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The Walls of Jericho: Living Faith
March 3, 2012
Sometimes we have obstacles in our way that we must overcome. Sometimes these obstacles might be situations in our own life that need to be improved, and sometimes obstacles might be physically in our way. In rare circumstances, obstacles can be the people we come across. Obstacles give some people a reason to go another way, and they may still be able to get to where they wanted to go or they are happy to be going to a new place. At other times, obstacles are in the way of where we need to go. Imagine if you were outside when all of a sudden it started to rain very hard, and you wanted to go inside to keep from getting wet. If something was blocking your way into your house, like a fallen tree limb, you could accept the fact that this obstacle was in your way and do nothing. The bad thing aboutthis is you would end up very wet. You could choose to turn around and try to make it to a neighbor's house. If you live in a city where your neighbors are nearby, this option might make sense. If you lived in the country and your neighbor was miles away, this option would still have you end up wet. You could choose to move the object out of the way, and if the tree limb were small enough, this might work for you, but this would keep you in the rain for longer than you might need. You could choose to overcome the obstacle and do whatever you needed to get around or through it, to get inside the house, where you know you will be dry. The children of Israel faced many obstacles in their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, and with each obstacle had to get through the obstacle. One example of overcoming an obstacle is told through the true story of the walls of Jericho, and the story is recounted for us in the Faith Chapter.
Hebrews 11:30
By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days.
This single sentence doesn't give us the full story about what happened. The children of Israel were arriving in the Promised Land, and when they came across the walled city of Jericho, they had a choice. They could ignore the promise, and do something else, or they could be true to the promise overcome the obstacle. The promise was that they would inherit the land all around and including Jericho, as well as much, much more land. If this obstacle stayed in their way, they would face other cities with the same challenge, and the Promised Land might look more like the Swiss Cheese Land. It would go from being the holy land to the "holey land" as all of these uncaptured cities would become holes within the lands of Israel. To take the city required espionage and covert operations. It also required the intervention of God in a miracle. God told the children of Israel to march around the city of Jericho seven times, give out a huge shout, and the city walls would fall. The children of Israel trusted God, believed God, obeyed God by doing what he told them to do, and in the end, the walls of Jericho fell.
Joshua 6:1-27
Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of
Israel: none went out, and none came in.
And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand
Jericho, and the king thereof, and the
mighty men of valour. And ye shall compass the city, all ye
men of war, and go round
about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days.
And seven priests shall bear before the ark
seven trumpets of rams' horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the
city
seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets.
And it shall come to pass, that when they
make a long blast with the
ram's horn, and when ye
hear the sound
of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the
wall of
the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man
straight before him. And Joshua the son
of Nun called the priests, and said unto them, Take up the ark of the
covenant,
and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark
of the
LORD. And he said unto the people, Pass
on, and compass the city, and let him that is armed pass on before the
ark of
the LORD. And it came to pass, when
Joshua had spoken unto the people, that the seven priests bearing the
seven
trumpets of rams' horns passed on before the LORD, and blew with the
trumpets:
and the ark of the covenant of the LORD followed them. And
the armed men went before the priests
that blew with the trumpets, and the rereward came after the ark, the
priests going on,
and blowing with the trumpets. And Joshua had commanded the
people, saying,
Ye shall not shout, nor make any noise with your voice, neither shall any
word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I bid you shout; then
shall ye
shout. So the ark of the LORD compassed
the city, going about it once: and
they came into the camp, and lodged
in the camp. And Joshua rose early in
the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the LORD. And
seven priests bearing seven trumpets of
rams' horns before the ark of the LORD went on continually, and blew
with the
trumpets: and the armed men went before them; but the rereward came
after the
ark of the LORD, the priests going on,
and blowing with the trumpets. And the second day they
compassed the city
once, and returned into the camp: so they did six days. And
it came to pass on the seventh day, that
they rose early about the dawning of the day, and compassed the city
after the
same manner seven times: only on that day they compassed the city seven
times. And it came to pass at the seventh time, when
the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout;
for the
LORD hath given you the city. And the
city shall be accursed, even it, and
all that are therein, to the
LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her
in
the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. And
ye, in any wise keep yourselves
from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed,
when ye take
of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble
it. But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of
brass and iron, are
consecrated unto the LORD: they shall come into the
treasury of the LORD. So the people
shouted when the priests blew with
the trumpets: and it came to pass,
when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted
with a
great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up
into the
city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.
And they utterly destroyed all that was
in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and
ass,
with the edge of the sword. But Joshua
had said unto the two men that had spied out the country, Go into the
harlot's
house, and bring out thence the woman, and all that she hath, as ye
sware unto
her. And the young men that were spies
went in, and brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her
brethren, and all that she had; and they brought out all her kindred,
and left
them without the camp of Israel. And
they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein:
only the
silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put
into the
treasury of the house of the LORD. And
Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father's household, and
all that
she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this
day; because she hid
the messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. And
Joshua adjured them at that
time,
saying, Cursed be the man
before the LORD, that riseth up and buildeth
this city Jericho: he shall lay the foundation thereof in his
firstborn, and in
his youngest son shall he
set up the gates of it. So the LORD was with Joshua; and his
fame was
noised
throughout all the country.
Sometimes when we overcome an obstacle, we do something nobody expected, and this is what happened when the children of Israel obeyed God and did what they were told about how to bring down the walls of Jericho. Maybe walking around a city seven times and giving out a shout seems like a silly way to bring down the city walls. What we can remember from this is that sometimes the way we overcome the obstacles in our life may at first seem silly, and if we consider and follow good advice, and make sure we are doing everything we can do to trust and obey God, God can help us overcome any obstacle in our life and can even make any bad thing become something really good for us. As we face obstacles in life, we can take remember this true story from the Bible, and we can remember advice that was given thousands of years later by the Apostle Paul.
Romans 8:28
And
we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to his purpose.
God can help us overcome any obstacle in life, even obstacles like the walls of Jericho. We have to trust God and obey him, and in doing so our faith can bring down obstacles in our life that might only seem as big as the walls of Jericho.
All verses are from the King James Version.
This site provided by Tom Laign. To all who may believe differently, I also extend peace and love.
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