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Ring of Truth provides 366 daily ‘proofs’ that the Bible is consistent throughout from Genesis to Revelation, and relevant for our lives today!
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2 Kings 20:10
“‘It is a simple matter for the shadow to go forward 10 steps,’ said Hezekiah. ‘Rather have it go back 10 steps.’”
Is it? Is it easier for the sun to ‘carry on its course’ or to go back? It is certainly more unusual to go back. But we are completely incapable of making it go either way.
Hezekiah, the King of Judah was replying to Isaiah who had told him from God that the illness he had would not kill him, but rather God was going to lengthen his life on this earth by 15 years. Hezekiah asked for a sign. In confirmation, God through Isaiah gave him a choice: The sun to suddenly go down in the sky or to rise.
King Ahaz had built some steps in his palace, which acted like a sundial. They told the time by the shadow on the steps and so the effect would be to add say a further 10 hours to the day or lose 10 hours. ‘Daylight-saving’ is nothing new (except, of course, this was for ‘10 hours’ rather than 1 and it happened only once).
There is another earlier reference to the sun being controlled ‘by man’. Joshua was fighting against the Amorites and He asked God to stop the sun going down until he had beaten the enemy. “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. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel!” (Joshua 10:13-14)
“Then the prophet Isaiah called upon the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow go back the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz” (2 Kings 20:11). Question: Did the sun move or did the earth stop turning? Answer: It doesn’t matter. Why? Because the Creator of the Universe can do what He likes. We may feel very strongly that in both instances it was the earth that responded rather than the sun but it doesn’t matter. Why? Because whatever took place, God performed what we see as a miracle in both instances.
But can I challenge you again? Is it easier for the sun to carry on its course i.e. going down as we call it or to rise in the same afternoon instead? Yes, of course it would be more unusual for it to rise. We rely on it going down - we take it for granted - but is it easier? Answer: No, of course not. Man is totally incapable of doing either - but God can do either equally as easily.
Listen - no matter what you are going through right now, no matter the illness, the battle or distress - Look up at the sun. Ask yourself again - who created it? Who sustains it?
Then remember, the same God who came to Joshua’s aid, the same God who showed Hezekiah and Isaiah a sign is the very same God who loves you and will come to your aid.
There was only one time when He didn’t. When the noonday sun ceased shining, when His Son bore the penalty of our sin on the Cross (see Matthew 27:20-50).
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