Please turn with me to Joshua 6.  As we’ve been moving our way through the book of Joshua we’ve been seeing are real people facing enormous challenges and learning to trust God along the way.  We’ve been learning what it means for us to trust God through the circumstances of our lives.  We’ve also been learning what it means to trust God as He moves us forward as a congregation.

Chapter six brings us to the battle for Jericho - which is a familiar account for some.  Would I spoil it for you if I told you the walls fall down?  What I’d like to have us do is work through the text - touching on a few details as we go through - to get them fresh in our minds.  Then we’ll come back and talk about how this can relate to us today.

Joshua 6:1:  Now Jericho was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel; no one went out and no one came in.  The Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and the valiant warriors.  You shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once.  You shall do so for six days.  Also seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark; then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets.  It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people will go up every man straight ahead.”

Let’s pause and make sure we notice two important things.

First:  Victory is an established fact.  Say that with me, “Victory is an established fact.”

This is like game 3 of the 1932 World Series.  Remember this?  Baseball trivia.  Chicago Cubs verses the New York Yankees.  Score tied 4-4.  Charlie Root the pitcher has the batter on the ropes - 2 strikes and 2 balls.  The batter?  Babe Ruth - points out to center field and hits the next pitch 500 feet into the stands - longest home run ever hit at Wrigley Field.

God told Moses - back when the Hebrews first left Egypt - God told Moses what it would be like when Israel conquered the Promised Land.  Exodus 23:27:  “I will send My terror ahead of you, and throw into confusion all the people among whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.”  You’re gonna see their backs ‘cause they’re gonna be running scared.

The people of Jericho knew about God taking His people through the Red Sea - wiping out Pharaoh and his chariots.  They’d seen God’s people wipe out the Amorites on the other side of the Jordan - leveled their cities - destroyed their kingdoms.  Then they’d watched these same Hebrews cross the Jordan River - during the Spring - when the Jordan River was a raging torrent of what?  Death.  Crossed right through the uncrossable river - on dry ground.

They’re staring at a huge army - battle hardened - ready for conquest - armed and dangerous - camped on their doorstep.  They know, “We’re toast.”

Verse 1 says that Jericho was shut up tighter than a mason jar on canning day.  No one’s going in or out.  No raiding parties.  No spies.  No one.

The Lord said to Joshua, “See, I’ve delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and valiant warriors.”

The victory is won before Joshua ever sets foot on the field of battle.  God declares it.  Joshua knows it.  Jericho knows it.  Victory is an established fact.  Imagine the kind of confidence Joshua must have felt.

Second:  notice God’s Battle Plan.  Say that with me, “God’s battle plan.”

Jericho was known as “The City of Palms” which described Jericho’s location.  It was strategically located in the fertile Jordan Valley.  Palm trees - agriculture.  It was prosperous - wealthy.

Jericho was an old city - built up over several thousand years - 17 different phases of construction.  If you look at the screen - the picture on the left side - the city had two walls.  The first wall - on the right - the outer wall - was 30 feet tall and six feet thick.  Then there was a gap of about 12 to 15 feet.  Then the inner wall - the one that the city was behind - was 30 feet tall and 12 feet thick.  We know all that because the city’s been excavated.

The picture on the right shows that between the two walls there were houses.  People lived by the top of the outer wall - where it was possible - up on your roof - to look out onto the fertile Jordan River valley.

Jericho was the first walled city that the Hebrews had come up against.  It was formidable.

In Joshua’s day there were 5 accepted ways to capture a walled city.  Today we’d use smart bombs - shock and awe - cruise missiles.  But in Joshua’s day there were 5 acceptable ways to conquer a walled city.

An army could go over the wall using ladders or ramps.  Or, they could dig a tunnel under the wall.  They could smash a hole through the wall.  An army could lay siege until the city starved into submission.  Or they could try what the Greeks tried - subterfuge - the Trojan horse thing.

5 acceptable ways.  God’s plan wasn’t one of them.  God’s plan for taking this formidable city is something called, “When the Saints Go Marching Round.”

In Scripture 7 is the number symbolizing divine perfection or completion.  God takes 6 days to complete creation then He rests on the 7th.  Divine perfection - completion.

Here, the emphasis on the number 7 - the horns - the priests - leading the ark - 7 days - 7 times around on the 7th - all that is to impress us with the reality that this isn’t just a military campaign.  This is a religious event.  This is a battle - victory fought for and already assured by the Almighty God.  God’s battle plan.  God’s victory.  Say that with me, “God’s battle plan.  God’s victory.”

Verse 6:  So Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests carry seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord.”  Then he said to the people, “Go forward, and march around the city, and let the armed men go on before the ark of the Lord.”  And it was so, that when Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the Lord went forward and blew the trumpets; and the ark of the covenant of the Lord followed them.  The armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard came after the ark, while they continued to blow the trumpets.  But Joshua commanded the people, saying, “You shall not shout nor let your voice be heard nor let a word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I tell you, ‘Shout!’  Then you shall shout!”  So he had the ark of the Lord taken around the city, circling it once; then they came into the camp and spent the night in the camp.

If you look at the graph - there’s an order of march.  First comes the armed men - perhaps 600,000 strong.  Then the 7 priests with the 7 rams’ horns.  Then the priests with the ark of the covenant.  Following are the people - maybe a million plus.

Jericho is about 10 acres or so in size.  6 days this procession goes around Jericho with the priests blowing the horns and the people saying nothing.  However long it took to march around - they did.  Then they went back to camp.

The people on the wall had a front row seat for all this.  Can you imagine the kind of insults that God’s people had to endure.  The kinds of things that were thrown down on them.  The whole time God’s people are silent.

This is impressive psychological warfare.  Isn’t it?  Two million people marching around your city - silent except for those obnoxious rams’ horns.  The Hebrew camp is only about 2 or 3 miles away.  In the evening you can see the campfires - hear the music - the laughter - smell the bar-b-que. 

The people of Jericho have checked the strategy book and this isn’t one of the five strategies.  By the seventh day the people in the city are probably really confused.  Just going nuts trying to figure out what’s going on.  Then - on the 7th day - these Hebrews won’t stop marching.  They keep going around and around.

Have you ever been in a really large gathering of Christians - like a stadium?  A place where normally people are yelling and screaming for their team.  But, this is a worship service - a gathering of Christians.  The leader says, “Let’s pray.”  And thousands of people become deathly silent.   The silence of prayer - the focus on God - is as deafening as the yelling and screaming - the focus on the team.

Grab on to this.  It is impressive that God’s people pulled this off.  The silence.  The orderliness.  There’s no whining about who’s not marching correctly.  Or, who gets to march where.  Or, how they don’t agree with the battle plan in the first place.  All the tacky immature stuff that God’s people can so easily come apart about.

How did they do that?  Because its all about God.  Follow the ark.  Circle the city.  Say that with me, “Follow the ark.  Circle the city.”

These are the people that had watched an entire senior generation die in the wilderness because they’d turned against God.   These are the people that God had called to consecrate themselves and He - God - brought them through the Jordan River.  While they were poised to attach Jericho - at seemingly the most inopportune time - God had them renew the rite of circumcision and the Passover meal.

Remember this from last Sunday?

Poised to attack Jericho - God’s people have come to understand - at a heart level - that the last 40 years have been wiped away.  God has freed them from the past - the sin - the reproach - the shame.  God has given them a new beginning in a new land.  They serve the living God who has delivered them - provided for them - who has and is fulfilling His promises to them.  They are His people.  Set apart to serve Him.

The people circling the city are focused on God - obeying Him - trusting Him.

Hold on to that.  God’s people - consecrated to God - trusting God - focused on God - are a formidable force in God’s hands.

Let’s pause there.  There are two things we need to understand.

First:  What God means by “The Ban.”

The word “ban” translates the Hebrew word “cherem.”  It has the idea of something devoted - or set-apart - for God.  God’s stuff that humans are banned from possessing.  God’s stuff that He can do with it whatever He wants to do with it.

The Law of First Fruits - remember this?  The first born - the first of our produce - the tithe coming off the top - whatever is first is God’s.  This is the first city in the Promised Land - the first city that God’s people have conquered.  It belongs to God.

God wants it destroyed - totally - completely.  The city.  The people.  The young.  The old.  The livestock.  Kill them.  Burn the city.  The stuff that won’t burn - take into God’s treasury.  Because its His.

Does that sound kind of harsh?  The second thing we need to understand is the purpose of all this destruction.

A few years back I visited Baalbek - which is a temple site in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.  Three temples on one huge site - a large temple complex - all dedicated to Baal.  The relief work is all male genitalia.

In Jericho - same god - same worship.  A religion that included child sacrifices and homosexuality and ritual prostitution.  The culture of the city was wicked and debased - hung up on sex.  The literature we have from that day is sexually explicit - pornographic.  They had little figurines - that have been found all over - that were explicitly sexual.  The songs they sang were about sex.  In many ways not unlike today.

Jericho was perhaps the most twisted and vile culture of the ancient near east.  It was singled out by God for destruction.  First on the list of cities to be destroyed.

Fences make good what?  Neighbors.  Same with walls.  They keep people out.  They keep people in.  The Jericho-ites are hiding behind the walls.

They’d been warned.  All these nations were descendants of Ham.  Who was a son of who?  Noah.   The flood was a big time warning against evil.  The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah - to the south - were wiped out by God because of sin.  These people should have paid attention.  They’d heard about what God had done to the Egyptians.  That was a warning.

Some people have speculated that Israel being sent to wander for 40 years - while that was God’s judgment on His people - it may have also been an act of God’s grace to the Canaanites - giving them more time to repent.

God having His people camp out on both sides of the Jordan River - the time that that took - the slow conquest of Canaan - God taking 6 days to have His people march around the city - all that’s God’s grace - giving these people time to repent.

But they’re standing behind their walls - hands in their ears going, “We can’t hear you.”  Like so many people today - they’re making a choice to ignore and reject God’s grace.

For 685 years - from the time Abraham entered the land - till the destruction of Jericho - God had been patient.  But, their sinfulness had reached the limit of what God would allow.   God has His timing.  There are limits that He sets.  According to His justice He brings about punishment.  (Genesis 15:13-16)

First:  Its a lesson about sin.  God doesn’t like it when we sin.  While He may be patient.  There are limits.  That’s a huge lesson for God’s people.  We may think we’re getting away with stuff - that God doesn’t care - that He’s off running the universe someplace.  But, God will punish sin.  Look at the ash pile that was Jericho and don’t go there.  Keep away from sin.

Second reason for the destruction:  The purity of God’s people.

Remember what Jesus said, “If your right eye makes you stumble - what?  tear it out and throw it from you…  If your right hand makes you stumble - what?  cut it off and throw it from you - Why?  Because - its better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.”  (Matthew 5:29,30)  Sin is serious stuff.  Don’t mess with it.

If you don’t destroy this stuff you’re going to want some of it.  If you want some of it you’re going to keep some of it.  If you keep some of it then you’re going to get caught up in the same sin these people were involved in.  That’s going to get you in all kinds of trouble - ultimately God’s judgment.

Sin - no matter how enticing - sin is always self-destructive behavior.  God loves us.  Wants the best for us.  We cannot follow God - by faith - to what He desires for us - living victoriously with Him - if we’re clinging on to the self-destructive behavior of sin.

Bottom line:  God comes first.  Get rid of anything that keeps us from putting God first.

Verse 22:  Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the harlot’s house and bring the woman and all she has out of there, as you have sworn to her.”  So the young men who were spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brothers and all she had; they also brought out all her relatives and placed them outside the camp of Israel.  They burned the city with fire, and all that was in it.  Only the silver and gold, and articles of bronze and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord.  However, Rahab the harlot and her father’s household and all she had, Joshua spared; and she has lived in the midst of Israel to this day, for she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

Two things for us to notice here.

First:  that Rahab gets saved.  Say that with me, “Rahab gets saved.”

Remember from chapter two - we saw that Rahab - a Canaanite - a prostitute - a leading citizen of this degenerate and proud city - protects the two spies sent out by Joshua.  Hid them - at the cost of her own life.  Risks everything to keep them safe.

By faith she places her life in the hands of God’s people - and ultimately in God’s hands.

God’s people make a deal with Rahab.  Hang a scarlet thread outside your window - and when we destroy the city anyone in your house will be saved.  When God’s people enter the city - Joshua gives specific commands to get Rahab and her family out.  Are we together?

Look at the graphic.  Two sets of walls.  Rahab’s house is where?  On the outer wall.

Verse 20 says that when the people shouted the wall fell flat down so the people went into the city straight ahead.  Literally what that’s saying is that the walls fell down in their place and the Hebrews - who were surrounding the city - went into every quarter of the city at the same time.

The walls of Jericho were built on uneven bricks about 4 inches by 2 feet in size.  The spaces between the bricks were filled with mortar.  Every time the city had gotten sacked the people had built the walls up on top of what was left.  Expedient but not stable.

The marching of the people - 2 million strong - for 7 days - may have caused the walls to crumble.  But the real miracle is that Rahab’s house stood.  That Rahab was saved.  That was a God thing.

Second notice that Rahab becomes part of Israel.  Say that with me, “Rahab becomes part of Israel.”

Rahab is in her house.  For six days she’s watching these people march and wondering what’s going on.  The seventh day - by faith - she’s in her house waiting.  The walls come down.  The Hebrews rush in tearing up the city - burning stuff and executing people.  She sees and hears the destruction around her.  Finally - in the doorway are the faces of the 2 spies - faces she would have recognized.  And she knows its not a trap.  She and those with her are spared.

She and those with her are taken outside the Hebrew camp - a ritual quarantine - since nothing unclean could enter the camp.  After the passage of the appropriate time and rituals they’re received into the camp.  They become part of the people.

We know that Rahab married Salmon.  There’s a Jewish tradition that Salmon was one of the spies.  Isn’t that romantic?  Everyone go “ahhh.”  Rahab becomes the great-great-grandmother of King David and an ancestor of Jesus.  She’s given a place of honor in the history of Israel.  A place of honor in our own spiritual history.

Bottom line:  Rahab trusts God.  God saves Rahab.  Rahab is given a whole new life with God’s people.  Trust God.  Get saved.  Say that with me, “Trust God.  Get saved.”

Verse 26:  Then Joshua made them take an oath at that time saying, “Cursed before the Lord is the man who rises up and builds this city Jericho; with the loss of his first born he shall lay its foundation, and with the loss of his youngest son he shall set up its gates.”  So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame was in all the land.

Two points:

First, the city.

The area around Jericho was resettled.  The idea behind Joshua’s curse is fortification.  Don’t make a fortified city out of Jericho.  It was an evil city.  And while we’re out conquering the Promised Land we don’t need to have some evil fortified city occupying our rear - especially near Gilgal - our base of operations.

About 550 years later - during the reign of King Ahab -  a guy by the name of Hiel from Bethel tried to rebuild Jericho and make it into a fortress.  When he laid the foundations his first born son Abiram died.  When he set up the gates his youngest son Segub died.

Be impressed with God at work.

Second - just in case we haven’t pick up on this yet - notice who gets the credit.

Verse 27 - who was with Joshua?  The Lord.  Joshua’s fame is established because of the victory.  But that all happens because of God.

Two thoughts of application.

First: God’s victory is an established fact.

Sometimes we Christians we come up against walls of opposition - stuff that we just have no clue how to overcome - a problem that keeps resurfacing - a situation that has us completely overwhelmed - a habit we can’t seem to beat - a sin we can’t seem to overcome - you name it - and we keep banging our head into the wall - without any effect - because we’re trusting in ourselves - and what we think we know - rather than trusting God.

Way too often we give up or give in when we’ve already won the battle.

We need to remember that as Christians we live in a position of victory - over sin - death - the crud of this world - won for us by Jesus Christ on the cross and through His resurrection.

Second;  God’s victory comes God’s way.

There was a man who’d bought a piece of property that had a lot of trees on it.  He decided to buy a chain saw to cut down the trees with.  The guy at the hardware store sold him a chain saw that he guaranteed would cut down at least 15 trees in a single day.

A week later, the very unhappy weekend warrior comes back to report that something must be wrong with the chain saw. - it averaged only 3 trees a day.  The hardware guy takes the saw, pulls the cord - and the saw promptly goes “rrrrrrrr.”

The man says, “Hey, what’s that noise?”

God’s victory isn’t about our intelligence - or skill - or spiritual maturity.

Hebrews 11:30 says, “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.”

The walls don’t fall because Joshua was a great leader.  Or, because God’s people read the book on “Five Easy Ways to Conquer A Walled City.”  They didn’t fall because they were poorly constructed. 

God’s people conquered Jericho because God’s people had faith in God.

Rahab gets saved because she put her faith in God.

Joshua gets exalted because he put his faith in God.

God’s way of doing things may not be as swift as we like.  It may not make much sense to us with our ways of doing things.  It may take a few extra trips around the city.  Might mean dealing with issues we’d really rather not deal with. 

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Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible®, © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation.  Used by permission.