Going in Circles
Preached - Friday May 30, 2003 - The YPWW Crusade Night Two
Free Deliverance Tabernacle Holiness Church - Prophet Henry Frye, Jr.
100 B Water Street - Camden, Alabama
Scripture: "And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go around about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days. And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns: and the seventh day shall compass the city seven times, and the priest shall blow with the trumpets. And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpets, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him."
Joshua 6:3-5
Introduction
Tonight, I want to talk about "Going in Circles". The New International Version of the text says this: "March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. 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. When you hear them sound along 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." "Going In Circles."
My brothers and sisters, saints and sinners, bond and free children of the Most High God, all of you that love the Lord, and to all of you in your respectable places. We do greet you in the name of the unparalleled, incomparable, and matchless name of Jesus, and do share with you his word of inspiration, wisdom, and hope. For his word is rich and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that we might be equipped for every good work.
Going In Circles
Do you sometimes feel you are just going around in circles? Do you feel like your life is taking you to New York when you’re trying to go to California? Are you sailing west trying to get to the East? Often we doubt our life’s direction and questions whether we have made the right choices. These are the times when we feel as if our best efforts are fruitless because we are no closer to our goals today than we were two years ago. Even the repetitions themselves start to irritate us after a while as we search for ways to break the monotony of doing the same things all the time with very little prospect of change. Going in circles often suggests confusion, frustration and loss of direction.
Many people spend their entire lives doing a lot of everything but accomplishing little or more truthfully nothing. They have no goals or direction. A person without a goal is like a ship without a rudder. Each will drift and not drive. Each will end up on the beaches of despair and despondency.
There are many ways to go around in circles. People who have fallen in love despite their best efforts often fell like they are going in circles. Parents who fail at motivating their children to do their best often feel they are going in circles. Business efforts that see more dead ends than runways often go in circles. Anytime our efforts seem to be fruitless; we have a tendency to feel we are going in circles.
Yet, there are times when the circles we travel are divinely inspired. These are times when something inside of us keeps leading us in a direction totally opposite from that which we desire. It is frustrating because we can’t see the purpose. It is troublesome because it seems an endless, thankless, unrewarding spiral that has no known purpose or direction.
As Christians, we have resolved to let God lead us. We have pledged to follow his direction regardless. Wherever he leads me, I will follow… I go with him all the way!
Exposition
When the Holy Spirit shines his light on this text, we see the people of Israel as they marched in circles around the walls of Jericho.
God promised Joshua and the people that he would give them the victory if they proceed into Canaan and followed his instructions. That took a great deal of courage because the city’s of this country was well fortified and filled with skilled soldiers. Israel’s soldiers were untrained and untested in battle.
God told the people that he would provide the victory, but he did not tell them how! They simply were to march forward on faith alone.
God’s instructions were that the entire army would march around Jericho once a day for six days. Half the army would lead the way as a front guard. They would be followed by seven priests, each blowing on a shofar, a trumpet made out of a ram’s horn. Priests carrying the ark of the Lord would come next, and then the rest of the army would serve as a rear guard to complete the procession. On the seventh day that processional would continue seven times around the city. At the end of those seven times the priest were to give an extra long blast on the shofars, and then the entire nation, all two million people, were to shout at the top of their lungs. God promised that the walls would collapse, which would make it easy for the soldiers to get into the city.
The people must have felt a little foolish marching around the city blowing horns. The people of Jericho must have been amused watching this untrained army march around their city walls blowing trumpets. They would make easy targets for sure. They had few weapons and it seemed all they knew how to do was blow on trumpets.
Even the Israelites themselves must have felt a little silly. It would have been easier if they had known the plan, then they would have understood why they were marching around the walls, but they didn’t. If Joshua had at least given the generals some direction other than simply marching around the city they would have been more comfortable. They had no idea what they were to do other than march around in circles. God had the plan and he knew exactly how he was going to accomplish the outcome.
God had a plan in New Testament times too. In John 6 when Jesus was faced with five thousand hungry people in the Galilean highlands, He asked Philip, ’Where are we to buy bread that these may eat?’ Jesus knew how the problem was going to be solved: He would feed the people miraculously. But he tested the faith of his disciples to follow his instructions. They were confused for a moment, but decided it was best to follow Christ’s instructions and the rest is history, 5000 were fed with much left over!
From a human perspective, God’s plan for the conquest of Jericho was foolish, however. God delights in using plans and people that seem foolish to the world. That truth is at heart of I Corinthians 1"For consider your call, brethren; not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth; but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God." Whether it’s Joshua with these trumpets, Gideon with torches and pitchers, or David with a sling, God delights in using weakness and seeming foolishness to defeat his enemies and glorify his name.
Conclusion
Brothers and sisters, following God’s will may seem to take you in circles but it will always carry you to the right destination.
There are times when obedience to God appears fruitless and illogical but it always proves to be the right thing to do!
Moses must have felt like he was going in circles. He spent forty years as a prince of Egypt thinking he was somebody. He spent forty years as a shepherd in Midian believing he was nobody. Then he spent another forty years leading Israel, realizing that God can take nobody and make him into somebody.
Jonah must have felt he was going in circles. God told him to go to Nineveh and he tried to go a different direction. He bought a ticket to sail on ship but got a first class seat in the belly of a giant fish before he turned himself around and decided, "I’LL DO WHAT YOU WANT ME TO DO!"
David must have felt like he was going in circles. He started out his life as shepherd boy saying, "The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want" and was praised by the king but before it was all over he was hunted like a criminal, exiled in a strange land, only to be returned as king and a man after God’s own heart.
Naaman must have felt like he was going in circles. He’d been to one doctor after another trying to find a cure to this disease, but the man of God told him to wash in the river seven times in muddy water, but when he came up the seventh time he realized that his life had gone full circle. He had gone down in leprosy but he had come up a brand new man.
Somebody here tonight can testify that your life has gone full circle. There was a time when you were filled with:
Doubt, but you learned how to lean and depend on Jesus!
Fear, but you learned that the Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?
Hatred, but the Lord has taken your hatred and turned it into love!
Have you gone full circle?
Have you learned that the Lord can take your:
Questions and he give you answers
Worries and he give you consolation
Bitterness and he give you sweetness
Weakness and he gives you strength
Failure and he gives you success
Defeated, he gives you the victory
I don’t know about you, but I’ve found out that the Lord can take your life around in circles, then take you where you are supposed to go!
I’ve found out that he’ll pick you up and turn you around. He’ll place your feet on solid ground!
The God we serve is a full circle God!
He can picks us up from nowhere and carry us anywhere!
He can push us from back here and put us over yonder!
He can lift us from down here and put us up there!
