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『你們聽見角聲，眾百姓要大聲呼喊，城牆就必塌陷。各人都要往前直上。』（約書亞書六章五節）
信心的呼喊不是躊躇的呻吟，也不是失望的哀泣。在很多『耶和華的奧祕』中，我不知道有什麼比信心的呼喊更寶貴。耶和華曉諭約書亞說，『看哪，我已經把耶利哥，和耶利哥的王，並大能的勇士，都交在你手中』（二節）。祂不是說：『我將要把…』祂乃是說：『我已經把…。』耶利哥城已經屬於以色列人了；現在只叫他們去佔領好了。但是問題是：如何佔領呢？在人看來，這是不可能的事；於是神又詳細說明了祂的計畫。
沒有一個人想到呼喊會使城牆倒塌。可是他們得勝的祕訣，卻正在呼喊之中，因為這是一個信心的呼喊－一個敢在毫無勝利徵兆的時候，單獨憑神的話，向神索取所應允的勝利的信心！於是神照他們的信心給他們成全；當他們呼喊的時候，城牆果然倒塌了。
神說祂已經把耶利哥城交在他們手中了，信心就這樣相信。數世紀後，聖靈還將這次信心的勝利記載在希伯來書上面：『因著信，圍繞耶利哥城，七日城牆就倒塌了』（來十一章三十節）。－司密斯（Hannah Whitall Smith）
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“And when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.” (Joshua 6:5.)
The shout of steadfast faith is in direct contrast to the moans of wavering faith, and to the wails of discouraged hearts. Among the many “secrets of the Lord,” I do not know of any that is more valuable than the secret of this shout of faith. The Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour.” He had not said, “I will give,” but “I have given.” It belonged to them already; and now they were called to take possession of it. But the great question was, How? It looked impossible, but the Lord declared His plan.
Now, no one can suppose for a moment that this shout caused the walls to fall. And yet the secret of their victory lay in just this shout, for it was the shout of a faith which dared, on the authority of God’ s Word alone, to claim a promised victory, while as yet there were no signs of this victory being accomplished. And according to their faith God did unto them; so that, when they shouted, He made the walls to fall.
God had declared that He had given them the city, and faith reckoned this to be true. And long centuries afterwards the Holy Ghost recorded this triumph of faith in Hebrews: “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days.”
---Hannah Whitall Smith.
“Faith can never reach its consummation,
Till the victor’s thankful song we raise:
In the glorious city of salvation,
God has told us all the gates are praise.”
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