Click here to read Joshua 10 on BibleGateway.com
Sometimes it strikes me as odd that we (as christians) will believe, or at least say we believe, the whole Bible. Do you really? Do you really believe that a grown man was swallowed by a gigantic guppy? Do you believe that a living guy actually walked into a chariot, made of fire no less, and floated off into the sky? Do you really believe that one guy, with a few family members, put every species of animal into a big boat and lived there for a year? When you think about it, it really does sound nuts.
But we say we believe. We say the Bible is infallible. We say that every word that comes from God’s mouth through Moses’ pen is true. If that’s the case, if we one hundred percent believe God and believe the Bible is his Word and believe that it is true, we really should never worry. If God can do all that, any problems we have should look tiny in comparison, right? Look at today’s reading in Joshua 10.
JANE! STOP THIS CRAZY THING
Joshua is fighting another one of the something-ites (admit it, you can’t keep them straight either), and he finds himself running out of time to complete the battle. This is actually not all that uncommon in the ancient world. Without electric lights or those cool green glasses that let you see in the dark, there really was no way to fight once the sun went down. Most communication was by flag on the battlefield, so once it got dark, that was pretty much it. In this case, Joshua had them on the run, and wanted to finish the job.
So he asks God to stop the sun and moon. Think about that. Stop the sun and moon. Just to put it in perspective, using our modern concept of astronomy, that means that God had to stop the world from spinning. The whole planet. All 13,170,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 pounds, spinning at 1100 miles an hour, of planet Earth’s hugeness; and God stops it because Joshua forgot his flashlight.
ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE
Do you believe it? That God can actually just stop the Earth whenever he wants? If you do, then why in the world would you worry about God providing for you and your family? If God can do that, finding a few bucks to buy hamburger should be laughingly simple for him. Finding a new job should be a snap of the fingers. Even healing the sick, or raising the dead, would be no problem for a God of that power. The world spins or stops on His whim; just because Joshua asked.
And what does God ask in return? Our trust. That’s it. Accepting that He loves us, that He wants what’s best for us. That when He doesn’t give us what we ask, that He knows a better way. Believing that a God that can stop the earth for one man’s benefit, might just know a thing or two about the consequences of our actions. And having the humility to follow his directions about our lives, instead of just trying to do it our own way.
Can you trust him to run your world today?
