Lessons From Events in Jericho

Good morning, everyone. Good morning. I'd like to especially thank whoever it is who scheduled me to follow the youth choir. That happens a lot of the time, and I don't know what to do about that. But I do appreciate the special music the young ones did. It's always special. Let me make two quick comments before I start the sermon. And then, when church is over, don't take it personally, but I have to leave with the Amen and head to Huntsville. That's usually best with my sermons with the Amen. I'm headed out the door, and you'll understand more within the hour. I have been asked already today, and most Sabbath people have asked, how was your sister-in-law out in Kansas City? You probably saw the prayer requests that went around. I know a lot of you knew my brother Joe and his wife Pat from back in the old days of Jackson and Dixon as a Sabbath circuit. But I talked to Joe yesterday, and we've got good news. She is dramatically improved. She went through the whole six weeks of the antibiotics with the pick line in her arm and all of that.

Whatever levels they looked for in the blood work had gotten up toward where they needed and wanted, and so they stopped antibiotics, took out the pick line. Joe said the last three or four days, just dramatic improvement every day. Yesterday, she was up walking around the house almost like a normal person. It's been two months since she's done that. They deeply appreciate everyone's prayers, and we do as well. Also, of course, Murfreesboro knows this, but my wife left me. She is not here. It was me or a grandson who's about to be born, and she picked the grandson. So she is in Bethel, Alaska, off the end of the universe on the Yukon Peninsula. I saw a picture yesterday where it was 50 degrees, and so our daughter, Jenny, and her mother were out on the back deck sunbathing. Denise is all bundled up and looks cold, and Jenny is out there in shorts because she's accustomed to the climate there. So Annie, how? Yes, as far as we know, we're going back to the Philippines and happy to do so. I know what you mean about Baguio. That's up north, and it's a mile of elevation, and it is cool, but it rains at feast time. At least every time we've been there, it rains.

But we'll be at the new site on the island of Leyte and the central islands of Asayas. It's a part of Leyte that was not destroyed last November by the typhoon. And then we'll go down to the south side, down the south end of Mindanao for the second site, and then we'll come back and enjoy air conditioning once again.

I received an email yesterday from one of our members who is on the Spring Feast tour that the church sponsored, and they're in Israel, the land of Israel. She sent a photo, and when I looked at it, I could tell it was of their group in the synagogue up in Capernaum. So they had all gathered together in Tel Aviv on Thursday. They made their trek up Caesarea, Haifa, and on up to the Sea of Galilee. They stayed there for the Sabbath. Yesterday, they toured on up to the old area of Tel Dan over to Caesarea Philippi, back down where they're keeping at their hotel keeping today, the Holy Day. Then tomorrow, they head south, and they will go to Jerusalem, and then they will go on further south. If you leave Jerusalem, which is on the top of the central Judean mountain range, not quite the mountains that Tennessee has over in the Far Eastern area, but at any rate, the 2,000-3,000 elevation, when you turn east, after just a little while, you start going down. You go down, and you go down a lot, and you pass the sea level sign, and you get down to around 800 elevation below sea level. You see in front of you these archaeological ruins, and that's Tel Sultan, or we know it better as Jericho. I want to talk with you about Jericho, because there were events that took place at the city of Jericho a long time ago during the Passover Days of Unleavened Bread season. I want to look at some of the events of the early chapters of Jericho, and then we'll come back and glean a few lessons. I don't know if anyone talked about this story on the first day or on Sabbath, but I'm just going to notice a few high points of several sermons, so I should be able to get through and again, not tread on anybody's territory that may have already been covered. The area of Jericho has had archaeological digs. There was one in the 1800s. There was one in the first decade of the 1900s. John Garstang led a team in the 1930s, but the premier work was in the 1950s, led by Dame Kathleen Kenyon, the famous British archaeologist. It was remarkable what they found. They had more accurate means of determining dates and interpreting what they would find. They dated the original settlement as far back as 9000 BC. Now, you think of that. That's before human beings. But they did find something that dates back that far, so it might go back to pre-idemic early hominids. If you want to know about them, I would suggest you text a question to ask the pastor. They will provide all answers about what was on the earth that kind of sort of looks like human beings, but were they? Anyhow, stay tuned next Sunday.

They found, the archaeologists found, a layer of ash. A layer of ash. They dated it to the Middle Bronze Age. They jockey the dates up and down a little bit, but that's probably the time of the late 1400s, 1410 down to 1400 BC. Probably was the time, as close as we can tell, of the conquest of the city of Jerusalem. Now, Jericho is mentioned in the Bible in a number of places in Numbers and Deuteronomy, mainly as a geographical point. And then Moses, when he was taken and he was allowed to look and see the land of promise, but he wouldn't be able to go over. Jericho was just over from there. But when we get to the book of Joshua, we have a lot that we find about that city that took place. It's always inspiring for archaeologists to go back and validate the biblical record long, long afterward. Now Jericho is mentioned in someplace in the Kings where somebody named Hael went back and rebuilt the city, even though there was a curse upon anyone who would rebuild the city. It's mentioned in the major prophets. It's mentioned in, of course, the Gospels. We have the parable of the prodigal son, and the man was injured as he was traveling up from Jericho. So it's mentioned, but we know more of what we do know from the book of Joshua.

It is the story of Israel finally coming out of the wandering years, paying the price of sin, and beginning to actually take possession of the land that God had promised Abraham for 400 years. So let's turn now to Joshua 1. I want to just notice a few high points from each chapter. We're going to need to look at 7, but we're not going to read everything, obviously. Then we'll come back and again glean six lessons from what we find here. Joshua 1 tells the story, reminds us of the fact that Joshua had been set aside to follow in the footsteps of Moses. He was told here in verse 9, Have I not commanded you, be strong in the name of God? Have I not commanded you, be strong and of good courage? Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. So he is reminded that what you're about to do, you're going to lead the people of God, and you will be doing the work of God. There's no need to fear. Be filled with courage. And you know, Joshua was an amazing man. You read through his story, and I don't find anything that would ever indicate that he was hesitant, he was frightened, he was distressed. He just simply followed, and did what God had for him to do. In verse 11, he has the officers go through the camp of Israel and tell them that, you know, get provisions together, because in three days we're going to be crossing over the Jordan and actually going into the land. So we have a note in verse, or rather chapter 4, verse 19, that tells us that they actually crossed over on the tenth day of the first month. So that tenth of Nice and or tenth of a bib was the date that 40 years earlier the Passover lands had been set aside. So Israel is going to be set aside on that date for the work that they have to begin the conquest of the land. Now, we, I don't think we need to, he reiterates the fact, be strong and have good courage.

But let's think about Joshua. Joshua, we know quite a bit about. He has been a part of the story from Exodus through Deuteronomy. Joshua was certainly, well, a military general, and we see that as they go to Jericho, he sends spies. He wants someone to go do some reconnaissance so we'll know what we're going to be walking into. When they start to go against AI, he sends spies to go see what's there. And so we have a man with tremendous military experience as a general of the armies of Israel. We also in Joshua have one of only two eyewitnesses of the plagues that fell on Egypt. One of only two that came out of Egypt with Israel, because remember the older generation, because of their sin, died in the wilderness. So he's a pretty unique individual. He served for a long time, maybe that whole 40 years, as Moses' personal servant. If you go back and read the story where Moses went up on the Mount Sinai, that Joshua went part way and waited. Now remember when he came down, he had the tablets in his hand. Joshua was there, and they heard, as it was, the sound of war down in the camp. Well, it was the people and the sin that they had gotten into. But he and Caleb had been two of the twelve spies. They were the ones who brought back the good report. But Joshua is important to remember. He is one of the great biblical types of Jesus Christ. He is a type of a forerunner of Jesus Christ, and we need to follow that away and remember that. Because as Israel followed him, we follow Christ. Israel followed Joshua in taking possession of the Holy Land. We follow Jesus Christ as we march toward the kingdom of God. Actually, the Hebrew word translated Joshua is the equivalent of the Greek word translated Jesus. And it has to do with He saves or Savior. Now chapter 2, let's notice a little bit here, because here we are introduced to life within Jericho. And in Joshua 2, now Joshua, son of a nun, sent two men from Acacia Grove.

That was the place east across the river from Jericho. And that's where the Israelites were. They had taken the eastern lands where the two and a half tribes were going to set up. But they're waiting there, and it's time to cross over and take the rest of the land. You spy secretly saying, go view the land, especially Jericho. So they went and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab and lodged there. Now that has to puzzle us. Why would they go to the house of a harlot and lodge there? As I struggle with that, I think back to the days of the wild, wild west, the old west of America. You would have a frontier town, and in that town, obviously one of the first businesses open would be the saloon.

And you would have prospectors and ranchers and anyone traveling through, and they'd make their way there, but see, they could get adult beverages. They could get food. There's probably a place out back to get a much-needed bath. They might get a shave. And they sold other things there, too, but we won't talk about those. But if you think of it in those terms, perhaps it's logical. They, as we read through the story, we find her house was on the city's walls, which, if you need to make a quick exit, jump and run, better there than over in the city, the center of the city. Also, probably a good place to just slip in under the radar screen unnoticed. Probably a good place to pick up information, which is why they were sent there anyhow. Go find out what we're going to deal with. Come back. Joshua said, report to me. Now, as the story goes on, we find early on those of the city, the king of Jericho, verse two is mentioned. You have his men, and they're recognizing two people slipped in. It must not be for any good reason for us. So they start looking for them. As it gets to verse six, we find that Rahab, this harlot, had taken them up on the roof. The roofs were basically flat. Flax, when it's harvested, has to dry before it's then. There's a long process beaten out and removing the fibers, the linen. She had taken them to the roof and hidden them under the flax, the stalks of flax, up on the roof. So she sent the pursuers the wrong way. So the story goes on where something in this chapter, something dramatic is happening to Rahab. She is introduced to us as Rahab the harlot. She is not going to end as Rahab the harlot. She's going to end as Rahab the forgiven person. She is such a remarkable example. In fact, God is going to take her, and He's going to graft her into the very stock of Israel, specifically the line of Judah, and more specifically than that, the line of Jesus Christ and King David. She is going to become, frankly, the great great grandmother of King David. Anyhow, we'll come back to that thought a little bit here.

In verse 11, we see from our words a little insight into what she is thinking. Verse 11, as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted. So the two spies are finding out that the people of Jericho are scared to death. They have heard what happened the other side of the river, and they realize, you know, the odds are that we're just about to be creamed by a couple million people.

Our hearts melted. Neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you. For the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. So we see from the words of her mouth what is in her heart.

Something is transpiring. Something is changing. And again, that leads to God honoring her, God saving her, and God using her in the powerful way that He did. In verse 15, we find a bit of a reminder. She let them down by a rope through the window. She had told them, just go hide out in the mountains three days. They'll give up on you, and then you can more safely travel back across over to your people. The scarlet cord is to be bound. Verse 18, the line of the scarlet cord is to be bound in her window so that when the Israelites come with the attack, that she and her household will be spared.

So she took action. She had certain faith beginning to build, and she acted on that faith. And she tied that line, and it ended up saving not only her, but her own household. And so, you know, living by faith, living righteously, can have benefit for who knows how many people. We can be like Joseph in Egypt, who was a tremendous blessing for all of those Egyptians because he believed in God. Now, the story goes on where they hid out, and then they went and crossed back over and reported into Joshua.

Now, let's keep our place there, and let's go to the end of the book of Ruth. Ruth, Chapter 4. Ruth, Chapter 4, Chapter 4, Chapter 4, Chapter 4, because there's a genealogy right at the end. And there also is a similar genealogy in Matthew, Chapter 1, Verses 5 and 6. But let's just notice the last two verses. Ruth 4, Verse 21. Salmon begot Boaz. Now, Matthew 1 adds the fact that he begot Boaz by Rahab. And it does make me wonder, you know, Scarlett is the color of the tribe of Judah, and it makes me wonder if this salmon who married Rahab may have been one of those two spies, but we just don't have enough information.

But he ends up marrying Rahab and giving birth to Boaz. Now, Boaz, as we know, is the main character in this book of Ruth. He's the one who is the kinsman. He is the one who redeems Ruth to raise up the inheritance for the family. He, too, is the type of Jesus Christ. And Boaz begot Obed. Now, what it doesn't tell us here, Matthew 1 tells us that he begot Obed by Ruth. So, you see, God took, first of all, a Canaanite woman who was of the line of Ham.

Then he takes this Moabites, who is a Shemite, a Semitic woman, but she's not of the stock of Israel. She came through Abraham's relative lot. And he, two in a row, injects them and searches them into the very lineage of Jesus Christ.

Begot Obed. Obed begot Jesse. Jesse begot David. So, you've got from Salmon, you've got their son Boaz, their son Obed, that's grandson, great grandson Jesse, great, great grandson David. Rahab is the great, great grandmother of David. Let's notice, also, Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11. Now, Hebrews 11 is not an exhaustive list of men and women of God who have walked by faith.

But I look at this list sometimes and I wonder, well, why didn't Daniel make it? But he didn't. Why didn't a lot of people make it? Shadrach, Shachibednego. All kinds of names you can think of, but they're not listed here.

There's not room. And so, the author here is just mentioning some of the high points. Now, two individuals mentioned are women. You've got Sarah, and then later Rahab makes, she makes press. So, in Hebrews 11, notice verse 30, by faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days. So, Joshua didn't make it, but the falling of the walls of Jericho did make it.

Same story. By faith, the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe when she received the spies in peace. Though she came to believe, she acted on that belief. Those who did not have that belief perished, but there were those of her household who probably didn't believe, but they were spared because she walked by faith. Now, one more. James chapter 2. James 2 is where James is making his case that works, excuse me, faith is best demonstrated by the works of our life.

And he uses certain examples about faith without works as dead. And notice at the end of chapter 2 of James, verse 24, you see that a man is justified by works, not by faith alone. He makes an eloquent case in this chapter. Just to have faith, to profess faith is one thing, but when you actually live it from your heart. There's a whole lot more there.

Verse 25, likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way. All right. Let's go back to Joshua. A little bit now from chapter 3. We have Joshua 3, verse 3, they commanded the people saying, when you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God and the priests, the Levites bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it.

The ark of the covenant is mentioned ten times in this chapter. The ark of the covenant is also a marvelous type of Jesus Christ with all that it foreshadowed. They are told, keep your eyes on the ark. When it moves, you follow.

When it stops, you stop. Where it goes, you go. It will lead you where you've never gone before. If you follow it, you will get across into the Promised Land with your life intact. He tells them at the end of verse 4, because you have not passed this way before. Well, again, ten different places. Verse 11, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan. We have then two different sets of stone. Well, I'm getting ahead of the story. That's in the next chapter. We should notice verse 15, the latter part, where it says in parentheses, For the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest. So during the whole spring harvest time, which begins with the wave sheath during Unleavened Bread and goes until the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost. That was flood season. Now, somehow the spies made it across and back. But as far as taking a sizable group of people, two, three million people across, it would have cost a lot of life, except that God would lead them in the way that He did. So we have the waters stopping when the priests' feet touch the water. They go down to the middle of the riverbed. Israel crosses on over, and then the priests bring up the ark. And when they clear the riverbed again, the waters continue to flow. But they crossed over on dry ground. It says at the end of verse 17. Now, this is a very important part of the Bible. Now, this is another forerunner for New Testament baptism. The letter there at John, excuse me, that Peter wrote to those at Corinth, early verses of 1 Corinthians 10. He talks about how your fathers passed through the Red Sea. They passed through the cloud. They were symbolically baptized unto Moses. Here they're going to be saved. Because they follow Joshua and the Ark of the Covenant, they are going to go through the riverbed of Jordan, and it would have cost life, but they were saved. Again, those point toward baptism, that with the symbolic watery grave, we die, we go under, we come back up, and then we have a new life. Israel was leaving behind the sins of a lifetime, and they were going to be given new life and be restored and begin taking the inheritance they had been offered. Chapter 4 tells us of two sets of twelve stones. One was set up at the bottom of the Jordan Riverbed near where the priests stood, and then they were to carry twelve stones out. Verse 5, cross over. Each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, these twelve men from the twelve tribes, and then those were set up near their camp at Gilgal. Verse 20 says it was set up at Gilgal. Verse 19 tells us that was the tenth day of the first month, and they camped in Gilgal. Now, these memorials were set up to remind them that whenever your children come along, they say, well, what are those stones over there? What do they mean? It will remind you. And so many times throughout the Bible, God says, don't forget, remember where you were led, where you came from, where God is taking you. Chapter 5. Chapter 5. We have them now situated on the Promised Land, and God tells them in verse 2, make knives of flint and circumcise the sons of Israel the second time. And it points out that they did not practice circumcision during the wilderness wandering years. They were paying the price of sin. They had acted in such a way as to cut themselves off from God in a certain way. And now they were going to be restored to that covenant relationship.

And so we have the story of the circumcision. And verse 9, this day, I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. Therefore, the name of the place is called Gilgal to this day. And the marginal note in my Bible says, rolling. And so if you can envision what was being circumcised and the knife of flint making its way around, and then the part of the skin removed and it was cast aside, a little later he called it the Hill of the Foreskins, which is good a name as any. But it was rolling that little piece of skin off of the males.

And so the place was called Gilgal. Rolling means Gilgal. That's as far as we want to go on that topic. But in chapter, as it continues, we begin that they really do start to sink their teeth into the inheritance. Verse 10, the children of Israel camped in Gilgal and kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month at twilight on the plains of Jericho. And they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened the bread and parched the grain on the very same day.

Now, the only way they could have done that is if that is what we call a Sunday, the first day of the week, and they had the wave sheath because the wave sheath had to take place, then they could eat the produce of land. Not before. The manna ceased, verse 12 says, the bread of affliction, that which had fed them for 40 years as they paid the price of their sins. And now it's over. They now are inheriting the land. They now can eat of the produce of the land. But it is also very important that we notice the last three verses because this is where type meets antitype.

Joshua meets the God of the Old Testament. Verse 13, it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked and behold a man stood opposite him with a sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went to him, and he said, and he said, and Joshua went to him. Now that tells us he was not a fearful man.

He was a man of courage. He was a warrior. So he sees someone standing over there with a sword and he just marches over to him and said to him, Are you for us or for our adversaries? So he said, No, but as commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, What does my servant say to his or my Lord say to his servant? If this had been an angel, the angel, we have biblical accounts where the angel says, Get up.

I'm just a fellow servant like you. But he worshiped this one. So we're dealing with the God of the Old Testament. Then the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, Take your sandal off your foot for the place where you stand is holy. And Joshua did so. And we've heard that somewhere before. Once upon a time, Moses, following the flocks, and he sees this bush ablaze but not being burned up. And he goes over there and as he gets close, he's told, Take your shoes off your feet.

You're standing on holy ground. And the presence of God makes something holy. This day is holy because God says it's holy. Two days ago on the weekly Sabbath, it's holy because God made it holy. Man doesn't make things holy. God does. And the presence of God. But also, we have, it's obvious as the commander of the Lord's army, the angelic hosts are present to do battle. Because the next day, or rather at the end of the next seven days, somebody's going to push down the walls. And it's not the Israelites.

Somebody's going to push down the walls. So, type meets anti-type. Chapter 6. Chapter 6. The story returns to Jericho. The inhabitants are scared to death. The city is securely shut up. They have springs that give them water within the city walls. They have foodstuffs stored. We know that because archeologists found down in that layer of ash, all of these clay pots filled with charred grain.

They had lots of food set aside. And Israel begins the process of marching around the city. We have a lot of sevens. Kind of reads like Revelation, where you have seven seals and seven trumpets and seven final, seven angels blowing the seven trumpets. You have seven priests. Verse 4. Seven trumpets of ram's horns.

You're going to march seven days, but the seventh day you march seven times. So, that story we're probably familiar with. And we have verse 13, the first day, verse 14, the second day they marched around the city once. So, they did six days. Verse 15, on day seven, they marched around it seven times. Then the priests blew the trumpets.

Joshua told the people, Shout, the city shall be doomed by the Lord for destruction, it and all who are in it. Only Rahab the harlot shall live. So, he reminds them. He also, in verse 18, reminds them that anything of gold, silver, bronze, iron, that is for the treasury of God. It is not yours.

Don't take it. Now, verse 20, the people shouted, etc. The wall fell down flat. The people went up into the city. Every man straight before him, and they took the city. They utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkey, with the edge of the sword.

The two men who had been the spies, he had them hurry into Rahab's and brought out Rahab, her father, mother, her brothers, and all that she had. They brought all her relatives and left them outside the camp. And so, then they burned the city with fire. Verse 24. So, the fame of Joshua spread throughout the country.

But we need to notice just a little in chapter 7, because we find Israel.

Israel hits some of the ruts of the road. They began to have... or they had a setback.

And it is traced back to the action of one man. And that's instructive for us.

If we profane the commandment of God, if we sin, it's not just us. It generally is going to affect others. Chapter 7, we have the story of how Joshua had sent spies to go case out AI up the road. They came back, and maybe they were getting a little cocky, but they suggested, well, we don't all need to go. Just send a few up there. It's just a little place. And so, in verse 4, so about 3,000 men went. But they fled before the men of AI. It tells us in verse 5 that 36 were struck down, and then they continued to chase them. And obviously, something is amiss. The blessing of God that had been there the weeks before was suddenly missing. And it wasn't going to return until Israel recognized what it was, what they had done wrong, and they got it out of the nation. We have God telling Joshua, of course, Joshua and the elders, they tear their clothes, they put dust on their heads. God comes to Joshua and says, get up, stand up. Here's what you do. So they're to have all the tribes gather before him. And in verse 16, Joshua rose early in the morning and brought Israel by their tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken. So God is beginning through whatever means to narrow it down to show the guilty party. So 11 tribes are free and clear.

It's within the line of Judah. Then he took the family of the the Zarhytes, or you have the line of Zera. Remember the breach back in Genesis? You have pharas and zera. So this is of the Zera side of the family. Then it comes down to the family of Zabdai, and then the family of Carmi, and all the way down to a man named Achan. Verse 19. Now Joshua said to Achan, My son, I beg you, give glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession to him, and tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me. And to his credit, at least, he confessed. I've sinned. Here's what I did. Here's what I took. It's buried in the ground under my tent.

Messengers were sent, and sure enough, they found what he'd said. This Babylonian garment, this so much silver, this wedge of gold, and those were things they were not to have taken to themselves. Now notice what happens to this, not just this man, but to his family in everything that he has. Verse 24. Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan, son of Zerah, the silver, the garment, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had, and brought them to the valley of Achor. Achor is the word meaning trouble. This is where this man's going to come to his end. He had troubled Israel by his sin.

Joshua said, Why have you troubled us? The Lord will trouble you this day. So all Israel stoned him with stones, and they burned him with fire after they had stoned them with stones. Then they raised over him a great heap of stones. They're still there to this day. So the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger. Therefore, the place has been called the valley of Achor, or trouble to this day. Now, that's as far as we need to go, and that's enough. Let's go back and look at what we've covered, and let's identify six lessons. Number one, no sin is too great. I think it's good for us to focus on. No sin is ever too great. We just days ago observed a very solemn night, and in the weeks leading up to that, we probably reread gospel accounts, and we examined self, and we discerned the Lord's body, focused on what Christ went through for us, willingly, and what the Father went through. Because, you see, long ago, they got together and decided, we want to build a family. We want an eternal family. We want to share who and what we are with as many as we possibly can. This is a plan that they devised, and it's right on time.

We like to hurry it up, wouldn't we? But it's right on time.

He knows when he's going to send Christ back to the earth. No sin is too great. I've known people.

I've tried to encourage people who have made mistakes before. If you make a mistake, if you fall down and sin, welcome to the club. We're all there. We can't cast stones. But it is a matter that sometimes I've known people who have, yes, they've sinned a lot. I mean, humanly, we like to categorize sins. These are worse than those. Sin is breaking God's law. And the wages of sin is death.

And we've all been there. But try to encourage those individuals. You have not sinned too much.

If you will go to God, He will forgive. And sometimes, humanly, we just want to make ourselves pay.

The hardest person to forgive is number one. Well, here we have a story of Rahab the harlot. And you can just imagine all that went along with that title that she had, Rahab the harlot.

Rahab the harlot. She must have lived a horrible life. But during the events of chapter 2, we also find that she came to faith. She lived her faith, and she was saved.

And that is a forerunner, a type, a harbinger of any one of us who makes a mistake, and we go to God. Isaiah 1. I think we're through back in Joshua now.

Isaiah 1. Let's look at three quick scriptures on this topic.

Isaiah 1. And we'll read verse 18.

And verse 19. Isaiah 1, verses 18 and 19. Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.

Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.

And that's what we saw happen to Israel. And that's what Rahab came to enjoy with Israel.

She was brought into the very flock of the people of God.

Psalm 103.

103, verses 11 and 12.

Psalm 103, verse 11. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear him.

As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

Again, think of Rahab.

God forgave her to the degree that he inserted her into the very line that would bring David and generations later the very family that would lead to Jesus Christ.

It was never held against her again.

One more is John 1. Excuse me. 1 John 1.

We read in the Passover ceremony, we read verse 7 about the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1, verse 7, verse 8, verse 9, verse 8 tells us if we say we have no sin, we're deceiving ourselves. We're lying.

But notice verse 9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But you see, we have to go to God and ask for that.

But the book, the story, the events around Jericho remind us no sin is ever too great.

Number two, no wall is too high. No wall is too high. Now, warfare takes place differently these days. It changed dramatically with the advent of the, well, throwing bombs out of the cockpit of airplanes in World War I and missile technology and drones. It's a different story now.

But back even 100 years ago, if you had a formidable wall like Jericho had, and you can go, and they've got estimates as far as how high it was, if you just think about it, if you have a wall 20 feet high, if you've got foot soldiers coming against you, that's a pretty good deterrent.

You had, I think it was Herodotus in writing about the old city of Babylon. You get guesstimations on Babylon's walls anywhere from 90 feet high till 200, which I can't even fathom, 200... why would they build one that high? 90 feet was kind of the lower estimate range. 90 feet you're coming across the Mesopotamian valley. You look and you see something big up ahead, and you get closer and closer, and it's a wall.

Well, it wasn't too high for God, and Jericho's walls were not too high for God either.

Because, as we saw, the Israelites had help, and the commander of the army of the angelic host was there, and the walls were pushed down. We have many stories. In the Bible, we could turn to Elisha and the servant were in the city of Dothan. The Syrian army encircled the city by night, and the servant panicked, and Elisha told him, you know, those who were with us are more than those with them. And he prayed that God would open his eyes, and he looked in the whole mountain full of cherries of fire. We have so many examples we can look to, and this is just one of them, where it was a piece of cake for God. No wall is ever too high. You and I face all kinds of obstacles. Sometimes we can get discouraged, and we can forget. You know, when Christ walked the earth, the rich young man came wanting to know what he could do to have eternal life. And Christ mentioned different commandments and what he needed to do. And then he went away sorrowful, and right on the heels of that, those asked him, then, then, Lord, how can anyone be saved? And Jesus just simply said, you know, with God, all things are possible. With humans, it's impossible. With God, all things are possible. And so this would involve, this would include the strength to walk the unliving life, to address temptation, to resist, to get up and dust off whenever we get knocked down, whenever we succumb to sin, and go to God and ask His forgiveness, and ask the strength to get back up. And in the long run, no wall is too high for God. That, again, during Christ's ministry, He mentioned that, you know, whatever things you ask in prayer, believing you shall receive. Number three is live your faith. Live your faith. Rahab lived her faith. The Israelites, 40 years earlier, lived their faith by following Moses, leaving Egypt, and then they got caught in a tight spot, and the exit was to go through a couple of, between a couple of walls of water. And they had to put one foot in front of the other and take steps of faith.

And it ended up in their salvation. And here with Israel going into the Promised Land, the waters were held back, and they had to step by step go toward where God was leading them under the rule of Joshua. Rahab came to believe in God. She acted on that. She put the scarlet cord in the window. One of my favorite poems is the old one by Edgar Guest, sermons we see.

And the lyrics begin, I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day. And the lyrics go on about how too fast your tongue may go, but there's no mistaking who you are and what you are and how you live your life. So living by faith, living your faith, like with Rahab, might save untold people around us that we know nothing about. Number four, number four, sin always destroys.

Sin always destroys. Now, Jericho was quite a center for sin. It was a worship, a center of worship of a moon goddess. It was a city on a crossroads of ancient trade routes. And obviously, it was time when God had determined that they're going to come down. They're going to be destroyed for who they are and what they've been doing, what they have, what they've been living. But sin always destroys. You see, in the camp of Israel, all of the, who knows how many hundreds of thousands or tens of thousands at least may have been involved in charging the walls as they fell down.

And one man sinned. One man took of a garment, some silver and gold that was not his, and 36 died as they fled from the men of Ai.

And then Achan, the guilty party, and his entire family, everything he had was destroyed.

And it just underscores for us whatever sin touches, it destroys. It taints. It ruins.

And sin can destroy Christian's lives as well, unless we continue to embrace repentance and walk that path seeking God's forgiveness. 1 Corinthians 5.

1 Corinthians 5.

Verses 6 through 8.

Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leaven's a whole lump?

Those of you who bake, you make pancake batter, you make biscuits, you take so much cup of flour and so much milk, and you take an egg or two, depending on how big your batch is, and you take a little bit of baking powder or yeast or whatever, a little bit. And it's not like just one part of that batch is leavened. It permeates. The chemical reaction takes off. The pancake batter, all these bubbles come up as the carbon dioxide is given off. It leavens the whole lump. And he's not talking about leaven. He's talking about sin. In the earlier verses, there had been an unspeakable sin in their presence, and they were just living with it. And Paul told them to get it out.

Verse 7, purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, since you are truly unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.

Therefore, let us keep the feast. So here we are, 20-some years after the events of that year of Christ's death and resurrection, and we have God's Apostle still teaching them, keep the feast, put out the leaven, live in the way of an unleavened life. Remember, Christ gave his life for us.

Keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and witness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. So, unleavened bread teaches us.

It'll end in a few hours, but hopefully we raise the bar this week in our own personal overcoming.

And we remember that. The leaven comes back into the house, but hopefully the sin doesn't.

Hopefully we raise the bar, and we maintain that higher goal that we set.

Number five, overcoming is by one step at a time.

Overcoming is by one step at a time. Sometimes we think we want to be able to snap fingers, and it's all gone. But you know, a lot of times the things we struggled with when we were baptized were still struggling with when we're about to lose our life. Our life's about to end.

Because those are the areas where Satan has success in coming. He tries the door. He tries the window into our mind. And if we ever just give up, then we're in deep trouble.

When I drove in, there was a billboard for Dave Ramsey. Dave Ramsey, with his message of, get out of debt. Great message. He talks about taking baby steps. Little steps, as long as you're heading in the right direction. And maybe with time, as you start getting out of that hole you've dug, maybe those steps, those strides can get further and further.

Back when I was in my 20s, so see, I've got a good memory. It's a long time ago.

My wife and I had a pastor back when we were in Oklahoma City. And I remember one time during On Love with Brett, he made a statement that either you are overcoming sin, or sin will be overcoming you. And there's a lot of truth to that. If we continue to be engaged in the battle, then we can make steps, even if they're baby steps. But if we ever sit down and running the race and just give up and get comfortable and settle on our knees, then sin is going to be, it's going to be overtaking us. All right, number six, let's wrap this up. Number six, always follow Jesus Christ. Israel followed Joshua as they began the conquest of the Holy Land.

And they had one success after another that followed with as much of the land as they took. We know that it's an unfinished job. But we follow our Lord, our Savior. We follow our Joshua in taking steps toward the kingdom of God. Let Christ lead the way when we face difficult situations. Go to His Word. He is the living Word of God. The psalmist wrote, Your Word is a lamp unto my feet. We go to the Word of God. It will show us where we should take steps in life. Rely on that Word. That day in the plains of the Jordan Valley, type meant anti-type. And the God of the Old Testament was there to go to battle for them.

Let's close over in 2 Chronicles 32. 2 Chronicles 32, back to the days of King Hezekiah of Judah.

And this is a time when you have a threat from the armies of Assyria, and the Assyrians were the world power of the time. 2 Chronicles 32, and let's read verses 7 and 8.

Hezekiah tells those of his people at that time, Be strong and courageous. It kind of sounds like something that was said to Joshua a few times back in Joshua chapter 1. Nor be afraid nor dismayed before the king of Assyria, nor before the multitude that is with him. For there are more with us than with him.

With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.

And the people were strengthened by the words of Hezekiah, king of Judah.

God is always present for us. When we go into battle, there are times when we may hesitate.

We don't know which way to turn, but he is always there. If we will just cry out to him, he will lead us. Those who are with us are more than those with the enemy.

So have a wonderful day of unleavened bread. At least the hours that continue.

Have fun when you bring the twinkies and the ding-dongs back into the house tonight.