QT 8 Dec 16, Josh 6:1-5, It is not a question of "can" but of "what"

Joshua 6:1–5 (ESV) — 1 Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, and none came in. 2 And the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor. 3 You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days. 4 Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. 5 And when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, everyone straight before him.”

NOTE: A lot of people will try to explain what happened here, arguing about vibrations weakening the wall and sound actually pushing the wall. That is all well and good, and as a physics minor in college, I understand and probably agree with some of the explanations. But the real point is missed. Israel could not have known the wall was not structurally sound (if it was). No one has ever attacked a fortified city using vibrations to bring the wall down. No, usually attackers bring in siege equipment, and in that day (and for a couple of thousand years afterwards), they would have expected a very long wait (months). If the siege equipment could not bring down the wall, and they could not scale the wall in sufficient strength, they were left to starving out the city. Israel was not prepared for siege warfare. They carried spears, arrows, and swords--nothing else. They were not prepared to take down a walled city quickly. But God knows exactly what must be done (assuming some flaw in the construction), or God provides just enough inhuman force to push the walls done. Whatever the case, it is an impossible task against a well-prepared foe that takes exactly one week to do. And all of a sudden, if they are thinking, they would realize that no task will be too difficult. It is an important lesson that has ramifications for the next battle. But our problem is that when God does that impossible task for us, do we remember? Or do we fret and worry, forgetting how God has intervened in the past? So when God does not answer (apparently), the question should not be a question of "can God" or "does God know", but what is the best thing and what does God want me to learn?