THREE HUGE EVENTS

By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days. By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient (Heb. 11: 29-31).

Three huge events! Whoever heard of people crossing a sea on dry land or a city falling without a shot being fired? What about a pagan prostitute helping the enemy because she believed in the enemy’s God? But it happened.

The Israelites were in a bit of a spot. A few million of them and they were cornered on a stretch of beach on the shore of a 5,000-feet-deep sea. On both sides were mountains, and behind them the advancing army of Egyptians, determined to force them back to slavery in Egypt.

But they had a God who was watching. He stepped in with some pretty miraculous interventions! He put Himself between the Egyptians and the people all night in the form of a fiery pillar. That should have been enough to scare off the Egyptian army after everything they had gone through in Egypt. Funny how people never learn!

Then, without warning, the wind began to blow – nothing unusual in the desert except that this wind blew in the right direction, cutting a path through the sea and drying up the sea bed. It blew all night. When the sun rose the next morning the Israelites were astonished to see dry ground in front of them. Not only was that, but the path through the sea level, not 5,000 feet down. At Moses’ command they began to walk – right through to the other shore.

The Egyptian soldiers thought they could do the same, but they were on the wrong side of God. They didn’t reckon with the need for faith. The only faith they had was determination to get the Israelites back but their kind of faith didn’t work. The same water that protected God’s people, wiped them out and left the people free of their enemies – for good.

And what about Jericho? This was no ordinary city in those times. The first city God’s people encountered inside the border of Canaan was Jericho. It had to be heavily fortified because it guarded the entrance to Canaan from the eastern border – the Jordan River. It was impenetrable from below, with a vigilant people inside to boot. The Israelites had no chance of breaching the walls. They had no military equipment, an untrained and untested mob.

From a human point of view their case was hopeless – and the Jericho-ites knew it.  The first day it was a joke. They poked fun and shouted insults at the motley crowd of ex-slaves marching silently around the city walls. The second day they crowded onto the city wall to watch the spectacle and to throw rubble at them. The third, fourth and fifth days drew fewer and fewer spectators. On the sixth day, hardly anyone bothered to watch.

On the seventh day something changed. Instead of dead silence, the priests began to blow their shofars. The eerie sound echoed across the hills and bounced off the city walls, sending shivers of fear down the backs of the people barricaded inside the city. What were these strange people up to? They soon found out when the silly army ended their seventh lap around the city with a mighty shout. With an ominous rumble increasing to a roar, the city walls disintegrated right in front of their eyes. The walls they thought were protection melted like butter in the sun.

They fled in every direction but it was of no use. The same people they mocked turned into merciless killers, destroying everything until the city lay in ruins and the inhabitants lay in silent heaps, a bustling city turned into a historical relic in one short day. Impossible in the natural but terribly possible with God.

What about Rahab? She heard about the goings-on in Egypt – news travelled fast, even in those days – and she knew in her heart that the God of these Israelites was not like the gods of the Canaanites. She didn’t know much about the people or about Him, but she knew enough to be afraid. She wanted to be on His side rather than against Him. She put her confidence in the promise of the spies and waited.

When the walls of the city collapsed, the piece where her house stood remained intact. Imagine that! It stood like a defiant pillar in the middle of the ruins. No one bothered to watch as the “traitor” escaped with her entire family – unharmed while everyone else perished.

None of these miracles were possible except for God! History? Yes, but it’s worth trusting Him, don’t you think? He’s still the same God today.

If God is for us, who can be against us? (Rom. 8: 31b).

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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