Meeting Challenges God’s Way
Hebrews 11:30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.
Last Sunday we met the people of God as they marched out of slavery toward the Promised Land. We observed that early on God led them into a situation with Egypt’s army behind them and the Red Sea in front of them. What a dilemma! They trusted God in the impossible situation and crossed over on dry land. Additionally they watched as the pursuing army was destroyed by the power of the Lord. This was an astounding turn of events. In a matter of hours they went from being chased and threatened to complete freedom.
With an experience like that, you would have thought their faith would be unshakeable, but it wasn’t. In a year or so, the Israelites stood at the borders of the Promised Land, having received the Law of God and readied for conquest. Then their faith faltered-- again! They sent 12 explorers into the land to bring back a report. The men came back with stories of abundant food and a pleasant land, but 10 of the men also exaggerated the strength of the Canaanite people.
Numbers 13:31-33 “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size . . . We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”
In response to this report, the people rebelled against God and refused to enter the land of Canaan. God sentenced them to 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, saying that their children would be the ones to actually enter the Promised Land. Our text today brings us ahead to the end of that wandering with a new generation once again at the entrance to Canaan. Standing in the way was a walled city, a strong fortress that guarded the region. How would they conquer this fortress city?
READ Hebrews 11.30
By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.
The writer of Hebrews in his sermon on faith alludes to one of the most dramatic miracle stories in the Bible. It is an account that captures our imagination and it instructs us still today about the kind of faith necessary to live successfully for God. How this story effects your life depends largely on how you read it. If you rationalize away what happened and turn it into a legend or myth the power of the story is lost. IF you will, by faith, read it as an account of God’s power at work on behalf of His people, this story can become a foundation for your faith.
For the Believer, this strange story of an ancient battle becomes a model of living successfully for God in our own time. As we prepare to enter into the places that God has prepared and promised to us:
– places of holiness in our lives,
– places where peace conquers hatred,
– places where family life flourishes in a culture that degrades families,
– places where sin is defeated by righteousness . . . We will face fortresses like Jericho.
Blocking the road to holiness can be some huge sinful habit that resists all of our efforts to conquer it.
∙ The way to peace can be sealed off by a deep, unyielding hatred of someone who wronged us.
∙ Our family’s security in Christ can be threatened by old patterns of dysfunctions that seem to follow from one generation to the next.
∙ Our life’s hope to honor Jesus in our daily conduct can be held back by a huge stronghold of selfishness.
Whatever YOUR Jericho that keeps you from being the person of God in the place promised to you by God, this message is for you. It is a simple, yet profound challenge to faith.
The full account is found in Joshua 6. In your pew Bible you can find the story on page 160.
I encourage you to follow along in your Bible as I read the entire story . . .
Joshua 6:13 – 7: 20 READ
Principle # 1 - God’s strategy for battle is often strange, defying all conventional wisdom.
Joshua was an old, experienced leader. Certainly he and his advisers had spent countless hours working out a plan of conquest as they entered the land. But all of Joshua’s plans were set aside by an encounter with a messenger from the Lord. The capture of the city of Jericho was already declared by God. (See 6.2)
Then the weird battle plan was laid out. “Take the army of Israel, led by priests carrying trumpets, and march around the city once a day for 6 days, then 7 times on the 7th day! At the end of the march, have the priests blow their horns, the people shout, and the walls will fall down.”
Imagine being the leader of the nation and coming back to your council with these instructions. They possibly thought Joshua had spent too much time in the hot sun! This was an idiotic plan, totally impractical, pointless and frustrating for the people.
Why did God direct such an odd campaign? He wanted this generation of Israelites to trust Him just as He had desired the trust of their fathers. The Israelites probably could have conquered Jericho using normal battle tactics. They would have laid siege to the city for months until it had exhausted its supplies, then the walls would have been scaled, and the city overrun. There would have been a substantial loss of life and a significant time delay. Most importantly to God, the people would not have understood the necessity of trusting in Him.
There are several incidents of battle recorded in the Bible where God directed a strange campaign.
∙ Gideon was directed to reduce his army from 32,000 to 300 then to attack in the night with lamps hidden
inside of water pitchers. At the moment of attack, the soldiers were to yell, break their pitchers and hold up their lamps causing their enemy to be routed in confusion. It was a weird plan but because God commanded it, it worked.
∙ David, a young teenage boy who wrote songs and took care of sheep, showed up at a state mated conflict with the Philistines and God sent him out to fight a giant of man, a seasoned warrior, with a slingshot! And God directed that boy’s aim so that the champion was felled. David’s response? He gave the honor to God.
∙ In the war for our souls, where God and Satan battled for our destiny, God sent His Son . . . not with a million angels to march against the demons of darkness . . . to a Cross alongside a Jerusalem highway. Jesus died and bought victory for us with love!
∙ God launched his campaign to save the world from sin using 12 men from a remote province of the Roman Empire. They were an assorted lot of losers and misfits with not a nobleman or a rich man in their midst. But because they were God’s men doing His work in His way, they changed the Empire in just 30 years time and the world for all time! Paul summed up their work this way:
1 Corinthians 1:22-25 22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
(If time, tell of the longing for wealth and influence for the cause of Christ I felt at Berkshire School)
Principle # 1 - God’s strategy for battle is often strange, defying all conventional wisdom.
What is the battle plan of God to conquer your ‘Jericho?’
Are you willing to let Him lead, to let Him set out the strategy?
Hear this word. Meditate on it. When you are wondering if YOUR strategy will work . . . consider it.
2 Corinthians 10:3-4 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
In so doing, we will learn that the word of Zechariah 4:6 ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, ‘– is more than a slogan.
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Principle # 2 - The truest worship of God is obedience.
A thread of obedience runs through this entire story.
∙ When Joshua first met the angelic messenger, he heard his words and OBEYED.
∙ When the priests were given their strange orders to march in front of the army in God’s name, they OBEYED.
∙ When the army was told to follow the priests and to march in silence for seven days, THEY OBEYED.
∙ When the people were told to give the city and its wealth exclusively to God, THEY OBEYED . . . with one exception, which proved to be a fatal choice. (But’s that another sermon!)
We make a terrible mistake when we think that worship is only the offering up of words, songs, or money to God in hope of purchasing His favor! God cannot be convinced of our worthiness of His love and it offends Him if we attempt such a thing. In fact, we may sing and pray with words we do not mean. God lamented this hypocrisy of people saying,
“These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. 14 Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish.” – Isaiah 29
The people of Israel worshiped God in acts of obedience. It is not hard to imagine how foolish they might have felt marching around the city every morning. Likely after a couple of days of this strange sight, the formerly terrified inhabitants of Jericho began to be emboldened. They may have stood on the city walls sneering at this strange army that just walked in silence. How hard obedience must have been. But the obedience of Israel was powerful worship that invited the hand of God to operate on their behalf.
Principle # 2 - The truest worship of God is obedience.
– In our time, the will of God may seem just as strange and obedience just as difficult.
– Are you challenged financially? Have you obeyed God with your tithe, 10% of your income?
Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? When I need more, I give some away. But it is God’s strategy.
– Are you being taken advantage of by someone? Obey God and turn the other cheek, go the second
mile. This too, sound ridiculous. Who will stand for me if I don’t push back? God’s strategy is peace.
If you are facing a stronghold that seems overwhelming and unyielding, begin with worship, true worship of total submission to God’s will, then watch with wonder as He works His mighty acts.
Remember this: God seldom shows us more of His plans until we are submitted to the part we already know! Obey Him. And if you are unwilling to obey Him, don’t insult the Almighty by trying to buy His favor with gifts or empty words.
The key to obedience is FAITH!
Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
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Principle # 3 - God wants us to practice patience as He works His plans in our lives.
As Joshua led the Israelites on the first day’s march it might have been interesting. The second day’s march might have been acceptable. By the third day, it was hard to get up in the morning and get ready to walk around the city. But they endured and patiently did what God directed.
Are you ready to patiently keep on doing what is right even when it seems that nothing is happening.... anywhere? I want immediate solutions, don’t you? One prayer and I want an answer. One day and I want victory. But God timing is seldom remotely related to our timing.
We know that God could have toppled the walls of Jericho on the first day that the people marched. But time was needed to change their attitude. I believe that He wanted them to see the challenge, grapple with it, and understand just how great His power was in changing the situation for them. Walking for 7 days tested their faith, but it also grew their patient endurance.
This ancient story is a lesson for us all!
Principle # 1 - God’s strategy for battle is often strange, defying all conventional wisdom.
Principle # 2 - The truest worship of God is obedience.
Principle # 3 - God wants us to practice patience as He works His plans in our lives.
Use the Jericho strategy when you’re confronted with a huge challenge, a problem that defies solution, a situation that won’t easily be turned around.
1. Write the problem down and walk around it for seven days. (Not literally, but considering it and pondering it.
2. Bring the Presence of God to the problem. That what Israel did. The Ark of God was the symbol of God’s Presence with them and they carried it around the city each day. Pray faithfully over the problem, not even suggesting solutions but simply bringing God’s presence to it.
3. Anticipate victory in faith. The Israelites kept silent, but the priests’ trumpets blasted as they marched. Trumpets were a way of announcing victory. Thank God that even though you don’t have the answer in hand yet, He already knows what to do. Thank Him -- in advance -- for the victory, whatever it may be. You’ll find your attitude changing, your faith growing.
And it amazing how so many of our problems are solved when our attitude changes.
When despair gives way to hope, when doubt gives way to faith – we are ready to see the victory of the Lord.
Amen.
