JOSHUA 6 - TEARING DOWN WALLS
Joshua 6
In order to enter the Promised Land, the people of God had to conquer the City of Jericho. The walls protecting the City were so high and large that the Bible says that the house of Rahab (the woman who had protected the spies Joshua had sent into the City in Chapter 2) was actually located in the wall. The archeological evidence suggests that Jericho was protected by a tapered tiered wall that was about 46 ft. tall, with the top tier being at least 6 ft. thick, and that the City had a constant water supply from an underground spring. Vs. 1 tells us that, due to fear of the coming of God’s people, who had been victorious over other Cities, the City was sealed up so that no one could enter or leave it.
In those days, the typical way to conquer a walled City would have been for the army to lay siege to the City until either the walls were breached or the City surrendered due to starvation. Yet, God had a different plan. After assuring Joshua in Vs. 2 that He had given Jericho into Joshua’s hand, He still gave Joshua instructions on how to take the City. The instructions were unconventional and made no sense humanly speaking. Instead of the traditional method of attacking the City with military might and laying siege to it until the walls fell or the City surrendered, God told Joshua to have the people march around the City once a day for (6) days, carrying the Ark of the Covenant, and with (7) priests blowing trumpets, and then on the 7thday to do that (7) times & then have all the people shout. The people obeyed God and did that, and the walls fell down.
Sometimes what God calls us to do may make no sense to us at all. Yet, we still need to follow His commands if we want to see victory in our lives.
Is. 55:8-9 tells us that God’s way of thinking and doing things is different from and far superior to ours, so we always need to listen to and obey Him, even if it does not make sense to us humanly speaking. Here, the power of God’s people worshipping and obeying Him did more than the mightiest army could have ever done, for this was an otherwise unassailable City.
Also, note that even though God had assured Joshua that the City would be given to him, he and the people still had to do their part and take the City the way God had told them to do it. While God gives to us abundantly beyond all that we could ever imagine, we still have to take and receive His gifts. This is especially true with respect to salvation. He has freely given us salvation from sin, through the work of Jesus, but we still need to receive it in order for it to be effectual. We are saved by God’s grace, but if we will not receive that grace, it will have no effect on us.
Faith is the act of personally appropriating and trusting in the free gift of God’s grace, and salvation will not happen without it.
Sometimes, like the City of Jericho, our hearts can be surrounded by thick and high walls of fear that prevent us from living the joyful life that is promised to us in Scripture as a child of God. It may be fear of failure, of being hurt, or of some calamity, or of the unknown, but because of it we seal up our hearts so that joy of the Lord never gets in and never comes out. No method known to man can destroy that fear and tear down those walls. Only the love of God, revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, can do that. By His love, the most insurmountable walls around our hearts can come tumbling down, just like the walls of Jericho, and then the joy of the Lord can freely flow into our hearts to bless us, and out of them to bless others, and maybe help bring down some walls around their hearts too.