Five Amorite kings and their soldiers are coming against Gibeon for siding with Joshua, and the LORD tells Joshua to ‘fear not’ because He will deliver them into Joshua’s hand (Josh. 10:8). Then the LORD rained down ‘great stones’ (#1419 – gadol – big, large, mighty / #68 – eben – a building stone, headstone, masonry stone, hailstone). These were very large; large enough to kill a man! These were not the ones bouncing off your windshield, but rather the ones crashing through your windshield and roof and killing you! More men died from the hailstones than from the swords and spears of Joshua’s men.

Then Joshua uttered a prayer that no man since his day has ever attempted to utter, to our knowledge. “Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon, and thou moon, (remain) in the Valley of Aijalon.” (Don’t move!) God answered Joshua’s prayer, and they remained just as he asked. This is recorded in the book of Jasher, for a whole day. (Have fun with that one; astronomically and clock-wise!) Joshua 10:14 says, “And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD harkened unto the voice of a man; for the LORD fought for Israel.” And He still does today, almost 4,800 years later. Don’t mess with the ‘apple of His eye!’ He promised to bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel. Talk to me sometime! I would love to share my personal testimony with you, personally! What a mighty God we serve!

Books have been written on this passage about the sun and moon standing still for a whole day. Also, after 50 years in the ministry I have seen God do some pretty miraculous things in His church. Not 40 lb. hailstones crashing through your windshields and roofs, but ice storms to just about shut down annual congregational meetings and leave us a quorum to vote in business for the next year. It’s HIS church, after all!

Prayer is the key to unlock heaven’s door and God’s heart – PRAYER! Why don’t we major in it? I am 80, not 180, but I can still remember mid-week prayer meetings when the church showed up TO PRAY! We had prayer lists, and you could share prayer requests and add them to the list. We had a short Bible study or devotional and we sang some hymns. You gave a testimony how God was working in your life, or an answer to prayer that week, and we sang your favorite hymn, first and last verse. We have sr. pastors, assoc. pastors, youth pastors, senior’s pastors, music pastors, but no prayer pastors. How sad. I also was told in Bible college that ‘prayerology’ had never been written. That’s sad too. We have a lot of books on prayer, but nobody has ever written Prayerology. In fact, to my knowledge, I don’t know of any Bible college or seminary that teaches Prayer as an accredited subject.

Joshua stopped the sun and the moon with his prayer. I can’t even stop a rabbit running across my yard in the morning. I’m writing a series of books right now on prayer, Portraits of Prayer. It’s my feeble attempt at ‘Prayerology.’ I don’t know how far I will get, maybe to the prophets. I hope my girls will pick up my pen and keep going after I’m gone. So, maybe we’ll have an ‘Anthology of Prayer’ at least. That word, anthology, is made up of two words: anthos and logia. Anthos is a collection of things (sayings, poems, stories, flowers, legends, cliches, or pieces). Webster says anthos is from the Greek word for gathering flowers. Logia is from the Greek word for collecting. So, an ‘Anthology of Prayer’ is simply going into God’s prayer garden and collecting a bouquet of His prayer flowers to plant in your prayer garden! What could be more precious? So, have your basket and your shears ready as we journey through God’s ‘Prayer Garden’ together. I’m not the expert, God is! I am just your guide. So, grab a pen and a notebook and let’s go for a walk through His Prayer Garden.

First off, the sun does not rise and set. It is stationary in our solar system. The earth rotates around it in 365 and a quarter days. That’s why we have leap year or February 29th every four years. Didn’t Joshua know that? Does it matter? The Bible is inspired; God-breathed – theopneustos – ‘breathed out!’ God said it; I believe it; and that settles it! How about you? Every jot and tittle! I don’t question it. I just read it, study it and heed it – because I need it! There is a lot in these 1400 pages I don’t understand, but that doesn’t bother me. What bothers me the most is what I do understand and fail to do anything about. That bothers the heck out of me! Do some private study on the implications of this verse scientifically. It’s very interesting! Books have been written on it. The long day = the long night on the other side of the world. Jesus’ prayer in John 17; Jonah’s prayer in Jonah 2; and Joshua’s prayer in Joshua 10 all show us that God’s middle name is ‘Impossible!’ Or should I spell that ‘I’m – possible?’ How about May 25th, 2025, when I wrote my grandson’s name, Luke Stephen Furches, in my Bible next to Psalm 18:10 and prayed God’s word back to Him, claiming that promise all day as Luke flew to upstate NY to take his private pilot’s license test again. Then I wrote my name in that verse as I was reapplying for 100% disability from the VA for my time in Viet Nam in 1966-67 with the USMC. He called at 5:00 pm to say he passed, and Ann brought me a letter from the VA saying my disability was approved for 100% total and permanent. They weren’t 40 lb. hailstones, but they might as well have been. They were mighty miracles for both of us. May 25, 2025 will be a day we will remember forever – when the impossible was made possible by the God of the impossible!

Mark Batterson said, “Bold prayers honor God, and God honors bold prayers. If your prayers aren’t impossible, they are insulting to God.” God is moved by the amount of faith you bring to your prayer to Him! In Exodus 14, we see God fighting for the Israelites. As they march forward, God provides a light in front of them to guide them and darkness behind them so that the enemy can’t advance on them. I have a note written in my Bible next to this passage listing 7 different ministries where I saw God do this exact thing for us in different ways. He is the same yesterday, today and forever!

I’ll see you next time, between the lines, as we look at Caleb, the son of Jephunneh and Joshua’s bosom friend, who inherits Hebron at 85 years old, from a ‘worm’s eye view.’ I can’t wait! He is 85 and fighting hand to hand combat with a sword! I’m 80 and having trouble opening a jar of pickles in the kitchen!

**All numbered words coordinate with the Strong’s Concordance and its definition.**

Till next time – between the lines!

Pierced Hand Publications (piercedhandpublications@gmail.com)

Roger T. Boguski