Bible Story · Joshua 6
The Walls of Jericho
The Story
Jericho is tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one goes out; no one comes in. It is a fortified city, and it stands between Israel and the promised land. God tells Joshua: 'I have delivered Jericho into your hands.' Then he gives the strangest military instruction in the history of warfare: march around the city once a day for six days. Seven priests with ram's horn trumpets in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear the long blast, have all the people give a loud shout — and the wall will collapse. Joshua calls the priests and the people. They rise early in the morning, the priests carrying the ark of the Lord, blowing the trumpets. The armed guard marches ahead. The rear guard follows the ark. No one says a word. They circle the city once and return to camp. They do this for six days. On the seventh day, they rise early at the dawn of the day. They march around the city seven times. On the seventh circuit, when Joshua gives the signal, the people shout with a great shout — and the wall falls down flat. Every man charges straight in. They take the city. Only Rahab and her household are spared — the woman who had hidden the two Israelite spies and hung the scarlet cord in her window as the sign they had promised her would mean her safety. Jericho falls not by military strategy but by obedience — not clever, not powerful, not natural. Just seven days of walking in silence, followed by a shout of faith.
Background
Archaeological evidence of Jericho (Tell es-Sultan) shows it to be one of the oldest continuously occupied cities in the world, with walls dating back thousands of years. The city Joshua encountered was a well-fortified Bronze Age city. The scarlet cord that Rahab hung from her window — a Canaanite prostitute who sheltered enemy spies based on faith — appears in Matthew's genealogy of Jesus, making her an ancestor of the Messiah.
Truth
The battle of Jericho is designed to make human strategy impossible — march, be silent, march again, shout. No ladder, no ram, no siege works. If the walls fall, there is only one explanation. God arranged the victory so that no one could claim credit. Israel's job was sustained, silent, obedient movement — for six days before anything visible happened. Most of faith operates exactly this way: faithfulness in the repeated ordinary, long before any wall comes down.
Application
Is there a 'wall' in your life that you have been faithfully circling for a long time — praying, showing up, trusting — without visible results? The Israelites did not see any movement for six full days. What does Jericho teach about the relationship between visible results and faithfulness? How do you keep showing up on day five, day six, when nothing has happened yet?