FAITH 2
There is a story in the Book of Joshua about a battle between the Israelites and the Amorites. In it, Joshua and his army were fighting, and prevailing over, the Amorites. However, even with their successes Joshua prayed and great hailstones came down from the sky, slaying many of their enemies. Joshua then became even more bold and “…spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel:
Sun, stand still over Gibeon;
And Moon, in the valley of Aijalon.
So the sun stool still,
And the moon stopped,
Till the people had revenge
Upon their enemies…”
(Joshua 10:12-13)
Such an event is so far outside our experience that many consider it to be no more than a myth; a story that really has no basis in reality. If that is the case, then how much of the remainder of the Bible might be no more than myth as well? This is the argument that some put forward while trying to deny the factuality of the Bible. However, when you really consider it all, is it any more difficult to understand how God could cause the sun to stand still than to accept that the entire universe, with its trillions of galaxies, each with billions of stars, could have developed from a singularity the size of a dot and in an instant?
That singularity is the scientific explanation for the Big Bang Theory. But does it not take just as much faith to accept and believe such an explanation as it does to believe that a loving God could create what we see and experience by His word? It requires faith to believe in either of the two scenarios presented above but only one is apparently given any credence by science and, therefore, only one is widely proclaimed today. Faith, however, is essential to both and when one examines all the evidence, it’s at least as easy to believe the universe was created by God instead of just exploding into existence by accident.
One must have faith in this existence. Faith in a system by which everything just happens. We either live, die, and cease to exist in a godless vacuum, or we exist in a world and universe that were created by a living God who can cause, by His Word, everything to happen. He, therefore, can cause the sun to stand still as well as the other miracles recorded in the Bible - “For with God nothing will be impossible” (Luke 1:37).
If nothing is impossible, then causing great hailstones to fall from the sky or the sun to appear to cease movement should be only child’s play to such a God. Certainly it would take little for Him to create a persona and come to earth as a human (if He so inclined to do so), as a means to reconcile Himself with us. To say He could not, or would not, do so means that we are putting a limit on what He is capable of.
To live, to die, and to cease to exist, therefore, can become to live, to die, and to live again forever if we accept that which God puts forth in the Bible. He, who created and controls all, came to earth in such a way (and for the purpose of) showing us that He still cares for us, even in our general disbelief. We, thus, must have the faith to believe that the stories and miracles reported in the Bible are true and the faith to accept as fact that Jesus came to earth in love, if we are to reap the promises that He made to us. We must keep the faith for “…without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).
Faith in a God who can move mountains, cause the sun to cease movement, and allows us to have life eternal; it’s something we should always pray for and think about.
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