“God’s plan for spiritual victory” Joshua Chs. 5&6
Pastor Bob Hunter
This is the fifth week of our series from Joshua. Have you enjoyed it so far? Have you been challenged? I have! In any case we pick up the story in Ch. 5 & 6 this week. Let’s recap the story for those that haven’t been with us the whole way through or that need it for repetition.
The book of Joshua is about a leader by the same name who led a group of people called Israel. They were miraculously delivered from slave labor in place called Egypt. After their deliverance they wandered aimlessly in the desert for 40 years until God raised up new leadership. Joshua was God’s chosen instrument to lead them into the promise land, the land flowing with milk and honey. The book of Joshua begins with the children of Israel facing a huge obstacle: The raging river of Jordan. God helped them overcome that impossibility by apprehending the flood waters upstream so they could walk across on dry land. They memorialized the event by extracting stones from the middle of the Jordan river, 12 of them, one for each tribe. So when we meet up with the gang in Chapters 5 & 6, we find them facing yet another challenge: The city of Jericho. They are on a collision course with the enemies of God that have taken up residence in that place. God commanded Joshua and His army to conquer it and completely drive out it’s inhabitants.
But in order to be successful they had to have a plan, there needed to be a strategy. Without a plan they could easily suffer defeat. Spiritual battles are not won on accident. Victory is not a product of random chance. You have to have a plan of attack, if your going to conquer and ultimately be successful. You better know what your up against and make sure you have God on your side. That’s what Ch. 5 & 6 are about. God gives Joshua a plan of attack. A strategy of success is revealed in these pages. This is good news my friends, the God we serve has a plan, He’s an orderly God with a specific plan. God had a plan for Israel‘s success. And He has a plan for our success too. And if we execute the plans He’s graciously given us, then we’ll be glad. If we execute the plan, we can avoid the agony of defeat. God has a plan of attack for us when we are facing spiritual battles. There are definitely some things that we can do before venturing out to the front lines and facing the giants. There’s some business that we should take care of before taking on the enemy.
For Joshua the strategy included three things. In order for He and the entire army of Israel to succeed, these three things would have to come to pass. I’m going to outline each of them, because they can help us face the Jericho‘s we have in our lives. The first strategic step into battle includes worship. This is what God commanded Joshua to do, Worship fervently! God commanded Joshua to set aside a time of worshipful preparation.
GOD’S ATTACK PLAN:
1.) Take time to worship fervently.
Part of God’s battle plan for Joshua included worship. The first thing that God told Joshua to do was circumcise the entire male population. Now that may not seem like worship to you, but it was to them. The word circumcision to us, is a word we equate with pain. Especially adult circumcision!! The only word I can think of to describe it is ouch!!
But for Israel, circumcision was an act of worship. It was outward sign of inward obedience. It was a very important means of marking their identity as the people of God. So Joshua set aside a whole day, to perform mass circumcision. The Lord commanded it and the Lord was pleased with these actions, because it represented a serious attempt on the part of Israel to worship.
Think of it this way, in the Church of Jesus Christ, the act of circumcision is fulfilled a little differently. When we talk about circumcision in the N.T. we’re talking about a circumcision of the heart. When we surrender our hearts in obedience to God, a circumcision of loyalty takes place. A circumcised heart is one that obeys God and worships Him alone in Spirit and Truth! There is a place for circumcision in today’s Church. The idea is the same the anatomy different! It’s a spiritual circumcision not a physical one, thank God!
The second element of worship celebration occurred immediately after. Verse 10 says, “While they were camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they celebrated the passover...” The passover was an intense act of worship. It commemorated the deliverance of Israel from the plague of death that visited Egypt. It was a celebration of God’s ability to rescue from death. The customary celebration was held once a year on the 14th day of the month. Joshua took the time to observe this important holiday. After circumcising the masses, Joshua prepared a passover celebration that was attended by everyone. And right there in a makeshift camp called Gilgal, they celebrated an informal passover. They worshipped. Their worship was a celebration of God’s saving power over death.
You and I take part in a similar celebration. Every time we take communion we celebrate God’s power of the force of death. That’s what the emblems represent. They represent the Lord Jesus who is our passover lamb. His suffering and death make it possible for you and I to be passed over when the sentence of death is handed down. Jesus is lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. The judgment of death has no power over the believer in Christ. That’s a good reason to celebrate. We call that worship. Israel under Joshua, worshipped God for His death conquering power, and so can you and I. We acknowledge this power, when we come to the Lord’s table and receive the emblems of his broken body and shed blood. Jesus is our passover lamb, He conquered death and brought us life. The meaning of passover has been fulfilled in Christ.
Folks when we go into battle, when we set out to conquer, we must first worship. We must take the time to celebrate. Worship is necessary. It’s not only necessary but it’s preparatory. Worshipping God prepares us to face our enemies and fight our battles. And no matter what the outcome, we can be assured that even if it means death, that too can be overcome in Christ. So the first component of God’s battle plan was worship. The second involves following God’s instructions completely. God gave Joshua some very specific instructions to follow.
2.) Follow God’s instructions completely.
Listen to the detail given to Joshua before this battle was even fought. God revealed a very specific strategy to conquer Jericho. This is what He said to do, “March around the city once with all the armed men ....Do this for six days, on the seventh day blow your trumphet, shout real loud then stand back, because the whole city will collapse....” Vs. 3-5 God gave them a water tight plan, and if they followed it completely they would have guranteed success. Joshua did everything the Lord commanded Him to do. And it all came to pass just as the Lord said it would. Verse 20, says, “at the sound of the trumphet on the seventh day, the walls collapsed and the Israelites charged right in and took the city.” It happened just the way God said it would happen. But more importantly, Joshua followed God’s instructions completely. He executed God’s battle plan without any hesitation. Even though it was kinda of an off-wall-strategy. I mean Joshua was a great military leader, God’s strategy must have sounded a bit foreign to him. But God is known for this. Sometimes He uses unconventional tactics to get things accomplished. The plan given to Joshua was unheard of. Who in military circles wins a battle by marching, shouting and blowing trumphets? This whole strategy was perhaps viewed with great suspicion at first. But it worked! Joshua dared to embrace it. God brought great Glory to Himself as a result. God sometimes uses unusual strategies to get things accomplished. It’s His way of making sure we don’t take credit for it and assume that it was our goodness, cleverness or smarts that brought about the victory. In fact, after the 3rd day of circling the city, I’ll bet the cananites were probably laughing at them. Who knows maybe the Israelites were even laughing at themselves. But in spite of how ridiculous it seemed Joshua followed through. And He was rewarded with great success.
You and I can draw a great point of application here. When we go into battle, when we set out to conquer our Jericho‘s; we have to do the same thing. We have to follow God’s instructions completely. In the New Testament we are given a great battle plan in the book of Ephesians! The apostle Paul describes it in Ch. 6, He says.. ”Quoting Ephesians 6” Put on the full armor of God. Putting on the full armor means we have to follow God’s instructions completely. A half dressed soldier, is destined for defeat. Folks, if we are going to win any battles at all, we’d better get fully dressed.
Now this is how silly we are sometimes; we go into battle, we set out to conquer, but were not fully dressed. Now does it make any sense to you to go out onto the front lines of battle with out a helmet on & no breast plate? Would it do any good to put on the belt of truth, but not have the sword of the spirit? Look if your going to win spiritual battles you have to follow God’s instructions completely. Following God’s instructions completely requires putting on the full armor of God, not just a piece of two! Joshua had brilliant execution. He did everything the Lord commanded Him to do, and God gave him the victory. Will you do everything the Lord commands you to do? Don’t fight your battles half way. Put on the full armor of God and follow the Lord’s instructions completely.
The third and final aspect of God’s attack plan, are you ready for it. This is what I believe God wanted him to do...
3.) Finish the battle entirely.
We really need to hear this folks. I want you to take note of a few words that appear in Joshua 6. Verse 21 says, “They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it...” Underline the word every! Now jump down to verse 24 where it says, “Then they burned the whole city (Underline the word whole!) and everything in it.” Underline the word everything! The words are all inclusive for a reason. God wanted Joshua to finish the job. He wanted Jericho totally destroyed. He wanted the Cananites driven out completely. He wanted no stone left unturned. God wanted the job done right, completely and totally finished.
And I hope I can get your attention with this folks. We need to finish our battles. We need to finish strong and finish well. There’s too much unfinished business in the Church. There are too many partly engaged, half hearted believers engaging in warfare. A lot people fight spiritual battles like we cut daisies here at the Church. You know what I mean by that? Allow me to explain...It’s that time of year, we are cutting our lawn every 10 days or so. Here at the Church we have a daisy problem. After you cut the grass, daisies shoot up a couple days later and dot the landscape. Merely cutting the daisies doesn’t make them go away. The fact is, they just don’t go at all until you get to the root of their existence, totally eradicate and kill them entirely. That’s the only way to win the daisy war, you have to terminate their existence completely.
The same is true in our lives, some of us are really good at cutting daisies when they pop up, but just cutting them isn’t enough. We need to go a step further. Don’t be a daisy cutter.. as God’s people we are called to go all the way to the root of our problems. We need to quit treating the symptoms and start dealing with the underlying causes. Do you have a habit or a personal hang up your dealing with? Are you struggling with an attitude of anger or feelings of bitterness? In order to deal with those issues, your going to have to get down to the root causes. God can help you do that. Just ‘trying harder’ isn’t going to work. Many are ’trying harder’ and failing. God’s plan of attack is a lot better than ours, so quit trying so hard and start trusting! His attack plan is full proof, when we put our trust in Him. He wants us to come out on top, and He’s given us both the means and the ends to do it! In fact, that’s why God gave us Jesus, because ..“we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” (Rom. 8:37).
Conclusion: Finish the battle entirely, follow the instructions completely, and take time to worship fervently. It worked for Joshua and it can work for you.
Prayer: Lord, we have some battles to fight, we have some warfare to engage in. We have some things in our lives and in our Church we need to be overcome. Restrain us from fighting with the weapons of this world. Help us to put on the full armor of God and resist the schemes of the devil. Human attack plans have fallen so short. We confess the numerous times we haven’t put on the full armor. We have trusted in ourselves and suffered. And we are sorry. Remind us once again, Lord, that apart from you we can do nothing. This is what we believe, now help us to put it into practice and truly be doers of the word. Amen.
