By Faith the Walls Fell: The Miracle at Jericho

A fortress city. A silent march. A shout that drops walls. The Jericho story forces a question most of us avoid: will I obey God when His instructions don’t match my logic?

Transcript

Welcome

Hodaiah 0:00

Hello everyone, welcome to the Ordinary Doing Extraordinary podcast. I'm Hodaiah, and with me is my wife Dominique. Hey everybody. Today we will be diving into episode 10 of the Heroes of Faith series. We'll be talking about the Israelites and the fall of Jericho. As always, it is such a blessing to have you all with us on this journey through this series.

Dominique 0:23

Yes.

Hodaiah 0:24

And we are so excited for yet another discussion with you all.

Dominique 0:28

All right, let's go.

Hodaiah 0:29

Let's go, man.

Anchor Verse: Hebrews 11:30

Hodaiah 0:31

So next we're gonna go ahead, we're gonna move into our anchor verse. Our anchor verse for this series is gonna be Hebrews 11, verse 30. By faith, the walls of Jericho fell after the army had marched around them for seven days.

Dominique 0:47

Yes, thank you so much for reading our anchor verse.

Summary

Hodaiah 0:50

Yeah, yeah.

Dominique 0:50

So let's go ahead and get into our summary. So at this point in the Israelite story, Moses had died and Joshua had been called by God to lead the Israelites into the promised land. Jericho was the first city that God told them to conquer. Joshua sent spies to scout the land of Jericho. With the help of a woman named Rahab, which we will talk about in the next episode, they discovered that everyone who lived in Jericho was in fear because of them. The inhabitants knew that the Lord had handed the Israelites the land of Jericho. So Joshua and the Israelites crossed the Jordan River. God parted the waters miraculously, like he did when the Israelites escaped the Egyptians. As the Israelites were closing in on the city of Jericho, the Lord told Joshua that he had handed Jericho over to them. Then he gave very specific instructions on how they were to defeat Jericho. This is where Hebrews 11, 30 comes in. The people acted in faith and obeyed God's instructions of marching around Jericho's walls. God gave them the victory over Jericho as they responded in faith and followed his instructions exactly.

Faith in Action

Dominique 2:10

So let's get into our faith in action. Okay, so our first point is crossing the Jordan River. Let's talk a little bit about when the Israelites crossed the Jordan River. Before they broke camp to begin crossing the Jordan River, Joshua gave them instructions on how to move forward. In Joshua 3, verses 9 through 13, it says, Then Joshua told the Israelites, Come closer and listen to the words of the Lord your God. He said, You will know that the living God is among you, and that he will certainly dispossess before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Herazites, Gergeshites, Amorites, and Jebusites, when the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of the whole earth goes ahead of you into the Jordan. Now choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man for each tribe. When the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the Lord, the Lord of the whole earth, come to rest in the Jordan's water, its water will be cut off. The water flowing downstream will stand up in a mass. So the Israelites obeyed. They broke camp, and the priests carried the Ark of the Covenant, which was a physical symbol of God's presence, ahead of the people. When the priests got to the Jordan River, their feet touched the water, and the water rose up in a mass, just as the Lord stated it would. They were able to cross the Jordan River on dry ground. The priests had to step in for the river to part. They had to step in faith before the miracle happened. They showed faith even before reaching Jericho by following God's exact instructions for crossing the Jordan River.

Hodaiah 4:01

It's amazing. Next, let's talk about taking Jericho. God gave the Israelites very specific instructions for the conquest of Jericho. You'll see in Joshua 6, verses 1 through 5, it says, Now Jericho was strongly fortified because of the Israelites. No one could leave or enter. The Lord said to Joshua, Look, I have handed Jericho, its king and its best soldiers over to you. March around the city with all of the men of war, circling the city one time. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry seven rams horn trumpets in front of the ark, but on the seventh day, march around the city seven times while the priests blow the ram's horns. When there is a prolonged blast of the horn, and you hear its sound, have all the troops give a mighty shout, then the city wall will collapse, and the troops will advance, each man straight ahead. The Israelites follow God's commands exactly. They obeyed God's rather unusual battle plan, marching in silence for six days and shouting on the seventh. No matter how strange or illogical it seemed in the moment, day after day they walked and nothing changed. No cracks, no movement, just obedience. And guess what happened? Jericho's walls came crashing down.

Faith Challenges

Hodaiah 5:34

Now let's move into our faith challenges. Okay. The Israelites could have doubted God's instructions. Walking around a city wall instead of attacking would have seemed pointless from a human perspective. It didn't match anything that they had been trained to do as warriors. And sometimes God's instructions in our lives won't make sense either. He may ask us to move in ways that feel slow, repetitive, or even ineffective. But faith means trusting that his strategy is better than our understanding. And this is like even a testament to me because lots of times in my life, the Lord's plans, it just does not seem to make sense. Lots of times I'm one of those men who either it's logical to me or it's illogical. But God has been calling me in my life to humble myself, soften my heart, and he's told me that he needs me to depend on him. Fully put my trust in him. It's not going to be through my understanding, the understanding of men, you're always going to fail. You might even think that you're getting far, but you are going to fail. But when you put your faith in Jesus, when he is your rock, when he is your foundation, it is like you have built your house on that. You've built your house on that firm foundation. And when those waves come, that storm comes, that house is gonna still be standing. You are on the rock, your solid rock. Jesus Christ.

Dominique 7:08

You know, there was a song that just popped up in my head, but for copyright reasons, I will not sing it. Some of y'all might know what song I'm talking about, but okay. Great point. Great point. Um, they also could have been paralyzed by fear, knowing Jericho was a strong, fortified city. But instead, they chose to trust and obey, and not just once, but day after day. That's another challenge. Sustained obedience. It's one thing to obey God one time, but it's another to keep showing up in faith when you don't see immediate results. Keep showing up. For six days, nothing happened. The walls didn't crack, there were no visible signs of progress, but they kept going anyway, and that's where many of us struggle. We want confirmation before completion. We want to see something happening before we fully commit. But the Israelites teach us that faith continues walking even when nothing seems to be changing.

Hodaiah 8:10

Yep, perseverance, long suffering. It may look like nothing's happened, but God's telling you, just keep showing up, my child. Just keep showing up. It just seems like no matter what you do, it's just not working. Just keep on showing up. You just put your faith in Jesus Christ.

Spiritual Lessons & Takeaways

Dominique 8:25

Absolutely. So, for our spiritual takeaways here, this is our first one. Trust God, even when things look impossible, because obedience makes room for the miraculous. But also remember this: God often works through process, not just moments. The miracle didn't happen on day one, it came after consistent obedience over time. Every lap around Jericho mattered, even though it didn't look like it.

Hodaiah 8:57

Check this out. Impossible. The word impossible really means I am possible. The world tells you I am possible as though it's like you are possible. Like it's just through you, through the understanding of man, I am possible. I am one of the mighty names of God. So look at impossible and now say, I am possible, but you are possible only because I am is possible. Hallelujah. Only because I am is possible, because your God in heaven is possible, so you are possible. Jesus. Fire, a little fire preaching. Come on now. All right, guys. Next, God's promises don't eliminate the need for obedience, they require it. God had already told Joshua that Jericho was given to them, but they still had to follow his instructions to receive it. In the same way, God may have spoken something over your life, but there is still a posture of obedience required on your part.

Dominique 10:01

Oh, yes, be obedient, y'all.

Hodaiah 10:02

Obedience better than sacrifice.

Dominique 10:05

Right. There is power in unity and corporate faith. This is a good one, y'all. Uh, this wasn't one person acting in faith, this was an entire community moving together in obedience. Everyone had to be aligned, everyone had to trust God's plan, and when they did, they experienced victory together. So sometimes you cannot go at it alone.

Hodaiah 10:29

Hallelujah, Lord.

Dominique 10:30

Community is so important, right?

Hodaiah 10:32

Yep.

Dominique 10:33

Yeah. So here are our closing thoughts here for this episode. The Israelites were warriors trained for battle. But at Jericho, God didn't ask them to fight, He asked them to trust. Instead of relying on their own strength or strategy, they chose obedience over action and followed God's unusual instructions in faith. And because of that, the walls fell. That's what faith does. It turns ordinary obedience into extraordinary victory in the hands of God.

Hodaiah 11:07

Yep. Those walls, some of you, you may feel like you're a slave to sin, but you put your trust in Jesus, those walls will fall like the wall of Jericho fell. Trust Him.

Dominique 11:20

Yes, yes.

Reflection Questions And Closing Prayer

Dominique 11:21

So here are our two reflection questions. Am I willing to obey God's instructions, even when they seem unusual? And our second question: where in my life is God asking me to keep walking in obedience, even when I don't see results yet?

Hodaiah 11:37

Yep. Dominique, thank you so much for that. And guys, now we are jumped towards the end, and we always finish with this our concluding prayer. Um seems like this air, this episode went so fast. It's kind of almost like a little mini episode, kind of like in a way, but um still so many gems in this. Yeah, so much to think about. We're we're doing these episodes. This is stuff for us to think about personally. Yeah. So we all have to meditate on that. Yes. So now going into our closing prayers, if you can bow your head, bow your head. If you can't, that's perfectly fine. Just listen to the prayer. Dear Lord, we praise you. We lift your name up high and give you praise, our Savior, our majestic heavenly high priest, who understands all of our struggles and our pains and our sufferings. Jesus, we submit to your will. Let us be obedient like the Israelites were when the mighty walls of Jericho fell.

Dominique 12:43

Yes.

Hodaiah 12:43

Jesus, we submit our hearts, our minds, and our spirits to you. Lord, I pray for all of our listeners. Please be with them, protect them, guide their footsteps. For any of our listeners who do not yet believe, Lord, I pray that you will reveal yourself to them and that they too will believe. Lord, I pray that ODE Ministries is having a positive impact on the body of believers and that we are representing you well in the mighty, majestic, and matchless name. Amen.

Dominique 13:20

Amen. Amen. Thank you so much for that wonderful prayer. Yeah, yeah. So uh we'll be moving on to episode 11 next time.

Hodaiah 13:29

Episode 11. Heroes of Faith.

Dominique 13:32

Okay, yeah, you had to say it.

Hodaiah 13:35

Yeah, yeah.

Dominique 13:35

All right, y'all. We'll be talking about Rahab. See y'all in the next episode.

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