FALL OF JERICHO

Joshua 6

            The first thing we notice in Joshua 6 is that God expected the children of Israel to rise up and participate in the conquest of Jericho.  Yes, God could have wiped out Jericho just as he had wiped out Sodom and Gomorrah all those centuries before.  But this time God did not act that way.  The Hebrews were not supposed to set up their lawn chairs and barbeques and just wait for God to make the walls of Jericho fall down.  They had an assignment and they were to follow through.  The walls of the city did not fall down until after the people did what God told them to do.  What was their work?  They were to march around the city of Jericho for seven days.  Every one of the Israelites had a part to do.  Every one of them was to participate in marching around the city walls.  Day after day they silently marched around the city in obedience to the command of God.

            Right away we see a lesson for us.  If we want to reach people with the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ, if we want to make the name of Jesus famous, then we all have to be obedient to God and do our work on a daily basis.  Whatever it is we are called to do, whatever role we have in the church, whatever gifts God has given to us, we are to do our part in obedience to God.

            Another thing we see is that Israel’s work involved everyone!  All the people marched around the city of Jericho!  They were each given a task.  There were priests who were to carry the ark of the covenant.  There were priests who were to blow trumpets of rams’ horns.  There was an armed guard assigned to precede and follow the ark.  The rest of the people marched around the city in silence for six days and then on the seventh day on the seventh time around the city they were to shout.  Nobody was to stay back in the camp.  This job was to have the participation of all the people!

            Sadly, the American church has moved away from the idea of total participation in ministry.  We have gone the way of professional clergy leadership.  I have seen it over and over again in large churches.  When there is a new task to be done they immediately go out and try to hire another staff member to do that job.  This mentality has slipped into churches of all sizes.  It almost seems like most of the church sits by and observes what the staff does and then either applauds or criticizes.  In so many places church has become a kind of spectator sport.  There are many churches where participation is simply equated with attendance at services, or putting money in the offering plate, or occasionally serving punch and cookies!  This is not what God expects of his people!  We are all called to serve in God’s army!  It is not just the work of the church leaders or the people who have outgoing personalities.  There is work for all of us to do and each one of us has to do his or her part!  Some of us preach and teach, some of us share and invite, some of us serve and minister to the needy, and some of us fight the daily battle through prayer.  We need to keep in mind what Peter said to the church, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9).  The church will never realize her potential until each believer realizes his or her own duty.

            The last thing we need to notice about how God wants us to do his work is that it has to be done in faith.  It was by faith that the walls of Jericho were brought down.  “By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days” (Hebrews 11:30).  As we have already noted, that city was mighty and its walls were formidable.  For six days there was no evidence that their marching was accomplishing one blessed thing!  Yet, by faith, the people carried out God’s instructions and their responsibilities.  They performed their same duties day after day until God finally took action after the seventh march on the seventh day.  The people believed God and did their work.

            It is by faith that we seek to reach our community and our world for Christ.  Like Israel’s task, ours is great and the problems and opposition we face is formidable.  Sometimes it appears as if there is nothing at all being accomplished.  But are we to give up?  No!  We go one day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year, obeying our Lord’s instructions in faith.  God has promised that the task will be accomplished!  John wrote that the elders of heaven fell down and sang a new song to Christ, “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.  You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:9, 10).  Yes, the task will be completed someday and we will see, just as the Israelites did, that it was all done by God!  It is when we realize our helplessness and hopelessness that God reveals his mighty hand!



WHAT WE CAN EXPECT IN TRIALS

            We had a near tragedy in our New Hope family last week.  On Monday morning I received one of those phone calls every pastor dreads.  One of our young couples had found their 22-month-old son floating face down in the pool.  The baby’s grandma is a nurse and she lives just across the street from them.  She ran over and administered CPR until the emergency services arrived.  The little boy was revived in the ambulance on the way to the hospital and then was transferred to another Bakersfield hospital where there is a pediatric ICU.  By the time I arrived at the hospital he was doing pretty well and it looked like everything was going to be ok.  I sat in the family waiting room with the stunned parents and we talked.  “This was a God thing.  God was there.  God spared our son’s life.”  This experience may have been one of the most painful trials of their lives but at the same time it may have been the experience through which they saw God most clearly and felt his presence most palpably.

            The day before they were to cross the Jordan Joshua told the people what they were to expect.  He explained to them that the priests would carry the ark of the covenant into the river and the water would be stopped so they could cross on dry ground.  Notice what is said in Joshua 3:10, “This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites…”  This wondrous miracle would be a sign to them that their God was present with them.  It was when they faced this new trial that Israel was able to see God’s presence.  So that makes me stop and think.  When do we most clearly sense the presence of God in our own lives?  And when do non-Christians most feel the need for God?  Isn’t it when we encounter very difficult times in our lives?  There are so many biblical examples of this truth. 

            There is the story of the young Jewish men who were in service to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon.  The king made a giant idol of gold and commanded all the people to bow down and worship it.  But these young men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, refused to worship the false god.  They told the king that their God was able to deliver them from him and even if he did not they would not worship his god.  Infuriated, Nebuchadnezzar commanded that they all be thrown into a blazing furnace.  But when the king looked into the furnace he saw not three, but four men walking around unaffected and unharmed by the flames.  It was when these Jewish men faced the greatest trial of their lives that God showed them the wonder of his presence among them.

            In the book of Acts we are told about the persecution of followers of Jesus by King Herod.  He executed James, the brother of John, and when he discovered how popular that made him with the Jewish leaders he also had Peter arrested.  Peter was in prison and the next day he was going to be tried.  He was most assuredly facing the day of his death.  That night an angel of the Lord came into the prison, awakened Peter, and led him to safety outside the prison.  On the night before his trial Peter experienced the presence of the Lord with him in a most miraculous way.

            Sometimes we think that these stories are only for the Bible times.  We read them and think about how great it was that God was there for those people.  We tend to forget that God never changes and his presence with us is no less than it was for any of the biblical characters.  We can know that God is with us.  We can be comforted and encouraged by his presence.  When we come upon hard times we can expect to experience the presence of God.

            When we face trials we can expect to see God take action and deal with our troubles.  God told Joshua he was going to take action on behalf of Israel.  Joshua was able to tell the people, “Tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you” (Joshua 3:5).  Taking Israel across the Jordan was nothing for God.  For men, it was impossible.  God’s people knew there was nothing they could do themselves so they had to depend on the Lord to act on their part.  The same is true for us when we come up against circumstances that appear to be totally impossible.  These are the times we can expect to see God take action on our behalf.  These are the times when we should not be discouraged but keep our eyes open to see what God is going to do.  It is so easy for us to get down and depressed when we have so many trials.  If only we could look at it differently and realize that it is just another opportunity to see God at work!  If we spend our time complaining we might miss what God does!  James writes that hard saying in 1:2, “Count it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.”  We might wonder how we are to rejoice in our trials.  We can have a positive attitude like that because we know that when we have trials we can expect to see God’s hand at work.