Joshua 6:20 (ESV) … “So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city.”
According to Lieutenant Colonel Faris Kirkland, former professor of military science at the University of Pennsylvania, the most exciting lecture he ever heard was on an ancient general’s military tactics. The lecturer was a visitor to his class, not even a regular teacher. But he held his students spellbound as he described this man’s military strategy: a sudden strike into the heart of the enemy’s territory, thus dividing his forces, then campaigns to the south and north. He described techniques of psychological warfare, the elements of speed, surprise, and terror.
Who was this ancient military genius? The students suggested Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Julius Caesar, Attila the Hun. It was only at the end of the lecture, after all possible names had been exhausted, that the teacher revealed the identity of the one whose battles he was describing: Joshua.
If you are a Christian, you are a soldier in God’s army and are engaged in a war where many enemy strongholds need to be conquered. We see them everywhere. There are fortresses of evil in our land, in the church, and, we must confess, in ourselves. They are surrounded by high walls. The gates are sealed. They are manned by strong and experienced defenders.
What are we to do against such ancient outposts of God’s and our enemy? The answer is that we are to assault them in the way God has told us to wage warfare: by prayer, by the Word of God, and by our testimony. When we look at evil’s forces we may think the ancient weapons of the church are inadequate, and we may be greatly tempted to abandon them and use the world’s tools. This is a mistake. We need to listen to God and obey faithfully to the very end. When we do, then in God’s own time, the walls of Satan’s strongholds will tumble.
The apostle Paul wrote, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds” (2 Cor. 10:4).
The book of Revelation says of the saints’ battle against Satan, “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” (Rev. 12:11).[1]
