Jericho had barred its gates to protect itself from the Israelites. The enemy was in fear of Israel.
The Lord assures Joshua that He has delivered the city into his hands. Now the thing that God was giving to Joshua was resisting this. Often things will resist the Lord's will, but this will ultimately be futile. We also need to realise that we are in a battle. In a way the conquest of Canaan is a model of the conquest of the world. The world is occupied by the devil. Jesus refers to him as the prince of this world (John 12:31), as says that the time for judgement has come and the prince of this world will be driven out. Like Jericho, he will batten down the hatches and try and resist, but God has a plan.
We now get the famous marching around the walls of the city. They were to do this for seven days, once each day for six days, then seven times on the seventh day. The priests were then to blow loudly on rams horns and the walls would collapse. Meanwhile the army were to remain silent until the last moment when they were to give a loud shout.
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