The Conquest of Canaan and the Kingdom of God (11) Conquering Jericho

“Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in. Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.” (Jos 6:1-5)
 
Over the past two months we have been talking about what it means in the Bible to take off one's shoes. The first thing God commanded Joshua after he became the second leader of the people of Israel was to cross the Jordan River. After crossing the Jordan, God told the people to be circumcised. Although neither was easy to obey, Joshua and the Israelites faithfully did so.
 
After all of Israel was circumcised, Joshua went near Jericho where he met a man with a drawn sword in his hand. The man said that he was the commander of the army of the Lord. When Joshua heard this, he fell face down to the ground and asked him to give him the Lord's message. And the man said,
 
“Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy” (Jos 5:15)
 
That was the end of the conversation. The man gave Joshua no further messages from God, which implies that taking off the shoes was itself the message God gave Joshua through the man. So, we talked about what taking off shoes means in the Bible.
 
In the Bible, taking off shoes essentially means giving up rights. According to the law of Moses, when a husband died, his brother was to take his wife as his own so that he could continue to do his brother’s duties as a husband. But if the dead man's brother didn't want to marry his brother's wife, his shoes had to be taken off as a sign of shame.
 
When Boaz tried to marry Ruth, he called a man who was more closely related to Elimelek, Ruth’s father in law, and asked him if he wanted to marry Ruth. The man didn’t want to, so he took off his sandals as a sign that he gave up his right as the first guardian-redeemer.
 
So, the meaning behind taking off shoes in the Bible is that we give up our rights before God. This is crucial for us to live as people of God’s kingdom because His kingdom can’t be built and expanded through our lives if we continue to claim our rights.
 
So, the rights we should give up in order to live as people of the kingdom of God include the right to spend our money and time, the right to choose where to live, the right to love our families, and the right to life.
 
Jesus gave up all those rights to save us and bring God’s kingdom on earth. He gave up His right and privileges as the Son of God in heaven and came to the world in the form of a servant who had no rights. He gave up the right to money. He gave up His right to time. He gave up His reputation.
 
He gave up His right to sleep in a comfortable place. He gave up the right to love his family. He gave up his right to get married. What’s more, Jesus gave up His right to have freedom and His right to life. At the end of His ministry, He was arrested and crucified.
 
These are the rights Jesus gave up to save us from our sins, reconcile us with God, and give us true life. Even though He was rich, He became poor so that we become rich through His poverty. Because He was pierced, we could be healed. Because He was punished and wounded, we could have peace with God.
 
Everything Jesus said and did was related to the work of the kingdom of God. Jesus limited all His rights so that God’s kingdom would be revealed, proclaimed, and built on earth.
 
That’s the kind of life we’re called to live as Christians. Jesus said,  “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”  (Jn 20:21)
 
Just as God sent Jesus into the world for the establishment of the kingdom of God, Jesus is sending us into the world to proclaim the gospel and expand His kingdom. All those who are saved by Jesus Christ and become children of God are missionaries in the sense that we're all sent into the world. And, as missionaries sent by Jesus Christ, we’re to live according to His example, willingly giving up our rights and looking forward to the heavenly reward God will give us at the end.
 
Conquering Jericho
All right. That’s what we talked about last couple of months and today I want to continue to talk about how to live as people of the kingdom of God from the book of Joshua. Today, we’ll talk about how the Israelites conquered the first city in the land of Canaan—Jericho.
 
The story of the conquest of Jericho is perhaps one of the most famous stories in the Bible because of the extraordinary way in which it was destroyed.
 
Jericho was a walled city, with gates being the only way in and out. Jericho wasn’t a big city and there weren’t that many people in it compared to the Israelites, but there was no way to get into the city. The gates of Jericho were securely closed in anticipation of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.
 
Then the Lord said to Joshua,
“See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.” (Jos 6:2-5)
 
This is the strategy God gave the Israelites to conquer Jericho. He told them to march around the city once a day for six days without saying anything and to shout loudly on the seventh day after marching around it seven times. God told them if they did that, the city wall would collapse.
 
It sounds like a strange strategy. I don't even know if you can call it a strategy, because it makes no sense at all. This tactic has never been used in history, with the exception of the battle of Jericho, because it is physically impossible to take down a wall of a city with this strategy.
 
So, imagine that you were one of the Israelites at that time. You're about to enter your first battle in the promised land. The gates in front of you are firmly closed and there is no way into the city. In this situation, your leader says that he has heard a voice from God. He said, “Now you will march around the city once a day. But you must never speak. On the seventh day, you will go around the city seven times, and when the priests blow their trumpets, you will give a loud cry, and the city will fall". How would that sound to you? Would you obey that order? It would be very difficult to follow this strategy.
 
Marching around the city itself was easy. What was really difficult was that they didn't understand how this action would lead to the collapse of the wall of Jericho. It didn’t make any sense. In fact, it sounded silly.
 
Imagine how the people of Jericho felt watching the Israelites marching around their city. On the first day, they might have been nervous because of all the armed men surrounding their city. However, when they saw them do it again and again, they would’ve been confused. Moreover they might have made fun of the Israelites because it seemed foolish. In this situation, would you have continued to walk around the city without saying anything, while enduring their mockery?
 
It must have been very hard for the Israelites to do that. They had enough power to defeat Jericho, but God didn’t allow them to use it. They had to do things that they couldn’t understand. They had to endure the mockery. Could you obey God’s word if you were in the same situation?
 
But the Bible doesn't say that the Israelites questioned or rebelled against this nonsensical command. The Israelites silently obeyed God’s word even though they didn’t understand the reason behind it. They showed their trust in the Lord. They did exactly what God told Joshua to do, and in the end, when they obeyed, they actually saw the city of Jericho fall as God had said it would.
 
The reason for their first victory in the land of Canaan was not because they were well trained militarily; it was not because they had good weapons; it was not because they were physically superior to the people living there. There was only one reason for their victory: God was with them, and the Israelites valued and obeyed God's word.
 
Here we find a valuable lesson for us in building the kingdom of God. If we rely on our own strength and power, we will fail. But if we keep God's word close to us, meditate on it day and night, and seek to obey whatever is written in it even though we don’t understand it, then God's power will work miraculously in our lives.
 
Noah built a big boat on a mountain. It must have seemed ridiculous. People must have mocked him. It didn’t make sense at all. But, it was God’s plan to save humanity.
 
At the end of His ministry, Jesus went to Jerusalem. On the way, He said to the disciples,
 
“We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!” (Mt 20:18-19)
 
None of the disciples understood what Jesus said because it sounded impossible. So they didn’t take it to heart. Even though people in Jerusalem welcomed Him fervently, shouting, “Hosanna,” none of them understood His purpose for entering Jerusalem. So when Jesus was arrested, the disciples all deserted Him and fled. And people shouted “Crucify Him” when Pilate tried to release Him.
 
When Jesus breathed His last breath, no one understood the meaning of His death. The disciples thought it was completely over. They didn’t understand what had just happened.
 
But the cross was God’s wisdom and power through which He saved all humanity. As Paul said, “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Co 1:18)
 
Then, this is the mindset we’re to have to live as the people of the kingdom of God. Sometimes, God wants us to do things that we don’t understand. When we’re doing these things, people may make fun of us because our actions seem foolish.
 
However, we’re called to carry our own cross with Jesus, even though people may mock us when we’re truly following His will. Whenever we’re facing such situations, we must fix our eyes on Jesus and trust His power and plan.
 
Following God’s will in this world is hard because it’s the opposite of the ways of the world. But we must truly trust in the Lord and rely on His power more than anything else. Then and only then can we keep walking with Him by faith and see God achieving great things through our obedience.
 
The only way to live a victorious life wherever God has placed us, is to walk with Him by following His word.
 
David said, “With your hand you drove out the nations and planted our ancestors; you crushed the peoples and made our ancestors flourish. It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them.” (Ps 44:2-3)
 
The Israelites were victorious in the land of Canaan, not because their swords were sharp or their arms strong. It was only because God was with them, and the Israelites trusted in Him and followed His word even when they didn’t understand it.
 
It is our faith that God wants us to see. God is more than capable of doing all He has planned without us, but He still wants us to be part of His work. He invites us to join Him in His mission to build His kingdom on earth, and He works through our faith. God does His work. Our role is to respond and participate in what God is doing by putting our faith in Him.
 
Psalm 147:10-11 says, “His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of the warrior; the Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love” (Ps 147:10-11)
 
It's not the strong, not the rich, not the wise, not the powerful that God seeks. The people God is really looking for are those who have a pure love for God's word, who accept God's will as it is, who make it the highest priority in their lives, and who obey and follow it no matter what.
 
God already has all power, wealth, wisdom and authority. God doesn't call us because He lacks something. He just wants us to be part of His plan for the world. So the quality we really need to have to live as God's people is pure faith in God. God is looking for such people and God is working through them.
 
I want all of us here to be the ones God is looking for. God is calling us now for His mission. He is inviting us to be part of His mission to build His kingdom on earth. He has already done all that is necessary. He has already accomplished our salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our task is simply to go into the world and proclaim the good news that He has entrusted to us.
 
As we live in the world, we may sometimes encounter situations that we don't understand. We may not understand exactly why God has sent me here at this time, or what He wants to do through me. But in those times, remember. That God is still faithful, that His plans for us are always prosperous and that He always leads us in good ways.
 
When we move forward in situations we don't understand, trusting and relying not on our own strength and abilities but on God, obeying His Word, then we’ll see God who is always with us and working through us with His unimaginable power and wisdom.
 
So, don’t be afraid but be strong and courageous all the time because God is with you. May God always be present in our lives and guide our paths so that we can truly live as people of His kingdom on earth.
 
Let’s pray.
 
[Prayer]
Heavenly Father, thank You for teaching us the mindset we should have to live as people of Your kingdom.
 
We want to trust in You and rely on You more in all circumstances. Let us love Your word more and believe in Your plan for us so that we may follow Your way even when we don’t understand it.
 
Thank You for giving us this great task to be part of Your mission to build Your kingdom on earth. Let us not be ashamed of the gospel and of the calling You give us but make us courageous enough to obey Your way in every situation so that we may experience You always walking with us and working through our obedience.
 
May Your will be done and Your kingdom come through our lives.
We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
 
[Reflection Questions]
1) Has God ever put you in a situation that you didn’t understand? How did you figure out His will in those situations?
 
2) Why do you think God has placed you where you are now? How do you think He wants to build His kingdom through you?