26 Oct 10/29/23 “And the Walls Came Tumbling Down” Joshua 5:13-6:1-5, 20-21
10/29/23 “And the Walls Came Tumbling Down” Joshua 5:13-6:1-5, 20-21
Recently, I heard of some groups honoring our First Responders and it got me thinking. Now before you say, “Oh, boy! Here we go again. We got the pastor thinking.” Hear me out. I would guess that our First Responders have thought of this because they have seen situations where this might happen. If there was a disaster in your life and you could only save two things from you house or your life, what would they be? Would it be the big TV set you just purchased? Would it be your financial records? Or maybe you would grab the deeds to your land or house? Many would grab their photo albums. We run across this situation quite often in the Bible. When the people left Egypt with Moses, they didn’t have much time to get ready. When Mary, Joseph and Jesus go to Egypt to escape the murderous Herod, they didn’t have much time to gather things. This happens today when people see tornados coming or there is a flash flood. We have time to grab only the most important items to save. Today, we are going to look at the story of Jericho. There are many facets to this story and I would like us to see if we can grab onto the most important thing; the faith it takes to break down the walls. It is there. You only have to grab it.
I would like to begin a little differently today. Joshua is one of the bloodiest books in the Bible. This is a section that many people say they cannot believe that we have a loving God who would tell Joshua to go and kill thousands of people. But it is there and you can read it in several places where God told the Israelites to kill all the people of a certain city. The statement that many people use is; “I cannot believe a god who would do something like this. I can only believe in a god of love.” This is a very wrong type of thinking. They don’t realize that God had to do this because of His love for us.
People who think like this have either never read the Bible or only portions of it or they just don’t understand what they have read. Remember that only Christians will be able to fully understand the Scripture, non-believers will think it is foolishness. In Genesis 15:16 we read that God tells Abram that his descendants will come back generations later to this Promised Land, the land of the Amorites, but the Amorites aren’t ready yet. What God is trying to say here in Genesis, is that He will try to work on the people who presently live in the Promised Land, the Amorites, but they will not listen. The conclusion that we must draw from this is that God will not put up with rebellion against Him forever. There will come a time of reckoning. I just wanted to throw this out before we begin today. All the people in Joshua who God destroys, have been rebellious for over 400 years. These people had been warned for over 400 years. God loves all people so much that He gives them all many, many chances to come to Him. God loves His chosen people so much that He will not let them be overrun with paganism and Satan. The best part of this is that He loves you this much also.
So we have God loving His people and helping Joshua to bring them home again. The Promised Land, present day Israel, is the place where Abraham first came. So now they have come from Egypt and crossed the Jordan as it stood still, yet another glorious miracle by God. Then they arrive at the city of Jericho. It is also helpful to remember that what they called cities were actually city states. They included much land surrounding the actual city. They come to Jericho and they find a city that is fortified with not one wall but two walls. There will be some obstacles to overcome here.
We talked a bit about this last week as I referred to some of the giants or obstacles we face. These obstacles are obstacles to our faith. Again, what are some of the obstacles to your faith? Do you have family conflict? How about anger? Do you lack a prayer life or are you spiritually lazy? Do you have money or job problems or do you have an addiction? Are you a professional worrier? Or is your vision that of the world and not from God? This list is endless. Many of us can think of an obstacle that is affecting us today. Maybe there is one that you just can’t seem to get rid of and you need help. I do know one thing about this broken world we live in and that is this: If you don’t have any obstacles to your faith, be very thankful and praise the Lord, because they will find a way of creeping into your life. Everyone has these at some point in their lives.
So, you have many obstacles to faith. So let’s just stop and ask, ‘what is faith?’ The author of Hebrews gives one of the best definitions that I know. In Heb. 11:1-2 we find that faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. I like to say in my personal definition of faith that I have a knowledge that Jesus is always there. For me, this knowledge is the same as faith. We have faith in many other things also. For instance, we have faith that the earth will keep on moving as it has always done so that we don’t drift off into space. We have faith in gravity. Faith is praying for rain and bringing an umbrella. You folks all have faith that I will finish this sermon at some point today.
These people who followed Joshua have faith. They had seen a lot of miracles and they were finally getting it. They still needed a little fine tuning but they were getting better. They had just seen the parting of the Jordan River so they could cross on dry land. Now they were coming to their first huge test as they were to take the city of Jericho.
The first thing that Joshua sees here is the commander of the Lord’s army in 5:14. Many times we overlook this little scene. Many scholars tell us that this was an angel of very high ranking. I agree with other scholars as this might be the Lord Himself or even Jesus Christ. The reason I say that is that we have Joshua bowing down before him and this commander doesn’t tell Joshua not to bow to him like we see in Revelation 19:10. We don’t bow down to angels, only to God. The second reason I think this might be the Lord is that He tells Joshua to take off His sandals because he is on holy ground. We just read about this happening to Moses at the burning bush.
So the Lord is telling them that He has given Jericho to them if they just follow these simple instructions. The armed men of the camp were to march around the city once each day for 6 days. I don’t think there is any problem there. On the 7th day, they were to march around the city 7 times with trumpets blowing. After this they were to blow the trumpets loudly, the walls would fall and all the people were to enter the city and destroy it. This is, of course, a condensed version of the story. The miracle of all of this was not that the walls fell down when they did this. This was a great thing, a great miracle but I think that an even greater event was that all the people did as instructed. This seemed like kind of a crazy thing to do. But these people had faith in God that was unshakable at this point. It didn’t last long but at least at this point they were being obedient to their faith.
Now you may come to church for your entire life and it might not do much for your faith. What you need to be doing here is opening your hearts to the word of God. This is the section of the Bible where we learn a little about the justice of God. God had been trying and working on the people of Jericho for over 400 years and here comes the justice of God. I know that there are people that struggle with these sections. Open your heart to God and see all of Him. See the love He has for his people in the midst of all this. He had tried and tried and tried to get these people to follow Him but they wouldn’t. There will be a time when God withdraws as we go further and further away from the Bible, the Word of God. This could happen to us also!
Some of you are on a journey with Jesus and you tell me about exciting things that are always happening to you. Others of you might not quite be there yet and that’s ok. Or maybe there are others who think that you don’t have time for Jesus yet. Maybe you think that things are going well for you now or you are too busy. If you think this and you don’t know Jesus, then your well-being is an illusion given to you by Satan. If you are waiting for whatever reason, please remember the thought for the week last week which said, “People who wait until the 11th hour to call on Jesus, usually die at 10:59!” You don’t hold any of the good cards, God holds them all. Confess you sins to Jesus and give your life to Him. It is the only way to a good life. As we see with the people of Jericho and others, this offer is there for a limited time only. I guarantee that this will be the best decision you ever make. You will finally approach happiness.
This is a requirement if you are to have faith in Jesus. You also have some responsibilities. These responsibilities are the things that help you to keep this faith alive. This comes with prayer. When you are done with that, then pray some more. It is your responsibility to be reading the Bible. This keeps you anchored in the Word of God and helps God to talk to you on a daily basis. This is why I think our sermon series this year is so important. We are talking about and reading the Bible. If you aren’t involved with this, then join us next Sunday. Join us by reading the parts of the Bible that we are covering. Just because you might have missed the first part of this study, doesn’t mean that you have to miss all of it.
One of the things that sometimes happen to people is that they don’t really want to know what the Bible says because it might upset them. People have been upset with me several times for saying things but I usually try to anchor my serious comments in the Bible. People once again don’t want it pointed out that what they are doing or what they have done is wrong. People fail to understand that doing wrong is what we do best. It is what I do best. We all do wrong! The Good News is that forgiving us of our wrongs is what Jesus Christ does best. And He will forgive everyone who comes to Him. Anyway, you have responsibilities that you need to do to keep our faith strong. One of the things I like to do to warm up in the morning, is listen to Charles Stanley, or David Jeremiah or Chuck Swindoll. These are just suggestions. The main point is practice your faith. Whether you have been in love with Jesus for a year or 60 years, practice your faith.
So we have our requirements and responsibilities met for faith. One of the things that many if not most Christians, do on a regular basis is underestimate God. We pray like this, “Please God give me a couple more days without rain so I can get the crop in.” Or “Please Lord, help me to have a good day.” Now, there is nothing wrong with these prayers but take a look at all the big miracles that have just happened to these early Israelites. The walls came tumbling down. Don’t be afraid to ask for big things. I know that our North Dakota mentality tells us not to ask for too much but with God there is no such thing as too much. Ask for great crops. Ask for a good life. Ask for world peace. Ask that all your friends come to know Jesus. There is nothing that God can’t do so ask for the big things. It may take some time to happen but God will be working on it His way, if you just ask.
Now back to our story. Can you imagine walking around a city like this? They had to look silly. But they did exactly what they were supposed to do and the walls come down just like God told them. They were using their faith. James tells us that faith without works is dead. Here we have a whole nation who has faith and they do the works of God. The result is a wall in shambles and a victory for Israel.
In a little over a year, we will be electing a president, a senator, a representative, state and local officials. Churches often get in trouble for saying things about elections that some don’t like but I think that Christians need to be political also. I have had people come up to me and ask me how in the world are we supposed to vote for someone when the choices are so poor. Well whether the choices are poor or not is not the point. This is how to try to handle this situation. We all know what the Bible says about certain issues. With this in mind go to Jesus in prayer and get your answer. When there are tough decisions, Jesus will help you through. I would also ask that as you are in prayer with Jesus, ask Him to raise up candidates for the next election that He wants elected. If every Christian in this country would make a prayer like this, we could end up with a revival. Things could change. Things would be different. We could end up just like the Jewish nation as the walls of Jericho come tumbling down. Tumbling down! Let’s shout out to the Lord to heal out land.
Let’s bring down those walls. Praise the Lord! And thank you, Jesus, for first loving us. Let’s pray.
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