Skip to main content

Stop Pushing!


“Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in. Then the Lord said to Joshua, ‘See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in’” (Joshua 6:1-5).

On paper, that does not sound too bad, but I think the reality of it must have been different.  I can see the Israelites walking around the wall the first day saying, “Hmm, we must be scouting the place today.  That is good!  Maybe we will find a weak spot where can attack.”  I can also see the residents of Jericho looking over their walls in fear.  They had heard about what God had done through the Israelites and now there they were marching around their city.  However, there was no attack at the end of day one.  The Israelites simply went back to their camp (verse 11).

Day two starts and ends the same way; march, look, go home.

By days three, four and five I would think that “the march” would be getting old to the Israelites and really funny to the people of Jericho.

On day six I think I would have been ready to pull my sword and charge the wall by myself. 

Have you ever felt like that?  You have been dealing with some problem forever and you finally just get to the point where you can’t take it anymore and, right or wrong, you are going to do something. 

Fortunately, Joshua had a different mind-set.  He waited and learned two big lessons:
            a. In his kingdom, God does the work (See 2 Corinthians 4:5-7)
            b. God’s work comes with God’s timing..

I do not know what problems you are facing, or what your “Jericho” is, but I know this:  On the seventh day the walls fell and God’s people received an answer that they never expected or could have orchestrated on their own.

I wonder what could be in store for us if we would just learn to “wait upon the Lord” (Isaiah 40:31).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Consider This: Who Needs Worship?

  Why does God need our worship? The events of Matthew 14 provide at least one answer.   This chapter starts with the beheading of John the Baptist (verses 1-12). This is the first in a series of events that indicate things are about to become much more difficult for the believers. Next, the scene shifts to a crowd gathered on a hillside in Galilee. After listening to Jesus teach all day, the apostles realized that these people had nothing to eat. They brought the problem to Jesus. He took a child’s lunch and fed the entire group of five thousand men plus women and children. Afterwards, they picked up twelve baskets of leftovers (verses 13-21).   Then Jesus told them to get in a boat and cross the Sea of Galilee. As they went, a storm arose, and the apostles were scared. They struggled along until Jesus came to them walking on the water. Peter tried walking on the water too and sank. After Jesus rescued Peter, they got into the boat, and the storm immediately s...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Spiritual Makeover (1 Peter 1:13-16)

 Three responses to the new life God has given us.  https://youtu.be/FmqX5-3jOKc  
Post a Comment
Read more

Consider This: Something to Hold On To

      If you have never stopped to see the Swinging Bridge in Souris, Manitoba, you should add it to your list of things to do. I like it. Others do not. It feels wobbly. It bounces up and down. I have seen people in the middle of the bridge holding on and screaming because it feels too unstable. Of course, there is nothing to fear. The bridge has huge anchors at each end and is secured by steel cables, but sometimes, our feelings make us forget the facts. Peter knows that his readers are about to face some scary situations. He does not want their feelings to obscure everything else, so he outlines three truths they need to remember. First, their hope is greater than their troubles. “For a little while, you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold… may be proved genuine and result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Peter 1:6-7). Not...
Post a Comment
Read more