The Plan

The problem looked unsolvable; with the only solvable thing about the problem that Joshua faced was God telling Joshua that He wanted them to overtake Jericho. At best, that is only a comforting thought if you don’t trust God to start with. Wait this isn’t the same crowd of people that refused to go into Kadeshbarnea the ones that said repeatedly “would to God we had died in the land of Egypt!” No this is their children and now it’s time for them to put their trust in God. The problem looks unsolvable; what’s the plan? Are you ready to see what God tells His people who are trusting in Him. Here’s the Plan;

Joshua 6:3  And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days.

Joshua 6:4  And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets.

Joshua 6:5  And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and 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.

Uh, didn’t we forget something here? Like the weapons! All I read there was something about trumpets and some great shouting. Now I want you to think about how you would feel if you had been in that crowd and heard that!  What would you be thinking? If trusting God is your answer you might be saying “ok, let’s go.” If not you would have thought it was the craziest plan you had ever heard. Now you and I have the privilege of reading the before and after and we might just think, just trust God for He will take care of you. But when you and I face a Jericho (something that seems unsolvable or impossible) do we say the same thing about our difficulty? We’re not reading this and we sure don’t know the outcome. I had a close friend, he and his wife found out that they were going to have their first baby; boy were they excited. Unfortunately their excitement turned into horror one day at the doctor’s office. The doctor told them that their baby would not live and the best thing for them was to abort the child. They were shocked to say the least for neither one thought that was the right thing to do. Then it got more complicated when the doctor told them that if they didn’t abort the child that his wife’s life would be in great danger. They would not only lose the child but his wife stood a great possibility of dying while trying to deliver the baby. They had time to think about it but the doctor wanted to make sure they understood. Many gave them advice and many advised them to abort the baby. He and his wife began to pray and I do mean pray; none of this God is great stuff but really pray. My close friend told me that his wife had a dream that the doctor was wrong and the baby was fine so she decided to go the full term. That is what she did and the labor was hard she delivered the baby and the doctor was half right the baby lived a short time and then died. My close friend, after making sure his wife was alright went to where the baby was picked her up, held her tight in his arms and began to sing I’ll meet you in the morning. They trusted God! No, it didn’t turn out like they would have liked it to but had they listened to those who only saw the surface they would have never experienced what God wanted to teach them. In just a few years they would face another life or death matter. You see God brings you and I to our Jericho’s so that we may learn to trust Him. Because the Israelites followed God’s plan they too later in their journey were able to put more trust in God. Are you facing a Jericho? Then pray, seek God’s face and put your trust in Him for He loves you more than you could ever imagine. The more trust you put in God the more you’ll trust Him!