Joshua and the Battle of Jericho

Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.”  Joshua 6:2

Joshua probably needed some extra encouragement when he heard God’s unusual battle plans for Jericho. Certainly no other city has ever been conquered that way.  Even so, Joshua obeyed God explicitly, and God honored his obedience by giving him victory over the city.

Jericho was a well guarded city.  It was built on a mound, which made it harder to attack.  It had two walls.  There was a six foot thick wall around the edge of the mound.  Twelve to fifteen feet inside the first wall was a second wall which was twelve feet thick and possibly as high as thirty to thirty five feet.  The city was crowded, so people built houses in the spaces between the two walls.  Rahab’s house may have been one of these.

God loves to use plans that seem foolish to the world.  Then God gets the credit for what He has done. We find the plan in Joshua 6:3-5, “March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests 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 the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.”

If you had been Joshua, what would you have thought of God’s plan?  Much to Joshua’s credit, he had the people do exactly what God had instructed.

James Montgomery Boice, “The thing that most honors God and that God most delights to honor is obedience...Not only is there no substitute for obedience to God, there is no substitute for obedience in all particulars--to the very end.  And when God does not act as quickly as we think He should or precisely in the way we are convinced He should act, we are still not justified in pulling back or adopting an alternative procedure.”

Joshua and the Israelites followed God’s instructions exactly.  Joshua 6:15-16, 20 tells us the result of their obedience, “On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times.The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, ‘Shout! For the Lord has given you the city!’...When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city.”

Before the wall of Jericho collapsed, God had given some specific instructions.  He said that only Rahab and all who were in her house were to be spared.  Joshua sent the two men who had spied out the land to rescue Rahab and everyone who was in her house.  They kept their promise to Rahab and rescued Rahab, her father and mother and brothers and sisters and all who belonged to her.  As God is faithful to us, He desires for us to be faithful to others.

Father, great is Your faithfulness to me.  May I be faithful to my family, my friends, and most of all to You.  Amen.