Joshua 6:2-5(NKJV)
2And the Lord said to Joshua: “See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king, and the mighty men of valor. 3You shall march around the city, all you men of war; you shall go all around the city once. This you shall do six days. 4And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets.
5It shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout; then the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people shall go up every man straight before him.”
As Israel crossed the Jordan into Canaan they were confronted with a major obstacle. The city of Jericho blocked their entrance into the promised land. They had to overcome this obstacle or they could not fulfill their destiny. We will find as we seek to fulfill our own destinies, that we will face obstacles as well. As we see how Israel dealt with Jericho, we can learn some keys to dealing with our own obstacles.
We have seen two of these keys so far. First we must recognize that in order to have the power of God at work to help us we must be on his side. He will not change in order to be on our side. Second, we must be willing to obey God’s direction even when the plan may seem to make no sense in the natural or when it is something we don’t want to do. If we won’t follow God’s plan we cannot fulfill God’s purpose.
Today we will take a closer look at this plan. This year we have been studying 3 fold principle for winning wars by faith. Moses told the Israelites at the Red Sea to “Fear not and stand still.” We understand that to stand still means to stand on the promise of God. Then God spoke and said, “Tell them to go forward.” We have seen this same principle surface as Joshua took over leadership and then as he crossed the Jordan. Could this pattern be part of the battle plan given to Joshua?
The first element of the plan is a promise. God tells Joshua, “I have given you the city.” That is the word of the Lord to Joshua. He can build his faith upon that. Next God reveals how this is going to happen. This plan is very interesting to the natural mind. As we saw yesterday it made little or no military sense. Why all the marching? Why the seven days? Why not just circle the city, blow the horns, shout and have the walls fall? What is this about?
Have you ever thought about the 7 days of marching? What were they doing in this time? I believe they must have been looking at how big and how powerful this city was. They were getting a very good picture of how tall the walls were. They could see the enemy positions. They understood the advantage the enemy had behind their walls of protection.
On the other hand they knew that they were completely exposed. They were out of range as they marched, but in order to actually take the city they had to cross that open ground exposing themselves to the enemy fire. I don’t know about you but I can tell you what my reaction would be. I would be afraid.
I believe they must have also been doing something else as they marched. This group of people has developed a pattern of faith. They knew that God said they had been given this city. I believe they were thinking about the promise of God. Day after day and trip after trip around the walls of Jericho they were doing two things. Dealing with the fear of what they faced and standing on the promise of God. Fear not and stand still.
We can take some instruction on how to do that from what the Lord required of them. He told them they could not talk as they walked. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. The normal reaction to the spectacle of Jericho would have been to talk in the ranks. They would have commented on the size and power of the city. They might have become overwhelmed with the difficulty of the situation. God said they could not speak.
I believe when we are faced with challenges and obstacles to our destiny, we need to be careful what we say. Our words are very powerful things. When we speak in line with our fears we reinforce them in our mind. We make the fear more and more real. For those marching around Jericho God simply said don’t talk at all. To us he says in James 3 that we need to use our tongues like the bit in the mouth of a horse or the rudder on a ship. Both of those things are used to set direction. We need to realize that our words are setting a course or direction for our lives. Do not let that course be set by fear and unbelief. We need to let the course be set by the promise of God.
As they marched they meditated on the promise of God to them. “Those walls are huge, but God said he has given us the city. The ground looks too open, but God said he has given us the city. I have no idea how God is going to do this but if he has given us the city it is ours!” I can see the faith building in them as they “fear not” and “stand still” on the promise.
Finally, at the end of the seventh trip around the wall on the seventh day, they hear the long blast from the trumpets. That is the moment to give voice to their faith. They shout with a mighty shout. There is a time to give voice to our faith. In Mark 11 Jesus tells us to “say unto the mountain” and the result would be that “it would obey you.” They shouted and the walls fell.
It was not the sound that somehow caused a sympathetic vibration that caused the wall to fall. It was the power of the faith of these people that brought down the walls. As you meditate on the promise of God, you will feel faith build in your heart. There will come a time in the process that you will know that you know that the promise of God is true. At that moment you must give words to your faith. You must shout to the wall or the mountain or whatever obstacle is in your way, “Get out of my way, the promise of God is bringing me through!”
The last next thing Israel did was exactly what God told Moses to tell the children of Israel. They went forward. “The people shall go up every man straight before him.” This week take a look at the obstacles before you. They may be as big as the walls of Jericho. As you look at them remember the promise of God concerning that situation. Meditate on it until you feel the faith build in your heart. When the time is right give a Jericho shout. The walls will fall and you will be free to go forward in God’s purpose for you.
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