Who Wants To Wait

By Connie S. Arnold

“I thought the walls would fall by now.”

The Lord commanded that no one was to speak as the army marched around the city of Jericho. First came seven priests sounding trumpets to the beat of the footsteps from Israel’s army, then those carrying the Ark leading the columns of silent warriors.

Jericho’s gates were barred and locked with no one going in or out, but the Lord said He had given the city to His people.

Day after day for six days, a few sitting around the night campfires would be getting a little anxious, weariness covering them like a gray cloak. If not spoken, the question of when the walls would fall must have been foremost in their minds.

Do you suppose Joshua is still hearing from God?

The incident has passed into history, so we might lack patience with them because we know the story from beginning to end—and the walls came a ‘tumblin down after the seventh go-around. The answer was experienced, and scribes wrote this victory into Jewish history alongside other times when God took up battles for Moses, David, Sampson. The Old Testament is filled with rescues.

But we live now.

We cry, “I thought the walls would fall by now.”

We are not engaged in a physical battle on a geographical plain. Our conflicts take place on the fertile fields of our mind. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places,” (Ephesians 6:12, KJV).

Our enemy, Satan, strives to win mind games. He started in the Garden of Eden with, “did God really say?” And here is the answer: God did say. We have a life manual written in blood that promises victory every year we are whirled around on this earth. Will we have battles? Yes, otherwise we would not need the Owner’s Manual.

We are looking to God for an answer to a specific prayer. Walls surround His answer to us and He asks us to wait. “Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart; wait I say on the Lord,” (Psalm 27:14 KJV).

So, what do we do while we wait? Do we examine the walls for cracks? Check for a sinking foundation? Let us take our cue from the Israelites encircling Jericho. The trumpeters blew (a praise psalm of past victories), the priests carried the Ark (God’s Word), and the silent soldiers kept up the faithful march in obedience to God’s direction.

If we wait in good courage, He will strengthen our hearts. Our walls will fall at God’s timing. Then in the midst of the crumbled walls, we now rejoice to see in reality what we had only envisioned by faith.

CSA__________