A "Long Day" at work

By Ben

I read Joshua 10.

Just one today. I really wanted to focus in on how we as modern day Christians try to view the Bible. This issue really comes up with Joshua 10:12-14:

“The day God gave the Amorites up to Israel, Joshua spoke to God, with all Israel listening:
‘Stop, Sun, over Gibeon;
Halt, Moon, over Aijalon Valley.’
And the Sun stopped,
Moon stood stock still
Until he defeated his enemies.
(You can find this written in the Book of Jashar.) The sun stopped in its tracks in mid sky; just sat there all day. There’s never been a day like that before or since – God took order from a human voice! Truly, God fought for Israel.”

This passage definitely holds significance in the fact that God listened to Joshua. However, today’s world views that as unimportant compared to the scientific nature of this event.

A few years back, I heard a theory (I think it was on the discovery channel) that related to calendar events and astronomy. “Apparently a missing day turned up in the computer positions for the sun and moon over the past centuries. These celestial bodies were not quite where they belonged!” They realized that the positions were off by about 2 days. Some people, who were trying too hard to prove the truth of the Bible (instead of just believing it and sharing THE Truth), suggested that the missing days are accounted for in the Bible. Specifically, they bring up the instance in Joshua 10:13 and another in 2 Kings 20:11 (Isaiah proving God to Hezekiah). They say that these occurrences account for the calendar confusion.

It is hard for me, a non-astronomer to know what to think. So, I tried to search for it on the internet (a task in itself!), and found some interesting articles:

http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs/399.asp - This site called “Answers in Genesis” claims to be “an apologetics (i.e., Christianity-defending) ministry.” They are focused around proving the occurrences of the Bible through scientific fact. An interesting read…few sources though.

http://www.tentmaker.org/articles/MissingDay.html - This one is from a Universalist website. I don’t agree with his methods of explanation (he can be pretty mean), but his conclusion is valid, in that we shouldn’t be worried about proving the truth of the Bible. If we believe and share our beliefs, that should be enough. Striving at all costs for things to make sense is not a mandate of the Bible, in fact, it may be the opposite of what we know as faith (the belief in things unseen). By trying to prove Bible history, we put God in a box.