For God’s Own Glory—God’s Unique Military Strategy

Joshua 6:2-5: "Then the LORD said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.”

Joshua was about to enter his first military battle as commander of the children of Israel. I bet he had butterflies in his stomach!

At the end of Chapter 5 of Joshua, we find Joshua in the presence of the angelic commander of the Lord’s army. We find Joshua face down in the dirt.

God then reveals His plan for taking the city of Jericho. This plan has never been and never will be taught in our military academy’s “Military Strategy” classes. It seems preposterous.

Joshua obeys and God delivered the city of Jericho to them. Joshua 6:20-21 says: “When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city. They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.”

God means business, but why such a plan? Why? So man could not take glory for God’s clear and present intervention. God’s strategy was so unique, so different, no man could conceive it much less carry it out; the only logical reason for it is God’s divine intervention.

Are there things happening in our lives that are hard to understand? Do we ask “why all these persistent problems?” Could it be we are taking God’s glory for our own? I hope not.

Let’s find ourselves face down in the dirt before the Lord himself. Whatever happens, give God alone the glory; for He alone is worthy of receiving it. God puts us in situations where we are desperate for His power; He responds in marvelous ways, hard to understand, but He alone deserves the glory.