Walls Fall Down: God’s Unusual Plan for VictoryНамуна

OBEDIENCE BRINGS THE BLESSINGS

Obedience has been called “the lifelong lesson” because it takes many of us our entire lives to master this one virtue. The other day, a friend of mine told me how she had asked her five-year-old son to wash his hands. She asks him to do this several times a day, reminding him to scrub with soap and water and to dry his hands completely. Her son went into the bathroom, and in a flash he was back out. Noticing his hands were still wet, my friend told her son to go back to the bathroom and dry them. Not knowing his mother was watching him, the lad walked into the bathroom, put his hands up to the wall without actually touching the towel, and walk out once again. My friend was shocked by the clever disobedience of her child. He went through the motions, but he didn’t really obey what she had asked him to do.

In actuality, this is not at all surprising. All of us, from the time we were very young, have been inclined to disobey the countless rules we encounter on a daily basis. But God is looking for people who will obey Him, and He promises blessings for faithful obedience (Deuteronomy 28:1-14).

God said to Joshua and the Israelites, “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 6:2-5).

It was pretty simple: If God’s people obeyed His instructions—no matter how strange or simple those instructions might have seemed—they would conquer their enemies. Then they would receive the blessing of inheriting the Promised Land. God doesn’t always give us a detailed explanation of why He’s asking us to do something. He simply expects us to trust His wisdom and obey His commands. Whenever God leads you and wherever God leads you, just obey Him. And watch as He ushers you into your own Promised Land.