Ok, So admit it, when you first read the passage in Joshua (6:1-20), how many of you said, "what in the world does this have to do with having patience? A city got destroyed and that makes people patient?"
This is one of those interesting stories in scripture that gets told from toddler Sunday school, and we think we know it so well, we miss much of what it can teach us. I want to watch the movie of these 7 days. We know Joshua marched around Jericho and the walls fell down and yeah that's amazing, but look at what was required to make that happen.
Vs. 9 - who marched around the ark? The "armed guard" and the priests. These were the warriors of Israel. Their job and their lives were defined on battling. I bet the first day most of them said, "Ok fine, we'll do this ritual, then we'll fight." Day Two, "Ok, this seems a bit ridiculous, but oh well." But by Day 3, 4, 5 & 6, can you imagine the grumbling that would be occurring amongst the ranks as they were marching and in the evenings as they were sitting around their tents? People grumble today when Starbucks takes too long. Do you think there were people in Jericho who sat on top of the walls and mocked the Israelites? I bet it felt so humiliating for these fighting men to be forced to walk around a city instead of crashing the walls.
Sometimes God asks us to wait until there is no option but for it to be by his power.
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