Joshua and Jesus

Today's sermon is about, as Jeff mentioned, Joshua and Jesus. The names have even been interchanged before as some people's philosophy. But some may call this an allegory, but I prefer to call it dualism or duality, as there are a plethora of parallels from the story of Joshua and Jericho and the day that this picture is in the future of Jesus Christ's Second Coming. I want to look at that as Jeff has already gone through the blowing of the trumpet, or as some have even translated it, shouting, because both happened at various times, and we'll look at those scriptures today. But I would like to have you join me in the book of Joshua, if you will. It's amazing this incredible story doesn't take long to tell. Basically, one chapter tells the mandate in about six verses there. So if you'll turn to Joshua 6, we'll go through that rather quickly here. As you must understand, I hope you do. As a matter of fact, I want to pull this out now. I have some copies. There's only about seven or eight copies because most of you are not too interested in the name Yahshua. Yahshua, I can go through 20 different names that are used by different groups, by different sects, by different religions. And if you are interested, this is an article by Dr. Daniel Boykin. He's read his a few things from him before. It's two pages front and back. It helps if you have understanding, or if you'd like to understand more understanding about, because some people say, Yahshua. Some people say, Yahshua. I mean, there's different groups. Every group has a different word. And so he does a very concise... I've studied hundreds of pages on this stuff. I've studied volumes on this, and it can be mind-boggling sometimes. And so much information from so many groups. And this one says this, and this one says this is one of the more balanced teachers and understanding on it. I'm going to set this over here. I'm not going to go through that today, but many people and different... So I already said Joshua was the Old Testament name for what Jesus would have been called. Shua, Yahshua. I want to not get into that today, but I will set these over here. If you would like more, let me know, and I will make more copies so you can have that. It is rather in a little in-depth reading for just those four pages. But I bring that out because the word Joshua means to deliver or to rescue. To deliver or to rescue. That's what Joshua did. He rescued the people. He rescued after 40 years of walking in the wilderness. He took over from Moses, one of only two men that really made it through the other side. So he did deliver the people into the Promised Land. Jesus Christ will deliver us into what? Our Promised Land, the Kingdom of God. That's what he says. That's what he's promised. Do we believe him? Good. I hope we do. Most of the people in reality, they believed in Joshua. Now, it was different when they could live their own lives, but when they followed him, followed him pretty close.

So let's look in this story. Joshua 6, I'll read from the New King James Version. Verse 1 says, Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel. No one went out and no one went in. Anybody know anything about the city of Jericho? It had walls, right? What else? Gates? Well, yes, typically you had to have a gate to get in. Anything else that you remember of the story? That there were actual houses or towers or whatever built on top that people lived on? Remember one woman that had her place of business or whatever it was that she had up there on the very top? Her name being Rahab? But I found it interesting because, I had to do a little in-depth study, because Jericho had a lot of excavating, a lot of people digging and searching and finding these parts of the wall and then writing these books and I've read many accounts of this Jericho. And what I found interesting, it had two or three different names, three or four different names. One of them was City of the Moon. Anybody know why they would call this city, City of the Moon? Because the people inside the city walls, the Canaanites, worshiped what? The Moon. It's what they did. It was also called the City of Fragrance. Do you know why? Interesting that if you look, we all know the Hampton Inn and the grounds and so forth out in front of it and the pool and back and where there's kind of a fence around that. It's about eight to ten acres. Decent size, huh? Jericho inside the wall was about ten acres. So it gives you a view. The city is said to be occupied at that time about 10,000 people. Now to me, that's a lot of people to put in that little area out there. What was unique was when they built this city and they built these incredible walls. Right in the middle of the city was an oasis, water springing up. They planted palm trees. They planted all kinds of flowers in there. It was said to be a utopia. It was said to be everything they needed. They didn't need anything else in Jericho. It was known to be the most invincible structure on earth at that time. It was the oldest city in the Promised Land. And it was known to be the largest fortress. Invincible, they called it. Isn't it interesting that God decided that his people, once they came out of the wandering, that they were going to then conquer the Promised Land, that he'd take them to the first battle, and they were going to go to the toughest and largest of all the cities. The reason for that? He was going to lead them. He was going to be the one that gave them protection. And Joshua was going to be their fearless leader. Isn't that interesting that in history, anyone that wanted to escape or go anywhere thought they could come to the city of Jericho? Because armies were known to come up against it, and there's nothing they could do.

They could not destroy the walls. They could not tear the walls down. They built so well. And as one reference book, history book, referenced the time of the Titanic. Remember what was said? Not even God himself can sink this ship. And that was the thought of the Canaanites at the time. And it was actually referenced that others, they had heard about these miracles that had gone on with these religious people who had a strange God.

And that people in other Canaanite cities were concerned about them, so they went and ran and stayed in Jericho because they would be protected. So remind you of today. People today have no fear of anyone attacking us as a United States because of our military. Have you seen our fighters? Have you seen all the things? We have. So you can imagine the thought back then. Because according to Leon Wood's book on the history of Israel and other reference books, because I found some things hard to believe in some of the books, being in construction and knowing how certain things were built, some things had to be a little exaggerated because according to the excavations that were done at Jericho, this huge wall, all the way around, picture it, a Hampton Inn, all the way around, the foundation was made of stone and they dug down six foot into the ground, which was as tall as my head.

That was below ground, so someone couldn't come digging the ground. And from the six foot at the bottom of six foot, the foundation rose 11 foot tall. And it was six foot wide, wider than this table, was the foundation. Upon the foundation, they then built the walls, 12 foot wide, 35 foot tall. That's quite a structure. It's quite a structure. And they were thought to even have an overhang on the outside of the wall, not on the inside, but on the outside, which made it easier to send food down or send water down or send people down from the outside, as you find out in the story of Rahab and the spies.

Well, what's interesting is, and this is where I had to check three or four references, they built these walls. Imagine 35 foot tall. So that's almost four stories. This is about 10. They built them on an angle. Some said 30 degrees, which is not possible, right? Leaning Tower of Pisa is about five degrees, and you can see it. So it was thought anywhere between, because of the writings and so forth, between three and a half and 13 percent angle degree. They did that so people could not scale the wall.

They couldn't... remember the old Batman show or whatever, and him and they would be climbing up this thing and talking, and they would put their feet against this. You couldn't hardly scale this wall. It was so invincible. Imagine that. But we see... let's go on to the Scripture here. Verse 2. And the Lord said to Joshua, see, I have given Jericho into your hands. It's king and the mighty men of valor.

So Joshua, I probably would have said, oh, we're not done yet. How have you given men to my hands? But with God, it was already done. It's like the kingdom. Our mindset should be like God, it's already done. All we got to do is continue down this path. Verse 3. Verse 3. You shall march around the city, all you men of war. So it's not all the men, women, and children.

Who is it? It's the warriors. Those have called to battle. Have you been called to battle? Some of the women in here battle more than us men, as we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. Against principalities of the air, which we'll talk about on atonement. Well, he said, once you walk around the city, all you men of war, you shall go all around the city once.

This you shall do for six days. Now, think of that over there, and you're going to be marching. How long does that take? Yeah, 10 or 15 minutes, you would think, as men are marching. Right? So it wasn't long, and they did it for six days, which had to have those people inside the wall going, what are they doing?

All day, they sit down there, and then they get up in the morning, and these men, and there had to be probably at least a few hundred thousand warrior men. They get up, and here they have priests in the front, priests in the back, and they're carrying the ark, and they're blowing these trumpets for 10 or 15 minutes, 30 at the most. And then they go, and they walk over here, and they sit down. Human nature would say, look at those idiots, they're going to do it again tomorrow.

What do they think? We're going to get scared of their trumpets? Well, I'm sure there was mocking, where there was fear at first, because you could see they were scared. Oh, we've heard about that. And then all of a sudden, it's just a bunch of guys walking around, blowing horns. Verse 4, And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of the ram's horn before the ark, but the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priest shall blow the trumpets. Then they shall come to pass when they make a long blast with the ram's horn.

See, there were trumpets they played, and then there is a shofar, the ram's horn. I don't think you'd want to hear me blow it. Are you ready to blow it on him? He's been training to blow this, so he may not sound as good as that little girl, but we're going to try it with him. No mocking, please. We're nodding. Jericho. You have to warm your lips up for this thing.

So, thank you.

Special music with that next Sabbath. No, he does. But you can see how that sound is different. It was a different sound. It was a call of war, and they heard it.

In verse five, then it came to pass when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, which we just heard. And when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people should shout with a great shout. Then the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up every man straight before him. You know what happened? They marched around the city. They blew. And the translation from the Hebrew, where it fell flat, the translation really means it crumbled. It crumbled from the top down, just like something being destroyed. And it starts. It didn't start at the bottom. It started at the top, and it just fell apart. The walls didn't just fall down, so they would have to go around them. They crumbled like small stones. So when God's peace sent them in, what did they do? They didn't have to let me get this rock out of the way. It was just gravel, pebbles. That's why they had a hard time when they found this excavating, because so much of it wasn't much evidence there until they dug down and found the foundation and checked these. It's an amazing story of Joshua that day, those seven days, but that one day when you see something so large, so invincible standing before you, and it all crumbles in a matter of moments. Can you really picture that? No. With our technology and videos and blue screens and green screens and everything else, I'm sure they could do a good job. But knowing Hollywood today, they would mess it up.

But imagine being there. It would be amazing, wouldn't it? See that sight? And they came in and took the city. But imagine even greater the stories that went out of people from a distant city who were standing a half a mile away just to see what was going on. And all of a sudden, the walls are gone. All they did was hear that so far, which they could hear so far half a mile away. And all of a sudden, they see these walls and...

And all the people did was talk about their God. Would that put fear? Would that put fear into the people? Even anger, because there's nothing they could do. And yet God said, I am going to send two witnesses three and a half years before my return. And they are going to put fear into the entire world before He comes. So as we've looked at the past and looked at this from Jared Go and Joshua's thing, I'd like to go now. We will. We're going to look at some scriptures because as we look back, we know where we are now, but the future is even harder to imagine. Yet, Jericho, the city, will be reminiscent of the time when Christ returns and everybody thinks they're invincible.

Go with me to 1 Thessalonians 4, where Jeff was earlier. 1 Thessalonians 4, we read this at most of the funerals we do, or I do anyway.

When Christ is coming, 1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 13. He's talking, He said, But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep. Paul uses that quite often for those who are dead. That's kind of nice because that's what they're doing. They're asleep till they're raised. My father is asleep in his grave. David has said, sleeps with his fathers. So Paul uses this, Who have fallen asleep, bless you, sorrow as others, who have no hope. For if you believe that Jesus died and rose again, so God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. So those who have died will be raised first. I've always thought, my speculation, that they rise first as an additional reward for enduring to the end, enduring to their death. Because then they will be raised first and meet Christ in the air. And they will then be able to look at spirit beings down upon this earth. And they will see the quickening, as it's called, of perhaps those who are about to be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye. I would love to see that. You'll imagine that sight. It is, will be incredible. Said, For the Lord himself would descend from heaven with a... What? Shout! You remember what happened to Jericho? The trumpers were blown, and then they did what? Shout! Going to hear a shout. If you've never read the Bible, you're going to wonder what that sound was.

We'll know. Like you said, we should know. We'll see what's coming before it. For the Lord himself would ascend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. It's going to be sounded. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then starts a series of incredible events. Because a lot of people won't even see that. They'll see Christ. It's at all that you'll see Him. But the dead in Christ rides those faithful people who have died in the water. How will it be done? I don't know. Not my concern. God can do whatever He wants. How He does it? Those who have been burnt. Burn to the stake, like polycarp. Where are those ashes? God knows. Be resurrected. And He says, therefore, comfort one another with these words. It should be a comfort to us. Comfort, and that's why we read these at the funerals. I do because, hey, it's a comfort that we're going to see Him again! As long as we do what we're supposed to do. As long as we endure to the end. We do the best we can. Are we going to be perfect? Absolutely not. I hadn't met a perfect one yet. 50 years. I haven't been around that long, Jeff. But 40. I haven't met a perfect one yet. But guess what? The Scripture says, become you perfect. It's a process. It's a time, as I've always compared it to ice in an ice tray. Conversion is a lifelong process. You don't just get water, and then you have an ice cube. You have water, and then you get this little hardening over it. And then sometimes you can pull out an ice cube. It's not quite there. The outside, the shell is just there. And then you put it in, and then it falls apart in your hand. That's where some of us are. God's still working. But you see, He doesn't give up on us. But too many of us give up on Him.

That's where we come into. That's what's wonderful about this day. It's about that solid ice cube. It's about that conversion that we've worked at, and we've struggled, and we've made it through. Oh, yes, we've stumbled. Yes, but we've kept God first. And we'll continue to do that. It goes down into chapter 5, verse 1. But concerning the times in the season, brethren, you have no need that I write to you. He'd already told them about this. For you yourselves know perfectly that the Day of the Lord so comes as a... Big announcement? A thief in the night. See, we'll know. He won't come as a thief in the night. To us. Because we're going to know. That's the beauty. That's the beauty of keeping the Holy Days. That's the beauty of keeping the Feast of Trumpets every year. We know it's coming. I just thought it'd come 10 years ago. I thought it'd come 20 years ago. Really? 35 years ago, and I wouldn't get to marry that woman in the second row. So...

Peter thought he was coming in his time. Paul thought Christ was coming in his time. All the disciples thought he was coming in their time.

Now I look at the younger people in this room, and I hope you get to see. Because I don't know that I'll be alive. I don't know. Would like to be, but then another way. I'd like to come out of my grave, looking like Brad Pitt. You wouldn't know unless you were there this seventh of my old picture that I brought. So he said, he should come as a thief in the night. For when they say peace and safety, remember Jericho? We don't have anything to worry about. Nobody can touch us! We've got 40-foot walls. 12-foot thick. We even build houses on our walls. We can have prostitutes right in the city. We have fresh water coming up, flowers. Then suddenly destruction comes as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. You know, I don't know what that feels like. How many women in here have children? You know what it feels like. I know, but I had my younger brother call me the other day. I wonder what he's calling me about. He's calling me to tell me he had kidney stones. I only heard one thing about kidney stones. The only one who can know what it feels like is if you were a woman and had a baby. I don't know. We have any women in here who had a baby and kidney stones? You have! Which was worse? Oh, well, now I can tell him. I told him, now you can act like a woman. But, he's talking about birth pains here.

And they shall not escape, but you brethren are not in darkness, so that this day, what? The day of the Lord should overtake you as a thief. This is one of the reasons you're here today, not just because God asked you, but it helps you to focus, helps you to know, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming.

I'd like to go to a couple more verses before we end here today. Go with me to another verse that we use, a few verses in 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 51. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. It's talking about those who are not dead. It's talking about if we are alive when Jesus Christ makes his return. So you say, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. The last trumpet, wait a minute, what trumpet's that? Seventh trumpet. What happens during the other trumpets? Wait a minute. So we're going to hear, it doesn't catch you, I get thief in the night, you hear what? Six other trumpets, and then the seventh one? Does everybody understand what the other trumpets are about? I don't know about you, but unless I'm given a sermon or unless I study this, it's hard to keep in mind the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven trumpet plagues, and all this stuff, and I'm a pastor. Is that important? It's important for me to know some if I've given a message on it, but I don't keep up with it. I'd rather know the sheep that God has given me, I'd rather know their names and everything about them as I pray for them, pray for you, and all through the Caribbean. But it is important that I know. So for those who do not know, I've handed these out before. Every year I do this, and I will continue to do it because we have new people, and I want you to study this. You have questions? Feel free to call Maurice anytime. But I want you to understand. I want you to have something you can look at because it helps me. I've had this for, I'm in a lawn mower, 15 years? 15, 20 years? And I didn't do this. A woman in the church drew this up. One of my mentors, as she was. She's an incredible woman. She studied the Bible.

The last trumpet, the seventh trumpet, will be blown. And you see what happens there. After seventh trumpet, all these events take place in Revelation 19, Revelation 14. All these things take place. So now you know. I had 50, I had made 50 of them, so there may not. Hopefully there's enough. But I keep this by my desk just because when something, I like to have a reference. At one time, I had it in the back of my Bible, so I would have it all the time. I just think it helps us to understand.

So we have the seventh trumpet, just like, just like, they blew on the seventh day. Which means, chances are Joshua told them what was going to happen. He said, Oh, follow me around for six days. I'll tell you what to do when to do it. No, he told them what God had told them. So they knew what was going to happen the seventh day. When that seventh day happened, and they went around seven times, and they blew that trumpet. Well, brethren, we know. We are not ignorant. What happens before the seventh trumpet? It's your job to be prepared. It's my job to help you prepare. And you'll notice, I don't give a lot of, I don't give a lot of prophecy. I don't give a lot of in-time messages till this time of the year. Because to me, that's when we talk about this time, we talk about the Kingdom, we talk about the focus. Because I think it was Paul said, I can know all prophecy. But if I don't have what? That's why we even talk about love in this congregation. We talk about how to live, how to live like Christ. And you know, I must say, I look at this congregation, you're doing a pretty good job of loving each other. Carrying. From eight years ago, seven and a half years ago, some of the things and people we went through. But guess what? I like what I see, and I think God likes what he sees too. And I like the example, especially these two people sitting on the front row, that are like parents to me. So let us continue. Let us continue. Let's wrap this up. Two verses here. Go to Revelation. Go to Revelation 11. Revelation 11. Revelation 11 and verse 15 says, Then the seventh angel sounded. You'll see it on your paper there. And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever. And the twenty-four elders who sent before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped Him, saying, We give you thanks, O Lord God Almighty, the one who is and was and is to come, because you have taken your great power and reigned. The nations are angry, and your wrath has come. And the time of the dead, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and you shall reward your servants, the prophets and the who? You. You. That's who you are. It's a big word to live up to, isn't it? It's all right. It's why you have the Holy Spirit. It's what makes you a saint. He gives it. All we have to do is use it. Feed that spirit. And they shall be judged that you should reward your servants, the prophets and the saints, and those who fear your name, small and great. It's going to happen at the end time. There's going to be some people who fear His name. They're going to be small, and they're going to be great. And He's going to see those people, because that's what He wants. There may be people you know. There may be people who have heard you say things, read things. Those who fear your name, small and great, and should destroy those who destroy the earth.

You read in Revelation 19. You read in Revelation 19. You have the wedding supper in the first 10 verses. Then verse 11, Then I saw a horse, I saw heaven opened, and a white horse, and he who sat on him was called Faithful and True. And in righteousness he judged and makes war. His eyes were like the flame of fire, and his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that no one knew except himself. And he was clothed with a robe dipped in blood. And his name is called the Word of God. And the armies in heaven clothed in fine linen. That's not the angels! Christ is coming down to do battle. Battle of Armageddon. Gonna stop it. He's not bringing angels with him. He doesn't need to. He brings his saints. It's our battle. Except it's not going to be much of a battle, according to Zechariah 14. You're part of that army. You'll be part of that army that brings the ushers in the kingdom of God that destroys the wickedness that's all in this world. Transforming and making it ready for the wonderful kingdom of God and the thousand-year millennial reign of Christ. And the armies in heaven clothed in fine linen. White and clean followed him on white horses. You can read the rest of it down there. But as I wrap up on these parallels, Joshua led his people into battle. Christ will lead us into battle. Except it'll be a quick war. And there will not be one fatality. You can't kill a spirit son of God. Not one fatality. Remember Jericho? Walls fell down. Not one fatality. Parallel. The trumpets are blown. Just like what we talked about here today. The trumpets were blown at Jericho, and they'll be blown before Jesus Christ returns. Joshua called the men of war, and they followed him, and they marched around the city. And they did what was given for them to do. Jesus Christ comes, and His people of war, His saints, will fight.

We have incredible opportunities to fight. We have incredible opportunity in front of us. The unrighteous will be conquered, as it was in Jericho. Remember? The whole city was killed except for whom? Rahab and what? Did He preserve her family? Didn't say anything about them being a God? I pray for if that comes, I pray for my family. I don't know a God. And God will preserve. He did then. He can do it now. And redemption for those who have faith in the Lord. It says, all those who fear His name, will perish this day. This meaning that we meet every year. Feast the trumpets to celebrate. The coming Kingdom of God. Celebrate us being first fruits, being raised from the grave. The quickening moment, twinkling of an eye where we're changed. But what is our job between now and then? Let's go back to Joshua. Let's go back to Joshua. And I'll end with this. Because to me, this was very powerful. Just three short verses here. Because before Jericho, walls collapsed. Before the battle was put together. Joshua went out and met. Jesus Christ. Why the Word is more accurate. He went and met the Commander. Let's go to chapter 5 and verse 13. This happened before the battle. And I think it's important for us to learn this lesson before we not only go to battle every day, but before Christ's coming. And it came to us. And it came to us. And it came to us. Christ's coming. And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted his eyes and looked and behold. A man, capital M, stood opposite him and with his sword drawn in his hand and Joshua went out to him and said to him, Are you for us? Are for adversaries? That took, that took courage. You're walking out there by yourself, you're walking out there and you see this beat and he's got a sword. Are you with us or are you against us? Did he say, I'm with you? I'm against you? No. He did not, did he? He didn't answer, except he said, No. No what? No. But as commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come. And Joshua, he knew who he was, fell on his face to the earth and worshipped him. An angel? No, an angel wouldn't allow you to worship him. No, this was the word who would later become Christ. And said to him, and Joshua said to him, What does my Lord say to his servant? He tells him to take off his shoes for the land he's on, it's holy ground. Moses heard the same thing. The place that we have come here today is holy ground. But you know what's most important to me there? Is what he says. What does my Lord say to his servant? Brethren, that's our line. Every day, we come before him. Let us pray, let us talk. What do you want from me? How humble is that? It's interesting because about this time of the year, back in 31 A.D. just around the Feast of Trumpets, three men followed Christ up to the mountain. And they saw this incredible vision of what men and a small glimpse of what the kingdom of God would be like. And the voice of God came from them. And he said, This is my son in whom I'm well, please. Listen. Listen to him. Hear him. Brethren, that's to us. We have his words. This week, let's listen to him.