Thursday, March 9, 2017

Where the Moon Stopped


I'm in the beautiful city of Ajloun, Jordan in the region of Gilead. I don't know what took me so long to think of this, but I finally looked in Scripture for a reference to Ajloun. To my surprise, I found that an amazing event happened here.

The sun stood still and the moon stopped.

Joshua had captured Ai and made peace with the inhabitants of Gibeon. When the king of Jerusalem heard the news, he joined up with four other kings to attack Gibeon. 

The men in the city sent word to Joshua that they were under attack and asked him for help.

He sought God on the matter, and He made a bold promise: "Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hands; not one of them shall stand before you." (Joshua 10:8)

With a stunning victory assured, Joshua and his warriors marched all night to get there. 

They fought a ferocious battle, and God threw giant stones at the enemy soldiers. More died from the hailstones than from the hand of Joshua's army. 

If I understand this passage correctly, Joshua needed a little more time to finish annihilating the enemies, so he prayed a huge prayer.

"Let the sun stand still and stop the moon until we get this done." (That's the Leanna paraphrase of Joshua 10:12)

That's what happened. The sun stood still "for about a whole day" and the moon didn't rise.

That great miracle happened, according to Joshua 10:12, in the valley of Ajaloun. 

Every morning, as I look out at the valley below, I see the very place where the moon stopped and the sun stood still. The valley where God threw rocks at the enemies of His people.

I don't know if the stones were made of ice or rock, but they were enough to kill a man. As I look at the rocky soil and the huge rocks lying everywhere, I have to wonder... are these the stones that God threw?

We'd appreciate your prayers today. Our team is preparing for the missionary retreat that starts in a few days. 

I'm not asking for giant stones from the sky, but I am asking that the enemy would not be allowed to stand before us and that victory for the progress of the gospel will be assured. 

Thanks in advance for your prayers.

Leanna
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ps - it took so long to get wifi today that we had already had the first day of the retreat and so many good things happened. It's 11 pm here, so I'm sending this on and will update tomorrow.
also, i can't get wifi for long enough to sync phone photos with computer... so I'm using what I have :) 





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