Holy Ground

I want to read further...JOSHUA 6:1 Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in. 2 Then the LORD said to Joshua, "See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. 3 March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. 4 Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. 5 When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in." WELL! That probably sounded pretty strange to Joshua! What do you mean "march around the city for 6 days?" Don’t you realize how far that is? Jericho was a BIG city in those times. It took a full day to get around it! A lot of Christians won’t even walk to the front of the church to the altar, much less put themselves out like that! After all, couldn’t God just have blown those walls over without all that work? Can’t He take care of our problems without us having to do anything?

Of course He could......but He usually doesn’t. See, God wants us to become transformed so we can be ready for His Kingdom! We have to learn lessons....and we usually don’t want to learn, we just WANT! You see people wearing T-shirts all the time.."I want what I want when I want" or "My way or the hi-way". We are a selfish, selfish generation, and until we can start growing up into the ways of the Lord, we are just gonna be standing there staring at those walls that we need to break down saying "I wonder when God is going to do something about these walls? I told Him they needed to come down!"

Listen. Joshua didn’t say "Hey! That sounds like too much work!" Look in vs 6 So Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them, "Take up the ark of the covenant of the LORD and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it." 7 And he ordered the people, "Advance! March around the city, with the armed guard going ahead of the ark of the LORD." He didn’t question what the Lord told him, he just did it. Kinda like a Nike commercial only better! Let’s read on... vs 8 When Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets before the LORD went forward, blowing their trumpets, and the ark of the LORD’s covenant followed them. 9 The armed guard marched ahead of the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard followed the ark. All this time the trumpets were sounding. 10 But Joshua had commanded the people, "Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout!"

Can you imagine what those people in Jericho were thinking? Here are all these people marching around the walls of the city, blowing trumpets, carrying the Ark....and not saying a word. Do you think we could get that many Christians together today and have everybody keep their mouths shut all day long and march? Today it is "Onward Christian Soldiers...but not for too long, I have to get my nails done!" Don’t you know about the third day some of those Israelites were just dying to complain? Joshua said "don’t say a word until I tell you". How often do we jump ahead of God....speak too soon, take action before God was ready for us to? So how does it pay off to do things the way God tells us to? Vs 20 When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city. 21 They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.