– The Day the Sun Stood Firm in the Sky –

– A Life Commentary –

And this is what is so exciting about this passage. That God intervened in the world’s affairs is not half as important as God wanting and willing to be involved in man’s puny affairs. The Book of Joshua clearly defies every aspect of secularism which states God is not involved in the affairs of man. We as Christians have allowed the spirit of secularism to seep into our lives so that there is little faith left. It is time we allow the Spirit of God to sweep our souls clean from this virus that only spits up doubt and mediocrity.

Battles are given to us so that we see how God both can and wants to help us through the most difficult times in life. We sometimes have sufficient faith to trust Him for some things like breathing, eating and playing squash. We are not afraid to take a breath, run or eat. We do not let fear hold us back from thinking what will happen if I put that stuff down my throat. We just have grown in our faith step by step.

Jericho and even the crossing of the Jordan were there to strengthen the faith of God’s people to trust the Lord in intervening in this world to bring about spectacular victories. Some people suggest that God only does special miracles at special times in history such as when God’s people go into the land or when the Lord was starting the church. They say that miracles are only for key times in life.

That perspective has problems. It is true that we should not regularly expect what we call miracles all the time, for in that case, there would be no such things as miracles! But more important is the fact that God will when necessary use wonderful changes from what we are used to so that He can accomplish His good and gracious will. God shows us that the chief reason for these miracles is to cause our hearts to be in awe of Him. He wants to make Himself great in our eyes. He wants our view of Him to correlate with what is true about Him. 

Let me ask a question. “Why did the Lord cause the sun to stand still in the sky?”  I would like to propose that God was delighted in how Joshua led His people in obedience and that when we step in obedience to God that He again will do special things in our lives. The problem is not whether we need miracles or that God will not provide them. The westernized church has not seen many miracles because it has stopped believing in God. They no longer believe He is relevant to them. It is sad, but anytime the church starts living apart from its head, it will soon stumble and die. Cut off a person’s head and he will not last long.   Christians in other cultures are not so secularized. They still see miracle after miracle. They imitate what we see Joshua doing. 

There are two underlying problems of our faith in this secular society. Now remember I am talking about professing Christians not the average unbeliever.

1) Self-sufficiency:  We are proud of what we can do on our own.

   a) We think we can do well on our own.

   b) We have lesser goals than God would have for us (those that are reachable)

   c) We suffer from all sorts of problems that otherwise could be solved.

2) We half-heartedly carry out God’s will.

a) We are focused on our lives rather than on God’s will.

b) We only seek God when we are desperate about our own lives.

c) We don’t really care about His will as a whole (missions, etc.).

The key to our mediocrity is our worldliness. We don’t believe we need God. How are we different than the world? Why can’t we mobilize ourselves to see beyond ourselves? Is it because we are not really Christians?

I am glad this passage is here with all its difficulties. Because it is here that we see the wonderful work of God that He wants repeated again and again. Life doesn’t have to be boring, let me assure you.  God wants to be involved in our lives. It is true, our experiences will be very different than Joshua's. That is fine. But have you ever sought what great things the Lord wants to do through your lives?

Let’s now look at two ways Joshua sought the Lord. We see a marvelous disrespect for the secularistic spirit so popular today.

1) Joshua Followed the Lord in Obedience (10:1-11);

2) Joshua Sought More From the Lord  (10:12-43).

Next > A. Joshua Followed the Lord in Obedience (Joshua 10:1-11)