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.”

 “that all the people shall shout with a great shout; THEN the wall of the city will fall down flat.The wall didn’t come down until AFTER they shouted!

 Let me remind you……..Jericho was well fortified. It is estimated that it was approximately 8 to 9 acres in size with not one, but two sets of protective walls around it. The city itself was built upon a mound with a wall that was 20 to 30 feet high and almost as thick around it. Then at the bottom of the bank, another wall had been build for added protection. From ground level, the top wall may have been eight to ten stories high. Totally, absolutely, completely and utterly impossible. Jericho stood between them and all that God had promised. A smart man would say, “No way,” and walk away. Sometimes like the famous song of Kenny Rogers…you just gotta “know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em.” But not these men! They believed God and took Him at His word no matter how out of the ordinary it was. Do you know sometimes God will ask you to do something so out of the ordinary, so out of character that you will wonder, is this You God. Sometimes He has to take us out of our comfort zones to get our attention.

 But I digress, back to my story. In addition, this city had a continuous source of fresh water coming into it and archaeologists have discovered vast amounts of earthen jars filled with grain. Normally an enemy would attack a city like Jericho by building a siege ramp around it so that they could march over the walls. Therefore, those inside had to be prepared to hold up for maybe a year or more. The jars are still full because it didn’t take six months to a year to defeat Jericho. It only took one week! One shout in unison! I could write a whole nuther blog on just that statement….one shout in unison…but that’s for another time. *smile*

 God has a plan for every problem and He has the power to see that His plan always gets done. However, what’s often lacking is our patience to wait upon God and His perfect timing. God could have torn the walls down on the first day, but He didn’t. Nor did He do so on the second day, or the third, fourth, fifth, or sixth day. Joshua and the people could have prayed until they were blue in the face, but it wouldn’t have hurried the will of God. It was God’s will for the walls to come down on the seventh day, after the people had compassed the city seven times. If Joshua and the people had decided at any point that they had a better plan that could have hurried things along, they would have failed. God brought the walls down with nothing more than a shout. I’m sure the Israelites thought they had to build weaponry or prepare for a siege in order to attack Jericho. When Joshua told this plan of God to the Israelites, I expect that some of them thought, “Are you sure you heard God right on this one?”

 This is a reminder that if God calls us to do something, God also makes it possible for us to follow through with that command. In other words, it took an act of faith for the Israelites to accept Joshua’s plan and carry it out, but the Israelites did it. In fact, this story of the walls of Jericho falling down is mentioned in Hebrews (Chapter 11, Verse 30). That chapter lists great acts of faith in God in the bible.

 The point to you and I is, if God asks us to do something “special”, we’ll know God is behind that plan if He makes it possible for us to follow through with that plan. I remember when my niece’s little girl was ill with a fever, very sick. She and her husband sat around the bed laying hands on the child and praying and even anointed her with oil. While praying the Lord spoke to my niece and told her to give the child a glass of orange juice. She thought it was odd but had faith in the voice of God and immediately obeyed. The child drank the orange juice and the fever left her almost immediately. Reminds me of some other odd requests made by God….go wash thyself in the River Jordan 7 times and when He made mud pies out of his spit, covering the eyes of a blind man and gave him his sight. Honey, if the Lord tells you to do something, do it even if it’s to walk around your mountain instead of tearing it down. Some people think they have to go over their mountain or speak it out of existence but sometimes God will require you to just walk around it for a week……. and then shout it down. Sometimes your greatest miracle is behind your shout! I’m reminded of another story…..the sons of Israel arose, went up to Bethel, and inquired of God and said, “Who shall go up first for us to battle against the sons of Benjamin?” Then the LORD said, “Judah shall go up first.” Judah mean praise, if you’re facing an enemy you think is too big for you to hande….just praise, shout and keep walkin!

 ‘Now let’s think about this plan from the guards on the walls of Jericho. I’m sure that the first time the Israelites marched around the wall, the city guards just stood there in shock at what the Israelites were doing. I’m guessing that beginning the second time, or the third time at the worse, the guards on the walls were laughing and yelling out insults at the Israelites. More likely, by the third time, they were throwing things down at the Israelites. I even wonder if they were firing arrows down at them as they marched around the city….still they walked.

 For those of you familiar with the children’s cartoon “Veggie Tales”, they did a cute production of this scene. In the cartoon, the guards of Jericho were throwing down “slushies” at the Israelites. (A “slushie” is a flavored frozen drink.) I suspect in real life, the men in Jericho were throwing down things that were much more deadly.

 My point here is that it took a real act of faith for the Israelites to do this day after day in silence. God commanded the Israelites not to say a word until the command came for everyone to yell out after the seventh trip on the seventh day. I’m sure it was tempting for everyone to yell out as they were marching around the city day after day, or at least to react to whatever was being thrown at them. I wonder how many of us could ignore the insults, the gossip, the hurtful things that are said to break us and just keep walkin’. They didn’t grumble about sore feet, dirty clothes or being lonely or why me Lord. Where you at Lord, can’t you hear those nasty things they are saying bout me, don’t you care. C’mon Lord, you’re God, is there anything you can’t do? Snap your fingers and bring these walls down and give these men to us. We want it right now not 7 days from now. No! They kept their mouths shut and kept walking! Reminds me of another time a man was being ridiculed, laughed and jeered at, spat upon, beaten, cursed yet He kept walking. Like a sheep led to slaughter He opened not His mouth and just kept walking.

In His love,
Elizabeth

 P.S. I was gonna make this about shouting your walls down but Holy Spirit took it in another direction so I’m calling this……Just Keep Walkin’. Thank you for reading this and if you find yourself going through hell…..keep your mouth shut and just keep walking!