Chapter 14
Chapter 14
THE SHOUT OF FAITH
"And when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him"—Joshua 6:5.
The shout of steadfast faith contrasts sharply with the moans of a wavering faith and the wails of discouraged hearts. In the history of the children of Israel, there were many occasions when they indulged in these moanings and wailings. It always led to their sad undoing.
On one occasion, however, they gave a magnificent shout of steadfast faith that brought them a glorious victory. Among the many secrets of the Lord that are discovered by the soul in its spiritual growth, none is more valuable than the secret of the shout of faith.
God Makes A Promise The Israelites had just crossed the river Jordan
and were about to take possession of the Promised Land. God said to Joshua just before they crossed,
**Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and ail this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses"
(Joshua 1:2-3).
With this promise, they crossed the river and entered into the land, no doubt expecting to get immediate possession. But they were facing one of those '*cities great and walled up to heaven" that had discouraged the heart of the spies forty years before. (See Deuteronomy 1:28.) They had good reason to be appalled at the sight of it. To the eye of their senses, there seemed no possibility that they could ever conquer Jericho. They had no engines of warfare with which to attack it. One can easily imagine the despair that must have seized them when they found themselves confronted with the walls and fortresses of the city.
But the Lord said to Joshua, '*See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour" (Joshua 6:2). He had not said, **I will give," but, **I have given."
It belonged to them already. Now they were called upon to take possession of it.
It was as if a king bestowed an estate upon his ambassador who was away in a foreign land. The ambassador must come back to take possession of it.
The great question was: How? It looked impossi-
ble. But the Lord had a plan. After a few directions concerning the order of their march and the blowing of their trumpets, He closed with these strange words, ''And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him" (Joshua
6:5).
Strange words but true, for it came to pass just as the Lord had said. On the seventh day when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people,
''Shout; for the Lord hath given you the city.
. .And it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city"
(Joshua 6:16,20).
No one can suppose that this shout caused the walls to fall. Yet, the secret of their victory lay in this shout. It was the shout of a faith which dared, on the authority of God's Word alone, to claim a promised victory. They shouted even though there were no signs of this victory being accomplished.
And according to their faith God gave them a miracle. When they shouted. He made the walls fall.
God declared that He had given them the city, and faith considered this to be true.
Unbelief might say, "It would be better not to shout until
the walls actually do fall. Then if we fail and the men of Jericho triumph, we will not bring dishonor on the name of our God/'
But faith laughed at all such timid considerations and confidently rested on God's Word. It gave a shout of victory, while to the physical eye that victory seemed impossible.
Centuries later, the Holy Spirit records this triumph of faith in Hebrews: **By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days"
(Hebrews 11:30).
Jehoshaphat Under Attack Jehoshaphat gives us another example of this shout of faith. He was told that a great multitude was coming up against him. He realized that he and his people had no chance against them, but he did not waste his time and energy by preparing for war or in arranging plans for a battle. Instead, he at once **set himself to seek the Lord" (2 Chronicles
20:3).
Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of the people and said, **0 Lord God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee? Art not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever?.
. And now, behold, the children of Ammon and Moab and mount Seir.
. .come
to cast us out of thy possession, which thou hast given us to inherit. O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that Cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee" (2 Chronicles 20:6-7,10-11).
The Lord answered through the mouth of His prophet, *Thus saith the Lord unto you. Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's.
. .Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out against them: for the Lord will be with you" (2 Chronicles 20:15,17).
Jehoshaphat and the children of Israel believed the Word of the Lord and began at once to praise
Him for the victory that they were sure was coming. The next morning they rose early and went out to meet their enemy. Jehoshaphat, instead of exhorting them to be brave in battle, simply called upon them to have a courageous faith. ''Hear me,
O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper"
(2 Chronicles 20:20).
Jehoshaphat then appointed singers to go out before the army to sing praises as they went forward to meet the enemy. When they began to sing and praise, the Lord set up an ambush so that the enemy forces were confused, and they began to
kill one another. When the children of Israel came to a watchtower in the wilderness, they could see the great multitude that had come up against them. What they saw was **dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped"
(2 Chronicles 20:24).
By this wonderful method of warfare, they were made even more than conquerors.
It took them three days to gather the spoil that their vanquished foes left behind. (See 2 Chronicles 20:25.)
David And Goliath David's fight with Goliath is another account of victory. To the physical eye, David had no chance of conquering the mighty Giant who had defied the armies of Israel. But David, looking with the eye of faith, knew that the unseen divine forces were fighting on his side.
Saul said to him, '*Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth"
(1 Samuel 17:33). But David stood firm in his faith.
After recounting some of his past deliverances, he said calmly, **The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine." Saul, partly convinced by this strong faith, said, *'Go, and the Lord be with thee"
(1 Samuel 17:37).
Saul could not, however, give up all trust in his own armor. He gave David a helmet of brass, a coat
of mail, and his own powerful sword. But David found that he would not be able to fight in this sort of armor. He took it oflF and took instead the simple weapons that the Lord had blessed before—his staflf, his sling, and five smooth stones from the brook. Thus equipped, he drew near to the Giant.
When the Giant saw the youth who had come to fight him, he laughed at David. **Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the field" (1 Samuel 17:44). To the eye of sense, it certainly looked as though this would be the end of such an apparently unequal battle.
But David's faith triumphed, and he shouted a shout of victory before the battle had even begun.
*Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hands and I will smite thee, and take thy head from thee.
. .that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands"
(1 Samuel 17:45-47).
In the face of such faith as this, what could even a Giant do? Every word of David's triumphant shout of victory was fulfilled. The mighty enemy was delivered into the hands of the boy he had disdained. Nothing can withstand the triumphant
faith that links itself to omnipotence. **This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith"
(1 John 5:4).
Secrets of Successful Warfare The secret of all successful warfare lies in this shout of faith.
It is an incomprehensible secret to those who do not know the unseen divine power that waits on the demands of faith. The secret must always seem, to those who do not understand it, the height of foolishness.
We are all called to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ and to jfight the good fight of faith. We face worse enemies than those which attacked the Israelites. Our enemies are within us. The giant that defies us is the strength of our temptations and the powerlessness of our own strength to resist.
It is a hard and often discouraging fight. Many of God's children are weighed down under a sense of apparently hopeless failure. They have sinned, repented, prayed, resolved, and then sinned and repented again. This has gone on for so long that they can see no hope of victory and are ready to despair. They hate sin, and they love righteousness. They long for victory.
In the language of the apostle Paul, they find a law in their flesh warring against the law of their mind.
It brings them into captivity to the law of sin that is in their members.
(See Romans 7:1821.) They know they should conquer, but they do
not know how. If they discover the secret of this shout of faith, they will know how. It is absolutely certain that it never fails to bring victory.
In John 16:33, our Lord reveals the reason for this triumphant shout of faith.
*'Be of good cheer," He says, **for I have overcome the world."
Not **I will overcome," but '*I have overcome." It is already done; and nothing remains but for us to enter into the power of it.
Joshua did not say to the people **Shout, for the Lord will give you the city."
Rather, he said, * 'Shout, for he hath given it."
It must have taken all Joshua's faith for him to make such a statement.
The walls of the city were standing as massive and as impregnable as ever. But God was a reality to Joshua. He was not afraid to proclaim the victory that had been promised, even before it was accomplished.
There is a great difference between saying, *'The Lord will give" and 'The Lord hath given." A victory, promised in the future, may be hindered or prevented by a thousand difficulties. But a victory already accomplished cannot be denied.
When our Lord assures us that He has already overcome the world. He gives a foundation for a shout of the most triumphant victory. From then on, the forces of sin are a defeated and demoralized foe. If we believe the words of Christ, we can meet our foes without fear. We know that we have been made more than conquerors through Him who loves us.
The secret then lies in this: we must meet sin, not as a foe that has yet to be conquered, but as one that has already been conquered. When Rahab helped the spies to escape from the King of Jericho, she made this confession, **I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you" (Joshua 2:9).
Finding Weapons For Warfare If we were gifted with eyes that could see the unseen kingdom of evil, we would also find that terror and faintness have fallen upon all the forces of that realm. They see in every man and woman of faith a sure and triumphant conqueror. Because we do not know this secret, we meet our spiritual enemies with fear and trembling. This is why we suffer such disastrous defeats.
A Christian who had been fearfully tormented by temptation seemed to struggle against it in vain. She was told the secret of the shout by one who had discovered it.
It brought conviction at once, and then she went forth to battle with the assurance of an already accomplished victory. Of course, she was victorious.
She said afterward that it was as if she could almost hear the voice of the tempter saying as he crept away, **Alas! it is all up with me now. She has found out the secret.
She knows that I am an already conquered foe.
I am afraid I shall never be able to overcome her again!"
We are told that, *Tor this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil"
(1 John 3:8). **And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin" (1 John 3:5). **Now^ once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself (Hebrews 10:26). We must accept it as a fact, therefore, that sin is for us a conquered foe.
We must consider ourselves to be dead to sin.
We need to dare, in spite of temptation, to raise the shout of victory. Then we will surely find, as the Israelites did, that every wall will fall down flat. A pathway will be opened up straight before us to take the city!
Our enemies are giants now just as truly as they were in Israel's day. Cities as great as Jericho, with walls as high, confront us in our heavenly pathway. Like the Israelites of old, we have no human weapons with which to conquer them. Our armor, like theirs, must be the armor of God. Our shield is the same invisible shield of faith that protected them. Our sword must be, as theirs was, the sword of the Spirit which is the Word, the promises, and the declarations of God.
When our faith puts on this armor of God and lays hold of this sword of the Spirit, and we confront our enemy with a shout of undaunted faith, we cannot fail to conquer the jmightiest giant or to take the strongest city.
Declaring Unseen Victories But alas! how different is the usual method of our Christian warfare.
Instead of a triumphant shout of victory, we meet our temptations with feeble resolutions or futile arguments. When all else fails we pray desperately, **0 Lord, save me! O
Lord, deliver me!" If no deliverance comes immediately, the temptation sweeps aside all our arguments and resolutions, and we are grievously defeated. We cry out in our despair that God has failed us. We insist that there is for us no truth in Paul's declaration, that with every temptation there is **a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it"
(1 Corinthians 10:13). This is the usual and the unsuccessful way of meeting temptation, as many of us know from experience.
The walls may look as high and immoveable as ever. We may be cautious and say it is not safe to shout until the victory is actually won. But faith can shout in the midst of the worst stress of temp- * 'Jesus saves me; He saves me now!" Such tation, faith will be sure to win a glorious and a speedy victory.
Many of God's children have tried this and have found it to work far beyond even their expectations. Temptations come in upon them like a flood—temptations to irritability, wicked thoughts, bitterness of spirit, or to a thousand other things. They have seen their danger. Their
fears and their feelings declared that there was no hope of escape.
But their faith laid hold of the grand fact that Christ has conquered.
Fixing their gaze on the unseen power of God's salvation, they give their shout of victory.
**The Lord saves! He saves' me now!
I am more than a conqueror through Him that loves me!" The result is always a glorious victory.
These declarations of faith often seem untrue at first. The seen reasons for doubt and discouragement seem so real. But the unseen facts are truer than the seen.
If faith remains steadfast, the promises never fail. According to our faith, it always must be given to us, sooner or later. When we shout the shout of faith, the Lord always gives the victory of faith.
I once knew a Christian dock worker who had begun this life of faith. He had a naturally violent temper. While doing his daily work among his ungodly companions, he was sorely tempted to give way to rage. He knew it was wrong. He struggled valiantly against it, but it seemed to be all in vain.
Finally, one morning on his way to work, he called in despair at the house of his pastor and told him his diflficulties. He explained the suddenness of the temptations that came upon him and the lack of time even to pray for help before he was overcome.
He asked the minister, '*Now can you tell me of
any short road to victory; something that I can lay hold of just at the needed moment?"
**Yes," replied the minister. **When the temptation comes, at once lift up your heart to the Lord, and by faith claim the promised victory. Shout the shout of faith, and the temptation will flee before you."
After a little explanation of the glorious fact that sin is an already conquered foe, the dock worker seemed to understand. He went on his way to take his place in the ranks with his fellow workers at the station where they were hauling freight. As usual he was met by taunts and jeers because of his faith. They pushed him out of his rightful place in the line. The temptation to anger was almost overwhelming, but folding his arms, he said inwardly over and over, **Jcsus saves me; He saves me now!"
At once his heart was filled with peace, and the victory was complete.
Again he was tried. A heavy box was deliberately rolled so that it fell on his foot and badly hurt him.
Again he folded his arms and repeated his shout of victory, and at once all was calm. And so the day passed on. Trials and temptations abounded, but his triumphant shout carried him safely through them all. The fiery darts of the enemy were all quenched by the shield of faith he continually lifted up. Evening found him more than conqueror through Him who loved him. Even his fellow workers were forced to admit the reality and the
beauty of a faith that could triumph over their aggravating assaults.
The psalmist, after telling of the enemies who were daily trying to defeat him, declared triumphantly, ''When
I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me"
(Psalm 56:9).
Do you know what the psalmist knew? Do you know that God is for you, and that He will cause your enemies to turn back? If you do, then go out to meet your temptations, singing a song of triumph.
Meet your very next temptation in this way. At its first approach, begin to give thanks for the victory. Continually claim that you are more than a conqueror through Him that loves you and refuse to be defeated by any foe. Shout the shout of faith with Joshua, Jehoshaphat, David, and PauL When you shout, the Lord will send ambushes and all your enemies will fall defeated before you.