This post was last updated on February 27, 2026

Day 352, Year 1

The Israelites Won After Encircling Jericho

“By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.” (Hebrews 11:30 NASB)

The faith God wants us to have is complete obedience to His words and promptings. Sometimes we do things that seem foolish in others’ eyes because we truly follow God’s words. There are many examples of these in the Bible, as the one in today’s verse, to encourage us to develop an increasingly obedient heart toward God. At the time of Joshua, hundreds of thousands of Israelites could fight. But God directed them not to fight, but to go and walk around the city of Jericho for seven days. How would they react to this? Some among them might think that the way they were doing it was impossible to defeat any city. So, they had to overcome puzzling while walking around the city like fools. Similarly, this sense of “impossibility” in believers can now hinder us from heeding God’s words. Contrarily, obeying His Word may make us “…  become a marvel to many, For You are my strong refuge.” (Psalm 71:7 NASB)

The events of walking around Jericho for victory are believed to be related to the previous incident of the emergence of the Commander of God (Joshua 5:13-15). On that occasion, Joshua confronted a stranger, and he asked him if he had any malicious intent. “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?'” (Joshua 5:14 NKJV) When God’s angel comes, are we also willing to “fall on our faces” to worship God? Without this prostration to the ground, they can hardly obey Him. Then there would be no fools surrounding the city of Jericho to besiege the city, and the city would not have fallen. In a nutshell, God told the Israelites to be fools, walking for seven days, and the walls of Jericho really smashed down. 

In the same way, surrender to the God of Israel, commit ourselves to Him, persevere in obeying God’s guidance, and not be afraid even if we seem to be fools; all of these are the keys that will lead us into His victory. But some Christians nowadays follow the pattern of surrounding Jericho in overcoming their spiritual strongholds. Can you find a second time in the same way, fighting a battle in the Bible? Not at all. So, the key to our faith is to find a unique way to do what God wants us to do, to simply follow His unique guidance every time, and then to experience His victory.

Reflection questions:

1) How do you think you can overcome the problem of being seen as weird or foolish by others just because of following God’s guidance?

2) How do you respond when you surrender your prayers to God for a matter, but He has a “weird” prompting for you?