The Waiting Game...

Yesterday, we began to look at one of the most famous stories recorded for us in the Bible. And in this story, we saw an amazing and mysterious man, who was an old testament appearance of Jesus Christ, give Joshua what seemed to be a strange battle plan to attack the fortress city of Jericho. And as we enter back into the story, we see how Joshua responds to God’s seemingly strange battle plan as the story continues:

So Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, "Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests carry seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the LORD." Then he said to the people, "Go forward, and march around the city, and let the armed men go on before the ark of the LORD." And it was so, that when Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams' horns before the LORD went forward and blew the trumpets; and the ark of the covenant of the LORD followed them. The armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard came after the ark, while they continued to blow the trumpets. But Joshua commanded the people, saying, "You shall not shout nor let your voice be heard nor let a word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I tell you, 'Shout!' Then you shall shout!" So he had the ark of the LORD taken around the city, circling it once; then they came into the camp and spent the night in the camp.

Now imagine yourself as Joshua as you relay God’s battle plan to the Jewish people, who have been anxiously awaiting their opportunity to restart their lives by taking possession of the land that God had promised them. Can you imagine the looks that would have been on the soldiers and the priests as they heard the plan? Can you imagine the questions that they would have had for Joshua? They were probably very similar to the questions that were running through Joshua’s mind during His encounter with God.

“So let me get this straight. You want us to march around the city leading the priests and the ark while they blow a horn. You don’t want us to fire a shot." "Nope." "You don’t want us to do any reconnaissance." "Right." "You don’t want us to fire back if we are fired upon." "Nope." "You don’t even want us to speak." "Exactly." "So we are going to march around the city once and then return to camp." "Yup."

Now what would you think of the plan if you were a Jewish soldier or priest? I imagine that for some of them, they were probably thinking “Oh, I bet we are going to get them to feel overconfident, we are going to lull them into a false sense of security; Joshua probably is just gathering some final information for our assault tomorrow”.

So the Jewish nation follows Joshua’s orders, marches around the city, and returns to camp, anticipating that tomorrow would be the day that they begin the assault of the city. They were probably thinking “surely we will get the order to shout and go to battle tomorrow”. We see what happens the following morning as the story continues:

Now Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the LORD. The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the LORD went on continually, and blew the trumpets; and the armed men went before them and the rear guard came after the ark of the LORD, while they continued to blow the trumpets. Thus the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp;

So, the following morning, the priests and the soldiers marched around the city awaiting the command to shout and assault the city. Instead, they silently marched around the city only to return to camp that evening. Can you imagine the conversations that were occurring amongst the soldiers and the priests in camp that second night? "I mean surely we will get the order to attack tomorrow." Look how verse 14 ends:

they did so for six days.

So every morning the priests and the soldiers would wake up awaiting their orders. And every morning, the priests and soldiers received the same orders from Joshua: March around the city in complete silence until you hear the priests blow the long blast from the trumpet, and then you will receive the command from me to shout.

Now imagine yourself as a soldier in the Jewish army. How would you feel after the third day? The fourth? How about after the fifth day? The sixth? Can you imagine what the soldiers and their silent marching looked like to the residents of Jericho? They were probably thinking “what are those idiots doing?”

Finally after six days faithfully following the commands of your leader Joshua, the man you have placed your life and the life of you family in; you awake the seventh day to experience the following, which is recorded for us in Joshua 6:15:

Then on the seventh day they rose early at the dawning of the day and marched around the city in the same manner seven times; only on that day they marched around the city seven times.

Now you are one of these soldiers. You have silently walked around the city once a day for six days. Six days of waking up to hear the exact same orders. Can you even imagine what you would be thinking and feeling after the first lap around the city?

And then, instead of going back to camp, you see those in front of you keep on marching. So you continue for lap two. Then lap three. Lap four. Lap five. Oh and by the way you are not allowed to speak! Lap six. Would you not be ready to explode? Or at least raise your hand. "Question over here. What are we doing?" And as the soldiers and priests begin lap seven around the city, we see the silence finally broken. We will look at what happened next tomorrow.

So how do you handle the tension that comes from remaining faithful to God in the midst of waiting for direction from God?