SCRIPTURE: Joshua 5:13-6:7
OBSERVATION:
Who was this man standing before Joshua, the commander of the Lord’s Army? I think of the rider on the white horse (Revelation 19:11-16), that is, Jesus. Was this a spirit, or a flesh and blood person? Was this the pre-incarnate Jesus? If He was “in the flesh”, then He would be the incarnate Christ, but not in the same way as when He was born as a baby, conceived by God in the womb. So this is probably a real vision. Does it matter? In the end the message is the same, God is in charge and His armies are running things down here.
The battle strategy is designed to impress this on Joshua. Only Jericho falls in this way, the other battles are fought in more ‘conventional’ methods. But God is making a point: as you go, remember that your success depends on Me, and as long as you stay close to Me, you’ll be OK.
APPLICATION:
The lesson remains true today. This is the way things work in God’s world all the time, it is not by might or power that we succeed, but by His Spirit (power) (Zechariah 4:6). Jesus is my commander, and I need to follow Him, listen to Him, seek His direction and purpose. Why am I here, what am I supposed to be doing? Look to Him!
PRAYER:
Lord, forgive me for running ahead of You in my own strength, or lagging behind You in my own weakness, help me to walk with You and trust You! Amen.
That makes alot of sense Karly! That is exactly where the battle is being played out from day to day – the battlefield today is our minds and boy, have we built high Jericho walls around them.
I do like the thought you expressed about how this story does reflect that for once, the children of Israel did follow God’s instructions and what powerful results were displayed because of their obedience!
Lord, help me to listen to your simple commands. Let me walk out in faith and watch the walls of fear come tumbling down.
Not only does Joshua have to fully obey what God says through His angel, but all the Israelites have to fully obey these seemingly outlandish orders! It’s interesting to see a time in the Israelites history where they actually do exactly what the Lord says to them, and without question too… I assume that if even ONE person didn’t have faith and follow God’s instructions, then Jericho would not have fallen.
This passage leaves me in such awe that thousands upon thousands of people did EXACTLY what God told them to do. Imagine just marching around the entire city, 7 days in a row, having faith that on the seventh day, after going around the city 7 times and then shouting that the walls will just fall down. Not to mention all the ridicule from the people of Jericho that must have gone along with it… I can’t even count the number of God given opportunities that I’ve missed out on because I’m scared of how people will react and how they’ll think of me. My other thoughts right now are how much time we assume we have right now… I’m definitely guilty of shrugging of those little inklings that I get because I don’t feel like spending the time to do it now, or I think that I’ll be more prepared at a later time to accomplish it…
Well hopefully that made some sense to someone.
It looks like an insane thing to do -to march around the city 7 days and on the last day blow your horns and the walls fall down. If you are familiar with this story you know what happens so perhaps it does not surprise you anymore. But think about it! It would look like a crazy thing to do….
Of course Joshua did get instructions from a heavenly being but still…
The people must have respected him a lot that they would listen to him.
Does God give us crazy things to do today?
I can’t think of anything compared to marching around Jericho; though showing love to those who treat you badly and spending time praying for people who don’t care or you don’t even know is a bit unusual….
What about if He asked us to give up fancy foods or not buy new things or not go down south so that we could have more time and money to help others?
In the case of Jericho the orders from God were obvious. Maybe ours aren’t?
What do you think?