Tradition tells us that Joshua was the assistant and successor to Moses, charged with the responsibilities of generaling the straggling tribal armies and winning a place for Israel in the land of Canaan. Under the leadership of Joshua, the Amalekites were defeated and the towns of Jericho, Bethel, and Ai were taken. In his battle against the people of Gibeon, Joshua asked the Lord to keep the sun in the sky for a whole day so that he might have the additional daylight necessary to hunt his enemy down and destroy him.Did This Really Happen?
Given that the Sun allegedly remained motionless in the middle of the sky for a full day, we think it is likely that an enormous impression would have been made on people around the world. Persons laboring in the fields would wonder why a whole day's work was done in apparently no time at all--according to the sun's movement across the sky--or lack of movement, we should say. On the other side of the world, men would meet dawn with twelve extra hours of beard growth and starved for their breakfast.
Given that the Sun allegedly remained motionless in the middle of the sky for a full day, we think it is likely that an enormous impression would have been made on people around the world. Persons laboring in the fields would wonder why a whole day's work was done in apparently no time at all--according to the sun's movement across the sky--or lack of movement, we should say. On the other side of the world, men would meet dawn with twelve extra hours of beard growth and starved for their breakfast.
Surely this event--the only event since the beginning of time which was world-wide, astonishing, and experienced by everyone--would have been a topic of conversation until the ends of their lives. This event would have been indelibly recorded and reported by an uncountable number, by either scratching their stories into stone or penning them onto paper, and passed down orally through dozens of generations, eventually finding its way into the history books. But, not one single record of this sort has reached us. The only surviving account of the stilled sun comes from just one lone man, Joshua, who uses just seventeen words to tell mankind about the most amazing event ever witnessed by the entire population of the world.
All of these explanations fall far short of the statement that there has never been another day like the one described (Joshua 10:14, cf. Habbakuk 3:11 - “…Sun and moon stood still in the heavens…”).
What really happened on that special day? As with all miracles, it is futile to speculate with scientific theories. The details are unclear, but we know that God could have refracted the light, or slowed the earth's rotation, or stopped the entire universe--all with equal ease!
Time stopped for Joshua, and it ran backwards for Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:9-11).
God used this event as a special sign to show Hezekiah that he would regain his health. The sun's shadow moved backwards by ten steps, probably five to six hours on the sundial. That is, the sun appeared to move eastward instead of westward. The conclusion is again the same, that such a miracle is beyond scientific explanation.
God used this event as a special sign to show Hezekiah that he would regain his health. The sun's shadow moved backwards by ten steps, probably five to six hours on the sundial. That is, the sun appeared to move eastward instead of westward. The conclusion is again the same, that such a miracle is beyond scientific explanation.
God may have temporarily reversed the earth's rotation, including all its inhabitants, or the miracle in Hezekiah's day could have been local instead of worldwide. The latter view is supported by 2 Chronicles 32:31, which describes envoys who traveled to the land where the miracle occurred.
Joshua and Hezekiah both made lofty requests of the Lord, that the very heavens might be altered. And God answered their prayers. The sun, moon, and stars obey the Creator who placed them in the sky by the power of his word.
How was the length of this day extended? It could have been a slowing of the earth’s rotation; it could have been a tilting of the earth’s axis; it could have been a miracle of reflection of light; it could have been simply the presence of God manifested in light.
i. Whatever it means, the result was clear. The sun seemed to stay still in the sky, and Israel was able to complete the victory.
ii. Some criticize this account, saying that obviously, since the sun is still, and the earth rotates around the sun, that Joshua is wrong when he says the sun stood still. This kind of criticism doesn’t account for our normal way of speaking. We use the terms sunrise and sunset without a second thought. In addition, more modern astronomy tells us that the sun is in motion; perhaps the sun did literally stand still!
i. Whatever it means, the result was clear. The sun seemed to stay still in the sky, and Israel was able to complete the victory.
ii. Some criticize this account, saying that obviously, since the sun is still, and the earth rotates around the sun, that Joshua is wrong when he says the sun stood still. This kind of criticism doesn’t account for our normal way of speaking. We use the terms sunrise and sunset without a second thought. In addition, more modern astronomy tells us that the sun is in motion; perhaps the sun did literally stand still!
Joshua 10:14 “There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the LORD listened to a man. Surely the LORD was fighting for Israel!”
Joseph Francis Alward
Source: www.ChristianAnswers.Net
Source: www.ChristianAnswers.Net