Welcome to this Daily PBJ devotional. Read Joshua 6, 6-27, Jeremiah 32, and 2 Corinthians 13 today. This devotional is about Joshua 6, verses 6-27. So Joshua, son of Nun, summoned the priests and said, Take up the Ark of the Covenant and have seven priests carry seven ram's horns in front of the Ark of the Lord. And he told the people, Advance and march around the city with the armed troops going ahead of the Ark of the Lord. After Joshua had spoken to the people, seven priests carrying seven ram's horns before the Lord advanced and blew the horns, and the ark of the covenant of the Lord followed them. While the horns continued to sound, the armed troops marched ahead of the priests who blew the horns, and the rearguard followed the ark. But Joshua had commanded the people, Do not give a battle cry, or let your voice be heard. Do not let one word come out of your mouth until the day I tell you to shout. Then you are to shout. So he had the ark of the Lord carried around the city, circling it once, and the people returned to the camp and spent the night there. Joshua got up early the next morning, and the priests took the ark of the Lord. And the seven priests, carrying the seven ram's horns, kept marching ahead of the ark of the Lord, and blowing the horns. The armed troops went in front of them, and the rearguard followed the ark of the Lord, while the horns kept sounding. So on the second day they marched around the city once, and returned to the camp. They did this for six days. Then on the seventh day they got up at dawn and marched around the city seven times in the same manner. That was the only day they circled the city seven times. After the seventh time around, the priests blew the horns, and Joshua commanded the people, Shout, for the Lord has given you the city. Now the city and everything in it must be devoted to the Lord for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all those with her in her house will live, because she hid the spies we sent. But keep away from the things devoted to destruction, lest you yourself be set apart for destruction. If you take any of these, you will set apart the camp of Israel for destruction and bring disaster upon it. For all the silver and gold and all the articles of bronze and iron are holy to the Lord. They must go into his treasury. So when the ram's horns sounded, the people shouted. When they heard the blast of the horn, the people gave a great shout, and the wall collapsed. Then all the people charged straight into the city and captured it. With the edge of the sword they devoted to destruction everything in the city, man and woman, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys. Meanwhile, Joshua told the two men who had spied out the land, Go into the house of the prostitute and bring out the woman and all who are with her, just as you promised her. So the young spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother and brothers, and all who belonged to her. They brought out her whole family and settled them outside the camp of Israel. Then the Israelites burned up the city and everything in it. However, they put the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the Lord's house. And Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute with her father's household and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent to spy out Jericho. So she has lived among the Israelites to this day. At that time, Joshua invoked this solemn oath. Cursed before the Lord is the man who rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho. At the cost of his firstborn, he will lay its foundations. At the cost of his youngest, he will set up its gates. So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land. This is God's word. Professional sporting games, like, say, an NFL game, often begins with some kind of pregame ceremony. Now, often the pregame ceremony consists of introducing the players, but those introductions can be pretty elaborate. They might involve pyrotechnics, loud music, and a dance that the player does every single time the same way. And the goal of this pregame ceremony is to get the players and the crowd, if you're home, emotionally and psychologically up for the game. The teams also hope to intimidate the visiting team so they come out playing less than their best. Now, in a similar way, some armies in the Old Testament times were known to have their own kind of pre-war rituals. But the one described here in Joshua 6 is far more elaborate than any other pre-war ritual given by any nation in those days. And this one was planned by God Himself. God told Israel what to do, as we saw in yesterday's reading from Joshua 6, 3-5. In our passage today, Israel did what God commanded. They marched around Jericho once a day for six days in a row, according to verse 14. They marched in a certain order, this order. A group of armed men at the front, according to verse 7c, verse 9a, and verse 13c. Following the armed men were seven priests blowing seven ram's horn trumpets. We saw that in verse 6c and verse 13a. And then following those playing the trumpet were priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant according to verse 6b and verse 13b. And then they were followed by another group of armed men according to verse 9b. Third thing that happened in this pre-war ritual was that they marched around Jericho like this again on the seventh day. But this time they went around it seven times instead of just once. We saw that in verse 15. So that's the pre-war ceremony that God commanded. But what on earth did it mean? Well first, the fact that armed men led and followed were a signal to the people of Jericho that this is a war threat. The priests were not there marching and blowing horns to give some kind of ceremonial blessing to the city of Jericho. No. They were warning the people of Jericho that they were about to be attacked and defeated by God. But the presence of the seven priests blowing the trumpets signified that this was going to be a spiritual battle. They were, with the sound of their horns, warning that God was about to bring judgment on the city of Jericho. Next, the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant. were there to depict that it was Yahweh himself who was going to attack Jericho. Yes, he was going to use the people of Israel, but the Ark of the Covenant represented God's presence, and so it was going to be God himself who was going to be doing the attack. Now, Rahab had already told Israel's spies, back in Joshua 2.9, that the people were melting in fear because of Israel. Imagine, then, the dread that must have come over them when, day after day, for an entire week, they watched some of Israel's army and some of her priests march around their city, silently, except for the blowing of the trumpets, but not saying anything, not making any threatening moves, just walking around the city blowing the trumpet. Imagine how unnerving that must have been. And yet, instead of welcoming God's people in faith like Rahab did, Jericho made sure, according to Joshua 16.1, that the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. Now, barring the gates like this is an act of defiance against God. But it was useless, as we saw in verses 20 and 21. The best defenses that men can engineer in any age are useless against Yahweh when he comes to defeat his enemies. God has not called us in this age to fight physical battles with armies against his enemies. He will fight these battles when Jesus returns. But while we wait for Jesus' return, we've got work to do for God, which is somewhat like what God commanded the Israelites to do here in Joshua 6. As we make ourselves known as Christians in the world, we're like the men who marched around the city. Our actions are not violent, but they signal that God's judgment is coming. Until his judgment comes, We are here in this world to find people like Rahab, by the grace of God, who will turn in repentance and come to follow the Lord in faith. People may have their hearts barred securely like Jericho was, and whole nations on earth are seeking to bar the door against the gospel by disallowing missionaries to come in. But it won't matter. God will send his word in to those who will turn to him by faith, and he will defeat those who reject him. The soldiers and the priests were used by God to defeat Jericho, but only after God's divine work caused the walls to fall. Remember this. All Joshua and his men had to do was believe God's word and do what God said. God did the work. So it is in our world. Look for receptive people like Rahab and share the gospel with them, knowing that only God can cause one to receive God's salvation like Rahab did, or experience his judgment like the rest of Jericho did. Just do what God commands. Deliver the gospel. and trust God to do His divine work. If you found this devotional helpful, maybe you should sign up to receive it by email. This is completely free and you can always unsubscribe at any time. But if you go to my website, dailypbj.com slash subscribe and enter your email in the form there, starting tomorrow you'll receive an email from me every day containing a link to the scripture readings so you can be in God's word every day prompted by the email. And then the same email will give you a transcript, and a link to the audio and video of these devotionals so I can help you apply God's Word to your life every day. Sound good? Give it a try. Go to dailypbj.com slash subscribe. And please consider giving me some financial support to keep going with work like this. If you're interested in how to do that, go to dailypbj.com slash support. And please share this with someone who might be encouraged to come to Christ or to go forward in obedience to the Lord as a Christian. I'll see you next time. May God bless you. I hope you have a great day today.