When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.
- Joshua 6:5

“Hold on!” we’d want to shout if we were in Joshua’s shoes.

The Lord has giving instructions about the battle and his instructions sound strange. Strange, but understandable: the marching and trumpets and shouting we can all understand. We may not know why he wants us to do them, but we at least we know what he’s talking about. But he seems to skip over an important part.

March (check). Trumpets (check). Shout (check). The wall of the city will collapse (huh?). Charge. (Wait, wait … go back to the wall!!!).

The wall of Jericho stood as a major obstacle to the Israelites capturing the city. It loomed over them and cast shade on them all day. They knew they weren’t equipped to take it down. Everyone must have wondered how the Lord would do it.

But the Lord never tells them how.

The Lord tells them what he will do. He even tells them when he will do it (wouldn’t it be wonderful to have that clarity?). But he doesn’t tell them how.

Often in life we’ll bump into this reality with our mysterious God. We may know what he will do, but the how stands beyond our comprehension. He calls us to step out in faith even when we don’t understand the mechanisms he intends to use to accomplish the great things he’s going to do in our lives.

Sometimes, our best course is to submit and obey (as Joshua does in today’s passage). At other times, we need to wrestle with God and ask him questions (as Moses and Abraham and Jesus did).

God welcomes questioning. And, still, we all eventually reach the limits of our understanding and, there, receive invitations from the Lord to take just one more step.

What questions do you need to ask the Lord today? Where do you need to take a leap of faith today?