50 Days of Prayer – Day 15
“On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel: ‘Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.’ 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. 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!” Joshua 10:12-14 (NIV)
What a bold and audacious prayer! Joshua was a great leader, a man of faith and action, but he was also just a man subject to the same weaknesses and failures we are today. You can see the contrast when you read Joshua 9 and 10. In chapter 9, Joshua failed to pray, and it got Israel into a quagmire of trouble. He had made a peace treaty with the Gibeonites based solely on their deception of living far away from Israel when in reality they were nearby. Verse 14 said, “… they did not consult the Lord” only to discover three days later that they had been tricked. Failing to pray leads to failure.
But Joshua was a man of honor. He didn’t let this failure keep him down or thwart God’s purpose in conquering the land of Canaan as God had instructed him. He kept the treaty he had made with the Gibeonites even when they came under the threat of attack from five Southern Kings of Canaan. These five kings were angry with Gibeon for making a peace treaty with Israel and conspired against them to destroy them. When the men of Gibeon sent messengers to Joshua at his camp in Gilgal pleading for help, Joshua kept his word despite having been deceived by the Gibeonites and went to their aid. Would you have done that? It would have been so easy to let the Gibeonites die for having lied to him. But Joshua response shows his integrity. He wasn’t even slow about his attempt to rescue them! God gave Joshua this promise in Joshua 10:8, “‘Do not be afraid of them,’ the LORD said to Joshua, ‘for I have given you victory over them. Not a single one of them will be able to stand up to you.’” That was all that Joshua needed to know!
Verse 9 tells us that Joshua and his army traveled all night from Gilgal and took the Amorite armies by surprise. In the heat of the battle, verse 11 says that the Lord sent a hailstorm from heaven that killed more of the enemy than the Israelites killed with the sword! Wow! Yet, greater than the miracle of the hailstorm was what happened next!
Joshua prayed an audaciously bold prayer for God to extend the day so he could finish the battle and secure complete victory over the enemy as God promised him earlier in verse 8. Look at his prayer again: “On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel: ‘Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.’ 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. 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!” Joshua 10:12-14 (NIV)
Joshua knew that his men were tired, the day was ending, and the task was great. If night fell, the enemy may escape. He knew he needed a special act of God to enable him to claim total victory as the Lord promised, so he didn’t hold back. He prayed a bold prayer! It was the kind of prayer that demonstrated faith in a big God – a God of miracles! A miracle can only be explained by God intervening and doing that which only God can do! Have you ever asked God for a miracle in your life? Joshua needed a miracle to complete what God had told him to do and that is what he prayed for. That is a God-sized prayer! What a challenge for us to step up our prayer life! Let’s pray God-sized prayers that have no other explanation but God when they are answered! Jeremiah 31:17 (NIV) says, “Ah, Sovereign LORD, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for You.” And Verse 27 adds, “I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for Me?”
How could God prolong a day? Psalms 74:16 (NIV) says, “The day is Yours, and Yours also the night; You established the sun and moon.” If God can perform the miracle described in Joshua 10, He can perform any miracle! He is not subject to His own creation. The very God who created the laws of the universe can suspend those laws whenever, however and wherever He chooses. That’s what makes Him God! Isn’t it time, then, to begin to pray bold prayers, audacious prayers, prayers that can only be explained by God responding as only God can!