Day 61, or March the 2nd. Believe and act now.
Our thoughts today come from Joshua chapter 6,
verse 20. When the trumpet sounded, the army
shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when
the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed.
So everyone charged straight in, and they took
the city. First, the big picture surrounding
this verse. It's rather sad to learn that the
Israelites fell away big time as they wandered
in the wilderness. They neglected the very act
that made them Jewish, circumcision. Now Joshua
is bringing this sign back into the nation. Rahab,
as promised by the spies, was rescued along with
all her family when the city of Jericho was taken
after the Israelites marched around the city
walls thirteen times, once a day for six days,
and then seven times on the seventh day. A great
shout was all that was needed for the walls to
fall. No one touched them. It was as if God just
blew them over. However, this wonderful experience
that followed their obedience to God was really
dented when they went on to the city of Ai, and
were unexpectedly soundly beaten. There was still
much to learn, as far as trusting God was concerned.
Now our action step. One of the greatest accounts
in the Bible is that of the Battle of Jericho.
of course it was a great miracle that some have
tried to explain away as being the result of
a local earthquake this argument is missing the
point it wasn't the walls falling but when they
fell that was miraculous on top of that it's
worth remembering that the main reason for not
entering the promised land forty years earlier
is found in numbers chapter thirteen verse twenty
eight which reminds us The people living there
are powerful and their towns are large and fortified.
That's why God told them to leave the walls to
him. Just march around and then shout. This strategy
worked, but it could have worked 40 years earlier.
The Israelites could have saved a whole generation
from wilderness wandering if only they had trusted
God. Don't you make the same mistake?