Those who expect the Word of God to contain only pious stories may be shocked to discover that it opens doors to reveal what is beyond human comprehension. It challenges the reader to admit that there is much one needs to learn.

Foolish is the person not willing to learn from his Creator. Our Bible passage allows us to consider something that transcends the boundaries of human science. Here we learn that at one time in history, the sun stood still—and so did the moon.

Five Amorite kings banded together to stop the Israelites from their conquest of the Promised Land. Following an all-night march, the Israelite army surprised the Amorites and began to push them back.

The Lord stepped in with large hailstones that pounded the enemy. When Joshua saw that survivors could escape when night fell, he called for God to take unprecedented action: “Stop the sun in its path so that we can finish the battle!”

The Sacred Record reads: “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 man” (Joshua 10:13,14).

The sun waited for God’s people to gain the victory.

How could this happen? Did the earth stop its rotation? Were the sun and moon made to synchronize with the world’s rotation and not move across the sky?

We don’t know. As citizens of the 21st century, how do we explain this?

The same way that God’s people of the Old Testament did. A prophet who lived long after this event declares: “LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, LORD. Sun and moon stood still in the heavens at the glint of your flying arrows, at the lightning of your flashing spear. In wrath you strode through the earth and in anger you threshed the nations” (Habakkuk 3:2,11,12).

This was the work of El Shaddai—God Almighty! It shows his power over all things and protection for his people. With him, nothing is impossible!

We hear the citizens of heaven proclaim the same truth: “Great and awe-inspiring are Your works, Lord God, the Almighty” (Revelation 15:3).

We can only stand in awe of the almighty God. We do so with respect and appreciation. It astounds us that he would use his power on behalf of those who sometimes doubt his power and love.

Yet, the Bible contains many accounts of divine intervention. We think of the crossing of the Red Sea, the angels sent to a fiery furnace and to a lions’ den in what is now Iraq—and then the opening of prison doors in Jerusalem.

But Golgotha is where his most incredible rescue took place.

Under that dark sky, Jesus announced, “It is finished.” The war against sin, death, and the devil was won.

We can live forever. Our souls will fly to glory. Our bodies will rise from our graves.

If ever we begin to doubt it, we merely need to remember Joshua.

And the day that the sun waited.