Tuesday, September 5, 2006
Joshua 6:2-5 Then the LORD said to Joshua, "See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams' horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in."
BATTLE PLAN: JERICHO
On TV's History Channel I have enjoyed watching a program called "Battle Plan" which goes through the strategies of various battles looking at both sides and pointing out the mistakes made. I wonder what these people would do with the battle plan of Jericho.
Israel had at last crossed the Jordan River into the promised land after 470 years in Egypt and the wilderness. Their first battle against a walled city was before them. Israel had a standing army of 601,730 men, battle tested from the fighting before they crossed the Jordan.
Joshua now gathers Israel together and says, "Here's the plan. For six days, once each day we are going to march around the city of Jericho. On the seventh day, we will march around it seven times, then blow the trumpets and shout as loud as we can. The walls of Jericho are going to fall down."
There may have been skeptics and the men on the walls of Jericho laughed at the battle plan of Israel. No battering rams, no siege machines, no tunneling under the walls. How foolish a plan. Fact is, it worked. On the seventh day the walls came down and the Israelites entered Jericho and took it.
God laid the plans, Israel followed and Israel won. We can find it difficult to follow what in the world's eyes seems like a foolish thing. We may think at times to ourselves, "this is never going to work." The foolishness of God however is greater than the wisdom of man. God demonstrates this for us time and again. God's plans always work.
