“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on - TopicsExpress

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Next week Gettysburg Pa will celebrate the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s speech honoring those who died in that awful battle. Recently I visited the battlefield on Veteran’s day. Standing on Cemetery Ridge looking down at that low rock wall the Union soldiers hid behind made me appreciate their courage while watching the waves of Confederate soldiers approach. Until I hopped over the wall, took a few steps, turned and looked up at the wall, and suddenly was overwhelmed by the courage of the Confederate soldiers charging up that gentle slope into that four foot tall wall. Until recently the standard military tactics were sneak attack at night, line up and charge headlong into each other and siege. In the latter the attacking army had to send wave after wave of soldiers against the walls until they overwhelmed the defenses or wait months, perhaps years, for the city to starve. So we can imagine Joshua’s shock when God told him how Israel would take Jericho. Instead of a long siege or deadly series of attacks God was going to give them the city (Jos 6:1-5). We can also imagine the folk in Jericho wondering what was happening when Israel silently marched around the city every day for six days. The only sound came from the trumpets leading the Ark of the Covenant (Jos 6:8-14). On the seventh day they started early, marched around the city seven times, and after the seventh time they stopped, faced the city, shouted and the walls fell down (Jos 6:20). Shorter than the Gettysburg address that shout was a bold declaration of God’s unimaginable power.