HEROES OF FAITH – (8)
JOSHUA AND THE WALLS OF JERICHO
WE have completed our studies of the faith which led to the formation, establishment, and guaranteed continuance of God’s Kingdom on earth. We then studied what we might refer to as a ‘cameo’ of Israel’s then future history, through the faith of the Patriarchs, followed by the faith of Israel’s first deliverer, Moses.
In proceeding to Hebrews 11:30-32, we read of nine specific instances of faith, involving both people and events, each illustrating the faithfulness of God, and particularly the reward for obedience to God’s commands:
“By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days.
By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.
And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets.”
This obedience constituted doing that which was in accord with God’s Divine will and purposes. As we read in 1 John 5:14-15:
“And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.”
I cannot stress too strongly the fact that God never has, and never will, grant us requests which are opposed to, or at variance with, His Divinely ordained will and purpose. He is not going to change the course of history just to pander to our petty desires.
The first of these nine incidents of faith relates to the Fall of Jericho, as recorded above:
“By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days.”
Now what was so important about the Walls of Jericho? What part had they in the exhibition of faith? The setting is given to us in Joshua 5:13-15:
“And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?
And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?
And the captain of the LORD’s host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so.”
There are a few very important aspects recorded in this statement. Firstly, as Joshua was approaching Jericho, he met a man who had a drawn sword in his hand. The fact that the sword was drawn, indicated an act of warfare. So we can readily understand the import of Joshua’s question as to whose side the man was on. This was soon put to rest when the man replied that he was “the captain of the Host of the Lord”. But who then in actual fact was this man?
Let us turn to the account in Revelation 19:9-10;
“And he (that is, the angel of chapter 18 verse 1), saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
In the above incident, John was very quickly corrected by the angel when he was about to fall on his face before him as an act of worship. But when we read the account regarding Joshua, there was no such command given! Quite the contrary.
“And the captain of the LORD’s host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy…And Joshua did so.”
Does this ring any bells in our mind? It should. An exactly similar incident happened many years earlier with Moses. We read in Exodus 3:2-6, and 13-14;
“And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.
And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.
And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.
Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.”
“And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?
And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”
The One who met Joshua was no other than the Lord God of Israel, the Great I AM!!!
In Joshua 6:1-2 we find that Israel, under the leadership of Joshua, had already laid siege to Jericho:
“Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in. And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour.”
So what was the problem? Victory was already assured. But the greatest obstacle to this victory was the WALL! And it was this wall of protection around the city that became the focal issue of the entire incident.
We should clear up one very important point at this juncture. Why was the destruction of Jericho so necessary to God’s Plans?
Well firstly, Jericho was situated upon land that had been promised by God to Israel.
Secondly, Israel at that time dwelt in Gilgal, on the plains of Jericho, close to the city. Joshua 5:10-11 reveals:
“And the children of Israel encamped in Gilgal, and kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Jericho.
And they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover, unleavened cakes, and parched corn in the selfsame day.”
The fact that they were eating old and parched corn clearly points to the fact that they were having a hard time.
Thirdly, Jericho was occupied by the people such as Canaanites, etc., whom God had commanded to be utterly and totally destroyed, because of the unGodly, and anti-God effect they had upon God’s Israel people. We read in Joshua 24:11:
“And ye went over Jordan, and came unto Jericho: and the men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I delivered them into your hand.”
These people were a major impediment to the fulfilment of God’s promise of inheritance to His Israel people, and had to be removed. And herein, we are given a very, very, important message.
God will always remove anything, or anyone, who becomes a source of danger to the outworking of His Divine Plans and Purposes! We only need to read Isaiah 43:4, and 54:17 to realise the truth of this statement:
“Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life.”
“No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.”
One thing we should never forget is that when it comes to Israel, God is a very jealous God. He will brook no interference with His relationship with His people, and will do anything and everything to protect that relationship, even to inflicting sever punishment upon the people of Israel themselves for disobedience. Any violation of His Holy Law on our part always results in punishment and disaster, as witnessed by our present precarious position in the world.
This entire incident was a demonstration of this principle. Let us read of it in Joshua 24:11-25:
“And ye went over Jordan, and came unto Jericho: and the men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and I delivered them into your hand.
And I sent the hornet before you, which drave them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow.
And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat.
Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away (he gods which your fathers sewed on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers sewed that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods;
For the LORD our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and which did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the people through whom we passed:
And the LORD drave out from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt in the land: therefore will we also serve the LORD; for he is our God.
And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.
If ye forsake the LORD, and serve strange gods, then he will turn and do you hurt, and consume you, after that he hath done you good.
And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve the LORD.
And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you the LORD, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses.
Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto the LORD God of Israel.
And the people said unto Joshua, The LORD our God will we serve, and his voice will we obey.
So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem.”
We will never read a more definitive statement of cause and effect. And if we think that God is going to change His mind and go easy on this present generation of His people, then we are sadly mistaken.
But having made this promise to God at that time, one obvious fact remained. The wall was still there! The enemy were still protected by a seemingly impenetrable barrier. Shades of today. We look at the enemy in our midst, and all around us, and wonder how on earth we can ever get rid of them. How is victory ever going to be possible in our present circumstances?
And that is where FAITH steps in. But first let us realise that “faith without works is dead”. Before real faith can operate, especially on a national scale, it must be preceded by national repentance. We are not speaking here of acts of individual faith. The faith of which we are speaking here is one of national proportions. So how was this mighty victory achieved? How was this seemingly impenetrable barrier to be removed?
The main reason for the success of the operation was NOT the priests, nor the people nor the trumpets.
It was the presence of the Ark of the Covenant. We read in Joshua 6: 6-11:
“And Joshua the son of Nun called the priests, and said unto them, Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the LORD.
And he said unto the people, Pass on, and compass the city, and let him that is armed pass on before the ark of the LORD.
And it came to pass, when Joshua had spoken unto the people, that the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns passed on before the LORD, and blew with the trumpets: and the ark of the covenant of the LORD followed them.
And the armed men went before the priests that blew with the trumpets, and the rereward came after the ark, the priests going on, and blowing with the trumpets.
And Joshua had commanded the people, saying, Ye shall not shout, nor make any noise with your voice, neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I bid you shout; then shall ye shout.
So the ark of the LORD compassed the city, going about it once: and they came into the camp, and lodged in the camp.”
The presence of this Ark of the Lord signified the presence of the Lord God of Israel for victory. And in Israel’s hands, it also signified defeat of the enemy at their hands. The success of the rest of the ‘ritual’, if we could so name it, was utterly dependant on the presence of the Lord, without which the great miracle could never have been achieved.
So what was the full extent of what happened? We read in the verses preceding the above extract, that there were to be SEVEN priests, with SEVEN trumpets. They, with the entire army, were to march around the walls for SEVEN days. But on the seventh day, they were to encompass the city SEVEN times.
“And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour.
And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days.
And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets.
And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.”
This process had never before been heard of, and it was the peoples’ unswerving obedience to this unheard of command which constituted the FAITH which resulted in the victory. It formed the ultimate example of the principle set forth in Acts 2:1, where all the people were “in the one place with one accord.”
I have often stated in discussing miracles, how God performs so many of them by employing natural processes of scientific fact. God never waves a ‘magic wand’. He utilises normal everyday processes in a manner that we mortals never seem to realise, much less use. But that’s to be expected, as only He can use the elements to accomplish His requirements, whether for good, or for punishment. In this incident, He used the science of Vibration and Sound. The constant marching around the walls, with a break between each encompassing, commenced a vibration pattern within the foundations of the walls, which were then given time to settle. Each circling added to this settling process. But finally, on the seventh day, the breaking up of the foundations was magnified by the intensity of seven perambulations. I’ve personally experienced earthquakes when living in New Guinea. The tremors occur at intervals from each other, and each tremor compounds the effects of the previous tremors. Finally, if they continue long enough, a volcanic eruption takes place. I’m sure that the ordinary Israelites were not too well aware of this situation.
Then we have the added situation that as they completed the final encirclement, “all the people shall shout with a great shout.” The effect of sound is still being recognised today, especially in the area of medicine, where certain conditions involving internal stones are literally smashed up by the use of sound waves. I well remember, many years ago, seeing the notice on the organ in the Sydney Town Hall informing the organist never to play a particular note with certain nominated organ voices, as this could risk shattering the windows. And I’m sure that we have all heard of singers shattering glass with their high notes. So we see that God was simply using normal scientific means to achieve His purposes. Nevertheless, it was totally outside the experience and knowledge of those days. One is reminded of the statement in I Thessalonians 4:16:
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.”
Obviously, Christ’s return is not going to be very silent, nor secret as so many Theologians would have us believe.
What then is the lesson in this for us today? Remember that the walls of Jericho fell under the terms of the Old Covenant, using the power of that Covenant.
But our present adversary, Babylon, will fall just as surely as a result of the establishment by our Lord Jesus Christ of His New Covenant which He made at Calvary. As we are informed in Revelation 18:2, 9-10, and 21:
“And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.”
“And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,
Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.”
“And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.”
It was the combined obedience and faith of Joshua and the people of Israel whom he led which achieved the overthrow of the enemy at Jericho. The walls of protection surrounding the city had no chance whatsoever against the “Power of Faith” combined with the “Power of God Almighty”.
And the command is as pertinent today as it was in those far off days, as recorded in Revelation 18:4;
“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”
Obedience and faith go hand in hand. By obedience we are rescued from judgment. By faith we qualify for reward and blessing.
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report.”
In a world so inundated with sin and evil of every conceivable kind, it can be very difficult to imagine how we could ever see things change.
But through the examples left to us by our forefathers, we can, by faith, see in our spirit the substance of those things for which we hope, and recognise the evidence of what is not obvious to the natural eye and mind.
Let us never cease from our efforts to be ranked amongst those who obtain a good report.
Never doubt in the dark, What God has revealed in the light.
