30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days.
The Holy Spirit chose not to say anything about the generation who did not walk by faith in the wilderness. He moved past that group of believers to the generation that conquered Israel. The first objective of Israel was to conquer a military establishment called the city of Jericho.
The scene of Israel circling Jericho must have been ridiculous to the inhabitants of the city. They probably hurled jeers, taunts, and sneers at the Israelites, but the people of God continued to follow God’s direction by faith in the face of His strange request.
God’s specific promise about Israel indicated that He had already given Jericho into the hands of Israel (Josh 6:2). They were to take this promise by faith.
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down
The Old Testament record for the fall of Jericho is Joshua 6:1–21. Jericho was a fortress city near the Jordan River. It was the first obstacle after Israel crossed the Jordan. This city’s walls were massive structures difficult to penetrate, but they conquered it by faith (Josh 6:3–8).
Israel squandered 40 years traveling through the Sinai Peninsula. It should have taken just a couple of months to travel from Egypt to Canaan, but they did not believe God’s promises. They wandered in unbelief. Now they had come to their first major challenge—the fortress of Jericho.
Joshua, a man of faith, as the successor to Moses was now their leader. He took God at His word to be strong and courageous in the face of major difficulties ahead for Israel (Josh 1:6–9).
The defeat of Jericho opened the way to conquer all Canaan. The Israelites used a military strategy called divide and conquer. First, they won the central part of Canaan, which divided the north from the southern people of the land. The fall of Jericho was central to that strategy.
after they were encircled for seven days.
Israel circled Jericho six times in six days, and on the seventh day, they circled the city seven times. There was no siege of the city by Israel. God did that Himself.
PRINCIPLE:
God sometimes uses methods beyond human strategy to accomplish His purposes.
APPLICATION:
Faith takes God’s word and acts on it. Faith does not question the implications of God’s promises; it just acts on what God commits to it. It develops the attitude that if God said it, it is therefore true. Christians are willing to pay the price for doing the will of God, no questions asked of God. The issue revolves around what we think of God and how trustworthy He is.
