Trusting God

"March around the city!"
"Ok,.....wait what?!?!"

This is how I think some (or maybe even many) of the Israelites felt when God revealed to them his plan to deliver Jericho to them. This is one of those moments where I would question God on His plan, "why?" Because it seems preposterous, why would the walls of a city just fall? No force applied, they just drop! Now, as an Israelite, I would have some serious doubts, not to mention the fact that they are doing this for 7 consecutive days. All I can imagine is the veggie tales scene where all the veggie Israelites are marching around the city while the french peas insult them and throw slush.

Where am I trying to go with this? I'm trying to get at that there are going to be times in our live where God is going to ask us to do things that make no sense / may seem silly to us or confuse us. We may want life to be straight and simple, but chances are it's not. It's probably going to be filled with twists and turns that make no sense to us, and may even have us asking God "why?" We may never find out until after the fact. We may have to TRUST God with what we don't know and have the faith to believe that He knows best, even when it may not look like it.

God told the Israelites to march around a city for seven days, and all the Israelites had to go on was a promise that by the end of those seven days, the walls of Jericho would be ruins and the city would be theirs. They would not have to lay a finger on it and it would fall. And to their credit, they stuck through it and trusted in God. They didn't complain at all about how ridiculous the plan may have seemed. They stuck through and in the end the walls fell, they took the city and the conquest of their new homeland had begun.

Trust in what God asks of you to do, it may be straightforward and simple, it may seem crazy or it may be the hardest thing you've ever done. There is a reason behind it, Trust in His plan. 

"1Now 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. 4 Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. 5 When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.”6 So Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant of the Lord and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it.” 7 And he ordered the army, “Advance! March around the city, with an armed guard going ahead of the ark of the Lord.”8 When Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets before the Lord went forward, blowing their trumpets, and the ark of the Lord’s covenant followed them. 9 The armed guard marched ahead of the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard followed the ark. All this time the trumpets were sounding. 10 But Joshua had commanded the army, “Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout!” 11 So he had the ark of the Lord carried around the city, circling it once. Then the army returned to camp and spent the night there.12 Joshua got up early the next morning and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. 13 The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets went forward, marching before the ark of the Lordand blowing the trumpets. The armed men went ahead of them and the rear guard followed the ark of the Lord, while the trumpets kept sounding. 14 So on the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days.15 On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. 16 The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city! 17 The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. 18 But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. 19 All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into his treasury.”20 When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city. 21 They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys."" - Joshua 6: 1-21

Remembering the Past

For the Israelites, they were told to build a 12 stone monument that would be a reminder to them about what God did for them in the tough times. In this case it was crossing the Jordan river (which they would have otherwise not been able to do) and also a reminder of even further back about their escape from Egypt (another trial) and how God facilitated their escape from Pharaohs army by crossing the Red Sea. God specifically made them set this reminder so that they would remember who got them through their times of need (God) and so they would know who had the power and who it was that needed to be feared (God and not Pharaoh, God and not the people of Canaan. etc, etc). So when you are thinking about the past, don't skip over the difficult times, but remember how you got through those times.

Joshua 4 is a reminder to not forget these times because these times are often associated with God and what He did to help us get through the tough times and that it is God who holds the power and HE is the one who we should fear (and not the trial).

He said to the Israelites "In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, 'what do these stones mean?' tell them 'Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground'. For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan just what He had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that thSomething I was thinking about when reading through Joshua 4 was how we look upon our past. When looking upon the past, (not all the time but for a lot of it) we tend to remember the good times. Those times when things were going well in our lives and in doing so we often forget the struggles or we try to ignore them; not wanting to dredge up the memories attached to them. 
e hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God. - Joshua 4:21-24