Posted on 01/06/2011 2:34:07 PM PST by wmfights
Jericho is an excellent example of how God judges cities. Join me as we take a walk through its paths and turn the pages of its history. Joshua, chapter 6, gives us a rather detailed picture of the city; the city whose conquest made the commander Joshua famous.
Thanks to a spring of water, civilization gravitated to this area close to the Dead Sea. The city of Jericho is surely one of the oldest in all of history, dating back to at least 8000 years B.C. And because of its location, it played a strategic part in Israel’s history.
Jericho was there during the days of Abraham, when he was a wanderer in the land that God promised him as an inheritance. The city commanded the southeast area of the land of Canaan. And when Israel was in Egypt, the city began to grow and became an even stronger Canaanite fortification. Archaeologists say that it occupied perhaps twenty acres - maybe it was 1 and 1 /2 miles around. Huge walls protected it.
Recently, Time featured an article titled “Score One for the Bible.” The article said that the walls have now been positively identified and the story in the Book of Joshua finally has been proven true. For years archaeologists have quibbled about the walls — which walls belonged to which period of history. Rather than calling it “Score One for the Bible,” Time should have titled their article, “Score One for the Archaeologists” - at long last, the archaeologists have caught up with the Bible!
As Jericho grew in its size, it also grew in wickedness. Archaeologists tell us that it was filled with homosexuality; cruelty to children, and occult practices. It was everything that one witnesses in today’s decadent society. Jericho was the early beginnings of today’s decadence.
When Joshua 6 opens, Israel has crossed the Jordan River, they have come to Gilgal where the “reproach” of their unbelief and defeat had been taken away. Standing before them is Jericho. The Lord gives Joshua a promise, “See I have given Jericho into your hand with its king and valiant warriors” (v 2). The Lord says, “Joshua, it’s already done.” How can God say He had already given Jericho to them? The Almighty speaks about those things which are not, as though they were. As far as God is concerned, the conquest was history. If the Israelites would believe God, Jericho was as good as conquered.
Marching Around The City
Specific instructions were given: “And 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 with the trumpets. And it shall be that when they make a long blast with the rams horn and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout and the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people will go up every man straight ahead” (Joshua 6:3-5)
What can we learn from these instructions? Some people have marched around a house or land that they wanted and perhaps the Lord even gave it to them. But I prefer to apply the principles of this conquest.
First of all, Israel marched around the city defenselessly. They did not have weapons. Unlike the Israelites, the Canaanites had iron and were far ahead of other nations in the art of warfare. In contrast, Israel had virtually no weapons nor a well-trained army. Christ said, “Behold I send you forth as lambs in the midst of wolves” (Luke 10:3). It’s okay to be weak, as long as we know where our strength lies. As long as we keep looking to the promises of God; it’s okay if the walls of our city seem to be unmovable.
Israel marched defenselessly and they marched patiently. When evening came, the skeptics questioned why they should expend the effort repeating this exercise. The children were restless; the women were tired and the men were discouraged. What is more, the walls were as high and strong as ever. Why should they have to do it again? I’ve had people tell me about their Jerichos and sometimes I tell them, “Just keep doing what you’re doing because you’re doing the right things. Someday, God is going to reward your obedience and out of the blue you’re going to find a crack in the wall.”
Dr. Alan Redpath said that some people are tempted to quit on their 12th time around their personal Jericho. Israel had to march around 13 times - once each day for six days and seven times on the seventh day. I don’t know what would have happened if they had quit at round number 12. Perhaps we quit too soon. Patiently they marched; patiently we must walk in obedience.
They also marched silently. We read, “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.’” There are times to shout, and there are times to stand still and see the salvation of God. There’s nothing as thrilling as having God as your Defender, letting Him take up your cause and fight your battles. As the Scripture says, “In quietness and trust is your strength” (Isaiah 30:15).
God said he wanted them to march unitedly. First of all, the priests went around, then the men of war, and then the ark. You can almost visualize these people winding their way around the huge walls. Today many are struggling with deep needs that will never be conquered on their own. Only the united body of Christ can make a difference. Those who find themselves trapped in a pit need others to lend them a hand.
They also marched expectantly. They did not know what God was going to do. God didn’t tell Joshua that the walls would collapse on the seventh day. Joshua’s responsibility was to obey; God’s responsibility was to win the victory. Let us keep our responsibility and God’s responsibility distinct.
“It came about on the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, ‘Shout! For the Lord has given you the city’” (Joshua 6:16). “So the people shouted, and priests blew the trumpets; and it came about, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, that the people shouted with a great shout and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight ahead, and they took the city” (v 20). God said, “It’s yours.”
It doesn’t really matter how high our walls are; it really doesn’t make any difference how deep the foundations. When God chooses to speak, walls collapse. No matter how high the wall, God is higher still. The habits, the addictions, the lack of discipline that causes us to constantly fall into the same sins over and over again — God is able to speak and their power is gone. But we must be as faithful as Joshua.
The Judgment of the City
You know the rest of the story. The walls fell down and everyone perished except Rahab who had believed the report of the spies. Israel was to destroy everything. Even men, women and children were put to death. Critics of the Bible have choked when they have come to this passage. “How mean of God!” they say. To think that Joshua was to slaughter these people — men, women, and children — how awful. Where is justice?
God was trying to prove that sin is contagious. If Israel lived with these people, the nation would have been drawn to their ways, to serve their gods. In fact this even happens today, where associations with the wicked increase our propensity to wickedness.
Whether we think God was harsh or not, the fact is that He doesn’t call on you and me to check on how to run His universe. The God who commands obedience also executes judgment.
If you have been to Israel, you know that today there are three Jerichos. There is the mound of the ancient Canaanite city; there is also New Testament Jericho and modern Jericho. But Old Testament Jericho was never rebuilt, just as God prophesied in Joshua 6:26. Today the mound still stands as a silent but eloquent witness to the justice of God.
Jericho has much to teach us.
Lessons To Be Learned
Let’s make these lessons remind us of God’s ways in the world.
First of all, God’s judgment always happens in His time. During the days of Abraham the iniquity of the Canaanites was not yet full. But when God’s hour comes, judgment falls.
Many generations of Canaanites thought they were “getting by” because they lived in relative peace. In Ecclesiastes 8:11 we read, “Because God does not immediately judge evil, people feel safe in doing wrong” (The Living Bible). But God does not forget. People think they do not need to be protected from God’s wrath. Who needs a fire engine when there is no fire?
But the fire will eventually come.
Second, God’s judgment always happens in God’s way. Jericho is the only city whose walls fell down. Sodom and Gomorrah had fire come down from heaven. Many equally wicked cities have no such judgment. But there is a future day coming when all will be judged.
We do not know how or when the judgment will take place, but we know that it will. “...because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:31).
Third, God’s judgment is always mingled with mercy. Even pagans can be delivered in this life and the life to come. Rahab was a prostitute, but she was spared physically and eternally because she turned from her pagan religion to God. She didn’t have a praying mother; she wasn’t handed a Gospel tract; nor did she listen to a radio program. Yet she reached out in faith and became an ancestress of Christ (Matthew 1:5). Though her sins were many, she is listed in Hebrews 11:31 as a heroine of faith. She is a part of the family of God.
That red rope Rahab hung from the window represents the blood of Christ that keeps us from God’s condemnation. Apart from the shelter of God’s Son, we would all be headed for eternal Judgment. No matter your sin, God will forgive you if you receive the gift of Christ’s salvation. “...Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool” (Isaiah 1:18).
Yes, God will judge the cities of the world. But many individuals will be spared. Those who have trusted Christ, will not come under God’s condemnation.
Jericho has a message for us: Repent, judgment is coming.
God was trying to prove that sin is contagious. If Israel lived with these people, the nation would have been drawn to their ways, to serve their gods. In fact this even happens today, where associations with the wicked increase our propensity to wickedness.
Whether we think God was harsh or not, the fact is that He doesn’t call on you and me to check on how to run His universe. The God who commands obedience also executes judgment.
Israel had virtually no weapons nor a well-trained army.
That I might argue with. They had 40 years to train up an excellent army.
I stood over the excavation sites of one of the walls or turrets and had a chance to see this with my own eyes. Estimates put these walls as old as up to 6-7,000 years of age. We have a big God....
Actually, God did not prophesy that it wouldn't be rebuilt. In Josh 6:26 Joshua says "cursed before the Lord is the man who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho."
In 1 Kings 16:34 we see that Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho "in accordance with the word of the Lorde spoken by Joshua..." at the cost of his firstborn son.
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