Faith Obeys

Devotional Reading: But Joshua commanded the people, “You shall not shout or make your voice heard, neither shall any word go out of your mouth, until the day I tell you to shout. Then you shall shout.” Joshua 6:10 ESV

After years of waiting, the Israelites were finally taking the Promised Land. However, finally seeing the promise meant facing a battle. But God gave them a plan — all they had to do was walk around the city of Jericho for seven days and play some instruments. Yep, you read that right.

If you thought Joshua got weird looks when he told the priests to walk into the Jordan River, can you imagine the reaction to this? It would be like a soccer coach telling his team to walk around the field singing, “Thank You, Next in order to win the biggest game of the year.”

On the outside, it looked ridiculous and didn’t make sense. Joshua probably had a lot of questions. But if there’s something we’ve learned about Joshua, it’s that his faith was tied to God’s character, not his crazy circumstances.

See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands along with its king and its armed men.

Notice God said, “I have delivered,” not “I will deliver.” He spoke of the situation in past tense, letting Joshua know that the battle had already been won by God. Joshua just had to trust Him and obey.

Joshua followed God’s commands and had the Israelites walk around Jericho for seven days. On the seventh day, the wall fell and Jericho was defeated — a story so miraculous it would be told for thousands of years to come.

Faith doesn’t always make sense in the moment. Maybe you get the feeling you need to pray for a old classmate or colleague at work or write them an encouraging note. Or maybe you feel God nudging you to start a conversation with someone, even though it looks like you have nothing in common. Just obey.

Prayer and Confession
Jesus grant me the courage to obey you even when or especially when it doesn’t make sense. Amen

Further Reading: 6:1-20, Hebrews 11:1-3, 2Corinthians 5:7