Joshua

Last night my wife was reading the story of Joshua and the battle of Jericho to our two kids.

It got me thinking: Just what was God up to by asking Joshua and his army to march around the city every day for seven days, and on the last day to do it seven times. I mean, come on.

Imagine you're one of the foot soldiers. You've come to Jericho, armed for battle, and ready to take it by force. What does your commander tell you to do? March around the city. Why? Who knows. It must have seemed a pretty mad thing to do - I guess it shows how much the Israelites thought of Joshua to not break ranks there and then and elect a new leader - someone who actually seemed to have a vague idea of how to capture a city. And to do it day after day after day. What must have been going through the minds of those guys? Did they think Joshua had lost the plot? It's incredible to me that they obeyed, and continued to obey for the whole week.

But what really makes me think, is why did God ask Joshua and the Israelites to do that? I heard an explanation that each time they marched around it was loosening the walls as they were marching with heavy armour on. And this to such an extent that by the end of the week the walls were just about ready to collapse by themselves, and all it took was a shout to bring them crashing down. I don't buy it.

I think the reason God asked them to do it was because it made no sense at all. I think it's God's sense of humour, and a test of our faith, that He does often seem to ask people to do things that make no sense humanly speaking, just to demonstrate His power and to increase our faith. Now I guess Joshua must have had a lot of faith to actually go through with the plan. I wonder if he started talking back to God after two or three days and saying, "oh come on God, give me a break!". I wonder if all the commanders of the different battalions or tribes or however they were arranged were laughing at him behind his back, or discussing a possible coup. Whatever, he must have had a lot of faith to do that. In which case God wasn't doing it to increase Joshua's faith, so it must have been for the benefit of the Israelites. And He chose to get them to do something they must have thought a complete waste of time, to demonstrate that they weren't capturing the city in their own strength but in His.

But even that doesn't stack up. Why not just get them to stand and watch while He caused the walls to crumble? Why the forced march? Surely the effect on their faith would be the same, it's just they wouldn't be quite as fit as after seven days of marching. Surely the glory to God would have been the same without the march?

If I'd been one of those Israelites, they're the sort of questions I would have had.

So I'm back to God's sense of humour again.