“Y’hoshua the son of Nun called the cohanim and told them, “Take up the ark for the covenant, and have seven cohanim carry seven shofars ahead of the ark of Adonai.”-Joshua 6:6
From verse 6 of Joshua chapter 6, we’re given an interesting piece of information.
We’re told that the Ark of the Covenant was to play a central role while the Israelites were marching around the city of Jericho.
One would think that such a sacred item would be kept far away in some protected and concealed location.
But nope, not in this case.
The Ark was to be the lead player in this holy war to take Jericho.
Why?
Because it represented Hashem’s presence.
God was with them in spirit BOTH metaphorically and literally.
The Ark’s presence would be a reassuring sight to the Israelite soldiers as they marched around Jericho.
But not only that, the Scriptures also make it clear that the Ark was to be the PRIMARY WEAPON of destruction to be used against the inhabitants of Jericho.
See, it wasn’t just the priests who were to blow shofars when they marched around Jericho.
The soldiers were to blow their shofars as well.
Imagine how the people of Jericho must have thought about all of this noise and confusion
They had never in their entire lives witnessed an army acting in such a chaotic and strange manner.
Notice another peculiar command Joshua hands out to the soldiers.
“Don’t shout, don’t let your voice be heard, don’t let a single word out of your mouth until the day I tell you to shout; then you will shout.”
The soldiers and priests were to keep their mouths firmly shut while marching.
The only sound was to come from the blowing of their shofars.
There’s an interesting play on words occurring here that can only be seen in the original Hebrew.
In the original Hebrew, the word for “shouting” is RUA and it is being applied to both the cries of the people and the blowing of the shofars.
We’ll continue with this discussion the next time we meet.
Leave a Reply