Remember Jericho – How the Walls Fell Flat

Before the walls fell

The walls fell flat because God flattened the walls. He did this because the Israelites followed His orders exactly. Mind you, they didn’t always follow His orders, and they did not always follow them exactly. But this time, they did.

It was a lesson well-learned. Joshua was chosen to lead the Israelites after the death of Moses. He and Caleb were the only men from their generation allowed to enter the promised land. This was because their peers doubted God when He wanted their trust. 

The twelve spies Moses sent to spy out the land of Canaan came back with conflicting reports. Ten of them recognized the milk and honey, but they were afraid of the giants. Because of the giants, they doubted God would give them the land. The other two spies – Joshua and Caleb – believed God would give them the land. They were outnumbered and the people grumbled and complained. They wished they were back in Egypt (slavery, mind you) where things were predictable, at least.

Because of their lack of faith and belief, God said neither the ten spies nor  the people of their peer group would enter the promised land. Only Joshua and Caleb would live to realize the promised land. The rest of that generation of the Israelites would wander in the wilderness for forty years until their death. It was a pretty steep price to pay for not believing God.

Jericho and those walls

After Moses died, the only people left of that era were Joshua and Caleb. God told Joshua to send two spies into Jericho to check out the city. The men encountered a woman – Rahab – who told them her people were still talking about the time God parted the Red Sea (forty years earlier, mind you) and they were afraid of the God of Israel.

The men promised Rahab protection for her family – their life for her life – because she hid them and saved them. They went back to give Joshua their report.

The city of Jericho was fortified. Two walls with a twelve-foot gap between the walls. The inner wall was six feet thick and the outer wall was twelve feet thick. Thirty feet from the outside of the city to the inside. Who was going to make it through that barrier? How were they going to make it through the barrier?! By marching around the city, blowing trumpets, and shouting. That’s how. This formula only worked because it was God’s direction.

When the Walls Fell Flat

This story – true in every detail and proven by archeological evidence – gives me courage. When the giants seem too large to conquer the cities I face, God is bigger. When the walls are too thick, too high, and too foreboding, God is bigger. In those times when the walls must come down so I can enter, they will come down flat because God causes them to fall.

What He asks of me - and of all of us - is two things: believe and obey. Share on X

Lack of belief kept the Israelites wandering in the wilderness for forty years. Faith kept the Israelites marching around Jericho seven days in a row. The first six days, they marched around the city once. The priests blew their trumpets. Why? Because God said so. On the seventh day, they marched around the city seven times. The priests blew their trumpets as they marched. Why? Because God said so.

At the end of the last march, as God said, the people shouted. That is when God gave them the city. The walls came down and the people walked right into that heavily fortified city. They did it because God took down the walls. He took down those walls because they believed and obeyed.

Inside that city, Rahab and her family were together in her house. They were saved because they also believed and obeyed. The spies told Rahab to hang a scarlet thread from the window of her house. They also told her that her family would only be saved if they were inside her house with her. Because they believed, and because they obeyed, they were saved from destruction.

Let god take down your walls

When there are walls you face, remember Jericho. He is capable of taking down any walls, no matter how thick or how high, or how fortified. Let Him take down those walls. Let Him do what He did with Jericho when the walls fell flat. First, you must believe, then you must obey.

Ask God for wisdom, then listen to what He says. Not only must we listen, we must do what He says. We must obey. 

We must also allow God to take down the walls according to His timetable, and not ours. He is never, ever late. He is always on time. In time, those walls will come down. They might not come down the way we expect them to fall. The walls might not come down when we think they should. When it seems nothing is happening, God is working. All He asks is that we believe – and obey.

 

 

Photo attribution: MoodyPublishers/freebibleimages.org