By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days. Hebrews 11:30
Some of the most famous battles of the Second World War were fought in northern Africa, between forces commanded by British Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery and German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, known as the Desert Fox. Montgomery’s Eight Army, known as the Desert Rats, had a number of legendary encounters with Rommel’s Panzers in the deserts of Libya and Egypt, encounters that showed both generals were highly skilled tacticians and had poured a great deal of planning into their operations. One fact that emerged after the war was that both Montgomery and Rommel had carefully studied the battles fought in the American Civil War of a century earlier. Many of the tactics that they used were similar to those used by General Ulysses Grant and General Robert E. Lee in that civil war. Why did they study those old battles? Because they knew that those Civil War generals were brilliant, and had used tactics that worked. So they should (and did) work in the Northern Africa campaign. Victories in war are often accomplished by doing what someone earlier had used to success. But just the opposite happened when the Israelites defeated the city of Jericho. Nobody had ever defeated a city that way before, or since.
Did you notice that our text does not name Joshua? That is not to take away from the greatness of that magnificent commander of the Israelites in their successful capture of the promised land. But Joshua was not alone in the Jericho victory. He gave orders that ordinarily no army in the world would dream of following. But the Israelites followed his orders without question. Around Jericho they marched, day after day, despite the apparent lack of any plan to tackle those huge walls, and despite the mockery and insults from the Jericho soldiers on those walls. God had assured them of victory, and they would do what God said. Victory was accomplished because so many believed and obeyed. The combined faith of all of those people resulted in success beyond anything that they could imagine. What would happen today if we could see Christians united in faith to tackle our great problems?
The devil is very successful today at preventing Christians from accomplishing much for God. We see Gospel efforts in which one or two souls are saved. We see young families struggling to survive spiritually amid the evil influences of the world around us. We see Assemblies losing the effectiveness of their testimonies because of personality clashes and petty differences. And yes, all of these problems are because of the lack of faith of individuals. But they are also caused by the lack of faith of the company as a whole.
God wants us to have spiritual victories as great as the taking of Jericho. But until we can move together in faith, we will see only small victories with little impact. -Jim MacIntosh