The Sun Stands Still

LOOK at Joshua. He is saying: ‘Sun, stand still!’ And the sun does stand still. It stays right there in the middle of the sky for a whole day. Jehovah makes it happen! But let’s see why Joshua wants the sun to keep shining.

When the five bad kings in the land of Caʹnaan start to fight against the Gibʹe·on·ites, the Gibʹe·on·ites send a man to ask Joshua for help. ‘Come to us quickly!’ he says. ‘Save us! All the kings in the hill country have come up to fight against your servants.’

Right away Joshua and all his fighting men go. All night long they march. When they come to Gibʹe·on, the soldiers of the five kings are afraid and begin to run away. Then Jehovah makes large hailstones fall from the sky, and more soldiers die from being hit by the hailstones than are killed by Joshua’s fighting men.

Joshua can see that soon the sun will go down. It will be dark, and many of the soldiers of the five bad kings will get away. So that is why Joshua prays to Jehovah and then says: ‘Sun, stand still!’ And when the sun keeps shining, the Israelites are able to finish winning the fight.

There are many more bad kings in Caʹnaan who hate God’s people. It takes Joshua and his army about six years to defeat 31 kings in the land. When this is done, Joshua sees to it that the land of Caʹnaan is divided out to those tribes yet needing territory.

Many years pass, and Joshua finally dies at 110 years of age. As long as he and his friends are alive, the people obey Jehovah. But when these good men die, the people start doing bad things and get into trouble. This is when they really need God’s help.