7.26.26 – The Book of Joshua, Chapter 6

We were in Joshua chapter 5 yesterday, when Jericho falls, and the instructions that were going to be there, and how you have to overcome things that are in the spiritual world. The world has a way of doing things. But God has a different way of doing it when He establishes the premise for how you attack things in the spiritual realm.

Chapter 6 says, "Now Jericho"—remember Jericho comes from the word Yareach, which is the word for moon. And Jericho was like the New York City or the LA or the Kansas City, the Houstons, the Seattles—the major cities of the United States where there is lots of commerce, lots of international trafficking. It was literally the head of Canaan. They had double-layered walls that people actually lived within, and it was the head of pagan idolatry, which ironically is the same that we experience today with the Muslim faith. Muslim faith is built on the crescent moon, and all that goes with it, and ironically, Judaism is very much centered in moon worship also, which I think is very interesting. So Jericho was strictly shut up because of the children of Israel. None went out, and none came in. They were in psychological bondage even before the children of Israel got there.

And the Lord gave Joshua specific instructions and told them in verse 2 that He had already given them Jericho and the king and the mighty men of valor. Everybody is going to bow down and fall down, because He is doing this; they are not going to have to worry about conventional warfare. And the reason why God did this is that Jericho was the most powerful of all the cities in the Promised Land. And when you are going to attack something that has a major stronghold, you cannot do it the way that normal armies would fight. It definitely is spiritual warfare.

So God gives the instructions, and He says, "You are going to do things differently. You are going to circle the city for six days. Your weapons of warfare are going to be the seven priests with the seven trumpets, with the seven days of traveling around the city on that one time every day, and then on the final day, it is going to be seven times around the city. And when you hear the blast of the shofar, all the people are going to shout with a great shout. The walls are going to fall down. The people are going to send every man straight before him." And then Joshua adds one more specific instruction. He says, "You are going to do this in silence."

Verse 9: "Then the armed men went before the priest that blew with the trumpets, and the rearward came after the ark, the priests going on and blowing with the trumpets. And Joshua had commanded the people, saying, 'You shall not shout or make any noise with your voice, neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I bid you shout. Then shall you shout.'" Can you imagine what that was like? Six days, an entire nation walking around the city. No words, just silence. No talking, no conversations, walking around the biggest, most formidable city, knowing that the city was already theirs, knowing that God was creating an unconventional way of battling. See, in the pagan world, the number 7 and the number 13 were the key to idolatrous practices. But with God, 7 and 13 are the numbers of power, the spirit, victory, love, oneness. So everything that the world does, God does not have a problem with doing the exact same thing. He just flips it on its head. It was God who established it first, and it was the world that actually copied what God had.

So the children of Israel are to be silent, walking around. You might say, "Well, why in the world would He do that, and where do we see that today?" In a traditional Jewish or Hebrew wedding, the bride walks around the groom seven times, reminding us of the truth of the walls of Jericho: that with the support of the wife, the walls that are barriers, that are self-protective types of boundaries, are going to fall and the city is going to be taken.

So, verse 11: "The ark of the Lord compassed the city, going about it once. They came into the camp and lodged in the camp." So the next day, Joshua rises up early in the morning. The priest took up the ark of the Lord. Seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams' horns for the ark of the Lord went on continually, and blew with the trumpets, and the armed men went before them. But the rearward came after the ark of the Lord, the priests going on and blowing with the trumpets. And they did this for each day.

Verse 15: "And it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose up early about the dawning of the day, and compassed the city after the same manner seven times. Only on that day they compassed the city seven times." And it came to pass that when Joshua gave the instruction to blow the shofars, the people shouted, for the Lord has given you the city.

Now you may remember that there were two spies sent into the land, and they met Rahab, the innkeeper, often known as Rahab the harlot, who used a crimson thread to identify her house. It is very interesting because archaeologists have said that when the walls fell, they did not crumble; they went straight down into the ground. But there is a portion of the wall that still remains even to this day. It begs the question: I wonder if that is where Rahab lived—Rahab the harlot—where she lived, and all that were in her house, and that part of the wall did not fall because she had the messengers. It is a good question.

But there was instruction that was given. Since this battle was going to represent the firstfruits to the Lord, God wanted everything. God said, "Okay, everything in this city is accursed. None of it belongs to you. All the silver, all the gold, all the vessels of brass, the iron, everything belongs in the treasury of the Lord." So when the priest blew the trumpets, sounded the shofar, the people shouted, the wall fell down flat, the people went up, they took the city, and they utterly destroyed everything. They did not take any of the spoils. And the young spies who went in rescued Rahab and her family, and they burnt the city with fire. All the silver, all the gold, the vessels, the brass and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. And Joshua, as they said they would, saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father's household. Amazing.

Now, the chapter ends. And Joshua adjured them, verse 26, saying, "Cursed be the man before the Lord that rises up and builds the city of Jericho. He shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it." Later, when we get to the book of 1 Kings, you will find in 1 Kings chapter 16 that this prophecy came true. The individual who rebuilt the city lost his firstborn son, and then when the city was set and finished, he lost his other son.

So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame was noised throughout all the country. God seals His authority. God seals Yehoshua—same name in Hebrew as Yeshua—as the one who would take the people into the Promised Land. And so, God says, "This city, nobody is going to rebuild it. This is to be a testimony to all the other cities within the Promised Land that God means business." He does not do things with conventional war. He does things the way that He wants to.

But in the next chapter, chapter 7, we are going to find the real temptation comes. The real temptation did not come with the walls of Jericho, the spiritual battle. It came with the physical battle, which will give us something to think about. So tonight, as I conclude Joshua chapter 6, whatever it is that you are battling—that big fortified city—God may be asking you to go about it in an unconventional way. And if you do it in an unconventional way, God gets the glory. God gets the glory, you win. Some things to think about.