Those Walls Will Fall!

Many of us are waiting on God’s promises to be fulfilled. The good news is God’s word says He always comes through. Deuteronomy 7:9 says “Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands.” Look at the children of Israel. God promised to give them the promised land even before they had seen it. (Exodus 3:17) God promised them victory if they followed His commands. However, God did not remove the enemy from that land before they arrived. We learned that in more depth when the 12 spies were sent out. (Numbers 13) There were fierce warriors there including giants occupying what God said was there’s. Why would God promise them a beautiful land, but leave all the opposition there? Let’s move forward and look at one specific story, the walls of Jericho.

Joshua 6 shares the story of the walls of Jericho, but the story actually starts way before that. In Joshua 2, the 2 spies sent out from Israel find shelter with Rahab. In verses 9-11 Rahab shares that her people had heard of the Red Sea miracle and them defeating the two Amorite kings. The word of God’s power and the children of Israel being fierce warriors had spread to the city long before they showed up. The city was trembling with fear because they might be next to be destroyed. So when we go back to Joshua 6, the story makes more sense. The very first verse in chapter 6 says the city gates were locked and no one could come or go because of the Israelites! Wow. That was true fear.

God does not give Joshua a typical battle plan to conquer Jericho. Instead God tells them to have the Levites and armed fighters quietly march around the city for 6 days. To our natural mind this seems like the worst strategy ever. We know on the 7th day the trumpets sounded, they shouted, and the walls fell. They went in and conquered the enemy. What initially seemed liked foolishness on the outside, really contained many spiritual truths that we can be encouraged by and apply to our lives today.

If God made a promise then our success has already been guaranteed.

Numbers 23:19 “God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?” Many times when we receive a promise from God we get excited and move with momentum. However the longer we wait there is a tug to turn from resting in the fact that God will do it, to trying to convince Him to do it. As if God changed His mind and we have to change it back. No. God is not like us humans. He is not fickle, He is not untrustworthy, He does not double cross us. When God makes a promise it’s “no take backs”. If God has made a promise to you, know He has every intention of fulfilling it.

Get ready for opposition.

Now think of what was really going on when the children of Israel were marching for those 6 days. The people of Jericho expected fierce warriors to show up and a powerful God to show up as well. Instead, they saw people marching around quietly. They had their armor on, but weren’t doing anything. The first day they might have been scared thinking this was some sort of set up. This was something to psych them out and catch them off guard. The God of the cloud by day and fire by night would then show up and annihilate them. However, they repeat this silent march strategy another day and another day. By then they probably went from people they feared to people they mocked. Remember the houses were high up. When the spies came to Rahab in Joshua 2, it says her house was built into the walls and they had to be lowered down by a rope. The people had a a nice vantage point to throw out insults, laugh at them and mock them. They may have even thrown things out their windows at the Israelites. And why not? It didn’t seem they were going to ever fight back.

Sometimes God has us in a holding pattern as we wait for His promises to be fulfilled. The enemy is throwing insults at us trying to discourage us. He throws out lies to make us doubt God will come through for us and it seems we have no way to deny his accusations because in the natural nothing has changed. So what do we do? We keep marching. We keep focused on the path God has set us on and we keep our minds focused on the promises He gave. We do that through the word of God and prayer. When satan came at Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus was at a weakened natural state. (Matthew 4) He had been fasting a long time. Satan came to tempt him, but what was Jesus’ response to every thing satan threw at Him? God’s word. Jesus quoted scripture back at satan’s lies and eventually satan retreated. Satan even attempted to misquote scripture. Don’t be shocked. Satan knows what the word of God says, but he will try to twist it to say what he wants it to say. But we as children of God possess power when we use God’s word. Hebrews 4:12 calls the word of God a sword. Using the word of God is like we actually picked up a physical weapon to fight. So even though nothing seems to be going on when we look with our eyes, we are indeed battling in the spirit. Even though they were “just” marching with their legs, the Israelites were actually stomping down satan’s strongholds with each step.

Prayer is another tool when opposition comes. Look at Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. (Matthew 26) Jesus’ heart was heavy knowing He had to go to the cross. The cross was part of the fulfillment of the promise God made. Jesus went and prayed to God about his heaviness. There isn’t anything wrong with asking God to deliver from suffering, opposition, or trouble. If He does not deliver us from it, know He will walk us through it. Isaiah 43:2 says “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” When we are feeling disheartened and feel like we can’t hold on, prayer builds us up.

God may keep the path quiet, but the revelation public.

God had the Israelites march in silence. They walked that same path for 6 days. On the 7th they were finally able to shout, praise, and the walls visibly fell. They were publicly victorious. Think of Noah building the ark. It took a long time from when he first started building it till there was actually a drop of rain. But when the rain did come and he and his household were securely inside, everyone saw what he believed was true. As we wait for God’s promises sometimes it is a quiet time. Quiet in the sense of there is no physical evidence to show what you’re believing for will happen. And maybe even what you consider tangible evidence still doesn’t convince anyone you’re right. However when God makes the promise happen, it will be visible! A baby, a healing, a restored marriage, your child coming back to God. God brings promises out in the open so people will see it and they will know God did it.

A word of caution: When we are waiting for God to fulfill promises I think it vitally important we use discernment. I don’t think we should run off and tell everyone and just anyone what God has told or shown us. Think of Joseph. He ran off at the mouth telling his brothers his dream and it stirred up jealousy, envy, and eventually revenge. Rather look at Mary. When the angel came to her and told her she would carry the son of God, the bible says “But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19) Give time to digest what God has told you before you speak. Use discernment always because there are two types of people you may encounter; dream lifters and dream crushers.

Dream lifters are people that will believe, encourage, and stand with you. Those are the Aarons of the bible that will lift your hands up when yours get tired. These are the people that will tell you not to give up when you want to throw in the towel. Then there are the dream crushers. Those are the people that will be like satan in the garden of eden “Did God really say…?" (Genesis 3) They will make you doubt you heard God. They will make you question all of your choices because they don’t understand the path God has placed you on, nor do they have the faith to believe with you. On this journey I’ve been on, waiting for my promise, I’ve seen this first hand. People I thought would get excited with me and support me have actually turned out to be my biggest nay sayers. I learned quickly to pray and ask God who I should share my vision with and even how many details to give. There may even be some people you have to leave behind to get where you’re going. You can’t carry everyone with you to the promised land. An entire generation of Israelites didn’t make it there because they didn’t believe. Even Abraham had to leave Lot behind. When you are keeping your focus on the things of God, there may be some people you need to part from for the sake of staying on your path. Again, discernment.

Now addressing the original question: Why didn’t God just clear out the enemy before they arrived? I find there was more reason to leave them than remove them. God already said the land was there’s. If that’s the case then nothing could stop them if they kept their focus on God. Each public defeat of the enemy gave public testimony to God’s greatness and in turn built their confidence. As we slay each giant on the way to our promise, we realize more and more God is on our side. God always wants things to go from just head knowledge to heart knowledge. As I continue to defeat the enemy I truly start to believe Romans 8:31, “If God is for us, who can be against us?”