S21P8 – Portraits of faith: Joshua

Josh. 6: 4b-5
On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.

Joshua was privileged to experience many great things in his service to the Lord. When Moses ascended the mountain to receive God’s law, he walked with him part of the way. The victory over Jericho was another one of those events. With tight protection and apparent impenetrability, taking the city may have looked as if it would take great physical power. But what did the Lord command as the plan of attack? He commanded Joshua to lead his army in music, in worship, to secure the victory.

It takes great faith to move with God when God’s plan seems nothing but strange. But in verse 2 God starts his command with a clear promise. He states that He has delivered Jericho into Joshua’s hands. Yes, He uses the past tense here. He is telling Joshua that this is already completed and all that is required is to walk it out. Joshua’s security in this promise is not that it will happen but that it already has happened. The physical circumstance indicated that Jericho remained fortified; the spiritual reality was that God had already caused it to fall.

The person of faith recognizes that God is not confined by those things which confine us. He is outside of time and space; He is not natural but supernatural. That is why God’s methods can go against our reasoning and expectations, but that should not matter to us. If we believe that He is omnipotent and omniscient, then we must trust that his power and knowledge are such that his methods cannot fail. Father, give us faith to believe that that which you promise has already been completed, and that no matter how little we understand of your way of doing things we will trust You enough to simply walk out what You command.