Your Walls Can Come Down

Joshua: God's Power at Work

Joshua 6:1-27

By Rev. John R. Hannem, Calvary Baptist Church, North Sydney, NS – July 27^th 2008 – AM Service

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   Life in this world of ours is full of "battles" in one form or other. I am sure right now that each of you can think of a struggle that you are dealing with in life- …. parental struggles, health struggles, marital struggles, career struggles-because life in this world is full of "battles."

   And to be able to deal with these battles we need to learn to employ the correct battle strategy. We need to use the right tactics. I mean, any general worth his stars will tell you, strategy is everything.

   Well, this morning we are focusing on the strategy that a general named Joshua used to conquer Jericho. And as I studied this I uncovered a lot more than just information about this chapter of Jewish history. But I came to see that the principles behind Joshua's battle tactics in this particular conflict will help us in the struggles of life because there is indeed a sense in which we all face our own "Jerichos," … seemingly insurmountable trials and tribulations that often block our pathway and prevent us from moving forward.

   Now, let me try and recount the story of this crucial battle in the history of Israel.  Let's start with the setting. Palestine was and still is a very hilly, even mountainous country in places, and during Joshua's time the major passage through Palestine was a connecting road that ran from north and south through the highest portions of the land. Joshua's battle strategy was to drive westward from the Jordan Valley toward that high road, thus dividing the country. Then, with the enemy forces divided, he would lead his army first to destroy the opposition to the south and then the opposition to the north.

   As we continue our study of this book in coming weeks you'll see that this is a rough outline of the campaign described in Joshua, chapters 6-11, and it was a very good strategy indeed. In fact it was so good that British field marshal Edmund H. Allenby decided to use Joshua's strategy himself when he successfully liberated Palestine during World War I.

   Remember? Last week I told you Jericho was a military fortress designed to prevent this kind of invasion strategy from working. Jericho's purpose was to defend the eastern approach to the high country of Palestine.

Now, Joshua had to deal with Jericho, he couldn't just bypass it, because to do so would mean leaving a large military force behind him, and that would be foolish strategy indeed. On the other hand, conquering Jericho was easier said than done because its walls were strong and high. In fact, Jericho had not one but two walls. There was the outer wall that was six feet thick and the inner one that was twelve feet thick. These double walls, combined with the position of the city, made Joshua’s task difficult to say the least. …..  How then could any general hope to conquer this fortress city? Well, there were several options, several strategies, available to Joshua and I'm sure he would have heard them if he had gathered his generals to seek their counsel:

   But the Biblical record shows that Joshua was in constant contact with his Commander-in-Chief-the one who made the rocks out of which Jericho was built, as well as the mountain on which it stood. Joshua's Counselor and Guide was-and still is-an infallible Strategist and Commander as we will see in our text for this morning. Take your Bibles and turn to Joshua 6 and let's read God's strategy. It's recorded in verses 2-5:

   Now, if you were a soldier in the Hebrew army attending Joshua's briefing and heard this plan of battle for the first time, what would you think? Wouldn't you question your leader's sanity? I mean, high, thick, fortified walls do not fall to the noise of tramping feet. Cities are not won by trumpets. Yet the Biblical record tells us this is exactly what happened. The people did not question Joshua's sanity or his orders because they knew that they were God's commands. And one thing they had learned in their 40-year-long desert boot camp, was to obey God.

   So, each day for six days they all walked in silence around the watching city and on the seventh day they repeated this apparently futile exercise seven times. No one spoke, not even a whisper. The only noise was the sound of the rams' horns blown by the priests. Then, on their seventh lap on the seventh day, when the city was entirely surrounded by the Jewish people, Joshua commanded saying, "Now! Shout! For the Lord has given you the city."

And the people did shout. Verse 20 says, "When the trumpets sounded the people shouted, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in and took the city."

   However, I would remind you though, that one portion of the wall did not collapse: that portion containing Rahab's home with that scarlet chord dangling from it's window. Remember from last week? And not all the residents of Jericho were destroyed; Rahab and her family were spared. Look at verses 22-25:

Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, "Go into the prostitute's house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her." So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel.

Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the LORD'S house. But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho...

   Now, many people have questioned the accuracy of this battle as recorded in Joshua. In essence they think the facts have been stretched a bit. They have had a hard time believing that marching and shouting and trumpet blowing could bring down massive double walls. But an article in U.S. News and World Report back in October of 1991 told of scientists who have confirmed the Biblical record. Here's a quote from the article:

"The city's walls do appear to have collapsed suddenly and the blackened timbers and stones, as well as a layer of soot dating to 1400 B.C., .all suggest that the city burned, as the Bible says it did. Archeologist Kathleen Kenyon also found bushels of grain on the site, consistent with the Bible's account of a springtime conquest so rapid that Jericho's besieged populace had not exhausted their food."

   Now, before we try to learn from Joshua's specific battle tactics there are two important principles we need to remember when it comes to dealing with our own struggles. Think of these principles as basic training for any soldier of the Lord.

A. First, we must understand that consecration comes before conquest.

   In other words, as Wiersbe puts it, in every battle of life we must devote ourselves to God completely. We need to embrace a mind set that says, "I will always obey God. He is the Commander-in-chief of my life. This is His battle, not mine. My goal in life is to further His purposes not my own."

   In any struggle we must respond not by trying to "win, " not by trying to "look right." No, instead we must seek to respond in ways that further God's kingdom.

   In a meeting with a small group of missionaries in China, Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission, reminded them that there were three ways to do God's work:

"One is to make the best plans we can, and carry them out to the best of our ability, or, having carefully laid our plans and determined to carry them through, we may ask God to help us, and to prosper us in connection with them. Yet another way of working is to begin with God; to ask His plans, and to offer ourselves to Him to carry out His purposes."

   That's the mind set I'm talking about. And it leads to the second "basic training" principle:

B. No matter how overwhelming the "enemy's walls" may seem we must remember that as Christians-as "soldiers in the Army of the Lord"-we fight from victory not for it.

   In other words, as we face the "Jericho's" of life we must remember that since we "fight" for God, since our task is to further His kingdom, nothing can truly defeat us. In fact, the battle is already won. Even Rahab understood this. Remember? She told the two spies in Joshua 2:8, "I know that the LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you."

   Well, perhaps the reason the Hebrews followed Joshua's "odd" battle strategy so unquestionably was because they knew this as well. Perhaps as they marched they remembered God's promise of victory to Moses. In Exodus 23:27 He had said, "I will send My terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run."

   God had kept his promise. He had gone before Joshua, and He does the same for us. When we strive to accomplish His will, when we are following His orders, we must remember this. The victory, God's victory, our victory, has already been won.

   This week in my study I learned that back then the Jews used two different kinds of trumpets. Some were made of silver and others were crafted out of Ram's horns. The silver trumpets were used especially by the priests to signal when something important was happening and the rams' horns were used primarily for celebrations. Well the priests didn't use the silver trumpets in this event. They used their ram horns because Israel was not declaring war. There was no war. They were celebrating victory, God's victory. We must remember this as we encounter obstacles in our attempt to live for God. We don't fight for victory but from it because the battle is the Lord's and He has already won.

   Let's put it this way. We should live not like victims but as victors because that's what we are!

   Okay with that basic training done, we are ready to proceed. Let's take a close look at Joshua's strategy to see what we can learn. According to James Montgomery Boice, there are two steps in his strategy and we need to be familiar with them because they make all the difference as we face our own "Jerichos" in life.

(1) The first step in Joshua's plan was silence before the Lord.

   Remember Joshua's briefing from God? The people were to keep absolutely quiet as they encircled this doomed city. Their lips were not to speak a word. Look at verse 10. Joshua...commanded the people, "Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout!"

   Now, think of it. This must have been a very difficult thing for the people to do. For one thing, there were several million people trying to do this at the same time, and it is hard to imagine any large group of people moving anywhere without at the very least a noisy hum. Think how hard it must have been to obey that command. I mean, there were soldiers to get in line, children to keep track of, a route to be pointed out and taken. Plus, I'm sure the Hebrew people would have had difficulty ignoring the taunts of the citizens of Jericho as they looked down from their fortified walls.

   Now, I imagine that on the first day the Canaanites would probably have been quiet too, watching to see what the huge army would do. And can you picture how bizarre that sight would have been? Think of it: a silent attacking force of millions watched by silent defenders, waiting for something to happen that never did. I bet you could have cut the tension with a knife!

   But I'm sure the defenders' silence would not have lasted beyond the first day. Eventually they would have begun to mock the Jewish soldiers saying things like: "What do you think you're doing, marching around our walls? What are you looking for, a way in? Do you think we're foolish enough to have left a door open somewhere? What’s wrong? Are you afraid to fight? Why don't you climb up here? Come on, give it a shot. We'll show you how a city should be defended. You bunch of Cowards!"

   I bet their taunts increased and became more vulgar as every day passed. And I'll tell you this much, under those circumstances, it would have been difficult for me to keep silent! And, then what do you think the Hebrews were thinking about during their silent march as they ignored the jibes of the Jerichoites? I mean, they didn't have anything else to do but think, so what went through their minds?

   Well, for one, I bet every step they made deepened their conviction that if there was to be a victory, it had to come from God. With every lap they saw up close how high and how solid those walls were and how impossible it would be to break down the massive reinforced gates of the city. They must have thought, "God's going to have to do this." And in my mind their next thought was, "Well of course He will. After all, He's promised us that He would!"

   Now this first step in Joshua's battle strategy, this silence before God, is a lesson we all need to learn even today as we face seemingly undefeatable foes. Let me put it this way: one necessary and effective battle strategy for every Christian soldier is to stop and listen to the commands of our General.

   Now, we pray, but unfortunately, most of us only talk to God. Our prayer life is a "one-way" conversation. We don't listen to God's response. It's as if we believe God's end of the "phone line to Heaven" is equipped with a receiver but no mouthpiece. And because we "pray" like this we miss out on the main benefit of prayer: God's specific guidance, tactical guidance, strategies that are essential when it comes to the struggles that come with life, real struggles that as Paul says, are not against flesh and blood but principalities and powers.

   So to deal with the "Jerichos" of life we need to learn to listen to God. We need to train ourselves to be open and receptive to the promptings of His Spirit. And make no mistake, He does speak to us!

   This week I came across an old proverb that says, "All those who open their mouths, close their eyes." I like this proverb because the purpose of silence before the Lord is to be able to not only hear but see what God wants us to do and where He wants us to go. So many of us fight the battles of life blind because we never listen to God's guidance, guidance that is given through His Spirit, through His Word, and through His people.

   When God takes us on a journey, listening well can make all the difference. In the battles of life successful soldiers learn to say with Samuel, "Speak Lord, for Your servant is listening." And that leads to the second step in the strategy that Joshua employed in his attack on Jericho:

(2) Unquestioned and continued obedience.

   A careful reading of the text here indicates that Joshua did not tell the people how many times they were going to have to circle the city or even exactly what was going to happen at the end of their seven days of marching. No, the people were given their instructions one day at a time. At the end of their assignment for that day, having encircled the walls, they were directed back to their camp, and nothing happened. They had obeyed Joshua, who had been obeying God. They had encircled the walls, but when they returned to camp, the walls were still standing, no one had surrendered, and the Jewish armies seemed to be no closer to the final conquest of Canaan than they had been the day before.

   This is how it was at the end of the second day and the third and the fourth and the fifth and the sixth. This is what things looked like after the sixth lap on day seven. Absolutely nothing appeared to have changed. Jericho's walls stood intact and its ramparts were still full of soldiers with their weapons.

      Well, it was only after the seventh lap on the seventh day and the shout that followed, that Jericho's walls collapsed. The victory was won only after the people obeyed and continued to obey God.

   We need to learn to practice this same strategy in our own struggles because there is no substitute for continued obedience to God. I mean, even when we can't see success we must obey and obey and obey and obey. Remember, the kind of faith that pleases God is an obedient faith, obedience in spite of the results.  

    In his commentary on Joshua Dr. Alan Redpath suggests that "many people don't see the answers to their prayers simply because they have stopped one round short in their conquest of their personal Jericho." We may have been doing the right things but we simply stop doing it…We give up!.

   Now think about that for a moment. How many marriages do you think ended because a husband or a wife gave up too soon? They obeyed God, but not long enough. How many lost people have not become Christians because their believer friends stopped praying for them, stopped looking for ways to share the gospel with them, stopped obeying the Great Commission too soon? How many Christians have not become all that God wanted them to be simply because they stopped trying? How many of us have failed to defeat our own "Jerichos" because we gave up. …. Oh we tried, we made a couple "laps" around its walls, but we weren't persistent enough in our obedience. Well, people, that old saying is true, quitters never win. To deal with the Jericho's of life requires consistent and persistent obedience.

   Eugene Peterson said, "Christian discipleship is a long obedience in the same direction."

I guess you could summarize Joshua's battle strategy in two words: hear and obey. Hear God. Listen to His leading. And then obey Him and keep on doing so.

   Okay, our time is all gone and now it's evaluation time. Or in keeping with our military theme, it's inspection time soldier! So, how are you doing when it comes to Joshua's battle strategy? Have you learned to be silent before the Lord? Do you listen to your General's commands?

   And then, is your life one of not only obedience, but continued obedience?