You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days . . . On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times. Joshua 6:3,4
Have you ever looked at your struggles and asked God why? Why were we made with destructive appetites to drugs, pornography, food and money? Why would God give us such appetites if indulging in them is wrong? Why does He allow us to live in such conflict? Sometimes, God doesn’t make sense.
In today’s passage, the Israelites, in their conquest of the promised land, encountered was the walled city of Jericho. God did not command them to attack, but rather instructed them to walk around the city once a day for six days. On the seventh day, they were to walk around the city seven times, shout and blow their trumpets. What? Why? That doesn’t make any sense.
Though God told them the walls would fall, some of the Israelites must have questioned God’s plan. They obeyed though, and on the seventh day, after the seventh rotation, they blew their horns, gave a great shout, and the walls of the city crumbled.
As God asked the Israelites to obey, even when it did not make sense, He asks the same of me. As He was teaching the Israelites to depend on Him, He is teaching me to follow, even when I do not understand. As Paul learned, God allows some thorns in my life, simply so that I remain dependent on Him. If I had no need of God, I would not pursue Him daily.
Some of our trials may, like the walls of Jericho, be dramatically and miraculously removed. Some of our thorns remain though. Though we are not to live enslaved to our destructive appetites and defects, God may allow us to continue to feel the pull of them, so that we remain in need of Him.
God may not always make sense, but our job is to continually follow Him. Our obedience and dependence on Him, may just be the point of those things that do not make sense.