Oh be careful little mouths what you shout (and when you shout it)

Joshua 6
All the Canaanites who lived in Jericho went inside the city walls and locked the gates because they were afraid of the Isrealites. God told Joshua to take all the men of war and march around the city once a day for 6 days and seven times on the seventh day. The priests were to take trumpets before the ark and play and on the seventh round on the seventh day, when the trumpets played a long blast, the people were to shout and the wall would fall. Joshua did as he was told and gathered the people. He told them "You should not shout or let your voice be heard, nor shall any word proceed out of your mouth until the day I tell you to shout. Then you shall shout!" (6:10)

I can imagine the tendency of the Isrealites. Maybe they were thinking, in the words of one of my all-time favorite Camp Lake Stephens campers, "My feet hurt. Bugs be bitin me. All we ever do here is walk. I'm tired of walkin. There ain't no roller-coasters here." Okay, maybe they weren't lookin for roller-coasters, but I can see a tendency to complain none-the-less. And Joshua knew them, he knew this tendency and he knew that there was no room for doubt. So he told them to be quiet until it was time to shout.

We can learn from Joshua's command. When you're facing challenges and trials, do not allow your lips to speak unbelieving words. When we refuse to speak doubt and fear, it keeps our heart more inclined to see what God can do rather than what we cannot.


Everyone and everything in Jericho was to be destroyed except that of Rahab and her family in her home. The only items that were not to be destroyed were the silver, gold, bronze, and iron which were to go to the treasury of the Lord's house. The Isrealites were to abstain from the accursed things because they were associated with pagan practices. After the walls fell, the Isrealites killed every person inside (except Rahabs family) and they burned the city.

Rahab's life and the lives of her family were spared because she spared the spies. She was adopted in to God's family, the Isrealites, and became a decendant of David and Jesus.