Something About Seven

Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. - Joshua 6:2-4

Welcome back as we journey through the book of Joshua! Today we are looking at the city of Jericho - Israel’s first battle, first test, and one that won’t stop until seven…

Here, after Joshua leads the people across the Jordan, the men from Gad, Rueben and Manasseh immediately prepare for war. Whenever I read that part of the text I get so jazzed. It’s like the battle scenes in Dune where the men are ready for war. They are armored up (as much as you can be after 40 years in the wilderness) and they are revved up, (from watching the first of many miracles from God under Joshua’s leadership as they cross the Jordan on dry ground).

I think it’s interesting that scripture makes specific notes about these three tribes suiting up for battle.

Because immediately after that God (and Joshua) paused their war cry and swinging swords.

And instead tell them to march.

The tribes of Gad and its men, the Ruebenites and their dudes, and the brawny men of Manasseh march around Jericho on day one. There’s no fighting. There’s no sword swinging. No fancy film work of battle scenes taken straight out of the movie Gladiator none of that. Just marching. The next day God says: do it again. For day two, they march, allllll the way around Jericho. They don’t take any captives. They don’t use any ju jitsu techniques. For the second day in a row they just march. The next day God says: do it again.

This goes on for six days.

On the seventh day, though, God changes his tune.

On the seventh day God says - march seven times. And this time - have the Priests go first. And this time, have them blow trumpets the entire time. On the seventh round, this was the first specific directive of war God gives the fighting men of Israel:

”I want to to yell as if you’ve already won.”

And so they do. On the seventh day they march seven times and yell as if Jericho had already fallen.

There’s something about seven.

In scripture, the number seven is the number of perfection, or completion, as brought to finality by God. The number six, on the other hand, is the number of man.

Six is what man can do…

Seven is what God only can.

And so we see in Joshua God giving us the largest and most profound spiritual metaphor in a real lived experience by the people of Israel. He physically has them perform all they can do for 6 days. He shows them their work for 6 days. And then he finally shows him his work on the seventh.

The crazy part is? His work is all the work. The men yell out a battle cry and the battle is almost nearly over. That’s how God works. In some ways I wonder if it’s to show us - not that our work is pointless but that our work will never be complete like God’s is. Not that our work is worthless, or that our fighting is meaningless, but until Christ shows up there is no victory.

But once Christ does show up, all you will know is a battle …already won.

The thing about seven is that the battle is the Lord’s, it belongs to him, and his victory is as sure as the dawn. Pastor Steven Furtick once said “Don’t Stop on Six.” Why? Because there’s something about seven. And when we obey God until the completion of what he wants to do, it will be perfectly, totally, complete.