Faith As A Principle of Action, Part Two

Joshua fit the battle of Jericho…

Well, no, actually he didn’t because there warn’t no battle to be “fit” until “the walls come a-tumblin’ down.” Mainly because this in the only time in history that a city has been won in war the way Joshua and the Israelites won it. And they didn’t have to fight for it.

A few days ago, I wrote an article for this blog entitled “Faith As A Principle of Action, Part One.” If you have not read that post yet, I would encourage you to do so before finishing this one. The basic idea is that “faith,” Biblical and otherwise, will often involve the one who believes doing something, some action, in order to accomplish some purpose. The illustration I gave in that first article was a non-Biblical one; in this treatise, I want to show, through Joshua and the battle of Jericho and Noah and the ark, how the principle applies Biblically.

In Joshua 6:2, we read, “The LORD said to Joshua: ‘See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king, and the mighty men of valor.’” Notice that Jehovah is going to give Jericho to Joshua; it’s going to be a gift of God’s grace, the Israelites are not going to have to win Jericho the way most cities in history have had to be defeated. But then the Lord proceeds to tell Joshua what he must do to get the city: “You shall march around the city, all you men of war; you shall go all around the city once. This you shall do six days. And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. It shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout; then the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people shall go up every man straight before him" (vs. 3-5). In other words, even though God is going to “give” Joshua the city, there was still some actions the people of Israel had to perform in order to receive God’s grace. Now, here’s the crucial point. Joshua is not earning the city; even after he and the people have done all that Jehovah requires, they have not earned the city because walking around the walls for seven days is not the way cities are won in wars. Wouldn’t it have been nice if American soldiers, a few years ago, could have taken Baghdad by simply marching around the city for a few days? It doesn’t work that way. God gave Joshua the city, but grace does not mean that there aren’t some conditions. We MUST understand the Biblical definition of grace, and not make up our own.

Another quick example: Genesis 6. God is going to destroy the world with a flood. Verse 8 says, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” But then God proceeds to tell Noah what he must do to procure that grace: build an ark. Grace had conditions for Noah, and for Joshua.

And both men believed God: “By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household,” (Hebrews 11:7).  "Prepared an ark for the saving of his household."  Grace, faith, obedience.  A little later in that chapter, we find “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days,” (v. 30). Notice please: the walls did not fall down until AFTER Israel had done all that Jehovah commanded! Now, again, even after obeying fully, Israel had not earned God’s grace; but those walls wouldn’t have fallen if they hadn’t believed—faith as a principle of action.

If Joshua had been a modern theologian, he might have reasoned, “Well, God said He was going to give me the city, and since I believe, I’m going to get the city whether I do what He commands or not.” Where would the walls of Jericho had been seven days later? What would have happened to Noah if he had reasoned that way? He would have drowned like everyone else. We simply must let the Bible define its own terms—and grace is not “free” from the standpoint of eliminating all conditions. No, we’ll never earn salvation. Jesus said in Luke 17:10, “So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’” But grace, or faith, alone are simply insufficient to obtain God’s blessings, if He places conditions on that grace.