The Successor Joshua - # 9

The Lord said to me…”I will test my people with a Plumbline, Amos 7:8 (TLB)

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The Successor Joshua - # 9

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Joshua 6:8-9 (MSG) 8 And it happened. Joshua spoke, the people moved: Seven priests with their seven ram's horn trumpets set out before GOD. They blew the trumpets, leading GOD's Chest of the Covenant. 9 The armed guard marched ahead of the trumpet-blowing priests; the rear guard was marching after the Chest, marching and blowing their trumpets.

The sequence of the conquest of Jericho (6:8-21) It was perhaps a little after dawn when a long procession began to unwind out of the camp of Israel. First came the armed guard marching under tribal banners, then seven priests with trumpets; next the ark of God, and last the rear guard. The army thus had prominent places in the procession but Jericho would fall not through their prowess but because of the power of God.

Preserving absolute silence (except for the seven priests blowing their trumpets) this strange parade made its way toward Jericho and then around the city like a serpent. Jericho then covered about eight or nine acres and required less than 30 minutes to march around. When the circuit was completed, to the amazement of the Canaanites who probably anticipated an immediate attack, the Israelites returned quietly to camp. See 6:10-11.

The same procedure was followed for six days. No fortress had ever been conquered in this fashion. This strange strategy was probably given to test the faith of Joshua. He did not question; he trusted and obeyed. This procedure was also designed to test Israel’s obedience to God’s will. And that was not easy in this case. Every day they were exposing themselves to ridicule and danger. A Jericho soldier may have looked down from the wall on the army of Israel and asked, “Do they think they can frighten us into surrender by the sound of their rams’ horns?” And the rest may have joined in a loud chorus of raucous laughter. See 6:12-14. Probably the Israelites received their orders on a daily basis so that their obedience was not a once-for-all matter but a new challenge every morning. That is the way God often deals with His children. They are required to do their “daily march” with little or no knowledge of tomorrow (Prov. 27:1; James 4:14; cf. Matt. 6:34).

The faith of the Israelites triumphed over their fear that the enemy would attack. They also triumphed over any expectation of ridicule and scorn. Never before and seldom after this historic event did the thermometer of faith rise this high in Israel.

On that fateful seventh day the procession made the circuit of the walls seven times. This parade—consisting of the armed guard, the seven trumpet-blowing priests, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant, and the rear guard—may have taken about three hours. (On the word devoted in vv. 17-18 see comments on v. 21.) (As Joshua recorded, Israel experienced disastrous consequences because of an immediate violation of God’s instruction in vv. 18-19.) At the end of the seventh circuit the clear voice of Joshua rang out, Shout! For the Lord has given you the city! Also he told them to spare Rahab and her family (cf. 2:8-13). So when the priests blasted on the trumpets... the people gave a loud shout. That shout reverberated through the hills around, startling wild animals and terrorizing the dwellers of Jericho in their homes. At that moment the wall of Jericho, obeying the summons of God, collapsed (lit., “fell in its place”). Read 6:15-20a.

Adapted from the Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures by Dallas Seminary Faculty.