Day 33
The walls
To Start
For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel: By waiting and by calm you shall be saved, in quiet and in trust shall be your strength.
-Isaiah 30:15 (NABRE)
Be quiet, and be made strong.
Pray
Yahweh, as I read, give me understanding from the unseen world—a gift from the homeland.
Read
Read Hebrews 11:30 & Joshua 6:1-5.
Consider…
Who (what?) is being credited for having faith?
Why did the walls of Jericho fall down?
Hebrews 11:30
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after being marched around by the Israelites for seven days.
Joshua 6:1-5
1Now Jericho was strongly fortified because of the Israelites—no one leaving or entering. 2 The Lord said to Joshua, “Look, I have handed Jericho, its king, and its best soldiers over to you. 3 March around the city with all the men of war, circling the city one time. Do this for six days. 4 Have seven priests carry seven ram’s-horn trumpets in front of the ark. But on the seventh day, march around the city seven times, while the priests blow the rams’ horns. 5 When there is a prolonged blast of the horn and you hear its sound, have all the troops give a mighty shout. Then the city wall will collapse, and the troops will advance, each man straight ahead.”
From JL
A cursory reading of today’s verse leads us to believe that thanks to the faith of the people who marched around the city, the walls of Jericho fell. Surely that’s true. Joshua definitely had faith—he believed in God’s promise back when no one (but Caleb and Moses) did. He believed even more on the verge of taking the first fortified city in Canaan. And then there’s the faith of the people. They, too, believed God would give them the land. In chapter 1 of Joshua they tell him, “Everything you have commanded us we will do, and everywhere you send us we will go.”
So, “By faith, the Israelites marched around the walls and they fell.”
Except that’s not the sentence. The sentence is “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down…”
Bear with me as I say something potentially crazy.
I do think this verse is about Joshua’s faith. I do think it’s about Israel’s faith. It definitely takes trust to execute what appears to be a ridiculous plan.
I just think it might also be about the walls. I think (in this awkward construction) the Hebrews writer is perhaps also crediting the walls for their obedience to God’s command. God’s plan only works if the walls play along.
Do the walls have a choice? I don’t know. Did Joshua? As we’ve said already, faith is a sticky combination of gift, destiny, and personal volition.
Before you write me off for being crazy, a few moments in Scripture I find interesting…
Numerous instances of power, volition, and awareness in created “things”: In Psalm 148, “Praise him, all you mountains and hills. Praise him, all you fruit trees and cedar trees.” In Isaiah 55:12, “For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” In Psalm 96, “Let the fields and everything in them celebrate. Then all the trees of the forest will shout for joy before the Lord, for he is coming.”
When the devil tells Jesus to command the stones to become bread (Matthew 4:3)—as if the stones could obey should they be commanded. Is this so different than the walls of Jericho obeying God’s command? They are stones, after all.
Jesus’ words to the Pharisees: “I tell you, if they were to keep silent, the stones would cry out.” (Luke 19:40) Obviously Jesus is being hyperbolic, but perhaps He knows something the Pharisees don’t (something totally shocking and seemingly impossible but perhaps more seemingly impossible than actually impossible).
Anyway, I like the idea of God commending His creation for its faith. Creation, after all, does the will of Yahweh. It praises Yahweh. It fulfills its purpose and identity—the one assigned and maintained by Yahweh. It even waits for Yahweh to keep His promises as we see in Romans 8:
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly, but because of him who subjected it—in the hope 21 that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage to decay into the glorious freedom of God’s children. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now. 23 Not only that, but we ourselves who have the Spirit as the firstfruits—we also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24 Now in this hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees? 25 Now if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patience.
I don’t know if God intended to commend the walls. But if He did, I’m here for it. I think all the obedient created things deserve a round of applause.
Process
A fun exercise: Pretend you’re a stone today, like the stones in the wall of Jericho. If you think stones don’t have a choice in whether or not to obey God, even better. Just let God move you around and tell you what to do. Ask yourself, “What would a stone do if God told it to _______(fill in the blank).
On another note: Are there walls in the way of You doing what God wants done? Are you praying for those walls to fall? Remember that you have the power of Jesus working in You, and be bold about commanding the walls.
Pray
Today’s reading has me wanting to pray The Lord’s Prayer. Pray with me, would you?
Our Father in heaven,
your name be honored as holy.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not bring us into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
Where does God’s kingdom need to come? What walls need to fall by faith?
In the Comments
If you were writing the “From JL” section today, what would you have written about? (Obviously we would rename it in your honor.)
Godspeed,
JL
Some days you’re the Israelites marching, and some days you’re the wall. Sometimes God has given me specific instructions and an outline of what needs to happen and how to get there (that would be an Israelites-marching situation.) More often, though, I’ve felt like the wall…feeling the pressure of God’s gentle hand as He’s asking me to yield, to let go, to crumble and trust that He’s accomplishing something good in what looks and feels like rubble and destruction to me. Both circumstances require faith.
The wall scenario reminds me of the Wesley Prayer, specifically the line that always makes me cringe:
“Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee…
I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.”
I’d much rather be employed than laid aside, truth be told. But perhaps (surely) a stone brought low by the hand of Jesus is better than whatever castle I think I’m building on my own. “Unless the Lord builds the house (or makes the walls fall?) the workers labor in vain.” (Psa. 127)
I love this! My mind went to the stones crying out as well! And thinking about the heavens declaring the glory of God!
It reminds me of C.S. Lewis's writing, both Narnia and his Space Trilogy... the talking animals or creatures isn't strange, they just know how to speak praise. It is an imaginative way to approach how, of course, everything praises their creator. The orderliness of our creation is that way because everything else around us is doing what they're created to do.
This is going to seem nerdy, but this isn't anthropomorphizing things, but instead allowing every created thing have the agency to worship the creator.