MARCHING TO A DIFFERENT DRUMMER
Joshua 6.1-27
S: Warfare
C: Destruction of sin; extension of grace
Th: A People with Purpose
Pr: WE FOLLOW A HOLY, WARRIOR GOD WHO EXTENDS FAVOR.
TS: We will find in our study of Joshua 6 how the Israelites were able to overtake the formidable fortress of Jericho.
Type: Narrative
I. SITUATION (1-2)
II. INSTRUCTION (3-5)
III. PREPARATION (6-14)
IV. DEVASTATION (15-21)
V. SALVATION (22-25)
VI. CONCLUSION (26-27)
PA: How is the change to be observed?
Version: ESV
RMBC 30 July 06 AM
INTRODUCTION:
ILL Fight
One night, Tim was walking home when, all of a sudden, a thief jumped on him. Tim and the thief began to wrestle. They rolled about on the ground and Tim put up a tremendous fight.
However, the thief managed to get the better of him and pinned him to the ground. The thief then went through Tim’s pockets and searched him. All the thief could find on Tim was 25 cents. The thief was so surprised at this that he asked Tim why he had bothered to fight so hard for 25 cents.
"Was that all you wanted?" Tim replied, "I thought you were after the five hundred dollars I’ve got in my shoe!"
Well, Tim doesn’t sound like the brightest guy in the world when it comes to conflict.
But it does bring a question to my mind…
1. Are you ready for the conflict coming to you?
As Christians, we know that we are in a battle.
It is why, in Ephesians 6, the apostle Paul tells us to be prepared:
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.
We are to be prepared and ready.
And as we come to the text of our study today, ready is how we find the people of God.
For…
2. The nation of Israel was ready for battle.
They have miraculously made it across the Jordan.
They have made memorials of stone to remember the miracle of that day.
The men have been circumcised, to establish their difference from the men of Canaan, a physical mark that they were God’s.
And they celebrated the appropriate feasts.
Now it was time to take Jericho.
So…
3. We will find in our study of Joshua 6 how the Israelites were able to overtake the formidable fortress of Jericho.
OUR STUDY:
So here is the…
I. SITUATION (1-2)
Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, and none came in. And the LORD said to Joshua, "See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor.
4. Jericho had to be taken.
The strategy was clear.
Jericho had to be the first city taken in order to create a geographical wedge between the northern and southern sections of Canaan.
Besides, they just could not bypass it.
They could not afford to have a large military force at their rear.
They had to deal with Jericho.
But for the moment, their was no military force to deal with.
The king of Jericho had shut up the city.
No one was getting in or out.
Jericho decided they were not going to surrender, but neither were they going to get into a fight.
Instead, they would stay behind those grand, formidable walls that were probably about forty feet in height and six feet thick.
The people of Jericho were going to wait Israel out.
By the way, the chapter break here is uninspired and unfortunate as the Lord is still speaking to Joshua.
He tells him that Jericho is his to take.
The verb form is a prophetic perfect tense.
It is a future action that has already been accomplished.
Jericho was theirs for the taking.
But first they needed to hear the…
II. INSTRUCTION (3-5)
You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days. Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. And when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, everyone straight before him."
Now when you hear those instructions, they certainly are not what you expecting.
In fact…
5. The plan seemed bizarre.
It was highly unusual, and almost unreasonable.
And for certain, it was unmilitary.
No ordinary weapons were being used.
There were no battering rams.
There were no scaling ladders.
The people of Israel were going to march.
They were going to march and blow the shofars – the ram horn.
They were going to march and carry the Ark of the Covenant.
They were going to march and declare that the Presence of God was with them.
They were going to march, and in so doing, the Lord of heaven and earth was weaving His invisible way around this doomed city.
Joshua has the instruction, so now is the time of…
III. PREPARATION (6-14)
So Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, "Take up the ark of the covenant and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the LORD." And he said to the people, "Go forward. March around the city and let the armed men pass on before the ark of the LORD." And just as Joshua had commanded the people, the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the LORD went forward, blowing the trumpets, with the ark of the covenant of the LORD following them. The armed men were walking before the priests who were blowing the trumpets, and the rear guard was walking after the ark, while the trumpets blew continually. But Joshua commanded the people, "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. Then you shall shout." So he caused the ark of the LORD to circle the city, going about it once. And they came into the camp and spent the night in the camp. Then Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the LORD. And the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the LORD walked on, and they blew the trumpets continually. And the armed men were walking before them, and the rear guard was walking after the ark of the LORD, while the trumpets blew continually. And the second day they marched around the city once, and returned into the camp. So they did for six days.
Now, if this had been me, I would have offered some discussion.
I would have offered some advice.
Like, Lord, no one takes a city by marching around it.
It is not just done that way.
But you have to appreciate Joshua here.
He offers no discussion.
He just offers unquestioning obedience, and goes immediately to the people to explain this divine strategy.
You see…
6. God desires trust and obedience.
Joshua already understood that they were marching to a different drummer.
This was not going to done man’s way.
This was going to be done God’s way.
Joshua would have agreed with the apostle Paul who would write centuries later (II Corinthians 10.4):
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
Now it is not as if the army was not going to be there.
They were prominent.
They were very present.
But this city was not going to be taken according to their prowess.
No, the taking of the city was going to be taken by the people of Israel obeying the Lord.
They were going to march.
They were going to march, even though they would expose themselves to ridicule and danger.
They were going to march, and they were going to be absolutely silent in doing it.
It was going to be a tough exercise in patience, when what you really want to do is fight.
It was going to be a tough exercise in self-control, when what you want to do is knock down the Jericho gate.
But sometimes, probably most of the time, if you want to see God work, you have to be quiet.
So for six days, they quietly marched as the priests were blowing the trumpets.
Over and over again, day after day, they marched and went home.
And you know, they had to be wondering what was going on and how long this was going to last.
They had to be wondering if this is all that they were going to do.
But the seventh day is coming and the…
IV. DEVASTATION (15-21)
On the seventh day they rose early, at the dawn of day, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times. It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, "Shout, for the LORD has given you the city. And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the LORD for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent. But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it. But all silver and gold, and every vessel of bronze and iron, are holy to the LORD; they shall go into the treasury of the LORD." So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city. Then they devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword.
The instructions for this day were quite different.
There was going to be marching, but instead of once, they were going to march around the city seven times.
It must have been quite a spectacle.
And it would have taken a greater part of the day.
But this time, when the signal came, the men were finally going to be able to say something.
But not just talk, they were going to shout.
All those repressed emotions were going to be let out in a moment.
And what a shout it must have been!
They would have made a deafening shout at the top of their lungs.
Then the unexpected happened.
The wall of Jericho obeyed the summons of God and toppled into ruin.
The city was now for their taking.
But, they were to remember Joshua’s instructions beforehand.
For…
7. A complete devotion to God was essential.
And in this case, the destruction was to be total.
Anything that was of precious metal was to be saved for tabernacle use, but all living things, were to be destroyed.
The destruction was to be total, except for Rahab and her family.
So as the debris settled, those that had not been killed as the walls fell down were killed by Israel’s soldiers.
This may make us feel uncomfortable, and I think that, in a way, it is supposed to.
But let us also understand that God has the right to visit judgment on individuals and nations.
God is perpetually at war with sin.
And in the case of Jericho, it was especially wicked.
It was a place of sexual, idolatrous worship.
It was characterized by a licentious lifestyle.
And a principle that we continually find in the Word of God is that sin is desperately contagious.
Note that again: sin is desperately contagious.
ILL Sin
There was a lady that who advertised for a chauffer. Three men applied and were asked one question: “How close could you drive to the edge of a precipice without losing control?”
One answered, “Within six inches.”
The next said, “To within a hairbreadth of the edge.”
The third one replied, “Lady, if you want a daredevil for a driver, I am not your man. My policy has always been to keep as far away from danger as possible.”
Of course, it was the third man that was hired.
The same must be true of us as well.
Flirting with sin is dangerous.
It is why God commanded for the complete destruction of Jericho.
But destruction is not the whole story, for there is also…
V. SALVATION (22-25)
But to the two men who had spied out the land, Joshua said, "Go into the prostitute’s house and bring out from there the woman and all who belong to her, as you swore to her." So the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. And they brought all her relatives and put them outside the camp of Israel. And they burned the city with fire, and everything in it. Only the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD. But Rahab the prostitute and her father’s household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.
What a wonderful truth is evident here, for…
8. The promise is kept.
It must have been a joyful reunion between the spies and the Rahab’s family.
For their salvation has been nothing more than a miracle.
But let us realize, that it is a miracle for all that experience salvation.
But this rescue is a testimony of God’s free grace.
God will save those that demonstrate faith.
For note, the people of Jericho had the same information as Rahab.
They could have chosen faith.
Instead, they chose to continue in sin.
They were not helpless, ignorant people.
No, they were willfully sinning against the clear revelation of God’s work among His people.
So now we come to the…
VI. CONCLUSION (26-27)
Joshua laid an oath on them at that time, saying, "Cursed before the LORD be the man who rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho. "At the cost of his firstborn shall he lay its foundation, and at the cost of his youngest son shall he set up its gates." So the LORD was with Joshua, and his fame was in all the land.
APPLICATION:
Let us note that this victory came because God was fully trusted and obeyed.
It was not a victory that was due to human strategy, strength or expertise.
No, the credit belonged to God alone.
Let us understand this today…
9. WE FOLLOW A HOLY, WARRIOR GOD WHO ENJOYS EXTENDING HIS FAVOR.
We see all these concepts at work in the passage.
He is a holy God.
He is absolutely unbending when it comes to sin.
He is a straight arrow.
He is perfectly pure.
And He is a warrior God.
He fights for His people.
He is not a god that is uncaring or nonchalant.
No, He will fight for what is right for those that trust in Him.
And, He is a God who loves to show favor.
He wants to demonstrate His goodwill.
He wants us to experience His grace.
He has no desire to hold it back.
That is the God whom we follow, love and serve today.
So let us note that…
10. He desires to show His favor to His people.
Just as He showed favor to Israel, He desires to do the same for us.
There are fortresses of evil in our land, our church, and in ourselves.
God wants those places of sin knocked down and destroyed.
It is not a physical war that I am speaking of here.
It is definitely spiritual, that is waged with prayer, the Word of God, and by the testimony of experience.
But we will not experience His favor, unless we are willing to fight for what is right, good and pure.
Note too that…
11. He desires to grace people with salvation.
Just as He showed favor to Rahab, so He desires to do the same for each one of us.
What I am going to say next may sound harsh, but I believe wholeheartedly that it accurately reflects the message of Scripture.
If you are not a Christian today, you are, in effect, fighting against the Lord.
There is no neutral ground when it comes to God.
If you refuse to follow, it means that you have shut your heart against God.
You have manned the battlements of your life.
If you refuse to repent of your sin and turn to God for His cleansing, how can you hope to stand against the only sovereign God of the universe?
If you do not come to terms with God now, if you continue to hold out, you will perish in the final judgment, and your doom will be just.
But you can be like Rahab.
She chose a different way.
She chose faith over the status quo.
She humbled herself before God and found a God who wanted to extend His favor to her and her family.
The same can be true for you today.
ILL Obedience
One of my favorite Christian authors Philip Yancey writes:
Last summer I had an encounter with masked men bearing scalpels. A surgeon operated on my foot, and my life was never in danger. Yet the horizontal recovery time did give me a chance to reflect on pain that we choose voluntarily, sometimes for our own good and sometimes to our peril.
While rehabilitating, I often did exercises that hurt because I knew that working through the soreness would allow my foot to regain its usefulness. On the other hand, the surgeon warned against bicycling, mountain climbing, running, and other activities that might endanger the healing process. Basically, anything that sounded fun, he vetoed.
On one visit I tried to talk him into granting me a premature golf match. "Some friends get together once a year. It’s important to me. I’ve been practicing my swing, and if I use only my upper body and keep my legs and hips very still, could I join them?"
Without a flicker of hesitation, my doctor replied, "It would make me very unhappy if you played golf within the next two months."
"I thought you were a golfer," I said, appealing to his sympathies.
"I am. That’s how I know you can’t swing without rolling that foot inward and putting weight on the parts that are trying to heal."
The point was obvious. My doctor has nothing against my playing golf; as a fellow golfer, he sympathizes with me.
But he has my best interests at heart. It will indeed make him unhappy if I do something prematurely that might damage my long-term recovery. He wants me to play golf next year, and the next, and the rest of my life, and for that reason he could not sanction a match too soon after my surgery.
As we talked, I began to appreciate my doctor’s odd choice of words. If he had issued an edict — "No golf!"— I might have stubbornly rebelled. He left me the free choice and expressed the consequences in a most personal way: Disobedience would grieve him, for his job was to restore my health.
The role of a doctor may be the most revealing image in thinking about God and sin. What a doctor does for me physically — guide me toward health — God does for me spiritually. I am learning to view sins not as an arbitrary list of rules drawn up by a cranky Judge, but rather as a list of dangers that must be avoided at all costs — for our own sakes.
Philip Yancey, "Doctor’s Orders," Christianity Today (12-6-99)
Finally, note…
12. He desires to favor those who will obey.
Just as He favored Joshua, God will do the same for us.
There is never any substitute for obedience.
And there is no substitute for an obedience that stays to the very end, that does not give up, even when it is tough.
To those that will persevere, God will reward, for they will have avoided the heart of disobedience – to ourselves and to Him.
He is worth following today!
For further study: Deuteronomy 9.4-5; John 16.33; II Corinthians 10.4; Philippians 2.8; Hebrews 11.30
BENEDICTION: [Counselors are ]
Follow our holy God today…for His standards for the practice of life are good and perfect, and always for our benefit.
Follow our warrior God today…for He will fight for those that trust in Him; He will always move forward for our benefit.
Follow our gracious God today…for He desires to extend favor to those that will obey Him; His great longing is to show His favor to those that will trust, serve and love.
Now may the God of peace equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
RESOURCES:
SermonCentral
Andrews, Keith War and Dependence
Goins, Doug Faith Is the Victory
Books:
Boice, James Montgomery. Joshua: An Expositional Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1989.
Campbell, Donald K. No Time for Neutrality. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1981.
Creach, Jerome F. D. Joshua Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, ed. James L. Mays. Louisville: John Knox Press, 2003.
Goslinga, C. J. Joshua, Judges, Ruth. Translated by Ray Togtman. Bible Student’s Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Regency Reference Library, 1986.
