Conquering Jericho

Conquering Jericho

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

By Pastor James May

Joshua 6:1 Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in.

Joshua 6:2 And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour.

Joshua 6:3 And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days.

Joshua 6:4 And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets.

Joshua 6:5 And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.

In the familiar story of the conquering of the city of Jericho we can often find something that will relate to us right where we live. This story is all about the Children of Israel entering into their Promised Land which was declared by God to be a land that flowed with milk and honey, and a land that God had promised to Abraham and his seed forever. But this land wasn’t going to be theirs without having to face some difficult times and some strong opposition.

In the same fashion, as we are born again by the Spirit of God and become a part of the family of God, we too inherit the promises of God. God’s promises are true and unfailing, but how often do we fall short of obtaining those promises. I submit to you that it is never the fault of God that we fall short. The fault always lies with us; with our lack of obedience; or perhaps a lack of commitment; or a lace of faith and maybe a lack of trust. There is no doubt that we could ever reach that high calling in the Lord where we no longer are lacking in any area of our lives spiritually, that we could not attain unto every one of the promises in God’s Word. That is what we strive for. That is what we pray for. There is no doubt in my mind that every member of this church loves the Lord and would want to be perfect in His sight. There is also no doubt in my mind that every one of falls short in some way or another.

Nevertheless the pattern for defeating the enemy and bringing down the walls that stand in your way to obtaining God’s promises are here, in this well known story of the walls of Jericho as they come crashing down.

A lot of the problems that we bring upon ourselves stems from the fact that we just grow weary of marching and we are unable to see much forward progress. With rare exceptions, the battles that you face in overcoming habits, sins and weaknesses in your life will be long, drawn out and extended battles. It is those rare few who can overcome those things in their lives without a protracted fight.

Some battle with smoking, some with profanity, others with any one of a myriad type of addiction; and some fight every day with demonic oppression that all stems from the remnants of the life from which we were delivered. Though we are made into a new creation in Christ, yet some of the old things of the past are hard to shake off. Some of the things we do in the flesh will not be changed quite so easily and their effect on us may be felt in this unregenerated flesh for a long time. You see, your heart, soul and spirit are born again and they are washed in the Blood of the Lamb and made righteous, but this old body of flesh is still bound by the effects of sin and that won’t change until we can finally lay this old body down and then rise again in that new glorified body.

Some Christians have fought that battle so long that they are to the point that they are ready to give up the fight. They use those scriptures that talk about Paul’s thorn in the flesh, and then resign themselves to believe that this certain problem, whatever it might be, must be their thorn in the flesh to keep them humble. Perhaps it is, only God knows. But not every thing that besets us and keeps us from obtaining deliverance is really a thorn in the flesh. It’s just something that must be overcome through trust, faith and obedience to the call of God and the Word of the Lord. In God’s time, and in His way, it can and will be overcome. Meanwhile we are to just keep on keeping on and never quit trying.