Stop Pushing!

“Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in. Then the Lord said to Joshua, ‘See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. 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 all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in’” (Joshua 6:1-5).

On paper, that does not sound too bad, but I think the reality of it must have been different.  I can see the Israelites walking around the wall the first day saying, “Hmm, we must be scouting the place today.  That is good!  Maybe we will find a weak spot where can attack.”  I can also see the residents of Jericho looking over their walls in fear.  They had heard about what God had done through the Israelites and now there they were marching around their city.  However, there was no attack at the end of day one.  The Israelites simply went back to their camp (verse 11).

Day two starts and ends the same way; march, look, go home.

By days three, four and five I would think that “the march” would be getting old to the Israelites and really funny to the people of Jericho.

On day six I think I would have been ready to pull my sword and charge the wall by myself. 

Have you ever felt like that?  You have been dealing with some problem forever and you finally just get to the point where you can’t take it anymore and, right or wrong, you are going to do something. 

Fortunately, Joshua had a different mind-set.  He waited and learned two big lessons:

            a. In his kingdom, God does the work (See 2 Corinthians 4:5-7)

            b. God’s work comes with God’s timing..

I do not know what problems you are facing, or what your “Jericho” is, but I know this:  On the seventh day the walls fell and God’s people received an answer that they never expected or could have orchestrated on their own.

I wonder what could be in store for us if we would just learn to “wait upon the Lord” (Isaiah 40:31).