“And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Yasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the Lord fought for Israel.”-Joshua 10:13-14
One question sometimes asked is how come both the sun and moon are being mentioned at the same time if we’re dealing with a daytime event here in Joshua 10?
Well, the answer is because the timing was just when the sun was about to set and the moon was about to appear.
I’m sure you’ve witnessed this phenomenon before.
In verses 13 and 14, we have the sun at a standstill over Gibeon and on the western side over Ajalon, the moon was in the beginnings of making a feint appearance.
Now there’s an interesting Hebrew word that makes a grand appearance here in verse 14.
When Joshua cries out to God begging Him for more daylight hours, we’re told that God “hearkened unto the voice of man“ (per the King James version of the Bible).
More modern translations will just say God “listened” to the voice of man.
Regardless of how it’s rendered in English, the Hebrew word being used here is SHEMA.
Do you recall what SHEMA really means?
We sure went over it enough over the past years.
Just to give you a quick recap, SHEMA does NOT mean to just sit back and passively listen.
It means to listen and then get off your butt and act on what you have heard.
And even though we no longer use the old English word “hearken”, that’s what that word means also.
“Hearken” means to listen and obey, so the King James version is probably one of the most accurate renderings in this case.
Finally, one might wonder, come on, are you telling me God really obeyed Joshua?
Well, I think there’s a bit of poetic license being exercised here.
What’s being communicated is that Joshua had great favor with the Lord and as a result carried great authority to the extent that what He requested of God, God did.
Again, think back to how the Lord mediated through Moses.
When Moses ordered some of the miracles (such as turning the Nile River into blood etc.), he didn’t necessarily have to consult God first.
He spoke and it was done.
That’s what’s happening here as well.
Joshua is speaking with the authority of God.
And of course, Yeshua also carried that same authority (not because he was literally God Himself, but because he carried the authority of God).
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