June 30, 2022
Daily Devotion:
"Our Incredible God… "
Joshua 10:13-14
New International Version
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!
How often do we attempt to put God neatly into a box-a box more suited to our paltry understanding rather than a box large enough to accommodate his infinite nature, were that even possible? When reading the Scriptures, it's easy to glide right past truly phenomenal acts of God. Assuming you're not in some arctic region, try to imagine the sun not setting as usual tonight. How could that possibly be! Yet the text tells us with a straight face that when Joshua asked God to extend the day, that is precisely what God did! The literal, historical fact is that, at the request of an ordinary human being just like us, the Creator God of the universe put the entire solar system on hold! What do you think? If for some reason you desperately needed twenty-four hours when the sun didn't set, would God honor your request? One of the dangers of reading about God working in such extraordinary ways is that, if we don't personally witness similar mind-boggling acts, it's easy to conclude that God is distant or dead. Or that God wound up the clock of the universe, tinkered with it for a while, then just walked away. Do we still have reason to trust that, if necessary, God would literally move heaven and earth on our behalf? Considering that the Israelites personally witnessed all those extraordinary miracles and still lacked trust, maybe God now works mostly behind the scenes. Even so, ask enough people and you'll quickly find that God is still doing the incredible!
The question to ponder is: Have I been desensitized into thinking that, just because I've never seen the sun standstill, God either can't or doesn't work in my life?
