Our tour bus arrived in the downtown square, we all piled out as tourists do, things seemed a little tense with the locals, they gave us the eye and went back to their business. We walked up this steep dusty dirt hill, void of any vegetation, just a lot of dirt and rock. Even though it was early Spring, it was blazing hot and the short hike to the top of the hill got us all winded. As we reached the top, our professor guide announce, “Here we are: the ancient city of Jericho!”
We all looked around, “Where is it?
All we could see was a high mound of dirt with some excavation trenches dug here and there. We were stunned. All the other ancient cities we had seen on our visit to the holy land were being rebuilt so you could get an idea of how things appeared in the day. A rebuilt wall here a broken down building there, a bit of stone walkway – something to allow you to get a grasp of what the place was like. But here in Jericho, pretty much a pile of dirt in the middle of one very hot and remote place.
Jericho is located at one of the lowest points in elevation for any city in the world – 800 feet below sea level, about seven miles north of the dead sea. It is located at a strategic point at the base of a pass through very rugged terrain into the State of Israel, it is the gateway to the promise land. Located on a dry desert plain, even today, Jericho is an isolated and unforgiving place.
This is what the people of Israel faced after wandering for 40 years in the desert: Jericho, a small but imposing fortress that loomed over the people as they approached it. Verse one and two tell us that the gates were tightly shut and inside was an army that was ready and waiting – and there is no doubt that this army had seen plenty of action. What Scripture is pointing out to us right here is this – The people of Israel face an absolutely impossible situation, there is no way this group of rag tag people can take this city, and everyone in the city and outside the city knows it.
Today as we look at this story of the city of Jericho, let’s keep in mind that this is not just another story about God doing the impossible, God has done the impossible for Israel over and over again, we have seen that; This is a story about HOW God the uses the growing faith of his people, and that is very practical and very applicable to our lives today.
This is a story of how God works in our lives. See, God has brought us this far in our lives. Like the people of Israel, He has chosen you to follow Him, learn His ways, and do His will. He is not going to let things fall apart on us now. When we read this story, we experience everything being resolved very quickly and we can see all the details right in front of us, the march the trumpets, the walls coming down, but when the Israelites experience the event, they know very few details, and things for them, move along at a snails pace.
Joshua and the people have to stick to God’s plan in order to succeed….except ,the reality is, wouldn’t it be difficult to accept the plan God gave them? God’s plan here is rather, unconventional at best, isn’t it? Think about this: The people, in their hearts, are not so sure seven days will do it; They do not know for sure that the walls will fall down (I’m sure they were as surprised and the inhabitants of Jericho); They do not know why all this walking around is helping things out; They do not know how they will attack if in fact the walls do fall down, you know, in their minds, they do not know exactly what the final outcome will be. Details are missing. God tells them what the outcome will be, He tells them how long it will take, and He tells them what the result will be, but you know, it just doesn’t make sense, does it?
You know what, just like us, they have no real idea of what tomorrow will bring. The people of Israel don’t know much of anything….but they do know this: God is very real, He is a very real presence in their lives – they may not fully understand what is going on but they can be sure of one thing – God will see them through.
Now, the Israelites have to take the city of Jericho, they have to take these important crossroads. If they bypass the city, they will be attacked from behind. You can imagine how the Israelites felt when after crossing the Jordan river they come upon this looming fortress and this is what they would have seen: Jericho was built upon a mound with earthen embankments sloping up to the city from a dry mote encircling the city. The city had two walls, the first had a 15’ high base of stone topped with an 8’ brick wall, about the height of a two story house. The second wall, behind the first was 15’ higher, making it about three stories tall. These two walls had a sloping rampart in between them for the army to stand and fight. People also built houses on this rampart making the walls seem even higher. Those walls must have looked large as they gazed on this city on a hill.
Understand that at this time in history, trebuchet and catapult technology did not exist, so an army couldn’t break down a wall like this. They could attack the city by climbing over the walls, but they would sustain heavy casualties with a strategy like that. Typically what an army would do in a situation like this is lay siege to the city to starve the people out,– but the location of Jericho makes this strategy very risky. Jericho is an oasis in a very harsh desert, and it is very, very, hot. Jericho means fragrant, and is called the city of palms for the many palm trees that grow there – this is where the palms came from that were placed in front of Jesus as he rode the colt into Jerusalem. This was a winter vacation spot for the people in the region – think of it like the city of Palm Desert to us here in Alaska, it is always summer at Jericho.
The residents of Jericho are at this beautiful oasis, they have all the food and water they need, but an invading army would not be able to stay long for the logistics of bringing in enough food and water to feed an army would be prohibitive in this harsh desert – the people of Jericho know this, and so they shut the gates up tight and just wait inside for the invaders to give up and go away. The city of Jericho has to be conquered quickly and both the Israelis and the people of Jericho know this.
You know, most of the time when we need God to act, there is a deadline isn’t there? If I don’t get a certain amount of money by a certain date it is all over. If I cannot get things together by a certain date the business deal falls apart. If the chemo doesn’t get the cancer quickly……Real estate might be about location, location, location, but everyday life is about timing, timing, timing. So what does God do in our lives? Does God show up and take care of business when we need it? That’s sure not my experience, is that yours? Sometimes God shows up exactly at the right time, but that doesn’t seem to happen very often does it? Usually we wonder, where is He, or why won’t He act? I tell you what, many times in my life things have not come together and the results in my life were not pretty at all.
Why does God do that? Why doesn’t God just take care of business?
Our Scripture here helps us with that question. As we continue to look at our Scripture, remember, God’s purpose in our life is not just making the bad stuff go away.
What God could have done was, have the Israelites arrive, then, boom, bring down the walls, but He doesn’t does He? He is able to bring down the walls, but He lets the walls stand. What does he do? He puts the Israelites to work. They are to march around the city for a week before the trumpets sound and then the walls fall down.
This is not as crazy as it sounds. This same tactic is found in ancient Ugaritic texts. The results reported by these writings was that after a few days, the inhabitants of the city came out and paid tribute to make the invading army go away. Walking around the city is not insanity. It is not nuts. It is not weird or stupid. Walking around the city is very intimidating, it is an ancient siege tactic. Walking around the city would have put the fear of God into the people of Jericho.
Sometimes we look at this story and we think it is about God asking us to do crazy, off the wall things – but walking around the city was neither crazy nor off the wall. It was just an everyday tactic used by people of the day. While it is not crazy, walking around the city sure doesn’t seem connected to the final outcome, does it?
Here is what the scene looked like: The city of Jericho was quite small; The circumference of the city was only about 300 yards, about the length of three football fields. It was a very short walk around the city. The Israelites are several million strong. There are so many people marching around this city that most of the people are arriving back at the camp, before everyone else has even left the camp. What this means is, people have to wait a long time to get their turn marching around the city. To the people of this small city, the column of people would have looked endless. See, God goes before the Israelites and in the case of the invasion of the promise land, God promised to put fear into the people’s hearts that oppose the people of God. The fear of God is developing in the hearts of these people as they slowly realize these Israelis are serious about taking the city. Though it is the fear of God that comes upon the people of the city of Jericho, the fear of God is accomplished through the actions of the people marching around the city.
We might have a situation at hand, one where we need the help of God to get us through, and it seems to us that what we are doing is useless, what we are doing is unconnected to the results that are needed – but with God, nothing is ever wasted, nothing is ever useless. To us, the marching appears to be an unconnected absurd thing to do, but it is God’s preparation for the event at hand – First when the walls do come down the people inside will be so overcome with fear they will be conquered with ease; Second everyone who walks around the city knows very well that they had no part in bringing the walls down. When the time comes and walls fall down, everyone marching around the city will know that without a doubt it was an act of God.
Sometimes we worry and fret that our actions will have no consequences on the final outcome. How many of us have sat in a hospital with a friend or a relative and felt useless? We can’t make our loved ones better, we can’t make the pain go away – we are helpless. But that’s ok. God is always, always doing more behind the scenes than we will ever know. We focus on one important thing, well, what we think is important, God deals with many issues at the same time, some, in the situation we are in, which we could not understand or even know about – like God healing someone’s spirit, or God finally solidifying a person’s faith in a time of crisis. We see that they are not getting better physically….but sometimes, sometimes, and I don’t say this lightly, that is the least important thing.
Remember, God has not arrived in our lives to make all the bad stuff go away. And if the bad stuff doesn’t go away, that does not mean God is not working in your life. God is a God of relationships. Relationship with comes God first, everything else second, everything else….second, my finances - second, my health - second, my work - second, my family….second. As these people walk around this small city God is working of relationship with them. God does not allow them to take the city the first day because He will use this time to increase their faith.
Notice in verse 10 they are to march in absolute silence. No singing. No chatting. No visiting. No texting, no phone calls, not a word. They experience patience as they walk around the city. They experience self control as they walk around the city. They experience a building of faith each day.
What leads the people as they go out in silence? The Ark of the Covenant. This is what sits in the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle. This is a symbol that God is leading them, this is a symbol of God’s presence among them.
Day one: They march around the city, silently they walk, waiting, when will God act? Their faith builds a little. Day two: Again they march around the city, in silence they wonder how will God act? Their faith increases somewhat. Day Three: Once more they walk, the anticipation builds, that wall is so huge, so strong, what will God do? Their faith grows. Day four, day five, day six, day seven – they have heard this is the day. They expect the promise will come, the walls will fall down. Their faith not only has been built, but now they are more open to the work of God – having experienced this time of anticipation, this time of expectation, this time of wondering – they are open to the work of the Lord God.
God does not act when we want Him to because…it is not about the walls falling down. It is not about accomplishment, it is not about the beautiful end result, NO, it is about growing closer to God. See, through this experience, these people have had a faith, a relationship with God grow – and man has it grown, but their faith is about to take a leap like it has never ever taken, for the walls, as promised, are about to fall down.
What is it that brings down the walls of Jericho? Turn with me to the New Testament, turn to Hebrews chapter 11, verse 30. What do you see? How did the walls of Jericho fall? Was it a great wind? Was it an earthquake? Was it a flood? NO Heb. 11:30 “By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.”
It was by faith.
The faith of the people builds day after day and God through the faith of his people God brings the wall down. You see, they thought they were just walking around the city, they thought they were just being useless, they thought, they thought – but God was using that time to build up their faith, the faith that would accomplish the impossible.
He was there every day for his wife. There was nothing he could do to really help her. But he could be with her, he could spend every possible moment he could with her. Neither of them had really gone to church, maybe now and then. Neither of them really thought about God – it wasn’t that they were unbelievers, life was just so busy, so full of tings to do.
His repeated prayer was, Lord, please heal my wife. Day after day he prayed that prayer, Day after day, he felt useless…and in the end, things did not work out as they had hoped.
But you know, that wasn’t the end. Somehow, someway, in the little time they had something happened, for both of them. He thought he would be angry, he thought he would be bitter, but instead he was at peace. Somehow, someway, through all of that uselessness, his heart grew, and there is now something there, that wasn’t able to grow in times past.
It turns out, God was moving in their hearts the whole time.
It turns out, that the emotional and spiritual walls they had built up over the years, the walls that the Holy Spirit could not break through, finally, somehow, someway, fell away……by faith.
“Mr. Gorbecheve, tear down this wall.”
Now, let me be clear, it wasn’t some sort of massing of community energy, or the positive thoughts of many people converging upon an object. This isn’t voodoo, this is an act of a very real, a very present and a very relationship oriented God. It was God who brought the wall down, but understand, He brought it down by faith, by the faith that had grown step by step.
The wall did not fall outward. The wall did not fall inward. The wall fell flat – the wall crumbled straight down, just as the Hebrew says here in Joshua chapter 6. And you know what, this is exactly what the archeological evidence shows us, there they are the walls of Jericho crumbled in a big heap. Amazing. This is no fairy tale. This is no tall tale. This is a real historic event, this is, evidence of the growing faith of the people of God, put into action. How awesome it must have been to see the most solid and best engineered fortress of the day, drop like a pile of children’s blocks. You can bet your bottom dollar that there wasn’t a person standing outside those walls that wasn’t a true believer.
The whole thing just crumbles all at once, and there the enemy that depended upon the wisdom of men is exposed, and the people of God who depended upon the person of God have a leap of faith that is not seen again until the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ
The walls in our lives do not fall down over night do they?
There they stand, looming in front of us. Unmovable. These walls appear to be insurmountable difficulties, but, really, it is the walls of our heart that need to be reached by the Spirit of God
Let me ask you this. What makes the walls fall down?
What, makes the walls fall down?
Hebrews 11:30 – By faith the walls of Jericho fell.
Do you understand? Do you see how God works in your life?
There are two levels of work that God is performing in this passage – Right?
First there is the wall – the obvious problem in front of us. For the Hebrews it was the walls of Jericho – for us, it could be something that we cannot resolve.
But second, there is the wall that surrounds our hearts, the wall that holds back our faith – and this is the second thing God works on…but understand it is the primary thing. The thing you cannot resolve, might only be resolved by faith, and friend, your faith, it needs to grow, or that wall will not fall.
For both the Hebrews and for all of us here: the wall does not fall, the wall will not fall, the wall cannot fall, until the walls of the heart fall, until the faith we have grows to the point where we can open, open to the powerful work of God in our lives.
