I.
We come to another person identified as a prophet, Joshua. For a time, Moses’ understudy and then the leader of the people as they enter their land of promise.

I invite you to read this passage with care. For many it is a familiar account and one we can read “over” too quickly since we know the scene from many past readings. Or maybe you find it so fanciful and unbelievable, you rush through it since you know “what” happens.

Come to the reading this week and take your time so something might catch you afresh.

II.
Joshua 5:13-6:5

Once when Joshua was by Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing before him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you one of us, or one of our adversaries?” He replied, “Neither; but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and he said to him, “What do you command your servant, my lord?” The commander of the army of the Lord said to Joshua, “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so.

Now Jericho was shut up inside and out because of the Israelites; no one came out and no one went in. The Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have handed Jericho over to you, along with its king and soldiers. You shall march around the city, all the warriors circling the city once. Thus you shall do for six days, with seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, the priests blowing the trumpets. When they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and all the people shall charge straight ahead.”

Joshua 6:15-16

On the seventh day they rose early, at dawn, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times. It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city.

Joshua 6:20

So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpets, they raised a great shout, and the wall fell down flat; so the people charged straight ahead into the city and captured it.

III.
Let’s take up a question I ask in one form or another almost every week – What grabs your attention? What holds your attention?

There are certainly enough dramatic elements here to grab us.

Why do you think that holds your attention?

Do you think it might “hold” your attention so tightly that it blinds you to other dramas in the passage? Maybe something that can be out of sight and hearing because of the vividness of what we take as the major elements here?

Try this – Read the passage again and look past the “big” and “loud” elements and see what you notice.

What is there for you?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}