The Walls of Jericho (Part 2)

As I was listening to the book of Joshua a few weeks ago, something very interesting jumped out at me about worship, and it comes from Joshua 6:7. Now, most people wouldn't read this verse and think about worship, but I think we can learn something about worship and spiritual warfare from this verse. So, let's unpack this a bit and understand what's going on here.

As I mentioned in the last post, Joshua is calling the people of Israel to rise up in faith to walk around the city of Jericho for seven days straight. Even though they didn't see the walls fall on the first day (or the second or thirds day for that matter), Joshua and the Israelites walked around Jericho every day in faith that the Lord would do what He said He would do. What I want to focus on in this post is how they went about walking around the wall.

First, we see that the ark of the Lord went with them every day just as the Lord commanded (Josh. 6:4). The ark signifies the presence of the Lord throughout the Old Testament. We also learn that seven priests went before the ark blowing trumpets of rams' horns. God told them to do this (also found in Joshua 6:4). What is interesting is that in verse 7, Joshua adds something to God's commands. He commands armed men to advance before the ark (and probably before the priests). There could be a number of reasons for this, but my guess is that it was common in war for armed men to go before a nation's most prized possessions (I would…wouldn't you?). Joshua wasn't necessarily disobeying the Lord by putting armed men in front of the ark. He was probably following typical battle procedures. So, the battle array consisted of armed men going before the seven priests and the ark.

Keep this in mind as we turn to 2 Chronicles 20. (When's the last time you read through Chronicles? As boring as it can be it has a lot to say about worship!) King Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah (which is what the southern part of Israel was called when Israel split into two nations soon after Solomon died), was going to war with two of their enemies. The battle did not look good for Jehoshaphat, so he asked God what to do. God answered Jehoshaphat by speaking a prophecy through a Levite that was present.

This is what God said through this man: don't be discouraged or afraid because this battle is not yours to fight—it's mine (2 Chronicles 20:14-17). Jehoshaphat received this wholeheartedly and appointed singers to go before the army. This, of course, goes against all battle tactics to put an unarmed choir in the front of those who are armed and trained for battle. As a result of the praise that went forth by these singers, the Lord went before the army and set ambushes against the enemy. The enemy's entire army was destroyed, and the Israelites took three whole days to pick up all the plunder that belonged to the enemy (2 Chronicles 20:25).

Just as Joshua sent armed men before the ark when the walked around the walls of Jericho, Jehoshaphat sent unarmed singers in front of the armed warriors as they went into battle. So, what can we learn from all this? We, as Christians, do not fight against flesh and blood. Our war is not against other people. Our war is with principalities, powers, and rulers in the spiritual realm (Ephesians 6:12). If we truly believe this, then we must realize that our praise and worship functions in spiritual battles in the same way that our armed warriors function in physical battles.

If you are feeling depressed, worship. The devil hates it. If you are fighting off attacks of confusion and doubt, worship. His light will drive that darkness away. If you are fighting big spiritual battles for your church or in your region, worship corporately! It empowers God to move. He will fight our battles for us. We must understand that worshiping Him empowers Him to move in our lives in ways that we never thought imaginable.