Living in the Promised Land: A study in the book of Joshua
A 24-week series given in 2021
Lesson Six (Joshua Chapter 6)
To view this online as a video: https://youtu.be/lB4Svzqb1MY
Lesson Six: Joshua fit d’battle ob Jericho
A. Introduction
Overview. [For those online, see this book overview from The Bible Project (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqOqJlFF_eU )
B. Taking Jericho:
For some of us taking a territory that belongs to another seems like stealing, and probably therefore against the 8th commandment. For others, this land is the Promised Land to Abraham and therefore to the Jewish people, and they, under Joshua, had the right to go in take this land, which rightfully is ours. In reality, it’s God’s land, and he extends his regency to others to maintain it and to dwell in it under his rubric, under his guidance, under his command.
Maybe that’s where you are in your view of the Land we today all Israel.
Without getting to that question just yet, and the whole idea of ‘holy war’, let’s remind ourselves of God’s word to Abraham in Genesis 15.
14 “But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. 15 “As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. 16 “Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”
God is telling Abraham here that we would go to Egypt, and we will exit there with many goods. Abe, you will die and be buried when an old man. And the people of your descendants will return here (obviously saying we are going to go and return) when the ‘iniquity of the Amorite is complete.’ In other words, God was waiting until the Amorites had filled up their iniquity quotient so that he could eradicate them from his sight, and from this site. Israel would take the land after the fulness of the Amorite was a settled matter.
Those of you who know the Newer Testament in the letter to the Romans know that the Apostle Paul used a similar sentiment when he mentioned Israel coming to faith in Yeshua, when he says,
“For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery — so that you will not be wise in your own estimation — that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in; 26 and so all Israel will be saved;”
This idea of the fulness of the Gentiles and then the entry of Israel into salvation is fittingly seen in the conquest of the Land of Promise under Joshua. It’s not a complete action and is only representative, but that may help some of you.
One more introductory comment, from Paul Toms in a 1977 book
“There is a final lesson in the conquest of Jericho. The real battle about which we are reading is not with the Canaanites at all. It is with God’s own people...All this blowing of trumpet, all of this numerical listings of sevens, were not really necessary to knock down a little wall. ..The real battle of Jericho was with the human heart, not with the wall of a city. God was seeking to overcome the Israelites rather than simply to overcome the Canaanites.” (page 170)
Here is our outline today:
1. We have the instructions (.1-5)
2. The execution of the plan, day by day Days 1-6: (.6-14)
3. Then Day 7 (.15-21)
4. Rahab and family (.22-25)
5. Final wrap up and Joshua exalted (.26-27)
Let’s go through this section by section:
C. First, then we have the instructions (.1-5)
Verse 1:
סֹגֶ֣רֶת וּמְסֻגֶּ֔רֶת
Again, the Bible uses the doubling of a word to emphasize the strength of it, here, shut is used twice, so we read in English ‘tightly shut.’ We could say ‘seriously shut’ whilst others say the gates were shut and the bar behind the gate made it tighter yet.
Then in English we say ‘because of the Jews’ but the Hebrew is ‘from the face of the children of Israel.’ A lot of resistance in that ‘the face of’ mention. I think of the adulteress in Proverbs 30 who “eats and wipes her mouth, and says, “I have done no wrong.”
An ‘in-your-face’ action if I’ve ever seen one.
Or the men of Sodom
וַיִּפְנ֤וּ מִשָּׁם֙ הָֽאֲנָשִׁ֔ים
Who turned their panim away from there after God said he would go down and see and he would know (Genesis 18.18-21) about Sodom and Gomorrah, their turn away was a statement of resistance.
So here in Joshua, the Jericho people heard the same reports the people had heard throughout the region and their hearts could have melted, and turned towards faith in God, but they steeled themselves against God and turned away, against the Jewish people. And their walls were strengthened.
That makes verse 2 all the more significant.
“See” “I have given it” How does Joshua know this? Chapter 5, the captain had visited him, and he should have known, that God’s will would be accomplished. “Be strong, be courageous…everywhere you place your foot, I’ve given it to you.”
Oswald Sanders wrote in his book, “Promised Land Living” about this. “God had a triple purpose in mind. First it would test the rebellious nation’s obedience to God. Second it would deepen the fear already clutching at the hearts of the people of the land. Third, when victory came, altogether apart from military prowess or intervention, it would convince God’s people that the overthrow of Jericho was entirely a victory of faith” (page 67)
D. Then the execution of the plan, day by day Days 1-6: (.6-14)
Joshua calls the leadership and gives them the plan, and they execute it perfectly. Daily march. Daily 7 shofars. Ark. Military men in front and rear. The people are to remain silent. That’s the plan, and that’s what happened.
But so far, this is a failed mission. The walls of the city are intact. The people are inside with weapons at the ready. We are on the hill or in the valley, but we are not inside. The city is not yet ours.
After each day, 1 through 6, the people marched silently, the shofars blew, but nothing more, and the people went back to camp. Imagine the beginning of the 1812 overture, slow, steady, rhythmic. Nothing boisterous or stupendous. Not yet.
E. Then Day 7 (.15-21)
The culmination of the campaign happens on one day—the 7th day. We don’t know if this is Shabbat but we do know that one of the 7 days had to be Shabbat, so this is as good a day as any to count. The day started the same as all the others. See verse 15. And imagine after round 2 or round 3 of the final day. The anticipation was massive. They’ve been en route for 40 years, remember? They came out of Egypt, they marched and sat, and marched and then through the Jordan River on dry ground and God was with them. Joshua has supplied food for them, and the manna stopped in its heavenly supply. We’ve been going out and marching every day for a week, and we are supposed to be silent now? And how much longer is this? Or as your kids would say on that road trip, “Are we there yet?”
They have marched 6 days one time each, and now it’s circumference 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12… isn’t that enough? Then we have to go around one more time. 13, almost done. OK, that’s it, right? Wait, nothing has happened! Come on Joshua, what gives? Then the signal is sent. The trumpets sound, and Joshua gives the command, “SHOUT!” “Shout for the Lord has given us the city.” I hear Tchaikovsky’s crescendo. In a heartbeat, the city walls fall. The Israelites ran ahead under instructions from General Joshua and took the city, the gold and certain commodities and destroyed most everything else. They preserved Rahab as we recall. The victory was ours. All we did was march and shout. But honestly there was much more going on.
One thing I thought about the other day was that the song, Joshua fit da battle ob Jericho, is really not accurate. Of course, ‘fit’ is Early American black jargon for ‘fought’ but what makes that inaccurate is that God alone did the fighting. Joshua’s fight was not a military one, but a battle of faith. And he won. And the people of Israel won. It WAS a great victory, and that’s an encouragement to me in my ongoing life of faith in Sydney, and maybe it is for you as well.
Much of your work at the office, sometimes much of your planning for a wedding or any major event, seems like it would be forever to accomplish and then, just like that, it’s over. Weeks in planning for our community seder and then in 2 short hours it was over. Your wedding took months to ready; your pre-marital counselling… months. And then the wedding and that’s it. The rest is the back side. We don’t think about that very much or very often, but it’s the whole reason for the campaign, for the outreach, for the planning in the first place. The reason for the event was for the Day 8 and beyond.
We had to be ready for the military campaign. We had to be ready. We had to be compliant. The purpose of the fall of the walls of Jericho went beyond that moment. It was to establish the taking of the Land. Jericho was Stop #1 and a significant strategic stop on that campaign.
F. Rahab and family (.22-25)
The Day 8 for Rahab is well known. Joshua sent the 2 spies whom she saved back to retrieve Rahab and whoever else she had with her. Remember, Rahab is a harlot and preserving her is gutsy, full of chutzpah. This chutzpah is probably better to title ‘faith.’ She is in the genealogy of King David and thus of King Messiah as well. Remember her story? If you missed that class a few weeks back, when we studied chapter 2, please revisit that on YouTube soon. (See it here: https://youtu.be/p7fu4jS4qGY ) She carried on her faith in the God of Israel. She persisted and represented well the Kingdom of God.
G. Final wrap up and Joshua exalted (.26-27)
The amazing story of Joshua’s victory ends with his exaltation once again. That seems to be a pattern in this book. What the people of Israel need is a man of faith who is to lead them well. Joshua who fought the battle of Jericho is a story of faith unleashed. The faith that obeyed God, the faith that was disciplined (they didn’t shout when required (Can you imagine telling 1 million Jews to walk quietly?, they did shout when required, they stayed in the camp until, etc…), and the faith that persevered. Finally, it’s the faith that shouted in victory and maybe you’ve experienced that as well. When I came to faith in Yeshua in 1971, it wasn’t exactly a shout, but it was a broadcast, I wanted everyone everywhere to hear the Good News.
And these last 5 decades, God has made me to be a winner. Victory is ours! Not because I’m so kosher, or my deeds are so good. The reason I live in victory? He’s so great! He wants to make his name known. So, actually this is not a faith that ENDS in victory; it’s a faith that glorifies God.
Hebrews 11 says,
“By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. 31 By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace.” (verses 30-31)
Invitation
Dear friends, do you have such victory today? if you have never asked Yeshua to be your Saviour, today as we keep learning from Joshua, would you choose to believe the Lord of life? What does it mean to be strong and courageous in light of learning about Yeshua? Would you be willing to take a stand for him who took a stand and died on a Roman cross for you? Today is Good Friday, the day when Yeshua died 2,000 years ago. For most, this is a secular, unimportant day. In Australia, it’s a public holiday when people get paid without working. I guess for them payment without work makes the day ‘good.’ No, it’s good because historically, today our Messiah died. It’s good because Messiah’s death accomplished salvation for all people.
Without that kipporah (sacrifice) we would be hopeless, but because Yeshua died in our place on Passover, as the Passover lamb, and his blood was applied to the doorposts of our hearts, we can be forgiven.
If you’d like to receive that today, just now, join me as we pray.
Say something like this: “Father in Yeshua’s name, forgive me my sin, I was wrong to dismiss you and to disbelieve in you. I need your mercy. I deserve punishment but you are kind and merciful and I receive your grace. I repent. I receive Yeshua as my saviour and Lord. I will live because of my faith in Messiah Yeshua. Amen.
If you prayed that, please let us know of your profession by writing straightaway, won’t you?Bob@JewsforJesus.org.au We’d love to hear from you.
Conclusion
We are delighted you have joined us today. Please join us next week and learn with the others how you can stay on track in 2021 and beyond. I hope to see you next week as we continue our studies in Joshua. You will certainly see yourself in the readings and in the lessons. It will be worthwhile! Next week we will look at chapter 7 and see what lessons we can draw for ourselves from Jericho and a man named Achan-- another major event!
Hope to see you then… until then, Shabbat shalom!
Bibliography
Butler, Trent C., Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 7. Joshua. Word, Waco, 1983.
Davis, Dale Ralph, Joshua: No Falling Words, Christian Focus, Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland, 2019.
Hess, Richard. Tyndale Commentary Complete.
Meyer, F.B., Joshua and the Land of Promise, Christian Literature Crusade, Ft Washington PA, 1977.
Sanders, J. Oswald, Promised-Land Living, Moody Press, Chicago, 1984.
Toms, Paul, This land is your land. Gospel Light Publishing, Glendale CA, 1977.
Weirsbe, Warren. Be Strong: Putting God's Power to Work in Your Life. David C. Cook Publishing, Colorado Springs, 2010.
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D-Groups for this week
1) Tuesday 11 am Sydney time. Led by James Howse
2) Monday 7 pm, Sydney time, led by James White
(Contact our office for zoom details)
If you’d like to host a D-Group either online or in person, please contact bob@jewsforjesus.org.au for further details. It’s time to step up. Ponder this—who will be in your D-Group?
The Book of Joshua: Outline. (This is the current plan for the series)
I. Entering the Land (Chapters 1-4)
a. Chapter 1: A funeral and a promise (Leadership Lesson 1)
b. Chapter 2: A harlot saves the day
c. Chapter 3: Go against the flow (Part 1)
d. Chapter 4: Go against the flow (Part 2)
II. Taking the Land (5-12)
a. Chapter 5: Roll away iniquity: a study in sacraments
b. Chapter 6: Joshua fit d’battle ob Jericho
c. Chapter 7: Getting it very wrong: Achan and his mistakes
d. Chapter 8: Combat and Covenant
e. Chapter 9: Common sense is not so common
f. Chapter 10: Southern dominance
g. Chapter 11: How not to win
h. Chapter 12: God is faithful
III. Possessing the Land (13-21)
a. Chapter 13: Inheritance lessons
b. Chapter 14: For example
c. Chapter 15: Geography lesson
d. Chapter 16: Trends of note (Part 1)
e. Chapter 17: Trends of note (Part 2)
f. Chapter 18: Apportionment (Part 1)
g. Chapter 19: Apportionment (Part 2)
h. Chapter 20: Provisions (Part 1)
i. Chapter 21: Provisions (Part 2)
IV. Retaining the Land (22-24)
a. Chapter 22: Can an altar alter anything?
b. Chapter 23: Staying on edge
c. Chapter 24: Three funerals and Renewing the covenant
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