Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Jesse Tree: Joshua and the Fall of Jericho

Scripture: Joshua 6:8-16, 20
Event/Theme: Joshua and the Fall of Jericho
Symbol we use: Foil and cardboard or stiff paper can make some amazingly simple ornaments that still look pretty decent. It wouldn't take much time to make a cone-shaped trumpet to remind the family of the rams' horn trumpets used by the Israelites on the seventh day. If you like to hang strings of cranberries or popcorn around the tree you could hang them today and connect it as marching around the tree like the Israelites marched around Jericho. We hang strings of beads but I save them for next week's "tears" of Jeremiah.
Meditation: Sometimes God does things in a way we don't expect Him to. Certainly no one expected Him to send His own Son to rescue us from our sin. Just as the Israelites could never have defeated Jericho without God's help, we can't win against sin in our lives without Him. The Israelites didn't know how marching quietly around the city once a day would bring them victory over their enemy but they had to obey God and trust Him to bring about the victory. Sometimes the same sin causes us trouble again and again. We wonder why God doesn't help us out more and bring us victory over the sin. Yet even when we can't see the victory, our job is to be faithful in prayer and in fighting sin with whatever tools God offers us--even when they seem as useless as a silent march around a well-defended city--and as we obey and trust Him, He will bring us victory.



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