Joshua 6 - Steve Wiggins Daily Devotional

“The L_rd said to Joshua, ‘Look, I have handed Jericho, its king, and it’s fighting men over to you. March around the city with all the men of war, circling the city one time. Do this six days. Have seven priests carry seven shofars (ram’s horn trumpets) in front of the ark. But on the seventh day, march around the city seven times, while the priests blow the trumpets. When there is a prolonged blast of the horn and you hear its sound, have all the people give a mighty shout. Then the city wall will collapse, and the people will advance, each man straight ahead.’” Joshua 6: 2-5

Let’s face it. Some things the L_rd asks us to do simply don’t make sense to us, at the time. Sometimes, life seems to fall apart. Whenever that happens, we feel the urge to put G_d on the back burner and take control ourselves. All the while, the Lord is telling us, “Be still, and watch me deliver you…”

If we were honest with each other, we’d have to admit we want G_d to supply everything we need, with no effort on our part. But that’s not G_d’s plan. If you listen closely, you can hear G_d saying, “Work hard and I will deliver you.”

So, do we wait on him or do we work hard? In a word, YES! The key to following the Lord is in our closeness to Him, and our listening for His direction. Sometimes He shouts, but mostly He speaks in a normal volume…or even whispers. As the song says, “He is not silent; we’re just not listening.”

Just outside of Jericho, the Israelites must have been thinking Joshua was out of his mind. “You want us to WHAT?” Not only were they commanded to march around Jericho, once a day, for six days, and blow trumpets…they couldn’t even utter a word. Do you know how hard it is to keep a Jew from talking? There’s your miracle!

Israel had to learn a lesson in obedience, and we could all learn from it. If the victory is the L_rd’s, the method of battle is arbitrary. Not unimportant, just arbitrary to conventional thought. How does tithing expand your business? How does prayer heal a person’s cancer? How does reading Scripture heal a marriage? None of those things, in & of themselves, accomplishes those goals. G_d performs the miracle, but He commands us to faithfully display the obedience to His process.

G_d may give us limited participation in the processes, but He doesn’t need us to accomplish His purposes. He simply calls us to obey. Sometimes, I wonder if the (seemingly) arbitrary nature of our participation is exactly what He intended, so the source of the victory will be undeniably Him!

Blessings,
~Steve Wiggins
Daily Devotional, Tuesday, July 22, 2014