So, What Does It Mean -- Part 3

So, What Does it Mean? Part Three

“So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, and the walls fell down flat, so that the people went into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city."Joshua 6:20 (ESV)

There are no coincidences with God. That we should agree on. Why do I start this way you may ask? Well it has to do with something my Pastor preached on a few weeks back. Mediate on the Word he told us. We were encouraged to immerse ourselves into the Bible even if that meant putting it on our I-pod, which I did. I bought the mp3 version of “The Message” and I listen to it on my way to work. (And please no letters to Bill Welte brethren, it is not my study bible either but it is for devotional purposes.)

Anyway….while studying for my Tuesday night class on the First Epistle to the Corinthians I had opened up a Matthew Henry commentary to have someone else’s notes from The Book of Joshua fall into my lap (I bought these commentaries from the Keswick book store, used). Well since I just happened to be at that part of my “mediating on the Word” (chapter 6 in Joshua) I thought I would share what God plopped into my lap.

The first thing is God has a plan for victory. In verse two God tells Joshua that Jericho has been given into his hands however this plan is spread over time. In verse three the men of war are to march around the city for six days. This plan called for obedience and eighty five percent was not going to cut it (that’s what these notes said). In verse five God’s plan was going to involve faith, the kind of faith that would have seven trumpets and a crowd of people shouting at some pretty heavy duty walls.

The fourth thing that is going on here is God’s plan involving persistence. How many of you “Freedom Fighters” would spend your time walking around the walls of city because God said so, let alone walk around it again on the seventh day for seven times so some horns could blow and a crowd of people could shout. Well now Brethren comes God’s plan involving discipline.

In verse ten “Joshua commanded the people, “You shall not shout or make your voice heard until the day I tell you to shout. Then you shall shout.” What? But for six days they did what they were told. Everyone woke up early, the priests lifted the ark of the Lord and blew the horns continually like they were told to and on the seventh day Joshua said “Shout, for the Lord has given you the city.” Verse twenty tells what happens next. The people shouted, trumpets were blown and the walls came “a-tumblin’-n-rumblin’ down”. With the exception of Rehab and her household, everything that God said to destroy was destroyed and what God said keep, was kept. Yes my friends there were shouts of victory that day.

So what does it all mean? In second Corinthians Paul writes “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.” Which brings me to the last part of the notes that had fallen into my lap. There is a simple formula that coincides with this verse in Scripture and it goes like this…Divine Direction plus Obedience equals Victory.

This morning I would like to thank whoever it was that left those notes for me to find and then ask you what is God plopping down in your lap? -- Chris Hughes is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy

God's WORD for YOU: Proverbs 19: Leviticus 25; Mark 1:23-45

Great Quote: Grace conquers us first, and we by it, conquer all things---whether it be corruptions within us, or temptations without us. "Everyone that is born of God, overcomes the world." (1 John 5:4)---Richard Sibbes