Sometimes we have one Jericho after another it seems. Joshua has been on my mind a lot the last few days. We read about this in the book of Joshua. If you are not familiar with the story, I recommend that you dust off that bible of yours and read the entire book. There’s a lot to take from it.
In my life right now, I feel like I have multiple Jericho’s to conquer. I know that God has more for me on the other side…. a promised land if you will. I was reminded this week of Joshua. He has succeeded Moses in leading the Israelites and has been tasked with leading this army to defeat Jericho. This is a major hurdle that they must get over in order to claim the land that God promised. Joshua has been an assistant to Moses for some time so he’s not new to how God works. He’s seen how God guided Moses.
When they were camping in Gilgal (just outside of Jericho), Joshua sees a soldier with his sword drawn and runs up to him and asks him “Are you for me or against me?”. This soldier then answers “I am neither. I am the leader of the Lord’s Army.”. In that moment Joshua falls on his face and says, “What does my lord say to his servant?”. This is where I take pause. Joshua didn’t say “well, here’s my plan…. I’m going to need your help with this.”. He fell on his face and asked for instruction. I think sometimes we think we know how we’re going to defeat our obstacles and ask God for assistance in it, but we need to be falling on our faces and asking God how we can help HIM to conquer them.
As you read on the soldier gives Joshua instructions on how to defeat Jericho. They are to march around the city silently once per day for 6 days and on the 7th day march around 7 times, blast the trumpet and shout. From my human perspective I would seriously be questioning these instructions. I’d be arguing “are you SURE this is how we’re going to defeat this city? Have you seen how big those walls are?”. I’m pretty sure this is an argument that I have with God regularly. Sometimes HIS way seems strange and unproductive, but Joshua didn’t question even for an instant. He did as the Lord commanded and sure enough on the 7th day after the trumpet blasted and they shouted the walls of Jericho crumbled.
I challenge you and myself to be more like Joshua. Have faith in his methods and ask for guidance rather than help.