YouTube Channel Video Devo
“Obedience Even When Things Make No Sense”
Joshua 6:2-5 NIV
The Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. 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. 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.”
This past Sunday, the sermon at church featured this story about the collapse of the wall of Jericho. This is one of my most favorite stories in Scripture. One of the reasons why is having watched Veggie Tales so many years ago and remembering the hilarious animation retelling the story. The other reason is how amazing this story is because everything they did made absolutely NO logical sense whatsoever!
All the verses leading up to verse 5 give the sense that something will happen in the end like charging the wall and using weapons to tear it down. It would make total sense to bring a crane with a wrecking ball in to smash through the wall, right?? Of course! That’s exactly what I would have done! But this wasn’t God’s plan at all. He had no plans for anything physical to knock down the wall. It was absolutely nothing but obedience and faith that God would do…..something.
Verse 5 just gets me. The wall of the city will collapse from all the shouting and marching around? God gave them very detailed instructions of marching around and doing various things. One loud blast and shouting and then……well…..the wall will collapse?? It just doesn’t make one bit of sense at all. Why would God tell them to do all these things instead of telling the to grab weapons and beat the wall down that way?
God wanted their obedience and faith in Him more than anything. I’m sure it had to be on their minds why in the world God was giving them weird instructions that had absolutely NOTHING physical to do with breaking down the wall. God told Joshua and he told the people. I can just hear Joshua’s thoughts, “God, I sure hope this works! I’m gonna look like a fool if it doesn’t.”
Can you imagine the feeling and look on everyone’s faces when the wall did collapse? “Whoa! Did that just REALLY happen?? All we did was march around and then shout! How in the world did that happen?”
Obedience and faith in God, even when things make absolutely no sense, is what God wants more than anything. We gotta trust in Him even when things have no logical reason behind it. That’s often how He works. His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not ours. Trust Him!
“Obedience Even When Things Make No Sense”
Joshua 6:2-5 NIV
The Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. 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. 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.”
This past Sunday, the sermon at church featured this story about the collapse of the wall of Jericho. This is one of my most favorite stories in Scripture. One of the reasons why is having watched Veggie Tales so many years ago and remembering the hilarious animation retelling the story. The other reason is how amazing this story is because everything they did made absolutely NO logical sense whatsoever!
All the verses leading up to verse 5 give the sense that something will happen in the end like charging the wall and using weapons to tear it down. It would make total sense to bring a crane with a wrecking ball in to smash through the wall, right?? Of course! That’s exactly what I would have done! But this wasn’t God’s plan at all. He had no plans for anything physical to knock down the wall. It was absolutely nothing but obedience and faith that God would do…..something.
Verse 5 just gets me. The wall of the city will collapse from all the shouting and marching around? God gave them very detailed instructions of marching around and doing various things. One loud blast and shouting and then……well…..the wall will collapse?? It just doesn’t make one bit of sense at all. Why would God tell them to do all these things instead of telling the to grab weapons and beat the wall down that way?
God wanted their obedience and faith in Him more than anything. I’m sure it had to be on their minds why in the world God was giving them weird instructions that had absolutely NOTHING physical to do with breaking down the wall. God told Joshua and he told the people. I can just hear Joshua’s thoughts, “God, I sure hope this works! I’m gonna look like a fool if it doesn’t.”
Can you imagine the feeling and look on everyone’s faces when the wall did collapse? “Whoa! Did that just REALLY happen?? All we did was march around and then shout! How in the world did that happen?”
Obedience and faith in God, even when things make absolutely no sense, is what God wants more than anything. We gotta trust in Him even when things have no logical reason behind it. That’s often how He works. His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not ours. Trust Him!