Author: Jojo Agot

With hard work and cleverness, we can be successful on our own. We can build a name, create an empire, be somebody or do anything humanly possible under the sun. But at the very heart of that is the choice whether we will take that next step with or without God’s presence.

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Patching up new garments to old ones. Putting new wine in old wineskins. Two analogies Jesus used to bring home one simple truth: regeneration is an all or nothing deal. Either you embrace it all or you don’t have it at all.

There is no middle ground. No custom-made Christianity. When it comes to obeying God, you don’t have the option to choose the features you like and relegate to the background the stuff you’re not comfortable with.

Patchwork Christianity is when you try to do a mashup of old life and new life. Grace with a tinge of legalism. Faith and a fair amount of good works. Trusting while secretly worrying. Not only does it NOT work, it also ruins the beauty that God intended in the first place.

In reality, patchwork Christianity is wrong in at least two counts. It’s tiresome because it forces you to do the work of God with your own strength. This leads to legalism and self-righteousness. It’s also a form of pride because it indirectly tells God that you can do it without his help. Either way, it’s your loss.

Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”

“Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.” Joshua 5: 13- 14

Many Bible scholars agree that this is another case of theophany, the appearance of God in human form in the Old Testament. Two things can be said of this rare appearance:

One, God meets us in our time of need. He doesn’t just tell us to go on a fight and leave us to our own devices. He knows how scared we can get so he meets us right where we need him.

Two, God is non-partisan. He is high above our political divisions. His presence, not his political stance, is all that we need.

See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. [Joshua 6: 2]

The fall of Jericho with shouts of praise sent shock waves to four distinct places. It hit Joshua first. As the leader of the conquering army that did nothing but march and shout, the message was loud and clear- God saves. Interestingly, the phrase “God saves” is the etymological meaning of Joshua’s name. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Prophetic, yes.

The fall of Jericho sent another shock waves to the tired, worn out, hungry, and battered tribe of Jacob that has been wandering in the desert for most of their lives. These people grew up in the boredom of nomadic life, with nothing more interesting than endless mounds of sand, desert storm and sweltering heat. The story of the Exodus is almost a forgotten tale for this generation of Israelites. Conquering the walled city of Jericho was the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to them in forty years. To them, the message of the fallen wall means that at the snap of God’s fingers, their dead end, repetitious, cyclical, monotonous lives can be turned upside down.

Another set of shock waves were sent to the whole region of Canaan. This time, the shock waves were not of awe but of terror. Israel is marching on and its God comes with a power they have never seen before. For Canaanites who were used to ruling the region, being invaded by a tribe of powerful nomads whose God can split the sea and the Jordan with a walking stick is really, really terrifying news. And how do you even explain the walls of Jericho crumbling down with a shout?

Some modern anthropologists are making new discoveries at the site of the wall of Jericho. Some report that the walls didn’t really crumble down. It looks like they were pushed downward that entire blocks simply sank to the ground. If this is true, then it makes the story more interesting, like a host of angels pushed the walls from above.

The last set of shock waves that the fall of Jericho sent out reverberated down through the ages, to you and me and all the modern people who doubt the power of God in our lives. God saves. It doesn’t matter if the walls you are facing today are as thick or as tall as Jericho’s. It doesn’t matter if you are facing a power too intimidating than anything you’ve encountered before. It doesn’t matter if you are outnumbered, or inexperienced, or young, or clueless, or frightened. Jericho crumbled not because Israel shouted. The walls came down because the power of God is just too much for the enemy that it has no other recourse than to back down and be reduced to a pile of rubble to give way to the children of the Most High God.

“See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands…” Do you really need to doubt?

If we have the audacity to ask, God has the ability to perform. That’s how God turns His amazing promises into everyday reality in every generation- for Joshua’s and for ours.

Steven Furtick, SUN STAND STILL