Jericho

There it is,” exclaimed Joshua, “there is the land of milk and honey just as God promised.”

The Hebrews were bunched up around Joshua staring with wonder, and a bit of fright, not at the Promised Land, but at the large obstacle standing in the way. Jericho! To be fair it was not something that could be easily overlooked. There right in front of them just on the other side of river was a very large walled city. Two sets of walls with the inner wall much, much higher than the outer wall.

Standing up on the ramparts of both walls were many soldiers. All of whom appeared well armored. None appeared to be at all distressed concerning the vast numbers of Hebrews gathered on the other side of the Jordan River. In fact, the soldiers looked eager to go to battle.

“Uhh, ahem! Uh, Joshua what about that?” inquired one of the men standing next to Joshua and pointing a rather shaky finger towards Jericho.

“That? You mean the fort? What about it?” responded Joshua.

“Well, its kinda in the way don’t you think!”

“Is it? I hadn’t noticed.”

“You hadn’t noticed? Are you blind? That is a huge fort standing between us and our new home! How in the world could you not notice?” exclaimed the exasperated young man.

“I am not worried about the fort or the soldiers inside. Have you forgotten what God has done for us since we left Egypt? I have every confidence that God will deliver us as promised to our new home. Thus, I hadn’t noticed any obstacle in our way,” explained Joshua.

“That may be,” replied the young man, “However, how are we going to knock down those walls with just swords and spears?”

A slightly exasperated Joshua turned toward the young man and spoke, “We just spent years crossing the desert. During that entire time did you ever starve or go thirsty? No! Was the sun too hot during the day or were the nights too cold? Again, no! What about Pharoah’s army of tens of thousands of men and hundreds of chariots? Did they harm a single hair of your head or your mothers? Absolutely not! Do you think this little fort is going to be any hindrance to God?”

Chastened, the young man melted back into the crowd gathered around Joshua.

Turning to the crowd, Joshua began to explain how they will defeat Jericho. “This is what our Lord has told me. With our priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant and trumpeters leading the way all our soldiers will walk around the entire city. There will be no sound other than the trumpets. No one is to speak or shout at the soldiers on the walls. No one! We will march around the city once a day for the next six days. On the seventh day, we will walk around the city seven times. At the conclusion of the seventh time around the priests will blow their trumpets long and loud. On the final blast all the soldiers will shout. It will be at that time the Lord will tear down all the walls of Jericho.”

All at once dozens if not hundreds of people began to shout. Looks of consternation, surprise and befuddlement could be seen on many faces. Exclamations of “are you kidding me?” could be heard along with laughter and many versions of a snort or sigh was also heard.

In short, far too many people expressed disbelief in the plan and the expectation of a fallen city without any bloodshed.

Raising his voice above all the hubbub, Joshua simply stated, “The Lord has spoken and we will do exactly as he said. At the end of the seven days Jericho will fall. No more arguments, no more questions. Prepare yourself.”

After a couple of hours the priests lifted up the Ark onto their shoulders and began to cross the Jordan River. Leading out were seven priests blowing on their Rams horn trumpets. They were followed by Joshua and all the soldiers. The remainder of the multitude of Hebrews stood along the banks of the river. They watched apprehensively as the men began to circle the city.

Meanwhile, up on the ramparts of the city walls the soldiers of Jericho stood and watched incredulously as Hebrew soldiers marched silently around the city.

“Captain,” shouted a soldier, “are you seeing this? What in the world are they doing?”

“What does it look like? It’s a bunch of lemmings getting ready to fall off the cliff.” The Captain responded to gales of laughter.

It took a few hours for the priests and soldiers to walk around the city. At the conclusion of the walk they all returned to the camp and silently at their meal and laid down to rest.