The First Leap Day

One of the most fantastic stories in the bible is the day God stopped the sun for a day so that Israel could kill more people. It is told in the book of Joshua.

Israel had this pact with the people of Gibeon. Gibeon comes under attack from a coalition of kings and sends word to Israel for help. So Joshua marches the troops all night to surprise them. Joshua does indeed take them by surprise and the LORD “threw them into a panic before Israel.”

They flee down the mountain and God decides to help out .

the LORD hurled huge stones on them from the sky, all the way to Azekah, and the perished; more perished from the hailstones than were killed by the Israelite weapons.

At some point Joshua addresses God in the presence of the Israelites. He says, Stand still, O sun, at Gibeon, O moon, in the valley of Aijalon!”

(The scriptures make a reference to the Book of Jashar. These are Hebrew writings that have not survived but are referenced here and in 2 Samuel.)

Thus the sun halted in midheaven, and did not press on to set, for a whole day; for the LORD fought for Israel. Neither before nor since has there ever been such a day, when the LORD acted on words spoken by a man.

It is hard to know where to start with all of this. Obviously the sun couldn’t just stop in the sky without a great deal of other things happening. This ancient mindset of the sun rising and setting wasn’t able to take into account an earth that rotates and orbits around the sun and a sun that finds itself in a much larger galaxy in a much larger universe.

I have no problem with poetic license. I have one myself. I believe that is what this is. And if it is, then it is easier to find out what is important about the story in the eyes of the author. Obviously the main point is Israel won with the help of God, but it is more than that.

This is a point in the history of Israel in which they were living out their manifest destiny. They had the promise from the almighty that this land was their land and they would be numerous as the stars. God was on their side. So much so that He will even get in on the battle with a volley of hailstones. So much so that He will stop all the laws of nature, stop the sun, stop the earth dead in their tracks to kill off everyone to make victory possible. So much so that He would fight for one of his children over another…up to the death of the other.

That is some point of view.

~ by bart on February 29, 2008.