Perhaps one of the most exciting war stories ever told was Joshua's encounter with the Commander of the Army of the Lord (Joshua 5:13-14), the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ, the same Being who had appeared to Abraham (Genesis 3:8) and had wrestled with Jacob (Genesis 22:34). The battle of Jericho was not won by a physical army, but an army of angels more formidable than the impregnable fortress of the Canaanites. Joshua quickly acquiesced to the sovereign power of the God, realizing, as we must learn, that it is not a question of God being with us; we must yield totally and unconditionally to the sovereign will of God. Joshua abandoned worldly notions of a siege ramp or starving Jericho into submission. The Commander of God's armies gave Joshua the following commands to prepare the physical armies for the siege by angelic armies: 1.) They were commanded to keep silent. 2.) They were to obey God's commands without question, waiting quietly for God's intervention. 3.) They were to wait and endure to the end, resisting the ever-present urge to desert because of frustration or ridicule. During the seven successive marches around the city, nothing appeared to happen, just as Naaman, when Elisha asked him to bathe in the Jordan seven times, nothing appeared to happen until the very last dip and lap, after which a divine miracle occurred. The blowing of trumpets and the shouting did not topple Jericho's impregnable walls—angelic forces toppled them. As long as Israel's physical armies obeyed, they experienced victory. When they disobeyed, as with the example of Achan, who succumbed to dissatisfaction, covetousness, and yielding to the temptations to steal, and hid the accursed thing, bringing a curse on the entire people. Likewise, we are subject to the same temptations. Victory is achieved only by trust in God (Psalm 37:34).