Six Days of Silence

April 6, 2009

Today's Reading: Joshua 5-6 and Proverbs 29

Well, I suppose we all know what I’m going to write about this time. It’s pretty hard to ignore one of the most well-known Bible stories.

I’m sure we all know the set-up. God tells Joshua that the walls of Jericho will fall down, on one condition. The children of Israel have to walk around them for seven days, six of those days would be spent completely silent.

Even though the army was not able to talk during that time, the ones who had the horns were allowed to blow it.

Now, if I were these guys, I would want to talk. It’s like when the teacher leaves the classroom alone. There is no way in heck that all the students are going to remain on task.

Of course, when the students talk to each other, generally the teacher can get them to shut up. If students are allowed to talk, class can’t continue.

The question that I am wondering is: what if the Israelites had talked while they were walking around Jericho? Would that have “broken the spell”. Would the scream not have been as effective?

Who knows. There doesn’t seem to be any report of anyone breaking this vow of silence. I mean, since the seven times around the walls caused them to fall down.

The truth is we may never know what happens if we are disobedient, and perhaps it is better we don’t know, because then we negate the good thing that happens when we are obedient.

You know that old story about some guy who arrives in heaven and sees all those wrapped up gifts with his name on them? He then asks the Lord: “Lord, what’s up with these gifts, why did I never get these in my lifetime?” The Lord says: “You never asked for them.”

Usually this is used as a story stressing the importance of prayer, but I personally think that it shows the withholding of blessing. I’ve noticed that there are several blessings that God just bestows on us no matter what our behavior is, like breath, food, shelter, and other things that we just take for granted.

In other words, there is some blessing that God can hold back, because of our actions. All we need to do is stop doing them, and maybe God will restore those blessing. Of course, there isn’t any guarantee of that. Talking during the march around Jericho could have turned the tide.