The seven priests with trumpets of rams’ horns were to lead the Ark of the Covenant around the city with armed troops in front and behind. God’s presence was there and the walls would supernaturally fall, but the hand-to-hand combat would still be done by Israel’s troops. Before the combat began God asks Israel to perform a ritual ceremony outside the walls of Jericho that was to last seven days.  The ritual would replace a military strategy and included the blowing of trumpets, the marching of priests and the presence of the Ark of the Covenant.

Waiting seven days is a consistent theme in the biblical accounts:

• Moses waited on Mount Sinai seven days before God spoke (Exodus 24;16)
• Israel’s army camped opposite Syrian troops for seven days (1 Kings 20:29)
• Israel marched seven days to attack Moab (2 Kings 3:9)
• Job’s friends sat with Job seven days before they spoke (Job 2:11-13)
• Ezekiel sat among the exiles in Tel Aviv in Babylon near the Kebar River for seven days before the word of God came to him (Ezekiel 3:15-16)

When God struck Sodom and Gomorra he did it suddenly in one night. Why take seven days of ritual marching before destroying Jericho? Some say it was to give Jericho a chance to repent. Possibly. But, it seems more likely God was using this time to strengthen and train his people Israel. The preparation of Israel for taking the promised land had been the Lord’s focus for the last forty years. It would seem that the seven days of marching was not for God or for Jericho, but was for Israel’s benefit. Jericho was 738 feet by 262 feet with a circumference of 1,970 feet (or, 246 yards x 87 yards with a 656 yard circumference) It is likely that with the number of men marching around this city that the leaders of the procession had completed their march around the city and where heading back to camp before the rear of the procession had reached the walls of the city. Every man had a chance to look at the walls in silence and consider the greatness of the enemy compared with the greatness of their Lord who marched in the midst of the ritual procession.

“It is common for those that are farthest from God, to boast themselves most of their being near to the Church.”
– Mathew Henry

The phrase “sound doctrine” used by Paul in 2 Timothy 4:3 hugiainouses didaskalias is literally “being healthy teaching” and in Titus 1:9 didaskalia te hugiainouse is literally “teaching being healthy.” In Paul’s theology “healthy teaching” always preceded holy living and a person with “healthy doctrine” lived a godly life. (Philippians 1:9-11 and Colossians 1:9-10)