Joshua 6:1-5
‘Now Jericho was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel; no one went out and no one came in. But the LORD said to Joshua, “See, I have handed Jericho over to you, with its king and the valiant warriors. And you shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once. You shall do so for six days. Also seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark; then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, everyone straight ahead.”’
To the ears of faith, these instructions are great. However, to listen to it seems foolish. Many would be embarrassed to do them. “How could the blowing of the horn and a shout cause walls to crumble?” God has asked much of His people all throughout the bible that doesn’t make sense. Noah was asked to build an ark to protect against the rain when rain might not have fallen, nor has there been any sort of flood. It took 100 years. The locals may have given tours to show the senile old man and his enormous boat. Abraham was asked to sacrifice the son he had prayed for for years. All of this would seem crazy to many.
We need to have faith to believe and follow His instructions. Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please God. For anyone who approaches Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.” We don’t care how the instructions sound to others. We obey because we fear Him. We know He is right and His Words will come true. We don’t question what He says. We obey.
When we were new in the faith we may have had trouble beleiving Him, but we learned to obey. Proverbs 3:6,7 says, “Trust in the LORD with all your hear And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.” We learn not to lean on our own understanding. Some may see this as giving up our brains, but it’s obedience. We trust Him. He has done enough to have earned our trust. We can confidently step out in faith and He will meet us.
It’s not blind obedience. He will be there and will bless. There are many religions in the world that won’t come through. Our God will.
It’s a strength to be able to cast off the world and not care what they say. Do not fear man. It’s a snare. Learn to build up a defense against it. They have all their arguments which seem sound. Even their speech sounds sophisticated. Many in the faith sound simple. Don’t worry about that. Fear Him and do what He says.
Lord, thank You for Your Words and they are trustworthy. There is a hope and a future.