We all know our calendar has 365 days on it, and we call this one complete year. BUT it actually takes earth 365.25 days to completely orbit the sun. If we kept our calendar unchanged, with no leap day, our seasons would not line up with the actual position of earth on it's orbit. The amount of time that needed to be off-set was a full day. Scientists calculated this "missing" day into our calendars to balance it out. But our Lord created our planet in a perfect orbit and said that our seasons would never end (Gen. 8:22) so what caused this "missing" day and our calendar to be out of sync? The answer is found in the Bible!
In Joshua 10:12-14, Joshua was leading the children of Israel against the Amorites. Joshua cried out to the Lord, "..Sun, stand thous still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon,...". Vs 13 says "...So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down ABOUT a WHOLE DAY." Plainly here in Scripture, the Lord recorded that the Earth stood still, since the Sun and Moon didn't move in the sky, for ABOUT A WHOLE DAY, not a full 24 hours. So this accounts for almost all of the missing 24 hour day in our Earth's orbit. BUT there is another place in God's Word, that tells us the Earth's orbit was altered.
In II Kings 20:8-11 we have recorded that King Hezekiah was sick unto death. The Prophet Isaiah came to him and said the Lord would heal him. The King asked for a sign that this would take place. In verse 9 Isaiah told Hezekiah that the Lord would either make the shadow on the sun dial, or their clocks, move forward 10 degrees or either backward ten degrees, depending on which one the king would choose. The king chose for the Lord to make the sun move BACKWARD ten degrees, which the Lord did perform, as stated in verse 11. Ten degrees on a sun dial equals 40 minutes of time. This is the last portion of time that equals out the "missing"day from our Earth's orbit. Since we know for a fact that 10 degrees equals 40 minutes of time, then Joshua's "about a whole day" was 23 hours and 20 minutes, thus equaling exactly 24 hours!!! Listed PLAINLY IN SCRIPTURE is what the world called a 'MISSING DAY.' Only the Creator of our planet, THE LORD GOD HIMSELF, could alter the orbit of it, and HE chose to! So, leap day is another TESTIMONY that the Lord HIMSELF is the One in control, and one day soon, HE will cause TIME to be NO MORE! (Rev. 10:6). So let's not waste this 'extra' day we have, and use it to the glory of the LORD!
