“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).
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