And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. Joshua 10:13
Today’s date – Leap Year’s February 29 – comes around only once every fourth year, so many people regard it as an extra day, although it really isn’t. In reality, it’s just another Thursday to work or attend school, or to carry out the chores of daily life. It will cost us just as much to get through today as it does every other day. I suppose it does give us an extra day, compared to last year, to brace ourselves against the bills and other obligations of the month of March. But it does raise an interesting question that we can ask of ourselves: if I was given an extra day, what would I do with it? Would I make as good use of it as Joshua and the Israelites did in our text?
The extra day in our text came about because of a great battle the Israelites were fighting against five kings of the Amorites. Those kings and their armies had attacked Gibeon because of the peace pact the Gibeonites had made with Israel, and Joshua and the Israelites responded to the call for help. They were winning the battle, but there was not enough day left to complete the victory, so Joshua called for more time, and the miracle of the long day occurred. The Israelites made use of the time to defeat their enemies. Like them, we have enemies in our spiritual warfare, but unlike them, we will never defeat our enemies in a day, not even a Leap Year. But we can recognize them, and take action against them.
The world is our enemy, with its opposition to God and its allurements to lead us away from serving our Lord. We need to live in the world, but our Bible will teach us how to separate ourselves from it to avoid its contamination, how to live as citizens of Heaven and how to serve as ambassadors for Christ.
The flesh is another huge enemy, because we reside in unredeemed bodies that are subject to the lusts of the flesh. We can’t redeem our bodies but we can submit ourselves to the leading of the Holy Spirit, Who has made our bodies His temple.
Nor can we defeat our third great enemy, the devil, although we can make him flee by resisting him (James 4:7), and by using the method that the Lord Jesus used against him: quoting and obeying the Word of God.
Just as the Israelites used their extra day to win a battle for the Lord, so we can use this day to claim victories over our enemies. – Jim MacIntosh