Some of the most devastating defeats in military history are the ones that are unexpected. At Pearl Harbor, the reason we were so devastated is that we did not believe that the Japanese would attack us. As a result, we were unprepared and shocked when they did. Likewise, we set ourselves up to attack from Satan when we refuse to recognize, to believe and to understand that we are at war in the spirit world.
1st Pet. 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant and alert, because your adversary, the enemy, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. The truth of the matter is that in order to take the land, as Christians, we have to realize that the devil is not going to give in without a fight. He has been holding the land and he don’t want to give it up. As saints of God we will have a fight on our hands. However, the good news is, the bible says that greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world. We must realize that we are in a spiritual battle, but following Jesus, our captain, we cannot lose.
As Joshua and the people are nearing their conquest, he is surprised to look up and see "a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand."
a. This was a threatening sight to Joshua; one that he did not expect.
b. Imagine that you are a commander of an army, and you come across someone armed for battle that you do not recognize. As you might expect, Joshua was a little alarmed. Naturally, Joshua asked whose side he was on. At first glance, his answer seems a bit odd. He says "Neither," he replied, "but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come."
Actually, in Hebrew it reads "No." With his no he was stating that his interest was not the same as Joshua’s, which was to know if this man was for him or against him. The point here is that He was not a part of any human army, but He was far greater than anyone Joshua had ever seen before.
The phrase "commander of the army of the LORD," is what scholars call a theophany. Now, I know some of you are saying, "come on Pastor, we are still trying to learn your last name. What in the world is a theophany?
A "theophany refers to an ‘appearance of God’ to man. In other words, this is was none other than Jesus himself.
Now we can see from the text, that Joshua now recognizes, who this is because, he fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, what message does my Lord have for his servant?
Joshua now knew that he was in the presence of God himself. He knew that they would not be fighting alone, but that the armies of heaven would be fighting for them and with them.
Notice what the commander of the Lord’s army tells him, take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy. And one thing people must learn is that when they come to this Holy place that they must recognize that they are on Holy ground. This shouldn’t be the place where you show up drunk. This shouldn’t be the place where you show up high, we must recognize that this is Holy ground.
Joshua is being taught a lesson about priorities. The battle that he was about to face was a spiritual battle, and needed to be fought with spiritual power.
In other words you should show up to a gun fight with a tree limb, or a switch in your hand because you will be outclassed. It is the same thing when it come to the spirit realm with us, when we try to fight the devil with non-spiritual means.
In fact, 2nd Corinthians 10:3-5 says “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
Many times we lose our battles with the devil, because we are trying to fight a spiritual battle with physical weapons. In order to fight a spiritual battle, we have to fight with spiritual weapons, and we also need to realize that we are not alone, and we cannot fight our battles alone.
Come Ephesians 6:10, it says finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Notice that it doesn’t say be strong in yourself, it says be strong in the Lord. It doesn’t say be strong in your power, it says be strong in His power. It doesn’t say trust your friends powers, it says be strong in the Lord. We must learn to access to the Lord, and the Lord’s power, so: we need stand strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. How do we do this Pastor? It Will Take Standing In Faith and we find the remedy in verses (1-16).
Now we can see this from verse 1 says, "Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in. Now this was a problem for the Israelites, since their task of taking the city was made all that much harder because of this.
Understand that Jericho was a fortress. The walls were made of mudbrick on stone foundations, were 10 to 25 feet wide and some say that they were about 30 feet high. They also included sharp vertical inclines. This place was shut up like Fort Knox. Again, the Lord asked Joshua to do something that didn’t make a whole lot of sense. He said Joshua tell the people to take the Ark and march around the city once a day for six days.
Then he told him on the seventh day to march around the city seven times, and then tell everyone to shout.
The amazing, astonishing, astounding and most notable thing about this situation is that Joshua did exactly as the Lord commanded him.
He didn’t argue
He didn’t laugh
He didn’t hesitate
He just did it, and that’s where we must get to, we must learn to move when the Lord tells us to move.
The second amazing thing here is that he told them to do it 7 times. What’s so amazing about this is that God can’t get us to do something 1 time and he told him to do this seven times.
Although what God was asking Joshua and the people to do seems silly, they obeyed because they believed what the Lord had said, see, I have delivered Jericho into your hands. The extensive marching, blowing of trumpets, and shouting that the Israelites were to engage in is shown to be an essentially ceremonial because God was giving the victory.
When you take God at His word, and obey His commands, baby it’s is all over but the shouting match. How do you know Spies? I know because Heb. 11:30 “by faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days”
It was because of their faith. You see faith enables us to understand what God does. Faith enables us to see what others cannot see. Faith enables us to do what others cannot do. That’s why 1st Tim. 6:12 Fight the good fight of the faith.
His word says that we are overcomers.
His word says we can do all things
His word says that the battle has been fought and victory has already been won
God’s word tells us that we can stand against the devil in the power of His might, but we have to stand on His word in faith and do it.
Jesus said that his followers would have the power to cast out demons.
So, how do I win Pastor? Well, verses 17-19 tell us that we must walk in Holiness.
Joshua’s next set of instructions to the people were that the city and all that were in it needed to be devoted to the LORD.
And let me tell you New G, the Lord want us to be devoted to his will
and his ways. You can’t win in tricky, you can’t win with lies, you can’t win with a cunning spirit, you must be devoted to the Lord. This is so that the Lord, would receive the glory for the victory.
We can see in the next verse that God takes holiness very seriously when it says "But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it."
In other words, certain items were to be set apart for destruction, and if they were not, Israel itself would be subject to the same fate; Israel itself would become “a devoted thing.
To take one of these things devoted to the Lord would bring a curse not only on the individual, but on the entire nation. This shows us how seriously God takes holiness and sin. We must walk Holy and be obedient, because, disobedience to God is like rust on a car; eventually it will eat away at everything.
We must walk Holy because when we do it will bring victory (20-27)
it is said that after they fallow the Lord’s commandment that the wall’s fell down.
So, verse 20 is evidence of what happens in spiritual warfare when we do things God’s way. It says "When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city. The people did as they were commanded to do and God kept His promise.
So, that’s why I’m asking the Lord to help me and Lord keep me while I’m going through and give me strength for the battle.
Help me to walk right.
Help me to talk right.
Help me to love right.
And help me to live right.
But then Lord keep me:
Keep me from the hands of the enemies.
Keep my mind to stay on thee.
Keep me day by day, so that I will walk in this beautiful and narrow way. Because one day I want to live in that building that is not made by mans hand.
