaiah 38:1-8 and also 2 Kings 20:8-11).
The God of Creation Can Do All Things
Again, some people try to explain away this incredible story of the sun moving backward. I don’t know why they try to do this. Yes, this is incredible, but so is God.
Trying to logically dismiss these two accounts and place human limits on God’s power doesn’t make sense.
If God created the reality that we live in, including the sun and the moon, can’t he cause them to stop moving for a couple of hours or to move the sun backward for a few minutes?
My God can. Can yours?
[Read through the Bible with us this year. Today’s reading is Joshua 10-12, and today’s post is on Joshua 10:13.]
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
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