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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
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."
So Joshua, son of Nun, called the priests and said to them, "Take up the ark of the covenant of the Lord and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it." And he ordered the people, "Advance! March around the city, with the armed guard going ahead of the ark of the Lord."
When Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets before the Lord went forward, blowing their trumpets, and the ark of the Lord's covenant followed them. The armed guard marched ahead of the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard followed the ark. All this time the trumpets were sounding. But Joshua had commanded the people, "Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout!" So he had the ark of the Lord carried around the city, circling it once. Then the people returned to camp and spent the night there.
Joshua got up early the next morning and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets went forward, marching before the ark of the Lord and blowing the trumpets. The armed men went ahead of them and the rear guard followed the ark of the Lord, while the trumpets kept sounding. So on the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days.
On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the people, "Shout! For the Lord has given you the city! The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into his treasury."
When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city. They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.
Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, "Go into the prostitute's house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her." So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel.
Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the Lord's house. But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho—and she lives among the Israelites to this day.
At that time Joshua pronounced this solemn oath: "Cursed before the Lord is the man who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho: At the cost of his firstborn son will he lay its foundations; at the cost of his youngest will he set up its gates."
So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land.
Joshua 6
This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
One morning many years ago, I woke up, got ready for work, and climbed into my Jeep Liberty for the commute. When I started the car, an alarm immediately chimed and I saw on the dash display that there was a low tire pressure alert light and associated message.
Something was amiss.
So I got out the car, checked my tire pressures, and sure enough, the left rear tire was going flat. Thankfully, I did have enough air left in the tire to get to the gas station and inflate it back up to pressure but it wasn’t more than five hours later when I had to leave the Naval base where I was stationed, that the alert came back on. With 75,000 plus miles on my tires, I decided it was time to replace them so I made an appointment to get it done in the evening.
I arrived at the tire store and waited in the lounge as they took care of my vehicle and while taking care of editing some documents, a lady came into the lounge and sat down. I said hello to her and we started sharing conversation which I always try to turn toward the Lord when the opportunity presents itself, and in this case, it did. I learned that she was a believer too and that she worked as a nurse before she shared an awesome testimony that is in line with this message today.
The woman told me that she had unfortunately run over a nail that punctured her tire. After calling the same tire store I did, she was told it would cost well over $100 to replace the tire…$100 she didn’t have so she had asked them if they could just fix it. They said they could do that for $20 and so she had brought it in…and it was this that led to us coming together at that time and place.
Then she told me the amazing part of all this.
For after she got off the phone with the tire store, she was tending to a patient when a woman came to her in a lot of distress. She needed some immediate attention so the woman I was speaking with made the time to tend to the lady in need…and in gratitude, the lady gave her a gift of $20, just what she needed to get her tire fixed.
Now, the nurse didn’t have any idea that the lady was going to give her that $20. She wasn’t helping her for that reason but rather because she had a heart like Jesus…a heart that was ready to serve others in need when the need presented itself. She did what was natural for her…and in return, the Lord did what was natural for Him. He blessed her.
All and all, what’s totally amazing about this story, my encounter with this woman, and the scripture for today from Joshua, chapter 6 is that they have one important thing in common.
They were all part of God’s plan.
Turning to our passage for today, we find Joshua receiving detailed instructions from the Lord regarding what was to be done regarding the city of Jericho. I’m sure Israel’s leader was surprised by what God was telling him to do as it wouldn’t have been anything he would have come with on his own.
For the scriptures tell us that Lord directs Joshua to form a processional group to march around the perimeter of Jericho…a city that was “tightly shut up” as the city’s residents hoped they could possibly shield themselves from attack and destruction at the hands of the Israelites and their God.
We read where the procession was to start with “the armed guard” who marched ahead of the seven priests, each of which was sounding a trumpet fashioned from a ram’s horn. After the trumpeting priests were the priests who carried the ark of the covenant and then finally there was the rear guard which followed the ark. Once everyone was gathered together and in place on the day God commanded, Joshua called the priests together and said this:
“Take up the ark of the covenant of the Lord and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it."
He followed this with an order for the Israelite people, saying:
"Advance! March around the city, with the armed guard going ahead of the ark of the Lord."
And with that, the procession happened as God commanded, making one round of the city walls before returning to camp. Following this, they repeated the act for five more days, six in all, but the seventh day was different. For the procession was to walk around the city seven times with the trumpets sounding the entire time and on the seventh lap, there was to be a “long blast on the trumpets” and “all the people” were to “give a loud shout”…a shout that would cause “the wall of the city” to collapse, exposing Jericho and its people to Israel’s invasion.
So the procession set out on the seventh day and did exactly what the Lord directed and the scriptures tell us that after the trumpets sounded their long blast and the people let out a loud shout, the walls of Jericho came crashing down. Immediately, the Israelites took action, sending “every man charg(ing) straight in” as they “took the city”. They then devoted “the city to the Lord’ before destroying every living thing in it — men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep, and donkeys”. No one was spared with the exception of Rahab and her family who survived because of the protection she had provided to the two Israelite spies earlier. Both she and her family were allowed to join the people of Israel, the reward for her act of courageous service to Israel’s God.
Through this chapter and the testimony of that woman at the tire store so many years ago, we see clearly that God always has a plan. After all He is God.
We also see that His plan doesn’t always go in ways we would design, often making things happen that we could never have imagined or orchestrated ourselves. For example, if Israel were left to plan their attack of Jericho, do you think they would have formed a procession and marched around the walls of the city once a day with trumpets blaring for six consecutive days and then do it seven times on the seventh day before shouting out and bringing down the walls? I don’t think so and anyone who would have even proposed such a strategy would have been viewed as crazy.
One other amazing aspect of this account is that we never see Joshua or any other Israelite question God’s plan. They didn’t stop and ask, “God, are you sure this will work?” No…they carried out His plan with obedience and did exactly what He wanted. In return, they were rewarded with victory over the fortified city through their God who miraculously brought down Jericho’s walls in power, just as He had parted the flooding Jordan River days earlier.
Likewise, the woman who was blessed with the $20 gift never questioned God’s plan either. The Lord knew her need before she did and set circumstances in motion where she would be blessed if she simply followed His plan…a plan that involved caring for someone in need, even when it meant interrupting everything she was doing at the time. The Lord placed it on her heart to help the woman who needed it and she obeyed Him. In return, she received the bounty of His blessings…granted not in the way of a mighty city like Israel but instead with the exact amount of money she needed at the time.
Friends, we need to always remember this lesson today. God has a plan…and it is most often far beyond anything we could ever contrive on our own. With this, we shouldn’t try and figure it out because we aren’t anywhere as smart as the Lord…not even close. Rather, we should only allow the Lord to take the wheel and guide us to where He wants us to be so to do what He wants us to do, each and every day. We should be praying for His will and way to be done in our lives, and then respond to Him in faith and trust. For if we surrender control of our lives to Him and follow His lead, then we, like Israel and the woman at the tire store, will experience the awesome blessings God has in store for each of us.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com
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