Joshua – Lesson 30

Humanly speaking, Jericho was so strongly fortified as to be almost incapable of being taken. It guarded all the passes to the interior of the land of Canaan. So as long as Jericho held out, the land was safe. The same experience meets us once we choose to go on in Christian warfare.

There were treasures locked up inside the city of Jericho. And Jericho was to be opened and its treasures used for God’s glory. We have weapons which are not carnal but which have the power of God in them which can pull down strongholds. Our weapons are prayer and obedience to God’s Word.

The Secret of Victory

The conquest of Jericho was God’s undertaking. Likewise, our spiritual life is God’s undertaking.

· Joshua 6:2, Then the LORD said to Joshua, "See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.”

· Philippians 1:6, “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

· Phil 4:13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

A similar truth is found in the parable of the vine and the branches.

· John 15:5, "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Next we see the marching orders for Jericho’s defeat.

· Joshua 6:2-5, 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."

We see here that the people were to march in a certain order. First, were the armed forces of Israel. Then seven priests with rams’ horns, carrying the Ark of the Covenant. Bringing up the rear were the people of Israel.

These were all to march around the city, once each day, for six days. Then on the seventh day they were to march around the city seven times. There was to be no noise made by these marchers except the sound of the rams’ horns. It would take about two hours for this marching party to go from Gilgal to Jericho, march once around the city, and return to Gilgal.

These tactics must have seemed stupid to the residents of Jericho who, we can imagine, stood up on top of the city wall and derided this strange site of people just marching silently around their city. And they must have been amazed by the silence as they marched. Ordinarily when men go into battle there is a lot of noise, but not this time.

And what was going through the minds of the Israelites? Every day as they marched around the city, the walls looked the same as they had the day before. And what were they thinking as they marched several times on the seventh day and nothing was happening?

But something was happening. God was about to do something amazing.

Now let us not overlook what we saw in Joshua 6:12.

· Joshua 6:12, Joshua got up early the next morning and the priests took up the ark of the LORD.

Joshua got up early in the morning. Do you remember what God told Moses to tell the people regarding gathering the manna? He told them to gather it early in the morning. You have to wonder if we are not suppose to learn from this that there is some virtue in rising early in the morning to see what God is going to do on this day.

The Conquest of Faith

· Hebrews 11:30  By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.

The city of Jericho fell as a result of faith. And all the battles Israel fought were to be fought by faith.

· Hebrews 11:6, And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

In this 11th chapter we see that “by faith Enoch”, “by faith Noah”, “By faith Abraham”, “by faith Sarah”, “by faith Isaac”, “by faith Joseph”, and on and on. Faith is the working principle of life.

The world cannot understand this, and as a result faith is foolishness to the worldly people. This must be the way the people of Jericho felt during this week of marching by the Israelites. The whole work of God in taking the land of Canaan is symbolic of our spiritual warfare.

There is no natural explanation for the collapse of the wall around Jericho. No weapons were used; the wall was not undermined; there was no assault on the wall. The wall fell because of the power of God.

At this point it would be well for us to remember:

· 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Next, the conquest of Jericho was an adventure of faith that involved a risk of the faithfulness of God. The Israelites staked everything on the trustworthiness of God. The Jordan River made retreat impossible. There was no place to which they could flee. Their total trust must rest on God.

We too need to come to this same place where there is no retreat, and our total trust must be in God. Our personal victories over sin are won by faith alone.

· Mark 11:22-24, "Have faith in God," Jesus answered. 23 "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours

In the third place, the conquest of Jericho demanded the obedience of faith. It must be an obedience without any questions.

God rarely interprets His commands in advance. He simply asks us to believe Him. If He always gave us an explanation ahead of time as to what He was going to do, it wouldn’t require faith, or we wouldn’t believe Him.

In our time it seems as though men are always looking for new methods in their attempts to battle Satan. But its not new methods that are needed but obedient men. Some like to use the glitzy Hollywood method, others the entertaining beat of the music, and a variety of other approaches. Its as if the Holy Spirit needed some new approach to the Gospel.

Israel was to obey God. They were not told why the plan to be followed was good, nor what the consequences would be. When God says do something a certain way, were are expected to do it His way. Christian obedience is not based on knowledge of what is going to happen or why such and such a method is the best one to follow. We trust what God says and that is sufficient.

Salvation itself is based entirely on faith. Our sanctification is based on faith. Our growth in grace follows in obedience to faith.

In the fourth place, we find the discipline of faith. Here was a nation notorious for its complaining spirit and its criticism of God’s ways. This had characterized them for 40 years in the desert. But now this new generation was more disciplined.

Joshua had commanded them.

· Joshua 6:10, "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!"

The center of their attention as they marched was to be on the Ark. It is mentioned 11 times in the 6th chapter. God was with His people and though they did not know what He was doing, they trusted Him and were obedient to the instructions they were given by Joshua

In the fifth place, there was the patience of faith. The Israelites circled the city 13 times in seven days, yet at the end of each circuit the walls were just as strong as they were the first time they circled the city. There was no evidence, that they could see, that God was doing anything. (Is it possible that some of our prayers have not been answered because we have not completed enough circuits in our prayer life?)

Paul, Job, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Moses, Gideon and others faced what seemed to be hopeless situations before realizing that God was in control and led them according to His own plan. So why did God choose such a seemingly ridiculous plan for the fall of Jericho? There can be only one answer and that is that He was testing their faith and it was important that the victory did not provide the Israelites any grounds for boasting in what they had done. It was the miraculous power of God.