I HAVE GIVEN YOU
Today's reading: Joshua 6-10

"Now the gates of Jericho were tightly shut because the people were afraid of the Israelites. No one was allowed to go in or out. But the Lord said to Joshua, I have given you Jericho, its king and all its mighty warriors." Joshua 6:1-2 NLT

I don't often challenge you this early in the morning, but today I feel I must.

Just to drive home the message. Just to make sure you see what I'm seeing. Just to solidify what God is speaking to me.

Go ahead and get your Bible.

Dust it off if you must. Run out to the car and get it from the back seat if you have to. Locate it under all the stuff you dumped at the front door as you came home from church Sunday. Carefully turn the pages of your well-worn weapon of faith.

Reading it off your smart phone won't do this morning...I want you holding God's Word in your own two hands. I want you to experience turning the pages, Feel the weight of the Book. I want you to physically see from where these words come.

Okay, got it?

Let's continue.

You will find today's verse located safely and snugly in the first part of chapter six.

You will see, according to the print in front of you, that there is a promise spoken by God to the Israelites about Jericho.

What I want you to see right now, with your own two eyes, while holding this precious treasure in your hands is when God spoke these words to His children...

It wasn't after Jericho's defeat.

It wasn't after the twenty-five verses of Joshua 6 that document the specific instructions followed prior to the walls tumbling down.

It wasn't after the twenty feet tall, twenty-five feet thick walls were laying on the ground in piles of gravel.

It wasn't after the treks around the great city.

It wasn't even as a reminder of great things done.

If, while holding your Bible you'll notice, it was spoken before the first march began, before the first horn was blown, before the first shout was bellowed, before a single rock in that wall began to quake.

Before.

That's powerful, dear friends!

God was speaking to the Israelites about what He was going to do through them. Before the first obedient task was undertaken.

Does it or does it not, and you may want to put your Bible down and lift up your hands in praise at this point, give you an excitement that is unsurpassed about what all He has promised you?

Before you taste the first bite of victory. Before you experience the first steps of freedom. Before you see your enemy crumbled at your feet. Before you feel victorious...