Joshua 6

Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel; none went out, and none came in. And the LORD said to Joshua: "See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king, and the mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city, all you men of war; you shall go all around the city once. This you shall do six days. And 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. It 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."

(Jos 6:1-5)

By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days.

(Heb 11:30)

FAITH AND OBEDIENCE… Today we have a beautiful picture of real faith that is patiently obedient to the LORD. A lot of times when I think of faith, I think of David charging at Goliath, or Jonathan taking his armor bearer and attacking the philistines alone. These were instances when God put something on a guy’s heart, and he ran forward with reckless abandon; clinging to God’s promise alone, risking it all for His kingdom.

Today we see faith of a different color. Faith that patiently waits, that does things that seem foolish to the natural man. SIX DAYS! For six days the Israelites left camp, circled the city of Jericho, and went home. On the seventh day, they march around the city 7 TIMES! 7 TIMES! If you ask me, that seems like the worst possible way to prepare for battle. March for miles and miles in all your battle gear, and THEN go and fight!

Joshua and the Israelites didn’t see like men see. They saw with eyes of faith, from the LORD’S perspective. Human reason could have never predicted what was about to happen… but it was exactly what God had promised. It turned out to be the BEST way to prepare for this battle, because the LORD made the walls fall down! All of Jericho knew that day that they were not fighting against mere men… they were fighting God Himself!

There are so many times that the LORD has us do things that run contrary to what we would naturally do. If we really trust the LORD, we will obey even in those difficult situations. It takes faith to wait. REAL FAITH. Faith that is able to say, “I don’t understand why LORD, but you said it and that is enough for me”. Do you have that kind of faith?