How Walls Come Down

The story of the fall of Jericho to me is emblematic of how peculiar a thing it is to follow the Lord.  Jericho was a walled city, a fortified city.  To the Israelites, having wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, I think it must have looked more or less indestructible.  However, God had told Joshua that He had given the land and the city into their hands, so they moved forward to fight.

God also told them how to take the city, and His plan is bizarre.  The army is to march around the city, and the priests with them, bearing the Ark of the Lord and blowing trumpets continually.  Days 1-6 they go around once, saying nothing, and then they go back to camp.  On day 7 they are to march around seven times, and then shout after the trumpets are sounded the last time.  When they do this, they are told, the walls will fall down.

I don't know about you, but if I'd been a member of the army listening to Joshua tell me the plan, I probably would have been skeptical.  And on day one, after having marched silently around the city, armed for war, while the priests blew their trumpets, only to go back to camp and eat dinner and go to bed,  I would have felt like an idiot.  The same on day two.  By day six I would have been antsy as hell.  And on day seven, I can guarantee I would have been nervous, mostly about whether or not it was actually going to work.

So say you're like me.  Say God has told you to do something and you're doubtful, or you're skeptical, or your nervous, but you do it anyway.  Guess what?  The walls will still come down, because the power is not in you, or in the size of your faith, the power is in your obedience.  This is success then: obedience.  This is what makes walls fall down - big walls mind you, big hulking solid walls built over the course of years.  They fall down not because you strategized and practiced and have come to a place where you can level them.  They fall because God knocks them down.  He specializes in knocking down walls.

So many times we are not called to do the thing that seems so obvious in the course of battle.  We would expect that we could build an army and figure out how to win, and then go to God and ask Him to bless it and give us victory.  But that's backwards.  Sometimes God does tell us grab a sword.  Sometimes He says to beat the sword into a plowshare.  Sometimes he tells us to do something seemingly ridiculous, something that in no way appears to lead to the goal of victory.  They're all good.  If God is saying it, it's good, and we'll know victory if we're just obedient.

I think it's important to remember that, if we are in fact at war (spiritually), then everything we do is a part of a battle.  This is not meant to intimidate anyone, or hype up the charismatics, but rather I say it to remind us that everything we do has a place in the Kingdom.  My job has a place in the Kingdom of God, and I'm not in ministry, I'm in the energy industry.  My hobbies making beer and gardening have a place in the Kingdom.  My tendency to joke around with cashiers and the folks at the counter at the coffee shop, that has a place in the Kingdom.  So does the music I like, the books I read, and the blogs I write.  It's peculiar, but these things matter.

So don't be afraid of or embarrassed about what God asks you to do, just be obedient, and watch as the landscape of your life changes.  You'll find it easier to get from point A to point B, and then C and D and so on, without so many walls to walk around.