Joshua 6:2-5
God spoke to Joshua, “Look sharp now. I’ve already given Jericho to you, along with its king and its crack troops. Here’s what you are to do: March around the city, all your soldiers. Circle the city once. Repeat this for six days. Have seven priests carry seven ram’s horn trumpets in front of the Chest. On the seventh day march around the city seven times, the priests blowing away on the trumpets. And then, a long blast on the ram’s horn—when you hear that, all the people are to shout at the top of their lungs. The city wall will collapse at once. All the people are to enter, every man straight on in.”
God had a strategy to give the city of Jericho into the hands of the Israelites. Walk around Jericho once for 6 days and on the seventh day walk around it 7 times and then shout! How long did it take to walk around Jericho - around 60 minutes (yes, I did not realise that it was that small a walk.) So what were they supposed to do after the 60 minute walk ?
What were they supposed to do with the rest of the time? Here’s the instruction: nothing! Absolutely nothing!
Imagine the amount of time they had to themselves, day after day!
Lots of time on their hands to try and make things work in their own strength.
Lots of time wondering what in the world they were doing.
Lots of time wondering whether the walking was making any difference.
Did God really mean this?
Did we really hear this right?
Lots of time to get discouraged and doubt God.
Lots of time to discourage each other.
By 3rd or 4th day they could have thought - well the wall has not moved one bit. Not even a stone has fallen off. This must be a joke. Lots of time to get impatient.
Not even a small sign of progress.
Maybe a stone falling off the wall, as a sign to let them know they were doing the right thing would have been great.
They just had to circle for 60 minutes. Lots of time to think they were not contributing enough, making a difference, and putting their strength to use ( because obviously there were no visible results day after day! )
Lots of time to doubt their leader. Surely he was wrong and did not hear the right word from God! We need to do more than this 60 minute walk for sure!
The miracle is that they turned up time after time after time. An even bigger miracle is that they managed to do nothing for the rest of the day and not go crazy! They circled for 60 minutes. Then wait for another 24 hours. They circled for 60 minutes. Then wait for another 24 hours. There are downsides to a 60 minute walk. All the time in the world to let your mind go crazy. All the time in the world to be impatient. All the time in the world to doubt God. All the time in the world to discourage each other. All the time in the world to start doubting your leaders. Hebrews 11:30 says, "By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days." Faith is the ability to obey the small things and allow God to be in charge of the things you don’t understand. Faith is what helps you to support your leaders when you have all the time and reason in the world to not do so. Faith is what helps you to not doubt God when you have all the time and reason in the world to do just that. Faith is what helps you to resist the temptation to spread negativity when you have all the time and reason in the world to do just that. Faith is what helps you to resist the temptation to “help God” when you have all the time and reason in the world to do just that. Faith is what helps you to keep turning up for no reason. There are downsides to a 60 minute walk. But we walk by faith not by sight. Reshmy Alex