Thin Within makes NO human sense. Nope. Not one bit!!

Think about it!

I can get rid of extra weight by eating whatever I choose to eat…when I am hungry and stopping when I am no longer hungry? You mean, eating pizza or Mexican food or desserts…all of that is not going to keep me overweight as long as I eat between physical hunger and satisfaction?

“Sure…right…”

These are common thoughts of a lot of folks. In fact, to consider that God has removed about 100 pounds from my body since summer of 2006, people generally think that it can’t be that way…Surely, I am working out fanatically and am on a strict diet of some sort…

No. I am not. I haven’t and I won’t!

Thin Within makes NO human sense!

But it makes GOD sense!

Think about it. God works this way and has throughout history.

In Joshua chapter 6 we read about something that makes no sense…
In verse 1, we read: “Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.”

Get a load of what God says to Joshua upon seeing the city of Jericho, all tightly closed up:

“See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.”

Now I don’t know about you, but if I were Joshua, I would say, “Excuse me God? I don’t see a city delivered! I see a city well protected! How do you figure that you have delivered them to us?”

When God says He *has* done something…it means it is as good as done. He is reliable, faithful to His Word. So, the victory is promised. Surely, then, that meant that soldiers fighting for Joshua and the Israelites were just over the rise…on their way…or surely that mean that ministering angels would come in and ZAP the soldiers of Jericho, right?

Well…erm…no.

God’s “plan” for accomplishing what He declared a done deal was something very unbelievable…it made no human sense.

He told Joshua: “March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in.”

If I had been Joshua, I would have questioned my own sanity. “Did I *hear* you right, God? You want us to do WHAT?”

It wasn’t like Jericho was a city of wimps and weenies! This was a mega-fortress!

“…and you want us to waltz around the walls, tooting horns and shouting? *THAT* is how you intend to accomplish this victory that you have promised???”

Even if I had been convinced that I had heard God right, I would have probably found some way NOT to tell the people I was leading that this was God’s plan. Surely they would mutiny!

“Hey, guys, instead of attacking the city, we are going to promenade around it, play some music and when I say, we will all SHOUT!” [nervous gulps and gaspings for air…]

I would fear that my leadership would be brought into serious question…and justifiably!

Yet Joshua’s response was one of faith and trust…that God was at work…that God would do what He said and, apparently, that the others would follow his lead!

Verses 6-14 tell the story of Joshua’s obedience. Can you imagine? For SIX days…which probably seemed like an eternity…they just did what they were told by God…without seeing anything noticeably different. Nothing major…no trembling of the walls, no little crumbling pieces falling down…no people within the walls crying in terror…it appeared on each of those days as if there were NO marked progress! Talk about faith. Think about the faith it takes to get up out of bed day in and day out and keep on keeping on, even if it seems like it doesn’t matter one iota. Somehow, in God’s great economy, *it* **matters**.

On the seventh day, things looked just as they had on all the other days. The city still appeared impenetrable. The people had to march in faith…one time, two times…each circuit around the city probably felt like an eternity, too…even on this day of days…There were NO visible changes!

Somehow, in faith, they had to BELIEVE that God was doing a great work in spite of their inability to see it! How could this be? Wouldn’t He give them a sign that they had really heard him correctly, some affirmation that He was about to bless their socks off?

They continued to circle a third time…a fourth…

What if God let them down? What if the army of Jericho decided not to wait any longer but instead initiated a total assault? […nervous holding of breath…]

Marching onward in silence a fifth time…and a sixth….

Verse 20 then reads: When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city.

“But…this makes NO sense! Whoever heard of a city being taken by marching around, tooting trumpets for 7 days and shouting?”

Isn’t that just like God?

1 Corinthians 1: 27-31 says:
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”

His ways are clearly NOT our ways. I thrill that Thin Within makes no earthly sense. I see living proof on my own body and in my own heart that God is far above and beyond my human comprehension. He has proved that His ways work. What a mighty, loving, trustworthy God we serve.

Reader…I challenge you…keep on marching around those walls…even if the city looks impenetrable and there seems to be no progress made. Soon, the walls *will* fall and you will see the city delivered into your hands…