The Longest Day

Few of God's miracles cause protests in the "scientific" community like

the account of Joshua's long day - when God made the sun and moon to stand

still. But science and modern technology have done more to verify this

phenominal biblical fact than they have to refute it.

Common sense would say it is impossible for such a major disruption to

occur and not totally destroy the precise, perfect balance in the solar

system. But given a God, who created the heavens and the earth, who

established the rotation of the planets and stars to the fraction of a

second, making the earth stop rotating for 24 hours is not such a difficult

task. Yet, computer scientists in the space program and mathematicians -

one a former professor at Yale University - have discovered that a whole

day has been unaccountably added in time.

The positions of the moon, sun, and planets have to be calculated

precisely for all space shots to avoid problems in establishing the

satellite's orbit. The orbit has to be calculated for the life of the

satellite to avoid its running into something else in space.

Using computers, scientists can tell the exact location of the planets

and their moons for years into the future. By the same means, they have

been able to backtrack and determine these specific locations in the past.

It was during one such search that the extra day appeared.

From various accounts of the incident, it appears that something "did

not compute." The extra day was just there. There was no computer

malfunction; there was no explanation for the interruption of normal time

patterns.

When this apparent error appeared and no explanation was forthcoming,

one of the scientists related that he had studied in Sunday School about

time standing still. A preposterous idea to scientists, but faced with no

other explanation, they asked him to show them the story.

In the story in the tenth chapter of the book of Joshua, Joshua had

asked God to make the sun and moon stand still to enable Joshua to defeat

his enemies. Joshua 10:13 says, "And the sun stood still, and the moon

stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies... So

the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about

a whole day."

There was the extra day that science couldn't account for. But

scientists are more exact than that. The term, "about a whole day" was not

close enough for them.

They rechecked their computers, going back to the time when the story

was written. Their calculations showed that the time the sun stood still

was 23 hours and 20 minutes. It was not a whole day. This forty minutes

was significant to the computer experts with their penchant for precision.

A missing forty minutes would throw things off for years into the future.

The former Sunday School pupil piped up again, saying he knew of

another Bible story where the sun traveled backward. This possibility was

even more bizarre than the sun standing still, said his skeptical, fellow

scientists. But they agreed to hear him out, even if only to prove him

wrong.

They got out the Book again and turned to II Kings 20 and read about

Hezekiah on his death bed. The prophet Isaiah told Hezekiah he would not

die, but Hezekiah required a sign from God. So, Isaiah proposed to have

God move the sun forward 10 degrees.

In verse 10, Hezekiah says, "It is a light thing for the shadow to go

down ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees."

Isaiah called upon God and the shadow on the sun dial moved back 10

degrees. Ten degrees is exactly 40 minutes. These 40 minutes in II Kings,

combined with the 23 hours and 20 minutes in Joshua, account forn the extra

day - the 24 God given hours that space travelers will have to include in

their calculations.

From - Christian Science Monitor & The Evangelist