Joshua 6

Most of us have known this story since we were children, the walls of Jericho come tumbling down. I love the story, love love it, but I thought what insight will I get to blog about. I guess this isn't really new insight for me or many others but I think it's important to remember.

God told Joshua "I have already given Jericho to you." Love that He starts with that! Then God proceeds to tell him to walk around the city for seven days. On days one through six they are to walk around one time and then head back to camp. The priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant and blow their horns, the front and rear guards say nothing. On the seventh day they walk around seven times but the priests only blow the horns on the seventh time and then Joshua commands the men to shout. As they shout the walls fall down.

Okay, first, how do you think the people of Jericho acted on the seventh day? I mean for six days these people had walked around the city, blowing on the trumpets and then going back to camp. But the seventh day they are quiet for six laps. I think the people of Jericho must have known today is the day. It's kind of like the calm before the storm.

The thing that I wanted to write about, though, is the walls of the city. I am no expert but I would imagine that the trumpet blowing each day weakened those walls. They walked all the way around and blow the trumpets so I wonder if the walls started showing cracks, maybe not on day one, but maybe by day three or four. If they did, I would think the people of Jericho started to notice, especially those like Rahab, who lived on the outer wall.

How about all those feet marching around as well. Would those feet have affected the walls, maybe not on their own but coupled with the trumpets blowing. I wonder if on day seven each silent pass around the city made the cracks larger. Then the trumpets start up again as they begin the seventh pass by and those walls were probably moving by now. Then the thunder-clap shout! That shout was the finally straw for those walls. They crumbled down and the Israelites went in a killed everything, except Rahab and her family.

Sometimes God asks me to do strange things. Sometimes He asks me to do them after He has already promised the victory. They seem strange and ineffective, but they may just be like those daily trumpet blarings and feet stompings. Maybe they are cracking the walls. Sometimes He asks me to do them for along time. I think "why do I still have to do this?" Maybe because each step, each trumpet blare, each whatever thing He asks me to do is preparing the wall to crumble. I can't wait until the final time around and God says "shout!" I need to trust Him when He asks me to do the strange, the unlikely, the unpopular, maybe even the crazy thing. He has a reason. He has a purpose.

I know the Israelites get a bad rap from Christians, and not that they shouldn't, but we can learn so much from the lessons God taught them. What they go through in a physical sense we go through in a spiritual one. So I like those Israelites, because it gives me hope to know that as much as they messed up they were God's chosen people and He always kept His promises to them. He chose me and I certainly mess up a lot, but He always keeps His promises to me. Looking forward to doing some crazy things, because I believe He's gonna make some walls come down!