Jericho

"Now Jericho was shut up from within and from without because of the people of Israel; none went out, and none came in. And The Lord said to Joshua, "See, I have given into your hand Jericho, with its king and mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days. And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark; and on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, the priests blowing the trumpets. And when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up every man straight before him." (Joshua 6:1-5)


Shortly before Moses died, having led the Jews to the promise land, he told Joshua to take everyone across the Jordan river because they own all of the land there. So Joshua sent two men ahead to spy on the people of Jericho where they met a woman named Rahab who had heard about the Hebrew God and asked that when they take over Jericho, they do not harm her family. When they returned God told Joshua the specific instructions for breaking down the way of Jericho:
1. Gather an army of men, priests, some guys to carry the ark of the covenant. All armed with ram horns.
2. March around the city once a day for six days and keep quiet while the priests blow the horns.
3. On the seventh day, march around it seven times and yell really lound on the seventh turn.

Remind me again why the Jews own Jericho?

Voila! Deconstruction. The population of Jericho evacuates, Joshua and his buddies get the city, and Rahab's family stays in safety.

We've all heard the saying about God working in mysterious ways, but I can't see the benefit of this exercise other than testing how well Joshua and the Jews can follow instructions. Is this simply another case of the bible teaching obedience through narratives, or is there a significance to what just happened?