Thursday, January 30, 2020 By Van Houser
Then
he said to the people, "Go forward, and march around the city, and let the
armed men go on before the ark of the LORD." (Joshua 6:7) Then on the seventh day they rose early at
the dawning of the day and marched around the city in the same manner seven times;
only on that day they marched around the city seven times. At the seventh time, when the priests blew
the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, "Shout! For the LORD has given
you the city. (Joshua 6:15-16) So the people shouted, and priests blew the
trumpets; and when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted
with a great shout and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into
the city, every man straight ahead, and they took the city. (Joshua 6:20)
Follow Through
Years ago, I heard a statement that has stuck with me for probably 50 years or more. It was this…One of the greatest qualities of any man is not the ability to jump high but the character to walk straight when he comes down. Many an individual has performed a significant act yet failed in character in the future. You see, the blessing of God is not in knowing His will or His Word but fleshing it out in our lives.
Thankfully, the army of Israel had learned the lesson to obey God exactly (at least for a while), so they walked around the city each day carrying the Ark of God, so God could teach them humility, stamina and patience. They thought of themselves as an invincible army and God had them walk around the city thirteen times. I imagine, after a few days, the troops of Jericho started laughing and calling them a bunch of cowards. How tempting it would have been, for one of the soldiers to break ranks and fire an arrow at a soldier in Jericho.
Gilgal was about an hour’s march away, and according to the archeological ruins, it would have taken two hours to march around the city, so that was four hours of marching each day, and on the seventh day it would have taken them 14 hours to walk around the city and they would have been exhausted by the time the walls fell down.
So what would have happened if after three days around the city, the army said, “Were tired of this junk”!! There would have been no victory, but because they obeyed God PRECISELY, they experienced a victory that came from God. We must accept the fact that we MUST focus on obeying God’s word, even if it doesn’t make sense!
Do you ever wonder why God commands you to do things a certain way? In the 1980s there were a series of movies called “The Karate Kid,” and the main character in the movie was Daniel, who wanted to learn Karate and his teacher, Mr. Miyagi had him do things like paint the fence and wax his car. You remember “Wax on wax off”, Right?? Well, Daniel kept saying, “I don’t want to paint fences, I want to learn karate!” and Mr. Miyagi would just smile and say, “You paint fence ANYWAY!” Daniel later came to understand that the motion and muscles used to paint the fence and wax the car were actually training him for the proper Karate moves that would make him a champion.
God does the same for us!! God tells us to do things and takes us through places in our lives that don’t seem to make sense at the time. It may be years (and years) later when we look back and understand that God led us through that time to bring us to victory. Follow through and see victory!
Scripture to Claim:
But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. James 1:22
