What Really Brought Down the Walls . . .
Joshua 6:1-2 (NIV)
"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.'"
I have small children, ages 8, 6, and 5. They love to
listen to Bible stories on tape as we travel in our van.
Every now and then, however, some of these tapes contain
small errors. They teach the children something that
does not truly agree with what the Scriptures say, or leave
out details that are important to fully understanding the
story's meaning. We were listening to a story about
Joshua and the battle of Jericho, and one of my children was
talking about how the Israelites made the wall fall down by
shouting. It wasn't clear from the tape what caused
the wall to fall down, so I stopped the tape to explain to
my children the truth. What surprised me was how
difficult it was to
convince them that it was not the force of the shout and the
sound of the trumpets that knocked down the wall!
They'd heard the story over and over, and were sure that
because the Israelites marched and shouted the wall "came a
tumblin' down". It made me wonder: Do other
people believe that? Was this one of those miracles in
the Scriptures that could be explained away by logic?
What is God wanting me to learn from this situation?
I thought a little history about Jericho and the wall would
give me a better idea of what the Israelites were up against
and what was at stake. I found out that the city of
Jericho was one of the oldest cities in the world.
It's walls were fortified, and in some places 25 feet high
and 20
feet thick! It was a symbol of power and strength to
the Canaanites, and they thought it to be invincible.
If the Israelites could defeat Jericho, it would put the
rest of the people and kingdoms in that area into fear and
confusion and make the conquering of the remainder of the
land easier. This was also the Israelites first battle
in the Promised Land, and would set the tone for the rest of
their campaign. They had defeated King Sihon of the
Amorites and king Og of Bashan before crossing the Jordan,
and another victory would keep the momentum going for the
taking of Canaan.
I also took a look at some of the various ideas about what
made the wall fall. One proposal guessed that there was a
structural flaw in the wall. The vibrations created by
the marching and the shouts of the people caused a breech in
the wall large enough for Israel's army to march through.
One "scholar" speculated that if 40,000 soldiers (see Joshua
4:13 and 6:3) marched in unison around a structure the size
of the wall of Jericho that they could literally shake the
walls loose enough for a
shout and blasting trumpets to cause the wall to cave in.
There's only one problem with explanations like these -
where does faith and obedience come in? Where is the
power of God? All throughout Scripture God performs
the miraculous on the basis of the faith and obedience of
His people. You just can't explain away the wonder
working power of our Almighty God!
So, after all the research, I came to my original
conclusion. GOD MADE THE WALL FALL! It was the
faith of the Israelites, and their obedience to God's unique
instructions, that were the catalyst for God to release His
power and knock down the wall. Their marching and
shouting had no physical effect on the wall. God
simply did as He promised in Josh. 6:2 - delivered Jericho
into the Israelites hands!
I think what God showed me is that I often waste too much
time thinking about my circumstances and lose sight of the
fact that God is in control. HE has the all the
resources that HE needs to bring what HE wants to pass!
What He requires of us is that we have faith and believe He
has our best interests in mind. The Israelites wasted
39 years in the desert because they were terrified of their
enemy!
If you read the account of the twelve spies sent into Canaan
(Numbers 13-14) you find that two of them, Joshua and Caleb,
came back with a glowing report of the land's richness.
They believed that the Israelites should go immediately in
and take the land. The other ten agreed with
them about the how good the land was, but they saw that
giants were living in the land and were scared of them. They
didn't think the people of Israel could defeat that enemy,
and they were right! But God had told them to go in
and take the land. It was a command. If God
commands something, He can and will bring in any miracle
needed to bring it to pass! The people forgot what God
had promised - that He had already given them the land - and
chose to rebel and believe the negative report. They didn't
have the faith to simply obey God's command and were then
forced to wander in the desert. Of the Israelites who
were adults when they left Egypt, only two made it to the
promised land - Joshua and Caleb. This week God showed
me many ways in which I am simply afraid and not trusting
Him, where I am not trusting in the promises He made.
He led me to read Habakkuk 2:4, "...but the righteous will
live by his faith".
One more thing God showed me - He sustains those who are
faithful. Not even Moses was allowed to enter into
Canaan, because He broke faith with God at Meribah Kadesh.
Joshua and Caleb believed God when the majority were against
them, and God honored that faith. Caleb became the
leader of his tribe, Judah, and at age 85 led his people in
conquest of the most difficult area of the country to
defeat, the mountainous region around Salem, later known as
Jerusalem. Joshua became Moses' successor, and led the
Israelites in the conquest of Canaan. All because they
had faith when no one else did, and continually walked by
faith as the Scriptures teach us to do.
Is their a "wall" in your life? A "giant"? Don't
give up! Don't despair! Oh saints of God, don't
be afraid!! If we are faithful to God, if we walk in
His will, if we remain obedient, then our enemies have about
as much chance of standing against us as the wall of Jericho
did against the Israelites! Let God have control of
the situation and control of you, and He'll meet your need
more than you could ask or imagine. And when it
happens, remember that God used your obedience in faith to
release His power and blessing. Don't get trapped in
what you think you know, or be fearful of what you think
might happen - stand on the truth of God's Word! Don't
listen to what the world says, or the traditions of man or
the church! We hear them over and over and, like my
children, sometime begin to believe something that does not
agree with the truth of the Scriptures. Learn to put
everything up against the truth of God's Word, and get rid
of anything that doesn't measure up. Let God's truth
hold captive your every thought. Let Him sustain you.
Let His Word and the Holy Spirit guide you, and watch as the
"walls" in your life turn into victories, trophies of grace
and faith!
Singing for the Audience of One.......Tom Hacker