Rubble Rousers
Joshua 6:1
Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, and none came in.
Well, that’s one way of putting it—one side of the story, that is—but far from the whole of it. Yes, the king and his entourage have absolutely locked down society in their terror over the advance of Jehovah. No question these majestic gates are barred ‘because of the people of Israel.’ But had the Spirit led him to do so, Joshua could’ve written the Scripture from the other side: “Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the unrepenting, unrelenting, demon-following rebellion of the people. None went out, and none came in as much because of human unwillingness to surrender to God.” And isn’t this a tragic picture of how far our pride will go to eradicate God from our lives?! Even when we’ve recognized His miraculous power, even when He’s right outside our door, knocking on the walls of our conscience, even when the only choice we’ve got left is to bunker down deeper in the shadows of the very despair that our perpetual rebellion caused or open the door and liberate our souls in the light, even when we’ve got no fight left in us and no chance of outwitting or out-maneuvering or out-lasting Providence’s unabating momentum, even still we’d rather hide than come clean. We’d rather just shackle ourselves to our idols and die in bondage to a lie than surrender to the truth that would set us free.
How utterly trivial and embarrassing our perpetual game of thrones! How humiliating our propensity to minimize away our vices and aggrandize our petty accomplishments! To think that we can see with our own two eyes God part a Red Sea and pave a route through the Jordan River and yet conclude from all that, “Ah, but He can’t get through these walls—I made these with my own two hands!” Our pride is comedy and tragedy all in one.
Friend, may we respond today to the Spirit’s drawing not with barred doors and locked gates but with open hands and surrendered heart! Then and only then will the skyline of our lives be marked by the fullness of His favor rather than the rubble of our rebellion.