Jericho, walled invader of God's land.
The first city of Joshua's confrontation,
first test of his leadership-by-faith-alone. 

Jericho stands for the haughty mind of flesh,
that fortressed opposition to
God's Wonderful Ideas.

. . . casting down arguments and every high thing
that exalts itself against the knowledge of God . . .
2 Cor. 10:5

Jericho, closed and barricaded.
A city defeated before the fight
and the dwellers knew it
in their trembled waiting.
But though they quaked, they still barred their gates
and hid inside the walls of stone.
Intelligence would rather die than give up its domain. 

The mind has no taste for surrender.
And no ability to do so.

Now the mind of the flesh (which is sense and reason
without the Holy Spirit) is death . . .
That is because the mind of the flesh (with its
carnal thoughts and purposes) is hostile to God, for it does
not submit itself to God's Law; indeed it cannot.
Romans 8:6a and 7 Amplified Bible 

Adam's independent mind is the Chief Enemy of God.
The primal vanity of Eve's thinking . . .
the walls of that arrogance must crumble in all of us
before the land is under God's August Rule.

Only one hoped to be saved and begged for it.
Rahab, the harlot.
Picture of the willing surrender of the sinner.
Only the wretch by desperate humility
will abandon the city of Defiant Logic
and save herself from its inevitable death.

For all the others in that City, though their "courage melted,"
even terror would not produce a submission.
The mind cannot bow, it can only beg for salvation from its
own prison and that!
That it will rarely do!

So Rahab hung her scarlet thread from the window,
a red prophecy of Jesus' Blood.
Efficacy for the ignorance of native intelligence.

The wilderness of Moses lasted because the people feared to assault the
Jericho fortress of the right-to-think as you please.

The land of Promise is only enjoyed by those
who bring down the fortresses of their own rowdy lies
and learn to live by the inner nothingness of
waiting for
Another's Thoughts. 

The method of victory was silent circling.
A daily journey of surrounding.

Now Joshua had commanded the people, saying,
"You shall not shout or make any noise with your voice,
nor shall a word proceed out of your mouth . . ."

Human noise and human speech that rise from
the pit of human reasonings,
all are forbidden. All must be killed.

Thinking can be captured only by Deliberate Quiet.
Silence is a terrible affront to the mind that favors fancy wanderings
and worships the sound of its self-made words . . .
rancid ideas wrapped in endless twitter.

Quieting the mind is a daily walk in His presence,
an unrelenting assault of stillness
against the busy parade of clownish thinking.

Jericho was conquered not by humanity's words but by their absence.
The total victory lay solely in the confrontation of
these two fearful things: God's presence by the Ark
and the Trumpet Judgment of His voice. 

Foolish independence simply crumbles.
Its thick and busy walls are no match for the
Uncommon Silence.

His Trumpet Voice subdues the rebel-brain
and to hear that Divine Blare is to be decimated
by its superiority to human speculation.

After the trump you can shout the joy, exult in the triumph.
Only after the Trump of God's Blast.
Then your shout is a response but not a solution.
A joyful cry announcing HIS victory over YOU !

". . . when the people heard the sound of the trumpet,
and the people shouted with a great shout,
then the wall fell down flat."

"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but
mighty in God for pulling down strongholds . . ."

Silence is a mighty weapon of warfare.
And one we have failed to wield.

Copyright © Martha Blaney Kilpatrick