feast: Joshua's Four Miracles
God's Providence in Our Christian Fight
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Given 11-Oct-25; Sermon #FT25-05; 72 minutes
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We tend to think of the wilderness journey of the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt to crossing the Jordan as a complete event. It's, you know, all the way from Ramses to the crossing of the Jordan. That was one long series of events, one long journey for the children of Israel. And further, we consider it spiritually as an extended metaphor for our Christian lives, from our calling and redemption by
God to entering the
kingdom of God. Now, I see nothing wrong with that. It's been our template for many decades, and it's inspired a great deal of very sound teaching. You know, we, I think we've, we've used that, that metaphor throughout this feast, a time or two. But then you're sitting there on the eastern side of the Jordan River and you cross the Jordan with the children of Israel and you spend years, 7 years at least, conquering the land. Oh, what is that? Like the exodus, it begins with a miraculous crossing of a body of water and events, both good and bad. Unfold from there all the way to the full possession of the land. Maybe I should take out the word full there because they did not actually conquer everything that they were supposed to conquer. But uh, They did a fairly good job. I'll just say they could have done more, they could have cast out the, the inhabitants of Canon more, which, as they were supposed to do, but they did not, and there is probably a good lesson in that as well, um. And If you think about what I'm about to say in the next few minutes, you'll see why. I will not explain it, but it's something that you might want to think, think through. So, what is the extended metaphor? For us spiritually. Of the conquest You ever thought about that? We're thinking. Does it typify what will happen in the kingdom of God? Hm. Thinking about that, it seems kind of doubtful. Well. Doesn't
Jesus Christ conquer and
the world is his? I guess you can maybe get some lessons out of it that way. Uh, is it a precursor for the 2nd exodus? And this is what the children of Israel will do once God or Christ calls them back to their, their own land. Um, maybe. I've got another idea, and I like to present it to you today. For this sermon I will be considering it. As a Better do over. Or a part two. Of the wilderness journey. Or of the spiritually, the journey that we make from
baptism to the kingdom of God. It's a different journey to the promised land. The first journey with the ones who came out of Egypt arrived there, arrived at the Promised Land. While the second took possession of it. There is a pretty material difference between the two. The participants along this journey are still the children of Israel. Still the same people generally overall. Um, And they are still, I believe, a type of spiritual Israel. But think about it. Those who entered the promised land. After crossing the Jordan, are members of a new generation. They're not like the ones that came out of Egypt. They're actually quite a bit more faithful than the ones who were slaves in Egypt. They had not refused God's instruction. They had not rebelled against him. That was their fathers, and that generation which God said you shall not enter the promised land, you're all going to die out here in the wilderness. The new generation is by no means perfect. They were human just as we are. But they are quite an improved group in comparison to their fathers that trudged across the wilderness for 40 years. Let's begin in Joshua. The 24th chapter and just see a little bit of this. We're going to be reading verses 29 through 31. Joshua 24:29 through 31. This is the end of that, that period. But I want you to, to see what the Bible says about them and Joshua. Now it came to pass after these things that Joshua, the son of none, the servant of the Lord, died, being 110 years old. And they buried him within the border of his inherit inheritance at Timnatharra, which is in the mountains of Ephraim on the north side of Mount Gash. OK. Let's see what it says here. Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had known all the works of the Lord which he had done for Israel. So the Bible actually says nice things about this generation under the leadership of Joshua. They were pretty good. They served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the next generation and they then their children started to basically fall apart and descended in what we see in the judges, but this generation that they, that the Bible is talking about was not too bad. Let's go to Judges 2, starting in verse 7, something similar. So the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord which he had done for Israel. That's the exact same thing that said in in Judges 24 verse 31. Now Joshua, the son of none, the servant of the Lord, died when he was 110 years old, and they buried him within the borders, border of his inheritance at Timnath Harry's. Gave it a different aim this time, um, says Sarah and the other one in the mountains of Ephrium on the north side of Mount Gaash, when all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which he had done for Israel. So in two consecutive books, Um, God inspired these writers to Actually pump up this generation give them good marks because it says they serve the Lord. Uh, we know they did not do perfectly, they did not complete things totally, but, you know, maybe 4 stars, right? Uh, they did most of, of what God wanted them to do and he was satisfied with them. OK, let's see this in a New Testament context a little bit. In Hebrews 3. Hebrews the 3rd chapter will start in verse 7. Hebrews 3:7. We'll read through the rest of the chapter. Therefore, as the
Holy Spirit says, today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion in the day of trial in the wilderness where your fathers tested me, tried me, and saw my works 40 years. Therefore, I was angry with that generation and said they always go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways. Already we see the very clear difference between the two groups. This, he's talking here about the ones that came out of Egypt and these ones do not know his ways and if they do not know his ways, they are certainly not following them. So I swore in my my wrath verse 11, they shall not enter my rest. So, the author here, Says beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily while it is called today lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of
sin, for we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said. Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. For who, having heard rebelled. Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt led by
Moses? Now with whom was he angry 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned? Whose corpses fell in the wilderness. And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest but to those who did not obey. So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. OK, the truth of the matter is. That the generation of the exodus failed. Abysmally They never really came out of their slavery. They were brought out, but they had the, the, I guess you'd call it a slave mentality to the end. They never became free, if you will, inside. They never grasped onto what God was trying to teach them. And so the the result of that was continual rebellion against God. They wanted to go their own way and do their own thing. And so God said, OK, I've had enough of you guys, you're all going to die in the wilderness. I mean, we will have burial parties every day as we, as we bury, you know, everybody in that generation. I mean, there was probably a you could follow a trail of graves across the the wilderness from Ramses or maybe we will, we will give them across the Red Sea. OK, they get across the Red Sea. There are graves from that point on all the way to the Jordan River. I can't remember the math, but it was like a couple 100 a day had to die for all of that to happen. OK, you, you, you, you, you, you're on burial crew today. We've got these 200 bodies, go to it. That's, I mean, that's kind of grim, right? That there were so many that died in the wilderness, but it was all because of sin. That's the the the wages of sin is death. God made his judgment. And that whole generation, but Joshua and Caleb died in the wilderness. Now, God, it says here that God was angry with them for 40 years. That's a long time to hold anger and God doesn't hold his anger like that, but can you imagine all the, the rebellion that was continually going on and stoking God's anger, his wrath against sin. Contrast that to what Jesus says about the faithful servant, to whom God says, well done. And calls him good and faithful. That's what he wants to see, but the Israelites. Uh, of that generation, they were just. He could not do anything with them. So we want him to be pleased, not angry. And what we get from the end of Joshua and the beginning of Judges was that he was actually pleased with the next generation. Because they knew the Lord and they did what the Lord said. But the earlier generation, God refused them entry into the land, which is a symbol of His rests. And They did not make it. They failed. They died in their sins. OK, let's move on here on chapter 4 of Hebrews. We'll read the 1st 11 verses. The author here continues with the idea of God's rest. Therefore, he says a concluding statement. Since a promise remains of entering his rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it, for indeed
the gospel was preached to us as well as to them. But the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with
faith in those who heard it. It was one of their big problems. They had no faith, no trust in God. To to take the information that was revealed to them and use it for good. So he's saying, look, we have to have faith in what God has called us to and the knowledge that he's given us, for we who have believed do enter that rest. We're on the way. It's not that we've come to it fully yet, but we are on the way, as he said, so I swore in my wrath they shall not enter my rest. Although the works were finished from the foundation of the world, for he has spoken in a certain place of the 7th day, it's the
Sabbath today, the 7th day, and God rested on the 7th day from all his works. And again in this place they shall not enter my rest. Since therefore it remains that some must enter it. And those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience. Again, he designates a certain day, saying in David, today, after such a long time as it has been said, today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, for if Joshua had given them rest, then he would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered his rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. And so he gives us some marching orders. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. OK. The original Israelites failed through lack of faith and through disobedience. Then he mentions Joshua and the fact that even this new generation of Israelites that God commended may have entered the land. But they did not enter God's rest. Because The Psalm speaks of another day in which the rest would be entered, the day in the future. So the the author here says. It's still out there. You can still enter God's rest. You're on the road already, and make sure you enter God's rest, and you can do this by being diligent. By obeying, by being faithful. Whereas Jesus says, by enduring to the end. In your calling. So Speaking of the generation that Joshua led. Though their conquest, in the end was incomplete, they did far better in their parents, but the author implies that those events that occurred back then are to us only types. We're not to take them in terms of the reality of their incompletion. But we are supposed to think of them as typical, as, as metaphorical, as symbolic of the journey that we make in order to enter His rest. In a spiritual way, in the only way that really matters. And he then says that the rest of God or this, I should say the, the Sabbath is a type of the rest of God and that in itself is a foreshadowing of the kingdom. Just so we get all our ducks in a row here. So we can say God's real rest, the one that he's been shooting for all this time, giving us all these examples from the
Old Testament and elsewhere even in the new, um, that's still future. The rest of God is still future. And it is now open to God's elect. And it's still Israel. That's journeying to God's rest, but as Galatians 6:16 says, it's the
Israel of God. It's a different group. It's a spiritual group. We call it just generally spiritual Israel. And it's the church, the body of Christ. Lots of different name names, but the same people. God's people whom he's called to take up this journey. And so we will enter it. Only if we remain obedient and faithful, unlike ancient Israel. So This has all been a big long explanation of why I think the conquest constitutes a second type of our spiritual journey toward God's kingdom. This time, In the second type, It's concentrating on a faithful, obedient people dealing with and overcoming the obstacles in the way. Just as we endeavor. To come into full possession of our inheritance. They were trying to come into the possession of their physical inheritance, the land of Canaan. But we in the anti-type are coming into our inheritance in the kingdom of God. And then having Having done that at the
return of Jesus Christ, we will enter God's rest. OK. My SPS, we are half an hour. So what I'm going to do as a frame, as a kind of frame for talking about this, this group of people and how they apply to us in our walk to, to God's kingdom. The sermon will focus on the 4 astounding miracles found in the book of Joshua. That's my frame that's my organizational template here for this sermon. And my aim. In giving these talking about these four miracles is to highlight what God is willing to do to aid us. In our journey to his rest. That is what he's willing to do to aid us in our Christian fight over sin and
Satan in this world. Cause he accompanied them on their journey as in the conquest, just as he's accompanying us. And so the types pop out when you go through the book of Joshua. So, let's go back to the Old Testament. We're going to start in Deuteronomy, the thirty-fourth chapter. We just want to pick up verse 9. Now Joshua, the son of none was full of the spirit of
wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him, so the children of Israel heeded him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses. OK, flip over a page into the book of Joshua. We'll start at the beginning. We'll read the 1st 9 verses here. After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of none. Moses' assistants. Moses, my servant is dead now. Therefore, arise. Go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given you, as I said to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and down to the great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life, as I was with Moses. So will I be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall defy as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left that you may prosper wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate it in it day and night that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. OK, one more one more verse in chapter 11. Joshua 11:15. As the Lord had commanded Moses, his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did. He left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded Moses. Notice those words here. He did everything. He left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded Moses. OK, before we get to the miracles. I want to point out the obvious type of Jesus Christ in Joshua. They even have the same name. It's pretty easy. It's like God, God said, I'll give you an easy one here. We'll call this guy Joshua, and we will call my son Joshua or Yeshua. And You get it? OK. Joshua is the God appointed, anointed leader of the congregation of Israel. Joshua is full of the spirit of wisdom. God is always with him. He is strong and courageous. He does not turn to the right hand or to the left. He follows what is written in God's word. He has no fear. He doesn't, he does whatever God commands him to do. He finishes what he starts. Are you seeing the connections here? Joshua is an amazing type of Christ. And we have an even greater leader. In the true Jesus Christ than Joshua ever was to the children of Israel. And so we have to come. Into this study of this, this typical journey. The conquest with the understanding that Whenever you see Joshua, you see something about Jesus Christ. Now, I want to say that Joshua did make a few mistakes and that just highlights how human Joshua was. None of his servants except Jesus. Uh, none of God's servants except for Jesus Christ ever did anything perfectly and so the, the type breaks down a time or two, but we have to remember that in these big events, the leader on the scene is Joshua and he is a type of Christ. Now, I think this Joshua, Jesus correlation gives good support to my argument that the conquest under Joshua is a specific type of our Christian fight after conversion. And in particular, I think it's especially pointed. To 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generation Christians and on and on because their parents have come out of the the world and had to do all these things that the people that the Israelites who had came out of slavery in Egypt should have done. But then you have the 2nd generation that comes, who have been taught by these faithful people who came out of the Egypt of this world and They're set up for this, this journey in a better way, just like the Israelites that crossed the Jordan River should have been set up in a better way to do what Uh, they were commanded to do. But it's not just for the 2nd or 3rd or 4th generation Christians, it's for ones that came out of the world of 1st generation Christians too. But I, I think, uh. Being a second generation Christian. I have to think that it's It's a good way for me to approach these things because, um, you know, I, I appreciate very much what my parents did and they set me up for this and now it's my responsibility to hold up my end of the of the board here and make sure I make it into the kingdom. I do all those things that I needed, need to do to enter into God's rest. OK. This This typical conquest we have in the book of Joshua teaches us about preparing to possess the land fully or possess our inheritance fully. It teaches us how to act and grow into our inheritance under the leadership of Jesus Christ. It shows how we must face and overcome many challenges, many enemies on the road to full possession of the kingdom of God. Let's just flip to not Philippians. Revelation, well, we will turn to Revelation. Bill told us last night we do not flip to Ephesians or any other place but Philippians. So we will go to Revelation 21 just to see a kind of sum summary statement from God. We'll go see verse 7. He who overcomes. shall inherit all things. And I will be his God, and He shall be my Son. So this is what we have to do. We have to approach our Christian life. Uh, as a kind of a battle where we must prevail over the enemies across over the, the roadblocks and the, the stumbling blocks and the pitfalls. All those things are adverse circumstances and temptations and, and sins that we have to overcome and And grow in come to perfection. And So God is telling us in the, in the conquest narrative that we have to face something very similar in order to inherit the kingdom of God. He has given us As a guarantee. Some of the Holy Spirit to help us along the way. And he's given us a promise of eternal life. But it's really not fully achieved until the resurrection. So That time in between the what we call the time of sanctification is when we face all these battles and must overcome and grow. OK. As I mentioned, there are 4 major miracles in Joshua, and I will list them right now just so you know what they are. The first, of course, is crossing the Jordan River. The second is the fall of Jericho. The 3rd Comes a little bit later, it's hailstones falling from heaven. And 4th, There is the, the famous one and the one that often is uh most argued about, Joshua's Long Day. Each one of these Has typical symbolic significance for us as we Uh, progress through the sanctification process, facing our trials and those stumbling blocks I talked about and overcoming overwhelming odds to defeat our enemies. And in each miracle, we witness what God does. I want to emphasize that what God does for us to have the victory. And we are reminded of two things in these. That we are not alone in our fight. And secondly, that we cannot Prevail without him. So that we are not alone. And we can't have any victory without him. All right, let's go to the first one, the crossing of the Jordan River. And that's back in Joshua 3. We'll read verses 1 through 6 and then 14 through 17. I'm not going to read the whole narrative that we would be here till. So, but I just want to pick out a few things. Uh, chapter 3, verse 1. Joshua rose early in the morning, and they set out from Acacia Grove and came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they crossed over. So it was after 3 days that the officers went through the camp, and they commanded the people, saying, When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it. About 2000 cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before. And Joshua said to the people, Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. One more verse here. Then Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, Take up the Ark of the covenant and cross over before the people. So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people. Let's just drop down to verse 14. And so it was when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan with the priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant before the people. And as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water, for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest, that the waters which came down from upstream stood still. And rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zaratean. So the waters that went down into the sea of the Araba, the salt Sea was now called the Dead Sea, failed. And were cut off and the people crossed over opposite Jericho. Then the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all Israel crossed over on dry ground until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan. Now we can't get too detailed in all this. Each one could probably be a sermon. Uh, but we, we will see some highlights here. OK, we have to understand that the Israelites arrived at the Jordan at the height of the spring flood. Uh, the waters, the snow and such had come off Mount Herman way to the north and had come down, it drained into what we call the Sea of Galilee and down the Jordan River, you know, all the way into the Dead Sea. And as it says here, it overflows its banks at that time. And so people come to the edge of the water here and they see it as an impassable barrier. Can't get across. It's impossible. It's, you know, maybe twice or however many times the amount of water that's normally there, and God brought them at a time so that they could understand that. That even when the height of the Jordan was at its highest. He could still work with it and bring them across. OK, this is the next generation's Red Sea. And According to the record here in Joshua 3, to their credit they obeyed Joshua without complaint. You know, the, the other generation. We need to go back to Egypt. Pharaoh's going to kill us. This generation though, it's kind of like. Yes, sir, Joshua. We'll go. And the instructions are fairly simple. We have to understand that this is early in their journey. Think of it early in our journey the simple instructions are helpful to get us started and get us moving in the right direction. So, likewise, Joshua gives some simple instructions. They must follow the ark of the Covenant, which is a symbol of God's presence among them. Pretty simple. Just follow the arc. But it, it's a little bit more. God will open the way through the waters. Because he is there with them. But they have to understand that the ark of the Covenant is holy. In the ark of the Covenant Typifies, symbolizes God's presence. God's just there. He's sitting on his throne, which is, you know, the mercy seat is, is his throne. That's where he, he makes his judgments from the mercy seat and so the priests are bearing God, think of it as, as bearers of, of uh what do they call that uh of a portable throne or a portable seat. I can't palace something. What? Oh, porters, yeah bearings, bearing a person of, of great eminence, and that's what they are supposed to think that their God is right there being born across the river and they stop in the middle. And they know if they are, if they are up on the symbolism that uh. That's their God doing this. Now there, like I said, they are to respect that, to honor that, to honor its sanctity, honor God's
holiness by staying more than a half mile away. That's what the, what is it? 2000 cubits by measure. cubits about 18 inches, you can do the math. So they are supposed to say about a half a mile away from The ark. Because that's God. Don't get too close in, in terms of, of, you can understand the symbolism there. He's a holy God. He's a strong and powerful God. So the people sanctified themselves for this probably by washing themselves and washing their clothes. They did this their, their fathers did that in Exodus 19 when they made the, the Old Covenant with God. And then they go through the waters or cross over Jordan as a type of baptism, just like going through the, the over the Red Sea was a type of baptism for the earlier generation. We plug in Romans 6 here. Paul says that baptism is imitating Christ, imitating his death and resurrection. He rose to newness of life and so do we when we are baptized and also in this case they came out of on the other side of Jordan as a new people. So Yahweh goes into the water before them and they follow just like we go into the water after the example of Jesus Christ who was baptized himself to make sure that we understood what righteousness is or what the righteous doing of that symbol. Yes So, when they get out on the other side, they are truly sanctified people. They've been ritually cleansed and are ready to do God's work. Now, the miracle occurs in that section we read from 14, verse 14 to verse 17. The waters rose up in a heat heap at Adam, and we go over that. Yeah, yeah, it was at Adam. Uh, that's where it happened. Well, that was 19 miles upstream. It was a long way, almost 20 miles north of where they were. God cut off the flow of the Jordan River. Uh, if you wanna look at it on a map, it's modern Damia. Uh, you can see Dam in there, Adam Damia. Uh, long, long way up the river. The water below that point. Drained south to the Dead Sea. And in no time at all. The riverbed was dry. Because the water was being held up north at a dame and that left all the Jordan River south of that area dry. That is a wide, wide, wide stretch of the river bottom to cross over. Of course, they had to stay, what was it a half mile away. So there was 1 mile of that river, river bottom that they could not use. They had to go half a mile north or a half mile south so that they wouldn't approach to the the ark of the covenant within that uh. Uh, 2000 cubits. Uh, they had what we think they had a, a couple million plus people. You would need that long a stretch of the river to get them across in fairly short order. Seems like they just took, you know, part of a day to do it. But they had all that area where they could cross over the Jordan to, to camp near Jericho. I guess they camped around Gilgal. So We need to understand. Why God did this? Why God. Made this miracle happen. And actually, it tells us very specifically in scripture here, why? OK, let's go back into chapter 3. We're going to read verses 7 through 10. Joshua 3:7. I want you to try to pick out the reasons here. The Lord said to Joshua, This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel that they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. You shall command the priests who bear the ark of the Covenant, saying, when you have come to the edge of the water of the Jordan, you shall stand in the Jordan. So Joshua said to the children of Israel, Come here and hear the words of the Lord your God. Joshua said, By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Parasites and the Girguites and the Amorites and the Jebusites. OK. Let's go on to chapter 4, verse 14. On that day, the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they feared him as they had feared Moses all the days of his life. OK, drop down to verse 21. Then he spoke to the children of Israel saying, when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, what are these stones, the, the command had been that each tribe pick up a stone and place them in the Uh, in the Jordan, and they also placed stones on, on the bank. Uh, and they were set up in Gilgal, verse 21. When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What are these stones, then you shall let your children know, saying Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry land, for the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up before us until we had crossed over. That all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord that he is, it is mighty and that you may fear the Lord your God forever. OK, did you catch the 4 reasons? One, Reason number one, to exalt Joshua as their leader, as God's choice, just as Moses was. Remember, this is a type of Christ. And the miracle was made to impress the Israelites. That this was the leader. It was his word that one obeyed, and it was his directions that you took. Just put the name of Jesus in there and you have your, your spiritual anti-type. 2 The second reason To assure Israel that God was with them and would drive out their enemies. To assure Israel that God was with them and would drive out their enemies. This was all the, the heights, you know, all the Hittites, Canaanites, Hivites, Parasites, and all the rest of the Heights. He would do that. 3 To witness God's might to the world. That he was strong. He was making a witness. Of his power. And of course, we find out that Rahab, the harlot told the men there, the, the spies that came in pretty much immediately, hey, we've heard all the things that have happened since you guys left Egypt. And God had just done a fantastic miracle right on their doorstep, and they were all quaking in their their shoes or sandals or whatever they were wearing and did not want to face Israel because they had a God that did awesome works for them. OK. And the 4th 1. The 4th 1 is to teach Israel to fear God forever. It's not a one-off thing. He wanted them to be so impressed by what God could do that they would remember this all the days of their life, and this would compel them. To do
God's will because he had shown, he had proven to them without a doubt. That he is the great God of this universe and he has all power and all authority. So who else would you want to obey? So treat him with great reverence all the days of their lives. And all of these apply in very similar ways to us in our Christian lives. Especially we need to understand these things at the beginning of our conversion. We have to know Be thoroughly convicted and accept and exalt Christ as our Savior, our God and our King. We are assured of God's promises of divine help to overcome and enter into the kingdom. That this is not a thing to be done alone. But God will be with us every step of the way. And through baptism, we publicly declare our allegiance to God. That's why it needs to be done before others even just a few witnesses to say, I'm with him. And it makes a witness. Makes a witness of God's power. think that he could take someone as wicked as you. And make you into one of his sons. And we In making this decision and covenanting with God. Pledge to fear God forever. For his awesome work in our behalf. So these are the same reasons. That We do what we do as we start our journey toward the kingdom of God. So such a miracle of God's calling and leading us to
repentance and to baptism gets our Christian lives started with a bang. I think we all remember that time. We remember our baptism. We remember all the, the heavy study we went into and how God was beginning to change our lives and there is a certain amount of fear there. Can I do this? Is this the right thing? And then God clears all that doubt away and you become convicted that this is the way to go. And I knowas you probably understood that he was real. And he would help you. So we are ready at that point to follow Christ wherever he may lead us, knowing that he and the Father are with us and will act mightily for us to bring us into His kingdom. He's all in on us and when we begin, he wants us to be all in on him. In his way and to maintain that. All right. Let's go on to the fall of Jericho. I will tell you right now, this is the last one we will do today, cause I talk too much. No, I had originally planned this as a two-parter. Uh, I will be giving part two on next Saba on the 18th. But you'll, I think by the end of this next one, you should be. Beginning to understand where I'm going with all this and the, the links between this generation under Joshua and the Church of God under Jesus Christ. All right, Joshua 6. We'll go to verse 12. This is the fall of Jericho. I'm going to read a bit here through verse 21, um. But I want you to tell you that the text here, something just to keep in mind, the text of this miracle tells us about 3 times what happened or it tells us what's going to happen and Joshua gives the command to make it happen and then it tells us what happened. So that's an integral part of, of this particular miracle. OK, starting in verse 12. Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. Then 7 priests bearing 7 trumpets of ram's 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. And the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. So they did 6 days. But it came to pass on the 7th day that they rose early and about the dawning of the day and marched around the city 7 times in the same manner. On that day only they marched around the city 7 times, and the 7th time it happened when the priests blew the trumpets that Joshua said to the people, Shout, for the Lord has given you the city. Now the city will be or shall be doomed by the Lord to destruction. It and all who are in it. Only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all who are with her in the house. Because she hid the messengers that we sent and you by all means abstain from the accursed things, the dedicated things, the doomed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things and make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it. But all the silver and gold and vessels of bronze and iron are consecrated to the Lord, they shall come into the treasury of the Lord. So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets, and it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout that the wall fell down flat. Then the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city, and they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and donkey with the edge of the sword. OK. This particular miracle. Another astounding miracle. All they do is march and shout and play trumpets. And everything was done for them. The defenses of the city. They were completely obliterated. They were wide open for conquering for Israel to conquer the people there in Jericho. Now, this miracle. It is about obeying the voice of the Lord. That's what this miracle. Emphasizes that's why it's repeated. The instructions are repeated several times and then we we find out through the course of the story that the people did exactly what God asked them to do. They followed the instructions. And when they followed the instructions, God responded and did exactly what he said he would do, which was to completely conquer Jericho. He made it easy. He did most of the work. It's there there are a few interesting little details about like. They were supposed to march in silence. It's an interesting detail. How does that apply to our, our walk, our marching with our leader? It shows a measure of trust. And respect And of course obedience as well, that the people did exactly what he said. And finally the whole city and everything in it was devoted to destruction is another big principle here those things that except for some of the things here, what do you say the silver and the gold uh was for God to put in the treasury, but everything else, everything organic, everything alive in the city was destroyed. They were to take nothing for themselves. During this miracle, Or during this this conquest, the conquest of the city. Now, I want to bring in II Corinthians 10 here. II Corinthians 10. Because I think this will help us. To understand what's going on here just a little better in terms of a spiritual application. II Corinthians 10, we will read verses 6, excuse me, 3 through 6. Paul writes, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. This sounds very much like what we just read in Joshua the 6th chapter. Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. OK, like I said, I think this really helps us to understand what we are getting into here in terms of the miracle at Jericho. I think it makes this commentary, if you will, by Paul applied to what happened at Jericho really clarifies things. Now remember, Christ is represented here by Joshua himself, but also by the ark of the covenant that's being carried around the city. And the priest's trumpets blowing. Announce his presence. We saw that in Jesus in the feast, part, what is that? 4, about the, no, part 3, and the
day of trumpets. What do trumpets signify? In terms of this fee the feast of trumpets, and that is that God is king and he is here. He's our present divine king. OK. Now it's interesting to understand too. That the Israelite warriors are there. There is a a guard out front and there is a guard at the back, so the, the warriors are there. Marching As a uh. I almost wanna call them an honor guard. Because they are present. They're equipped to fight. But they do not eventually do a whole lot of it. Because God does most of the work. So the advance guard is there, the rear guard is there, but they say and do little. But march and shout. They they march, they follow the ark. They follow the directions. And they shout What are they shouting? Well, Shout of a shofar, shout of, of, of praise and honor to their king. They're really, they are not doing fighting. They're marching and they are praising. Their God and their king. The whole story, I feel, is designed to impress on a person reading it that God's agency and power in delivering enemy strongholds in our hands is into our hands is awesome. How much do we have to do? We have to march along following God and praising him for all his wonderful acts and all the gifts that he gives us and the grace that he gives us our forgiveness and all the the wonderful things that he does and we watch him work. We do almost nothing. But obediently go along for the ride and cheer his presence. And his absolute power over the opposition. You know, we get ourselves into a lot of trouble. When We try to interfere with God. And the way he's working. How many times do we get out ahead of God? And do something That makes it worse. Because we are not actually overcoming. The problem, the obstacle or whatever whatever it is, the temptation the way he wants to usually we take charge and it's not necessarily an act of faith but an act of desperation we want out of this problem so badly we want it solved and behind us. And if we just waited a little bit more, if we'd have marched a few more steps, if we'd had a slight bit more faith in God's ability to do something, then it would have really worked out, but we stick our nose in and we do something and we only prolong. The problem. What did God say? March silently. Give thanks and praise to me. I am your king. I will solve the problem. I will defeat the enemy. Just watch. And the answer will become apparent. How was, how did the answer become apparent? The walls fell down flat. The enemy no longer had any defenses. And then the warriors were able to go in and do the job. This is a human problem. Because really we are just learning, we are just coming into our journey. We do not know a lot about how things work. But God gives us a clue here that if we just trust Him. He'll find us a way of escape. A way to get out of the problem, the way to solve the problem. Now it it we need to be obedient. We need to keep going forward and growing, but just wait on God. And he will give the victory. Now, let's, let's move on a little bit. I, I really want to emphasize here that. God will fight our battles for us. We, we do not, we sometimes take too much on ourselves. If we really trust God, then we better trust Him. To Clear out the Canaanites before us. Let him do his job. He's made those promises. You can ask him to fulfill those promises for you, but then wait, wait for his answer. It will be very clear if you trust in him. Now, what about these devoted things, these doomed things, all the, the things that God said had to be absolutely destroyed. In the analogy, They represent the so-called valuable things of this world. Those are the things that Satan desires or wants us to desire. They are things like a lot of money. Or a fine garment. Or whatever it was that in the, in the story was there in Jericho, free for the taking. But God said, do not. I'm going to conquer before you. Don't take any of the your conquered people's things. They're to be destroyed. They're not for you. Jesus in Matthew 6:19 calls them treasures on earth. Or in verse 24, he calls them Mammon. In that same chapter. The overall picture of the fall of Jericho is that God will ultimately destroy everything that opposes him. And he wants us to have nothing to do with the sinful things of the world that he has put under a curse. Don't touch them. Don't use your journey to the kingdom of God for selfish reasons. Don't touch the things of this world. That he says not to touch. We could say, do not be a hypocrite and say you're following God, but all you're trying to do is commu accumulate things. I mean, we all want to be successful or we want to to have plenty that so that we will have easier lives. Have something for our retirement or have something for our grandchildren when we when we die, that's fine, that's, that's fine. But he's talking here about Living our Christian lives. With 1 ft in the world and one in the church. And we are using, we are going against God even though he has made all of these things possible for us. And so he makes a very big statement here at the beginning of this, this conquest that the world and its things are off limits. You do not want them. You do not want them to bring them into your tent. Now we are not going to go through Joshua 7. That is where Aiken is found out that he had taken a few things from from Jericho. And what we learn from that is that he did it out of lust. He did it out of
covetousness. And The end result Was condemnation and death. What is Most sad about all of this, about Aiken's sin. Is that It was not just the covetous person who died. Everyone around Aiken. Died. God cut off the family of Aiken for Aiken's covetousness. What he's saying here, if we transfer this then to spiritual Israel, he's saying that the sins we bring in from the world. Into our families and into the church contaminates the body of Christ. We do not want that. Because we all have connections here and ideas like that and sins like that cause additional destruction. And so we take a lesson out of this that when God gives us a victory we are not supposed to take the spoils of that victory worldly spoils, and bring it into the church because it's going to cause problems that sin will begin to multiply. And so we have to protect the body of Christ by leaving the cursed things in the world. Let them be destroyed. So there is a two-fold lesson here in the fall of Jericho. One Obey God carefully. And exactly as possible. Follow his footsteps. March behind him, and he will fight your battles for you. And 2 Do not secretly. Hypocritically, take to yourself the things, the ideas, the behaviors of the enemy. Which God has already doomed to destruction.
