The battle of Jericho is one of the most beloved examples of real faith in the Old Testament. It is a picture of winning the war before the battle even begins, and it is one of the few times in Scripture when the people of God did exactly as He told them to do. The first thing Joshua observed was the visible battle that lay before them. The city of Jericho was a walled city. The walls towered 80 feet high and 30 feet thick, and inside those walls was a well-armed and powerful enemy. What Joshua saw with his eyes was a problem of immense proportions. Every person has some kind of giant, visible problem in their life such as relationships, attitudes, sicknesses, family issues, or a host of other things. Whatever the giant problem is for you, it is real and stands right there in front of you.<\/p>\n
As difficult as the visible giant of Jericho was, it was not Joshua\u2019s real problem. The real challenge was the invisible war he had to fight in his own heart. Joshua needed to overcome the challenge of past failures. Every person has a history of failure, but effective people have learned to leave the past where it is and focus on the things that they can still do something about. Joshua also had to overcome his own preconceived ideas of how the battle should be fought. Joshua was not going to be able to fight this enemy his way, he would have to do things God\u2019s way.<\/p>\n
On the seventh day Joshua and the people arose early, about dawn, and marched around the city 7 times, as God had commanded. When the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua commanded the people for the first time to praise and shout, since God had given the city to them. They were to give praise and thanks before the city actually fell into their hands. Their faith turned into physical fact as the walls of Jericho miraculously fell down. Faith must be exercised like a muscle because if it is left unused, it will atrophy. Like normal muscles, faith must be applied, used, and depended upon by going out on a limb with God. Lean on God and thank Him in advance for taking down the strongholds of your flesh, as the giant, visible walls in your life fall down as well.<\/p>\n
“LORD, we do thank You for what You are already doing in our lives. Give us the courage to follow You anywhere You lead us today.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n =============================================================<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joshua 6 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1<\/sup>\u00a0Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in.\u00a0\u00a02<\/sup>\u00a0And the\u00a0LORD\u00a0said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>the mighty men of valour.\u00a03<\/sup>\u00a0And ye shall compass the city, all\u00a0ye\u00a0<\/em>men of war,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days.\u00a04<\/sup>\u00a0And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams\u2019 horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets.\u00a05<\/sup>\u00a0And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long\u00a0blast\u00a0<\/em>with the ram\u2019s horn,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.\u00a0 6<\/sup>\u00a0And Joshua the son of Nun called the priests, and said unto them, Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams\u2019 horns before the ark of the\u00a0LORD.\u00a07<\/sup>\u00a0And he said unto the people, Pass on, and compass the city, and let him that is armed pass on before the ark of the\u00a0LORD. 8<\/sup>\u00a0And it came to pass, when Joshua had spoken unto the people, that the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams\u2019 horns passed on before the\u00a0LORD, and blew with the trumpets: and the ark of the covenant of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0followed them. 9<\/sup> And the armed men went before the priests that blew with the trumpets, and the rereward came after the ark,\u00a0the priests\u00a0<\/em>going on, and blowing with the trumpets.\u00a0\u00a010<\/sup>\u00a0And Joshua had commanded the people, saying, Ye shall not shout, nor make any noise with your voice, neither shall\u00a0any\u00a0<\/em>word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I bid you shout; then shall ye shout.\u00a0\u00a011<\/sup>\u00a0So the ark of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0compassed the city, going about\u00a0it\u00a0<\/em>once: and they came into the camp, and lodged in the camp. 12<\/sup>\u00a0And Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the\u00a0LORD.\u00a013<\/sup>And seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams\u2019 horns before the ark of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0went on continually, and blew with the trumpets: and the armed men went before them; but the rereward came after the ark of the\u00a0LORD,\u00a0the priests\u00a0<\/em>going on, and blowing with the trumpets.\u00a014<\/sup>\u00a0And the second day they compassed the city once, and returned into the camp: so they did six days.\u00a015<\/sup>\u00a0And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they rose early about the dawning of the day, and compassed the city after the same manner seven times: only on that day they compassed the city seven times.\u00a016<\/sup>\u00a0And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the\u00a0LORD\u00a0hath given you the city. 17<\/sup>\u00a0And the city shall be accursed,\u00a0even\u00a0<\/em>it, and all that\u00a0are\u00a0<\/em>therein, to the\u00a0LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that\u00a0are\u00a0<\/em>with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.\u00a0\u00a018<\/sup>\u00a0And ye, in any wise keep\u00a0yourselves\u00a0<\/em>from the accursed thing, lest ye make\u00a0yourselves\u00a0<\/em>accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a019<\/sup>\u00a0But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron,\u00a0are\u00a0<\/em>consecrated unto the\u00a0LORD: they shall come into the treasury of the\u00a0LORD.\u00a0\u00a020<\/sup>\u00a0So the people shouted when\u00a0the priests\u00a0<\/em>blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.\u00a0 21<\/sup>\u00a0And they utterly destroyed all that\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.\u00a022<\/sup>\u00a0But Joshua had said unto the two men that had spied out the country, Go into the harlot\u2019s house, and bring out thence the woman, and all that she hath, as ye sware unto her.\u00a023<\/sup>\u00a0And the young men that were spies went in, and brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brethren, and all that she had; and they brought out all her kindred, and left them without the camp of Israel.\u00a0\u00a024<\/sup>\u00a0And they burnt the city with fire, and all that\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>therein: only the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the\u00a0LORD.\u00a025<\/sup>\u00a0And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father\u2019s household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel\u00a0even\u00a0<\/em>unto this day; because she hid the messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. 26<\/sup>\u00a0And Joshua adjured\u00a0them\u00a0<\/em>at that time, saying, Cursed\u00a0be\u00a0<\/em>the man before the\u00a0LORD, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho: he shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest\u00a0son\u00a0<\/em>shall he set up the gates of it.\u00a027<\/sup>\u00a0So the\u00a0LORD\u00a0was with Joshua; and his fame was\u00a0noised\u00a0<\/em>throughout all the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The battle of Jericho is one of the most beloved examples of real faith in the Old Testament. It is a picture of winning the war before the battle even begins, and it is one of the few times in Scripture when the people of God did exactly as He told them to do. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6136"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6136"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16051,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6136\/revisions\/16051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}