The Day When The Sun and Moon Stood Still

    The bible is God’s gift to mankind. It ought to be believed not to be debated.  The bible is the sole and ultimate authority of anything around us as it embodied entirely everything under heaven. Nowadays, as we are living in a digital era, God’s holy Word is still and will always be relevant to us today. I’ve bumped some interesting topics recently regarding ancient and modern astronomy. So I decided to write a blog about it in reference to what the scripture is saying and what I can personally observe around me. I was reminded of one historical account in the bible where there was a day when the sun and moon stood still. It happened during the time of Joshua when they fought against their enemies - the Amorites.

Joshua 10:

12 Then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.

13 And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.

14 And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the Lord fought for Israel

    God’s limitless power was displayed when He created the universe and all things contained therein (Genesis 1). His authority as a Creator prevailed when Joshua cried out to the Lord “...Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.” and things unimaginable happened. God is faithful enough to Joshua and his chosen nation to delivered them up in the hands of their enemies. I believed that this particular event literally happened because the bible told us so. God operates in the supernatural. It will not be too hard for the God who created the sun and moon to control it as He please. There is absolutely nothing that happens in the universe that is outside of God’s influence and sovereignty (Jeremiah 32:17).

    We have been taught that the sun is the center of our solar system ever since we were young. According to NASA, the sun is fixed at the center and all the stars and planets revolved around it. I also believed this to be true for so long. Larry King interviewed Neil deGrasse Tyson, a well-known American astrophysicist, he was asked, “What would happened if the earth stopped rotating for a second?” Neil replied, “It will be disastrous! We are all moving with the earth 800 miles per second due east because we are rotating. If the earth stops moving, we will be flying 800 miles per second due east. It will kill everything on earth.” Clearly, this was not the series of events that took place during the battle of Gibeon. Simply imagine this, if the sun would stay up in the sky for long period of time it has to make the earth stop spinning. But, it also mentioned that the moon stayed in the valley of Ajalon. It could have caused a great catastrophe if we will not take the bible at its word. If earth is the one rotating around the sun, why did Joshua commanded the sun and the moon to stood still, not the earth?

    In order to explain the event during Joshua’s time, we have to understand the behaviour of the earth, the sun and the moon. There were multiple passages of scripture that described the earth being fixed and not spinning. To mention a few Psalms 93:1b says, “... the world also is established, that it cannot be moved.” Likewise, 1 Chronicles 16:30 stated, “Fear before him, all the earth: the world also shall be stable, that it be not moved.” From this verses alone, we can vividly demonstrate that the earth must be stationary and it is the sun, the moon and planets spinning around us.

    Psalms 19:6 tells something about the course of the sun above, “His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.” We can draw from this verse that the sun is the one moving above the earth from end to end. Now we can have a perspective from the human point of view that God once again demonstrated His authority over his creation when He heard and granted Joshua’s request to make the sun stood still and the moon stopped from its courses above. It was wonderfully described in verse 14 “And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the Lord fought for Israel.” This miraculous power of God proved that He is able to do impossible things.

Conclusion:

God cannot do anything that would deny His character. He is the Creator of all things. There is nothing that is too difficult for Him. One thing is for sure, the day when the sun and moon stood still is a real event. We have to take the bible at its word. Understanding our universe in light of the bible should rule out what we know about modern science today.