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According to Joshua 10: 9-15, Joshua asked God to stop the sun in the sky. Both the sun and the moon stopped for some hours, during a battle. God assured that the Israelite army would have enough light to pursue the enemy.
The story is a bit puzzling. According to the Book of Joshua, the enemy was already in retreat, apparently disorganized retreat, not to say retreating in panic, when God worked the miracle. God had already thrown "them into confusion before Israel" before Joshua asked God to stop the sun and the moon. One would think that God would save such an extraordinary miracle for a time when it was needed. God stopped the sun in the sky so that the attacking Israelites would have light. It is not clear why Joshua also asked God to stop the moon, which may have been only a crescent moon, or why God bothered to do so. Of course, it makes good poetry.
“Sun, stand still over Gibeon,
and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”
Some think that the event was really an eclipse, and only a confused or exaggerated account made it sound like a world-stopping miracle. This is the modern scientific view. It does explain why the sun and the moon are both mentioned in this passage.
Creationists accept the account as written.
9 After an all-night march from Gilgal, Joshua took them by surprise.10 The Lord threw them into confusion before Israel, so Joshua and the Israelites defeated them completely at Gibeon. Israel pursued them along the road going up to Beth Horon and cut them down all the way to Azekah and Makkedah. 11 As they fled before Israel on the road down from Beth Horon to Azekah, the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them, and more of them died from the hail than were killed by the swords of the Israelites.
12 On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel:
“Sun, stand still over Gibeon,
and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”
13 So the sun stood still,
and the moon stopped,
till the nation avenged itself on its enemies,
as it is written in the Book of Jashar.
The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. 14 There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!
15 Then Joshua returned with all Israel to the camp at Gilgal.
--Joshua 10: 9-15 NIV
A creationist view:
"In fact, the mention of the moon also standing still seems to confirm both the divine authorship of the account and the fact that it is the Earth which moves. Since all Joshua needed was extra sunlight, and most ancients believed the sun moves, not the Earth, a human author of a fictitious account would only have needed to refer to the sun stopping."
This is from an article by Russell Griggs on Creation.com. He has it completely wrong. If the earth stopped rotating and stood still, the sun would stop in the sky but the moon would keep moving. Look at the solar system, or the sun, earth and moon as a system. The sun is stationary, so if the earth stopped rotating, it would stand still in the sky. The moon, in contrast, is not stationary, it is rotating around the earth, so the moon would keep moving. For both the sun and the moon to stand still in the sky, God would have to do at least two miracles, stop the earth's rotation and stop the moon in its orbit. As I said earlier, if God is trying to help the Israelites in battle, why would God stop the moon, which has no bearing on the battle?
Creationists such as Russell Griggs are under the impression that the earth's rotation could be stopped without any particular consequences.
What would happen if the earth's rotation stopped, even gradually, has been scientifically modeled by ESRI, the Environmental Systems Research Institute. ESRI concluded that a stopping of rotation would cause "devastating earthquakes" as the earth's crust adjusts to the lack of centrifugal force. The result would be "two large polar oceans" and "a huge equatorial megacontinent." The actual consequences of earth's rotation being stopped, even briefly, would be catastrophic and irreversible.
Did God stop the sun and moon at Joshua's request? For myself, as a Christian, it makes more sense to believe that God's greatest miracle is in the New Testament. The resurrection of Jesus is the greatest miracle in the New Testament, and it points to the Divinity of Jesus.
Link to Creationist site:
Joshua’s long day - creation.com
Link to ESRI, Environmental Systems Research Institute
If the Earth Stood Still
The story is a bit puzzling. According to the Book of Joshua, the enemy was already in retreat, apparently disorganized retreat, not to say retreating in panic, when God worked the miracle. God had already thrown "them into confusion before Israel" before Joshua asked God to stop the sun and the moon. One would think that God would save such an extraordinary miracle for a time when it was needed. God stopped the sun in the sky so that the attacking Israelites would have light. It is not clear why Joshua also asked God to stop the moon, which may have been only a crescent moon, or why God bothered to do so. Of course, it makes good poetry.
“Sun, stand still over Gibeon,
and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”
Some think that the event was really an eclipse, and only a confused or exaggerated account made it sound like a world-stopping miracle. This is the modern scientific view. It does explain why the sun and the moon are both mentioned in this passage.
Creationists accept the account as written.
9 After an all-night march from Gilgal, Joshua took them by surprise.10 The Lord threw them into confusion before Israel, so Joshua and the Israelites defeated them completely at Gibeon. Israel pursued them along the road going up to Beth Horon and cut them down all the way to Azekah and Makkedah. 11 As they fled before Israel on the road down from Beth Horon to Azekah, the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them, and more of them died from the hail than were killed by the swords of the Israelites.
12 On the day the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord in the presence of Israel:
“Sun, stand still over Gibeon,
and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.”
13 So the sun stood still,
and the moon stopped,
till the nation avenged itself on its enemies,
as it is written in the Book of Jashar.
The sun stopped in the middle of the sky and delayed going down about a full day. 14 There has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!
15 Then Joshua returned with all Israel to the camp at Gilgal.
--Joshua 10: 9-15 NIV
A creationist view:
"In fact, the mention of the moon also standing still seems to confirm both the divine authorship of the account and the fact that it is the Earth which moves. Since all Joshua needed was extra sunlight, and most ancients believed the sun moves, not the Earth, a human author of a fictitious account would only have needed to refer to the sun stopping."
This is from an article by Russell Griggs on Creation.com. He has it completely wrong. If the earth stopped rotating and stood still, the sun would stop in the sky but the moon would keep moving. Look at the solar system, or the sun, earth and moon as a system. The sun is stationary, so if the earth stopped rotating, it would stand still in the sky. The moon, in contrast, is not stationary, it is rotating around the earth, so the moon would keep moving. For both the sun and the moon to stand still in the sky, God would have to do at least two miracles, stop the earth's rotation and stop the moon in its orbit. As I said earlier, if God is trying to help the Israelites in battle, why would God stop the moon, which has no bearing on the battle?
Creationists such as Russell Griggs are under the impression that the earth's rotation could be stopped without any particular consequences.
What would happen if the earth's rotation stopped, even gradually, has been scientifically modeled by ESRI, the Environmental Systems Research Institute. ESRI concluded that a stopping of rotation would cause "devastating earthquakes" as the earth's crust adjusts to the lack of centrifugal force. The result would be "two large polar oceans" and "a huge equatorial megacontinent." The actual consequences of earth's rotation being stopped, even briefly, would be catastrophic and irreversible.
Did God stop the sun and moon at Joshua's request? For myself, as a Christian, it makes more sense to believe that God's greatest miracle is in the New Testament. The resurrection of Jesus is the greatest miracle in the New Testament, and it points to the Divinity of Jesus.
Link to Creationist site:
Joshua’s long day - creation.com
Link to ESRI, Environmental Systems Research Institute
If the Earth Stood Still