Joshua Bible Study Lesson Snippet
Why was Israel silent during the siege on Jericho?
Joshua 6:3-11 March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. (4) 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. (5) When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in." (6) So Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them, "Take up the ark of the covenant of the LORD and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it." (7) And he ordered the people, "Advance! March around the city, with the armed guard going ahead of the ark of the LORD." (8) When Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets before the LORD went forward, blowing their trumpets, and the ark of the LORD's covenant followed them. (9) The armed guard marched ahead of the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard followed the ark. All this time the trumpets were sounding. (10) But Joshua had commanded the people, "Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout!" (11) So he had the ark of the LORD carried around the city, circling it once. Then the people returned to camp and spent the night there.
So here you have God giving Joshua, from verses 3-5, the instructions, and then Joshua tells the priests what to do. Apparently there were two types of trumpets that the Israelites used. They had silver trumpets and they had rams horns which were considered to be something to be used in representing God, in battle or for worship. They were used at the time of jubilee, and for war, those two events. Also rams horns were something which God has made and the silver trumpets were manmade and used for different purposes. Armed men went before the seven priests who blew on the trumpets (ram's horns) and the people of Israel came after it, but in the midst was the presence of God dwelling in the Ark.
The first thing they had to do concerning faith was to be obedient to God's directions and to God's instructions. I am not a history teacher, but I don't know of any other army in the world that has gone up to a city and walked around it and then gone back to camp and done that for six days. Had you been on the inside of that city what do you think you would have done? Apparently it was a two hour journey from where they were, from Gilgal up to Jericho and back, so it is a fair walk. If you had seen them coming, what would you have thought? Here they come, they come right up to the mound and then start going around the outside so you would marshal your forces around the outside and then they would go around a little bit further and then just start heading back to camp. If you were on the inside what would you think? You would probably have been at a complete loss to understand it. So the first thing that they had to do was to be obedient to God's commands even though it may have appeared stupid. It is interesting that when you read through scripture God always uses the weak and the insignificant and the things that don't look much in the eyes of the world to show Himself strong on their behalf. They had to walk around Jericho for six consecutive days with the walls looking the same; the seventh day was different, this time it was seven times around Jericho in one day. So they actually walked around thirteen times. The second thing they had to do is in verse 10.
Joshua 6:10 But Joshua had commanded the people, "Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout!"
So there had to be obedience but there also had to be the discipline of faith. They had to keep their mouths shut. That's a really hard thing for most of us...you have a two hour journey and you can't say a word! The only noise that was allowed was the priests blowing the trumpets. If they had been allowed to talk there would have probably been dissention; like 'what are we doing this for' or 'this is stupid, why don't we just go on in and attack?' But they have to remain absolutely silent; they are not allowed to say anything. That is actually the discipline that God is requiring of the nation to act out their faith by remaining silent and letting Him work. When thinking about that, I realized that God often requires the same thing of us, that we keep our mouths shut. We don't moan about His methods. We don't moan about His ways. Had they been allowed to speak, before long you would have had a committee set up. Someone would go and see Joshua; perhaps ten men, and tell him they think that this strategy should be changed because this just seems ridiculous. But the nation had to also be patient because thirteen times around a city is a long slow journey, and every time they came around the walls of the city still looked the same. There had been no change. God declared to Joshua at the beginning what the plan was.
From: Joshua Chapter 6: The walk of faith and the fall of Jericho