Sun Stopper, Son Slayer
Happy Summer! This has been my first post in a couple of months…perhaps my intro should be “full and spontaneous summer!…” I love the summer creature of youth ministry—new rules, new opportunities, new time schedules, same purpose. I love things swapping up; interrupting the normal flow of ministry. Patterns and routines are awesome, but beautiful are the things which rise to change and alter them.
In my studies lately I’ve restarted the book of Joshua which is both a compelling epic and an epic compilation…of places I’ve never heard before. If you’re not familiar with the story here’s a two sentence synopsis. Aged Joshua—or Moses 2.0—leads Israel from the wilderness to the promised land (the Un-Exodus) and records for us to see the deeper rhythms of Israel’s obediences and disobediences. Basically it is filled with stories of genocide, generations being literally swallowed up by the earth, and real-estate archives for the different tribes. A famous story from the book has stood out in my most recent reading—the story of the sun and the moon holding still in the sky. I feel this is a popular kids story that you’d learn in Sunday school…but it’s rather violent…so I can’t recall where I first learned of it. Jericho is definitely in there and it’s pretty brutal…Nonetheless I believe it to be a rather popular bible story, so kudos to you if you know it.
“anything that serves as a reminder of the wicked leads to sin”
To set the stage for Joshua 10 we’ll rewind a few chapters and look at the story of Achan. Achan had taken and treasured expensive stuff he found in someones house during a prior raid and commenced to hide it in his tent (and heart). God makes a very important statement in 7:13, “You cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the devoted things from among you.” In New Testament terminology this is similar to Jesus telling us to cut off an arm or leg to deal with sin and temptation. What God tells us with the story of Achan is that not only are the wicked sinful, but anything that serves as a reminder of the wicked leads to sin. If Joshua 8 is the example of what sin does then Joshua 10 serves as the extent to which God goes to help us remove sin. One is a story of warning and the other a story of warring.
Have you ever asked for more time? Maybe you were traveling in the fjords of Norway, living with potato farmers on an island and you didn’t want to have to go back to work. Or maybe you’re an architect and understand the realities of a hard deadline for ethereal conceptual work. Maybe you're having a baby and the due date is close. Maybe it’s your sister’s birthday and you still haven’t bought the gift. Have you ever asked the sun to stand still?
My attempts of late to gain more time have come from changing up my sleep schedule. I am a night owl through and through…but I have been waking up at 4 am recently for a few reasons. One, I want to see if I am disciplined enough to maintain such a schedule of life—physically, spiritually, emotionally. Two, I’ve found I am significantly more productive if I start out that early. Three, I’ve just been having difficulties staying asleep, so I’m seeing if this helps. I think workouts go better this early because by the time I wake up and realize where I am, I’m already halfway through the exercises. Other than these I’ve found no other benefits…
“*commences to watch two hours of YouTube*”
In Joshua 10, the author asks the Lord to literally hold the moon and sun in their place so that his army can destroy the wicked in the land. We ask for a lot of time for a lot of things; the surface level question that we must ask with this story is: do we request of the Lord to stop the sun so that we might slay our sin. I think many of us would have to answer the question as: “I need more time to do _______ because I had to finish the third season of Riverdale.” “If only I had more time in my day I would’ve had a longer quiet time…” *commences to watch two hours of YouTube or does two extra hours of work.* Often we are not bound to the Son because we are blinded by our sin. Slaying turns into slipping. We don’t want the sun to stop in its tracks because we don’t care to stop sin in its tracks.
All scripture points to godliness and the maturing of the believer, which includes the mortification of sin. So to leave this passage’s interpretation as simply “am I seeking to get rid of sin” would be an injustice to the weight of these words. What more can we glean? Is it odd that instead of Joshua asking for the Lord to just kill everyone, he asked for more time so that his army could do it? God delights in the fact that you and I want to kill the wickedness in us. It is a sure sign that his Spirit and the echoes of his Spirit are active in our lives. There are times where the Lord alone preserves our souls from sin and there are times where we are invited to take part.
“I will hold the moon so you can take care of today’s temptations so that you don’t taint tomorrow’s joy.”
Why pause the heavens? I believe it shows the intensity of God’s focus on our holiness and sanctification. When it comes to the godliness of a child, all other things can be put on pause. I also believe it is a picture for believers to never allow the temptations of the day, the sins of the day, to bleed into tomorrow. In a sense God says, “I will hold the moon so you can take care of today’s temptations so that you don’t taint tomorrow’s joy.” Stay up and before you sleep kill sin. Simply put, every sin is worth killing and the Lord will help us do it, especially if it means stopping the sun and moon.
But the story doesn’t stop there. The very end of the chapter describes not the example nor extent but the expectation of godly sin slaying in our lives. Verse 42 reads, “And Joshua captured all these kings and their land at one time, because the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel.” This last thought is more of a linguistic, poetic flourish, so if you are a hardcore, literal, exegetical breathing seminarian you may gloss over this one. It is amazing, the phrase “at one time.” When God comes to our rescue and redemption he does so at one time…not one at a time. In a culture plagued by to do lists, the quantification of success by box checking our lives seems to be a constantly refined, one-at-a-time artpiece. It’s a reminder that sin in our life is never to be dealt with one at a time; sin has a root and it must be dealt with at one time. Weeding only goes so far as you get the roots out of the yard. We are expected to deal with sin at one time because our example is the singular Christ who alone, at great extent to himself, dealt with sin.
Summer is a great time for sun stopping. I believe the Lord stops things in their place so that we can fight alongside him in genuine warfare. For many of us summer stops the normal rhythms of work; here’s to sin slaying day to day in the light of His great grace, mercy, and Son.