Bible Commentaries
Joshua 6

Verses 1-27

All the preparation being completed, the hosts of God moved forward as the scourge of God in judgment on the corrupt peoples of the land.

It is impossible to imagine anything more calculated to impress on these hosts their own absolute weakness than the method of their first victory. Those marching hosts and those blatant horns were patently utterly inadequate to the work of capturing a city, and by the standards of all ordinary human methods of warfare they were the instruments of foolishness.

Surely the tremendous lesson thus taught at the beginning was that victory must come not by might and not by power Yet it is equally true that what happened taught these people their absolute invincibility so long as they were trusting and obedient.

The peril of the lust of plunder was before them and they were solemnly warned against yielding to it.

The days passed as the hosts marched, and at last through the folly of the human method the divine power operated and Jericho was captured. The salvation of Rahab illustrates for all time the principle upon which men may be saved. It is faith in God, and here as always faith is seen to be conviction yielded to rather than rebelled against.