Common Sense or God Sense?

Let’s face it. Sometimes, God doesn’t make sense. Well, at least to our finite limited minds.

Last week I had the privilege of hearing Pastor Chaun Butler preach on obedience. She spoke on Joshua and the battle of Jericho. The people of Israel marched around the walls of Jericho, waiting for God to do what He said He would do, give them the land.

I loved her message. It got me to thinking. Then I took her teaching and expounded on it when preaching to my husband. Yes, I do preach to him at times, but he seems to enjoy it…at least that is what he tells me.

We were discussing the use of common sense. Or rather, when not to use common sense.

When God spoke to Joshua, I have to wonder if he didn’t for one split second think to himself “this makes no sense.” I mean think about. Jericho is fortified. There are walls, tall, wide walls standing between the city and the children of Israel. And God says to Joshua in chapter 6 verse 2 “See! I have given Jericho into your hand, it’s king, and the mighty men of valor.”

This is not your ordinary retaining wall!


This would have been me: Um, Lord, I’m not sure if you see this, but there seems to be a wall between us and Jericho, it’s king and the mighty men of valor.

The Lord goes on in verse 3: You shall march around the city, all you men of war; you shall go all around the city once. This you shall do six days.

About this time I would have been scratching my chin and looking perplexed. And what exactly does marching around the city do? This makes no sense! We are going to be the laughing stock of the entire known world. This is some new battle tactic!

And we all know the rest of the story, on the seventh day, the Israelites march around the city seven times, the trumpets blow, the people give a shout and the walls went down flat. I have heard that the earth literally opened up and the walls went straight down into the earth. Very odd. And, it makes no sense!

See what I mean? God makes no sense!

So, back to our conversation from this morning. My husband and I were discussing his job situation. And he said to me, explain this to me. If my job sucks, why wouldn’t I look for a better job? Doesn’t that just make sense? Isn’t that common sense?

My reply? Well, would you rather use common sense or God sense? In comparison to God’s sense, our common sense makes no sense! Confused yet?

It’s like this. No matter what God tells us to do, no matter how weird it may seem or how strange it may be it is a gazillion times better than what we could come up with. All we have to do is look at the out come. When we act in our own power, use our own common sense; we end up with human like results.

When we wait upon the Lord, and obey His voice, no matter how strange the orders, we get God’s results. Which would you rather have?