Joshua 6:20 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.
Jericho stood as the first and most formidable barrier in the land of promise. Its walls were thick, its defenses strong, and its reputation intimidating. From a natural perspective, it was unconquerable. Israel had just entered the land, and immediately, they were confronted with a fortress that could not be overcome by conventional means.
But God did not give them a military strategy — He gave them an instruction.
They were told to march around the city, remain silent, blow trumpets, and on the seventh day, release a shout. There were no weapons of siege, no visible plan of attack, no strategy that made sense to the natural mind. The victory would not come through strength or skill, but through obedience to God’s voice. Faith had to move even when the method seemed unusual.
Day after day, they walked in silence. There was no visible progress, no sign that the walls were weakening. It would have been easy to question the process or adjust the plan, but they continued in obedience. Then on the seventh day, at the appointed moment, they shouted — and the walls collapsed.
Jericho did not fall because Israel was strong; it fell because God was faithful.
This is the nature of spiritual victory. The greatest strongholds are not broken by force, but by alignment with God’s instruction. What seems foolish in the natural often carries power in the Spirit. Obedience becomes the weapon, and faith releases what God has already determined to do.
Revival follows this same pattern. God often leads His people in ways that do not appeal to human reasoning. He may call for worship when pressure is rising, prayer when action feels urgent, or persistence when nothing appears to be changing. But spiritual battles require spiritual weapons, and victory comes when we trust His method above our own understanding.
Jericho was more than a city — it was a declaration. No barrier can stand before a people who are aligned with the voice of God. The walls that appeared permanent collapsed in a moment because obedience positioned the people for a breakthrough.
Beloved, do not measure your breakthrough by what you see — measure it by your obedience. The walls before you may look immovable, but they are not stronger than the God who has spoken. This is the hour to trust His strategy, even when it stretches your understanding. If we walk when He says walk, worship when He says worship, and respond when He says speak, the walls will not stand. Revival will not be released through human effort, but through a people fully aligned with heaven — and when that alignment is complete, every stronghold will fall.
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]When the Lord gave Jonah a second chance, He didn’t change His mind about the prophet’s destination. He didn’t lighten the load or change the burden Jonah was destined to carry. There was no negotiation with Jonah where the Lord expressed understanding about his reluctance to go to Nineveh. God didn’t concede to send him to Tarshish just because he’d been heading in that direction anyway. Jonah’s disobedience and repentance produced a clear and simple result…
A “second time.” Jonah’s repentance gave him a second chance to obey the Lord and to fulfill his ministry. And he did it successfully. The apostle Paul tells us that “the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable” [Romans 11:29]. Jonah’s disobedience did not take away his calling as a prophet. The discipline of the Lord was fruitful in his life. But compare King Saul. He also got a second chance after failing to wait for Samuel [1 Samuel 13] and he disobeyed again, and lost his kingship [1 Samuel 15]. But even that took many years to transpire after David was anointed.
Jonah now acknowledges that God put him where he is, and he accepts His discipline. “Sheol” is the “grave”, the “pit” or the “abode of the dead”. Did Jonah die, or was he only nearly dead from three days of fish stomach acid, and little or no air? The text doesn’t say; only that if he didn’t actually leave his body, he came as close as a man can get to it; three days worth. In this nebulous and miserable place Jonah cried out, probably from the deepest depths of his agonized soul…he cried out to the Lord.
While most read the story of Jonah focusing on Jonah’s journey, I want to pause and examine the lives of the pagan sailors. What a journey they were on! We see the hand of God touching them providentially through Jonah’s disobedience. Talk about God bringing good from evil.
So the captain came to Jonah, and said to him, “What do you mean, sleeper? Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish.” At this point the captain (who probably worshiped Baal and Yamm, god of the sea) has more faith than Jonah.
It must have been a bad storm. These men were experienced, hardened sailors who had seen it all at sea. If they were scared, this could have been the first “perfect storm” since Noah’s flood. So they started the first interfaith prayer meeting in the Bible, each man crying out to his own god. As the ship groaned and creaked in howling wind and massive waves, and the men threw cargo overboard in a desperate attempt to save it, where was Jonah? On deck helping them? Confidently praying to His own God? Shaking with fear and paralyzed with deep conviction? No, he’s taking a nap down below…
For the next week or so we’ll be looking closely at the life of Jonah the prophet. Jonah was told to “preach against the city of Nineveh”, that was in the ancient kingdom of Assyria. Nineveh was a major city on the banks of the Tigris River about 500 miles north and east of where Jonah was; located on a contemporary map in modern Iraq, about 300 miles north of Baghdad. Archaeologists have found the ruins of ancient Nineveh right outside the Iraqi city of Mosul. Yes, the same Mosul that was taken last week by jihadists!