Message details

(1) Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel; none went out, and none came in. (2) And the LORD said to Joshua: "See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king, and the mighty men of valor. (3) You shall march around the city, all you men of war; you shall go all around the city once. This you shall do six days. (4) And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. -It’s important to know right out of the shoot, that this is Jesus Himself that’s giving Joshua his marching orders, literally, as it relates to Jericho. -This will be germane to our understanding shortly by virtue of how this nonsensical battle plan actually, prophetically, paints a picture of Christ. -Be that as it may, there’s a couple of things that we need to take a closer look at here, before we go on, in order to fill in some of the blanks.

-First, notice how that Jericho, in anticipation of the coming of the Israelites, is on “high alert.” In other words, this will not be a surprise attack. -Not only will it not be a surprise attack, it won’t really even be an attack. There really won’t even be a battle, because the victory is already won. -If you were to put a caption under this so-called “Battle of Jericho,” it would have to be along the lines of; “When God Doesn’t Make Sense.”

(5) It shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout; then the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people shall go up every man straight before him." (6) Then Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, "Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the LORD." (7) And he said to the people, "Proceed, and march around the city, and let him who is armed advance before the ark of the LORD." -Without exception, everything they’re commanded to do in order to take Jericho, not only goes against logic and reason, it’s against their law. -It’s against their law concerning the Sabbath, yet Jesus is commanding them to march on the seventh day when their not to do any work at all. -Furthermore, the priests were not to enter into battle, yet here they are, and the Ark of the Covenant was never to be taken into battle, yet it is.

-Why? I believe that this was done in this way to teach them then, what the Lord wants to teach us now namely, to march by faith and not by site. -If the truth be known, and we addressed this in part last week, the Israelites sort of had to trust God, by faith, to deliver Jericho into their hands. -If you really think about it, the only thing they had in site, were impenetrable forty-five foot walls, which represented an impossibility to conquer.

-While this may answer that question, we still have the matter of God seemingly commanding them to do that which would be against His law. -In order to reconcile this we must put the person of Jesus Christ in His rightful place at the helm of this battle as the commander of the Israelites. -In so doing, we fulfill the law, but not do away with the law, in that the supremacy of Jesus Christ related to the law, is the fulfillment of the law.

-Jesus Christ is our Sabbath, Jesus Christ is our High Priest, and Jesus Christ is our Ark of the Covenant, thus Jesus Christ fulfills the law for us. -This is both why it is, and how it is, that the Israelites are able to take the city of Jericho. Simply put, there is and was no other way to do it. -So too is this true for us, the only way we’ll ever drink from the cup of a fulfilling and victorious Christian life is when Jesus Christ is at the helm.

(8) So it was, when Joshua had spoken to the people, that the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams' horns before the LORD advanced and blew the trumpets, and the ark of the covenant of the LORD followed them. (9) The armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard came after the ark, while the priests continued blowing the trumpets. (10) Now Joshua had commanded the people, saying, "You shall not shout or make any noise with your voice, nor shall a word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I say to you, 'Shout!' Then you shall shout." (11) So he had the ark of the LORD circle the city, going around it once. Then they came into the camp and lodged in the camp. (12) And Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the LORD. (13) Then seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the LORD went on continually and blew with the trumpets. And the armed men went before them. But the rear guard came after the ark of the LORD, while the priests continued blowing the trumpets. (14) And the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. So they did six days. (15) But it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose early, about the dawning of the day, and marched around the city seven times in the same manner. On that day only they marched around the city seven times. -As I was reading, studying and preparing to teach this, I was struck by something very odd, and it’s not how odd it is that the Israelites do this. -By that I mean, its not so much what the Israelites do, it’s what Jericho doesn’t do. I find it odd that Jericho doesn’t strike them as they march. -They would have arguably been easy targets for a total of one week. So why didn’t they try to kill them? The answer to this is that they feared.

-They were in such fear that they were paralyzed by that fear. The fact of the matter is that fear is paralyzing, and conversely faith is tantalizing. -Let me explain, if faith is the antithesis of fear, and it is, then it stands to reason that so too would the results of faith also be the opposite of fear. -Here’s how I get there, by faith the walls of Jericho fell resulting in victory for Israel and by fear the walls fell, which resulted in defeat for Jericho.

Hebrews 11:30-31 NKJV By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days. (31) By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace.

-There’s another question that comes up in all of this, and it’s one for which the answer reinforces how that by faith the walls of Jericho fell down. -The question is; “why are they forbidden to shout or even make a noise, let alone speak a word while marching, until God said that they could?” -Here’s what I’m thinking; their faith was to be demonstrated in their deeds not their words in the sense that they were to put their faith to action.

-At the risk of sounding blunt and brash, they were to put their faith where their mouth was. Perhaps by now you see where I’m going with this. -Faith without works is dead James writes, which means that unless we put feet to our faith and put our faith where our mouth is faith won’t work. -I’m of the belief that this only worked by the faith that was combined with the action of what they did by way of their deeds in lieu of their words.

Hebrews 4:2 NIV For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.