That’s a most unusual set of instructions for taking a city. One might even say that it was utterly unreasonable to think that the walls of Jericho would fall in such a manner. But Joshua obeyed the Lord, and the people obeyed Joshua. The city was encircled according to God’s precise instructions. And on the seventh day at the end of the seventh encirclement, the horns were blown, the people shouted, the walls fell down, and the city was taken as God told Joshua it would be. It was a great victory. It was the time to shout. It's interesting, however, as you read this story that even here in the sixth chapter of Joshua, we still find the people in a time of preparation. The people had been prepared in one way or another during 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. Certainly Joshua and Caleb had been prepared, going back that far. They were great men of faith. And they exercised their faith during that long delayed conquest. The armies were prepared. They had been prepared in the wilderness. And when the people had crossed the river, there was still further preparation that we looked at earlier, involving the rite of circumcision and the observance of the Passover. God was very concerned that the hearts of the people be right before Him before the assault began.
A number of years ago, there was a teacher at the University of Pennsylvania who taught in the ROTC program in the area of military strategy. His name was Lieutenant Colonel Ferris Kirkland, and he would often speak to his students about the most stirring lecture he had ever heard. Kirkland had invited a guest lecturer to his class to talk about the strategy of an ancient military general. The guest described to the students how this man, even so many years ago, exercised techniques that soldiers have used many times since. Kirkland gave some examples, such as driving into the very center of the enemies' territory and thus dividing his forces. Then, having divided the enemy army, one would then conduct a clean-up operation, first on the one side and then on the left. He also talked about surprise tactics and psychological warfare.