Anxiety, Part 2 (Joshua 5)

That night, Joshua couldn’t sleep.  What was he to do?  How would he lead his people to victory?  Why hadn’t the captain spoken more?  Why hadn’t God given him directions?  The questions swirled chaotically in his mind all night long, offering no answers and no peace.  When morning came at long last, he rose early, before his wife Miriam had stoked the coals to flame.  He wrapped himself in a blanket and sat down on the floor of his tent.  He watched the coals as he tried to quiet all the anxious thoughts in his mind.  He was most unsuccessful.

“Joshua,” Miriam’s voice broke into the commander’s worried and aimless thoughts.  He blinked.  He must have dozed off because there was now a small, warm fire before him.  “Come, the bread is almost done.  Have some breakfast.”

Anxiety, Part 1 (Joshua 5)

Joshua stared steely-eyed across the dry grass plains, gripping his spear tighter as he looked for signs of weakness:  a crack in the wall, an undefended segment of earth, a sewer drain, anything that might make this impenetrable wall a bit more penetrable.  But the more he looked, the more he saw just how perfect were the defenses of the town of Jericho.

From his vantage point, Joshua could see everything, the long open field through which his men would be forced to charge while the enemy rained down arrows from the protected walls, those stone walls so high no ladder would reach to the top and so thick no axe could cut through, the heavy gates where Joshua and his men would face boiling oil poured from the defenders’ unassailable position high above.

This is going to be a slaughter, Joshua sighed hopelessly.  And still, he knew that this was where God had directed him to lead the people.