The new minister was filling in for a boys’ bible class and opened with what he thought was a simple question:
“Who knocked down the walls of Jericho?”
The boys looked puzzled. One said,
“Wasn’t us.”
Another chimed in,
“We didn’t even know there was a wall.”
Later, the preacher brought it up at a deacons’ meeting:
“Not one of those boys knew who knocked down the walls of Jericho!”
After an awkward silence, one longtime deacon finally said,
“Pastor, I’ve known those boys all their lives. If they said they didn’t do it, I believe them. Let’s just take money from the maintenance fund and fix the wall.”
It’s easy to laugh at the misunderstanding. But here’s the question that hits a little closer to home: How many stories from Scripture do we know… but haven’t let shape our lives?
We might know that Joshua marched around Jericho, and the walls fell.
But have we wrestled with the kind of faith it took to follow God’s strange instructions day after day, before anything changed?
We know David beat Goliath.
But do we stand in confidence when giants show up in our own lives?
We know Peter walked on water.
But when Jesus calls us out of the boat, do we step forward—or stay in fear?
Knowing the Bible is good. But living it is better. And living it starts with digging deep — meditating, asking questions, and letting the Holy Spirit show us how ancient truth applies to right now.
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”
— James 1:22
So today, let me encourage you. Don’t just skim a passage. Take one story—Jericho, David and Goliath, Peter walking on water—and sit with it. Ask:
- What does this reveal about God?
- What does it reveal about me?
- What needs to change in how I live?
God’s Word isn’t just meant to be known—it’s meant to be lived.
With faith,
Roy Ice
