By Grace Through Faith After Obedience
By John Hendrix
By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days. (Hebrews 11:30)
Imagine the council meeting when Joshua told Israel about the plan of attack to take Jericho. What great strategy would their leader use to capture the walled city?
You shall march around the city, all you men of war; you shall go all around the city once. This you shall do six days. And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. It shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout; then the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people shall go up every man straight before him. (Joshua 6:3-5)
How could this plan work? They should have been used to that by now. They had recently crossed the Jordan on dry land after the priests stood ankle-deep in the water. They knew the story of how Moses parted the Red Sea by holding up his staff, sent a terrible plague by tossing dust in the air, brought water from a rock by striking it. The people were ready to capture a fortified city by marching around in circles and shouting.
It was not always so. Forty years earlier their parents refused to enter Canaan, not believing that God would grant them victory (Numbers 14:1-10). Their lack of faith cost them their promise and their lives.
This new generation realized—for a time—what their fathers had not: all of the power was with God. They did not need war engines and great armies to storm Jericho; they only needed the power of God. If God promised to bring down the walls after they marched around them for seven days, then they believed He would do it.
There is no record that anyone questioned the “battle plan” for Jericho. So, the morning of the first day, the children of Israel went out and walked around the city. The priests blew trumpets, but the people remained silent. The walls of Jericho did not fall down.
Neither did they fall on the second day, nor the third. Only after seven days, when the obedience of Israel was complete, did the walls fall down.
So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets. And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat. Then the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. (Joshua 6:20)
One might say that the obedience of Israel—the marching, the shouting, the blowing of trumpets—had nothing to do with it. The walls came down because God brought them down. Go out now and shout all day. The walls of your neighbor’s house will not crumble because of it.
One might say that the faith of Israel had nothing to do with it. The walls came down because God brought them down. They might have believed beyond all doubtings, but nothing would happen without God’s power.
One might say these things, but God said,
By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days. (Hebrews 11:30)
So God made His gracious gift of Jericho dependent on the faith of Israel. But it was only after they were encircled for seven days that their faith was effective. Would the walls have come down if the Israelites did not obey? No doubt they could have. God’s power would not have been diminished by their disobedience. Yet we know that God withheld His grace for disobedience.
The walls did not come down “at the point of” faith; they fell after obedience. Their obedience demonstrated their faith:
But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have
works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by
my works. (James 2:1)
If there had been no disobedience, we would know that there was no faith.
Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (James 2:17)
“Faith”—or “belief”—might mean many things. The faith of Israel meant that they would obey a battle-plan that made no sense whatsoever in military terms. That is true conviction; that is a living faith.
You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe--and tremble! (James 2:19)
The faith of demons is certainly not sufficient for the people of God. So Israel did not only believe, but obeyed.
Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? (James 2:22)
Therefore, after walking around the walls of Jericho, after obeying God’s word, the Israelites’ faith was perfect and God brought the walls down.
The same is true for us.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Only God’s power will save us. He has chosen to make this contingent upon our faith. Yet we have seen that obedience makes faith perfect or effective. No one can ever boast of his righteousness. No one is “good enough” to save himself. But if a man has faith, an effective, working faith—if a man is obedient to God—God grants salvation.