Who Are You Calling Crazy?

       Have you ever been told something absurd or crazy? Perhaps as a parent, your child comes up to you and says, “Everyone’s doing it!” As I so often heard, the response to follow is something like, “If everyone jumped off a cliff, would you?” I am sure that all of us at one point or another has heard something absurd. This is nothing new. Joshua of the Old Testament was told to do something absurd as well. 

In Joshua 6:2ff Joshua is told a battle plan that is absolutely absurd. Joshua is to conquer the fortified city of Jericho. However, they didn’t have battering rams or anything in order to lay siege to this well secured city. He isn’t told to make a weapon that will assist them or to ask for the aid of another city. Instead, he is told to gather his troops and march around the city of Jericho once a day for six days. On the last day, he is told to march around the city seven times. 

Joshua does exactly as he has been told by the Lord and they march around the city once a day for six days. On the seventh day they march around the fortified city seven times and at the end of their march they blow their trumpets and shout their loudest. When they do, the walls fall down and just as the Lord told Joshua, He gave the city of Jericho into his hand; one of the most absurd battle plans in history worked! All because Joshua put his faith in the Lord and let Him be in charge. 

Like Joshua, we have been told to do something that to most people may seem absurd. To those who do not put their trust in God, what we are told to do seems foolish. However, God has called us to be different from the world. To the world, the things that we do may seem crazy or strange, such as treating our bodies as holy; dressing appropriately; and going to church services every day the elders have appointed. It may be strange to the world, but who is to call what the Lord has commanded absurd?