Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 9
The teacher rejects attempts to explain Jericho’s fall purely by earthquakes or engineering and insists “it was the shout… a shout of faith,” then says faith without obedience and obedience without faith both fail; where do you see your own life drifting toward one-sided “faith-talk” without costly obedience, or dutiful obedience without trusting expectancy, and what would it look like to reunite the two this week?
Another way to ask: Where do you see yourself doing “faith talk” without real obedience, or doing obedience without trust and hope in God? What is one concrete way you could bring faith and obedience back together this week?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
The speaker’s point is that real victory comes when faith and obedience work together—neither confident talk nor mere duty is enough. Reuniting them would mean acting on what God has commanded with genuine expectancy that he will do what he promised.
- He dismisses purely natural explanations: “I’ve decided that it was the shout… earthquake or no earthquake.”
- He defines the shout: “it was a shout of faith… they believed… something supernatural was going to happen.”
- Hebrews 11 is cited: “by faith, the walls… fell down… It was by faith.”
- He gives both failure modes: faith without obedience—“Jericho would not have been defeated”; obedience without faith—“a weak cry of fear… walls would [not] have come down.”
- Key #4 sums it up: “trust and obey,” and he adds, “Faith and works are not in opposition… a powerful duet.”
- He states the theological stakes plainly: “Without faith… impossible to please him, and without obedience, our faith is dead.”