Not Magic

             The Gibeonites then sent word to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal: “Do not abandon your servants. Come up to us quickly and save us! Help us, because all the Amorite kings from the hill country have joined forces against us.”

So Joshua marched up from Gilgal with his entire army, including all the best fighting men. The Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to withstand you.”

After an all-night march from Gilgal, Joshua took them by surprise. The Lord threw them into confusion before Israel, so Joshua and the Israelites defeated them completely at Gibeon. Israel pursued them along the road going up to Beth Horon and cut them down all the way to Azekah and Makkedah.  As they fled before Israel on the road down from Beth Horon to Azekah, the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them, and more of them died from the hail than were killed by the swords of the Israelites.

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!

Then Joshua returned with all Israel to the camp at Gilgal. Joshua said to them, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Be strong and courageous. This is what the Lord will do to all the enemies you are going to fight.” Then Joshua put the kings to death and exposed their bodies on five poles, and they were left hanging on the poles until evening. (Joshua 10:6-27)

What an exciting (but long for a blog) narrative. We aren’t told how long after the Gibeonites got their treaty that the treaty became a burden to the Israelites, but probably not long. We don’t know what Israel was doing during the interval, but the Gibeonites sent messengers to Israel, calling on them to fulfill their word.

Joshua pulled together the army and marched through the night. By the time they got to Gibeon, the Jews had been up for 24 hours and had spent part of it in a forced march. They surprised the five Amorite armies, and in the midst of the fighting, Joshua called on the sun and the moon to stay where they were so they could finish their task. The sun remained in the sky for “about a full day.” That means the Israelites were awake for probably 56 hours or more. The Amorites were up for at least half of that. Perhaps one or both armies rotated their troops in and out so they could eat and sleep. Perhaps God not only stopped the sun but also provided strength to the Israelites. We don’t know that, but we do know that God killed more of the Amorite armies with hail than the Israelites killed in 36 hours.

Maybe God told Joshua to command the sun to stand still. Maybe Joshua was just responding to the excitement or stress of the battle.  What Joshua does is unexpected. What God does is even more unexpected. In fact, those writing about the event make it clear that nothing like this happened before, and nothing like it has happened since. And this is where I run into difficulty with the claim on the part of some that people who believe in God believe in magic.

The idea behind magic is that though the application of one’s will and certain formulae, one can manipulate the forces of the universe, producing the effect one desires. This makes is akin to science. With science and magic, if you do X in a certain way, under prescribed conditions, you get Y. I am not saying that science and magic are the same thing, but they operate on the same principles. If this account included magic, then I should be able to go outside and say, “Sun, stand still over _______,  and you, moon, over ______” and they would do so every time. I might have to do things leading up to this event, but if I have performed the right actions in the right order, under the right conditions, and using the right words, the universe would have no choice but to obey.

Scripture acknowledges that this isn’t the case in this account. History acknowledges that this isn’t the case in this account. Science acknowledges that this experiment does not produce the same results outside of this account. The whole event is not only unexpected, but also unexpectable. It was and is not magic.