[MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome to Expound, our verse
by verse study of God's word. Our goal is to expand your
knowledge of the truth of God by explaining the word of God
in a way that is interactive, enjoyable, and congregational. Father we, as a
part of our worship, we give you our attention. We are listening. We think of that little
boy in a tabernacle named Samuel, who when you
spoke his name, he finally said, speak, Lord. Your servant is listening. And here we are Lord, your
servants, gather together. We've come from different
occupations today, different activities,
different family situations. But we have a
common goal and that is to hear as you
speak to your servants. So we ask you to do that. In Jesus' name, amen. So turn in your Bibles
to Joshua chapter 5. We began tonight
by singing a song, "I Come Alive in the River,"
I love the words to that. I come alive in the river. The children of
Israel have come alive as they went through
the river Jordan. They were birthed
into a new experience with God, a new land, a
whole new set of problems. As well as the Promised Land,
it was also the problem land. There are enemies in that land
that are going to conquer. And we see them facing them
tonight in the city of Jericho. The leader is Joshua or
Yeshua, his Hebrew name. The English equivalent from the
Greek word, his name was Jesus. So it's just interesting
to make a note that the book is named after our
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Joshua, Yeshua,
God is salvation. Now this Joshua had been
a minister of Moses, it says in chapter 1,
"a servant of Moses." He was like a personal envoy. Whatever Moses needed,
Joshua was there to make sure that Moses got it-- whatever the need was. So he would attend
to Moses' tent. He was also the leader of
the IDF, the Israeli Defense Forces. In those days, when they were
marching through the wilderness and there were some attacks
by different groups, like Amalekites, it was
Joshua who was General Joshua. And he may have even been
in the army while in Egypt as a young man. He was born in
Egypt, that we know. He went through the
wilderness and he was one of the
only two survivors from the previous generation. Joshua was one. Caleb, we'll read about
him later in this book, was the other. Joshua leads them
across the Jordan River. And now they're in
the Promised Land. However, the fact that he
was a general in that army was a little bit different
than what he's facing. You see, up to this point he
has never led an armed attack on a fortified city. And you do remember
that when the spies went to look at the land? One of the things they noted
is that there's some walls. There's some cities
with huge walls. And there's giants in this land. This place is fortified. Joshua has never led an assault
on a fortified city-state, like he found in Canaan. Moreover, the army was not
a well-equipped army, right? They're traveling in
tents with their families, a couple of million people,
animals, a bunch of ex slaves. So they don't have implements
of war, so to speak. I mean, they don't
have catapults. They don't have battering rams. They don't have
the moving towers like they used in ancient
times to assault cities. It is a ragtag group of people
against well fortified cities. However, having said that,
they had one huge advantage, the fear factor. And I'm not talking
about the TV show. Israel had the fear factor. They had, on their
side, the fear of God that the people
of Canaan had in hearing what God had done for them. What they had in their
favor was the fact that the morale of the
Canaanites was at an all time low. It was Rahab who told the spies,
hey, the people of my city-- man, our hearts melted
when we heard what happened with the Red Sea incident. And our hearts further
melted and were terrified when we heard
about the two kings that you guys wiped out. So we are in absolute
terror of you guys. So the morale was at an all
time low among the Canaanites. Now was the time to move. If ever there is a time
to attack, it's now. They just crossed
over the Jordan River, which means the morale is even
lower in the Canaanite side because that was not expected. So miracle after
miracle after miracle-- they were already afraid. Now they're further afraid. Now's the perfect time
to attack, right now. But that's not God's plan. God's plan is a
little bit strange until you examine it biblically. God believes that
before a conquest there must be consecration. You don't just
attack immediately. You have to wait to
do some things first. And once you do
those things first-- spiritual things first-- this would be counterintuitive
for any military officer to operate under today. First of all, there has
to be a circumcision. Get an army to sign
off on that one. Number two, there has to be the
celebration of the Passover. There must be consecration
before there is conquest. So counterintuitive to modern
or ancient military strategy. They're going to wait a few
days before they actually go in and take Jericho. Now let me bring your minds
back to an important principle. In chapter 1, the Lord promised
that Joshua would have, do you remember the
term, good success. "Joshua, you will be successful. I will be with you. Be courageous that you might
do, perform, obey everything I tell you to do." So God promised him
success conditioned upon, contingent upon, Joshua's
obedience to God. Well, if you're
going to obey God, you've got to begin with
what God said in his word. And so God does
that with Joshua. God had told the
children of Israel that there was a sign
of the covenant, which was circumcision, and they must
keep the Passover, which they have not done for a long time. So the Lord brings Joshua
back to what is already revealed in his word. He's not going to tell
him any new Revelation. He's not going to give him a
dream at night or a vision. He's just going to say,
do what is written. I find there a vital principle
for spiritual growth. How many times do we go,
oh, Lord, speak to me. Speak to me something
new and fresh. And I can almost hear the Holy
Spirit saying, why should I? You haven't obeyed. You haven't applied. You haven't gone
to, and looked at, and made applicable for
yourself what I have already written down in my work. Begin there. Start with the old and do that. And then I'll open
up new revelation. So God takes them back to that. So they crossed over
the Jordan River. Chapter 5 verse 1, "so it was." "When all the kings
of the Amorites, who were on the west
side of the Jordan--" that's the Jericho side. They've come from Moab, the
eastern side, crossed over to the western side. "When all the kings
west of the Jordan-- all the kings of the
Canaanites who were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried
up the waters of the Jordan from before the
children of Israel. Until we had crossed over,
that their heart melted. And there was no spirit
in them any longer because of the
children of Israel." So as we've already made a
note of, Rahab, the harlot, told the two spies
that came to Jericho what was the condition of
the Canaanites, previously, in hearing about the Red Sea. Now we are told in verse 1,
what is the condition presently. Previously, their hearts melted. Presently, their
hearts are melting. Previously, it was because of
what happened at the Red Sea. Presently, it's because what
happened at the Jordan River. So again, the morale of the
Canaanites is at an all time low. This was the last thing the
Canaanites expected to happen. Oh, they knew the
children of Israel were camped on the east
side of the Jordan. They knew the two spies had
snuck into their territory. And they were looking to
find them and kill them. They knew the children of
Israel were closing in, but they thought we've
got weeks, maybe months, because the Jordan River, do you
remember, was at flood stage. It was high. It was uncrossable. It was impassable, unless, God
does a miracle, which he did. So now instead of
being confident, we can plan our strategy, now
there are like the Elvis song, "All Shook Up." [SINGING] All shook up, mmmm. Thank you very much. But notice the
strategy as we go on. "And at that time the
Lord said to Joshua, make flint knives for yourself. And circumcise the sons of
Israel, again, the second time. So Joshua made flint
knives for himself and circumcised
the sons of Israel at the hill of the foreskins." I don't even know what
to do with that verse. "And this is the reason why
Joshua circumcised them. All the people who came out
of Egypt, who were males-- all the men of war had died
in the wilderness on the way, after they had
come out of Egypt. For all the people who came
out had been circumcised, but all the people who were
born in the wilderness, on the way, as they
came out of Egypt had not been circumcised." Now there is a lot of things I
want to say about these verses. Number one, ouch. I don't even like the fact
that something is called the hill of the foreskins. It's just awfully embarrassing
to sit up here and even talk about that, but it's
a verse in the Bible. And I did promise it
would be verse by verse. So there it is. Second thing I want
to say about this is that this was
part of the covenant that God made with Abraham. Now I'm taking you back all
the way to the book of Genesis. You don't have to turn there. You know the story. You'll remember
it as I tell you. In the 17th chapter
of Genesis, God said he was making a covenant
with Abram, who his name was then changed there to Abraham,
that God was going to do a mighty work through him. And he's going to
give them the land. It's the covenant of the land
that they have just entered into, the Promised Land. But then God thought
and God said to Abram, this is the covenant, but
there's going to be a token-- a sign, an outward
sign of the covenant. So there's going to be some kind
of symbol, some kind of sign, some kind of token, some
kind of certificate that marks that you are in a
covenant relationship with God. Now Abram was all
ears at that time. First of all, what's
wrong with the covenant? Second, the Lord
said he wants to give a token of the covenant, great. Covenants are cool. And maybe he thought
back to Noah. And God made a
covenant with Noah that he would not destroy the
earth by a flood any longer. And the token of the
covenant, the outward sign-- the symbol was a what? A rainbow. Now that's visible, man. That's colorful. That's beautiful. In the law of Moses,
later on after Abraham, God made a covenant
of the Sabbath day. Keep the Sabbath day. And that was part of the
covenant of the law of Moses is that every seventh
day they rest. That's a great token. That's peaceful. That's restful. You think of the New Testament
token for our relationship with God. It's baptism. That's refreshing. That's cleansing. So there's Abraham-- God saying, I'm going
to give you a token. And he's all ears until
God says the token is that every male child is
going to be circumcised on the eighth day. And I'm sure Abraham scratched
his head and said, you know, I think I like a
certificate better. I don't know if
I like this idea. What's this stuff
about circumcision? But on the eighth
day, every male child was circumcised in the
foreskin of the flesh. The question is
often asked, what is this circumcision all about? What does it mean exactly? Well, I'm glad you asked. More than just an outward
sign of an inward change, that's typically what
we say tokens are, are these signs that God
gives, but with circumcision, especially, since it
involves the male organ, it is the organ of
generation of life. It symbolizes the cutting
away of fleshly desires, a life lived after the flesh. One of the problems we
have as human beings is that it's not we just
sin, but were born in sin. And we practice
sin because we are sinners by birth and by nature. So David, in Psalm
51, verse 5 says, "I was brought forth in
iniquity and in sin, my mother conceived me." That's true of
every human being. With God's people, the token,
the circumcision of the male, was the cutting away of the
flesh, the organ of generation as a symbol of the cutting
away of the propensities toward the fleshly life. Nothing should rule
over you except God. You should cut
away fleshly things that could rule over your
life, fleshly habits, fleshly inclinations,
and serve only the Lord. So that is the idea
of circumcision. Now it is spiritual. It is symbolic of
something spiritual. How do I know that? Because in Deuteronomy
chapter 10, the Lord said it. He said "circumcise,
therefore, your hearts, and be stiff necked no longer." So that outward symbol was
a sign of an inward reality that your hearts were trimmed,
and cut, and placed before God, and wholly devoted to him. That all fleshly
desires, all other habits take a backseat to
serving the Lord only. Easier said than
done, but that's what the token is all about. So he tells them to make-- verse
2, "flint knives for yourself." Now I'm sure that Joshua
wasn't prepared to hear this. He just crossed over. The people are ready to attack. They're ready for war. They know it's coming. The people in Jericho
have heard they're coming. They can see them in the plain. If you've been to Israel,
and you've been to Jericho-- that plain's spread out
where the Jordan River is. It's easy to see. Jericho is on a
little raised hill. It would be easy to see them. So I'm sure when the Lord said,
hey, Joshua, here's the plan. Make for yourselves
flint knives. He probably said, Lord,
I probably didn't hear. You said, sharpen our swords,
not make little knives, right? That's what you want us to do. You want us to get our
swords ready for battle. Little knives aren't going
to help us in this battle. No. I want you to make flint
knives and circumcise those who haven't been
under the covenant. They haven't, all of these
years, been under the covenant since they left Egypt. I'm sure that was a bit
of a blow to Joshua. Why do they have to do that? Again, it's consecration
before conquest. It's worship before warfare. Before you go to battle,
bow before the battle. Pause and make sure that you
are committed and consecrated to God. Now just a word
about flint knives, because the age that
we're dealing with is the Late Bronze Age. So they weren't in caveman days. They had bronze, metal
knives available. So why rocky? Why flint knives? Really, it would be obsidian. Are you familiar with
the black rock, obsidian, how sharp it is? It's like a knife if you cut it. Because a knife made
out of rock freshly cut is absolutely sterile. I've been told it has the same
sterile properties as a sterile scalpel because
microorganisms, bacteria, cannot live in a rock. And when you freshly cut it and
it hasn't touched any surface with bacteria, it's sterile. So you make these fresh
knives-- these flint knives. For verse 6, "the
children of Israel walked 40 years
in the wilderness till all the people, who
were men of war, who came out of Egypt, were consumed
because they did not obey the voice of the Lord. To whom the Lord swore
that he would not show them the land, which the Lord
had sworn to their fathers that he would give us a land
flowing with milk and honey." So Joshua circumcised
their sons, "whom he raised
up in their place, for they were uncircumcised
because they had not been circumcised on the way." You might be wondering why they
weren't circumcised on the way. I couldn't tell you. All I know is they weren't. I can venture a guess. I could say, well,
maybe they forgot. Life gets you going in
a certain direction. You sort of get out of
touch with a lot of things. They maybe just forgot about
the law that was given. They're not carrying
around books or computers to look things up. They have priests, but it's
the whole worship system was just getting started. Maybe they forgot about
this-- probably not. I think it's because
they were discouraged. They had been disobedient. In their disobedience they were
not allowed to enter the land. And that entire older generation
was dying off every single day. So there's death in the camp. There's funerals every day. They weren't allowed
to go into the land. They're discourage. They're probably
thinking, what's the use? And we're going to
die out here anyway. So probably in their
discouragement just decided, our disobedience kept us out
and we're not entering in. Forget it. That could be it. They're wandering
around for 40 years. So it was, when
they had finished circumcising all the
people, that they stayed in their places in the
camp till they were healed. I don't think I
really have to explain the ramifications of that. It would take several days
for the healing of this to take place. The circumcision
of an adult male would be vastly different than
the circumcision of a baby. And these men-- effectively,
you have an army of men now completely disabled. Talk about being vulnerable. Not only are they poised
on the plains of Jericho, facing their first
enemy behind walls. They have their own strategy. Yes, their hearts
are melted, but you have a bunch of people in
the army that can't move. They're disabled. They're just in pain for days. Let me jog your memory, again. You're going to remember that
back in Genesis chapter 34, Jacob comes back to
the land of promise. He'd been up with Laban. He comes back to Shechem. And Shechem the city,
but the head of Shechem was a dude named Shechem
So I'm guessing the city was named after him. Shechem had a son named Hamor. Hamor, the son of
Shechem, saw Jacob coming And saw that Jacob had a
beautiful young daughter, named Dinah. So Hamor fell in love with
her, or fell in lust with her, and forced himself
physically upon Dinah. Then young Hamor
more was certain that he has to have this
Israelite girl as his wife. So Shechem goes to Jacob and
they have this huge meeting of tribal leaders. And they say, look, we want
to marry your daughters. And we want to make sure that
we can coexist in this land. And so Jacob, and especially
his sons-- especially two of his sons, Siemian
and Levi, knowing that their sister
has been violated, they said, well, you know what? According to our
law, we can't have you have our
daughters, our women, and we can't mingle with you,
unless everyone in your city, in your area, is circumcised. You have to have the same
covenant of circumcision that we have. So if you and your men
go through the ritual of circumcision, then you
can marry our daughters and Hamor can have Dinah. So Shechem and Hamor
went back to town. And their job was to
convince all the adult males that they need to go
through this crazy ritual, so that they can
marry these women. And those that agreed
to it were circumcised. Then it says this in the text. "Then on the third day
when they were in pain, Siemian and Levi came in
and discomfited them." Killed them by the
edge of the sword. Wiped out that whole population
in vengeance for Dinah. So the children of Israel,
now, are in a similar situation for days. They are in pain. They are vulnerable to an
attack from the enemy that is right before them in Jericho. So they're there in the
camp until they are healed. And then the Lord
said to Joshua, "this day I have rolled away
the reproach of Egypt from you. Therefore, the
name of that place is called Gilgal,"
which means circle, but the idea is it's
being rolled away. So Gilgal, the
rolling or the circle. Now here's a question. If you've read Joshua,
maybe you asked this as you were reading
preparation for today's study. Why didn't Moses have
them get circumcised before they crossed over? I mean, I'm a pragmatist. I'm thinking, OK. If the morale of Jericho
is at an all time low, I'm not going to
let it get higher. I'm going to attack
while the iron's hot. And so if circumcision
is needed, then Moses should have brought
that up on the east side before the crossing. It would just work better. That's how I
would've planned it. Why is it Moses didn't do
that, but Joshua did and they had to wait till they
entered the land? That would be a fair question. And I'm going to
try to answer it. I think there's a principle in
the way God moves in our lives. I think, first of
all, God gives. And then God asks. God gives you the gift. God gives you his mercy. God gives you or
extends his grace. And then as you
enjoy that, then he asks you to cooperate with
that once you're there. So he promised them the land. Now they have it. Now they're in it. They've set foot in it. They've taken it as a gift. Now that you're here, do this. In Romans 12, Paul
said, after writing all about what God had
done for 11 chapters, he said, "therefore, I
beseech you brethren, by the mercies of God, that
you present yourselves, your bodies as living
sacrifices, holy and acceptable under God, which is your
reasonable service." Because God has done all of
these things, the mercies of God, therefore, you do this. God has given, now he's
asking you to give him your whole, your all, your
body, your mind, your hands, your feet to serve him. I think that's the principle. God gives and then he asks. "So the children of Israel,"
verse 10, "camped in Gilgal and kept the Passover
on the 14th day of the month at twilight
on the plains of Jericho." Want to hear something amazing? This is only the third
Passover they ever kept in their history. You remember the first one? That's Exodus 12. That's the very first Passover. That's when the death
angel passed over them. That happened way back
in Egypt, Exodus 12. This second Passover
was one year later. Numbers chapter 9, they're
about ready to break camp and go on their march. One year after the Passover
was initiated, year two, they kept the Passover. After that, they
never kept it again. This is the third time
then, in their history, that they kept it as a nation. And significantly,
it's the first time that they keep it here
in the land of Canaan. Now that they have crossed over. In keeping the
Passover, I'm thinking of some of the older men and
women who were Israelites. Who at one time were younger
and had survived the wilderness because they were young. Their parents, the
previous generation, died, but they were there
at the first Passover some 40 years earlier. And this would have been
to them a memory trigger. They vividly
remembered their dad taking the blood of the lamb
and painting the lentils and doorpost of the homes. They remembered the cries
around them in the village, in the homes of the
Egyptians first born dying and the parents
wailing because of the loss. They remember the sound
of their pursuers, the Egyptians, the
sound of the horses, and their hoofs on
the ground as they chased the children of Israel
out into the wilderness to the Red Sea. They remembered all that
because they had just crossed over the Jordan River. And now celebrating
the Passover, it would bring those vivid
memories back to them. In verse 11, "they ate of
the produce of the land. On the day after the Passover,
unleavened bread and parched, or roasted grain, on
the very same day." So here's what's cool. This is the first time they're
eating the fruit of the land. Out by Jericho there
was some produce. It's the springtime of the year. It's going to get really hot
because Jericho's about 800-900 feet below sea level. So it's sort of like Palm
Springs, Phoenix area. Great place to be
in the wintertime, but summer's coming. So by the time they
enter into this area, it's the barley harvest. So the barley farmers
have left their fields because the children of Israel,
a couple million people, just crossed over the
Jordan, miraculously. I'm out of here. They all went to Jericho under
the protection of those walls. The children of Israel now
can glean from the fields and eat the fruit of the land. With that in mind, before
we get onto the next verse, let me just read something
to you out of Deuteronomy. OK. I'll read it to you. And this is, typically, on
the first day of our tour in Israel, what I like to read
on our tour bus, of what God said to the children of Israel. He said in Deuteronomy
8 in verse 7, "the Lord your God is
bringing you into a good land. A land of brooks of water, of
fountains and springs that flow out of the valleys and hills. A land of wheat
and barley, that's what they probably
were eating in Jericho, of vines and fig trees, in
other parts of the land, and pomegranates," yum. "A land of olive oil and honey." "A land in which you will
eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing. A land whose stones are iron
and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten
and are full then you shall bless
the Lord your God, for the good land which
he has given you." Now they get to
taste the produce of the land for the first time. And this is a foretaste
of the pomegranates, and the oranges,
and the olives-- all that great
Mediterranean cuisine. They tasted it. And the taste is a foretaste
of great things to come. Now look at the very
next verse in Joshua 5 because it tells us
what is going on. There's a whole change
of diet happening here. Verse 12 says, "now
the manna ceased. On the day after they had
eaten the produce of the land, and the children of Israel
no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the
land of Canaan that year." They get into the land. As soon as they start eating
the fruit of the land, the manna that had been
there daily for 40 years stopped as suddenly
as it started. Manna is cool. I don't quite understand
it, but I've always been fascinated by it. And you've heard me
on a number occasions in trying to get the
biblical description of what it taste like. I think it tastes like a hot
now, fresh out of the oven, Krispy Kreme donut. Because it tasted like
wafers with honey. And I'll tell you what,
I don't eat Krispy Kreme donuts anymore, or donuts
anymore, but I'm telling you, it's like I get
raptured when I have one of those right
out of-- just cooked. It's like aahhh. And I've always thought,
that's what manna was like. Well, who wouldn't want that? Well, 40 years of that-- 40 days that would get old. So interesting thing about
manna, it was healthy and it was handy. It was healthy. And it wasn't like
Krispy Kreme donuts. You'd die if you ate those
for 40 years, just saying. We'd have to roll you down
the street, first of all. But you'd just die
on a diet of that, but manna, there
was health property. There were vitamins in it. In the book of Deuteronomy,
the Lord said through Moses, "while you ate the manna
during those 40 years, your feet did not swell." Nutritionists tell us that
if you have the same diet every single day a lot of
things happen to your body, including your apt to take
on water and your feet swell. People have studied
sameness of diet in other parts of
the world and have noted that in certain
cultures, the feet will swell. God said, your feet
didn't swell for 40 years and you're walking
around the desert. So I can only infer it was
packed full of vitamins and it was healthy,
but it was also handy. It was malleable. It was multifaceted. You could grind it. You could bake it in pans. You could use it with
a pestle and mortar and just make many kinds of-- I think, a variety,
using the same stuff. So you could have manna
tacos and one day. You could have manna
wraps the next day. You could certainly
have manicotti any day. So it was healthy
and it was handy. Then it stopped. Now they're not going
to get it tomorrow. Now they're not going to be able
to just walk outside the tent and go, OK, you have manna duty. Go bring it in. It won't be there. Now they have to go out
and harvest plant, bring in food, which interests me. You know why it interests me? Because if indeed
crossing the Jordan River and entering the
Promised Land is a picture in the Old Testament
of the spirit filled life in the New Testament, as many
scholars have pointed out, and we believe it
is, you would think that the mark of this new
spirit filled life-- this is when the miracle start, man. This is when the manna
starts, not stops. No. The manna was for the
disobedient people wandering around the desert for
40 years, complaining and getting mad at God,
not trusting in him, not getting their
kids circumcised, not keeping the Passover. They get all the manna? That's right. When you mature in the
Lord, you don't have to believe by what you see. Faith comes by hearing. And hearing by the word of God. As you mature you don't need
to live off of a miracle. The miracle ceased. Now you are mature. Now you can cooperate
with my divine provision that I have already
put into the earth. All you got to do is add
water and a little fertilizer. Work that land and you can
get a lot of good stuff. But you're going to
co-operate now with me. Before the cooperation
you just go out and get it in the morning bring
it in and eat it and cook it. And now you're going to
have to do a little more. That's part of the
Promised Land experience. So the manna cease. Now verse 13, "it came to pass. When Joshua was by Jericho
that he lifted up his eyes and looked and
behold a man--" is it capitalized in your Bible? It's that way for a reason. "A man stood opposite him with
his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went to him
and said, are you for us or are you for our adversaries?" That's what a general would ask. So he said, "no. But as the commander of the army
of the Lord, I have now come. And Joshua fell on
his face to the earth, and worshipped him, and
said, what does my Lord say to his servant? Then the commander
of the Lord's army said to Joshua, take
your sandal off your foot for the place where you stand
is holy and Joshua did so." I picture Joshua going
over his maps of Jericho. Scratching his head,
thinking of the strategy that he has just gone over
with his senior leaders. Thinking about how they're
going to take Jericho once the army gets underway. Suddenly he looks up
and he sees a soldier, somebody with a sword. He immediately thinks,
are you friend or foe? You on our team or their team? Are you for us or
are you for them? That's what a soldier would ask. Identify yourself soldier,
name, rank, and serial number. Because if you're a friend,
if you're on our team, you're out of order. You shouldn't be here. You're not in the
right position. You've kind of gone astray
from the rest of the army. Get back in line. If you're a foe, you're going
to get a whole lot of sword in your face. So he asks, are
you friend or foe? You for us or them? I love the answer. No. I'm in charge here. I'm not just a soldier, I'm the
commander of the Lord's army. Something in that interchange
persuaded Joshua to call him Lord and worship before him. This is why it is
capitalized in your Bibles, because translators,
scholars, believed that what you have here is
a theophany, an appearance of the Lord in human form,
in the Old Testament. To be more precise,
a Christophany. An appearance of Jesus Christ
in a pre-incarnate form, in some physical form,
present with his people. I'll jog your memory, back
to Genesis chapter 18, "the plains of Mamre." Abraham was there by his tent
in the heat of the day and three visitors come by. He entertains them, cooks
them a meal, and one he calls the Lord-- the Lord. Jacob goes to Penuel. And there is a man
that he wrestles with until the
breaking of the day. He's called the angel
of the Lord, not an, but the angel of the Lord. Moses is out in the desert and
a plant starts talking to him. It's burning, but
it's not consumed. Moses takes his sandals
off because the voice, identifying himself as the
Lord, and Moses calls him Lord, and worships him as the Lord-- the voice says take
your sandals off. You're standing on holy ground. Joshua knew the story. And so suddenly he
recognized, oh, this is the same one that spoke
to Moses years before. And so he does likewise. He worships before him. So we believe this
is an appearance of Jesus in the Old Testament. You remember Jesus in the
Garden of the Gethsemane? Remember when they
came to arrest him and Peter drew out
the sword, right? And Jesus said, "put
the sword away, Peter." Listen to what he said. "Don't you know that I can
command 72,000 angels." If I need to I can dispatch
72,000 angels right now to take care of this business. Truly, even then, he was the
commander of the Lord's armies. He was in charge. He wasn't a victim. He was the victor. He held all the purse
strings, absolute sovereignty. Joshua recognizes that is
the commander of the Lord. Now let me throw
something wild at you. In the future there's
going to come a battle. It's called the
Battle of Armageddon. You've heard the name. You know a little bit about it. If you know prophecy,
you know a lot about it. And it's hinted at
and spoken about in several different portions
of scripture, but one in particular. In the book of
Zechariah, it says this, "behold the day of
the Lord is coming." That's the tribulation
period, coming in the future. "And your spoil will be
divided in your midst for I will gather all
the nations to battle against Jerusalem." "The city will be taken. The houses rifled. The women ravished. Half the cities shall
go into captivity, but the remnant of
the people shall not be cut off from the city. In that day then, the
Lord will go forth and fight against
those nations, as he fights in the day
of battle, or as he fought in the day of battle. And in that day
his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives which
face Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives
will be split in two." Question? When did the Lord ever
fight in a day of battle? We don't read about
anything where he fought in the day
of battle, except here. The commander of
the Lord's armies, a pre-incarnate apparition
of the Lord Jesus Christ-- there in some physical
form as the commander, the captain, the guy in charge. This now accounts
for the success at the Battle of Jericho
because they're not sharpening their swords and
getting out there catapults. They're going to be marching
around doing this, ah! They're going to be yelling, ah! That's what they're doing. That's their part. And God is going
to bring victory and those walls are
going to fall down. And we can now
attribute the victory to well, that was the
day the Lord fought in the day of battle. So Joshua did so. Can I give you a principle
here to take home with? Public victories, which they
are going to have in chapter 6-- it's a public victory. It's their first win
in the Promised Land. But here's the secret
of the public victory. Public victories are the
results of private visits with the Lord. It's worship before warfare. It's consecration
before conquests. It's stop, bow, take your
sandals off, worship God, and then proceed. That's the principle. It's that private visit
that Joshua has with the commander of the Lord's army
that brought him to victory. I've always loved the story
about John Knox, the reformer. I've been to his house
in Edinburgh, Scotland. I've seen the pulpit at St.
Giles Church where he preached. And if you know
your history, you know that Mary the Queen of
Scots was afraid of John Knox. In fact, a famous
statement made, she said, I fear the prayers
of John Knox more than all the armies in Europe. She knew the power of that
man in his private visits with the Lord. Now you can always do more
than pray after you pray, but you can never do more
than pray until you've prayed. So Joshua pauses, worships,
and now he's going to go on. He did so. Verse 1, "now Jericho was
securely shut up," closed up. "Because of the children of
Israel, none went out none came in. And the Lord said
to Joshua, see, I have given Jericho into
your hand," done deal, past tense, victory. You have it. It's assured. I've done it. "And the mighty
men of valor, you shall march around the city. You and all the men of war
shall go around the city once. This you shall do six days." Now Josh was leaning in
hearing the strategy. OK. You want us to march around? Oh, yeah. They're going to get a
good look at our army. They're going to see how
many people we are, good. We won't do anything, we'll
just show them who we are. But then he said, yeah,
you're going to do that. You're going to go
all over the city. It's an easy walk. It's a nine acre complex,
the ancient city of Jericho. So you're going to march
all the way around the city, but you're going
to do it every day. Huh? Yeah, six days. OK. Then what? "And seven priests shall bear
seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark, but
the seventh day you shall march around
the city seven times." So you're going to
do a lot of walking around that town, 13 times. "And the priest shall
blow the trumpets. Now Joshua is thinking,
and then we attack? "Then it shall come
to pass when they make a long blast
with the ram's horn. And when you hear the
sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall
shout with a great shout." And Joshua was thinking,
and then we attack? But the Lord said, "and
then the wall of this city will fall down flat." Joshua is going, huh? What? You want me to tell
that to my army men? "And the people shall go up
every man straight before him. So Joshua the son of Nun--"
better to get that name right. We pronounce it nun,
but in Hebrew Nun-- Nun. And it's probably better to
do that because you might think it says son of a nun. And it would a whole
explanation to get out of that. So just Nun, that's who he is. "Called the priests
and said to them, take up the ark of the
covenant and let seven priests bear seven trumpets
of the rams horns before the ark of the Lord. And he said to the people,
proceed and march around the city. And let him who is armed advance
before the ark of the Lord." Get the picture,
there's a small infantry of armed men, first of
all, to protect the ark. Then the priest bear
the Ark of the covenant. We talked all about that
in previous studies. Then in the rear
guard, more armed men. That is how it is led. And the army will follow behind. Now we have some insight
here into the ways of God. And I bet you know
what scripture I am going to come up with. The ways of God
can appear foolish. God has chosen the foolish
things of this world to confound the wise. This is not a smart
military campaign. It's brilliant spiritually. It's going to boost the morale
of the children of Israel and trusting God. It's going to really debilitate
the morale of the Canaanites. But this is God's
foolish campaign-- militarily campaign. What could be more foolish
than just marching around a city with a box? And let's protect the box. Let's not do anything. Let's not say anything. Let's just walk around
that city with a box. I'm sure the first day,
fear struck the hearts of the Jerichoites as
they looked out and go, oh, there they are. It's beginning. They're on the march. And they just kind of move
with their head and their eyes all the way around. And they're going that way. Now they're going
around that way. And going around, going
around, going around-- now they're back. And they go home. And then early in the
morning they do it again. They wake everybody
up in the city because they're
early on the march. And first the first
day they were fearful. By the third day, I'm
sure the Jerichoites are mocking the children of Israel. All they can do is walk. They don't have an army. They don't have
implements of war. They don't have battering
rams, and catapults, and moving towers. There's a principle there. You are mocked by the
world because you follow the beat of a different drum. You're following the
orders of an invisible God. They can't see him. They mock you, but it's
only the first day. Or it's only the third
day, battles not over yet. Wait till the end. Just wait till the end. Don't get discouraged on day
one, two, three, four, five, six. Keep marching. Keep going. And so they did. And there's some things
here that are out of place. They're out of
place, biblically. Number one, what's
out of place, priests were exempt from fighting. Here they're leading the march. Number two, the
ark of the covenant was never to be taken
out during battle. They will try that in 1
Samuel chapter 4 and 5. And not only will
they get defeated, the ark will get captured. That's out of place. Number three, the
trumpets were ram's horns. God said during a war, you
bring out the silver trumpets. And that is going to
be the marching order, everybody in the
camp can hear it. And the fourth thing
that's out of place is that if they march for seven
days they broke the Sabbath. One of the seven days has
to be the Sabbath day. And on the Sabbath
you don't do work and you don't walk very long. Only a Sabbath day's journey. They broke the Sabbath. And if I'm reading
this correctly, it was the seventh day
that they marched more than they did the other days. So all of that is out of place. I'm going to let
you find out why. Instead of me just
giving that away. That's just a fascinating study. So what it was when Joshua
had spoken to the people, "seven priests bearing the
seven trumpets of the rams horns went before the Lord advanced
and blew the trumpets. And the ark of the covenant
of the Lord followed them." "Then the armed men
went before the priests who blew the trumpets. And the rear guard
came after the ark, while the priest continued
blowing the trumpets. Now Joshua had
commanded the people saying, you shall not shout, nor
make any noise with your voice, nor shall any word
proceed out of your mouth until the day I
say to you, shout. Then you shall shout." Now I've talked this over
with soldiers before. And I said, how is it in a
battle to be on the march, to march toward an enemy
and be absolutely quiet, not say a word, not be able to-- you get so excited in the
battle to let that out. Usually that's just part of
the game, part of what you do. This is very difficult. They couldn't say
a word, not a peep. So "he had the ark of
the Lord circle the city, going around it once, then
they came to the camp, lodged in the camp. Joshua rose early in the
morning and the priest took up the ark of the Lord. The seven priests, bearing the
seven trumpets of rams horns before the ark of the Lord,
went and continually blew with the trumpets." "And the armed men
went before them, but the rear guard came
after the ark of the Lord, while the priest continued
blowing the trumpets. And the second day they
marched all around the city once and returned to the camp. So they did for six days. But it came to pass
on the seventh day that they rose early, about
the dawning of the day. And they marched around
the city seven times in the same manner." "On that day only, they marched
around the city seven times. And the seventh time it
was so when the priest blew the trumpet, that Joshua said to
the people, shout, for the Lord has given you the city. Now the city shall
be doomed by the Lord to destruction, it and
all those who are in it." "Only Rahab, the
harlot, shall live. She and all who are with
her in her house because she hid the messengers
that were sent. And you, by all
means, keep yourselves from the occursed things,
lest you become occurse." Please remember this
for a future study. "When you take of
the occursed things and make the camp of Israel
occurse, and trouble it." Occurse means devoted. And here's the explanation
in the next verse. "All the silver, gold, and
vessels of bronze, and iron are consecrated to the Lord. They shall come into the
treasury of the Lord." So all the spoil
from this city-- you can't keep any. You can keep the next city,
but you can't keep this city. The first fruits belong to God. The first city
spoils belong to God. All that metal will be
part of the collection we take for the Tabernacle
and for doing the work of God. That's the idea of a devoted
or an occursed thing. So here it is, verse 20. "So the people shouted when
the priest blew the trumpets. And it happened when the people
heard the sound of the trumpet. And the people shouted
with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat. Then the people went up
into the city, every man, straight before him. And they took the city." I can only imagine what
a great shout that was. Not being able to
shout-- not being able to speak for seven days. All that pent up energy. Now it's, raahhhh! They're just mighty shout. OK. This is their part. These soldiers on
the move get to yell. They don't really fight. It's really not a
battle of Jericho. It's a misnomer. There's not really
fighting going on. It's a wipeout, not a battle. It's like the battle
of Armageddon. It's misnamed. It's not going to be a battle. Jesus is coming
back and will wipe the enemies of God out, done. The walls fell down flat. It was a wipeout. So they were the fans
in the audience watching God work shouting,
yeah, God, go get them. "And they utterly
destroyed all that was in the city, both
man, woman, young, and old, ox, sheep, donkey,
with the edge of the sword. But Joshua said to the two men
who had spied out the country, go into the harlot's house." "And from there bring
out the woman and all that she has as
you swore to her. And the young men who
had been spies went in, brought out Rahab, her father,
mother, brothers, and all that she had. And left them outside
the camp of Israel." "And they burned the city and
all that was in it with fire. Only the silver, the
gold vessels, the bronze, iron, they put into the treasury
of the house of the Lord. And Joshua spared
Rahab, the harlot, and her father's household
and all that she had. So she dwells in
Israel to this day." That was when it was
written, of course. "Because she hid the messengers
whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho." From the beginning
she showed faith. When they came, the
spies to her house, she brought them to the rooftop
and hid them under the flack's. Remember, the piles of flax? So when the soldiers
of Jericho came in they couldn't find them. Then she got them out
of the bundles and said, now head for the hills boys. Wait a few days. And when the pursuers are
gone, then go back to the camp and tell them, because
we know God is with you. And I believe your God is God. Rahab, the harlot, reminds
me of a true story-- another true story
that happened in 1967. During Israel's Six Day
War in the Golan Heights, an Israeli, named Eli Cohen,
went across enemy lines, convinced the Syrians
that he was part of them, and learned military
secrets from the Syrians. Was given a tour of
the Golan Heights, and all of the
fortifications, the bunkers-- then he gave the
information to the Israelis. But what he did was ingenious. He told the Syrians--
because the general said, you know, we've got
our bunkers and our men stationed on the Golan Heights. There's no trees here. And the sun is so
hot in the summer. And our men are just boiling. And so Eli Cohen said,
I've got an idea. Eucalyptus trees grow really
well here and they grow fast. If you plant
eucalyptus trees, it'll blend in with the setting. It looks like natural landscape. Nobody would be able
to see the bunkers. And you'll have shade. And so they did that. Then Eli Cohen said
to the Israelis, after a couple of
seasons went by and the war began to
heat up, he said, just aim for the eucalyptus groves. It's all you need to know. Gave them the coordinates. Just aim for those trees. And Eli Cohen-- it's in a book
called, Our Man in Damascus, gave the secrets of
the eucalyptus trees. The Israelis did
that and, in fact, took the Golan Heights
back from the Syrians. So she is sort of like
an Old Testament version, female version, of Eli Cohen. A harlot who believed in God. Now let's close out this
chapter because we're over time and we want to stop. "Then Joshua charged them,
at that time, saying, cursed be the man before the
Lord who rises up and builds this city Jericho. He shall lay its foundations
with his youngest first born. And with his youngest, he
shall set up its gates." How did Joshua know what would
indeed happen in the future. This is a prophecy. 1 Kings chapter
16, under the reign of King Ahab, a man
by the name of Hiel-- Hiel decided, I'm going to
rebuild the city of Jericho. In so doing, he lost the
life of his eldest son. And when the city was
completed, his last son. Joshua says that here. It was fulfilled
prophecy later on. So "the Lord was with
Joshua and his fame spread throughout all of the country." Now why did those two
spies go to Jericho? Besides spying out the land, why
did they really go to Jericho? To save Rahab, the harlot. Do you remember
Jesus in Jerusalem? It says, he was going to go
back to Nazareth, but he had-- or to Capernaum, to
the Galilee's, but he needed to go through Sumeria. Why did he need to
go through Sumeria? What's in Sumeria? The Jews have no dealings
with the Sumerians. There was a woman. He needed to meet her. He needed to have a conversation
with her because in so doing, she came to faith in Christ
and the whole village did. In the same way,
these two spies needed to go to Jericho because there
was a woman named Rahab who believed in the God of Israel. And she was saved. And you remember she put
out a scarlet cord, scarlet, like in the Passover. In the Passover,
the scarlet blood on the lintels, and
doorpost, and the judgment passed over their house. But the commandment of
God was stay in the house. Stay in the house
and you'll be saved. Rahab, you and your
family stay, in the house. How could a house be saved
if the walls crumble down, and the house is built
on the walls of the city? Now you hear that
question and you go, yeah, I have a whole problem with
the whole thing about Jericho. I don't get-- what do you mean
walls just fall down of cities. You have no problem with this
if your god is big enough. You only have a problem
with this if your god is small and incapable. If you have a small
god, then you're going to have a problem with
every page in the Bible. If your god is big
enough to create the heavens and the earth,
it's like, another one to God's scoreboard, bam. So I have no problem at all
with this because my god made the heavens and the earth. And just like he wanted to save
that one woman and her family by faith. He's still in the saving
business, the salvaging business. The love of God is like the
Amazon River flowing down to water one daisy in Jericho. And he'd love to
water you tonight, bring refreshment to your
soul if you'd let him. Father we do thank you
for our time together. Thank you we could study
the book of Joshua. Thank you, Lord, for the life
that the children of Israel experienced going
through the river. And I pray that
some, tonight, would experience new life in Jesus,
as they put their trust in him. As we close our service,
we're about to close with one quick song. If you're here
tonight, you've not received Jesus as
your Savior, you're willing to trust him tonight. Like this woman of a checkered
background, a woman who had a reputation in that town. A woman of the night. She believed and she was saved. She was spared. And she made her way into the
genealogy of Jesus Christ, himself. If you want to be in God's
book, the book of life, you turn to Christ tonight. You receive Jesus tonight. Or you come back to Jesus if
you've wandered away from Him. If any of that
describes you and you're willing to trust him
right now as we close, I like to pray for you. I want to see your hand. Just raise your hand up. Raise your hand up. You're saying,
Skip, pray for me. I'm giving my life
to Jesus right now. God bless you, ma'am. Right there on the left, yes. Anybody else? Raise that hand up. Say yes to Him. Place your trust in Him. God bless you toward the back-- in the very back. Anybody else? Raise it up. Say yes to Him. Right up in the front. It's a simple, trust and belief. God bless you, and you,
and you on the left, and you in the family room. There are several of you. Anyone else? On my right, on my right-- Lord, we do pray and we ask
that you strengthen them as they make this
commitment in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm going to have you stand up. And as we sing this
last song-- and we're going after this song. We're done, but if
you raised your hand, as we sing this
parting song, I want you to come up here
right now and stand here. I'm going to lead you
in a quick prayer. This will take a moment. But if you raised your hand-- Jesus called people publicly. I'm asking you to come publicly. As we sing, just say
excuse me, get up from where you're sitting, in
the back, in the family room, come through these doors. And please stand right
up here, right now. This will not take long. Come and stand right here. Make this commitment to Jesus. God bless you and you. [MUSIC PLAYING] Give it all to you. Give it all to you. All right. Yes, good. Come one up. Give it all to you. We give it all. Give it all to you. Give it all to you. Let the Lord knock down
those walls in your life, in your heart. [MUSIC PLAYING] No need to hide anymore. I love these words. No need to hide. Walk in the light. Now those of you who have come
forward, you ready for this? I'm going to lead
you in a prayer. It's a prayer of asking Jesus
to come in and take control. I'm going to pray it loud. I'd like to say
it loud after me, from your heart to the Lord. Let's pray. Say, Lord, I give you my life. I give you my life. I know I'm a sinner. I know I'm a sinner. Forgive me. Forgive me. I believe in Jesus. I believe in Jesus. That he died for my sins. That he died for my sins. That he shed his blood for me. That he shed his blood for me. And that he rose
on the third day. And that he rose
on the third day. I turn from my sin. I turn from my sin. I turn to Jesus as Savior. I turn to Jesus as savior. Help me to follow him as Lord. Help me to follow him as Lord. It's in his name I pray. It's in his name I pray. Amen. Amen. For more resources from Calvary
Albuquerque and Skip Heitzig, visit Calvary.abq.org. [MUSIC PLAYING]
