Stupidest Way to Fight a War

So the Israelites made it out of Egypt and across the desert. Yes, it had taken them forty years but finally they were here. They’d crossed the Jordan River and were facing their first major battle, the city of Jericho. They’d already sent spies to scope out the city and had found an ally there, a prostitute named Rahab. She told them everybody in the city had heard stories of how their God had dried up the Jordan River until all the people crossed over. Everybody was afraid of them.

Joshua 6:1 describes what the Israelites were facing: “Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out and none came in.” The people of the city were pretty well hunkered down. I don’t doubt they had a lot of faith in the walls around their city—and rightfully so! The walls were formidable, to say the least; twelve feet high and six feet thick. There was no “storming” the walls.

Looking across at the city before them, God says to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand….” My response to that would be “Seriously?  God, are you even seeing what I see? This is impossible! How are we supposed to even get into the city let alone fight everybody in it?”

God detailed his battle plan, or at least how he expected the people to participate in his plan: You march around the city once a day for six days, led by seven priests, each with a horn, and with the ark of the covenant. On the seventh day, you march seven times and on the seventh time, the priests will blow their trumpets and the people will shout. That’s your part. My part is I’ll make the walls fall down so you can go in and take the city.

Now there are a few lessons to be learned in this. One, God does the hard part. Well, not only does he do the hard part but it’s also the impossible part, the part that we say is stupid, utterly impossible. We’ve got the benefit of hindsight. We already know the walls fell down, the people rushed in and conquered the city. The people facing the actual city and the actual walls had to have faith that what God was telling them would actually happen. But what are we facing today, whether as a nation or as an individual, that is utterly impossible, no way can victory come out of it? What is the most hopeless thing we face? What are the walls of Jericho before us?

Two, we trust and do what he says, even if it seems silly. Walking around the city thirteen times in seven days? Blowing trumpets? Yelling? All silly, what possible purpose could it serve? We don’t know until we’re obedient and do it. That’s when we see what it was all about. That’s when we see the walls come down