Once upon a time, there was a city with very high walls. It was called Jericho. The walls were so thick and strong that no one could get in or out. There were many people living in this city, but they did not know God and did not want the Israelites to come in.
God had promised Joshua, the leader of the Israelites, that they would go to the new land. But first they had to pass the walls of Jericho. How could they do that?
God said to Joshua, “I have a plan. You will circle the city. Do as I say, and the walls will fall!”
Imagine if the Israelites were all ready. Joshua told his people the plan of God. They were to walk around the city once a day, for six days. The priests were to blow trumpets, and the people were to be very quiet.
On the seventh day, they were to circle the city seven times. After that, everyone was to shout out loud when Joshua said it.
And so they did it! Every day they walked around the city. The sun glowed in the sky, and the dust whirled up like little dancers. The Israelites didn’t say a word, they just walked quietly around the walls while the priests blew the trumpets. Tuuut, tuuut!
On the seventh day it happened! Joshua said, “Call now,” and all the Israelites cried out as loud as they could.
A miracle happened! Suddenly, the walls of Jericho shook and they simply fell over. BOOM! It was like a giant puzzle that fell to the ground. The Israelites were able to go into the city, and everything was just as God had promised.
Message of history
We learn that God does what He promises, even when it seems impossible. If we trust Him and follow His instructions, wonderful things can happen!
Bible passage
The story of Joshua and the walls of Jericho can be found in Joshua 6:1-27:
*”But Jericho was shut up and locked up from the children of Israel, so that no one could go in or out. Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Behold, I have given Jericho with its king and its valiant warriors into your hand; then you shall go round the city for six days, and all the men of war, once round the city; and you shall do this for six days. And seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of reverberation before the ark, and on the seventh day you shall move the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. And it shall come to pass, when they blow the horn and you hear the sound of the trumpets, the whole people shall raise a great war cry. Then the wall of the city will fall from its foundation, and the people shall climb up, each for himself, straight into it!
Then Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant, and seven priests shall carry seven trumpets before the ark of the Lord.” And he said to the people, “Arise and go round the city, and the armed men shall go before the ark of the Lord.”
For it came to pass as Joshua had commanded the people: The seven priests who carried the seven trumpets before the Lord went and sounded the trumpets, and the ark of the covenant of the Lord followed them. And the armored men went ahead of the priests who sounded the trumpets, and the rearguard followed the ark of the Lord, while the trumpets sounded. But Joshua had commanded the people, saying, “You shall not raise a war cry, nor let your voice be heard, nor a word come out of your mouth, until the day when I will cry out to you, ‘Make a war cry!’ Then you shall raise war cries!
So the ark of the Lord went round the city, and they came into the camp and spent the night in the camp. And Joshua arose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord, and the seven priests who carried the seven trumpets before the ark of the Lord kept going and blowing the trumpets, and the armored ones went before them, and the rearguard followed the ark of the Lord, while the trumpets sounded unceasingly. So on the second day they went around the city and came back to the camp.
They did this for six days. On the seventh day, however, they arose early, at the dawn, and went round the city seven times in the same way; only on this day they paraded around the city seven times. And it came to pass, the seventh time, when the priests sounded the trumpets, that Joshua said to the people, “Raise up a war-cry; for the Lord has given you the city. But the city and all that is in it shall be destroyed to the Lord by the curse; but Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all who are with her in the house, because she has hidden the messengers that we have sent. Only beware of the banishment, lest yourselves fall under the banishment by taking some of the banishment and thereby exposing the camp of Israel to the banishment and bringing disaster upon it. All silver and gold, as well as the brazen and iron utensils, shall be sanctified to the Lord, and shall come to the treasure of the Lord.
Then the people raised a war cry, and the trumpets were blown. And it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpets, and the people raised their great war-cry, that the wall fell down; and the people went up into the city, each for himself, straight into it; and they took the city. And they executed the banishment on everything that was in the city with the edge of the sword, on men and women, on young and old, on oxen, sheep and donkeys.
And Joshua said to the two men who had reconnoitered the land, “Go into the house of the harlot, and bring the woman out of there with all that she has, as you have sworn to her.” Then the young men, the spies, went in and led Rahab out with her father and mother, her brothers, and all that she had; and they brought out all their families, and left them outside the camp of Israel.
But they burned the city and everything that was in it. But the silver and gold and the brazen and iron utensils they put in the treasury of the house of the Lord. But the harlot Rahab, with her father’s house and all that she had, let Joshua live, and she lived in Israel in the middle of that day because she had hidden the messengers that Joshua had sent to spy out Jericho.
At that time Joshua swore and said, “Cursed before the Lord is the man who rises up and rebuilds this city of Jericho; let him lay their foundation on his firstborn, and raise up their gates on his youngest. Such was the LORD with Joshua, that he was spoken of in all the land.” *
