“Shout; then the wall . . will fall down.” Joshua 6:5 NKJV
“A wall is anything stopping your progress, hindering your being what God wants.”
My thoughts today are about “walls.”
Life will have obstacles. If you haven’t, you are not moving forward. You will stare at a wall that stands between you and where you need to go, what you need to do, and what you need to have. A wall is a barrier. There are walls that are there to keep you safely inside of them, but other walls that are meant to keep you outside. Some you may find a way around, or over, but there will be those when there is only be one way to go, through them.
Israel had just experienced a wonderful miracle when God made a way for Israel through the Jordan River at its flood stage. (Read Joshua 3:14-17 NLT). Still before Israel was a formidable fortress, Jericho. Israel had come so far, though so many difficulties, and now they were so close but not there yet. As the first city across the Jordan River, Jericho and its massive walls threatened to stop Israel’s march of conquest and possession.
If their progress stops here, the promise, however great, goes unfulfilled. Jericho was the entrance to the promised land that lay beyond. Everything they needed – everything they wanted – every thing God promised to them was on the other side of those broad, towering, and seemingly impenetrable walls.
A wall is anything that is stopping your progress, anything hindering your doing and being what God wants. Something blocking your progress that seems impassable? Some are imposed on you; some you built yourself! Sometimes you can build walls that keep you from honest and real relationships, and leave you lonely. Or walls that seal off hurts but never heal them. Or walls of self-doubt and insecurity that prevent you from trying or risking. Or even walls that keep your heart distant from God. Those walls stop your progress.
Consider this: “He who rules his spirit (is better) than he who takes a city . . A person without self control is as defenseless as a city with broken down walls.” Proverbs 16:32 NKJV/25:28 NLT. Could there be something that you need to change before God can change what you cannot.
God had an answer for Joshua, as strange and unorthodox as it seemed at the time, and He has your answer also. (Read Joshua 6:1-21). You probably know the story – Israel was to walk around Jericho’s walls each day for six days in silence. Maybe God protected Israel from discouraging one another with talk of doubt, unbelief and what ifs – or compromising the authority of their voice of faith before it was time to declare His victory with a shout! Sometimes it’s best to “be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10.
Then on the seventh day they were to walk around the city walls in silence, then sound the trumpets and “shout with a loud voice . . and the wall fell down flat.” Vs.16/20. Strange battle plan – walk in silence, shout, conquer! There comes a moment when shouting – boldly declaring the victory promised – is the most appropriate thing you could do. After you’ve obeyed what God asked you to do and the wall is still standing – shout with the voice of trust, obedience, and authority, and be prepared for God to change the unchangeable and conquer the unconquerable. “Shout; then the wall . . will fall down!” Joshua 6:5 NKJV.
(For an interesting article on the conquest of ancient Jericho and its impregnable walls, go to www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v21/i2/jericho.asp. Answers Magazine Mar ’99.)
My prayer for you today is that you allow no walls between your heart and God.