Be Strong and Courageous:
Shout! For the Lord has Given You the City
The King, mighty warriors, and people of Jericho were prepared. They had shut the gate. No one could come in or out. They were hunkered down and ready to defend their city. They were confident their mighty wall would withstand any assault. Perhaps they could endure the siege and outlast their enemy.
However, God had other plans for the inhabitants of Jericho. God had given Jericho into the hands of Israel.
Joshua 6:1-2 Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in. 2 Then the LORD said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.
The conquest of Canaan, beginning with Jericho, is both the fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham and his descendants and an exercise of his divine judgment upon the idolatrous, wicked, and unrighteous practices of its inhabitants. Jericho, being the first city in the Promised Land, had been put under “the curse.” The NIV speaks of the city being “devoted to God.” This means that they were absolutely and irrevocably consecrated so that they could not be redeemed (Leviticus 27:28-29); it also meant they were sentenced to utter destruction (Deuteronomy 13:16). Only Rahab and her family along with the gold and silver spoils for the Lord’s treasury were spared.
Joshua 6:17-19 17 The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the LORD. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. 18 But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. 19 All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the LORD and must go into his treasury.”
From a human standpoint, the problem Israel faced was that wall. How were they to breach that mighty wall? The answer lies in the activity of God. God had given them the city. This was to be no ordinary battle. This is why the heavenly warrior and the Lord’s army were dispatched. The defeat of Jericho was to be accomplished by a mere shout given at the command of Joshua.
For six days, the army of Israel marched once around the city, sounding their trumpets all the while, per God’s instructions. On the seventh day, they marched around it seven times. There must have been a period of silence, because, when the trumpets sounded again on the seventh pass, Joshua commanded the people to shout. When they shouted, the walls fell down flat. Israel’s army, completely surrounding the city, ran straight over the rubble and took the city.
Surely, God had given them the city, because the walls fell with just a shout!
What mighty obstacle have you encountered in your Christian walk? Don’t you know that, like Jericho, God can remove what seems to be unmovable!
I’ll say more in Sunday’s message.
Be Strong and Courageous! Joey
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