Sun, Stand Thou Still!

As to the sun standing still (Josh. 10), a lady said to us lately, “Of course, that cannot be true, because it is entirely contrary to the laws of nature.” To which we replied, “Let us read it:
Then spake Joshua to Jehovah, in the day when Jehovah delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said, in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies . . . and there was no day like that before it, or after it, that Jehovah hearkened unto the voice of a man; for Jehovah fought for Israel (Josh. 10:12-14).
“That would be an impossibility,” repeated the lady, “because it would be entirely opposed to the laws of nature.” How sad to find people speaking of God as if He must be subject to any of these laws, for “with Him,” we are told, “nothing shall be impossible.” Again, we asked, “Was not the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ entirely contrary to that law of nature termed attraction of gravitation? And will not the resurrection and rapture of the saints, when the Lord comes, be also entirely contrary to all the laws of natural philosophy?” The fact is if, in our calculations, we leave out God who is omnipotent as well as omniscient and omnipresent, there is no knowing to what length of scepticism and infidelity we may go. Well did our Lord say of some, “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.”
When we remember that, for many hundreds of years after the days of our Lord, the sacred Scriptures were only made known by written copies, and how difficult it is to copy anything with perfect accuracy, and then, as before noticed, add to this the possibility of errors in translation, and also the mistaken zeal of the most upright adding or erasing what they could not but think desirable from their meager or incorrect view of a passage, it is marvelous that we have the Bible so kept and preserved from the tampering of infidelity as it has been. Difficulties we all experience as to portions of the Scriptures here and there, but to upright souls God still fulfils His own word, “I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye” (Psa. 32:8).