Today I am thinking about Jericho and how the Israelites brought down the wall. They marched around it for seven days, occasionally blowing their horns. But the Bible doesn't describe any deterioration in the wall until it actually falls on the seventh day. There is no description of cracks spreading or rocks falling or walls shifting. The way the story is told, it seems like the wall was intact for 7 days as the Israelites marched, that it was whole until the last day when the Israelites gave one last blast on the trumpets and let out a loud shout. Only then did the wall crumble and fall.
The sudden nature of the wall's collapse shows me that God could have brought down the wall at any time. He didn't need the Israelites to march around the wall to gradually bring it down. The march was for Israel. The march was about Israel's faith, not about God's power.
I wonder how the Israelites must have felt, walking around the city day after day and seeing no change in the wall. I think about the things I have been (metaphorically) marching around. I realize that no change doesn't mean God isn't present, it doesn't mean God isn't at work. No change means I've been given an opportunity to put my faith, my trust in God. God brings us to Jericho to mature our faith, to take us out of our comfort zone, to get us to make a leap of faith, to show us his faithfulness.
What Jerichos are you marching around? Are you trusting God to move when He decides the time is right?
Today's Verse
Hebrews 11:6
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him
An exploration of faith and hope in the midst of fibromyalgia and the various and sundry things of life.
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