JOSHUA'S LONG DAY (Continued, from Page 16)
T E M P O R A L M E R C I E S A N D S P IR I T U A L B L E S S IN G S
the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? 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 to the voice of a man: for the Lord fought for Israel.” In these present days, long after all the witnesses are dead, the modernistic schools say that this is an impossible myth, and that such a thing never hap pened. To prove their case against this account, they advance three general ob jections. The first one is that this account was not written by Joshua or any of his company, but was an interpolation by later writers. The critics seek to have us believe that some nameless scribe, more than a thousand years later than Joshua, added this story to the record that he was copying. As in all the modernistic efforts to simplify the Bible by removing its supposed mistakes and ruling out the miraculous, the explana tion is worse than the so-called error! Not one iota of proof has ever been advanced by anyone to show that this was not in Joshua’s original manuscript. The account itself, however, contains absolute and scientific evidence that this was recorded by an eye-witness! Let us look at certain statements in their rela tive order. First, the sun was in the “midst” of the heavens. The word here translated “midst” is the Hebrew word “ chatsi,” which appears in the Old Testament 118 times. Of this number, it is translated 105 times by the English word “ half.” Its literal meaning is “bisection,” and it implies that the sun was at the zenith. In other words, it was high noon. Second, we note that while the sun was in the bisection of the heavens it stood over Gibeon! The sun was di rectly overhead in the center of the heaven, and right above the city of Gibeon. In the Palestinian summer the sun is between eight and twelve de degrees of absolute zenith at noon. It then rises at five o’clock in the morning, and sets at seven o’clock in the evening. Third, the city of Gibeon is in latitude thirty-one degrees and fifty-one minutes north. Remember this location, as it is of the utmost importance. If convenient, locate Gibeon on an old map, and see that this is so. Fourth, the moon was in the Valley of Ajalon. The account does not say over the valley, distinctly says in the valley. This valley was a low pass, or cleft in the hills. In the modern American West it would be called a “gun-sight pass.” It was not a distinct valley, but a depression or canyon in the hills. As the declining moon touched the horizon, it would appear literally to be framed Page Eighteen
W HEN the New England colonies were first planted, the settlers endured many privations and difficul ties, Being piously disposed, they laid their distresses before God in frequent days of fasting and prayer. Constant meditation on such topics kept their minds gloomy and discon tented, and made them disposed even to return to their fatherland, with all its persecutions. At length when it was again proposed to appoint a day of fasting and prayer, a plain, common-sense old colonist rose in the meetings, and remarked that he thought they had brooded long enough over their difficulties, and that it seemed high time they should consider some of their mercies; that the colony was grow ing strong—the fields increasing in har vests, the rivers full of fish, and the woods of game, the air sweet, the cli mate salubrious, their wives healthful, and their children dutiful; above all, that they possessed what they came for, full civil and religious liberty. And that, on the whole, he would amend their resolution for a fast, and propose in its stead a day of thanksgiving. His advice was taken from that day to this, whatever may have been the experience of New England, the old stock of the Puritans have ever found enough of good in their cup to warrant them in appointing this great annual thanksgiving day. In addition to temporal mercies, the believer can add spiritual blessings to the list of things for which he is thank ful. To enumerate a few of them: there is redemption through the blood of in the valley! This Valley of Ajalon lies seventeen degrees north of west from the city of Gibeon. So if the sun was directly above Gibeon, and the moon was in the valley of Ajalon, the moon was in the third quarter on this day of battle and was setting at the time of the cry of Joshua. The moon then rose at eleven o’clock the night before the battle and set at one o’clock the battle day. At noon, when Joshua spoke his petition and cried out to God, the moon, which would disappear at an altitude of five de grees, was just at seven degrees alti tude, or almost touching the horizon. The day of the battle is thus estab lished. It was July 22 by our calendar, or the twenty-first day of the fourth month by the Hebrew calendar. This month was called “ Tammuz,” and was composed of parts of our months of June and July. The sun’s declension then was about twenty-one degrees north, and thus about eleven degrees from the absolute zenith. No unaided eye could tell this from the exact “mid dle,” “ half,” or “chatsi” of the heavens!
Christ (1 Pet. 1:18,19); the forgive ness of sins (Acts 10.43); the free gift of eternal life (Rom. 6:23); the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit (John 14:16,17); the relationship of children to God (Galatians 3:26); and if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17); the privileges of worship and service (Matt. 4:10); the enjoyment of Chris tian fellowship (Heb. 10:25); and the glorious hope of the Lord’s return (Ti tus 2:13). If any reader is a stranger to these spiritual blessings, he need remain a stranger no longer, for they are all treasured up in Christ, who died for our sins and rose again for our justi fication. To receive Him is to receive all that is in Him. “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32.) TOM OLSON in NOW (This date is not given, of course, in the text, but it is a simple problem in chronology to figure it out from the data unconsciously given in this account of the battie.) In the interesting study of this event which was made by Prof. Totten, he sought to show that this day covered the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth days of the fourth civil month on the Hebrew calendar, and were the one hundred thir teenth and one hundred fourteenth cal endar days. He sought to show the twenty-third day of that month was the winter solstice, and reckoning back from the autumn equinox of 1896, he showed that the battle day was 3370 solar years ago. But a factor of error entered into his calculations when he placed the moon over the city of Ajalon instead of in the valley that bore the same name. The ancients kept astronomical rec ords as far back as the third century before Christ. The Egyptians seem to have kept records only of the solstices, but the Chaldeans and other ancient (Continued on Page 19) T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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