BIG

We like everything BIG.  Why be satisfied with just a 12 oz. soda, when you can get the 44 oz. Big Gulp?  Why settle for just a regular burger, when the commercial entices you with the half pound burger.  But BIG things don’t just come in good things.  We live in country where our economic crashes are BIG.  We have health issues that feel like BIG mountains.  On a daily basis we endure emotional stresses that seem to be so BIG that they are crushing us.  Everything in our world seems to be BIG!

God also wanted Joshua to think BIG.  God came in person to reveal his BIG plans to his new chosen leader Joshua, “Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, Are you for us or for our enemies?  Neither, he replied, but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.”  

God revealed that it was going to take some BIG plans and a BIG faith to defeat the BIG enemy behind the BIG walls of Jericho.  At first glance, God’s BIG battle plans looked like very small.  It wasn’t much of a plan at all.  March around the city for seven days and on the last day blow your horns and shout and the walls will fall down.  You have got to be crazy!  These wouldn’t have been the plans that Joshua or any other competent general would have drawn up, but we can never forget that they were God’s plans.

When we look at God’s BIG plans throughout the history of this world, we realize this is exactly how God works.  God’s plans are always BIG and always perfect.  He wants to make it clear that we can do nothing to help God’s plans.  We have to trust (have faith) that God’s BIG plans will work.  We trust him because his record is pretty good (perfect)!

It is also reassuring to know that even before Joshua implemented God’s battle plans, the victory was already won. “Then the Lord said to Joshua, See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.”  God’s BIG plans worked perfectly when the walls of Jericho came crashing down, just the way God said they would.

God’s other BIGGER plans worked just as well when he sent his Son born of a virgin.  They worked when Jesus died on a cross, was buried and rose on the third day to save all people from their sins.  God’s BIG plans will also work for our future, when he comes again on Judgment Day to take us home to heaven.


Let’s be clear. Walking around the city for seven days didn’t make the walls of Jericho fall down, just as there is absolutely nothing we can do to make God’s BIG plans of salvation work out just perfectly.  With God’s BIG plans, the victory has already been won.  To God be the Glory!

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