Joshua 10:12

THE MIRACLE OF THE SUN STANDING STILL

"Then spake Joshua to Jehovah in the day when Jehovah 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 Aijalon.

And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed.

Until the nation had avenged themselves of their enemies.

"Is not this written in the Book of Jashar? And the sun stayed in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. And there was no day like that before it or after it, that Jehovah hearkened unto the voice of a man: for Jehovah fought for Israel.

"And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal."

ATTEMPTS TO RATIONALIZE THIS MIRACLE

Much of the comment one encounters on this passage is nothing more than the skillful, learned, interesting, and even brilliant explanations of why this commentator or another one CANNOT believe this story as it is clearly written here. Why do men feel called upon to explain UNBELIEF? God gave every man the right either to believe or not believe as he may choose, only with this provision that he shall, of course, accept the consequences of his choice! Here are some of the explanations:

(1) This is poetry and was never intended to be understood literally. Joshua used this poetic language to request that God stop the sun from shining, or be dumb, or silent, because the weather was hot and Joshua and his troops needed relief from the heat! Even so conservative a writer as Unger wrote:

"So the passage simply means the sun was dumb (stopped shining) at Gibeon, and the moon likewise ceased to shine in the Valley of Aijalon, their light being blotted out by the thick, black clouds of the miraculous hailstorm that the Lord sent to discomfit Israel's foe."[25]

The reliance of many commentators today on that translation which makes these verses declare that Joshua asked God to stop the sun from shining is pitiful. Such a rendition is clearly a corrupt translation as admitted by Sizoo: "The interpretation `cease from shining' is very questionable, and the very next verse proves that such a meaning was not intended."[26]

(2) Another explanation is that "There was a total eclipse of the sun,"[27] and this theory also accepts the corrupt translation that says Joshua pleaded for the sun "not to shine," or to be "dumb," a result which is attributed to the total eclipse! Any truth in this? No! How could there be a total eclipse of the sun when on that very day Joshua mentioned seeing the sun in the east and the moon in the west? No eclipse at all is possible with the moon that far from the sun!

(3) There are other explanations, of course, which are worthy of no attention at all. Some are variations of the above; some make use of the critical device of declaring portions of the chapter a gloss, an interpolation, or a "late addition" by some writer who misunderstood the Book of Joshua that he was revising!

THE TRUE INTERPRETATION

Boling called this interpretation "the popular interpretation"; and so it is. It is found in Thomas Morrell's libretto for Georg Friedrich Handel's famed oratorio, Joshua, written in 1747. Here it is:

"O thou bright orb, great ruler of the day!

Stop thy swift course, and over Gibeon stay.

And oh! thou milder lamp of light, the moon,

Stand still, prolong thy beams in Aijalon.

Behold, the list'ning sun the voice obeys,

And in mid Heav'n his rapid motion stays.

Before our arms the scattered nations fly,

Breathless they part, they yield, they fall, they die."[28]

Yes indeed, we believe that the sun did not set for the course of a whole day, giving us a very, very long day, unlike any ever known before or since. Now, of course, there are many arguments against receiving this view: (1) This event is unknown anywhere else in the literature of the whole world. (2) It is not even mentioned anywhere else in the O.T. (3) The normal motions of the earth rotating on its axis causes "sunsets" apart from any motion whatever by the sun itself. Therefore, for the day to have been lengthened as here indicated, some drastic change in the rotation of the earth on its axis would have been necessary. Joshua, of course, knew nothing of that; he merely prayed to God, telling what he wanted, but God knew how to grant the prayer, altogether apart from Joshua's ignorance (and apart from our ignorance as well).

None of such objections has any value whatever. The literature of the world is chock full of wars, military campaigns, etc., and has practically nothing at all regarding the most important event ever to happen on earth, namely, the birth, life, death, and resurrection of the Son of God. The absence of any event of importance from that corpus of the world's literature has absolutely no significance at all! Such literature does not even record who invented the wheel! The absence of the story from other O.T. books is likewise of no importance. The O.T. has only one reference to Jesus' feet being pierced, but the event occurred none the less. God does not have to say it twice for it to be true!

Now that denial about there being no physical evidence available to support the truth of this wonder, is itself false. There is indeed solid evidence, and it is this evidence that confirms our faith that this event occurred just as recorded here. The Holy Scriptures do not need to be continued by anything that men know or think that they know, but it is of some interest that the scientific facts available today prove that the axis upon which the earth today rotates is not in the same position as always. Seams in rocks are oriented to the magnetic pole of the earth, and these, in certain areas are criss-crossed by seams indicating a change in the position of the magnetic pole of the earth. Also in the frozen wastes of Siberia, the bodies of ancient dinosaurs have been discovered with flesh still capable of being eaten by dogs, and, in the mouths of these creatures, and in their stomachs, there still remains tropical vegetation unchewed and undigested. This proves a sudden change in the climate of Siberia from tropical to arctic. If that did not occur as a result of an interruption of the earth's rotation and the change of the position of its axis, then how did it happen? Until that question is answered, the postulation that it occurred on Joshua's long day is as good as any! The evidence of what we have cited here is found and is discussed at length in Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer's remarkable book, Genesis in Space and Time (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1972).

Aside from all the discussions and arguments, however, it is simply what the holy text says that is more than enough for any believer. Furthermore, what the text says may not be amended, changed, or revised by men whose avowed purpose is that of discrediting and denying the Word of God.

Many have been puzzled by what appears to be the erratic misplacement of Joshua 10:15, because, certainly, it may not be supposed that Joshua and all Israel precisely on that victorious day returned to Gilgal. Some have supposed that a scribal error copied it by accident here from Joshua 10:43; and others have considered it a prolepsis, referring parenthetically to the successful conclusion of the campaign and Joshua's return to Gilgal. We do not know what the true answer may be.

Several other facts should be noted. John Rea pointed out that Joshua 10:12-14 did not occur after the big hail, but concurrently with it.[29] Adam Clarke solved the problem of Joshua 10:15 by pointing out that, "It is missing from the Septuagint (LXX) and from the Anglo-Saxon; and that it probably should be omitted here."[30] In our view, this could do no harm at all, for the verse occurs almost verbatim again in Joshua 10:43.