Now, I want to bring in II Corinthians 10 here because I think this will help us to understand what is going on here just a little better in terms of a spiritual application.
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 is being carried around the city and the priests' trumpets blowing announce His presence.
We saw that in Jesus in the Feasts, Part Three, and the Day of Trumpets. What do trumpets signify in terms of the Feast of Trumpets and that is, that God is King, and He is here. He is our present divine King.
Now it is interesting to understand too that the Israelite warriors are there. There is a guard out front, and there is a guard at the back. So the warriors are there, marching, I almost want to call them an honor guard because they are present. They are 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 march; they follow the ark. They follow the directions. And they shout. What are they shouting? Well, shout of a shofar, shout of praise and honor to their King. They are not doing fighting; they are 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 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 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 is 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 it is, the temptation the way He wants to?
Usually we take charge, and it is 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 had marched a few more steps, if we would 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 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 will find us a way of escape, a way to get out of the problem, the way to solve the problem.
Now we need to be obedient. We need to keep going forward and growing, but just wait on God and He will give the victory.
Let us move on a little bit. I really want to emphasize here that God will fight our battles for us.
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 has 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 … . . .
