The first reason of the many days is rightly drawn from the supreme benignity of God toward the men of Jericho. For he could, first, if he had willed, in one day — nay, in the first hour and moment — have scattered their walls; but the Lord is long-suffering, merciful; he always awaits and invites us to penitence; he defers his wrath; he postpones, so far as he can, the destruction that must be sent upon sinners. A most true example of him [is] that which is praised by a certain one of the poets: “A prince slow to punishment, swift to rewards.” II. [The second reason] is from the same [God’s] wisdom and goodness toward the Israelites. He willed that an opportunity be given for exercising their faith and obedience longer. “By faith,” says the Apostle (Heb. 11:30), “the walls of Jericho collapsed, by the circuit of seven days.” That faith was both Joshua’s own and the whole people’s, while they kept coming, so many times, on so many days, to go around that city. Some faithless and refractory [men] might say: “To what purpose so many days, and circuits of the city? Cannot our God overthrow those walls in a single day, at once?” III. That the desire of the Israelites might be the more kindled, [and] a greater ardor be stirred up in [their] prayers. For desires which are put off a little while grow. IV. That they might learn, in the things which they desire, always to keep a measure. For while the famished are borne with too great an onrush upon food, they do not refresh their nature, but overwhelm it. If Esau had bridled his craving, [he would] so [not have lost] his birthright…
(col. 771)
…[If Esau had bridled his craving,] he would not have reckoned his birthright as nothing (Gen. 25:32, 34). In all these cravings: “Put it off! — small delays have great advantages.” V. That, in the expectation of God’s promises, and in the observance of his commands, in prayers, and in the handling of all religious [duties], constancy and perseverance might be commended to us — partly by the decree of God himself who prescribed those [seven] days, partly by the example of the Israelites obeying him. VI. That it might be made clearly manifest to all that this ruin was made not by any chance or fortuitous cause — of the kind that sometimes happens in earthquakes — but by the predetermined and destined counsel and will of the superior agent-cause [God], as Abulensis declares at length, q. 3.
The trumpets were many, first: that the sound might be greater, which could be heard both by the Israelites, [being] so many, and by all the men of Jericho. For I do not at all doubt, with Aristotle (of whom above, q. 22), that a sound is carried farther if it be the shout of many. Now that sound, as has been said, incited and refreshed the Israelites; but the men of Jericho, if they were wise, it invited to penitence, and terrified. Secondly: that the multitude of the heralds of the Gospel might be signified. Thirdly: that the office, efficacy, and force of the same [heralds] in demolishing the worldly Jericho might be demonstrated. All these [things] the renowned and ancient trumpeters set forth beautifully — St. Augustine and Origen. The former, indeed, [in] sermon 106 On the Season, with these words: “Jericho, brothers, was a type of this world. For just as then, at the sounding of the trumpets, those walls fell, so now too it behooves that the city of the world — that is, pride with its towers, namely avarice, envy, and luxury, together with its peoples, that is, with all evil concupiscences — be destroyed and perish utterly by the constant preaching of the priests. It behooves not, therefore, that the priests be silent in the Church, but let them hear the Lord saying: ‘Cry, cease not, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and announce to my people their crimes’ [Isa. 58:1]. We are commanded, therefore, to cry, and to cry vehemently. ‘Spare not,’ he says — that is, [spare not] the sinner’s iniquity, lest by keeping silent it perish; and while you consult his shame, you do not consult his health, lest, by keeping silent, you nourish for the worse the wounds which by crying out you could have cut away. We are commanded, therefore, to cry; and, lest anyone say he did not hear, or the priest’s voice be hidden from any, to cry vehemently.” And, lest perhaps this itself should not suffice, he adds, saying: “‘Lift up your voice like a trumpet.’ You know that the trumpet is wont to be [an instrument] not so much of delight as of terror; not so much to hold forth pleasure as to inspire dread. The trumpet, therefore, is necessary for sinners — [a trumpet] which not only penetrates their ears, but also shakes the heart; which delights not by [its] song, but chastises by [its] hearing; and which exhorts all the strenuous in good [works], and terrifies the slack for [their] faults. For just as in battle the trumpet casts down the mind of the fearful soldier, and kindles the courage of the brave, so also the priestly trumpet humbles the mind of the sinner, [and] strengthens the courage of the holy man. Nor does it spare the voice, as it spares [seeks] health; and by one and the same sound it gives to the one [the holy man] exhortation, that he may be stronger for conquering, [and] on the other [the sinner] it strikes terror, that he may be slower to sin. For this is the trumpet’s custom: that it may scatter the works of transgressors, and confirm the deeds of the saints.” That all these [things] were done in a figure, there is no doubt. For what else do we believe the priestly trumpets of that time to have prefigured, than the preachings of the priests of this time — through which they cease not to announce to sinners, with a terrible sound, the stern judgment; to preach the sad destruction of Gehenna; and, with a certain crash of threatening, [to] the ears of transgressors beat? “For just as then the clangor of the trumpets, once evil thoughts were destroyed, passed through to the bare [depths] of the soul; and just as the sound of the sacred voice destroyed and took captive the stubborn people, so also now the priestly preaching subjugates the sinful people.”
Origen, hom. 7: “Jericho is the form of the present age, whose strength and defenses we see to have been destroyed by the priestly trumpets. For the firmness and the defenses by which, as by walls, that world relied — [these were] the worship of idols, ministered by the deceptive art of the demons’ divinations, [and] the fabrications of augurs and haruspices and magicians, by all which, as by most strong walls, this world was ringed about. Moreover, it was also strengthened by the diverse dogmas of the philosophers, and by [their] most eminent assertions and disputations — as by certain tall and robust towers. But our Lord JESUS CHRIST, coming — whose advent that former son of Nun [Joshua] designated — sends his priests, his Apostles, bearing ductile [beaten-metal] trumpets; and the magnificent and heavenly doctrine of [his] preaching, Matthew first sounded forth with the priestly trumpet in his Gospel; Mark too, [and] Luke, and John, sounded [it] with their several priestly trumpets. Peter too resounds with the two trumpets of his epistles; James too, and Jude. And John still adds, moreover, to sound the trumpet through his epistles and the Apocalypse; and Luke, describing the deeds of the Apostles. But last of all comes that one who said: ‘I think that God has set forth us, the Apostles, last of all’ [1 Cor. 4:9] — and, fulminating with the trumpets of his fourteen epistles, he cast down to the very foundations the walls of Jericho, and all the engines of idolatry, and the dogmas of the philosophers.” And this last [point], about St. Paul, [Origen puts] excellently, as is his wont. The golden trumpet of St. Chrysostom resounds [likewise], hom. 25 on 2 Corinthians: “Just as,” he says, “one man, assailed in war by the whole world, might move among the very wedges [ranks] of the enemy, and suffer nothing adverse, so also Paul, alone among Barbarians, among Gentiles, everywhere on earth, and appearing in all the parts of the sea, remained unconquered. And just as some spark, falling into stubble and hay, turns into its own nature the things that are burned, so here too, invading in the same manner, he was leading all over to the truth, [sweeping] all things like a torrent.” St. Ambrose, in the prologue to book 1 On the Faith, to Gratian: “Jesus [Joshua] too, the son of Nun, conquered the enemies — whom the strong hand of the whole army could not overcome — by the sound of the seven priestly trumpets, when he recognized the captain of the heavenly host. Therefore you too now prepare to conquer, you who adore Christ; you prepare to conquer, you who champion the faith.” And in the same work, book 5: “Joshua led forth into the wars no bronze-clad battle-lines, nor [conquered] by the ram and the other engines of artillery, but by the sound of the seven priestly trumpets he laid low the enclosures of the enemy walls. Thus the trumpet’s clangor, and the priest’s fillet [mitre], accomplished a monstrous war.”
But the causes of the many circuits [are] the same as [those] of the days. But because our heretics accuse the various rites and ceremonies of the Catholics of a certain fatuous inanity and folly, it will not be beside the point to recall to their memory this very example of God, of Joshua, and of the Israelites — and indeed (that it may have more authority with them) in the words of a rabbi great among them, namely Calvin, who writes thus on this passage: “God commands [them] to go around the city with one circuit daily, up to the seventh day, on which he commands them to go around seven times, to sound the trumpets, and to shout; which whole [thing] was nothing else than to play childishly. But by this test it was worth the while that their faith be proved: so that, discerning in the matter itself nothing but mere frustration [futility], they should nevertheless acquiesce in GOD’s miracle — with which counsel too [God] often hides his power for a time under weakness,…”
(col. 773)
…”[with which counsel too God often hides his power under weakness for a time,] and seems to play with empty trifles, so that his weakness may at last appear stronger than all power, and his folly shine out above all wisdom. So, while they are bidden to give way to his reasoning, the Israelites hang upon his mouth; by acting foolishly they profit far more than if they had made an assault by violent effort, and had shaken the walls with the mightiest and countless engines. It behooved that they be foolish only for a short time, and not eagerly, anxiously, and subtly inquire about the outcome — because that would in some manner have blocked the way to God’s power. Meanwhile, although their circular walking could be a laughingstock, at last, by the prosperous outcome, it became known that God commands nothing in vain.”