June 17, 2021
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Joshua? Here’s today’s reading:
Joshua 6 (NIV)
1 Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.
2 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. 3 March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days..........Continue Reading
The Lord’s ways are mysterious! It seems unbelievable that marching around Jericho would have brought down the walls, yet it happened according to the Lord’s directions. Even in our lives, things that we can’t understand happen, bringing solutions to difficulties that we can’t see our way through, if we pray to the Lord with faith. Things we couldn’t have imagined work out for our good. Praise God!
The instructions to the Israelites must have been a test of faith. Why 7 days!! I certainly would have doubted if this was going to work. I suppose this being the first attack after entering the promised land, God was sending a message to all the other Canaanites. Why else would all people and animals be slaughtered. Tough to read the old testament sometimes
And yet every portion that is hard to read shows us something about our God that we must internalize and make part of our understanding of Him…..
Joshua 5
Joshua 6 –
These instruction must have sounded so crazy to the Israelites! So far from how they usually fight and win a battle but as we know the battle belongs to the Lord and He will be victorious as He was here again!
It is interesting how God’s directions can be interpreted differently. From what God said I wouldn’t have had the priests sound the trumpets the first six days and I would have lined it up with the priests with trumpets, the priests with the ark, the fighting men and then the people. But certainly the more substantive parts of His directions was the number of times they walked around and the silence of the people until the seventh time on the seventh day. And it is just like God to involve the people like that. He could have spoken and the walls would come down. But often times God chooses to work through faith and obedience. It is always important to remember those dynamics as we approach our God.
Quite an image here; I wonder how those inside the walls reacted to those first six days.
2Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.
The Lord tells Joshua that He has given them the city, and exactly how they will do it.
It is interesting the repeated use of the #7. Seven represents the program of God on behalf of man in the Bible, every time. I don’t pay attention much to numbers in my life, but it is an interesting consistency to see in God’s word.