(SING) “Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, Jericho, Jericho, Joshua fit the battle of Jericho and the walls came tumbling down. VERSE: You can talk about the men of Gideon, you can talk about old King Saul. But there's none like good old Joshua at the battle of Jericho.”
Jericho is commonly believed to be one of the oldest cities ever been built and it is said to be oldest known WALLED city ever built. It was formidable. Heavily fortified. Encircled by 2 rings of walls. The 1st wall stood between 12 to 15 feet high and the inner wall was 32 to 41 feet in height. The illusion created by the two walls from ground level, would have seemed to stand nearly 10 stories in height. Nobody would have thought that anybody could destroy it.
But then one day - the walls just came tumbling down. And the once mighty symbol of paganism was destroyed. You know, I got to thinking about how those walls came down, and I ran across this set of videos I wanted to share:
https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=ea267502e9e23089&sxsrf=AE3TifM4rGsbd47NARXEwVWzYJu8e0IRwA:1754345031238&udm=7&fbs=AIIjpHxU7SXXniUZfeShr2fp4giZ1Y6MJ25_tmWITc7uy4KIeuYzzFkfneXafNx6OMdA4MQRJc_t_TQjwHYrzlkIauOKj9nSuujpEIbB1x32lFLEvHqOmFe_-41rWC15qkwKqyh1Adl28caI-H4UkF8vEkZPiKeLm1-IF950TIh8vlACO2mbTPf8VBxPKSqKtr1s8uQjQLdEjaVIu_0_-ZWXvwTw3fTWnw&q=pLANNED+DEMOLITION&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiS5pnDlPKOAxWFj4kEHYMUARkQtKgLegQIEhAB&biw=1280&bih=607&dpr=1.5#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:292cc1e2,vid:XYb5IGm2K3E,st:0 TIMESTAMP 4:09-5:36
What you just saw was something that’s called a “planned demolition.” Sometimes a building just has to come down, and the bigger buildings require experts who know how to strategically place explosive material in just the right places, and those explosives are detonated in such a way that the structure collapses straight down in a matter of seconds!
But when the walls of Jericho fell, Joshua didn’t have a team of engineers. There were no explosive charges. In fact, Joshua didn’t have do much that actually brought those walls down. It was God that destroyed the city - all Joshua and the Israelites had to do was show up.
So, here’s a question – Did this really happen? Was Jericho destroyed the way the Bible says it was? You know, there are people who scoff at stories in the Bible like this, where something dramatic and miraculous occurs. It doesn’t make any sense to them that the Israelites just marched around Jericho a few times and the walls collapsed. They just can’t believe that would happen, so they dismiss it as… a myth.
BUT was it? Was it just a myth … or did it really happen?
ILLUS: Back in 1990, Time Magazine had an article that said: “(Jericho’s fall was) one of the most dramatic events chronicled in the Old Testament. But for generations scholars have debated whether the Israelites’ assault on Jericho was a fact or a myth…. (Recently though) discoveries at Jericho were largely consistent with the Bible story.” (Time March 5, 1990)
So WHAT did the Bible say that was “largely consistent” with the evidence? Well, for one thing, archaeologists found that the walls of Jericho fell straight down in a way that was suggestive of a sudden collapse. You see, when most cities were conquered – their enemies breached the walls from the outside so that the walls would be caved INWARD. But as you can see from this artist’s rendering of what archaeologists discovered Jericho’s wall FELL DOWN… not inward. Just as the Bible said.
The Bible ALSO says that the Israelites were told to set the city on fire. Archaeologists found that much of Jericho was covered by a thick layer of soot (which is a black powder that’s formed when something’s burned). When they used radio-carbon dating on that soot, they found the soot was formed about 1400 B.C. (the date Bible indicates Israel invaded Canaan).
A question: How Long Did It Take Israel To Conquer Jericho? (7 DAYS). Now, one way to conquer an ancient walled city was to starve it out. Just surround the city and wait till they ran out of food. But the evidence shows that Jericho had plenty of food. Archaeologists found several jars full of barley throughout the city. In other words, they weren’t starved into submission. They had plenty of food to last for weeks. So, the city fell within days… just like the Bible said.
So, Jericho fell just the way the Bible said it did…. but now what? It’s a cool story but what did God want to teach us by destroying that city?
Well, first - Jericho was a great city. It was imposing and it was virtually impregnable. There was no city quite like it anywhere in Canaan. And yet God told Israel to destroy that city FIRST - BEFORE they did anything else. (pause) WHY?
Well, God had Jericho destroyed FIRST because it WAS an imposing and virtually impregnable city. It was a little bit of SHOW and TELL. First, it was a little show and tell for Israel. If Israel could take Jericho nothing could stand before them. Conquering Jericho was to be a faith builder for them.
But, in order to build that faith, Israel had to act on faith. Hebrews 11:30 “By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days”. It was their faith that brought the walls down.
Think about it…God gave Joshua specific instructions for the men of war to march in silence around the city -- once each day for six days. And they were carrying the ark of the covenant as a sign of God’s presence among them. On the seventh day, they were to march around the city seven times. And at the appropriate signal, the priests would blow their trumpets, and the people were to give a mighty shout.” (https://www.gotquestions.org/Jericho-in-the-Bible.html) AND THE WALLS CRUMBLED.
In fact, there was ONE OTHER instruction: “You shall not shout or make your voice heard, neither shall any word go out of your mouth, until the day I tell you to shout...” Joshua 6:10
Now, that was a good instruction, because if I’d been marching around Jericho with the Israelites, I know what I might have been tempted to say: “This is stupid”; “This doesn’t make any sense”; “WHY are we doing this?”
When Israel FIRST came to the Promised Land, there was a lot of talking going on. The 1st time they came to the Promised Land,10 of the 12 spies began to TALK about how they couldn’t take the land. They TALKED about how big the Canaanites were. “They brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, ‘The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.” Numbers 13:32-33
Then, the people began to TALK. They (grumbled) in their tents saying, “The LORD hates us; so he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us.” Deuteronomy 1:27
You know what these folks did? They TALKED themselves out of faith. They TALKED themselves out of the Promised Land. They even went so far as to say God hated them. So, they ended up wandering in the wilderness for 40 yrs.
And so, now, at the walls of Jericho, God said: “Don’t talk. Just do what I tell you to do.” The only way they’d take the city was by faith, because “without faith, it’s impossible to please God.” Hebrews 11:6
You see, when we GRUMBLE - when we TALK about things that annoy us - that’s not a good thing. It shows that we’ve not prayed and not trusted God. It reflects our desire to play God, as if our grumbling could change the course of life.
Paul warned the church at Corinth: “Do not grumble as some of them did (the 1st time into the Promised Land) and were destroyed…’ I Corinthians 10:10
ILLUS: We all tend to grumble we get upset, get annoyed, get angry because things aren’t going the way we want them to and so we grumble. I’ve done it! You’ve done it… We’ve ALL Done it. But I’ve decided I’ve got to stop that. So, whenever I find myself beginning to grumble… I try to remember that I’m not God. And… I created this meme for Facebook: “I Will Not Grumble. I will pray ALL that I can; I will do WHAT I can; But I will trust God for ALL that happens because I have been called to be a Man Of Faith. And Men and Women of Faith don’t grumble… they trust God.
When we trust God to lead us in our lives; in our church; in our nation. We’ll begin to see God do mighty things and He will lead us in victory over our fears. When we determine NOT to Grumble, God will lead us to bring down the walls that challenge our faith. And the walls of Jericho will fall before us.
So first, conquering Jericho was a SHOW AND TELL for Israel to increase their faith. But it was also a SHOW AND TELL for the Canaanites to increase their FEAR. If Israel could destroy Jericho in such a dramatic way, no other tribe stood a chance. God intended to strike fear into the hearts of His enemies, and from that day on, the other tribes fell like dominos. And in a few short months, most of Canaan was in Israel’s hands.
But why was God so intent on destroying the people in Canaan? What had they done wrong? In 2 Peter 3:9 we’re told that “The Lord… is patient with us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” But apparently, with the people Canaan… God’s patience had run out.
(God told the Israelites) It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Deuteronomy 9:5
The Canaanites were a morally corrupt society engaged in practices that were detestable to God, things like child sacrifice, temple prostitution, bestiality, and other forms of sexual immorality. God basically said “These folks don’t want to repent. And so God decreed that Jericho was to be destroyed. And ALL its people were to die. (PAUSE)
Well, not quite ALL of them died.
Joshua 6:25 tells us “Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho—and she lives among the Israelites to this day.”
Rahab had made a deal with the 2 spies Joshua sent into Jericho. And then she hid Israelite spies. But why would she do that? Why hide these men? Well, she hid them… because she had FAITH. She told the 2 spies: “I know that the LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts sank and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below. Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you.” Joshua 2:9-12
She believed what she’d been told about the power of God at the Red Sea, and Hebrews 11:31 tells us “BY FAITH the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.” She was saved from judgment because she had faith in God.
BUT WAIT A MINUTE. Rahab was a prostitute. She wasn’t a nice person. She’d been as sexually immoral as anyone else in Jericho, and yet… she received mercy. Why? Why would she be saved from destruction? Because she had FAITH in God and she was willing to honor Him in her decision to hide the spies. And when that happened… her past was forgotten. She ended up marrying a Jewish man named Salmon and became the mother of Boaz (who married Ruth). And Rahab the harlot became one of only 4 women who were listed in the Gospel of Matthew as one of Jesus’ ancestors. Rahab impressed God that much by her faith… that God honored her memory.
Now… here’s the point. Faith that changes us is all that matters to God. It doesn’t matter where you’ve been or what you’ve done. All that matters is that you’re willing to have faith in Jesus and be willing to turn your life over to Him.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever BELIEVES (has Faith) in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”
INVITATION
