About Time

Then Joshua spoke to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, "O sun, stand still at Gibeon, And O moon in the valley of Aijalon." So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, Until the nation avenged themselves of their enemies Is it not written in the book of Jashar? And the sun stopped in the middle of the sky and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day. ~~Joshua 10:12-13 NASB

Night vision goggles were not an option in the day of Joshua. He needed more daylight to lead the Israelites to victory against the five allied kings that came against him.

Joshua led the Hebrew people into the Promised Land, but they had to fight the occupants for it. God said to Joshua, "Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands; not one of them shall stand before you." (Joshua 10:8, NASB).

The Lord fought for His people as if He were almost literally throwing hailstones from the sky at the enemy. The Israelites fought using swords. But they needed more time, specifically daylight, so Joshua spoke to God requesting that the sun stand still. God granted his request for almost a whole day.

"There was no day like that before it or after it, when the LORD listened to the voice of a man; for the LORD fought for Israel" (Joshua 10:14).

So there has never been a day like that since Joshua's request. However, man has had his attempts at taking advantage of daylight by adjusting the time, which confuses a lot of us (myself being one of them).

When the United States entered World War I, Daylight Saving Time was enacted to take advantage of the later daylight hours between April and October in effort to save energy for war production. Once again during World War II, the U.S. government required observance of the adjusted times to have more light hours. In 1966, Congress standardized the length of Daylight Saving Time. Then in 2007, the government lengthened the time by four weeks.

For me, some of the confusion comes because states and communities have the option to participate in Daylight Saving Time or not, as well as the recent change a few years ago on which Sunday the time "springs forward" and "falls back."

I confess, last weekend of October I was confused. I did not change my clocks, but as I prepared to walk out the door, my iPhone time showed it was an hour earlier. I looked in the newspaper and the internet for info about the time change. Well, my smart phone wasn’t so smart. I had to manually set it back forward. I had the right time and so glad my confusion was very temporary.

I hope you moved your clocks back yesterday and enjoyed the extra hour of sleep. God gave us time and we must live within those confines. Our government has tried to make us feel like we have more time, but regardless, we all have the same 24 hours in a day. I close with this C.S. Lewis quote about time.

Humans are amphibians - half spirit and half animal. As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time. C. S. Lewis