I'm wondering about the sun and moon event in Joshua 10, and I read you short bit on it in Your Bible Questions Answered. If the event is meant to be understood as a halt in the rotation of sun and moon (earth and moon actually), I'm wondering about the absence of traces as far as we know in other people's memory and maybe science, and also why God would need to make such a spectacular and unparalleled miracle, when He took care of Israel's enemies with hailstones anyway. If I understand the Hebrew to mean that the sun and moon were just stopped from shining by weather for, say, 24 hours, it's more intellectually satisfying, but I don't know if the text really permits it. So I have a difficulty preaching strongly on the historicity of the earth's halt. Do you have an opinion? - A Christian
You make some good points. I find it interesting that the narrative in Joshua 10 is centered around a piece of poetry—don’t you? Of course there may be a scientific explanation (I would suspect it would be pseudoscientific), involving the dilation of time. One might posit that it was a miracle that didn’t violate the laws of nature, but simply worked within the physical constraints, though perhaps accelerating or decelerating time.
Considering that sun and moon were worshipped in Canaan, however, I would focus more on the aspect of idolatry. The point is that the gods of the pagans are powerless. The Lord of all nature is able to give victory to his people.
