TODAY’S SCRIPTURE: Joshua 10:12-13

The sun stood still and the moon stayed — and hasted not to go down about a whole day

TODAY’S MESSAGE:

There is a story circulating about NASA scientists who were mapping the precise locations of the sun, moon and planets, and projecting it ahead 100 years to avoid any future problems with satellites. The computer scanned back and forth over the past and suddenly stopped, unable to continue. There appeared to be a day missing. Not a big deal, except that projecting it into the future could mean a collision between a satellite and an astronomical body.

One of the scientists remembered reading in Joshua 10, how Joshua was surrounded by the enemy and if darkness fell they would overpower them. He asked the Lord to make the sun stand still. They reworked the data and again the computers stopped because they had found only 23 hours and 20 minutes. 40 minutes were still missing. In 2 Kings they found this: Hezekiah, on his deathbed, was visited by the prophet Isaiah who told him that he was not going to die. He asked for a sign as proof. Isaiah said “Do you want the sun to go ahead 10 degrees?” Hezekiah said “It is nothing for the sun to go ahead 10 degrees, but let the shadow return backward 10 degrees.” Isaiah spoke to the Lord and the Lord brought the shadow ten degrees backward. 10 degrees on a sundial is the equivalent of 40 minutes.

Is the NASA connection true? Probably not, although it has been in circulation since 1936. Scientists would indeed have a need to map out the future locations, but they had no reason to go back in time.

But it shows God’s complete control over the forces of nature!