I have been thinking a great deal about the sixth chapter of Joshua. This is the chapter that describes the Israelites arrival in Jericho, and the process by which the city fell to them.
I think most of us know the story. Joshua enters the land of Jericho and is met by a Messenger of the Lord who is wielding a sword. Joshua gets his marching orders, literally, and sets off to conquer Jericho and open the land for the Israelites. A week later and the job is done, and another job has started.
Do you have any walls that you wish could be torn down? Have you been praying for months, years, decades about something or someone? Do you have a child or grandchild that either never accepted Christ as their Savior or has turned away from Him? Do you wish you could just march around their home for seven days and they would come around to the Truth? Wouldn’t that be nice?
How many generations were following God, praying, sacrificing, believing that the day would come when Jericho, or another city like it, would fall? Notice that the land of Jericho is referred to by the Messenger as Holy ground. That didn’t just happen when Joshua showed up, it had happened prior to his arrival. The Messenger tells him to remove his sandals because the ground had been sanctified. God had been working on this long before Joshua came along.
I don’t know about you, but I really wish I could be the one to see the fruit of the efforts. But frequently I have come to the conclusion that I’m the one who has been sent to prepare the way, instead of reaping the harvest. How many years had there been prayers for the deliverance of Jericho, of the promised land, prior to the actual falling of those walls? Maybe, just maybe, my job is to pray without ceasing and it will be another generation who sees the answers come to pass. My desire to see the results is not more important than the timing and wisdom of God.
So, keep praying, keep believing and have faith that the walls you see before you will in fact crumble, in God’s time. Stay focused on how the fruit will be revealed to you, possibly when that loved one enters the Kingdom of Heaven and walks alongside of you down streets of gold, as you worship the Lord in person. Hope!