Written by Maritza Munoz Brunt
Do you know what bricks are? A brick is a heavy, rectangle block. They’re often used to build houses, or—as we’ll see in today’s story—walls.
Our story begins a long, long time ago, way back in Bible times. God had chosen a group of people called the Israelites to be His people. The Israelites had been kept as slaves in a faraway land—this means that they were forced to do lots of things that they didn’t want to do, and were treated very unkindly by some mean people. But God set them free!
At first, the Israelites were very happy that God had set them free. But soon, they forgot to be thankful, and they started disobeying God. This made God very sad. So instead of leading them to a special land filled with lots of good things, the Israelites were punished. They had to walk through a desert filled with rocks and sand and not much else for a very, very long time—40 years!
But one day, God decided that the Israelites had learned their lesson. So He talked to a man named Joshua, and told Joshua that he had been chosen to finally lead the Israelites out of the desert and into the very special land God had for them—a land called the Promised Land.
Joshua was very excited about this. The Israelites were very excited, too! There was just one little problem—actually, it was a very big problem.
In between the Israelites and the Promised Land was a city called Jericho. And not only was it filled with very bad people who didn’t like the Israelites at all, it was surrounded by a huge wall! It was the biggest wall of bricks the Israelites had ever seen. If you looked up, there were bricks. If you looked right, there were bricks. Everywhere you looked, there was a giant wall!
The bad people in this city of Jericho were very proud of their big wall. Nobody had ever gotten through it before. So the Israelites were worried. “How are we going to get past that wall?” they asked Joshua.
Joshua was worried, too. But whenever Joshua was worried, he always went to talk to his friend and creator, God. And when Joshua talked to God, God talked back.
“Don’t worry Joshua,” God told him. “Here’s what you and the Israelites need to do: Every single day, you and all your soldiers are going to march around the city walls. Do a full circle of the city, and do this for six days. Then, on the seventh day, don’t just walk around the city once—walk around it seven times! Once you’ve finished the seventh lap, get the priests to blow trumpets. And when the Israelites hear the trumpet noise, they need to yell and shout as loudly as they can! That’s when the big walls of Jericho will fall down, and the people can enter.”
Joshua listened carefully to what God was telling him. He didn’t want to get anything wrong! Then he repeated it to the Israelites. And so, on the very first day of the week, the Israelites set out to march around the city.
The bad people who lived in the city of Jericho thought the Israelites were crazy.
“Look at these people walking around our city!” they said. “Are you having fun down there in the hot sun?”
Joshua knew that the Israelites wanted to say things back to the people of Jericho, but he told them to stay quiet.
“Just keep walking!” he said. “The time will come when you can finally make your voice heard.”
And so, the Israelites continued their long march around the city walls. When they had finished their lap, they went back to their camp. The next day, they were up and walking again. And the next day. And the day after that, too.
Now the people of Jericho were really confused.
“What are they doing?” they wondered.
Finally, it was the seventh day. The Israelites got up nice and early, and began to walk around the big wall once again. But when they had finished their march, they started again. Seven times they walked around the big wall. That’s a lot of walking!
When Joshua and the Israelites had finished the last lap, they stood and waited. And waited. And waited. And then suddenly, a trumpet blast cut through the silence. And then another trumpet blast, and another, until the air was filled with the sound of loud trumpets!
“Now!” Joshua yelled, and all the Israelites shouted at the top of their lungs, for as long as they could.
And as they yelled, the solid brick walls started shaking. The earth started to give a big rumble, and as the Israelites watched, the huge wall of bricks crumbled right down to the ground!
The Israelites ran as fast as they could into the city. All the bad people ran in the opposite direction. And that night, as the sun began to set, the Israelites were laughing and playing and eating. Joshua was watching all the Israelites enjoying their first night in their brand new home when a little boy snuck up next to him.
“Hi Joshua,” said the little boy. “I have something to tell you.”
Joshua smiled at the little boy. “And what’s that?”
“Well,” confessed the boy. “I wasn’t sure the walls would really fall down. They were just so big!”
“And what did you think after they fell down?” Joshua asked him.
The little boy smiled. “I think God is very powerful.”
“I think so, too,” Joshua told him. “Whenever we listen to what God tells us to do, God will always help us. And we will always win whenever God fights our battles.”
“I’m glad we have God on our side,” said the little boy. And he ran off to play.
Joshua smiled. “Me too,” he said.
Picture Credit: Moody Publishers / FreeBibleimages.org
