How many times do you think Joshua’s men wanted to quit walking around the walls of Jericho? How did they keep going when the walls looked exactly the same halfway through the sixth lap on the seventh day as they did when they started? How did they endure?
Just as importantly, how do we endure? How do we keep following Jesus when everything in our life remains exactly the same—or even gets worse—day after day?
I’m an incrementalist, which means I don’t mind working hard, but I want to see progress over time. I learned this about myself when I read The Boys in the Boat, about a U.S. rowing team in the 1930s that won the Olympics. (Incredible book, by the way!) I quickly realized that the worst part of being on a rowing team would be not knowing how close the finish line was. See, on a rowing team, the coxswain is the only one who can actually see how near the end is. Everyone else is straining and pulling, looking backwards the entire time. The coxswain for the U.S. team would even play tricks on the crew to get their best effort. He would say things like, “OK boys, just 15 more seconds, and we’ll be across the finish line. Give it all you have!” They’d row for 15 seconds, digging like crazy. Then he’d say, “Just 15 more seconds!” Apparently, it worked, because they won the gold. But I’m not sure I would have stuck around after that. I want to see the finish line coming closer with every stroke.
That rowing team had a lot in common with Israel as they marched around Jericho. Day after day, they walked around the walls of Jericho with no end (or wall crumbling) in sight. Every day they marched, and nothing happened. The walls looked the same at the end of day six as they did on day one.
I imagine these guys coming home each night to their wives in their tents. “How was your day, honey? Tell me everything! Did you show everyone how brave you were and use your fancy new sword?” To which these guys had to sheepishly respond, “Well, actually ... we just kind of ... well ... we walked around. After a while, the people from inside Jericho came to watch. Then they started laughing at us. And we just … kept walking.”
Every day they had to walk around, seeing no progress at all. I mean, if I were God, surely I would want the people to stay motivated, so I’d at least have a couple of bricks fall here and there. Give the people something! But God chose to do nothing until that seventh lap on the seventh day—when everything came crashing down.
Isn’t this the way it feels in your life sometimes? You’re obeying each step God has put in front of you, but you’re just not seeing the fulfillment of his promises. You’re reading the Bible, and you don’t see any difference in your life. Or you’re trying to raise your kids right, but they keep doing stupid stuff. You’re trying to be what you should be in your marriage, but your spouse isn’t changing. Or you’re trying to do the bigger thing and forgive, but that other person doesn’t forgive you back. You’re paying off your bills and you’ve finally gotten your head above water, but then your car breaks down or you get a medical bill.
In all of it you say, “God, come on, let me see a couple of bricks fall!” And God says, “But see, I want you to walk by faith, not by sight. I want you to believe I’m working, even if it doesn’t look like it.” Endurance isn’t marching along, motivated by little rewards along the way. No, endurance is faith expressed over time.
Just because your progress isn’t obvious doesn’t mean your faith’s not working. You have to keep walking. Sometimes, God lets us walk around and around without seeing results because he wants our faith to be less focused on an outcome and more focused on obedience. Outcome is God’s responsibility; obedience is ours.
As the Israelites walked around those walls in Jericho, the situation might not have been changing. The walls might not have been changing. But you know what was? I guarantee you the people were changing. God wasn’t just preparing the Promised Land for them; more importantly, he was preparing them for the Promised Land. They were being reminded that it was God’s strength alone that could do this, not theirs.
Had God knocked those walls down on the first lap, they might have quickly forgotten it was him who brought them in and started to assume it was their own strength that won the battle. Every lap reinforced, “‘Not by might, not by power but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord” (Zechariah 4:6).
A friend of mine says, “It is in circling the walls that we are prepared for the promise.” Listen, I don’t like the endless laps any more than you do. But I’ve learned to thank God for the laps, because the long, lonely laps of “unfulfilled” promise are where God puts the Promised Land into me. If God were to bring me into the Promised Land today without every putting that Promised Land in me first, I would transform the greatest heaven into hell in no time. More than I need God’s victory in my life, I need God’s presence in my life. And for that, there’s only one path—the long loneliness of the Jericho laps.
Maybe you’re the one walking in circles wondering, “How much further, God? How much longer?” To which I want you to imagine Jesus saying, “Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, because my cross and resurrection show you that God always brings resurrection after the cross of obedience.”
Keep walking, keep obeying. Act like every lap is your last. And one day, you’ll be right.
Photo Credit: SWN Design
Pastor J.D. completed his Ph.D. in Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Chick-fil-A, serves as a Council member for The Gospel Coalition, and recently served as the 62nd president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Pastor J.D. and his wife Veronica are raising four awesome kids.
"Editor's Note: Pastor JD Greear's "Ask the Pastor" column regularly appears at Christianity.com, providing biblical, relatable, and reliable answers to your everyday questions about faith and life. Email him your questions at [email protected]."
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