Joshua 6:10 And
Joshua had commanded the people, saying, Ye shall not shout, nor make any noise
with your voice, neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth, until the
day I bid you shout; then shall ye shout.
I've often read this text and wondered why God did it this way. God could have
brought down Jericho in a million different ways, but He chose this one. Why?
Why did God have them to march silently? Was it for Israel's sake? Was He
teaching them something? Or was it for Jericho? Was God showing Jericho
something about Himself? Maybe it was both, at least I believe it was.
Ultimately, I believe that the process revolved around God's timing. God's plan
was for the walls to come down on the seventh day, and that would require a
faith test on the part of Israel. So the six days of silent marching was God's
command in preparation for the seventh day of praise. What if God had not
commanded silence? I would imagine that there would have been plenty of
negativity working its way through the march. "Why are we doing this? This
is silly! How do we know that Joshua actually got this plan from God?"
before you knew it, the power of words would have infiltrated the ranks just
like it did forty years earlier when Israel was poised to enter in. But not
this time. God took the naysayers and the gossipers and the grumblers out of
the equation by commanding silence as they marched. Their quiet tactic must
have really confused the people of Jericho as well. The single sound of
marching feet must have sounded like a clock ticking, counting down their
remaining time before the end. There is no doubt that there is great power in
the shout of His people, but when the moment calls for a quiet faith, don't
underestimate what God is doing in the silence.
Silent obedience. This is what we learn early in life. My youngest son Aiden will be startin pre-school this and he will be learning this subject very well. Why would we need to learn this? Obviously we have to be quiet to learn and not be a distaction for ourselves and others. During a test distractions can seriously be a major hindrance! If we are distracted then we will miss something and not learn what we need to. Ignorance is not bliss! Ignorance is the reason for why people perish. "My people perish for a lack of knowledge." So, we can conclude that during the times that God is testing us we should be quiet and listen and we will receive the knowledge of life. Then we can scream at the enemy in unity and the real distaction will come tumbling down!
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