The first battle in Canaan is fought without a siege engine, a ladder, or a drawn sword. God’s orders are to walk — once a day for six days, seven times on the seventh, saying nothing — and then to shout. It is a plan designed to be useless if God does not act, and that is the point. The wall comes down, the city is taken, and one house on it is left standing because of a scarlet cord in the window.
A study in Joshua 6 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 7 min read
See, I Have Given Into Thine Hand Jericho
“And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour.”
Joshua 6:2
The verb is past tense before a blow is struck: I have given. The city is already Israel’s; the marching does not earn it, it receives it. Jericho was “straitly shut up… none went out, and none came in” (verse 1) — sealed tight, humanly impregnable. That is exactly the kind of obstacle God likes to hand over, so that when it falls no one can say the army did it.
Thus Shalt Thou Do Six Days
“And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days… 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.”
Joshua 6:3, 10
Six days of walking a lap in silence, the ark at the centre of the column, and nothing to show for it. To the watchmen on the wall it looked absurd; to Israel it was a daily exercise in trusting orders that make no visible sense. The delay is deliberate — it teaches the nation that the strength is not in them. When the wall finally falls, they will know precisely why, and it will not be the marching.
“It was to be impressed upon their minds that their strength was not in the wisdom of man, nor in his might, but only in the God of their salvation. They were thus to become accustomed to relying wholly upon their divine Leader.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 493
Shout; For The LORD Hath Given You The City
“So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets… the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.”
Joshua 6:20
Seven circuits on the seventh day, one long trumpet blast, and a shout from the whole nation — and the wall does not crack or breach, it drops flat, so the army walks straight in from every side at once. The New Testament files this under faith: “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days” (Hebrews 11:30). The shout came before the wall moved. They cheered a victory God had promised but not yet shown.
“The trumpets, which for an interval had been silent, now broke forth in a blast that shook the very earth. The walls of solid stone, with their massive towers and battlements, tottered and heaved from their foundations, and with a crash fell in ruin to the earth.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 491
Only Rahab The Harlot Shall Live
“And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.”
Joshua 6:17
In the middle of a city marked for total destruction, one household is exempt — and it is the household of the prostitute who believed. The spies keep their oath to the letter: “bring out thence the woman, and all that she hath, as ye sware unto her” (verse 22). Rahab “dwelleth in Israel even unto this day” (verse 25). The same chapter carries a warning about the other side of the ledger — “keep yourselves from the accursed thing” (verse 18) — and the next chapter shows what happens when one man does not.
