The Battle is the Lord'The Battle is the Lord's

Joshua chapter 5. We're going to begin there, verse 13 of Joshua chapter 5.

! And really tonight our text goes all the way to verse 21 of chapter 6.! And even some of the verse, verse 21 of chapter 6. And some of the latter verses in that passage we will really come back and look at next time.

A little difficult to find a stopping place, but I primarily am going to take us through to the actual conquest of Jericho. And then we'll stop there.

I want to read this passage. Again, chapter 5 starting with verse 13. And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, or near Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked.

And behold, a man stood opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, Are you for us or for our adversaries?

So he said, No. But as commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshipped and said to him, What does my Lord say to his servant?

Then the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, Take your sandal off your foot. Some versions have sandals. I think that's the idea. For the place where you stand is holy.

And Joshua did so. Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel. None went out and none came in.

And the Lord said to Joshua, See, I have given Jericho into your hand, its king and the mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city, all you men of war.

You shall go all around the city once. This you shall do six days. And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark.

But the seventh day they shall march around the city seven times. And the priests shall blow the trumpets. And it shall come to pass when they make a long blast with the ram's horn. And when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout.

Then the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people shall go up every man straight before him. Then Joshua, the son of Nun, called the priests and said to him, Take up the ark of the covenant and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark of the Lord.

And he said to the people, Proceed and march around the city and let him who is armed advance before the ark of the Lord. So it was when Joshua had spoken to the people that the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of ram's horns before the Lord advanced and blew the trumpets.

And the ark of the covenant of the ark of the ark of the Lord followed them. The armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets. And the rear guard came after the ark while the priests continued blowing the trumpets.

Now Joshua had commanded the people saying, You shall not shout or make any noise with your voice nor shall a word proceed out of your mouth. Until the day I say to you, Shout, then you shall shout.

So he had the ark of the Lord circle the city going around it once. Then they came into the camp and lodged in the camp. And Joshua rose early in the morning and the priests took up the ark of the Lord.

Then seven priests bearing seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark of the Lord went up continually and blew with the trumpets. And the armed men went before them.

But the rear guard came after the ark of the Lord while the priests continued blowing the trumpets. And the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. So they did six days.

But it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose early about the dawning of the day and marched around the city seven times in the same manner. On that day only they marched around the city seven times.

And the seventh time it happened when the priests blew the trumpets that Joshua said to the people, Shout, for the Lord has given you the city. Now the city shall be doomed by the Lord to destruction.

It and all who are in it. Only Rahab the harlot shall live. She and all who are with her in the house. Because she hid the messengers that we sent. And you by all means abstain from the accursed things.

Lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things. And make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it. But all the silver and gold and vessels of bronze and iron are consecrated to the Lord.

They shall come into the treasury of the Lord. So the people shouted with the priests, blew the trumpets. When the priests blew the trumpets. And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet.

And the people shouted with a great shout that the wall fell down flat. Then the people went up into the city, every man straight before him. And they took the city.

And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city. Both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and donkey with the edge of the sword. There's the story.

Now, remember, and I want to tie what we're going to be considering tonight. Tie it with what we talked about last week.

And if you will remember, and if you were here, our subject was spiritual preparation. The battle was going to be coming. The battle of Jericho.

And before the battle, God required that his people consecrate themselves, sanctify themselves. They had to be prepared spiritually. They had to be sanctified.

That is, they had to be set apart from sin and to and for God. And remember, we also, or I also pointed out, and tonight we will focus even more on this reality, that the battle is the Lord's.

And it clearly, clearly was the Lord. It was all him. Now, the battle is the Lord. Now, that was true not only for Israel and their battle of Jericho, but it is also, of course, true for all of our battles, the battles that we face.

And really, all of life's battles belong to the Lord. And so, like the people of Israel, if we expect to fight in our battles of life, and we all have them, if we expect to do that and do well, do well by God's measurement, by God's standard, then we must make the right kind of spiritual preparation.

That is so key. And Israel, in chapter 5, stands as an illustration of that, as a lesson for that reality, that truth.

And so, the battle is the Lord's. It's His. The victory is the Lord's. And therefore, the glory is the Lord's. It's all Him.

All about Him. All His. Now, last week, we focused on five elements of Israel's preparation. And I saved, I told you last week, I saved the fifth element for tonight.

Because, really, as we're going to discover, I hope, that this fifth element of preparation was key, is key, to what happens in chapter 6.

And not just chapter 6, but even going beyond chapter 6. So, let me just name, very quickly, the four elements of preparation we discussed last week. I'm not going to describe them or talk about them.

Just name them. Number one, renewing Israel's covenant with God. That's verses 2 through 7. Reaffirming Israel's confidence in God. Verse 8, rather.

Removing Israel's condemnation by God. Verse 9. And then fourth, remembering Israel's commitment to God. Verses 10 through 12. All that we looked at last week.

And now we're ready for the fifth element of preparation. And it is this. Recognizing Israel's captain. And it is the Lord. Recognizing Israel's captain.

That's number five. Recognizing Israel's captain. Their true captain. This was part of their preparation for the battle that would ensue the very next day.

Actually, if you could call it a battle. It's the Lord's battle. But part of the preparation and the fifth and final preparation was to recognize, acknowledge their true captain.

And it was not Joshua. Though he was their captain and a great leader. And God had appointed him to be their leader. Called him. Prepared him. And he was to be respected as that.

And was respected as their great leader. Just as they respected Moses. But in reality, their true captain was not Joshua. Their true captain, of course, is Yahweh God.

The Lord. And that's what we see in these three closing verses of chapter five. Even before we get to the battle. And this really is, I have to say, is one of my favorite parts of the book of Joshua.

Joshua. And that may be why I bring it up from time to time. I just like this particular part of the story. But it's more significant than simply something that's interesting.

And something that you are kind of drawn to and say wow to. It is key. It's key to understanding Israel's conquest of the promised land.

I'm not talking about the battle of Jericho. I'm talking about this encounter with the commander of the Lord's army. It is key to our understanding, overall understanding, of Israel's conquest of the promised land.

And here's how. Joshua's encounter with the, quote, commander of the army of the Lord. That's how he identified himself. His encounter with him connects two important truths for Israel.

First of all, the need for holiness before God. Now, really, we have been learning that. And they have been learning that in chapter five.

In the previous part of chapter. Through all of these very steps of preparation. But this final area of preparation. This encounter with the captain of the Lord's army.

Teaches this truth. The need for holiness before God. To stand holy before God. Verse 15. The place where you stand is holy. And the second reality.

Or truth. Important truth. That they were to learn from this. Was the reality that the battle is the Lord's. Now, I've already said that. And I've repeated that a number of times.

And I'm going to say it a few more times. We've got to get that down. Not just in this particular case with Israel. And the conquest against Jericho. And ultimately other places in the land of promise.

But even in our battles. Life's battles. The battle belongs to the Lord. Verse 14. As commander of the army of the Lord. I have now come. He's the captain.

And the battle is his. Alright. So this fifth element of spiritual preparation. I think completes the purposes of chapter 5.

Which are spiritual preparation. But it also marks the beginning of Israel's actual conquest of the land. Starting with Jericho in chapter 6.

It's a transition. It brings the two together. But don't see this encounter with this captain of the Lord's army.

Don't see this encounter as just simply attached to the battle of Jericho. You'd be short sighted. You've got to look even beyond that. That's why this episode.

In these three verses. Closing verses of chapter 5. That's why this episode is open ended. It's not continuing on into chapter 6. And when the Lord finally speaks.

This is a new stage of the story. This completes a part of the narrative. The first part of the book of Joshua. But it's open ended.

There's no resolution to it. And the reason is. Because this encounter with the captain of the Lord's army. And what Joshua learned from it. Applies to all future battles.

Not just Jericho. But beyond Jericho. So it is a key passage in the overall book of Joshua. So the idea is the Lord will fight for Joshua and Israel.

As long as they embrace two priorities. Maintaining holiness before God. And trusting God for their victories. Because again. The battle is the Lord's.

It's the Lord's. Alright let's just kind of walk through this. These closing verses of chapter 5. Verse 13 of chapter 5. And it came to pass.

When Joshua was by Jericho. Or near Jericho. And so Joshua is near the city of Jericho.

I mean that's all it says. He's near Jericho. I think near enough that he could see it. And what is he doing there? Why is he there? Well the Bible really doesn't tell us.

We can only really speculate. Why he was there. Now we ultimately know why God led him there. Because he has this encounter. I think with the Lord Jesus Christ.

But why did he go there? Why was he there? Perhaps he was strategizing. For the next day. Or that day. We're not sure about what time it was.

Just came to pass. Maybe he's kind of formulating a strategy. Sizing up the enemy. Looking at the fortified walls of Jericho.

And so forth. Or perhaps he can't sleep. And he's just going for a walk at night. I don't know. Though I don't think that's it. I don't think that we are supposed to. Israel is encamped that close to Jericho.

At this point. Joshua most likely made a special trip. To the outskirts of Jericho. For what reason? We don't really know.

Whether it's to strategize. Or perhaps it was to pray. And to seek God's direction. I think I would vote for that one. Because of what happens next. He's seeking God's direction.

He's seeking God's provision for him. Comfort for him. He's probably very nervous. I mean wouldn't you be? And especially as he begins to look at this very fortified city.

And we'll get into that here in just a minute. I don't know why he was there. But regardless of why. He's there. He's there by Jericho. And verse 13 says that he lifted his eyes.

And behold. And that's the idea of the word. It's surprise. We could translate it. And he lifted up his eyes. And what do you know?

A man stood opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand. He was shocked. Surprised. Startled. That's what we're to understand from that.

I think this was a bit frightening. I think it would be to me. Wouldn't it be to you? He didn't even know who the man was. And he's standing there opposite him. And he has his sword drawn.

Maybe it was in his right hand. It's right handed. Now there are only two other times in scripture. Where we have this kind of thing happening. Where the Bible describes it.

In Numbers 22-23. We have it happening there. Where the, quote, angel of the Lord. With sword drawn. Is standing before Balaam.

Barring his way. And then we have it in 1 Chronicles 21-16. Where the angel of the Lord. Sword drawn.

Stood before David. Threatening Israel. Because of David's sin. And then we have this instance. Here in Joshua. Though he's not called the angel of the Lord.

But this is the angel of the Lord. Just like it was in Numbers 22. Just like in 1 Chronicles 21. And there are other appearances. Though we don't have it described as the sword drawn in the hand.

But the other references to the angel of the Lord. Encountering humans. Man. Man. This is the angel of the Lord here. In Joshua.

Chapter 5. Verse 13. And I believe. Very clearly. That this is. A pre-incarnate. Appearance.

Of the second member. Of the Holy Trinity. God the Son. Encountering man. Where God encounters man. In these kinds of appearances.

And form. I think it's always the second. Person of the Trinity. Kind of as a. Precursor. To when he would actually come in. And be incarnate. And dwell among us.

So I believe this is the Son of God. Now how do we know that? Well. I don't think we're on shaky ground. By coming to that conclusion. Even though some would disagree with it.

Some high powered scholars would disagree with it. But if you notice in verse 14. Joshua. How did he respond? He fell on his face to the earth.

And worshipped him. You don't worship angels. And then. He said to him. What does my Lord. My Lord. Say to his servant.

And it's the word Adonai. And. Certainly it is a title. Not the name. He didn't say Yahweh. But. Adonai. And I still I think very clearly.

That he. Recognized. Or acknowledged. His true. This. The true identity of this personage. And he worshipped him. I mean in the most humble of postures.

He worshipped him. And he called him his Lord. And he submitted to him. What do you say? To your servant. This is a pre-incarnate appearance. Of. Of the Lord.

Of the second member of the Trinity. Of God the Son. Or now. Going back to verse 13. Really. We're kind of jumping ahead. But because before. I mean initially. I think. I don't think Joshua recognized the man.

He didn't recognize him as any. Of his soldiers. And he didn't know really. Who he was. Because Joshua asked the most natural question. That anyone could ask. Given the situation.

I mean he's there. Jericho's out there. And here's. Here's someone with sword drawn. So. Given the situation. Given the man. The way he was dressed. Most likely. And also given his stance.

Sword drawn. And so he asked. A very natural question. Look at it. And Joshua went to him. And said to him. Are you for us.

Or for our adversaries. That's a pretty natural question. I mean really. I mean really. He's obviously. A great warrior.

Appears. That way. Armed. Sword drawn. Ready for battle. Are you for us. Or are you for them. Very natural question. And so what was the answer.

Well he really didn't give Joshua. A direct answer to his question. Did he. I mean. Did give an answer. But not a direct answer. Verse 14. He said. No.

No what. No I'm not here for you. Or no I'm not here for your adversaries. Which is it. Well.

Strictly speaking. It's neither. It's neither. That is in the sense. That somehow. The captain of the Lord's army.

And his army. Going to somehow. Join the forces of Joshua. And Israel. And go and help them. Win this battle. Not in that sense. The point is.

I think. That the captain of the Lord's army. The Lord. Was saying. Joshua. You're asking the wrong question.

You're asking the wrong question. It's not. Who are you here for. It is. Who are you. Who are you.

That's the important question. Because then if you ask that question. You get the answer. If you ask that question first. Then you will know. Who I am here for. And you will know.

That I am here. For myself. For myself. For my goals. For my purpose. And so here is your answer Joshua.

No. The answer is no. That is neither. But as the commander of the army of the Lord. I have now come. In fact. Literally. If you get to the.

The language here. It could literally be translated. I. I am. The commander. Of Yahweh's. Heavenly army.

I. I am. The focus. You see. Is. On the man speaking. Or the person speaking. There is certainly no man. This is pre-incarnate.

All right. The focus is directed toward himself. The focus is on the commander. Of Yahweh's. Heavenly army. And. We are to understand then.

That. Yahweh's. Heavenly army. Was. Even at that point. Poised. Even though Joshua could not see them. They were poised.

To engage. And. Utterly win. The battle of Jericho. Single handedly. Can you think of anything. That would have been more encouraging to Joshua.

To know that. If he was out there. On the outskirts of Jericho. Praying. Strategizing. Whatever. Maybe even wringing his hands. What in the world am I going to do?

Whatever purpose. If he was out there. To get some kind of affirmation. Some kind of courage within him. He certainly got it. The Lord.

God himself showed up. And he said. I'm here to take over. I'm here to win the battle. And Joshua responded. In the proper way.

Then. All right. Now he knows who he is. Verse 14. Joshua fell on his face to the earth. And worshiped. And he said to him. What does my Lord say to his servant?

Now. You know. We could assume that Joshua was asking for. Some instructions. Marching orders. Whatever. Like.

What is the strategy? What's the strategy? What's the strategy? How shall we engage the battle? But amazingly. The Lord did not give him a strategy for the battle.

Not a military strategy. Not any kind of strategy at this point. Nothing. Instead. What did he say? What did he do? He said to Joshua. In verse 15. Take your sandals off.

Your feet. For the place where you stand is holy. See. That is. The battle is mine. Joshua. You just worship me. You worship my holiness.

And I like this. And Joshua did so. That's a lesson for us. Joshua got it. He got it. He understood it. He's now ready.

What a lesson for us. No matter what our battles are. So let's get into chapter 6 then. And we're prepared for it.

Jericho, of course, would be the first city conquered and captured by the Israelites. First city after coming into the promised land. Jericho was a key city.

It would have, you know, served God's purpose in making the greatest impact initially. Because what was to be done there at Jericho eventually, what God would do right before the eyes of the Israelites, would be something certainly talked about.

And the news of it would have been spread throughout the land of Canaan. And so this was key, strategic on God's part. Talk about a strategery that God had it.

And Joshua didn't know what it was. But God knew what it was. And Jericho was key to all of that. And Jericho also would be representative of the entire takeover of the land.

Not just the first city and not just a key city, but it would be representative. And we can get that from the rest of the book of Joshua. Because several times in Joshua, the conquering of other cities in the land would be compared to the conquering of Jericho.

They would always refer back to Jericho. Every time another city was conquered. And too, at the end of Joshua's life, when he summarized the conquest, the taking of the land, Jericho was the only city that he mentioned by name.

So it's key and representative of the entire takeover. And if the battle for the promised land would be the Lord's, then Jericho was the epitome of that lesson, of that message, that truth.

All right, now, let me just divide this chapter and really just up to verse 21. And really not even, we're not even going to delve into every detail of every verse.

But divide it into three parts or four parts. Here's the first one. Israel had a problem. I can just write it down that way.

There's point number one. Israel had a problem. They faced a problem. God didn't, but they did. That is in their mind.

Verse 1 says, Now, Jericho was securely, and note that, securely shut up.

It was a very secure city. Completely shut up because of the children of Israel. I mean, it could be because of fear of them.

I think it's part, certainly a lot of that. We understand that. But because they were there. And so it was shut up because they were there. None went out and none came in.

So the people of Jericho are not going to take the battle to the Israelites. They're going to hunker down, close their gates, their fortified city, and allow no one to go out and no one to come in.

But the key is they were securely shut up, or so they thought. And so it appeared to Joshua and the people of Israel.

It appeared that they were very secure. The city was securely shut. See, in the days of Joshua, Jericho was one of the most fortified cities in that region.

In the world of that day. Highly fortified city. It was a fortress of the highest magnitude. It was a city that was protected by two massive walls.

Two of them. The outer wall was six feet thick and about 20 feet high. That's a pretty good sized wall, isn't it? Six feet thick, 20 feet high.

And archaeologists speculate from various records and finds and so forth that the outer wall may have had a peculiar construction where it was wider at the base than the top.

And even the top was a little bit wider than the middle part of the wall. It flared out both ways, and especially down below, so that siege ladders would have been virtually useless to ford that first wall, that outer wall.

Well, the inner wall was about 12 feet thick and some 30 feet high. In fact, historians have found records that reveal that the citizens of Jericho used to have chariot races, hold chariot races on the top of that inner wall.

Can you imagine? I mean, this was an impregnable city. How could anyone conquer it? This is Israel's problem as they faced it from their perspective.

And, you know, sometimes our problems look, you know, insurmountable. I mean, how could there be victory here? How can we have answers for this?

How can we get past this? How can we handle this? And so we have Jerichos in our own life, and so we face problems. Israel faced a problem here. They've come across the Jordan by the mighty hand of God.

Forty-some years before that, they had crossed over the Red Sea by the mighty hand of God, and now they're in the land, and they're right at Jericho, and here is this fortified city, and it's all shut up.

How are they going to win this battle? Israel's problem. Second, Israel had a promise. Israel had a problem, but they had a promise.

Verse 2 is the promise. And the Lord said to Joshua, See? Look. Look here. I have given Jericho into your hand.

It's king and the mighty men of valor. That's a promise. Now, I don't think when he said, See, he meant, Just look at the city.

Look at the situation. See? Piece of cake. I don't think he meant that. Because from their perspective, with their own eyes, it looked impossible.

Now, I think the idea is, See, spiritualize. Do you trust me? See? Really, look to me.

Look to me. See, this is not a military strategy at this point. In fact, at no point is there any kind of military strategy given. Not a military strategy. This is a divine promise from Almighty God.

And he promises victory even before the battle takes place. And he even gives some of the details, kind of the general details, even before they happen.

Jericho is yours. Her king is yours. Her army is yours. What a promise. Remember, the battle is the Lord's.

It is not Joshua's battle, Israel's battle. It is the Lord's. And we have some promises too, don't we, in Scripture?

In fact, we have His promise, God's promise, that our weapons are powerful through God. 2 Corinthians 10, 4-5, For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, they're not earthly, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, Jericho's walls, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and brings into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

We also have His promise that our battles have all been arranged by the Lord, by the way. I know this is a hard, hard one to get, especially when you're in the midst of the battle.

God is sovereign over those things and has allowed them to come into your life. Romans 8, 28, And we know that all things work together for good, the ultimate good, to them that love God, to those who are the called, them who are the called according to His purpose.

2 Corinthians 4, 17, For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. That's all part of God's plan.

We also have His promise that our ability is limited only by our faith. What we're able to accomplish is limited by our faith.

Philippians 4, 13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And Ephesians 3, 20, Now unto Him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we should ever ask or think.

We have His promise of power in the day of battle, in the days of our battles, whatever form those battles may take. Ephesians 6, 10, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

And we have His promise of ongoing victory. 1 Corinthians 15, 57, But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And we have His promise that we will never fight alone, fight our battles alone. Hebrews 13, 5, the latter part of that verse, For He hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.

And on and on we could go with those promises. So Israel had a problem. This fortified city, impregnable city, but Israel had a promise because, third, Israel had a partner.

A partner. A partner. A senior partner. Verses 3 to 5. You shall march around the city.

Now listen to this. You shall march around the city. Here's the strategy. Here's what you need to do. March around the city. All you men of war, you shall go all around the city once.

This you shall do six days. So for six days, one time, march around the city. Sounds like a great strategy. And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark.

They'll walk out before the ark. Seven priests with horns, ram's horns, walking in front of the ark. And the people, I suppose, are behind the ark. But the seventh day, you shall march around the city seven times.

And the priests shall blow the trumpets. And it shall come to pass when they make a long blast with a ram's horn. And when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout.

Then the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people shall go up every man straight before him. What does that mean? It means it's, it will be such a collapse of the city walls that you won't have to go this way to get in, walking around boulders.

You can just walk straight in. We're talking, talking about a total collapse. I think maybe even that, you know, every, every part of those walls reduced to dust and small rocks.

You walk straight on in. See, Israel's partner in the battle was Yahweh God himself. He's not fighting with them.

He's fighting in their behalf for them. It's part of his plan. And he was in absolute control, he will be in absolute control of the battle just as the commander of the Lord's army told Joshua he had not come to take sides, he had come to take over.

No military strategy, no military battle in any standard sense, in any sense at all really. Just complete victory at the hand of Almighty God.

In fact, surely you noticed the repetition of the number seven. Did you see that? It's hard to miss that. In Hebrew scripture, the number seven, as I'm sure you know, stands for completion.

Perfection. Totality. Sometimes it's used in that sense. Totality. Completion. The number seven appears four times in these few verses I read a moment ago.

It appears 14 times in the entire chapter. Chapter six. That's a bunch. Now, so here is then God's method of victory for Israel.

No swords or spears or shields or siege ladders or battering rams or catapults or any other machine of war. None of that.

Just seven priests blowing seven trumpets, marching in front of the ark and the people around Jericho seven times each one once each day and seven times on the seventh day and the trumpet blasts and the people shout and God said that when that happens that the wall will fall down flat without so much as the touch of a single finger, human finger.

amazing. Amazing. And God is your partner or you're with him. Israel had a problem.

Israel had a promise. Israel had a partner. And so finally Israel prevailed. Israel prevailed. Starting with verse six and we don't really even need to read it.

It's repetition. It's exactly what God said would happen, did happen and there are elements of the verses between six and twenty-one that we'll look at next week because we have to deal with Rahab and God's promise there and also what God says about what they are not to touch, not to take and what they are to take and what they're to do with it and that comes into play later and so we'll cover those later but the point is that Israel prevailed because the battle is the Lord's.

And so really we could reduce in closing this tonight we could reduce it down to this. Here are the reasons why Israel prevailed and the same reasons why you and I how you and I will prevail.

Number one they had a word from God and so do we. Number two they believed God. I mean really you can just reduce it down to these very simple simple facts.

They had a word from God they believed God they acted according to faith. I mean it would take faith to do what they did. I mean you're coming in close proximity to a great army that is hidden behind those walls and their eyes all along and they're not little blueberries up there on top of the wall you know.

Some of you have not seen VeggieTales version of this. These are battle hardened soldiers and it would take a lot of faith to be walking around that wall you know and you know it would take a lot of faith that this is going to work.

So they had a word from God they believed God they acted according to faith and they did it exactly God's way. That's key. They did it exactly God's way and finally God gave them the victory because the battle is the Lord's.

Thank you.