The Israelites' eventual victory over Jericho wasn't rooted in human strength but in their faith and obedience to God’s Word. The story serves as a reminder of the importance of resting in God’s presence and surrendering our hearts to Him. Discover how God’s promises remain true, and our obedience can lead to remarkable breakthroughs.

An Implausible Attack on Jericho

After crossing the Jordan River, God’s people faced a mighty walled city called Jericho. It stands between them and their inhabitation of the Promised Land, a place God promised them more than 40 years earlier.

Most have heard the story that follows. God’s people are told that in order to take the city, they must march around Jericho seven times, and on the last day, the walls will fall. Can we be honest for a minute? That doesn’t sound logical, does it? How implausible does it sound to march around a fortress, blow some horns, and then the walls will fall down? At face value, you wouldn’t be out of line to believe that’s absurd.

As implausible as that plan sounds, let’s contextualize Jericho.

Contextualizing Jericho

As you read this story, there’s one verse that may strike some confusion:

“Then they devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword.” Joshua 6:21

How could God instruct people to go in and destroy all life inside the city? To answer that, let’s review Jericho’s culture.

Jericho was a very dark culture that was characterized by the Canaanite religions, which placed great emphasis on idolatry and immorality. They worshipped Asherah, Dagon, Baal, and other false deities. This worship inebriated Jericho’s culture, and because of it, there was deep sexual immorality, ritual, and even child sacrifice.

If children were being sacrificed in the name of religion down the street, would you be indifferent? No! Of course, you wouldn’t! That cry for justice comes from the fact that we’re made in the image of God. We would cry out that it is wrong and must stop.

God interacts with all of His creation, even those who don’t know Christ, which theologians call common grace. He makes the sun shine on the just and the unjust, the evil and the good. However, a time comes when common grace runs out, and God must judge. We’ve seen this repeatedly in history, from the Great Flood to Sodom and Gomorrah to the Egyptian plagues and many other stories.

In his book Knowing God, J.I. Packer had this to say about God’s wrath:

“God’s wrath in the Bible is never the capricious, self-indulgent, irritable, morally ignoble thing that human anger so often is. It is, instead, a right and necessary reaction to objective moral evil.” (Pg. 151)

Sometimes, when we’re quick to judge God for bringing judgment on His creation, it’s important that, as followers, we should be cautious. We don’t get to judge God; He judges us. Apart from His grace and mercy, manifested in Jesus Christ at the cross, being judged by God is something He’s done, is doing, and will continue to do.

Jericho’s Impenetrable Walls

The Canaanites built Jericho as a kind of “gateway fortress” to the Promised Land for the Israelites. Any invading enemy must deal with the great walled city before progressing into the land. Jericho was too large and strong to be ignored.

Although this isn’t a perfect rendering of Jericho, based on Scripture and archaeological research, this image aids our imagination of the city the Israelites marched around. Read what archaeologist Bryant Wood said about the famous walls of Jericho:

“Jericho was surrounded by a great earthen…embankment, with a stone retaining wall at its base. The retaining wall was some 12-15 ft high. On top of that was a mudbrick wall 6 ft thick and about 20-26 ft high. At the crest of the embankment was a similar mudbrick wall whose base was roughly 46 ft above the ground level outside the retaining wall. This is what loomed high above the Israelites as they marched around the city each day for seven days. Humanly speaking, it was impossible for the Israelites to penetrate the impregnable bastion of Jericho.”The Walls of Jericho, Bible and Spade, Spring 1999

The Israelites had no way of tearing down these walls. The sheer size and scale of Jericho’s walls would’ve made conquering the city a categorical impossibility. Israel was composed of nomads with no military training or sophisticated resources to take the stronghold. However, God gave them a strategy, which was

• March around Jericho once a day for six days (v. 3).

• March with the Ark of the Covenant (v. 4).

• Put seven priests in front of the Ark (v. 4).

• On the seventh day, march around Jericho seven times (v. 5).

• Have the priests blow rams’ horns as they marched (v. 5).

• On the seventh time around, on the seventh day, have the people shout (v. 5).

• When the people shout, the walls will come down (v. 5).

• When the walls come down, enter and conquer the city (v. 5).

Why This Story Matters

Before we proceed, I want you to read the words of the Apostle Paul with fresh eyes.

“For everything that was written in the past (the Old Testament) was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” Romans 15:4 (notation added)

This story is shared to teach us about endurance and encouragement. In God’s sovereignty, even before you were born, He knew you’d encounter times when you’d face impenetrable walls and circumstances that could be labeled as impossibilities. Perhaps it’s a prodigal child, a problem at work, or a challenging relationship. It could also be a stronghold, a sin that keeps recurring.

How do we deal with walls and strongholds? We can learn much from the Israelites in this story, so let’s examine the three primary characteristics they had that can encourage us to approach our Jerichos with God.

How To Deal with Walls & Strongholds?

1) The Word of God

The Israelites didn’t have a formal Bible then, but God spoke, and they had His revelation. The story of Jericho’s walls crashing down is a visceral proclamation that unless your faith rests in the words of God alone, your faith is misplaced. Faith comes by hearing God’s Word.

“By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven days.” Hebrews 11:30 (emphasis added)

By faith in God’s Word, we can face our Jerichos.

In light of this, I want to draw attention to two Greek words: logos and rhema.

• Logos is the objective word for God, meaning the logos (Jesus) became flesh and dwelt among us.

• Rhema describes the Word of God. In John 15, Jesus describes God’s Word integrating into our experience, which is when it becomes rhema. Jesus used the word rhema instead of logos because the Word of God applied to your life and circumstances.

The Israelites had a revelation from God, which got into their experience.

Moving in faith can look like trusting God as we bring our tithe into the storehouse. Honoring God with the first 10% of our income can feel counterintuitive, but when we trust Him to meet our needs, we exhibit dependence and faith in His declarations.

As the Israelites entered the Promised Land, the Lord told them, “All the spoils of Jericho are mine” (Joshua 6:19). God informed them that they’d be taking more cities, and when they did, they could have everything in them, but the first one was His. Our takeaway is that God demonstrates that we’re to honor Him first.

I frequently get asked, “How do I develop my faith?” Jesus told us that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). In other words, if you want to develop your faith, feed your faith with God’s Word. That’s how we face insurmountable walls.

2) Their Whole Heart Surrendered and Resting in God

People often miss this, but the real inheritance in the Promised Land was fellowship with God. Before taking the Promised Land, the Israelites had begun doing this because they’d been through many battles where God taught and developed them. It was through this development that, much like the Israelites, we learn to move in a posture of surrender to God.

When you encounter walls in your life, God doesn’t always want to change your circumstances because sometimes He wants to change you. What happens when we hit walls is that our character weaknesses begin spilling out. When we lose control, we turn to tools of the flesh, such as gossip, anger, and malice. However, those aren’t Christ-like developments. Surrender incurs doing the God-honoring thing in the God-honoring way because God is more interested in changing you than changing your circumstances.

However, God doesn’t stop there. After you’ve come out on the other side, God often changes your circumstances, which is what happened to the Israelites. The had so many failures in the wilderness, but when they became sensitive to the God-honoring way, He began moving them into a new and preferred future.

The Israelites could’ve marched around Jericho’s walls one million times and blown a thousand trumpets, but without God’s presence and being in a right relationship with Him, the walls would never have fallen. Because they were developed and in harmony with the God-honoring way, He rested among His people, which enabled them to rest with Him. The real goal of the Promised Land wasn’t milk and honey; instead, it was fellowship with God.

“Faith is laying hold of Jesus Christ personally. There is no merit in it. It is not another ‘work’. Its value is not in itself, but entirely in its object, Jesus Christ.” John Stott, author and teacher

That quote emphasizes why the Israelites were effective. Their fellowship with the Lord was vibrant and life-giving. In 2 Corinthians 10:4, the Apostle Paul reminds us: “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.”

Most of the walls in our lives look impossible, but the good news is that God loves to start with impossibility. The real battle of Jericho wasn’t with the Canaanites; instead, it was with the heart of God’s people. There’s a vast difference between God’s way and our way, and the battles for what God is developing within us are won in our hearts.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9

3) They Walked in the Way of God

At some point, faith is evidenced by obedience.

In the Israelite’s story, they had God’s revelation, fellowship, and communion, but although it seemed counterintuitive when it came to marching, they had to be responsive. It doesn’t always feel right to forgive someone, but we must move in obedience.

The beauty is that when we begin walking in understanding, God is faithful to do what He said He’d do.

“So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city.” Joshua 6:20

The walls fell because God said they would, and God’s promises to us today are just as certain. The walls didn’t fall because Israel marched in circles; instead, they crumbled because they put their faith in God alone.

You are so loved by God, and if you’re in Christ, you’re a new creation. You’ve been created to live a new way. When we have that power at work in our lives, similar to what we saw in this story, we see God be faithful to what He said He’d do.

TL;DR

1. The story of Jericho’s walls highlights God's power to make the impossible possible.

2. With no military skills or resources, the Israelites could not conquer Jericho by their own means.

3. But through faith, obedience, and God’s guidance, they witnessed a miraculous victory.

4. This account teaches us that, like Israel, we face life’s strongholds—be it personal challenges or recurring sins—by relying on God’s Word, surrendering wholly to Him, and walking in obedience.

5. The real victory lies not in circumstances but in our transformed relationship with God, who is faithful to fulfill His promises.

Related Reading

How to Overcome the Desires of the Flesh by Rev. Paul Lawler

The First Things of a Blessed Life by Rev. Paul Lawler

How Do I Find Satisfaction in God by Rev. Paul Lawler