Promise and Precept

This world lives by and large like there is no God. We too must battle this mindset and be reminded that there is a God who intervenes in this world to accomplish His plans and purposes. In this passage from Joshua, we see the true God intervening and coming to His people with promises and precepts

God gives promises

1. God has the power to make promises
   This is a promise of full victory. God's people seem to have an impossible task to perform. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. Perhaps your are at a point in your life when you think it is too hard for the Lord to act in your situation. God's power is such that he can give remarkable promises and miraculously keep them.
2. God has the right to make promises
   For God to give something means it is His to begin with. God could give Jericho because it was His to give
3. Our response to these promises
   God uses means of our faith to fulfill these promises. Faith rests in God's trustworthiness and reliability

God gives precepts

1. God requires full obedience
   The walls come down by faith. The faith is seen in the action of their obedience. They were to put feet to their faith and march around the city. They were not to sit in their tents and look out at the walls waiting for them to fall.
2. God requires persistent obedience
   The Israelites had to walk around each day. They had no visible results for days on end.
3. God requires specific obedience
   The people were to shout as an expression of their faith. It was the final show that God had given them the victory even though the walls were still up. The people's faith was centered not in the ark itself but on the presence and power of God that it represented.