Jericho

JERICHO 
Today we are looking at the story of Joshua leading Israel in the defeat of the city of Jericho, where a miracle of God caused the walls of the city to fall down so that Israel could begin their actual entrance into the Promised Land after crossing the river Jordan. This city was the first of many that Israel was to occupy in their conquest and possession of the Promised Land.  

We saw how God brought Israel through the Jordan into the Land of Promise through the miracle of holding back the waters of the flooding Jordan River. The miracle came about through the ark being carried into the water by the twelve priests. The ark represented the presence of God - and the twelve priests, one for each tribe represented ALL the people. This also represents ALL of us as humanity, entering into a new way of life through Jesus (our Joshua)

It could have seemed at the time of the crossing of the Jordan that Israel had arrived at last and were now IN the Land, and in one sense they had arrived and were IN the Land, but in reality, possession of the Land had only just begun. The promise of possessing the Land was tied to the promise; 
Deuteronomy 6:11 I will give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, houses full of all good things, which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant. 
All this was yet to come and besides, they were to grow into a mighty Nation in the Earth that represented a living God in the Heavens. 

We now come to the first obstacle in their way to going in and possessing the Land – They had to conquer Jericho. They were told that Jericho had to be defeated and devoted to God as his holy place, and it was for Israel an enemy enclave occupied mostly by the Amorites.
Jericho means ‘a place of favour’ and ‘the place of palms’, regarded as the oasis of all oases in Canaan. Jericho is the most ancient walled city in history, its walls having been destroyed and rebuilt over thousands of years. In Joshua’s time it had outer walls 2 metres thick and 5 metres high plus one tower, with higher inner fortification walls. Surrounding the outer wall was a ditch over 8 metres wide by 3 metres deep, cut through solid bedrock. The total area of the upper city and fortification system was about nine acres, and the city at the time housed only a few thousand people. However more people from the surrounding area would have fled to Jericho at the time, terrified by the sight of over two million Israelites with thousands of head of cattle creating an enormous cloud of dust that would have been visible from afar as they slowly advanced.  

Everything that would happen from now on for Israel would belong to a new order of the plan and purpose of God. They were now called upon to take responsibility for their part in the accomplishment of God in his purposes. One small example was that now having crossed the Jordan the manna ceased falling from Heaven and they had to get their own food from the land. The battle of Jericho was a strategic disciplined operation for all the people of Israel. 

THE BATTLEOF JERICHO

Joshua 5:13 Joshua went and stood before Jericho. He looked up and saw a man standing in front of him, with his drawn sword in His hand. Joshua went to Him and said, “Are You for us or for our enemies?”
He said, “Neither, for I am the commander of the army of the LORD. Now I have come.” Then Joshua fell with his face to the ground and worshipped. Then he said, “What does my Lord wish to say to His servant?” The commander of the army of the LORD said to Joshua, “Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” 

This special place was not just to remain an enemy fortress but a holy place of God and everything in Jericho had to be devoted to The Lord. The commander of the army of the Lord was obviously Jesus and not an angel, because he allowed Joshua to worship him (Whenever people worshiped angels in the Bible the angels told them not to worship them because they were not God but just an angel), and Joshua called him lord (the same root word as Adonai).

Joshua 6:2 the Lord said to Joshua, "Jericho and its king and all its mighty warriors are already defeated, for I have given them to you! Your entire army is to walk around the city once a day for six days, followed by seven priests walking ahead of the Ark, each carrying a trumpet made from a ram's horn. On the seventh day you are to walk around the city seven times, with the priests blowing their trumpets. Then, when they give one long, loud blast, all the people are to give a mighty shout, and the walls of the city will fall down; then move in upon the city from every direction."

When they first came to the Jordan after being in the wilderness for forty years they all crossed the river safely because the twelve priests were obedient in their responsibility to carry the presence of God, even into the turbulent Jordan. The rest of the people just had to follow at a distance, but in this new way of life they were partners with him in the execution of his plans and purpose as his children and as the heirs of his inheritance.
This was a disciplined operation of both marshalled action and restraint from every one of them. Israel were not a battle-ready trained army and they didn’t have to be just yet, because God was giving them the victory in a miraculous way.

This time instead of twelve priests carrying the ark, seven priests carried the presence of God. There were another seven priests in front of those priests blowing the trumpets. A company of armed men was to lead the priests and a rear guard of armed men was to march behind the priests, and as they were to keep silence for the whole period of that time – in contrast to the murmuring and complaining from the previous generation that wandered in the wilderness. 
And ALL the people were to give the victory shout at the end to bring down the walls.

The number seven is significant in the Bible and is symbolic of the completion and fulness of meaning of the finality God’s purposes in the earth.
(Seven days creation and rest – the complete work of both the creative work of God and of our communion with God). 
Seven priests carried the ark. (The completeness of the presence of God).
Seven trumpets were blown. They walked once around the city each day and seven times around the city on the seventh day, and the seventh time on the seventh day the trumpets were to sound the victory blast then everyone gave the victory shout, and the walls.  

THE STORY OF US TODAY.
1Corinthians 10:11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were lessons for us, written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the age has come.
These lessons for us, is the ‘us’ of all humanity. The Apostle Paul did not just write this to a church in Corinth but to all of humanity, to know the story of the redeeming work of God throughout history.  

WHAT IS REDEMPTION? 
To redeem means to bring something that was lost into being found again, something that was out of order to be reordered, something that was malformed to be transformed, something that was broken to be restored. 
What had been broken between God and ‘us’?
Communion with God and humanity had been broken in Adam, but God did not give up on the fulfillment of his original purpose for the whole human race, to be in communion with him and to be his friend and partner in his plan and purpose for his creation. God chose one Nation Israel to represent all of us as the example of his redemption for all mankind. So Israel had to go through trial after trial of faith and trust in God, and the trial of those lessons show that they could not fully trust God. Finally Israel gave birth to Jesus, who fully and completely trusted God on our behalf. 

So what do the walls of Jericho represent spiritually, for us today?
For us those walls represent the wall of resistance around our hearts which is our human struggle of independence. We need to allow the presence of God to surround us just like the presence of God was walked around the walls seven time seven and the walls came down. God desires to capture our hearts and is able to bring us into communion and partnership with himself by surrounding us with his presence.

In those days the territory of the Promised Land was actual land but now the territory is the soil of our hearts. They were told that Jericho had to be defeated and devoted to God as his holy place. So just as Jericho behind the walls had to become holy so do our hearts. God also made a decree that the walls of Jericho were never to be rebuilt – and they weren’t! (Joshua 6:26). This work of God in capturing our hearts is a step by step process and it can be painful as there are lots of things in our personal garden that have to be uprooted or pulled down. 

This becomes the unrelenting redeeming process of the mindfuness of God toward us in bringing order out of disorder. Our response of faith to God in his creative reordering of all things trusts in his working all things in our lives together for good. God’s first act of creation was one of bringing light into darkness, and that creative act has never ceased to operate.  Everything at any one moment in time is in need of that reordering process because nothing is yet completely transformed. We ourselves constantly create disorder within our lives because of our own limitations, and creation is always colliding within itself, changing from one form of arrangement and energy into another. But we have within ourselves in union with God the creative power to see our lives and everything in them being transformed according to God’s plan, from hope to hope, one moment and one day at a time.

We can be co-workers with God in creating the future with God through what we do with him and through him in the present moment. This is the responsibility we are given. The world at this time is in its greatest need of change. You or I cannot change the world; we cannot even change another person, but we can let God change us. When we do that, that is when everything in our world is invited into the space of creative transformation that we have created. This is how the world could be changed. If there were enough people today ready and willing to accept and embrace that privilege and  responsibility we would witness the transformation of humanity, spirit, soul, and body.

This is the hope that is always before us, that this transformation is happening moment by moment as we become consciously mindful of his presence and creative goodwill towards us at all times and in every situation.