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No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. -Joshua 1:5

In our last installment, the Israelites had finished 40 years of trekking in the desert: setting up camp, taking down camp, moving, and doing it all over again. Among other things, it was a 40-year lesson in living your faith in a Father who will always supply your need.

So, Moses is obviously very old by now, and he tells the camp, “Okay, lessons learned review here, guys. God’s obviously carried us these last four decades while we paid the price for our ancestors’ lack of faith. So, let’s try to…I dunno…have some faith this time around, guys! I’m too old to go with you, but Joshua here will carry the torch.”

Again with the spies!

So, Joshua sends out two spies to scout out the land…especially Jericho. The king of Jericho catches wind of this, and hears they went to Rahab’s house. Rahab was a Canaanite prostitute who hid them on the roof under some straw, but told the king the men had left the city gates.

She told the spies how her people had heard of God’s miracles, and that she needed their assurance that she and her family would be spared in exchange for housing them. They gave her their assurance.

Wait, what?

So, God tells Joshua to have his men and priests, carrying the ark of the covenant, to march around the city for six days. On the seventh day of marching, the priests were to blow their ram’s horns, raise a great shout, and victory would be theirs.

I don’t know about you, but I’m sure at least some of the Israelites were like, “Uhhhhh, I know God’s done some great miracles for us and all, but what’s He asking now sounds a little dubious.”

But God is God. We are not. And His thoughts and ways are higher than ours…and over and over, He has shown us that if we only listen and obey, things will work out as He has proclaimed. So, the Israelites did just as He said, and sure enough, the city walls fell!

Following God’s command, every single person in Jericho was killed by the Israelites—except Rahab and her family.

Now will you trust God’s plans?

These vignettes are just among the many times God demonstrates in His Word that if you follow His lead, His plans work out for the best. So often, we decide to do what our senses or heart tell us what is best, or even what others tell us what is best, but we can always turn to the ultimate litmus test for the true path to take: The path of faith and obedience which glorifies Him, as is documented over and over in His Word.