January 20th, 2026

“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 ‭6‬:‭3‬-‭5‬

God’s battle plan for Jericho is not an assault—it’s a…..procession?  The people are told to walk around the city once a day for six days, then seven times on the seventh day. No siege. No shouting. No direct confrontation.

The strategy removes every opportunity for human strength or ingenuity to claim credit. There is nothing impressive about walking. Nothing threatening about silence. Nothing efficient about repetition.

God’s plan forces Israel into a posture of absolute dependence on Him. What must that have felt like?

They cannot overpower Jericho, so they must obey God. When logic is set aside, surrender becomes the only viable path forward.

Sometimes God leads us around what we desperately want to go through—because walking humbly with Him is more important than reaching the destination quickly.

I travel a lot for work and can tell you that things almost NEVER work out with timing.    If something is early, something else is delayed.  If by some miracle you are super early, your room isn’t ready.  Or you outran your luggage and don’t have any clothes.  So frustrating… unless you think about it this way:

It’s no surprise to God that I am on this trip.  Nor was He shocked when my luggage was lost.  But look – there’s someone at the Lost Baggage counter, who has never been in the country and doesn’t know how to safely hail a cab.  Or there’s someone in the hotel lobby with whom you strike up a conversation, only to find out they just suffered a terrible loss.  And here you are.

The point is this:  when we are open to God’s direction and leading, whatever form that takes, He actually uses us.  

What if we viewed every inconvenience and frustration in life as an opportunity for His purpose?

Something to prayerfully ponder:  Where might God be asking you to obey even though His direction doesn’t make sense to you?