01.14. The Shout at Jericho

Chapter 14 THE SHOUT AT JERICHO.

It is surprising how new light will come upon a passage of Scripture by giving it a thoughtful and fixed instead of a passing glance or attention. Not only have we discovered erroneous quotations by this method, but an actual opposite meaning to what had been conceived in the narrative of occurrence or statement of some truth or doctrine.

Notably is this the case in reference to the famous shout given by the Israelites before the walls of Jericho. Every Bible reader’s eye has fallen on the verse in Joshua, "And the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city." Still oftener the words have been heard in prayer, testimony, exhortation, and sermon in reference to the shout and the falling wall of Jericho, and not one in a hundred or thousand seems to take note of several most essential facts of the history, viz., when the shout was raised, what it did not do, and what really knocked down the wall. Some most profound mistakes have been made concerning this notable matter.

First. as to the time of the shout. The general mistake is that it was given at the very outset or beginning of the siege and conflict. And so we have repeatedly heard leaders of meetings say that the true way to do was to shout the walls down at once, and hence in accordance with their ideas instituted a general bawling and outcry which was not only hours but days ahead of time, and which not only did no good, and gained no victory, but really wrought harm and mischief in a variety of ways. The facts of the case in the Jericho shout were that it was given on the seventh day of the siege, and at the conclusion of the thirteenth march of the children of Israel around the entire walls of the city. Then with the blare of trumpets, the stentorian cry of the whole army filled the plain, echoed back from the sides of the mountains, and rent the very heavens. It ascended at the right moment, and was wonderful and powerful because it came at the proper seasons and in the fullness of time.

There are many cries and shouts of God’s people today that fall powerless because they are out of human and divine order, and are hours, days and occasionally even weeks ahead of schedule. The word is given to the thoughtless, "Shout the walls of Jericho down!" and then a senseless and fleshly screaming and bawling are indulged in to the amusement of the world, the hardening of sinners, and the grief of the spiritually wise and good. Who has not marked the emptiness, deadness and darkness which seems to come upon a meeting after one of these premature charge, where the enthusiasm was man made and pumped up, and God had not given the command to shout and march forward.

There are times and seasons in the kingdom of grace as well as in nature; and it is not without significance that the Word reads that when the Spirit fell on the disciples the day of Pentecost had "fully come." It is no use pushing the clock up to twelve when it is only nine. Our fooling with the hands on the dial does not change the course of time itself. After all, we have to sit down and wait until it is really noon, no matter how the hands point. There is a great disposition upon the part of certain hasty and uninstructed people to reach results without meeting conditions, to pull the melon before it is ripe, to praise without praying beforehand, to secure a wonderful victory without doing a single thing. The whole proceeding is a grave mistake and is clearly rebuked and contradicted by the natural and spiritual kingdoms of God. The rapture, liberated tongues and resistless power of the disciples came after ten days of waiting humbly and continuously before God. The shout before Jericho, followed by th e tumbling of its walls, was preceded by thirteen marchings around the place, and seven days full of tests to faith and demands on the labor of the body. So when the command is given by some leader to his congregation to "Shout the walls of Jericho down," it is well to ask what has been done preceding this noise that we are about to make, that is worth talking about, that God can use and bless, and that he has a right to expect and demand of us. This simple question when properly regarded and applied is calculated to open our eyes, and to explain some very fruitless and powerless meetings when there was a great deal of racket made. A second mistake made by some in regard to the shout given before Jericho is in regard to what it accomplished. The general idea is that the united cry and volume of sound knocked the walls of the city flat. But according to the Bible it was not the shout at all that did it, but something entirely distinct and different. Paul tells us in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews and thirteenth verse, "By FAITH the walls of Jericho fell down!"

What a wonderful thing faith is, how it connects soul and life with God and so in the strength and power of the Holy and Almighty One accomplishes the most amazing results.

Inspiration speaks of it quenching the violence of fire, stopping the mouths of lions, putting armies to flight, and raising the dead. In the instance written about in this chapter it is seen flinging an entire city wall down in the dust; while John declares it can and does overcome the world. The devil is only too happy to get our eyes fixed on the realm of sense again, to be taken up with mere sound, to deify uproar, and go to worshipping the physical in the sense of exalting and blindly following it into many foolish and hurtful performances.

It is true that Faith may and does bring about noise, but noise does not produce faith. It is with significance that the apostle says that "bodily exercise profiteth little," and the prophet declares that "It is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord."

Surely it is not our shouting that creates our faith but our faith that raises the shout, and knocks down the walls of opposition.

We have known a number of meetings where the presence and power of the Holy Ghost was notably lacking, and where the service was "whooped up" by some manipulator to an appearance far beyond the reality. It was the sudden stimulation in a few moments, of a depleted spiritual system. It was an electric treatment, instead of the reception of health and life. And so there was a reaction and recoil that was most painfully felt by some, and perfectly apparent to all.

We have known a wind and thunder storm to suddenly come up on a warm day, promising rain and coolness, and after crashes from the clouds, and great volumes of dust blown in every direction, the whole hubbub ended without a drop of moisture, and followed by a dry, sultry and blistering heat that was worse than the former condition.

We have seen this whole scene reproduced in many a meeting, and as we marked the absence of the Gospel dew and rain, the lack of real unction and holy power, we felt that not only souls were being grieved on earth, but God was wounded in Heaven. There had been much thundering on the human side, but no soul-refreshing, life-renewing downpour of grace from the heavenly side.

Inskip was accustomed to mighty scenes of grace in his meetings, and his great voice would often float like a banner over it all. But when his quick ear would recognize that the flesh was getting ahead of the Spirit, that there was more thunder than lightning, more wind than rain, and more noise than grace and actual power, he would lift his hand, command attention, and bring the whole assembly into perfect silence, a solemn, holy stillness before God. He never lost, but always gained ground by this piece of spiritual generalship. It is certainly one thing for the leader of a meeting to tell a couple of hundred people to cry out "Hallelujah!" and a totally different thing when God bids them do it. It is the difference between perspiration and inspiration; between thunder and lightning; and between human noise and divine power. In the former case the shout is bigger than the faith, in the latter instance the faith is greater than the shout. In conclusion we say, that we must not give up the shout. God himself commanded it, but we must see that it comes in the right place. The praises and hallelujahs that are at a premium in heaven are not creatures of accident, but come as a result of spiritual condition, and right relations with God. They can point to a pedigree of faithfulness, to antecedents of grace, where such facts as obedience to God, abiding in the ranks, seven days of protracted effort, and thirteen consecutive marchings around, figure prominently and significantly. Then and there is born the true shout. But even here we must not forget, that it was not the shout, not the noise, not the marching around that won the battle, but Faith! Faith! Faith! that brought down with a resounding crash on the plain, the whole encircling wall of the city of Jericho.

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