Sermon: Spiritual Strongholds (Part Three): God's Intervention
#1667
Martin G. Collins
Given 20-Aug-22; 73 minutes
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transcript:
To the middle of the tenth chapter of Joshua, the story of Israel's conquest against Canaan is told in detail and there only been three real engagements: At Jericho, at Ai, and on the hills near Gibeon, the last of which flowed over into a great running battle as the panicked Amorites fled south toward their fortified mountain cities. These stories have been carefully told in detail.
And then in the middle of chapter ten of Joshua, this method of recounting the invasion changes. Instead of a careful telling of the military and other details of each battle, there are quick summaries of the campaigns that led the advancing Israelite armies first south and then north through the land. But for the first half of this sermon, we are going to concentrate on the first half of Joshua 10, followed by teaching showing that God intervenes for His people at the proper time.
Please turn with me to Joshua 10, if you have not already. Now, the Gibeonites had made their treaty with Israel, thus saving their lives. But when the peoples of other hilltop fortresses heard of it, they looked at the Gibeonites as traitors and naturally decided to go to war with them and against them.
Joshua 10:1-5 Now it came to pass when Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem heard how Joshua had taken Ai and had utterly destroyed it—as he had done to Jericho and its king, so he had done to Ai and its king—and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were among them, that they feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, like one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai and all its men were mighty. Therefore, Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem sent to Hoham king of Hebron, Piram king of Jarmuth, Japhia king of Lachish, and Debir king of Eglon, saying, "Come up to me and help me, that we may attack Gibeon, for it has made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel." Therefore the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon, gathered together and went up, they and all their armies, and camped before Gibeon and made war against it.
And just a side note here, this is the first mention of the city of Jerusalem in the Bible and it is just interesting that that was the one that was leading the charge here, the king of that city.
But to Joshua the action these verses report meant that for the first time in his campaign he would have to meet the combined forces of the Canaanites in an open and head-on military encounter. Or would he? According to the account, Joshua did not learn of the Canaanite confederacy directly or from spies, but from the Gibeonites when they were attacked and when the kings of the Amorites, which are those five kings, moved against them. The Gibeonites sent word to Joshua and then,
Joshua 10:6 And the men of Gibeon sent to Joshua at the camp of Gilgal [this was Joshua's main camp], "Do not forsake your servants; come up to us quickly, save us and help us, for all the kings of the Amorites who dwell in the mountains have gathered together against us."
If Joshua had been a lesser man, a man not of great moral capacity, he might have regarded this as a way to escape the consequences of his previous rash agreement to spare the Gibeonites, if you recall the last sermon. He had been tricked by them and now they were being attacked for their dishonesty. Was it not wise and would it not be just to allow them to meet their fate unaided, with the Israelites and Joshua not showing up to help them? If the kings of the cities of the hill country destroyed the Gibeonites, well, this would remove at least one of the problems on Joshua's hands.
But Joshua did not think that way. He had made a treaty with the Gibeonites in God's name. And that meant something, it meant everything to him, and now he decided it was important to stand by the agreement. So rather than looking on the situation as an easy way to be relieved of a difficulty, he sees it as an opportunity. Now there is a lesson here for us in this incident, here in this part of the story.
When something goes wrong in your life, do not give up. Do not blame someone else but look at it as a God-given challenge or test. See it as an opportunity, as Joshua did, to learn from it and prove your situation and grow in godly character by doing the righteous thing. No matter how embarrassed, hurt, or angry you may feel, do not dwell on yourself, do something good for someone else. This is what Joshua did.
At the time the message came to Joshua, he was at Gilgal, his camp in the region of Jericho by the Jordan River. But he immediately marshaled his forces marched that night up the steep ravine to Ai and then south to Gibeon, where he came upon the unsuspecting Canaanite confederacy suddenly, and this was done presumably at dawn. So they had marched all night to go help save the Gibeonites. The move was so bold and the attack so sudden that the armies of the hill country fled.
Joshua 10:10 So the Lord routed them before Israel, killed them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, chased them along the road that goes to Beth Horon, and struck them down as far as Azekah and Makkedah.
It was the Lord who did this by intervening on Joshua's behalf, thanks to Joshua's and the Israelites' obedience through this.
Now going south from Gibeon where the battle began, there is a ten-mile ascent to Beth Horon the Upper (as they added, I guess there was a lower as well. This was the upper one. Probably one was in a valley, one was on the mountain, I do not know). But from that point the road drops away precipitously falling 700 feet in two miles. It is quite steep. Now the rock is cut into steps and it was down this rugged descent that the Canaanites fled before the pursuing Israelites and they were hoping to reach the fortified cities from which they had set out, seal the gates, and gain at least the night's respite before they had to face their pursuing foes again.
What a miraculous day this was! This battle, as the Canaanites fled down the rocky path, God intervened in the first of two miracles to aid the Israelites. God's judgment was upon the pagan Canaanites who were guilty of abominable religious practices. Psalm 75 celebrates anticipated victory. Not specifically this one, but any anticipated victory that God provides. Asaph the psalmist recognized that God establishes judgment at the appointed time and that the judgment destroys the wicked and exalts the righteous.
Psalm 75:2 [the Lord says] "When I choose the proper time, I will judge uprightly."
So it is God who chooses the proper time. When there is something that we were fighting against or spiritually, or even back when the Israelites were fighting, God knew exactly the right time to intervene. The Lord sent a hailstorm that struck the panicked soldiers on the slopes below Beth Horon. Hailstorms can be of a fantastic proportions in the east. In that area they were used to some pretty heavy ones but this was one that was exceptional, even by these standards, the standards that they normally had hailstorms. The hailstorms killed more people than the swords did. The hailstorm sent by God killed more than than the Israelites did.
Joshua 10:11 And it happened, as they fled before Israel and were on the descent to Beth Horon, that the Lord cast down large hailstones from heaven on them as far as Azekah, and they died. There were more who died from the hailstones than the children of Israel killed with the sword.
So again, God intervened for His people, just as He will for us today with our spiritual battles.
Picture of the scene that must have greeted Joshua as he crested that ridge at Beth Horon. Before him, as far as his eyes could see, were masses of the panicked armies being pursued by his own soldiers over the slopes and above the plains beyond there was a great cloud from which hail was falling. It probably blocked out the horizon, at the very least.
How does God use hail? We have seen one incident here, but let us look further. Hail is destructive to crops, vineyards, olive plantations. If it is bad enough it can be destructive to buildings and so on. It is regularly associated by thunder, bolts of lightning, sleet, and snow with hail. And like them, hail is described in terms of divine weaponry.
Psalm 18:12-14 [gives us a picture of this weaponry] From the brightness before Him, His thick clouds passed with hailstones and coals of fire. The Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered His voice, hailstones and coals of fire. He sent out His arrows and scattered the foe, lightnings in abundance, and He vanquished them.
So God's thick clouds vanished there where Joshua was, and the army was. The light, the flash, the blaze penetrated those clouds and seemed to dispel and to scatter them. God, as Divine warrior, brandishes these weapons so that out of the brightness of His presence clouds advance and with hailstones and bolts of lightning. A very terrifying scene if you are the one in the midst of it.
Biblically, often hail is part of a wider declaration of God's power and His control over nature. Psalm 78 goes back to the Exodus describing all the plagues that God brought against the Egyptian oppressors.
Psalm 78:47-48 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost. He also gave up their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to fiery lightning.
So during the Exodus and then on into the conquest of Canaan, the Israelites story was one of constant disbelief on their part in the face of unimaginable mercy on God's part, and even more mercy being granted in the face of disbelief.
Since God wields His weapons in judgment, hail frequently appears in the context of God's power expressed in judgment, as in Joshua 10:11. Hail became a memorable expression of God's future judgment in this prophecy in Isaiah 30 describes what is later mentioned in the book of Revelation.
Isaiah 30:30 The Lord will cause His glorious voice to be heard, and show the descent of His arm, with the indignation of His anger and the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, tempest, and hailstones.
So it appears to be one of God's more commonly used weapons or judgments. Hail is usually a symbol of divine vengeance, as it is used to accomplish the divine purposes of punishment, of judgment.
The second exodus judgment context of Joshua 10, verse 11 is a type of the descriptions of huge hailstones of apocalyptic judgment killing people at the opening of the seventh seal, the blowing of the first trumpet during the great tribulation, and the beginning of the Day of the Lord, which is accompanied by fire and blood and burning brimstone. It is preceded by about a half hour of silence in heaven. So imagine all these horrible things, these judgments being brought upon the earth. And now we are down to the first trumpet here of the opening of the seventh seal. Things have already been horrible for everyone because of the judgment.
Revelation 8:1-6 When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. Then another angel, have having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel's hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake. So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound [on the opening of this seal].
I would like to make the comment that on the opening of this seal, instead of the voices and thundering storms as might be expected from the heavenly signs in the sixth seal, and which seemed only to have been momentarily suspended, there was a dreadful stillness, complete silence, as if all heaven was reverently waiting for the other shoe to drop. Of course, this is a symbolic representation and may be designed not to present a pause in the events themselves, but to emphasize the impressive and fearful nature of the events which are about to be disclosed.
"About half an hour" does not seem to distinguish time exactly there. What would it be based on? Would it be based on our concept of time or would it be based on God's concept of time? And as we go along, we will see that they are different. It was a brief period yet a period which under dire circumstances would seem very long to the sufferers, but not to God. The Greek word from which "half an hour comes" does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament. It is correctly rendered "half an hour." And as the day was divided into twelve parts, from the rising of the sun to the setting of the sun, the time designated would not vary much from half an hour with us.
So this designates a brief period at least. And it is a state of anxious suspension when the moments move slowly so that the tremendous force of what has happened, and is coming, may be truly realized. We might phrase it in our vernacular, a pause for thought.
Now the successive opening of the seals, increasing in severity as each new one was opened and the course of events which seemed to be leading to the consummation of all things, and then the last in the series to be opened, suspended in silence for half an hour at the opening of the seventh seal, and in this state of suspension, the half hour may have seemed endless to any human being, but this was in heaven. So did human beings understand that there was a silence? That is another question for another day. Then the first trumpet sounded.
Revelation 8:7 The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.
That was quite a fiery hailstorm! Hail and fire are reminiscent of the fourth Egyptian plague of the Exodus, with added intensity suggested by the reference to hail and fire mixed with blood. So it obviously affected the people on earth as well. In Psalm 105:32, referring to the plagues of Egypt, it is said "He gave them hail for rain, and flaming fire in their land." Again in Psalm 78:48, "He also gave up their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to fiery lightning," as we read earlier.
As early as the time of Job, hail was understood to be an emblem of the divine displeasure and an instrument in inflicting punishment. It has pretty much been known as that for, I would say, most of man's history.
Job 38:22-23 [God says] "Have you entered the treasury of snow [speaking to Job], or have you seen the treasury of hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?"
So God Himself talks about how He stores up, at least in this figurative sense, a treasury of hail. The treasury is a lot so He has a lot of hail that He can use. Of course He is the one who creates hail so it is unlimited.
Hailstones assume various forms; some are round, others angular, others pyramidal, others flat, and sometimes they are star-shaped, with six radii, like crystals of snow. So they come in all forms and shapes. And at any time of the year, it can be the middle of summer. When we lived in Pasadena back in the late 1980s there was a hailstorm there. In fact, I think it was the same time that they announced that they were disconnecting faith from the healing doctrine and one of the evangelists gave a sermon there explaining it. And when we came out of services, this was in the Ambassador Auditorium, it was hailing in the middle of summer. And when I opened the trunk of my car it started to fill my trunk up with hail, at least a little bit. And so the hair on the back of my head started to raise as soon as I saw the hail, coming out of services. But it was an interesting sight to see. Whether it is connected to that is too close for comfort. I mean, I think it was, but that is the way that went.
And I think I have mentioned to you before about the song that was playing when they were preparing for the Feast of Tabernacles. It was the one we sang earlier, "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken." During that they were taping the children's choir for the feast. And the part that said, "He whose word cannot be broken," there was a great earthquake that caused damage to the auditorium in the acoustical panels and spires that were in the ceiling came plunging down and actually pierced through a seat or two or maybe more. And that brings brings the hair up on the back of my neck as well because that was during the time that they were throwing doctrines out the door and one of those was that one on healing and that type of thing.
So God does speak and when He does it is terrifying, even if it is a mild thing or even if you hear about it. I have that on tape with this crunching and the sound of the auditorium twisting and crunching and the shaking of the earthquake. And so every time I think of that the hair raises on the back of my neck. God is powerful and He still acts nowadays. He seems to give us some hints here and there in a very strong way that most people, I do not think, take notice of.
The setting in Revelation 16, verse 16 is just before the seventh bowl was poured out and the kings of the earth are gathered together by the three demonic beings that came out of the mouth of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.
Revelation 16:17-18 [this begins the seventh bowl where the earth is utterly shaken] Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, "It is done!" And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as has not occurred since men were on the earth.
This is the earthquake of unprecedented severity foreseen in the sixth seal, which darkened sun and moon, shakes the stars from their places, and rolls up the sky like a scroll, and displaces the mountains and every island.
So does that get anybody's attention, do you think? I think for those who are left on earth, it certainly will.
Revelation 16:19-21 Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. [That is beyond my comprehension. I just cannot even picture that here on earth.] And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent. Men blasphemed God [so they were still thumbing their nose at God, in today's world, giving Him the finger, so to speak. They were just so arrogant. It is hard to imagine that kind of a mind.] because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great.
So the earthquake sank the islands and leveled the mountains, and the last of the terrible elements was a deadly hail in which the hailstones weighed more than 100 pounds each. I think they have estimated from 100 to 115 pounds each. Can you imagine something like that hitting you in the head? It would be instant. You would not even remember, I do not think, when you were resurrected at your appropriate time.
Here is another recurring element of the manifestations of the wrath of God. A devastating hail was part of the plagues of Egypt in Exodus 19:24. And as we are seeing in the battle with the five Amorite kings at Beth Horon, under Joshua, there came a great hail upon the enemies of Israel so that more died by the hailstones than died by the sword. In Isaiah 28:2, Isaiah speaks of the tempest of hail and a destroying storm which God in His judgment will send. And in Ezekiel 38:22, Ezekiel speaks of God pleading with men with pestilence and blood, and sending an overflowing rain and great hailstones, fire and brimstone. It is more of a common incident or event than I ever imagined. I did not really realize there were this many times that God uses the hailstones in that way.
The emptying of the seven bowls or vials of wrath upon the earth ends with the chorus which has run all through the chapter. The men to whom these things happen remain impervious to any appeal of God's love or God's anger. And God has given people the terrible responsibility and willpower of being able to lock their hearts against Him if they so desire. I do not think there will be a lot of people that do that. But there will be definitely some and we know that the beast and false prophet are two of them for sure that do that.
God's final use of hail as a judgment will leave very little standing and there will be catastrophic devastation on earth when God uses hail there in the book of Revelation.
When God intervened on behalf of His people with large hailstones the accomplishments of Israel's armies were dwarfed by comparison. And it was the Lord who won the victory. Joshua was the one who was obedient, along with the Israelites who followed God's instructions to the letter. To Joshua's right the sun was beginning its long afternoon descent toward the Mediterranean. He must have realized two things.
First, this was an unprecedented opportunity to destroy the southern pagan confederacy. The best of their soldiers had come out against him and they were fleeing. And if he could destroy them now, the southlands would be open to his advancing armies from that point on.
Second, at the same time, Joshua must have recognized that the day was escaping and when the sun set fighting would cease and there was not enough time before sunset to achieve total victory. So Joshua did an unprecedented thing. He asked God to perform a miracle that had never been done before. And the miracle of what is called, Joshua's longest day, is the third and last great miracle in the book of Joshua and the most bewildering of all to mankind.
Joshua 10:12-13 Then Joshua spoke 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 still [literally that in the Hebrew is "be silent over Gibeon"]; and Moon, in the alley of Aijalon." [that is the Valley of the Gazelles. That is what aijalon means, the gazelles] So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the people had revenge upon their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day [about a whole day is pretty close to 24 hours].
Now these verses seem to be a fragment or extract from some other and independent source and inserted into the thread of the account after it had been completed, and inserted probably by another hand than the author of the book of Joshua. But bear with me. Probably Joshua 10, verse 12 and the first half of Joshua 10, verse 13 alone belong to the book of Jasher.
The Bible does use poetical language of course, but it seems to most interpreters that this is not really the case here because there is the miracle of the hailstones that precedes it and that it would make sense for this next thing to happen as a miracle. Now, if they are poetical, what are they supposed to represent? If they are not, then why should the stopping of the sun not be taken literally too? Of course it should be. In our opinion, people who believe in an omnipotent God do not have difficulty accepting the possibility of even this great miracle. Omnipotent means all-powerful and if God is all-powerful then He can as easily stop the sun and moon or earth as do anything.
The words are not mere poetry in spite of their having been recorded in the book of Jasher, a largely poetical book. The omnipotent God did something to prolong daylight but we do not know what or how and we will have to be content to wait for God Himself to reveal it to us precisely what happened. What is certain is that God did something miraculous to give the Israelite armies a complete and decisive victory.
The words addressed to the sun and moon indicate that both were visible as Joshua spoke. Some hours had passed, since in the early dawn he had begun the battle against the enemy, and the expression "in the midst of heaven" in verse 13 indicates that it was drawing toward midday though the moon was still faintly visible in the west.
There are three heavens referred to in the Bible: the atmosphere surrounding the earth, the universe, and God's throne. Verse 13 refers to the area that can be seen by standing on the earth. And the text is not exaggerating when it continues in verse 14, which will read in a second. This event is a testimony to the greatness of God and His miracles and that He perfectly times and orchestrates His interventions on behalf of His people.
Joshua 10:14-15 And there has been no day like it before it or after it, that the Lord heeded the voice of a man; for the Lord fought for Israel. Then Joshua returned, and all Israel with him to the camp at Gilgal.
Now, miracles of this magnitude, particularly that the sun stood still, are an absolute challenge and frustration for many people, especially academia. The various explanations show how strongly the the difficulties which arise out of the passage have been felt. Accordingly, recent commentators have focused on the admitted fact that the words out of which the difficulty springs are an extract from a poetical book. They must consequently, it is argued, be taken in a poetical sense and not in a literal sense. So God is shrugged off far too easily by far too many people that claim to know the Bible.
Joshua dreaded that the sun may set before the people had fully carried out God's justice by destroying their enemies. In his anxiety he prayed to God and God responded to him. This is boldly and clearly expressed in the words of the ancient book, which describes Joshua as praying that the day might be prolonged, or in the poetical wording, that the sun might stay until the work was done. So, despite the objections on a scientific basis as to whether it could be done, the omnipotent, omniscient, eternal God could, of course, suspend and detain the consequences of such a change in nature's ordinary physical function.
Let us look at the physical challenges and limitations that could have had an impact on this miraculous event. There are questions to be answered. How could God do this? And what if He did just stop the sun? How important is our planet's rotation? James Boris' book, Standing on the Rock, includes a chapter titled, "Alleged Problems in the Bible" in reference to the problem. Many people have trouble believing the reality of God's miracle of the sun and moon standing still and he explains one difficulty this way,
If you are driving along in a car at 60 mph and you suddenly slam on the brakes, you fall forward. We assume that if the earth suddenly stopped, everyone would fall over. We all recognize those difficulties. But God is certainly up to the miracle. And whether this is to be explained by an appeal to pure miracle or not, there are certainly incidents in the Bible that are pure miracle and these just cannot be escaped by rationalist explanations.
Now, on Thursday, April 15, 2001, Astronomy.com carried an intriguing article by Nathaniel Scharping titled, "What Would Happen if Earth Stopped Spinning?" I am going to read from this article and it is going to take me a little bit of time, but here we go.
The day the earth stopped spinning would be a far more destructive movie than the Hollywood original. We may not realize it, but our planet's rotation underlies some of the most basic processes on earth. Indeed, we probably wouldn't be here if Earth was a stationary planet.
If Earth stop spinning all at once, it would be enormously catastrophic for much of the planet's surface. And though we do not feel it, we are all moving along with the planet as it rotates at the equator and this works out to around 1,000 mph. [So those of you who are over 60 or 70, you are still moving fast. The rest of the younger ones are moving even faster.]
Stop the planet suddenly, and everything sitting on top of it would go flying eastward. Imagine people, houses, trees, boulders, and more being launched sideways at hundreds of miles an hour. In the aftermath, high speed winds, still rotating nearly as fast as the planet, would scour the surface clean.
If the slowdown happened more gradually, the effects would still be dramatic, but would unfold over a longer period of time. The first thing we might notice is that the sun no longer travels across the sky over the course of a day. The apparent motion of the sun comes from the earth's rotation, so if the planet were stationary, it would cause a single day to last half a year long. And without the 24 hour days we are used to biological circadian rhythms would be thrown entirely out of whack.
The rhythmic cellular processes that tell our bodies when to sleep and when to wake depend in part on regular changes in sunlight to function. Many creatures on earth, from bees to trees, rely on circadian rhythms to carry out their lives. Changing these cycles would upend normal behavior patterns.
Atmospheric patterns of the year on earth are also tied to the planet's rotation. If the planet stops spinning, it would greatly change the way air currents move once the 1,000 mile per hour winds have died down. The wind patterns we see today play a significant role in driving rainfall and temperatures around the globe. Any changes to air currents would result in deserts blooming where forests currently stand, for example. or frozen tundra becoming habitable.
An earth with no spin would also mean the end of hurricanes. The massive rotating storms are created by the Coriolis forces that derive from the planet's rotation. Winds pulled into the low pressure area of a growing storm are spun counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere, resulting in the spiraling lines and central eye that define a hurricane. This process is one reason the storms can grow so powerful, so cutting them out might be one of the rare benefits of halting the planet's spin. [It is a rare benefit, is it not?]
But a motionless planet would also likely mean the end of our magnetic field. Though scientists are still unclear on the exact mechanisms, it's thought that the magnetic field is created by the movements of the earth's liquid metal core. Scientists call this a dynamo, and the end result is a web of invisible magnetic field lines arcing around the planet. The effects of losing that field would be far worse than just no longer being able to navigate by compass. Earth's magnetic field protects us from cosmic rays and the electromagnetic storms from the sun, among other things. It's definitely something we'd want to hang on to.
[Under a new heading: The Planet of Eternal Day] As far as we know, there aren't any planets out there that do not rotate at all. The processes that form planets and other celestial bodies naturally result in rotation, meaning that all worlds spin from the onset. But there are some planets that appear not to rotate, something astronomers refer to as tidal locking. These are worlds that show the same face to their star at all times, resulting in permanent night and day sides.
Gravitational interactions between planets and their stars can gradually slow a planet's rotation rate down until it exactly it matches its orbital period. The moon is a good example of tidal locking. We only see one side of the moon no matter where it is in the sky or what phase it's in because it's tidally locked to the earth. The same situation likely occurs on many exoplanets, especially those close to their stars where the gravitational pull is stronger.
So there is a lot going on there behind God's and Christ's miracle of that longest day for Joshua. Only God could do it.
The law that is at work in the universe in the physical dimensions that we live in affect our human bodies. But God, being of spirit, is not affected by that. Possibly the most inspiring scripture about God's eternity is in Job 38 which shows the past eternity of God and the finiteness of human beings. Job was expressing his righteousness in many ways, the right way because he was a man that lived an upright life and that no one could find any wrong in him. Even God challenged Satan to try to find something wrong with him and Satan could not find anything.
When we realize the contrast between what God is and what man is, we understand why He dealt with Job in Job 38 the way He did. It is a breathtaking example of the God that we serve, who inhabits eternity, explaining to us how He does it and what He has done. And then God began to show Job that he is nothing but a piece of flesh that is degenerating and that he had not been around long enough to know what God knows. He shows Job that he has not been around long enough to do what God has done. He has not been around long enough to see what God has seen. To do this God asked Job the following questions, starting in verse 31.
Job 38:31 "Can you [Job] bind the cluster of the Pleiades, or loose the belt of Orion?"
So God says to Job, take a look in the universe at Pleiades. Now, what we must realize is that Pleiades in time, as we understand time, is being bound together and there is a movement going on where Pleiades is moving together, where it is being fastened together in this particular constellation. It is an orchestrated movement that is happening with it. God says, "Can you do that, Job? I have been around all this time when Pleiades was out there and now it is moving together to be fastened and I have designed it and moved it into place and this has been going on for a very long time. Where have you been during this time?"
Then God says, "or loose the belt of Orion." Now the belt of Orion means that there is a connector that is seemingly holding this particular constellation together and over a period of time, speaking humanly, it is being torn or broken apart from what is it was before. So God says to Job, "I was there when this particular constellation had this belt around it and now it is breaking loose. Can you loose that belt?"
Job 38:32-33 "Can you bring out Mazzaroth in its season? Or can you guide the Great Bear with its cubs? Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you set the dominion over the earth?"
Mazzaroth is the constellation which is called the Twelve Signs in astronomical terms. That means that there is some kind of movement over thousands and millions and perhaps billions of years of time in which we see that there are seasons of this particular constellation as it moves and turns. "How many turns have you seen, Job?" God asks, not in those words, and Job could only answer, "One" out of how many that God saw over billions of years. God asked Job what control he has over Arcturus, the great bear with his clubs that God is moving with His guiding hand.
These verses tell us that there is movement in the universe and the eternal God, who set up the forces by His own design and omnipotence, holds the constellations together and forces the stars to move. And He has watched them move according to His created timeframe. "But Job, you and the rest of humanity, are less than powerless and very short-lived." He could not even blink at that.
When we look into the heavens, we are looking into the physical representation of the eternity of God. We are witnessing the Ancient of Days. Let me explain. Let us add some more perspective.
Light travels at 186,000 miles per second. It would take eight minutes to know if the sun had turned blue or red or green or whatever, eight minutes before we would know it once it happened. The nearest star as we know is Alpha Centauri. It is 4.37 light years away. We cannot measure that many miles. We have to figure it in light years. It is impossible to calculate that many miles through space. An astronomer expressed it this way.
When we gaze into the depths of space, we are looking into the endless depths of time. Even traveling 186 miles per second starlight takes years to reach Earth. Astronomers are cosmic archaeologists digging through the ruins of a previous universe. We see the star Alpha Centauri just as it was over four years ago. [So the light you see from Alpha Centauri was four years ago that it started coming toward us.], we see the Andromeda Galaxy as it was more than two million years ago. [So when we look at that galaxy through a telescope, it was two million years ago.] Our days reside in the midst of a billion yesterdays [because that is how long some of this light, they believe, takes to get to us. So the universe is far greater, even with the greater telescopes that we have than we even realize.]
So time provides the historical framework in which things happen, but time has no innate ability itself. According to the Dictionary of Biblical Themes, "Time is a creation of God which marks the duration of life and which is measured by changes in the created order. The flow of time is directed by God who appoints particular times within His unfolding purposes. Because human life is brief. time should be used properly, making the most of every opportunity."
In Psalm 90:12 the psalmist asks God, "So teach us to number our days [you know that scripture] that we may gain a heart of wisdom." One thing is certain. The Scriptures make a distinction between the temporal that is life under the sun and the eternal that is life above the sun. In II Corinthians 4:18, Paul says that the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal. In Psalm 90:2, the psalmist describes God as, "From everlasting to everlasting you are God." A few verses later in Psalm 90:10, in the same context of man, it says, "The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away." Another very familiar scripture to all of us.
Permeating all these references to earthly time is the conviction that God is both above time and in control of it.
II Peter 3:8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
Peter does not say God lives one day and therefore 1,000 years have passed. This is an analogy of how time does not limit, effect, or control God.
II Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
So God is not impatient about our overcoming our human nature and producing spiritual growth in character because He knows that it takes a long time, by our method of counting or measuring. But we are impatient and our slow spiritual growth frustrates us and we want to be perfect now without all of the effort and suffering that is necessary. We want things now, we live in an impatient society that wants everything instantly. Does not our obsession with technology prove this? Smartphones with everything instantly on them. 50,000 plus tv shows. Movies and news immediately available. Does not this society's fixation with fast food such as instant coffee, instant oatmeal, and microwaved breakfast exhibit this?
God recognizes that we are that way but He is not that way. That is why He said through Peter that He "is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us." He knows it takes time for us to overcome, to learn, and to become more like Him. Some speculate that given enough time, man will overcome his physical ills and human longevity will once again span the centuries. According to Psalm 90:10, as I mentioned before, written approximately 3,000 years ago, the human lifespan was 70 to 80 years. So how much have we really increased that longevity? Even in our modern America, one of the healthiest nations on the planet (at least until our achievement of GMO products came into the market to poison us and vaccines became debilitating genetically modified therapies), we have not been generally able to expand these figures. Time has been impotent to heal us.
Many people think that the guilt and the penalty for their sins appear to ease with the passing of time. They labor under the illusion that the calendar somehow has redemptive power, but it does not work that way. No amount of time can atone for sin. People may think they are eventually able to live with this or that sin in a more comfortable way. Their conscience can be seared, but the guilt for the sin remains without true repentance. Time does not heal it.
In Matthew 18, Jesus once told a parable about a man who owed his master a debt of staggering proportions, millions of dollars in today's currency. When the massive debt was detected and he was faced with the prospect of being sold into slavery along with his family, he fell down before his Lord and pled for mercy and more time. "Master have patience with me. I will pay you all." He thought that time could remedy his problem. In a modern sense, have you ever thought that your credit card would solve your financial debt problem? Something to consider. Apparently the world's leaders think so as they run it, well, who knows where they are running it too. It is not good.
In that story, the master represents God and the debtor is every person who has sinned, which is each accountable individual. The point is that there could never be enough time to pay off sin debt. Time cannot wipe away a problem of that nature. Time never remedied a single sin in all the years of human experience, and even back earlier with the rebellion of the fallen angels. Yes, it does take time to overcome. But time is inert. This is evidenced by the fact that evil required the death of the Son of God. Jesus Christ's sacrifice was made for all.
And another aspect of this is that time does not have the ability to alter true morality. It is common to hear people argue that, although abortion and homosexuality were once viewed with horror, now this liberated modern society is wiser because we are living in a different time. This Godless society will not be saved by time, though time itself has no intrinsic value or power. Rather, it can provide the opportunity for other forces to work effectively. For example, God who fearfully and wonderfully designed the human body, has built within the biological mechanism recuperative abilities. But unlike the case of the miracle, which produces an instantaneous effect, in the God-given order of things time is required for the body to heal. Also time soothes many wounds of the heart, which in the event of tragedy may even seem unbearable.
Initially, the godly life is partly a life ordered by the natural units of time, invested with sacred significance partly by being linked to the Sabbath and the holy days. The covenant relationship with God is well-ordered and reinforced as He sanctifies appointed times for spiritual duties and events. The book of Ecclesiastes gives us a God's eye view of time (Ecclesiastes 1:11), that the proper human response to time is to enjoy it (Ecclesiastes 2:12-13), that the limitations imposed on people by time is for the purpose of instilling reverence before God (Ecclesiastes 2:14-15), and that time is the arena within which God tests people's spiritual identity (Ecclesiastes 2:16-21).
Please turn with me to Ephesians 5, verse 15. A very familiar scripture, but very important, of course, as they all are. But this is important to the sermon. Using time well is above all a matter of "redeeming the time" or "making the most of time of the time," within the context of urgency provided by the knowledge that the days are evil.
Ephesians 5:15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
Joshua understood what the will of the Lord was and God intervened on his behalf.
What are we to primarily learn from that Joshua 10 account? We have learned a lot of things already, but there are two primary things that I want to make sure that we get.
The first lesson is that nothing is too great for God. Some men have a little god and they are always in trouble with him. He cannot do any miracles. He cannot take care of the inspiration of the Scriptures and their preservation and transmission to us. They have a little god. And then there are those who have a great God. He speaks and it is done, He commands and it stands fast. He knows how to show Himself strong on behalf of those who fear Him. God is our God too. And just as He was the God of Joshua and the victorious Israelites, nothing is too great for Him.
How great is your God? If you have a hard time believing that God has the power to stop the sun and not damage anything, if you cannot believe that, how great is your God really?
The second lesson of Joshua 10 is that we should expect days of great personal victory in our walk with God as He intervenes on our behalf, as He did for Joshua. Joshua 10:5 says, "And the Lord said to Joshua, 'Do not fear them, for I have delivered them into your hand. Not a man of them shall stand before you.'" So, when he saw them escaping toward their city fortresses to the south, Joshua was emboldened to call upon God and expect God's supernatural intervention. We sometimes tend to presume on God, claiming promises that God has not given or victories that are personal and selfish and not for His glory. So, a key is, is what we are asking for God's glory or is it for our glory? It is very important to know.
We have no mandate to expect God's intervention in such cases. But what about when we really are fighting for God and when we really are seeking God's glory? In cases like this, we should expect God's intervention and can call out for it. Now, it is God's choice as to when He answers, God's time is not our time. What seems like a long time to us, God has patience to wait while whoever needs to learn lessons, learns lessons. Notice that Joshua prayed to the Lord in the presence of Israel.
Joshua 10:12 Then Joshua spoke 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 still over Gibeon; and Moon, in the valley of Aijalon."
So Joshua was open about his expectations. He was not afraid of being humiliated by failure because he wanted only what God had told him would happen. He laid his belief on the line. If we do as Joshua did, we will find that God honors it as well. I would not go around asking God to stop the sun. It happened once; it has not happened since. But it would be strictly for His glory if it ever was done again, as it was before.
Although Joshua prayed for God's miraculous intervention in the battle, he was nevertheless not the least bit slack in his own responsibilities. He was a faithful and superb commander throughout the story. He was faithful in his treaty with the Gibeonites. He was creative and daring in his night march from Gilgal to attack the armies of the enemy the next morning and then once the battle was begun, he was rigorously diligent in pursuing it. He did not pull back either from fatigue or from lack of will, but continued to the very end. He was victorious and God provided him with the opportunity to achieve total victory.
Our victories may be of a very different nature, but they should nevertheless also be great faithful victories. The same God is looking over us as He looked over Joshua and His power is beyond our imagination.
One other notable feature in the operation of this day was the completeness of the defeat inflicted by God and Joshua on the enemy. Joshua all through gives us the impression of a man carrying out the will of God, inflicting a judicial sentence and inflicting it thoroughly initially so that there might be no need for a constant series of petty executions afterwards. It saved a lot of lives in the long run by doing God's complete will at that time.
When we ask ourselves and consider what we may learn from this operation, we see a valuable application of His method to our spiritual warfare. God still has enemies inside and outside of the visible church with whom we must contend. And when we are fighting with the enemy within our own hearts, leniency is our great temptation, but at the same time our greatest snare. What we need here is courage to assertively combat Satan, the world, and resist our own human nature.
And in a reference to resisting the outside world, lack of diligence and carelessness in our spiritual warfare is still our hindering sin as the church and as individual members. Our faith must increase and produce fruit. Faith without works is a dead faith. More courage is necessary in facing times of mental stress, and more initiative is necessary in confronting the spiritual challenges of life. We must not be lackadaisical.
Where does the Eternal exist? Let us draw this to a close.
Isaiah 57:15 For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: "I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."
So where does the Eternal exist? Did you notice the answer to that question? In the first part of the verse God not only has eternal life, he inhabits eternity. Eternity is a dwelling place for God. Contrast that with our human experience and we basically inhabit a three dimensional way of life—length, width, and depth. But God does not live in the same three dimensions we live in. He lives in a dimension of spirit.
His overall plan requires Him to calculate and create the vector of time for the temporary physical world. But time does not affect God in the same way that it affects us. God is called the Eternal or Self-existing One because He dwells in eternity. It is a place where time has no effect on Him. That is why Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is described as Melchizedek, being without ancestry and without beginning or end.
Hebrews 7:1-3 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated "king of righteousness," and then also king of Salem, meaning "king of peace," without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually.
For spirit beings, time has no consequence. Time has no intrinsic value in the sense that it does not change God's eternity, but it does change us. Our bodies age. We wear out physically and mentally. Human beings live in space and time. We live in length, width, and breadth, or depth. Space and distance become meaningless when you inhabit eternity with time. This is what we need to see in the mind's eye to understand about the God that we serve.
Job 42:5 [you are very familiar with this] "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You."
We have to see God by the mind's eye, not by the human eye, although that does help. Job is referring to the indistinct views we have of only hearing about God. And seeing with our eyes is not necessarily a clear picture either. Seeing is not always believing. But seeing with the clarity of the mind's eye can be crystal clear when seen with the revelation of God's truth through His Spirit.
Job viewed God, having obtained an understanding by being told of Him. His comprehension, his grasp of God was limited by only seeing the surface of what God is. Job's assessment of God before this revelation was dark and obscure. But Job finally realized the ignorance behind his own words. In his suffering, Job served God supremely, not as a stoic, but as a feeling man who had to come to terms with the mystery of God's will. God does not abandon us as we suffer, but intervenes and communicates with us at the proper at the right time.
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