“Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in.” Where and what is Jericho? What lies ahead of us? What stronghold is this that bars our further progress, and how do we overthrow it? Just what does Jericho represent in our own lives? These are the questions that this chapter six of Joshua must answer for us. Jericho is indeed a stronghold, a citadel with walls. Jericho lies before each one of us today, impregnable and indestructible as of old. And it is in the overthrow of Jericho that we see its true character revealed, we see the mighty power of God in our lives.
“Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel.” As we go with Joshua, as our Lord Jesus leads us on to our next objective, all is quiet in our lives. Jericho is there, but it is silent, its customary bustle stilled by our approach. There is no enemy to be seen, no roar of battle preparations, no view of a host arrayed against us, no sign of trouble. Only a massive blockade in our path, a feeling that the pathway to further blessing is somehow blocked, that we cannot see any further ahead of us, that something is wrong in our lives. Yes, we have the Lord Jesus, yes, God is with us, yes, the Holy Spirit sings sweetly within us, but there is a blockage somehow that prevents us from going on with our invasion of the inheritance. We are in the land, we eat the old corn of the land every day, yet we make no further progress and we begin to wonder why.
“And the Lord said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho.” So we turn to the Lord Jesus and we fix our eyes on Him, and we wait upon Him, for He is now our Leader, the great Overcomer, and it is to Him we must look. He obviously knows what to do, for God hides nothing from Him, and all our times are in His hand. And God tells Joshua in our chapter exactly what God wants His people to do, and what the result will be. “And Joshua the son of Nun called the priests…” In this instance we are seeing what Joshua the man does, but for the remainder of the chapter we told only what Joshua the Overcomer does, if we can see that distinction. “And it came to pass, when Joshua had spoken unto the people…” The result is the same, the priests with the trumpets marched out with the ark of the covenant behind them, and the people fell into place also, the men armed for battle going ahead of the ark and the others following, bringing up the rear. The object is to march around Jericho, and this they do every day for six days. And this we do also. We cannot overcome the blockage in our path, and all that the Lord leads us to do is to walk around it every day. How puzzled we become! Why are we going round in circles, why cannot we by-pass this blockage, what is happening to us? The answer of course is Jericho, but unless we know this we can get very frustrated at our own seeming futility, even when we follow after Jesus. For many of us it is a time when we throw up our hands and say, “This I do not believe!”
But God knows what is happening, and we are only asked to follow our Leader in simple faith and obey Him. In the land of promise, in the inheritance, Jesus is very near to us and all we have to do is turn to Him and fix our eyes on Him and wait. If we feel we are going round in circles yet we can keep our eyes fixed upon Jesus. There is a mighty purpose in our going around in circles which shall shortly be revealed to us. Our way ahead is blocked, and the Lord would lead us to circle around the blockage, and to view it from every side. It is Jericho of the massive walls, the impregnable fortress, the towering citadel, the stronghold!
Now we see from scripture that Israel cannot overcome Jericho by any means then available to them. Jericho can withstand a protracted siege, and Israel would need to build mighty battering rams to make a dent in those colossal walls. Much equipment and many engines of war would be required if Jericho were to be overcome by military force alone. Israel lacks all these things. Therefore God must intervene if His people are to make any further progress, for Israel is not now relying on the strength of the people but on the arm of the Lord God of Israel. Yet the way of the Lord is not our way, not His thoughts our thoughts. Would any army march daily round about such solid walls for six consecutive days, and seven times on the seventh day, blowing rams’ horns and bearing the ark of the covenant, and expect the walls to collapse? Nonsense! It is laughable, pitiable, weak, childish faith in a force outside of themselves, unseen, unknown, invisible—but great!
What happens today in our churches when progress seems in danger of being blocked? Do we not introduce man-made schemes, from “Bingo” to “Stewardship,” to help with the finances? We bring in entertainment, we turn to advertising, to increase our membership. We appoint committees and directors to liven things up, and turn to wandering minstrels to keep the children from crying. And instead of making progress we drive our own mighty men to flee from us and go elsewhere. Yet this we do in Christ’s name, and swear we are followers of the God of Israel. But God has clearly said, As high as the heaven above the earth, so high is My way above your way, and My thoughts above your thoughts. To our way of thinking, God’s plan is foolish, unworkable, tedious and a waste of time. How much better to stick with the well-tried and proven ways of Egypt that we all have learned! Thus in any situation of crisis among God’s people, or even of want of progress, we run to Egypt for ideas and turn away once more from God who leads us. What hope would we have then against Jericho? Would we not be better on the other side of Jordan where at least we could act responsibly and sanely? Barren as the wilderness might be, it was never so wild as this wild scheme to overcome the blockage in our path! But in the wilderness every man does what is right in his own eyes, and in the inheritance the call is to godliness and to following Jesus. So to Jesus we must look, for our own strength is of no use to us here, and His strength can only be made perfect in our weakness. God is now with us, for it is “we” who passed over Jordan, and the Overcomer Himself will lead us in the way that we must go.
“And the armed men went before the priests that blew with the trumpets, and the rearward came after the ark, the priests going on and blowing with the trumpets. And Joshua had commanded the people, saying, Ye shall not shout, nor make any noise with your voice, neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I bid you shout; then shall ye shout.” We are only required at this time to walk around in circles every day and the command is to silence. Now those who are watching us will think this is very odd behaviour indeed. Should we not at least be speaking, should we not be shouting for victory? Clearly not. As long as this blockage continues in our lives we are to remain silent, and this command is from the Lord Himself. For Jericho must be overcome, and there is only one way to do that. We must be subject unto our Leader, lest we spoil His plan, rather than to take upon ourselves the conquest alone. If the Lord specifically calls us to be silent, let us be silent, and ignore the bewildered looks on every side. When He says shout, then we will shout! How seldom has it ever occurred to any one of us that there may be a time in our lives when the command is to silence! We talk too much, and in the multitude of words there wanteth not sin. But sin would spoil our hopes of victory, therefore let us for once fall silent and let nothing be heard but the priests blowing the horns in the midst of the people. We need not seek to explain our silence either—“neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth”—for the day is coming when we shall shout, and then the bewildered looks can turn to amazement as all see for themselves that we have gained another victory.
Well then, beloved, what does Jericho represent? It represents that massive barrier in our spiritual lives which blocks our way and impedes all our progress. The harlot’s house is seen to be on the very wall of Jericho, for Jerusalem was the old harlot of the prophecies, and when the Lord reached Jerusalem He had come to the end of His earthly mission. He could go no further. The only way to overcome Jericho is through Jordan. And we follow Him. The thing that impedes all our progress actually lies on the other side of Jordan. We too have to be crucified with Christ, and to go into death with Him, to get at the root of all our powerlessness, all our impediment, all our blockage. It is called Jericho, the city of walls, because it is a massive structure that cannot be overthrown by natural means. So let us see what constitutes the blockage, and how God through Christ enables us to overcome it.
We have been crucified with Christ, remember, and this has nothing to do with our early salvation from Egypt. We have gone with Christ into death—following Him through Jordan—and this again has nothing to do with our early experience of baptism. So now we are coming to the resurrection of Christ, and this has nothing to do with our previous experience as Christians. What is happening to us as we march round Jericho daily is that we are silent, listening to the blowing of the horns in the hands of the priests. We are hearing afresh the trumpet sounds, as the priests tell out continually the notes of the resurrection song, of Christ’s victory over death, and this one thing we must do daily even as we follow Jesus and go round in endless circles.
For how long do we do this? For six days, for whatever period of time it takes for the trumpet sound to fully penetrate into our hearts and minds. Yes, we follow a living Saviour, and yes we are fully aware that He is alive and leading us, but nevertheless there is a blockage of power in our lives and the only way to overcome it is to concentrate our attention on the resurrection of Christ. We must turn back to the apostles and gospel writers and pay attention to all the priests who are blowing the rams’ horns of victory. We need not only to see Christ risen, to see Jesus in our midst, but to experience the resurrection ourselves. We lodge in the camp, we keep silence, we daily go round in circles—but all the time we are paying attention to the resurrection of Christ, we are now concentrating as never before on that one aspect of the gospel. “And Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord”—to watch and pay attention to this in now our daily experience for these six days—“and seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord went on continually, and blew with the trumpets”—we listen daily to this continued blowing until our very souls have absorbed the sound—“and the armed men went before them”—those of us who have warrior strength will hear the sound as it were behind them, encouraging them forward—“but the rearward came after the ark of the Lord, the priests going on, and blowing with the trumpets”—but the rest of us will be led by the trumpets, we will follow on to listen to the priests, yet whether we go before or whether we follow after the priests we are all in the same position as regards to Jericho.
Now God will keep us here until His seventh day, till we have absorbed the sound and are ready to experience resurrection as a fact in our own lives along with Joshua. “And the second day they compassed the city once, and returned into the camp: so they did six days.” But let us see what happens when the period is come to an end. “And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they rose early about the dawning of the day…” Did you see it? THEY rose early. All the people rose about the dawning of the day. With Jesus, we all experience it! The resurrection of Christ is now part of us too. We have been crucified with Christ, we have died with Christ—and now we are alive in Christ Jesus for evermore. It is not the final resurrection of the dead, for there is no mention here of anyone but the living children of Israel, but it is our final experience that gives us too the victory and which will remove forever the last blockage between us and the grapes of Eshcol. Now we see the resurrection from God’s standpoint, we encompass the city seven times. And this time we shout! We shout the great shout of victory as the priests blow a blast on the trumpet which is only exceeded by the angel Gabriel on the last day! This is the victory, which God in Christ has given us. At that great sound the walls of Jericho fall flat, and the way into the inheritance is plain before us. “And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout! For the Lord hath given you the city!” May we all thus experience in our own lives the resurrection victory which Christ Jesus won for us so long ago.
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Joshua Chapter 6
December 16, 2010 — Ron“Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in.” Where and what is Jericho? What lies ahead of us? What stronghold is this that bars our further progress, and how do we overthrow it? Just what does Jericho represent in our own lives? These are the questions that this chapter six of Joshua must answer for us. Jericho is indeed a stronghold, a citadel with walls. Jericho lies before each one of us today, impregnable and indestructible as of old. And it is in the overthrow of Jericho that we see its true character revealed, we see the mighty power of God in our lives.
“Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel.” As we go with Joshua, as our Lord Jesus leads us on to our next objective, all is quiet in our lives. Jericho is there, but it is silent, its customary bustle stilled by our approach. There is no enemy to be seen, no roar of battle preparations, no view of a host arrayed against us, no sign of trouble. Only a massive blockade in our path, a feeling that the pathway to further blessing is somehow blocked, that we cannot see any further ahead of us, that something is wrong in our lives. Yes, we have the Lord Jesus, yes, God is with us, yes, the Holy Spirit sings sweetly within us, but there is a blockage somehow that prevents us from going on with our invasion of the inheritance. We are in the land, we eat the old corn of the land every day, yet we make no further progress and we begin to wonder why.
“And the Lord said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho.” So we turn to the Lord Jesus and we fix our eyes on Him, and we wait upon Him, for He is now our Leader, the great Overcomer, and it is to Him we must look. He obviously knows what to do, for God hides nothing from Him, and all our times are in His hand. And God tells Joshua in our chapter exactly what God wants His people to do, and what the result will be. “And Joshua the son of Nun called the priests…” In this instance we are seeing what Joshua the man does, but for the remainder of the chapter we told only what Joshua the Overcomer does, if we can see that distinction. “And it came to pass, when Joshua had spoken unto the people…” The result is the same, the priests with the trumpets marched out with the ark of the covenant behind them, and the people fell into place also, the men armed for battle going ahead of the ark and the others following, bringing up the rear. The object is to march around Jericho, and this they do every day for six days. And this we do also. We cannot overcome the blockage in our path, and all that the Lord leads us to do is to walk around it every day. How puzzled we become! Why are we going round in circles, why cannot we by-pass this blockage, what is happening to us? The answer of course is Jericho, but unless we know this we can get very frustrated at our own seeming futility, even when we follow after Jesus. For many of us it is a time when we throw up our hands and say, “This I do not believe!”
But God knows what is happening, and we are only asked to follow our Leader in simple faith and obey Him. In the land of promise, in the inheritance, Jesus is very near to us and all we have to do is turn to Him and fix our eyes on Him and wait. If we feel we are going round in circles yet we can keep our eyes fixed upon Jesus. There is a mighty purpose in our going around in circles which shall shortly be revealed to us. Our way ahead is blocked, and the Lord would lead us to circle around the blockage, and to view it from every side. It is Jericho of the massive walls, the impregnable fortress, the towering citadel, the stronghold!
Now we see from scripture that Israel cannot overcome Jericho by any means then available to them. Jericho can withstand a protracted siege, and Israel would need to build mighty battering rams to make a dent in those colossal walls. Much equipment and many engines of war would be required if Jericho were to be overcome by military force alone. Israel lacks all these things. Therefore God must intervene if His people are to make any further progress, for Israel is not now relying on the strength of the people but on the arm of the Lord God of Israel. Yet the way of the Lord is not our way, not His thoughts our thoughts. Would any army march daily round about such solid walls for six consecutive days, and seven times on the seventh day, blowing rams’ horns and bearing the ark of the covenant, and expect the walls to collapse? Nonsense! It is laughable, pitiable, weak, childish faith in a force outside of themselves, unseen, unknown, invisible—but great!
What happens today in our churches when progress seems in danger of being blocked? Do we not introduce man-made schemes, from “Bingo” to “Stewardship,” to help with the finances? We bring in entertainment, we turn to advertising, to increase our membership. We appoint committees and directors to liven things up, and turn to wandering minstrels to keep the children from crying. And instead of making progress we drive our own mighty men to flee from us and go elsewhere. Yet this we do in Christ’s name, and swear we are followers of the God of Israel. But God has clearly said, As high as the heaven above the earth, so high is My way above your way, and My thoughts above your thoughts. To our way of thinking, God’s plan is foolish, unworkable, tedious and a waste of time. How much better to stick with the well-tried and proven ways of Egypt that we all have learned! Thus in any situation of crisis among God’s people, or even of want of progress, we run to Egypt for ideas and turn away once more from God who leads us. What hope would we have then against Jericho? Would we not be better on the other side of Jordan where at least we could act responsibly and sanely? Barren as the wilderness might be, it was never so wild as this wild scheme to overcome the blockage in our path! But in the wilderness every man does what is right in his own eyes, and in the inheritance the call is to godliness and to following Jesus. So to Jesus we must look, for our own strength is of no use to us here, and His strength can only be made perfect in our weakness. God is now with us, for it is “we” who passed over Jordan, and the Overcomer Himself will lead us in the way that we must go.
“And the armed men went before the priests that blew with the trumpets, and the rearward came after the ark, the priests going on and blowing with the trumpets. And Joshua had commanded the people, saying, Ye shall not shout, nor make any noise with your voice, neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I bid you shout; then shall ye shout.” We are only required at this time to walk around in circles every day and the command is to silence. Now those who are watching us will think this is very odd behaviour indeed. Should we not at least be speaking, should we not be shouting for victory? Clearly not. As long as this blockage continues in our lives we are to remain silent, and this command is from the Lord Himself. For Jericho must be overcome, and there is only one way to do that. We must be subject unto our Leader, lest we spoil His plan, rather than to take upon ourselves the conquest alone. If the Lord specifically calls us to be silent, let us be silent, and ignore the bewildered looks on every side. When He says shout, then we will shout! How seldom has it ever occurred to any one of us that there may be a time in our lives when the command is to silence! We talk too much, and in the multitude of words there wanteth not sin. But sin would spoil our hopes of victory, therefore let us for once fall silent and let nothing be heard but the priests blowing the horns in the midst of the people. We need not seek to explain our silence either—“neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth”—for the day is coming when we shall shout, and then the bewildered looks can turn to amazement as all see for themselves that we have gained another victory.
Well then, beloved, what does Jericho represent? It represents that massive barrier in our spiritual lives which blocks our way and impedes all our progress. The harlot’s house is seen to be on the very wall of Jericho, for Jerusalem was the old harlot of the prophecies, and when the Lord reached Jerusalem He had come to the end of His earthly mission. He could go no further. The only way to overcome Jericho is through Jordan. And we follow Him. The thing that impedes all our progress actually lies on the other side of Jordan. We too have to be crucified with Christ, and to go into death with Him, to get at the root of all our powerlessness, all our impediment, all our blockage. It is called Jericho, the city of walls, because it is a massive structure that cannot be overthrown by natural means. So let us see what constitutes the blockage, and how God through Christ enables us to overcome it.
We have been crucified with Christ, remember, and this has nothing to do with our early salvation from Egypt. We have gone with Christ into death—following Him through Jordan—and this again has nothing to do with our early experience of baptism. So now we are coming to the resurrection of Christ, and this has nothing to do with our previous experience as Christians. What is happening to us as we march round Jericho daily is that we are silent, listening to the blowing of the horns in the hands of the priests. We are hearing afresh the trumpet sounds, as the priests tell out continually the notes of the resurrection song, of Christ’s victory over death, and this one thing we must do daily even as we follow Jesus and go round in endless circles.
For how long do we do this? For six days, for whatever period of time it takes for the trumpet sound to fully penetrate into our hearts and minds. Yes, we follow a living Saviour, and yes we are fully aware that He is alive and leading us, but nevertheless there is a blockage of power in our lives and the only way to overcome it is to concentrate our attention on the resurrection of Christ. We must turn back to the apostles and gospel writers and pay attention to all the priests who are blowing the rams’ horns of victory. We need not only to see Christ risen, to see Jesus in our midst, but to experience the resurrection ourselves. We lodge in the camp, we keep silence, we daily go round in circles—but all the time we are paying attention to the resurrection of Christ, we are now concentrating as never before on that one aspect of the gospel. “And Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord”—to watch and pay attention to this in now our daily experience for these six days—“and seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord went on continually, and blew with the trumpets”—we listen daily to this continued blowing until our very souls have absorbed the sound—“and the armed men went before them”—those of us who have warrior strength will hear the sound as it were behind them, encouraging them forward—“but the rearward came after the ark of the Lord, the priests going on, and blowing with the trumpets”—but the rest of us will be led by the trumpets, we will follow on to listen to the priests, yet whether we go before or whether we follow after the priests we are all in the same position as regards to Jericho.
Now God will keep us here until His seventh day, till we have absorbed the sound and are ready to experience resurrection as a fact in our own lives along with Joshua. “And the second day they compassed the city once, and returned into the camp: so they did six days.” But let us see what happens when the period is come to an end. “And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they rose early about the dawning of the day…” Did you see it? THEY rose early. All the people rose about the dawning of the day. With Jesus, we all experience it! The resurrection of Christ is now part of us too. We have been crucified with Christ, we have died with Christ—and now we are alive in Christ Jesus for evermore. It is not the final resurrection of the dead, for there is no mention here of anyone but the living children of Israel, but it is our final experience that gives us too the victory and which will remove forever the last blockage between us and the grapes of Eshcol. Now we see the resurrection from God’s standpoint, we encompass the city seven times. And this time we shout! We shout the great shout of victory as the priests blow a blast on the trumpet which is only exceeded by the angel Gabriel on the last day! This is the victory, which God in Christ has given us. At that great sound the walls of Jericho fall flat, and the way into the inheritance is plain before us. “And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout! For the Lord hath given you the city!” May we all thus experience in our own lives the resurrection victory which Christ Jesus won for us so long ago.
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