Joshua Fit De Battle...

This year, Kari and I are reading through one of those One-Year-Bibles together where you read through the Bible in a year. Actually, we're really not reading it "together," but we're reading through it individually, together.

The other day, the reading was from Joshua 6, where Joshua and the Israelites marched around Jericho for a week, and then yelled at the top of their lungs, after which the "walls came-a tumblin' down." It's a cool story of God's care for the nation of Israel, and about how He helped them conquer a city without having to raise a finger. But it's also a cool story about a young leader who led well, to the point that the people absolutely believed that "God [would] do amazing things among [them]" (Joshua 3:5).

The Jericho thing is a good example of that. It almost makes you laugh out loud when you think about what that scene must have looked like as this young leader steps up in the shadow of Moses and convinces the people that they can conquer a city by making tracks around it and screaming at the top of their lungs.

Can you imagine the scene?

Joshua: "Hey guys, we're going to conquer this city this week."
Israel: "Sounds great. We'll grab our swords."
Joshua: "Hold off on the swords, but get your tennis shoes."
Israel: "Our whats?"
Joshua: "Your tennis shoes. We're going to take this city by marching around it."
Israel: "That's the goofiest thing I've ever heard."
Joshua: "Oh yeah, and priests - your trumpets too. Grab those."
Israel: "So we're going to destroy this city by being a marching band?"
Joshua: Yep. Once a day for six days, and seven times on the last day. We're going to pound the ground, and then scream as loud as we can, and watch what God does.

If I had been a part of that group, I think I probably would have commissioned a study on the long-term effects of manna consumption. But they marched. They got in line and marched. And then they blew their trumpets and yelled.

You don't have any record of them doubting Joshua here, or calling this young leader's plan goofy. You don't see any hesitation - if Joshua says march, we march. If he says yell, we yell. If the kid says we're going to destroy this city by blowing our trumpet, we're going to trust the kid. Because he's proven himself to be a man who follows God, and who leads us in the direction God blesses.

As a young leader, Joshua had so proven himself to be a godly leader that people didn't make a peep when he told them to form a conquering marching band.

I wonder if the people who are following you and I would follow us into battle with tennis shoes and a trumpet if we were confident God was leading us that way? What kind of young leaders have we proven ourselves to be?