Legendary Walls
READ
Jericho's walls were legendary—massive, impenetrable fortifications that had withstood countless attacks throughout history. Archaeological evidence suggests these walls were over twenty feet high and six feet thick, built on a foundation that made them virtually indestructible. Military experts would have recommended siege engines, battering rams, scaling ladders, or a prolonged blockade to starve out the inhabitants. God's battle plan? Walk around the city once a day for six days, seven times on the seventh day, then shout. From a human perspective, it seemed absurd.
Let’s take a moment to read Joshua 6:1-20:
Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.
Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. 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 a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.”
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.” And he ordered the army, “Advance! March around the city, with an armed guard going ahead of the ark of the Lord.”
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. 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. But Joshua had commanded the army, “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!” So he had the ark of the Lord carried around the city, circling it once. Then the army returned to camp and spent the night there.
Joshua got up early the next morning and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets went forward, marching before the ark of the Lord and blowing the trumpets. The armed men went ahead of them and the rear guard followed the ark of the Lord, while the trumpets kept sounding. So on the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days.
On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city! The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into his treasury.”
When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city.
REFLECT
This battle reveals something profound about how God works: His strategies often appear foolish to human wisdom because they're designed to showcase His power, not our cleverness. Joshua faced a critical choice that every leader encounters—trust conventional wisdom or radical obedience to God's unconventional ways. He chose to stake everything on God's instructions, even when they defied logic. But let's be honest about what this must have felt like day by day. On day one, there might have been excitement and anticipation. By day three, soldiers were probably whispering, "This isn't working. We look ridiculous. The enemy is laughing at us." By day five, even Joshua might have wrestled with doubts. "Maybe I misheard God. Maybe we should try something that actually makes sense."
The real battle wasn't against Jericho's walls—it was against doubt, impatience, and the temptation to trust human wisdom over God’s instruction. Every day Joshua chose obedience required him to silence the voices of reason and critics while holding fast to what God had clearly spoken. This is where many of us fail in our own battles—we start well, but when God's methods don't produce immediate results, we abandon His plan for something more conventional. Joshua's faith was tested not just by the impossibility of the walls, but by the apparent ineffectiveness of the method. Marching around a city doesn't weaken fortifications. Shouting doesn't create structural damage. Yet Joshua understood something crucial: when God gives specific instructions, our job is obedience, not evaluation. Victory comes through faithfulness to His plan, not improvement upon it.
Consider the discipline this required from the entire army. Over 600,000 fighting men walked silently around the city for six days. No war cries, no intimidation tactics, no attempts to frighten the enemy—just quiet, steady obedience to an unusual command. This wasn't passive waiting; it was active trust. They were demonstrating faith through consistent action, even when that action seemed pointless. On the seventh day, everything changed. Seven laps around the city, then the priests blew the trumpets and the people shouted with a great shout. The walls didn't just crack or crumble—they fell down flat, creating perfect ramps for the Israelite army to charge directly into the city. When the walls finally collapsed, everyone knew it wasn't because of superior strategy, advanced weaponry, or military might. It was an undeniable demonstration of God's power released through faithful obedience.
Your "Jericho walls" might be financial struggles that seem insurmountable, broken relationships that appear beyond repair, health challenges that medical experts can't solve, or career obstacles that conventional wisdom says are impossible to overcome. God's method for bringing them down might not make sense to human logic. He might ask you to forgive when revenge feels justified, to give when you need to save, to rest when you think you should work harder, or to wait when action seems urgent. When you choose radical obedience over human logic, you position yourself to see God's power displayed in ways that leave no doubt about who deserves the credit. The victory belongs entirely to God, which means the glory goes to the right place—not to your strength, strategy, or wisdom, but to His faithfulness and power.
RESPOND
Take a moment to process what God might be leading you to do in light of what you read.
What "walls" in your life seem too strong to fall through conventional methods?
How might God be asking you to approach current challenges in ways that seem unconventional or even foolish?
REST
Take a moment to rest in God’s presence and consider one thing you can take away from your time reading, then close your devotional experience by praying:
God, like Joshua at Jericho, I face walls that seem impossible to overcome. Help me trust Your methods even when they don't make sense to human thinking. Give me the patience to obey Your instructions fully, knowing that victory comes through faithfulness to You, not through my own strategies. May Your power be displayed in my life in ways that bring You glory. Amen.