Now that all the furor about the recent eclipse has died down, I got to thinking. “Uh oh, here he goes.” The eclipse was a wonderous astronomical event that coincides with planetary alignment that recurs at a regular interval that is measurable and predictable. It was great to see and experience. I would say that our God created the alignment of the Universe. It should be no big surprise that it can and does occur. Then I got to thinking about planetary stuff that is unique.

 

I thought about Joshua 10:12-14. During Israel’s fight with the Amorites, Joshua asked the Lord “oh Sun stand still.” It is reported in vs 13 that in the middle of the day, it stood still for another day’s time. Whether that was a 24-hour day is a subject of conjecture, but I’m going to think it was for an orbital cycle amount of time. Other cultures than the Hebrews record an occurrence of a “long day.” What some say is an urban legend, a 23-hour 40-minute difference in the astronomical clock was noted. I don’t know about that, but it’s God’s Universe. He can do it.

 

Then I thought about II Kings 20 1-11. Old Hezekiah was dying and got the “long face” from Isaiah. Then Isaiah heard from the Lord that Hezekiah would get 15 more years. Hezekiah asked Isaiah how knew that and asked for proof. Well, the proof was that the shadow in the steps of Ahaz backed up 10 steps. People smarter than I calculate that took about 20 minutes, Again, it’s God’s Universe and He’s in control.

 

Finally, I thought about the day our Savior died. In Luke 24:44, it’s reflected that with Christ’s death cry “darkness fell over all the land.” The scriptures tell us that it was from the sixth hour(noon) until the ninth hour(3PM). Whether that was just in the immediate area or worldwide is subject to conjecture, but it did happen.

Now consider that the recent eclipse was for about 4 minutes at the most generous estimate. I ask you. How does that compare with a 23 hours 40 minutes, 20 minutes, or 3 hours. You do the math. Yes, the eclipse was awesome, but our God is more awesome. He deserves our reverence, worship, and awe. Ain’t our God great and ain’t it great to be a Christian?