Joshua 8 - The Promise of a Re-Do

When we last saw God’s chosen people, trying to enter the land of promise, they were actually living into the promise of Trouble.  God told them, for Jericho, this first city I am giving into your hands, devote all the spoils to Me.  Set apart, devote everything to Me.  Don’t take any thing for yourselves.  But one person got into some trouble.  Achan.  His name even sounds like the Hebrew word for “trouble”.  Achan troubled the entire nation by taking what was devoted to God.  They were all still God’s people, but their fellowship with God was broken.  God removed His hand of blessing (because of what ONE GUY did!).  So then, when Israel attacked the next city, the town of Ai, they got whooped.  Ran away like a bunch of scaredy cats.  Joshua and the whole nation are shocked beyond belief.  Instead of melting the hearts of Canaan with fear, now Israel’s hearts are melting with fear.  There were deadly consequences.  Joshua - for the first time? - lost 36 men, good soldiers under his command [for a soldier, there may be no worse result that that of losing men].  And as for Achan, his entire family had to be executed when he didn’t confess.  How does Joshua feel?  DIS-couraged.  Loss of courage, fear threatening to derail the entire enterprise perhaps?  The whole mission seems to have ground to a halt.  Joshua is tempted to give in to fear.  Fear of failure.  Fear holds us back.

So on the heels of that devastating defeat, the God of overflowing love shows up and says, don't be afraid.  And don’t be dismayed.  The root idea is something that’s broken, or shattered.  [Shattered], so - unusable.  That happens sometimes when we fail.  When we fall.  When things don’t go the way we thought or hoped they would.  Dismayed.  Shattered.  Our confidence is shattered.  Shattered hopes.  Shattered dreams.  We get off track, our momentum goes sideways or goes away completely.  And God says, DON’T get off track.  Don’t let this deter you.  Because you get a re-do.  Our God is the God of the Re-Do.  [v2] You will do as you did, He promises.  It’s a re-do on two levels: they will conquer Ai the same way they conquered Jericho, BUT this is also a do-over.  Cuz they already tried it once.  And they had some trouble.  The promise of a re-do.  And this next time?  It’s going to go even better for you!  You get to keep the spoils…

So [v1] get up, and go up.  Get off your donkey, and get going.  Move past it.  Deal with the failure (or loss), make it right (as best you can, in the grace that God supplies).  Which Israel did.  And now, having done that, we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and get right back at it, at doing IT, whatever it is.  Living (and serving) in the land of God’s promises.  Cuz if we’re not dead, we’re not done.  A Re-do.  No guilt - it’s been dealt with.  That’s the idea of forgiveness we find in Yeshua, in Jesus.  Justification by faith [Rom 5.1]  Justified: just as if we never sinned.  There is no reminder of sin.  Grace greater than ALL our sin.  God’s grace - and God’s Word - never fails.   And His Word says that when we’re in Christ, in God’s eyes, we’ve done everything right.  Because in His eyes, when Jesus is in our heart, when we’ve trusted in Jesus and His blood covers our sin, all God sees is Jesus.  White as snow.  Yes, we still blow it, make mistakes.  When we do, we confess, and move on (The three calls: Call it sin, Call it forgiven, Call on God to change you).  Get up, and get back in there, Joshua.  Cuz you get a re-do.  Take all your people of war, and go back to Ai.  Go back to the scene of the catastrophe.  It’s the promise of unlimited re-do’s.  Like [Golden Corral, i.e. the Golden Trough]!  Grace: an endless all-you-can-eat buffet of spiritual not-leftovers but do-overs.  Some say, that sounds too good to be true.  Sure does.  God’s grace is the good-est.  It really IS amazing.  Some ask, what about those who abuse this grace?  Can you take too many trips to this buffet line?

Two thoughts on that. 1) Grace isn’t grace unless it CAN be abused.  That’s what’s so amazing about grace.  There is never a [shortage] of God’s forgiveness.  And His grace covers it all: the deepest need; the foulest, filthiest sin; the most wretched.  Saved a wretch - like me.  The promise of God.  2nd) Having said that, the one who actually does abuse God’s grace probably hasn’t properly understood or received God’s grace.  Cuz grace is not freedom TO sin.  It’s forgiveness of sin, and it’s freedom FROM sin.  That’s the story of [amazing grace].  That’s the promise of a re-do.

So, Joshua, Israel, get up, and go up - to Ai.   It IS uphill (Camp Gilgal is 800’ below sea level, and Ai is at 2800’ above).  And this is the thing - sometimes we do need to go back to Ai.  To the ruins.  Back to that place of defeat.  The place where we fell.  That place of loss.  Cuz we need to bring God into it.  And this journey is 15mi, uphill all the way.  This might be a [tough road].  For this re-do, we probably DO need to trust the Lord to do a miracle.  To do to Ai exactly what He did to Jericho.  We do need to see God do His wonder-working thing in Ai.  To gain victory over the place of defeat!  The Promise of a Re-Do.  Our God IS the God of 2nd chances.  Not saying it’s always easy.  It’s not easy to go back to the ruins.  But yes, sometimes we need to revisit Ai.  Cuz we need to get past Ai in order to move into all the rest of God’s land of promise.  We need to get on with living the life that God made us to live.  Including and especially serving Him!  Cuz if we’re not dead, we’re not done.  He's left us here for a season for a reason.  THIS life is not only about getting ready for the next - it's about learning to glorify Him by enjoying Him forever.  All the days of our life.  He has something for us.  He’s made us and is remaking us to enjoy Him AND to serve Him.  

Look at [v7].  You will arise, and take possession, for the Lord will deliver it into your hand.  The Lord will give it into your hand.  But so, in whose hand is it really?  Who has it, whatever IT is?  The Lord has it.  He’s got this.  And He gives IT, whatever it is, to those who trust Him.  Whether it’s some battle, or some thing we’re meant to do, or some place we’re meant to live - God has a plan, He is up to something, He has a work He wants to do, and He intends to complete it.  [Phil 1.6] Our mission is to get in step with Him [Gal. 5:16  But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.].  Walk by the Spirit, keep in step w God’s Spirit, and with what HE wants.  OK, Lord, You really are Lord.  Not what I want, but what You want.  And don’t miss how Joshua responds.  [10] Out of this heartbreak, and this devastating defeat, he gets up.  Early in the morning.  Don’t delay.  What God wants you to do, get after it.

Full disclosure: archaeologists are uncertain as to the exact location of Ai.  Skeptics seem to find fodder for unbelief in that.  But I’m thinking, locals were calling it “The Ruins” 3000+ yrs ago?  (Typically, archaeology begins by assuming the Bible is mistaken but then finds that it was right after all.)  But there’s also a question about the numbers here - they don’t seem to add up.  v3 says Joshua sets 30k men in ambush.  And then v12 says he sets 5k men in ambush.  Sounds like a contradiction, doesn’t it?  Well all you need to do is read v13.  This is a third force.  The Hebrew word literally means, to lie in wait.  The 5k are lying in wait, protecting the western flank of the main army, and 30k are lying in wait [BEHIND] the city, to take the city once the main army draws the defenders out.

Here’s the deal: unbelievers are always looking for an(other) excuse to not believe.  To not surrender their heart to the God Who made them.  The world finds lots of excuses.  Sadly, even we the church provide them with excuses to unbelieve.  When we don’t love one another.  When we are lukewarm in our following.  That’s why the lesson of Ai, the promise of a re-do in the midst of the ruins, is so powerful.  Nobody’s perfect.  We all fall short.  We all need a re-do.  And God’s grace is more than sufficient to cover all our Ai’s.  Bring Me your faults.  Bring Me your failures, your losses.  Bring Me your hurts.  Bring Me your questions and doubts.  And lay them at the feet of the One Who walked up - beaten and bloodied - up that hill onto the Cross, laid down His life, and then walked up out of that grave, sat down at the right hand of Heaven, and Who’s coming again as King.  The Ultimate Re-Do.  Not that there was anything wrong w the first Do.  His grace is greater…

Further reflections:

“In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won't find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.”

― Richard Dawkins, River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life

OR

The very fact that humans look for justice in the universe should tell us something.  What if the justice and fairness for which we instinctively insist and pursue from our youth (and too often DO fail to find) points out that said universe is broken at some level - and that people are actually hardwired for a place and time (a realm) where Justice will reign - one which is being put in (and opposed) even as we speak...

Prov. 28:1   The wicked flee when no one is pursuing, but the righteous are ¹bold as a lion.

Rom. 5:1   Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ...

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson once went to the mountains on a camping trip. After enjoying a delicious meal, they retired for the night. Around midnight, Holmes awoke and nudged his faithful companion.

“Watson,” he said, “look up at the sky and tell me what you see.”

Watson, used to Holmes’s tests of his observational acumen, observed, “I see millions and millions of stars.”

Holmes asked, “What does that tell you?”

Watson pondered for a minute. “Well … astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Theologically, I can see that God is omnipotent and that we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. What does it tell you, Holmes?”

Holmes was silent for a minute, then said, “Watson, someone has stolen our tent.”

The world, like Watson, seems to have great difficulty with the obvious. God has built certain consequences into life so we might recognize His authority and power.  i.e. Numerous scientific studies have documented how people live longer when they live better.  Righteousness (right living and being) is good for a person’s health.

For example, one magazine offered the findings of a study done at a research center on the University of Michigan campus. The authors of the study concluded that doing regular volunteer work significantly increases life expectancy. Doctors rated it a more important factor than jogging, aerobics, or a healthy diet.

During World War II, it was discovered that people who were suffering from acute anxiety attacks during bombing raids on London improved their condition by setting their own troubles aside and volunteering to help the victims of the German air raids. In helping others, they helped themselves.

Joshua 7 - The Promise of Trouble

Last time, we saw that God gave His people this great first victory at [Jericho].  In 6.16, Joshua says, the Lord has given you the city!  But before they take the city [17], Joshua says the city will be “[cherem]”.  It’s a special word in the Hebrew.  The root idea means something exclusively surrendered and set apart to God.  Those are His.  They’re banned, excluded from being used by man in any way.

[18] "Only": this is the only, the one thing you need to do.  Guard yourselves away from the cherem - so that you do not [charam] yourselves, you do not take from the cherem and make Israel cherem.  Cuz if you do that, there will be trouble.  So all the non-living cherem, the spoils, are put into the temple (God's) treasury, and all living things they actually do charam, with swords.  Those are set apart to God, literally sent to meet their Maker.  All except for Rahab.  Rahab alone put her trust in the God of Israel, and she gets mercy.  All who trust in Christ are under mercy.  All our sins are covered by the precious blood of Jesus.  And in mercy God is going to repurpose Rahab’s life!  But make no mistake, He always takes sin very seriously.

Next up we see [Ai].  Literally, “The Ruins”.  Maybe it was named after it was destroyed?  And how interesting that "Beth-Aven" (house of wickedness) should be so close to "Beth-El" (house of God).  But on the heels of the great successes of Jordan and Jericho, not one problem but several rear their ugly heads.  Problems sometimes do follow great success.  Trouble.  First, [2] Joshua, full of confidence, fails to inquire of the Lord.  And [3] he sends out some guys to spy out Ai, and the spies, full of confidence, think Ai only warrants a few thousand troops (out of their 500k).  [8.25 tells us that 12k people lived in Ai - so, it's no small potatoes].  The people think, this is easy peasy.  A piece of cake.  And they commit one of the classic Blessing Blunders.  They flesh it.  They look with human eyes, trust in their success, and leave the Lord out of the equation.  They’re right on one thing: it IS easy peasy - for the Lord.  But apart from Him there is NOTHING we can do. We saw last time: the battle belongs to the Lord, always.  Unless He builds house...

So Israel goes up to Ai, and they get trounced.  Now their hearts melt.  And look at Joshua’s response [6-7] - Alas, Lord, why did YOU do this?  Really?  Blaming the Lord?  Joshua was trusting in the Lord, in His plan, and now the plan’s gone sideways, and Joshua points a finger at God.  We should have stayed on the other side of the Jordan.  Isn’t that what we do?  We own the success (we touch God’s glory), but we blame HIM for the trouble.  Look how the Lord responds [10-11]: Get.Up.  There’s nothing wrong with My plan.  The trouble is invariably with the people who are trying to implement God’s plan.  People like me.  In fact, the trouble here IS with just one person.  Just 1/500k is pretty good!  But it only takes one person, as we’ll see.  His name is Achan [sounds like achar/trouble]. 

[11] The Lord says, ISRAEL has sinned. [In God’s family, me = we. 1Cor 12.24]  ISRAEL has stolen and deceived.  First, they’ve stolen - from whom?  From the Lord: [Mal. 3:8-10  “Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you!  Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.”] The whole tithe.  It ALL comes from Him.  He opens His hand, provides us with everything we need for life and godliness [2Pet. 1:3 His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.].  Will we rob God?  We do.  Why do we?  We either doubt His provision, or we are being selfish.  [More for me].  Tithing/giving back to God reminds our heart Whose this is.  But note: the entire nation is implicated, when it was only one person.   Our sin always affects those around us - our family, the church.  

Secondly, Israel has deceived.  Now, who deceived who?  Nobody was deceiving the Lord.  He sees all.  No, it was Achan, who deceived his people.  The whole nation was impacted.  AND he deceived his family, they suffer worse: God holds his entire family accountable.

[16-18] They go thru this exercise of “taking” to determine who did it.  Why doesn’t the Lord just tell Joshua who did it?  1) everybody has a stake in this.  And 2) the Lord is showing Achan grace, giving him the chance to confess.  What is he thinking, as the lot keeps falling closer and closer to him?  Is he thinking he still might escape getting in trouble?  Escape notice, escape consequences?  There are always consequences.  The best course of action is always to confess, to agree with God about our sin.

Achan does “admit” to his sin [20] - but only AFTER Joshua calls him out [19].  His coerced confession falls short of a contrite apology.  There is no remorse.  But this is a reminder to each of us [1John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.].  Confess means to agree with God, to sincerely agree with Him about our sin.  Remember the three calls: call it sin, call it forgiven, call on God to change you.

[7.21] “Spoil” - one of the big upsides of war was/is the prospect of plunder.  To the winner goes the what?  [Like in the War card game] - winner takes all.  The trouble here is Joshua specifically told the people that everything in Jericho was cherem.  Devoted, set apart for God.  But Achan calls it “shalal”: plunder.  I saw the plunder, I desired the plunder, and I took the plunder.  He says/does exactly the same as [Eve] - I saw the fruit, I desired the fruit, I took the fruit.  The exact same verbs.  Sometimes we can’t help first look… But we ARE wise to guard our eyes.  Sadly Achan’s problem began before his eyes saw those things.  And it’s not a hearing problem.  He heard Joshua say, all this is God’s.  But he doesn’t receive that.  He has a heart problem.  To Achan, it’s all about him.  Me first.  What I want is more important.  He sees a beautiful robe.  That would look so good on me.  And why shouldn’t I be able to have what I want?

Well, for this first battle, ALL plunder is cherem, devoted to the Lord.  We see the principle of first fruits, that first things are devoted, or given (back) to the Lord.  Everything we have comes from Him, and giving back first fruits to Him is one way we reinforce that truth in our lives. [Ex. 22:29  “You will not delay the offering from your harvest and your vintage. The firstborn of your sons you will give to Me.” Ezek. 44:30 “The first of all the first fruits of every kind and every contribution of every kind, from all your contributions, will be for the priests; you will also give to the priest the first of your dough to cause a blessing to rest on your house.”]. 

Ai/The Ruins/Trouble.  AND mercy.  In our case, God put our sin - and the death penalty we deserved - on His beloved only begotten Son.  In Ai, the consequences fall on Achan’s whole family.  It does seem harsh.  But remember, we falsely accuse the Lord of being too harsh cause we underestimate God’s holiness and our sin, AND we overexaggerate the relative importance of [this life].  This life, more than anything else, is about getting ready for eternity.  It doesn’t negate what we do and enjoy in this life every day - it just keeps it in proper perspective [1Cor 10.31][Psa. 39:5  “Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing in Your sight; surely every man at his best is a mere breath.].  Achan didn’t do that.  He put himself first.  His wants.  The passing pleasures of sin.  Achan vs Rahab.  God spotlights two minor players in this broader narrative of learning to trust in the God of promise.  Achan trusted in himself.  Rahab trusted in the God Who saves.  Yeshua.  The promise of God.  Never fails.

<other verses>

1Cor. 12:24-25 God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another

1Cor. 10:31  Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Joshua 6 - The Promise of Foolishness?

We come to chapter 6, and Jericho.  Finally, it’s time for Jericho [see on map].  Time to get busy.  Time to do what we came to do, right?  Conquest.  Dispossessing the Canaanites.  Time to get down to the business of claiming this promise of God to us.  [Jericho] is the first step, and IT is “tightly shut”.  The Hebrew says, shutting and being shut.  It’s doubly shut.  The natives aren’t restless - they’re terrified.  Cuz of the Jewish people and their god.  Scared out of their wits.  

So let’s say you’re Joshua.  You know the mission - we need to take (back) our land - conquer it, AND everyone in it.  For all intents and purposes we’re talking about a military campaign.  And your first objective is this city - it’s not huge, but it IS heavily fortified.  You need weapons - swords and spears, maybe ramps, catapults.  You need resources - food and supplies and all the funding and logistics that go with that.  And you need a strategy.  Usually.  Altho, maybe not if you’re talking about these kinds of numbers: [600k vs 2k?]…?

But God flips the entire venture on its head here.  First He lays out the true nature of the mission for Joshua and the people (and us) - we looked at this last time.  Moving into and living into God’s land of promise is NOT a military maneuver.  It’s not us vs them.  It’s NOT fundamentally about overcoming obstacles of brick and mortar or enemies or resources or rivers.  It’s about the glory of God.  This is a spiritual journey - for Joshua, for Israel, and for each one of us.  Living in God’s land of promise is about overcoming ourselves - and our tendency to shortchange the Lord.  We shortchange Him on what He deserves.  We underestimate His glory.  We unbelieve.

And make no mistake, it ALL belongs to the Lord.  And this battle belongs to the Lord.  He’s got this.  Whatever giants we’re facing, the giant obstacles and challenges and questions and setbacks and enemies - these are always, simply, opportunities to trust the Lord.  Jericho is not just about tearing down giant walls in the lives of unbelievers.  It’s about overcoming our own giant self-reliance.

That is precisely what we see at Jericho.  So the Lord meets with Joshua, and rolls out the battle plan.  What do you think is going thru Joshua’s soldier-mind as the Lord unveils the strategy for the conquest of mighty fortified Jericho?  Joshua is expecting, what?  Some kind of a siege, then storm the walls with your superior numbers?  To his credit, Joshua doesn’t appear to even question what God tells him.  But then how about when Joshua briefs his generals, the leaders of his army?  Those guys - and the rest of the people - they’ve got to wonder if perhaps Joshua has lost his ever-loving mind.  Say what?  We’re going to do what?  Walk around the city?  And do what?  Nothing?  No swords?  No flaming arrows?  Half-a-million soldiers, suited up and ready for battle (it SHOULD be 600k, but remember the Reuben Gad Manites stinged and 100k of their soldiers stayed back in Gilead).  But all you want our massive army to do is take a few quiet laps around the city?  Just trumpets, and priests and the Ark?  OK, the Ark I get - even tho it’s just a piece of wood.  And priests - well, that IS sort of a package deal.  But just one lap a day, for six days, and then 7 laps on the 7th day, and we blast the trumpets, and shout, and that’s all?  That's it?  What kind of a battle plan is that?  This is not the first - nor the last time - that the Lord is showing His people that the battle belongs to Him.  He’s got this - and He is awesome.

But to the untrained eye, to the casual unbeliever, this is foolishness.  This plan, this is utter nonsense.  Walking around?  And trumpets?  This is just a waste of time.  No earthly way this is going to work.  Highly unlikely.  That’s precisely the point.  Remember, God traffics in the unlikely.  1Cor. 2:14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.  1Cor 1.25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.  1Cor. 1:18-19   For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  For it is written, “I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE.”  The promise of foolishness.

One way this plays out for us is in the ministry of prayer.  The soldier in us says we need strategies and resources and we just need to get down to business (busy-ness), when God says, we really/first need to get down on our knees.  We need to look to Him.  Psa. 127:1  Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.  Prayer isn’t preparation for work; it IS work.  God says, hurry up and wait on Me.  Look to Me, turn to Me.  Because this is not about us - it’s about our great God and Savior.  And the church of Jesus Christ advances on its knees.  That’s the promise of foolishness.  God’s ways, God’s plans can look foolish, God’s Word can sound foolish. God’s plan to provide eternal life through death, the death of His Son on the Cross, forgiveness thru trusting in what His Son did and not thru what I do - that sounds crazy.  But that [tomb] is empty, still empty.  Jesus, Yeshua.  God saves.  The promise of God.  The promise of foolishness.

[7-10] And so we have 500,000 soldiers marching around the city.  How long do you think this is going to take?  500 Lobo H.S. seniors getting seated took about 20 minutes.  Again, not a huge city, but this could take an hour or two.  [Line after line] of soldiers, marching around your city, deafening silence [10] (except for those [rams horns blowing]), and right in the middle is that infamous [Ark: TAOTCOTLOATE].  That awe-inspiring mountain-leveling piece of wood, all covered in gold.  And those hearts in Jericho, already doubly melted, no doubt dissolve into total despair.  [I recall an awe-inspiring sight at the castle Edinburgh when the massed pipe&drum corps of those former fearsome Scots warriors rolled out on parade - truly an intimidating force - imagine a half-million encircling your city like a huge human anaconda!].

Did you notice the use of the number [seven] here?  Seven priests.  Seven trumpets.  Seven days.  Seven times on the seventh day.  Lucky 7 isn’t [lucky] - but it is clearly one of God’s [favorite numbers].  Seven appears more times in Scripture than any other number (> 2).  It has special prominence in the life of God’s people - and it has from the very beginning.  Seven represents completeness.  Gen. 2:1-3  Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.  

From the very beginning, God set apart the 7th day as a day to rest and focus on Him.  We NEED this, time to rest and focus on the Lord, because we need HIM.  Rest COMPLETES our lives.  It’s good for our bodies AND our souls.  We are wise-NOT-foolish to take time in the day, every day, to take a lap around Jericho, a [quiet time], to focus on the Lord, to commune with Him, remind ourselves that apart from Him there is nothing we can do.  And one day a week we take seven laps! [and maybe even shout?]  We focus our lives away from that which concerns us to that which concerns Him.  It completes our week.  It completes our life [Phil. 1:6 ...being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.]  

It should come as no surprise that a world desperate to remove God from the equation chafes at the idea of setting any time apart for God, much less an entire day?  A lap around Jericho?  Resting, focusing on God, trusting Him in all our battles?  Unnecessary.  A waste of time.  Foolishness.  1Cor. 1:27 God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.  The promise of foolishness.  Thus our Epilogue [20,25,27].  The lesson of Jericho is that this battle - and all our battles - belong to the Lord.  God’s got this.  The promise of God.

Interesting tidbits on the number 7:

In the "book of symbols", Revelation, we see enumerated seven (e˚pta¿) stars, seven lampstands, seven angels, and seven churches, seven seal judgments, seven trumpet judgments, seven bowls of wrath, seven thunders...

I found one quote which suggests that there exists “…an ancient traditional respect for the number seven, the original basis of which is a matter of conjecture and debate”.  Really?  By skeptics, perhaps?

Week 

A period of seven days, a unit of time artificially devised with no astronomical basis.  The week’s origin is generally associated with the ancient Jews and the biblical account of the Creation, according to which God laboured for six days and rested on the seventh. Evidence indicates, however, that the Jews may have borrowed the idea of the week from Mesopotamia, for the Sumerians and the Babylonians divided the year into weeks of seven days each, one of which they designated a day of recreation. (from brittanica.com)

This author takes issue with these assertions.  There is nothing "artificial" about a number taking its significance from a divine mandate (unless of course one would dispute the origin of said mandate).  And even if there is some evidence to a claim that the number appears to have come into vogue via the Sumerians ("MAY have borrowed), the broader truth would be that both the Jewish and Sumerian/Babylonian peoples descended from Noah, who would have received the original 7-day week/pattern (and mandate to rest) from his dad, Lamech, who very likely knew Adam personally for 56 years.  Simply because there may be older evidence of Sumerians using a 7-day week than there is extra-biblical evidence that the Jews also used a 7-day week, this in no way requires one to conclude that the Jews "borrowed" the idea from the Sumerians.  Again, both peoples probably grew up with the idea coming from their shared ancestor:

Adam

    |

Noah

       /     \

Jews  <— Sumerians, Babylonians

Is there not more credence to the following assertion?

Romans 1:22 Professing to be wise, THEY became fools.