Week 12

Congratulations on making it through week 12. We are now 3 months through the schedule. 1/4 of the way there!


Topic of Interest

* Jericho is believed historically to be the oldest walled city.

* God commanded the Israelites to not take any of the gold, silver, or valuables of Jericho. Jericho and all in it were to be dedicated to God. This would be an offering of First Fruit, the first conquest of land and riches dedicated to God as
acknowledgement that He would fulfill His promise to bless them in giving them the land that flowed with milk and honey.

* Rahab, the Canaanite prostitute, is listed in the lineage of Jesus given in Matthew 1. She was the great-great grandmother of King David. (It is uncommon for women to be listed in a lineage, but Rahab was one of four mentioned in Jesus' lineage in Matthew 1. Watch future points for the others!)


Point to consider:

"Now, Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites."

Rahab had told the two spies that the whole land of Canaan was afraid of the Israelites after hearing the reports of how they had defeated the and destroyed Amorite kings Sihon and Og.

Consider the battleplan for the conquering of Jericho. Encamping around a city to sieze it was common. Battlements would be built. Trenches would be dug. Siege implements would be built or brought to fire into the city or to breech the walls to allow the warriors to get inside the defenders protective walls.

But here the Israelites stood outside of Jericho. There were no ballistas or catapults to launch weapons or fire into the city. There were no battering rams to penetrate the stone walls. There were no towers, ladders, or grappling hooks to scale the walls.

God commanded that they only march around the city once a day for a week. On the seventh day, they were to march around it seven times. After the final march, the priests were to blow long blasts on trumpets and all the people were to shout.

Notice that God did not tell Joshua what the result would be. He simply commanded the people and expected obedience.

"Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing before him with a drawn sword. Joshua asked 'Are you for us or for our enemies.' 'Neither,' he replied 'but as the commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.'

This was an Old Testament appearance of Jesus Christ. Consider the next thing He said to Joshua: "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy." Certainly, the land of Canaan was not holy, Joshua's presence couldn't make it holy, and the only other time a person was told to remove their shoes because they stood on holy ground was when Moses stood before God as He appeared in the burning bush.

This appearance of God/Jesus is a clear message that the battle was not Joshua's. HE came as the commander of the army of God. HE came to fight the battle rather than leave it soley in the hands of the Israelites. Without God, the Israelites would most certainly have failed.

When the trumpets blew and the people shouted, the walls of the city fell. It wasn't by war implement or by the army of Israelites. It was by the miraculous hand of God. The Israelites didn't know what to expect; they simply obeyed God through faith in Him and His promise. As God told Joshua, He delivered it into his hands. God went with the Israelites after that and fought for them.

Some 1,400 years later, Jesus would come again. He came to fight another battle. The enemy to be defeated this time was not an army of men, but an army of darkness, death, and evil; an army we ourselves can not fight against and win. Christ fought that battle that required Him to surrender His life on a cross and be raised again to glory as conqueror over hell and death.

As God delivered victory into the hands of the Israelites who followed Him, Jesus has delivered victory into the hands of those who follow Him as Lord. We have no power to go in and fight our evil enemy except the power we have through Him.

This event isn't simply a foreshadowing of Christ coming to provide the way for our salvation. It is a picture of fighting even our daily battles against evil. Paul stated "We do not fight against flesh and blood, but against powers and rulers of darkness, against spiritual hosts of wickedness." We can not fight them by conventional means. We only have power over them through the victory awarded to us through Jesus Christ. What we are commanded to do in battle against them may seem as silly to us as marching around a fortress wall and tooting a horn, but the almighty God fights for us - and that is no small thing.

We must follow Him by faith and the knowledge that He will keep His promise.