STUDY THEME: JOSHUA: MODEL OF OBEDIENCE. 9-23-01
"OBEYING TOTALLY." JOSHUA 6: 1-5, 14-16, 17-19, 20-21, 24-25.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO JOSHUA 6.
Last week we read how God miraculously led His children across he swelling Jordan and into the Promised Land on the 10th day of the 1st month. Finally, after 40 years of wandering in the .wilderness, there they were, camped in the land that God had promised them, a land flowing with milk and honey.
The lesson for today studies one of the strangest military stratagems in the history of warfare! The Hebrew people were not to attack Jericho with long spears and sharp swords but rather were to do it in a strange manner! They were to march around it each day for six days and then seven times on the seventh day. What human general in his right mind would ever have believed one could have conquered a city like this? Even some Christians choose to obey only some of God’s commands and to ignore others they don’t like. When we disobey the Lord, we miss out on the blessings and victories that He wants us to enjoy. Joshua had learned much about total obedience to the Lord’s commands when they crossed the Jordan River.
A surely as facing a raging Jordan River was a test to the faith of the Hebrew people, so were the commands of God concerning the conquest of Jericho. The suggested "Biblical Truth" for this lesson is that God expects His people always to obey all His commands, even if they do not understand all the reasons for His commands. The suggested "Life Impact" is to help us obey God completely, even if we do not understand all the reasons for God’s commands. We are to obey God even in seemingly hopeless situations.
It had been 40 years since the Hebrews had left Egypt., They had left Egypt under the powerful hand of God, as God brought the plagues upon Egypt. They had crossed he Red Sea as God divided the waters. They had wandered in the wilderness for forty years under the sustaining hand of God. God led them in a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. God had fed them with manna, they drank from a rock and their clothes did not wear out. Imagine wearing the same clothes for forty years, and they never become threadbare.
It was during this period, since they left Egypt, that the first five books of the Bible were written. Israel had received God’s laws and decrees, which reveal His nature, justice, and mercy. Moses was writing these books to reveal the nature of the God that was leading them. Israel’s God is unique. He is the God of the universe.
God is not only in the process of revealing Himself to the Israelites, but He is revealing Him- self to the world and ultimately to us through these acts. The world is watching, they have been watching for forty years. Israel has witnessed the hand of God in a very personal way. The eyes of the world are on what God is doing with these Israelite slaves. God had brought Egypt, which was the most powerful nation in the ancient world, to her knees without the Hebrew slaves having to lift a sword in their own defense. You don’t bring the most powerful nation in the world to its knees without the world knowing about it.
God led Israel to cross the Jordan River just east of the city of Jericho. Even in Joshua’s day, Jericho was one of the oldest cities in the world. It was located about six miles west of the Jordan River. I was a small settlement, in area measuring about 8 acres. The city was a fortress, and it guarded the entry point between the lower Jordan valley and the central hills of Canaan. Its capture was a prerequisite to further military conquest. But there was a problem.
The city was fortified by a double ring of walls, the outer six feet thick and the inner 12; timbers were laid across these, supporting houses on the walls. Since Jericho was built on a hill, it could be taken only by mounting a steep incline, which put the Israelites at a great disadvantage. Attackers of such a "fortress" often used a siege of several months to force surrender through starvation.
As the two spies come to spy out the land of Canaan in Joshua 2, Rahab says to the spies before she hides them in vs. 8-11, "I know that the Lord has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard, our hearts melted and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below." The presence of Israel’s God---not the array of Israel’s army---had terrified the city’s inhabitants.
It’s amazing that his harlot saw the God of heaven as he driving force behind all these miraculous physical realities. She didn’t need to hear what God had said in the books that Moses had written, all she did was believe in what she saw. She saw that God was fighting Israel’s battles and she knew Jericho had no chance of winning a war against the sovereign Lord of the universe, who was Lord of the heavens above and the earth below. She saw that it was a spiritual battle in a physical realm and she had no doubt as to whom was waging the war. It was God!
This explains the fear of the people that we see in Joshua 6:1. "Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in." In Exodus 23:7 God had promised Israel, "I will send my terror before you, and will throw into confusion all the people
against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you." In Joshua 1:5 God said to Joshua, "No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you, I will not fail you nor forsake you."
We often think that God’s destruction of Canaan seems harsh. But we notice that everyone in the city recognizes that God is leading Israel to victory. It wasn’t that they didn’t know God, and didn’t have a chance; but only one chose to repent.
After the spies returned to camp, God dried up the Jordan River to allow the Israelites to cross over into Canaan. Joshua 5:2 says, "They know God, He has been revealed, and they refuse to obey."
Forty years earlier, Israel stood at the border of the Promised Land at Kadesh-Barnea. All they had to do was "Go up and possess the land!" They would not do so because ten of the twelve men Moses sent to spy out the land brought back negative reports and frightened the people with stories of giants; "We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them." Ten spies came back saying, "It can’t be done!’: and two spies came back saying, "The Lord has given us the land!" Both were right. The battle had already been either won or lost in their minds before the battle ever took place. But victory is not simply dependent upon the power of positive thinking. It is dependent upon the presence and power of God. There is a spiritual principle that we must get fixed in our minds if we wish to have victory. Spiritual battles are fought in heaven."
Satan wants us to believe the deadly deception, that the Christian’s spiritual battles are a wrestling match between the individual and Satan. He doesn’t want you to figure God into the equation. Paul said in Phil 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Paul said in Rom. 14:1-4 that God is able to make the weakest stand." In 1 Cor. 10:13 he wrote, "God will not allow us to be tempted above that which we can stand." In Eph. 3:20 he wrote, "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us."
But the Lord’s first words to Joshua in Joshua 6:2 must have challenged his faith to its depths. He said "See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands." From the Lord’s perspective, the battle was over and He had won. From a human standpoint, Joshua was still gazing out at a heavily defended fortress. But the Lord instructed him to "see’ through eyes of faith a city already captured and its defenders already defeated. Ancient military leaders had developed several strategies for capturing a walled or fortified city. Against the city of Jericho, the Lord used none of these strategies. Instead, He employed the greater strategy of obedience.
The city of Jericho was taken by the power of God. I have always been taught that Joshua was a great military leader. But Joshua didn’t take the city by some clever human military tactic. Great strategies are fine, but without God you will fail.
The Israelites were facing their first foes in the land of Canaan. Their enemies were safely within a walled city, which seemed to be impossible to conquer. Yet the Lord commanded Joshua to tell them what to do for the Lord to give the victory. The "loud shout in unison" expressed and expectation of God’s actin to fulfill His guaranteed promise.
As we read God’s command to Joshua we may think, "What a silly way to fight a war." God says, "March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priest 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. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout, then the walls of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in."
Who ever heard of such a thing? NO ONE!!! But it is a test of the mind and heart. Who will run in fear? Who will stand and fight? The victory has already been decided in heaven, but victory can only be claimed in our minds through faith. Heb. 11:30-31 says "By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days. By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient. Evidently the wall, where her house was suspended, did not fall but was spared. Now faith is only as good as is object. If my faith is rooted in myself, then my faith is only as strong as I am at my weakest point. It is like a chain that it is only as strong as its weakest link.
There was no way, humanly speaking, that Joshua and his followers were gong to break through the walls of Jericho and overcome its inhabitants. This great city was the first formidable foe that stood between the people of God and the promises of God. John said in 1 John 5:4, "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith."
Following the Lord’s instructions to the letter, Joshua instructed the priests who blew the trumpets to march in front of the priest who carried the ark. He ordered the people to follow the ark and to march around the city. Everyone did as directed on their first day of marching. As they went along, the trumpets sounded forth, but the people were instructed not to say a word until they were told to shout. They made their first round and returned to their camp in Gilgal.
The first day of marching around the city was accomplished. On the second day, they left early in the morning and marched around the city again, returning to their camp after the march. This was their routine for six days.
Based on information in vs. 1-9,Israel’s daily order of march appears to have been strictly directed. First, a vanguard of armed men led he way. Next came the seven priests sounding their trumpets. Following these priests were additional priests transporting the ark. Behind the ark marched another group of armed men who formed a rear guard.
On the seventh day, the Israelites got up at daybreak and left the camp at Gilgal. On that morning, instead of marching around the city once, they circled Jericho seven times just as the Lord had instructed. On he seventh trip, the trumpeters gave aloud blast, and the people shouted a victory shout! Their shout was one of faith and praise because their God had given hem Jericho.
We can only speculate about what the Israelites might have thought as they carried out the Lord’s instructions day after day. What the Scripture reveals is that Israel followed the Lord’s specific instructions day after day. Their persistent obedience was commendable to say the least. However, an even greater lesson from Israel’s example can be gained. Obeying the Lord even when you didn’t understand all the reasons for his commands is vital for experiencing the victory He has in store.
Samuel Johnson once wisely said, "Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.
How can we explain the extreme command to Joshua and the Israelites? The NRSV reading of vs. 17a is "And the city, and all that is within it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction." This seems contradictory to the revelation of a loving God in the New Testament. For one thing, the sins of the Canaanites had reached such a low level that they deserved severe punishment. Closely related was the fact that if the Canaanites remained in the land, their sins would provide a constant temptation for the Israelites to compromise their own distinctive way of life. A third factor was that the Lord had given the city of Jericho into the hands of the Israelites, and the Israelites could signify that by devoting all the people and wealth of Jericho to God. The battle of Jericho is not carnal war, it is rather a war between God and Satan.
Several additional factors help to take some of the edge off the command. For one thing, not everyone in Jericho was among those to be put to death. Specific commands were given to spare the life of Rahab and her family because she hid the Hebrew spies and because she professed faith in the God of Israel. Her salvation testifies to God’s intention eventually to open the door of faith to all people. Further, not every Israelite was spared. Achan and his family, in Ch. 7 were put to death because they disobeyed God. Another qualifying factor is that this command applied to one stage of history of Israel. The full revelation of God in Jesus Christ calls for loving testimony to all people.
The Hebrew word for accursed referred to dedicating everyone and everything in Jericho to the Lord. In the case of the people and most possessions, this meant that all were to be completely destroyed. The sins of the people of Canaan were so abhorrent that they deserved death. Their sins were evil as far back as the time of Abraham, but the Lord told Abraham in Gen 15:16, that their sins were not yet complete. However, by the time of Joshua, they were complete. Leviticus 18:3-23 lists some of their sins: incest, adultery, child sacrifice, homosexual behavior, and bestiality. In the end the Israelites failed to destroy all of them, and they became a source of the temptation and sin that eventually caused the Lord to send judgment on His own people.
Joshua declared that the metals such as silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron also were devoted. Since fire does not destroy metals, Joshua pronounced them sacred, or set apart, to the Lord and ordered them brought into the Lord’s treasury. The treasury was probably the Tabernacle that must have been in Gilgal at the time.
The last part of vs. 17 shows that the destruction of the people of Jericho did not include Rahab and her family.. Her story is in Joshua 2. She hid the two Israelites spies who Joshua had sent to Jericho. Rahab was a gentile and a prostitute, but she and her family were the only people in Jericho who were saved. She bore witness to the spies not only of her own faith but also of the terror that the people of Jericho felt.
Vs. 18 was a warning to the Israelites. They had been commanded by God to destroy everyone and everything in Jericho. They were warned against disobeying that command. To do so would bring a curse on the guilty one and on Israel as a whole. To take any of the spoils was to take some of the glory for oneself.
Joshua 7 tells the tragic story of one Israelite who disobeyed God’s command. Achan could not resist taking some silver, gold, and clothes for himself. His sin—unknown to Joshua at the time—led to Israel’s defeat at Ai. When Achan’s sin was revealed, he and all his family were put to death. This shows that disobedience—whether by Canaanites or Israelites—was deadly.
Just as faith and obedience led to glory for the Lord and blessings for the people, so did disobedience lead to death. Achan probably thought that no one would ever find out about his sin, but the Lord knew. Oh how God’s people need to heed His warnings against disobedience to His commands!
Vs. 20 picks up from vs. 16. The Israelites followed the commands of God to the letter. They had marched around the city in the order of march set forth by God. The trumpeters had sounded on each day, and the people were silent. Then on the seventh day they went around seven times. Then a loud blast on the trumpets was followed by a great shout by the people. Then the walls fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him. They took the city, just as the Lord had promised. The men of Jericho were frightened by the Israelites even before they came. Their fear must have grown with each day of the march around the city. Then when the people marched around seven times, they feared the worst, which is just what happened. The context implies that they did not put up much of a fight after the wall fell.
The Israelites followed the directions they had been given (with the exception of Achan). They destroyed all the people (except Rahab and her family) and all the livestock. Many Christians have trouble with this verse of scripture because it is hard to understand, in the light of our higher ethical teachings of Christ, that the Hebrew people should have done this. But it was a common custom in that day and that age.
Vs. 25 returns to Rahab. The amount of space given to the story of Rahab shows her importance. The salvation of Rahab was as important as the destruction of Jericho. Rahab’s long range importance is seen by her inclusion in the genealogy of Jesus in Matt. 1:5. She is one of three women, other than Mary, who is referred to; Tamar and Uriah"s wife are the other two. The inclusion of women in Jesus’ genealogy signifies His mission to save sinners from all nations. Rahab was not only a Canaanite but also a prostitute: yet the Lord honored her faith and courage in hiding the Hebrew spies. Because Rahab acted in a way appropriate to her faith in God, she and her family reaped victory in the defeat of Jericho.
Rahab must have repented and changed her life, for the N.T. speaks of her in Heb. 11:31 as a woman of faith. James 2: 25 points out that she acted by faith in protecting the spies. Her family would have included those mentioned in Joshua 6:23 plus any slaves. Joshua 6:25 also says Rahab lived in Israel to this day, which indicates Rahab and her descendants were accepted as part of the covenant people.
Matt. 1:5 reads, "Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse the father of King David." This is why I think Salmon was one of the two spies and that he married Rahab who became the great grandmother of King David.
NEXT SUNDAY FROM JOSHUA’S FAREWELL ADDRESS IN JOSHUA 23 & 24 WE CHOOSE WHO WE AND OUR FAMILY WILL SERVE. A.V. DAUGHERTY 9-23-01