The Fall of Jericho: From an Engineer's Perpective

Introduction

I am not trying to discredit here the miracle that was accounted in the book of Joshua.
On the contrary, what im trying to say is that it is not impossible to happen. Many bible critics may claim that that incident described in Joshua 6 is a pure folklore, exagerated by time as it is passed from mouth to mouth. I highly disagree on this. As an engineer I know that what happened then is true and can be explained by science. The miracle is not that the walls of Jericho fell. The miracle is more on how such people of primitive knowledge of theory of resonance and wave physics made the walls collapse. The answer of course is given by the Bible: they were instructed by God.

The Account of the Fall of Jericho

Here is the complete account as written by Joshua:

Joshua 6 (New International Version)

Joshua 6
1 Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in. 

2 Then the LORD said to Joshua, "See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. 3 March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. 4 Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams' horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. 5 When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in." 

6 So Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them, "Take up the ark of the covenant of the LORD and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it." 7 And he ordered the people, "Advance! March around the city, with the armed guard going ahead of the ark of the LORD." 

8 When Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets before the LORD went forward, blowing their trumpets, and the ark of the LORD's covenant followed them. 9 The armed guard marched ahead of the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard followed the ark. All this time the trumpets were sounding. 10 But Joshua had commanded the people, "Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout!" 11 So he had the ark of the LORD carried around the city, circling it once. Then the people returned to camp and spent the night there. 

12 Joshua got up early the next morning and the priests took up the ark of the LORD. 13 The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets went forward, marching before the ark of the LORD and blowing the trumpets. The armed men went ahead of them and the rear guard followed the ark of the LORD, while the trumpets kept sounding. 14 So on the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days. 

15 On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. 16 The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the people, "Shout! For the LORD has given you the city! 17 The city and all that is in it are to be devoted [a] to the LORD. Only Rahab the prostitute [b] and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. 18 But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. 19 All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the LORD and must go into his treasury." 

20 When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city. 
(Source:http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=joshua%206&version=31)

Observations

To a careful observer, the details matter. What Joshua and the rest of the soldiers did is to march around the walls. They had a trumpet sounding in front of them so it makes sense to assume that their steps are in cadence. They did this for six days. On the seventh day they repeated the march and went around the walls seven times. Now according to Numbers 1:46, there were 603,550 men who were fit for military service. Now imagine more than half a million men marching in cadence. The march would sure to produce vibration enough to shake the ground.
Now it doesnt't end there. At the end of the seventh march, they all (more than half a million men) gave a loud and accordant shout. Then finally they had the trumpets blow a ONE LONG NOTE. Then that made the walls fall.
Now the question is that is this even possible? How can a march and a shout, and a one long note can make the strongest walls of the ancient eastern world fall? The answer is physics. It is an application of the mechanics of waves and the concept of resonance. It do happen even in the modern world.

Let me explain further by appealing to the experts. This is a qoute from the website of the Physics Department of the Univeristy of Wisconsin-Stout

"When troopers march in cadence across a bridge, the marching may match a natural resonance frequency of the bridge. Although only a small amount of energy is added with each step, because of the resonance effect this energy will be stored. As a result, the bridge will cumulatively absorb energy from the marching men, increasing the oscillation amplitude in the bridge (just as pushing someone on a swing, in cadence, increase the amplitude of the swing). Enough energy may be added this way to damage or destroy the bridge. In fact, a concrete suspension bridge, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, was destroyed by resonance vibrations set up by winds acting on the bridge. Today's bridges are constructed to prevent or minimize this type of wind resonance effects." (Source:http://physics.uwstout.edu/deptpages/physqz/resonanc.htm#Answer_)

Now did Joshua knew this all along? I doubt. Modern world did not even knew until April 16, 1850 (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angers_Bridge). It was God who told Joshua, and he did just as he was told, though most probably he does not understand the logic.

Now why need to march for 6 days, can't it be done by just marching 7 times in 1 day? Well im not sure of the real reason, but based on my understanding of God's character, the reason may be psychological. Maybe He was trying to give time for the people of Jericho to choose if they want to get out and join the Israelites, or to stay inside and test God's power. God will sure to accept anyone who will believe in Him. Rahab the prostitute will testify to that. But whatever God's reason behind the six days, it sure did strengthened the faith of the Israelites. Imagine the tension caused by the anticipation of what is going to happen. Im sure they had thier doubts, and God drove the doubt to the max before finally shattering it to dust. I do really appreciate the science, and the infinite wisdom behind this story. And the message is eternal: Do not test what God can do. Do not wait for the last day, go to him now and be saved from the collapsing walls of your own world. We all have our six days. No need to wait for the seventh. Besides, we can't really count the days, can we?

Whose Monument Are You Building?

Consider these two contrasting stories..


Story1:
1 Samuel 15 (New International Version)

1 Samuel 15
The LORD Rejects Saul as King
1 Samuel said to Saul, "I am the one the LORD sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the LORD. 2 This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. 3 Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy [a] everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.' "
4 So Saul summoned the men and mustered them at Telaim—two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand men from Judah. 5 Saul went to the city of Amalek and set an ambush in the ravine. 6 Then he said to the Kenites, "Go away, leave the Amalekites so that I do not destroy you along with them; for you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt." So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites.

7 Then Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, to the east of Egypt. 8 He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword. 9 But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves [b] and lambs—everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed.

10 Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel: 11 "I am grieved that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions." Samuel was troubled, and he cried out to the LORD all that night.

12 Early in the morning Samuel got up and went to meet Saul, but he was told, "Saul has gone to Carmel. There he has set up a monument in his own honor and has turned and gone on down to Gilgal."
(source:http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Samuel%2015;&version=31;)

Story2:
1 Kings 5 (New International Version)

1 Kings 5
Preparations for Building the Temple
1 When Hiram king of Tyre heard that Solomon had been anointed king to succeed his father David, he sent his envoys to Solomon, because he had always been on friendly terms with David. 2 Solomon sent back this message to Hiram:
3 "You know that because of the wars waged against my father David from all sides, he could not build a temple for the Name of the LORD his God until the LORD put his enemies under his feet. 4 But now the LORD my God has given me rest on every side, and there is no adversary or disaster. 5 I intend, therefore, to build a temple for the Name of the LORD my God, as the LORD told my father David, when he said, 'Your son whom I will put on the throne in your place will build the temple for my Name.'

1 Kings 6
Solomon Builds the Temple
1 In the four hundred and eightieth [a] year after the Israelites had come out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the temple of the LORD.
(source:http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=11&chapter=5&version=31&context=chapter)

Both are stories of the two kings of Israel. Both are chosen by God to carry on His will.One though decided to 'twist' God's word and followed only about half of it. The other one followed it with great detail and care. It's amazes me to note that Saul was given a very specific instruction but failed to comply. Solomon on the other hand was given only a goal but accomplished it very well.What made the difference?

I believe the answer lies on the character behind these two personalities. If I were Saul, as a newly appointed king i would be thinking like , "wow im the king. The people must respect me and look up to me. I should be nice, i should make myself known to other nations, i will build alliances...". In the end I ended up having objectives not aligned with God and disobeying his words. Im too consumed for being the 'me'. I even build a monument for myself.

In constrast I could choose to be like Solomon. Given the choice of having wealth,honor, and long life he decided to be focused on the objective--to lead a nation towards God. Unlike Saul, Solomon was not busy building and image for himself. Instead he decided to go after building a nation for God. To this end he built a house where God can live with his people, ever bringing God's presence into the Israelite community.

Now going back to the present time. Of course we are not kings, but we are given the same choices. We can decide to trustingly follow God's word or decide to follow only what we think is right. We can decide to build a monument/image of ourselves, or we can decide to build God's temple. WE can choose to lead people to like use and look up on us, or we can choose to lead them towards God. We can choose what to build.

The encouraging thing is that it is not an either or choice. Saul choose to build his own image first and ended up losing it all, but Solomon's choice of building up God's nation won him God's favor and He gave him other things as well. Not that hard of a choice, right?

Forced Dilemna: Either "Keep on Learning" or "Stop and Unlearn"

When I was way way younger, I remember my father telling me as a boy that whatever I would learn in school, 90% of that would sure to be forgotten. What is important according to him was to make sure that the remaining 10% are my most valued pieces of knowledge and it should be deeply rooted into me that it would be almost a basic instinct to recite or practice them. And he does the talk. Believe it or not, at 50+ age that time he can still recite a long passage from a narrative poem 'Sohrab and Rustum'. Man, i can not even remember if I spelled that correct.

Many years later that converation that we had keeps coming back to me. It is because again his words are proven to be true. I took 9 units of differential and integral calculus in college--but the only thing i remember is how to differentiate or integrate polynomials. I had 6 units of combined chemistry and chemical engineering courses. And i would honestly say that i dont remember a thing on how to balance a redox equation. Back on my college years, solving matrices is a must skill. But now i can not even execute a simple Gauss-Jordan elimination. Actually I had even a hard time remembering what that term means when somebody asked me. Maybe next time i meet my father i would tell him it's more of 98%, and not just 90% are forgotten.

In the context of christian values, convictions, beliefs, and traits that we had learned, the book of Proverbs gives us this advice to avoid the unlearning process. In Proverbs 19:27 says,

Proverbs 19:27 (Contemporary English Version)
2"7If you stop learning,

you will forget

what you already know. "

The advise given here is to keep on learning. Always wear your learner's hat. Proverbs warns us against claiming that we have finally mastered a trait, or a conviction, or a behaviour, or a response to a difficult situation. We can never go to a point where can say we do not need to learn anymore. We can approach but will never come. Now that phrase I remember from calculus. Assymptotic. We will barely hug mastery, but will never touch it. We should always go for mastery, because the moment we decide to do otherwise, we decided to start the unlearning process.

Physical Training: Do not make little of it

Way back about 5 years ago, whenever I am bored or stressed out I run. If Im tired and wanted to be relaxed a bit I jog. In the acedemic oval of the UP Diliman campus, 1 round is about 2.2 kilometers. I do 4 rounds. That is about 8.8 km. And i do that at least once a week since I get easily stressed out back then.

Now 5 years and 17 pounds later I do not run that much. Well to be honest i actually do not run anymore. It is not I dont get bored nor stressed out now, it is just that I found a more convenient outlet. Back then when under stress I exercise, now when stressed out I eat. :-)
No wonder I have those bulging tummies.

But do not get me wrong. I am not body conscious. I never mind my added weight, espcially now that I am only 125 lbs. What bothers me is the change in lifestyle that i had. And It bothered me more when I had to absent from work because i was dizzy one morning and my ears was feeling like exploding. A blood pressure measurement later revealed that my BP was 150/80 which is considered as hypertension. I am not used to a nurse telling me a BP that high. Im a person who used to be at a 110 level. But then again I am a person who used to run at least 8.8 km a week. I totally ignored the value of physical training. My BP made me reminded of what Paul said to Timothy. In NIV, 1 Timothy 4:8 goes as:

1 Timothy 4:8 (New International Version)
8"For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come."
(Source:http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=61&chapter=4&verse=8&version=31&context=verse)

Paul did not say that physical training has no value, it do have SOME value. In here the context is that Timothy who is usually sick, is encouraged to take care of his phyical body as well. Paul must have realized early on that Christians who value thier spiritual body may forget to take care of thier physical ones. Paul said physical training do have some value. So let us not devalue it.

Taking that encouragement to heart, and taking my BP seriously I started to run again. Though this time i do not have the luxury of time as a student does. I run only during weekends, and just in front of my house. Sure enough after 6 days of BP monitoring my level went down to 120/80. That is what physical training does. It really does have SOME value. Aja!

Turn the Other Cheek: How About Assertiveness?

From the New International Version, Matthew 5:39 reads:

Matthew 5:39 (New International Version)
39"But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also."

(Source:http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%205:39&version=31)

Now I have been struggling with this verse since I became a college student. You see when I was younger, I used to take this literally. Later when I stepped-in the university I realized to value assertiveness and dismissed the previous thought of martyrdom. And then a few years after that it I had a change of attitude. It seems more logical then to take on the thought that the verse was meant as literally as it was written--but it was meant only for the holies. And since I do want to be close to being holy, I must adhere to that verse as closely as I possibly could.

Fast forward to present day. One does not need a ten years working experience to realize that the verse can not be literally be interpreted and applied to a working environment--unless of course that person wants to be career dead! In the workplace arena, assertiveness is so much valued that loud-but-not-so-bright people are promoted faster that wise-but-shy-and-quiet talents. How do we settle then the verse with the view of assertiveness?

Well we can look at Jesus. In his day when he is being attacked verbally by the pharisees, I don't see him shy away. Instead he passionately defends what he believes in. That thought make me go back to the verse to look deeper at its context.

Context1: In verse 11, the dialogue was a personal teaching for his disciples. And more importantly it was said in the context of persecution of holding on to the Christian faith. Let me quoute the verse here:

11"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me."

Context2: It also was a dialogue against hypocrisy. This is clear from verses 17 and 20 qouted below:

17"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven."

What was being emphasized was the logic and heart beyond the old testament laws, and that it should not be taken as just a laws to be followed, but a heart to be imitated.

Given those contexts, I can now undestand a bit about the verse. Re-pasted below the whole statement is:

38"You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.'[g] 39But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. "

Now what was being talked about here is the attitude about revenge. In the old testament, it was viewed as just--as long as you give only what is due. Revenge therefore is an expression of justice. In the new testament however, this was corrected by teaching that resentment should not be nurtured at all. Revenge in view of justice just breeds hatred, breeding by itself revenge again thus completing the cycle. To stop this Jesus' answer is forgiveness, to let go of the resentment.

Now going back to the question. Where does one places assertiveness? Well what I conclude is, go for for it. Fight passionately for what you believe in. If you are attacked because of you ideas, defend it without resenting the person. You can not take your work related arguments too personally! If someone throws you an argument against your ideas, then retaliate by throwing counter arguments! Just as long as you keep it as a pure intellectual exercise and you keep your emotions guarded from being personal and below-the-belt I believe it is alright ot be assertive. Well that is what I believe, at least for now that is. :-)