“When Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand ... The Lord said to Joshua, ‘Look, I have handed Jericho, its king, and its best soldiers over to you. March around the city with all the men of war, circling the city one time. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry seven ram’s-horn trumpets in front of the ark. But on the seventh day, march around the city seven times, while the priests blow the rams’ horns. When there is a prolonged blast of the horn and you hear its sound, have all the troops give a mighty shout. Then the city wall will collapse, and the troops will advance, each man straight ahead.’”
It’s in this moment that God gives Joshua a plan to defeat the city of Jericho. Instead of storming the gates with Joshua’s amazing forty-years-in-the-making battle plan, God asks Joshua to simply walk silently around the city. When I read this in early 2020, it was as if the spirit of God whispered to my heart,
“Trust Me, Jamie. Trust My plan. Walk with Me and watch Me bring the miraculous into your life and the lives of others ...
"I can do more with your obedient walk than your decades of fight.”
I could imagine Joshua delivering God’s message to his battle-ready comrades in arms. These men were trained men of war, ready to fight at this moment. Men who have waited a long time for this battle. They have waited decades for God’s promise to be fulfilled in their lives. Now, God intercepts His direction into their carefully planned expectations and tells them, “Oh by the way, instead of fighting, I want you to walk in silence around this wall.”
Some of the Israelites most likely questioned God’s method. Can you imagine what the people of Jericho thought as they saw battle-ready warriors walking around their wall instead of fighting? I’m positive it left them feeling perplexed, questioning the competency of their warriors and the ability of their leader. Yet deep down the Israelites remembered where disobedience had led their parents forty years earlier and they were determined to not make the same mistake twice.
They would do what God asked, no matter how it looked to others.
They would walk valiantly no matter how awkward it was for them to stay silent and simply walk. They would do what God asked because they knew only God could bring the victory.
So what do you do when you’ve been trained to fight, but God asks you to walk? What do you do when you’ve waited a lifetime for a single moment and God asks you to change course mid-stride? I’ll tell you what you do:
You walk forward obediently, because courage at its core is obedience.
Obedience to a God who has far greater purposes in mind for your life than you could ever imagine or understand.
Sometimes courage looks like a straight-out-of-hell, full-on fight, but other times it looks like a steady walk around city gates with no words left to be spoken.
Sometimes it looks like years of all-in effort, and other times it’s allowing Him to gently realign your stride, to function in a new way so your life can bear more fruit.
It means releasing our plans and responding to God in full obedience, no matter how it looks to outsiders. True courage is born from submission and trust.
Courage built not in a single moment but over a lifetime of simple faith in a great God.
Because when you know who the God is that you love, your position or occupation matters little. Whether running or walking, resting or fighting, God’s way is the best way. Obedience matters.
I believe it took Joshua more courage to walk in silence than it would have to fight.
Courage to walk was not what he had been trained to do. In fact, he had been walking and wandering around the desert for forty years; if ever there was a moment to fight, this was it! Yet Joshua’s trust in God superseded what he thought was right in the moment. God could do more through his obedient walk than Joshua ever could with his fight.
I don’t find it a coincidence that an angel appeared to Joshua before God revealed his plans in full spectrum. He asked Joshua to take his shoes off because He was standing on holy ground (just like Moses had done decades earlier). Removing one’s shoes in Israel was a sign of a covenant. By Joshua placing his shoes before the angel of God, He was saying, “God, whatever you want me to do, I’ll do it. My life is fully yours.”
Before Joshua even knew God’s plan, he was laying down his personal plans so he could fully walk in obedience to God. That, my friends, is true courage.
It wasn’t that Joshua wouldn’t fight in the future. In fact, after seven days of walking, the walls fell and Joshua fought strong and valiantly and would continue to fight with his warriors to take the Promised Land as their possession.
The simple act of walking was a statement to the world that God alone brings victory. A statement that the children of Israel would choose to trust.
"Because sometimes it takes more courage to walk than it does to fight. And courage at its core is simply believing and obeying God."
Photo Credit: Iain on Pexels.com | Design Credit: Milan Klusacek milanklusacek.com
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