Joshua 6:1-16. So the guys are all healed.\u00a0 They have received the mark identifying them as part of the group God has chosen to use to show the world what he could do.\u00a0 Jericho was before them.\u00a0 They\u00a0 had spent the last forty years wandering in the wilderness eating manna.\u00a0 It appears that they were also given quail to eat but the quail may not have been and everyday thing.\u00a0\u00a0 In fact they may have been a specific answer to a specific prayer (Exodus 16:3,13.\u00a0 Psalms 105:40.\u00a0 Numbers 11:4-6, 18-20,31-33). The people started receiving the manna about a month and a half after leaving Egypt (Exodus 16:1-32). The manna was given because the people had run out of food that they had brought with them and wanted to go back to Egypt (Exodus 16:1-3).\u00a0 God used the manna as a way to see if the people would be humble and faithful to Him (Deuteronomy 8:16).\u00a0 Manna is described as bread (Psalms 105:40).\u00a0 It was flaky and had to be ground up and cooked and tasted like good cake (Exodus 16:14, Numbers 11:8).\u00a0 It tasted like a cookie with honey inside (Exodus 16:31). After about two years of eating manna they wanted to go back to Egypt again (Numbers 10:11, 11:5-6)\u00a0 God literally dumped quail in them this time and they ate it until they hated it (Numbers 11:18-20).\u00a0 Now the people were in the promised land, the manna had stopped, and they had had a taste of the produce of the land. I\u2019m sure they were ready to take over.<\/p>\n
But remember the Israelites were supposed to show the world what God could do not what they could do.\u00a0 God had not forgotten and He was going to use Jericho to show the world and<\/span> the Israelites what He could do.\u00a0 So Joshua gave the soldiers and the people their orders.\u00a0 They were to march around the city with the Ark of promise in the middle of the parade.\u00a0 The priests were to blow trumpets as they marched.\u00a0 Once around each day for six days.\u00a0 On the seventh day they were to march around seven times and then blow a long blast on the trumpet.\u00a0 At which time the walls would cave in and the Israelites could enter the city from all sides and destroy it.<\/p>\n Not a very manly way to fight a war.\u00a0 Notice the Israelites had a reputation and Jericho was locked down because of it (Joshua 6:1).\u00a0 Also notice that there were valiant warriors in it.\u00a0 The word valiant is an intensified version of a word that means stronger.\u00a0 It\u2019s like say the warriors inside were the strongest, they were super strong.\u00a0 Now the Israelites were marching around Jericho in a parade.\u00a0 And they couldn\u2019t even talk.\u00a0 I wonder if after a day or two of this the warriors inside were up on the walls trash talking the Israelites (See 2 Kings 18:26).\u00a0 How hard would that be to hold your tongue?<\/p>\n Finally the seventh day came.\u00a0 Seven times around the city (The city wall was about \u00bd mile all the way around but they would have marched around some distance away so a total of about 1\u00bd miles per trip or 10 miles total.).\u00a0 Then the priests blew the long blast on the trumpets and Joshua had the people shout.\u00a0 God was giving them the victory.\u00a0 Break to commercial.\u00a0 Not really but the action does break.\u00a0 Tomorrow we will see why and what happens next.<\/p>\n I think it would have been hard, all of the waiting.\u00a0 They had been in the wilderness so long.\u00a0 Now they were finally in the promised land.\u00a0 But they had to wait.\u00a0 Be circumcised and wait. \u00a0March around the city and wait.\u00a0 March and wait. \u00a0March and wait.\u00a0 March and wait.\u00a0 March and wait. March and wait. March and march and march and \u2026\u2026.. Get the idea?\u00a0 Get on with it right?\u00a0 If you think this is bad wait until tomorrow\u2019s part of the story.\u00a0 We just finished a series on the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians :22-23).\u00a0 One thing the Holy Spirit helps us with is patience.\u00a0 That word in Galatians is \u201clong to boil\u201d.\u00a0 I wonder if the Israelite were starting to boil over.\u00a0 James tells us to be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger (James 1:19).\u00a0 The reason is that man\u2019 anger does not produce the kind of life that pleases God (James 1:20).\u00a0 I\u2019m pretty sure the fierce warriors inside Jericho were shouting out from the wall, Canaanites were not particularly restrained people.\u00a0 And the Israelites had to just take it and trust God.\u00a0 Jesus was insulted the night before he was crucified, and beaten.\u00a0 But he remained silent.\u00a0 I think that is example enough for me.\u00a0 God help me be quiet, especially when I am being made fun of.\u00a0 Let me be faithful to follow the path you have given me.\u00a0 Let me speak when it is right to do so and give you the honor that is due to you.\u00a0 Let my word build people up by helping them see what you are doing in our world, in my life, and in theirs (Ephesians 4:29, Colossians 4:6).\u00a0 Let me be a light. \u00a0Let me trust you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Joshua 6:1-16. So the guys are all healed.\u00a0 They have received the mark identifying them as part of the group God has chosen to use to show the world what he could do.\u00a0 Jericho was before them.\u00a0 They\u00a0 had spent the last forty years wandering in the wilderness eating manna.\u00a0 It appears that they were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=499"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":509,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions\/509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/deltaforcedaily.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}