Hebrews 11:30 (HCSB)
By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after being encircled by the Israelites for seven days.
The story of Jericho’s cataclysmic fall is well-known by many. But few would list it as an example of outstanding faith, even though it is one of the finest examples of true faith in the Scriptures.
As the writer of Hebrews has shown us over and over again in this section, true faith is not primarily believing something. It is actually concrete action based on the solid belief that a promise of God is true.
In this case, the promise was that God would give the heavily fortified city of Jericho into the hands of the Israelites if they would follow His instructions to the letter. These instructions were given to Joshua by a divine messenger with a drawn sword who identified himself as the commander of the army of the Lord (Joshua 5:13-6:5).
The normal methodology for conquering a walled city in that era was to encircle it and lay siege to it until starvation and thirst drove the people to surrender. But the spring harvest had just been brought in, and Jericho had a water supply inside the walls. So, a siege would take many months, maybe years to be effective. What was needed was a divine plan. And this commander had one!
Instead of besieging or attacking the city, the Israelites were to have all 600,000 armed men marched around the city once each day for six days. Ahead of them were to march seven priests blowing ram’s horn trumpets, followed by the ark of God’s presence. Each day, after a single circuit of the city was completed, the whole group was simply to return to camp until the next day.
On the seventh day, the whole group was to march around the city seven times, and then stop, completely surrounding the city. Then the priests were to blow a long blast on their trumpets. At that signal the whole company was to shout. And in response, God would cause the walls of the city to fall down flat, so that the whole army could march in from all sides and completely destroy the city (Joshua 6:3-5).
As counter intuitive and even insane as this plan sounded, Joshua relayed it to the priests and to his military leaders who then relayed it to the troops. And they all exercised true faith by immediately getting into formation and circling the city once exactly as instructed. They obeyed completely every detail of God’s commands, and on the seventh day, when the priests blew their trumpets, and the soldiers all shouted, the wall fell down flat, and the city was completely destroyed, just as God had promised.
Father, it is easy to see how real faith played such a vital role in this conquest. Joshua, or the priests, or the military leaders could have blown off Your plan as completely impractical, if not insane. But they believed Your promise, based mostly on what they had already seen You do on so many occasions. So, they put that belief into obedient action (faith), and their faith was rewarded exactly as You promised. Lord, help me to always take You at Your word, and to turn my belief into real faith by faithfully obeying Your instructions to the letter, just as they did, so that I can watch Your miraculous wonders unfold. Amen.