Year 1, Day 191: Joshua 6

On the Seventh Day …

Alright, I’m going to start with a random thought that I think is new to me.  I don’t know if anyone else has had this thought, but I’m pretty sure I have never had it before.  Does anyone else see the overarching similarity between Joshua 6 and Genesis 1?  Don’t go too deep with this question.  Basically, what I saw was that for 6 days God had the Hebrew do one thing while on the 7^th day God had the Hebrew people do something “different.”  We could call that different thing a separate thing.  Hopefully by now we all know that the word “holy” means separate.

Think about it.  What was the point of marching around the city for 6 days?  The point is proclamation!  As the priests lead the way and the ark follows, it is a time to proclaim to the people of Jericho that the Lord has arrived.  It’s not a parade to make the people of Jericho see human strength– they weren’t even allowed to shout as they marched the first 6 days.  It is a parade to make people see God’s strength!  For 6 days the Hebrew focused on the presentation of their God before Jericho.

On the seventh day we see God doing something separate from proclamation.  God fights on the 7^th day.  The walls come down and the city is easily routed.  In the same way that God is holy during creation, God is holy here at Jericho as well.

Battle Agenda

Now I need to confess something.  This sounds like a very strange battle plan.  Granted, I have known this story since early childhood so it is of no surprise to me.  But even still I must confess the battle plan is strange.  Who walks around the city, preparing to assault it with nothing more than a trumpet blast and a cry from the people?

This reminds us of what is important about what we learned yesterday.  We fight using God’s plan, not the other way around.  Human tactical plans are fine for carnal wars.  But human tactical plans are just not all that great for spiritual warfare.  We don’t know the first thing about fighting the battles that God desires us to fight.  Like the Hebrew people surrounding Jericho, we must fight according to God’s plan.

Patience

I’d also like to learn a spiritual lesson from the people as they marched around Jericho.  Certainly God could have delivered Jericho on the 1^st, 2^nd, or even the 3^rd day.  But God waited for the 7^th day. 

Imagine being a Hebrew warrior who is asked to walk around the city a total of 13 times without being able to cry out until the very end.  There was to be no insulting the people on the wall.  There was to be no crying out threats or curses.  There was nothing but following the priests silently for 6 days.  That would take both patience and faith. 

Patience and faith are two things that humanity typically has in short supply.  So what do we learn?  If we are going to be serious about fighting God’s battle and doing it God’s way, we need to learn to be patient and faithful.

Plunder in Faithfulness

Speaking of being faithful, notice that after the walls fall the Hebrew people continue to be faithful (well, all but Achan, who we’ll meet tomorrow).  God tells them that none of the city is to be looted except for the precious metals which are to go into the treasury of the Lord.  God also tells them through Joshua that they are to honor the promise made to Rahab. 

The Hebrew people do in fact honor these requests before God.  They are faithful.  Rahab is spared; the rest of the city is not except for the precious metals to be donated to the treasury of the Lord.

Holiness, faithfulness, and patience seem to be the theme for the day.  Sounds like a pretty good gamut of concepts to ponder to me.

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