Our Spiritual Wall of Jericho

Well, yeah, well, I think we were driving up. I mentioned I love when Mrs. Royster plays the guitar and that's something I never, I hadn't heard up in Columbus in all those years. And then, as I said, it's nice to get, it's not just the same, you know, Mozart or...

Anyways, I better shut up. I didn't mean any of that to be insulting!

All right, we are at the last day of Unleavened Bread and I, it's hard to believe, within five hours it'll be over. This morning it occurred, I said, I can't believe it! I look at my watches and in 12 hours it'll be over and it seemed like it just started. Five hours is less time than it takes to clean your kitchen out, all the leaven out. Removing the sin from our lives at most times can be quite a hassle. It's a challenge, but not all of it seems impossible, right? And there are some things in our lives that might be comparable to having a loaf of bread you have to read.

Now you can open the cupboard, it's there, you hadn't got through it, so you take it out and you throw it out. That wasn't all that hard. You know, we can do that. We can also vacuum the crumbs out of our car. That might be a little more difficult, but that's doable. I think of some of those is like some of the sins if you first come into the church might say, well, I gotta stop going out to dance clubs on Friday nights. Yeah, it might not be the most... well, usually that's convenient because you don't... stopping doing something is pretty easy. Harder if your employer wants you to work on this habit. It's a little bit of a hassle, but it's clear cut you can do.

But then there are other sins in your life that might be there that... or they might have not been there before, but you're confronted with them. Some things do seem impossible. Instead of being something you can reach out and grab and remove, it might seem either literally or in your mind like it's looming up above you. And you think, what am I going to do? Looking at it, you start to feel very small.

Now, these challenges shouldn't surprise us when that happens. It's going to happen to all of us sooner or later. They don't surprise God. He's always knowing how tough it can be, and he knows we're going to face very difficult challenges.

I think that's one of the reasons he times some of his greatest, most impressive miracles, or at least the most flashy ones. I shouldn't say greatest and most impressive, because I still think the greatest miracle he does is what he does inside of us through his Holy Spirit. And that's something that happens over time, and it's not so flashy. But the big ones that he does are often... I said that again. The ones that are most visually impressive are often done to coordinate with special times in the year. You combine that with the fact that God gave us the annual Holy Day calendar to remind us of his plan. And so when he brings those two things together, which it looks like in ancient times he did quite often, it makes it easy for us to start looking for relevant lessons. And if he didn't do it for that reason, I speculate maybe he did it to help people like me come up with ideas for sermon topics. That's funny. They all thought that was funny in Pressensburg this morning. But I want to look at one of those events today, if you'll turn with me to the book of Joshua. This is one of those that I have in mind, and I think I want to spend most of my time here this morning, this afternoon. I'm losing track of where I am.

Jewish tradition and history says that the conquering of the city of Jericho coincided exactly with the seven days of Unleavened Bread. Now, we know that it was at least very close to Bible when it does give us dates, and this story shows that it happened at that time, and there's nothing to disprove that it happened exactly on the days that I said that tradition says. The first chapter of Joshua reminds us, and I'm going to go back and forth between reading the Scriptures and sometimes summarizing for a narrative sake, but the first chapter of Joshua reminds us that God had appointed Joshua in advance to fill the vacancy left by Moses when he reached the end of his life. Moses had played that role for many years, and now the responsibility was falling to Joshua, as we see at the beginning of the chapter. After the death of Moses, the servant of the Eternal, it came to pass that the Eternal spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses's assistant, saying, Moses, my servant is dead. Now, therefore, arise and go over this Jordan, you and all this people to the land which I'm giving to them, the children of Israel.

And struck me is, remember that the account tells us that Moses went up to the top of Mount Nebo and God miraculously showed in the Promised Land, and that he died and God buried him. No one knew where his grave was. So Joshua, he knew Moses left. I guess God did have to come and say, okay, he's dead. It's all over. Now it's on you. And that could be a little intimidating. He said, now you're in charge, you know, and you're going to lead these people into the Promised Land. Verse five, no man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life, as I was with Moses, so I'll be with you. I won't leave you or forsake you. I'm sure Joshua was glad to hear that. Be strong and of a good courage for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous and observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you. Don't turn to the right hand. Don't turn to the left. Now I read that. I thought, still, even with God saying, I'm going to be with you, do you imagine little pressure there? You're filling Moses' footsteps. And then he says, you're going to bring these people into the Promised Land. I've been building up to this for more than 400 years. Now it's on you. How did Joshua feel? Well, I don't know for sure.

I guess when God's telling you to do something and he'd seen all these miracles, perhaps he wasn't as intimidated as I think he could have been. One thing that we can look at and say, this was one of the rare times in the history of the Israelites that they were being obedient and cooperative. There are many times when they went astray and they did things wrong. This time it wasn't like that.

We can look ahead. We know that two and a half of the tribes had been given their inheritance already. After they conquered the Amorites that were on the eastern side of the Jordan River, they came to Moses and said, hey, this is great cattle land. We've got a lot of cattle. Why don't you let us have this land? And Moses, of course, said, well, hey, you might dishearten your brother and if you say you want to stay here and not go in and fight the Iivites and the Jebusites and the Amorites and those other guys, you know, but he said, no, no, we'll go and fight.

Just let us have this land. God said, okay. But now that Moses is gone, are they going to stand up and fulfill their part of the bargain? If we look in verse 12, Joshua speaks to them. He says, to the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh, Joshua spoke with saying, remember the word which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying the eternal your God is giving you rest and is giving you this land. Your wives and little ones and livestock shall remain here in this land which Moses gave you, but you shall pass before your brethren arm, all your mighty men of valor, you know, until God gives them the land.

And how did they respond? In verse 16, they answered Joshua, saying, all that you command us we will do. Wherever you send us, we will go. Boy, if you're ever in charge of some people, some of you are employers have employees, wouldn't you love if they all had that attitude all the time? The Israelites didn't always act that way, but they said, whatever you tell us to do, we're going to do.

We're going to go where you say, just as we heeded Moses and all things, so we will heed you. Only the eternal your God be with you as he was with Moses. Whoever rebels against your command and does not heed your words and all that you command him shall be put to death. Only be strong and of good courage. To me, those are stirring words. Now, and that must have helped Joshua.

As I said, he was following a pretty impressive leader, but God said, I'm with you, be strong and of good courage. The people said, we're going to be with you. We're going to do what you say. But even with all that encouragement, there are still two major obstacles to completing what he had to do. For one, they were still on the eastern side of the Jordan River, and its spring, and the Jordan overflows all its banks at this time. And it wasn't just the soldiers going across. They had to take everyone. Little kids, women, older citizens, all their livestock. Nowadays, I know military engineers have detailed plans for how to build bridges and stuff, because getting a bunch of people over a flowing body of water is tough.

So that was a major obstacle. And then, of course, once you got past there was Jericho. The major fortification in the area, very powerful city. And here's where I want to refer. I'm going to go back to my Bible, but Connor's got a children's book full of Bible stories from the Old Testament. One of his favorite is the story of Joshua and Jericho, and I love the way it puts some of this. So if you see this, here's Joshua looking out. I know some of you in the back might not see it very clearly, but what it says is, Joshua, the leader of the Israelites, had a big problem. He says, we came to the Promised Land because God told us to, well, the big city of Jericho is in our way.

So that's a big problem. From the camp of the Israelites, Joshua looked out at Jericho, and the city had strong stone walls and gates locked up tight. It was a big problem, all right? If only Joshua knew what to do next. Now, we'll come back to that, but it makes it pretty simple. There's this big fortified city, and it's got these big stone walls. It's in our way. We can't just go in and take their land, but we've got to come back to that later.

Joshua knows the problem is there, but that first obstacle is there, and some other things. And children's stories don't like to deal with some of the details, such as we're going to see in the second chapter of Joshua. The second chapter tells us how Joshua sent two spies. We might use the term, scouts, to check out the land, and especially Jericho. Find out what we're facing here, and what's the best way for us to go about it. Now, if you look in the first verse of chapter 2, it says, Joshua the son of Nun sent out two men from a case you grove to spy secretly, saying, Go, view the land.

The Hebrew allows that could have said, Joshua had sent them. We don't know for sure when he sent them. Some of the commentaries I was looking at said, there's a lot of indication that he sent them out on the first day of AVID, so the beginning of the new calendar, and that would fit with some other things.

Excuse me. So they do go, they go into Jericho, and they meet an interesting person, Rahab. And it's interesting, it struck me even last night as I was looking at this as, Rahab the prostitute. It's interesting, and I wondered when I came across this, can we look at the Hebrew? Does it say the same word applies for being a prostitute as perhaps being an innkeeper or something like that? From what I found, no. Prostitute means prostitute.

So we can't dumb it down and say Rahab, you know, she was really living a good life and had never done anything wrong. Apparently, she was a prostitute. Now, I don't imagine that the two spies went to where she was seeking those services. The speculation, or my guess is that they thought, well, the government, if they find out we're here, they're going to try to catch us, which they did. So they won't be looking for us at a place like this. Or perhaps they didn't know, maybe they thought it was, you know, like a motel sex and they could get a place to see.

I wouldn't be surprised, though, from what we see happen. I haven't been to a problem. Maybe they look like a hotel sex. I don't know.

So I wasn't throwing that one out there for humor, believe it or not.

But there's a good reason to think perhaps God did guide them there because of what happened.

Rahab was different than the other people in the city. We touched on this during the In-Home Bible studies. If we look in verse 8, and this is after she basically told the guards, no, they were here, but they left. Go look for them. And she's got the men hidden up on the roof. She says, now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof and said to the men, I know the eternal has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, that all the inhabitants of the land are faint-hearted because of you. This was important information for them to know. But it's interesting what she says. We have heard how the eternal dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt. She's talking about what happened 40 some years ago, but this is front of mind for them. This is some powerful God.

And what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of Jordan, Sion and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. As soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted. Neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you. For the Eternal your God, he is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. I find that interesting. And I'm not going to turn there, but if you look Hebrews 11, the faith chapter that talks about all these heroes, it mentions that Rahab acted on faith. She wasn't saying, I'm so afraid I'll do anything to save my life. And she probably didn't want it. I'm sure she didn't want to die. She wanted to save her life, but she believed that this was the true God. She didn't know him very well yet, but she had faith. She was and the other people of Jericho, where was their faith? The other people, the people of Jericho had their faith in those strong stone walls and those tall gates locked up tight. That's where their faith was. Rahab thought, that's nothing for a God who can part the seed and destroy the Emerites. So she decided, I want to be on his side. So she said in verse 12, now therefore I beg you swear to me by the Eternal, since I've shown you kindness, that you will also show kindness to my Father's house and give me a true token and spare my my Father and my Mother, my Brothers, my Sister, and all that they have and deliver us from death. So she wants to become part of the nation of Israel.

Now the spies made a deal with her and we hope they were inspired by God, but we know that God did honor the promise they gave. They said, okay, we'll spare you as long as you don't give us away. Don't tell anybody this business of ours and we don't want to take responsibility for your people being all over the place. So they say, we want you to tie a red, a scarlet line in your window. And by the way, this is the same window that she let them out. Matter of fact, in verse 15, she let them down by a rope through the window for her house was on the city wall. She fell upon the wall. That's important. We need to know. And it tells us something that they must not have known what God had in mind. Now we know the end of the story. I won't give it away in case you haven't read this book before, but I think most of you have. So I'm guessing they hadn't read the book. Because they're saying, stay here in this house that's part of the city wall and we'll come and get you. And God was probably listening saying, okay, you know, I'm going to work a miracle and now I'm going to have to adjust it a little. Because later on, they did come there and get her.

And we'll see that the wall would be intact at that point. Now we left off the children's story.

And that's where we left off that they're getting ready to go accomplish these things. But we, the children's story doesn't talk about that other obstacle. You know, these were hardy young men soldiers who had swum the river that was flooded and swam back. Now after, uh, heart harlot, after Rahab the harlot, here I go again, poor woman. She probably wasn't a harlot the rest of her life. I mean, she comes, becomes part of the lineage of Christ. So we should start calling her a Rahab, you know, the repentance, the repenter. You know, Rahab the hero.

Doesn't roll off the tongue the same way. Anyway, she let them in down and said, they're going to be looking for you. Go hide out. So they went to hidden mountains for three days. Then they come back to the camp of Israel. And we're going to see that something interesting will happen. Let's go to chapter three.

Chapter three in verse one.

I like that. You haven't done this before. And they hadn't. Many of them, there are actually some who were, you know, there might have been some old enough who, as little children, did cross the Red Sea and had this dim memory. And I'm sure what was about to happen would revive that memory. Because what happened, of course, is that the priests are told, wade out into the river and they start wading out and suddenly the water that's there just drops. It drains on out. And it's a good ways upstream that the water begins piling up as if behind an invisible dam. And I would have loved to have seen that. We're not told exactly how far it was. It says it was a good ways up by another town. So I'm not sure if it was inside of the Israelites, but it just piled up and they were able to stream across. I think that's one of the important things. It says to stay back about 2000 cubits. If a cubit is about 18 inches, I'm guessing that's somewhere in the range between half a mile and three quarters of a mile, I think. I know there's about 5,000 feet in a mile, right? So it's a little ways. And then they probably didn't go in a nice little narrow stream. They probably, as a mob, moved across. Not a mob, but pretty wide swath. And they all went across.

But while that was happening, there was something special to be done. Joshua told each tribe, choose me out one man from each tribe I've got a job for. And apparently they chose the biggest or strongest man in each tribe. They were supposed to pick up a rock. And just imagine if you were showing, you're the biggest man, the biggest, strongest guy in the tribe of Gad, I need you to get a rock. How big a rock do you suppose you got? Probably, I'm the strongest. I'm gonna get a rock no one else can carry. And he went, I'm guessing they were good, strong men. They carried these rocks up. And then when they camped that night, they built a monument. They piled these rocks up.

And for a specific purpose, to show what had been done. In chapter 4, verse 21, it says, then he spoke to the children of Israel, saying, when your children asked their fathers in time to come saying, what are these stones? And that happens. That's happened for years. And we see it with many things. Several of you live over by Peebles and Hillsborough. What happened when the first white man came into that area and they found the serpent now? And they probably looked at it and said, what's this supposed to mean? And they're still pondering that. Maybe something a little closer to this would be when in England they found Stonehenge. We've all seen images of these huge rocks. We say, what does this mean? Well, God set up something that would cause people to say, what is this? But he also said, remember the answer. Tell your children, this is where God brought our people into the Promised Land. He worked this miracle. God likes to have things to spur our memory. So I find this significant important that he wanted to do this. It's easy to overlook, though, that there were two monuments built that day. Each man, one man from each tribe, picked up a large stone, but also... Now, I didn't write down the verse here. Over in chapter 4, verse 9, it says, "...then Joshua, not one man from each tribe, but Joshua himself set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in that place where the feet of the priests who bore the Ark of the Covenant stood. And they're still there to this day." Now, I wonder, are they still there to this day?

I'm just sure... I don't know. I've never heard anybody say they are or they aren't. I'd love to see them if they are. I'm not sure if he set them up in a particular pattern or just high enough, but I imagine he did it so that even when the water came back, people could come to the shore and say, look at those rocks out there. That's where the priests stood when God worked this miracle.

Now, there's obvious parallels. As I said, some people in that crowd might have been old enough to have remembered being young children and maybe holding Dad's hand as they walk through the Red Sea and seeing the walls on either side. There's a parallel, but there are differences. It's worth noting. One of the things we want to keep in mind is that the Israelites were in Egypt and God gave them the Passover, so they kept the Passover and then crossed through the Red Sea.

And I should note, the Jewish tradition says they crossed the Red Sea also on the last day of Unleavened Bread. Of course, they went out with a high hand on the first day of Unleavened Bread, went all that way down, got entangled in the wilderness, God separated them from the Egyptians, then opened the sea and to close out the Holy Day Festival that year. What a great way to close it out! Wouldn't that be great if we could leave the halls this afternoon and do something like that?

But what I want to make the point, they crossed, they kept the Passover, then had this great miracle. In this case, crossing the River Jordan, didn't picture coming out of sin.

It pictured them coming in, what didn't picture? They were coming into the Promised Land. So they crossed over into the Promised Land and would then keep the Passover.

Okay, so Passover, we're going to read about that in a moment.

And so if coming out of Egypt pictures God's people coming out of the sinful way of life, and of course that's what the days of Unleavened Bread picture are, putting away sin, overcoming, then I lost track of where I was going. Yeah, Israel going in, crossing the Jordan, going into the Promised Land, did not picture that.

But it does note that just as Christians today have to go through a process of preparing to enter God's Kingdom, and still have obstacles to overcome, so these Israelites would have a lot of obstacles yet to overcome.

I noted they had two big obstacles. First, they had the Jordan River. God stopped that, took care of it.

It's done. Get over there. There's some other obstacles yet to do. So just because you're repentant, you're ready to keep the Passover, doesn't mean it's all done. We're coming up with that. And of course, one of the reasons I wanted to speak on this today is that it matches with the Holy Day calendar. Joshua 4 in verse 19, it says, Now the people came up from the Jordan, so they went down one bank across, came back up the other bank, on the tenth day of the first month, and they camped at Gilgal on the east border of Jericho.

So it was the tenth day of the month of Aedip. Was that significant to the Holy Day calendar? Yes, the tenth day is the day the sheep or the lamb was set aside so that four days later would be slaughtered. So God had them do this, particularly on... He decided when they would cross, He had them do it on a day of significance in the Holy Day calendar. It's a day that's largely lost on us. It's not a Holy Day, but it's a day of setting aside, and of course that lamb pictured Jesus Christ who would be sacrificed. Now the Israelites are about to follow this up with something very significant. We read on in chapter 5, starting in the second verse, At that time the eternal said to Joshua, Make flint knives for yourself, and flint knives can be very sharp. You know, that edge can be as sharp as stainless steel, I believe, perhaps sharper. And I don't know flint now, and I don't know flint knapping, but I've talked with some people who know about it, and it's sharp. I saw Mr. Jumaker nodding his head. He agrees, I hope. Anyways, make these flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time. Now I want to stop and say, when it says second time, I don't think it means individuals being circumcised the second time. Nobody wants to even consider that. But it means there are a lot of people that have not been circumcised, and that's what it tells us. So Joshua made flint knives for himself, and probably for a lot of other people, and circumcised the sons of Israel at the Hill of the Foreskins, which, that's the name they called it, but they named it after what literally happened. Remember, well, let me read on. The reason Joshua circumcised them, or this is the reason, all the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war had died in the wilderness. They refused to enter the Promised Land when God wanted them to bring them in, so he said, okay, you're going to wander for 40 years, a day for a year, and I'll bring your children in. Well, those men said they had all been circumcised. In verse 5, all the people who came out of Egypt had been circumcised, but all the people born in the wilderness on the way as they came out of Egypt had not been circumcised. For the children of Israel walked 40 years in the wilderness till all the people who were men of war who came out of Egypt were consumed, because they did not obey the voice of the Eternal, whom the Eternal swore that He would not show them the land which the Eternal had sworn to their fathers, that He would give us a land flowing with milk and honey. So God says, this is the, you know, so all of those young, everybody basically, I think 40 and under, had not been, all the men, had not been circumcised. So when it says this is the second time they were circumcised, I think the first time is referring back to when God first gave circumcision to Abraham. That's a time when a mass of men, all in one group, with this Abraham circumcised himself, well, maybe he had somebody else do it.

But every, all the males in the household were done at once, and this is the second time that all the males in the household were done, and remember there were at least 600,000 of them.

So that's why they named the camp Hill of the Foreskins, which is kind of a gruesome mental image. At least I'm saying it after we've had lunch.

But in verse 9, it says, The Eternal said to Joshua, This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you. Therefore, the name of the place is Gilgal. There's a parallel image, but this day, finally, the reproach of Egypt is taken away.

And that gives a clue to the answer to the question I've often pondered, why didn't they circumcise their kids while they wandered those 40 years?

And we don't know the exact reason it doesn't tell us.

I've wondered, perhaps, since, you know, remember they're following the pillar of cloud by day, fire by night, and when it moved, they moved. Maybe they were afraid to do a circumcision because the cloud might move at any time. That's a possibility. But the fact that he's saying, now I finally rolled the reproach of Egypt away from you, that gives me the thought that perhaps it's because the children of Israel were in rebellion against God. They wouldn't go into the Promised Land when he told them to. And so he said, fine, you're not going in. I'm going to do it with your children. And those people were still in rebellion. For that whole 40 years, they did what they had to because they had to. Remember, at various times, they would rebel and God would punish them. But they weren't with the progrator. And so, apparently, they weren't obeying God and circumcising their children. Perhaps maybe a few in their work.

But the general majority were not. I knew there was a word I was trying to say.

So at this point now, though, they are. They get in line with God's way. And it says, now he's completed removing the reproach of Egypt. So a 40-year-long process comes to its conclusion. They're all circumcised now, all the men, and they're qualified now to participate in the past.

And I don't know what they've been doing for the 40 years before, if they had or not.

But remember, when God gave the Passover regulations to Moses, He said, anyone in the family of a man who's circumcised can participate. But if you're not circumcised, if you want to take the Passover, you got to get circumcised. So they were all ready to do so. Now, before I go on to that, I'll mention, though, of course, we don't practice circumcision for that reason. We still believe that it's a good health measure, but not something that's required to be part of God's Church. If you want to turn to Colossians 2.11, we're going to come back to Joshua. So I've got my hand here. But we'll see what we do require to be part of God's Church fully and to participate in the Passover. Not the right of circumcision, but what we would call the spiritual circumcision. Colossians 2, verse 11 says, in Him you were also circumcised. That Him is Jesus Christ. In Him you were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands. So it's a spiritual thing. By putting off the body of sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ buried with Him in baptism. That's the circumcision of Christ. When you're buried with Him in baptism, that accomplishes what circumcision was a symbol of in the Old Testament, by which you were also raised in Him through faith, the working of God who raised Him from the dead. So I wanted to keep in mind, since I'm talking so much about circumcision and then keeping the Passover, of course we have a different type of circumcision today. But they did move forward. Back in Joshua 10, as soon as they finished all that circumcising, Joshua 5 and verse 10 says, Now the children of Israel camped at Gilgal and kept the Passover on the 14th day of the month at twilight in the plains of Jericho. And as I said, maybe there's some parallel or mirror image. The preceding generation kept the Passover, then crossed the Red Sea. This generation crossed the Jordan and then kept the Passover.

And as I noted, circumcision and baptism both signify repentance. They're symbolic of repentance and Passover signifies Christ's sacrifice that pays the penalty for the sins. And in either case, the penalty has to be paid.

But of course, those lands in the Old Testament time were a symbol of the real sacrifice.

Oh, one of the things we're leading up to, though those Israelites had taken all these important steps, it wasn't all done. Just as for Christians, repentance and baptism is an important step, but then we have to continue striving to overcome sin. Now, we have to continue overcoming and working to develop that character. So it was here, the Israelites were circumcised, they crossed the Jordan River, they kept the Passover, but they had work to do. And of course, the Days of Unleavened Bread are a symbol of that continuing to work to overcome, and they had the Days of Unleavened Bread ahead of them. So this year, of course, the Israelites were going to celebrate the Days of Unleavened Bread in a very unique way. Looking at verse 11 of chapter 5. Something interesting happens now.

After they kept that Passover, remember, at Swylight, beginning the 14th, they ate of the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain on the very same day.

Then the manna ceased on the day after they'd eaten the produce of the land. The children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year. That's interesting. They'd been wandering all this time. Many of them had been eating manna all their lives. They probably didn't know what wheat bread tasted like. And what the Bible tells us, manna bread tasted pretty good anyways. But the way I see this fitting in the calendar, you know, they kept Passover right at the beginning of the 14th. The next morning, as usual, there is the manna. So they gathered it up. And remember, it's not the days of unleavened bread yet, but of course, that's starting to sundown. But they also, they saw one of two things, either stores, stores of grain and food that the people of Jericho had gathered, but they weren't using because they were locked up in the city. Or perhaps there was an early enough crop that there's grain in the field. Either way, the Israelites gathered the food of the land, and they were able to grind it into flour, make unleavened bread. And this unleavened bread would do something that the manna would not do. It would keep. They could store it for several days if necessary. Remember, manna, you gathered it each day, and you weren't allowed to keep any overnight because it would breed worms in stink. Except miraculously, one day a week, on the sixth day, you could gather twice as much. Okay, regular grain doesn't do that. Now, it'll eventually breed worms in stink, but it takes a bit longer. But it's interesting how this follows. So they had that day, it was the Passover day. There's a transition. There's manna, but they also find this other grain and eat it. And there's no more manna. So the first day of unleavened bread, you know, they celebrate perhaps that night. They have a night to be much observed dinner, and maybe they have some of both. But the next morning, they look out and, what do you know? There's no manna out here.

The first time the manna came to see him, what's this? What do we do with it? This time they're probably saying, what's going on? There's no manna. Well, you've got this other food, and they would eat that from now on. And something else amazing happened at that time, because now they're camped, we believe, about a mile away from Jericho. Enough so, if you go to the edge of the camp, you can look and see those walls looming. And that's where we left off in the story. Remember, Joshua was looking at that city going, boy, only I knew what to do. And the story continues. I'm not going to... it portrays it in a way that's not entirely accurate. Let's read in verse 13.

It came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, and he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood opposite him with a sword drawn in his hand. Joshua was no coward by any means. Guy was a sword? I'm going to go talk to him. Are you for us or for our adversaries? I think the book version says, are you friend or foe? And I like this. He says, are you this or that? And the answer is no. In other words, I'm neither. He says, but as commander of the army of the eternal, I have now come. So he says, I'm not a friend or a foe. I'm the commander of this army. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped him and said, what does my Lord say to his servant? And then the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, take your sandals off your feet for the place where you stand is holy. And Joshua did so. Now there are many who studied the Bible that believe this was an angel, but we're certain that it was not. For one thing, no angel will permit a man to worship it. Now, Joshua bowed down in his face and worshiped him, and the guy didn't say, get up. I'm just, I'm an angel. You can only worship God, which happened with John in Revelation and happened some other place. Also, of course, only God can make a place holy. This was God materialized himself. The one who we know from John 1-1 as the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God. This is the commander of the army of the eternal. That's another name that he has.

And he appeared, apparently, in the flesh to Joshua. So this was not just an angel, someone of a higher rank.

And we know that also, of course, the next chapter, it doesn't record what the commander told him, but later Joshua goes and tells the other people, and he says, the Lord or the Eternal said to Joshua, see, I've given Jericho into your hand. It's king and it's mighty men. Actually, let me back up and read the first verse.

Now this is where, oh, and by the way, I should mention so far, this fits with the Holy Day calendar. As I said, it's perhaps the morning of the days of Unleavened Bread. They've gotten up and there's no meana. Joshua was wandering, maybe not wandering, but he's pondering, and he meets the commander of the army of the Lord, still the first day of Unleavened Bread, and he tells him, this is what you've got to do. This is where Connor's story book brought something in my mind that I just didn't realize before. It shows Joshua, and I apologize for those of you in the back, but it shows him going and talking to the men. Of course, the artist makes him big. So instead of showing Joshua talking to thousands of people, there's four or five there, somebody said, Joshua told his men, we must march around the city once for six days. On the seventh day, we'll march around seven times. Then the priest, the priests, the priests will blow their trumpet and the people will shout. The walls of the city will tumble down. And here it says, I know this is a strange way to fight a battle, but this is God's battle and we'll do what he says. Now, I wonder, do you think Joshua ever said, boy, this is a strange thing he's asking us to do, but he might have thought it. But then again, God had told him to do a lot of other things. And what I find interesting, I turned the page and it says, the priests and soldiers lined up right away and began to march. You know, I read this to Connor several times. I thought, really? I didn't envision it that way in my head. And I turned to the scripture and it says here in verse seven, he said to the people, proceed and march around the city. Let them advance. Now, actually, I want to go to verse eight. So it was when Joshua had spoken to the people, seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of ransporns before the eternal advanced and blew the trumpets. The Ark of the covenant followed and then the armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets and the rearguard came afterwards. I guess it surprised me because I'm sort of a, I don't think a plotter because I like to think I'm a man who goes and gets things done, but whenever I'm presenting, okay, here's something we got to get done. I'm the type that says, okay, I want to think about it. I want to consider the options and in a day or two, I'll take action. You know, and sometimes that's a good thing to do. Sometimes it's not. And what I saw here is apparently, as I said, morning, it's the days on first day of unleavened bread. No manna. Meet God in the flesh. He says, get ready and go march. He walks back and said, hey, this is what we got to do. They got up on their feet and they went. Wow. How often do we do that?

Maybe not often enough. What an example. You know, unless God gives us a starting time, when he tells us to do something, probably generally it means right away.

And when he says, have no other gods before me, he doesn't mean keep one more Christmas and then not put up the tree. Which, by the way, my family did that when I was like 10 years old. So it's a long time ago. But no, he means if I tell you, you know, do this, do it now, unless I tell you another time. Now he does tell us the seventh day is a Sabbath. So if you learn that on a Thursday, you don't say, well, I've missed a lot of Sabbath. I'm going to start resting now and make up for all the Sabbath I missed. That analogy is not holding up very well. But anyways, I was just impressed as I said, Joshua gave him the word. It might have been afternoon by that time. But even if it was, say, even now, four o'clock, you got to march a mile around the city and come back, you could even do that that same day. And whenever it was, they started, they did. And as I mentioned, the story goes on. This was an admittedly rare occasion in the history of Israel when the people did what they were told. They were obedient and cooperative. The men of fighting age each day got in formation and they went out and marched around the city. And they were told, don't talk. Keep quiet and not even singing. You know, no hundred bottles of beer on the wall, you know, you pass the time. They were quiet. And the only sound was marching feet and the rams horns, which I wish I had one because you've all heard they make that sound. And the people of Jericho are probably looking down. Matter of fact, the book covers that too. This isn't my go-to for everything theological, but even you in the back, I see it shows that Jericho people going, look at those silly Israelites! That's no way to fight a battle. They're just marching around blowing horns.

But of course it says, but this was God's battle and God said to march, so they were going to march.

And of course, the people of Jericho didn't know what was about to hit them. They were thinking limited terms. And of course, at the end, well, I'm going to read to get to that.

Let's go to Joshua 6 and verse 16 because I don't want to make it seem anticlimactic when God's promise comes to be. On the seventh time it happened, now remember what we believe is the last day of Unleavened Bread coinciding with today, they went up, they got up early in the morning.

As a matter of fact, it says in verse 15, came to pass on the seventh day they rose early about the dawning of the day because they're going to have to circle the city seven times. And they marched around the city seven times in the same manner. On the way that day they did it seven times. Still no talking, but on the seventh time it happened. When the priest blew the trumpet, now Joshua says, shout for the eternal has given you the city. And they all shouted.

Imagine thousands of them shouting, the trumpets blowing. And I don't know if it happened all at once or if as the book describes there was a rumble and then a shaking and the walls all fall down flat. And it says every man went in straight before him. And that's interesting. If you study military history, they always worked to get a breach in the wall and then everybody lines up and they stream through that breach, which isn't as effective because any good movie is going to show them killing them then a few at a time as they try to get through that hole. Here, every way, as an entrance. They can all go in straight before them, except for one place, of course.

In verse 20, it says, the people shouted, the priest blew the trumpets, the wall fell down flat. While it was going is verse 22. Sorry. Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the country, go into the harlot's house. Poor girl, she can't get a break. She's retiring. But from there, bring out the woman and all that she has as you swore to her. And the young men who had been spies were sending brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brothers and all that she had. So they brought her and all her relatives out and left them outside the camp.

As I said, this indicates that one part of the wall did not fall down flat. God honored the men's promise and the faith that Rahab had.

It's interesting. There's been archaeological studies of Jericho that people are astounded. It looks like the walls all fell down, but there's one small section that the archaeological dig says it doesn't look like this fell in the same way. It stayed up. And they always look in the garbage to see what kind of people lives. A certain place, you know, the garbage pits. And they say this was a poor area of town. The type of area where a prostitute would set up shop, probably.

So the archaeology matches perfectly with this story here.

Oh, yeah, I did want to go one more time to the children's story.

It's funny. Connor was watching this morning. He didn't pay attention. Maybe because I've read the book a mazillion times. But suddenly the city walls toppled. Now you only see three of them here. It's a close up. And they toppled with a crash and a war. Because they obeyed God, Joshua and the Israelites won the battle. They hurried into the city with cheers and shouts thanking God for the victory, which they do. And that's a great end of the story. This illustration shows them waving the sword with big smiles on their faces and their spears. It doesn't tell the little kids what they're about to do with the swords and spears, which is just as well for two-year-olds. I don't want to focus on the bloodletting and the gore, but I do want to read it here in verse 21, chapter 6. It says, they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, man, woman, young and old, oxen sheep and donkey with the edge of the sword.

That's something we should be aware of, partly because of the spiritual lessons.

And I'm going to come back to that. And I've been commenting on a number of the things I think we should be aware of as we go, but I want to focus on a couple of the major spiritual lessons from this event that happened, you know, on this day in history, not 200 years ago today, more like 3 or 4 thousand years ago today, but on the last day of Unleavened Bread, this all happened.

The biggest and I think the most obvious lesson is the one that matches the meaning of the days of Unleavened Bread. And that is, we have a task before us that's simply beyond our abilities.

Just like the Israelites saw those walls, what do we have to do? We have to overcome sin, change our way of life. We have to stop sinning and learn the way of give, the way of love. And we simply cannot do it, not by our own power. I'm saying it can't be done, but not by our own power. And that's probably what Joshua and the Israelites thought when they saw those walls of Jericho. And they not only saw them from a mile away, God had told them, get up and march around the city. So while they're there being quiet, they could look and they might have been looking for weaknesses. Maybe I could climb up this way or that, but there weren't any. They were probably thinking, there's no way we can do this. You know, it would take these powerful siege engines, you know, if they knew what a siege engine was and ladders really tall, and we don't have those resources. They might have thought, this is too big of a job. We don't have what it takes to conquer Jericho. And they didn't.

And God knew it. He showed them that his power was far greater than theirs. He could make it possible to do the impossible. And in our effort to root out sin out of our lives, we have the same problem as the Israelites. Not the same problem as the city wall, but we have something that we can't do on our own. Face it, we've all sinned, as Romans 6.23 tells us, and Romans... no, Romans 3.23. Romans 6.23 tells us the penalty for that is death. We can never pay the penalty and then live.

We could pay the penalty one time and we're done. The only way we could live is have someone else pay the penalty. And that's what happened. I want to go to Romans 5 to look at a couple scriptures. Romans 5 and verse 6. We'll leave the book of Joshua for a little while. It says, When we were still without strength, we didn't have the strength it took, but in due time Christ died for the ungodly. And of course, we celebrate that when we're baptized, and we remind ourselves of it every year at the Passover, which we just have.

Christ died for the ungodly. He did something we can't do on our own. Pay for the penalty for sin and yet let us live. But it's not over then. We have an ongoing struggle against sin. And we can continue to count on God to do for us what we can't do on our own.

Just think, if... Well, let's go to Romans 5 and verse 10.

If when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of the Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

What this is saying is that the penalty for my sins is paid for by Christ's sacrifice, but that alone, if that's all that happened, it would leave me the same person that I was, and I would sin again, and I wouldn't change, and I'd still bring on the death penalty.

So it's Christ living in me that makes the change. It allows me to do something that's totally impossible, and that's where it says we're reconciled by His death, but we're saved by His life. You can turn over to Galatians 2.20, or if I've read it often enough that you already know what it says, I'll just read it to you. Galatians 2.20 says, I've been crucified with Christ, and in baptism, that's what we're symbolically doing. We're being crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, it is no longer I who live, sorry, I'm quoting from the old Teen James by memory, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

So I give up my life, and then Christ lives in me, and that's why the power of the Holy Spirit.

We understand that this was what Christ was telling the apostles, that last passover that He was with them, when He talked about, I'm going to send another comforter, the paraclete, the Holy Spirit, that will come and be with you. And then He also said, if you love me, the Father will love you, and will come and dwell with you, will dwell in me. And that's what's happening when Jesus Christ and the Father live in us by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And that gives us the power to do things that we can't do on our own.

I want to turn over to Philippians chapter 3.

It's interesting, this is one of those cases where you make a mistake and it turns out all right, because originally my notes, I had Philippians 4 verse 13. I started reading Philippians 3.13, and I said, I like that. I want to read that too. So I'm going to read Philippians 3.13, where Paul says, brethren, I don't count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, that sinful life I had before, reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. So I'm not done yet, but I'm pressing on to that. And in chapter 4 verse 13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I can't do it, but through Christ in me, I can. I can do anything. What are the things we have to do? Well, let's turn back to 2 Corinthians 10. And since we've been talking about knocking down great stone wall fortifications, it fits in with the spiritual version of that. 2 Corinthians 10 and verse 3, though we walk in the flesh, we don't war according to the flesh. So we're not carrying spears and swords and shields the way the ancient Israelites did. But the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they're mighty in God for the pulling down strongholds. God knocked down the stronghold of Jericho. He says we have weapons for pulling down strongholds. What kind of strongholds? Not ones with stone walls, but in verse 5 it says, casting down arguments. Every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. We're facing a different kind of battle than the ancient Israelites and a different stronghold. Our greatest battles are within ourselves. They're the battles of the mind.

And I'm not telling you anything new. As Mr. Call said in the Sermonette, this is the day when we remind ourselves of things we've studied and learned, and that's okay. It's good to review that.

Now, it probably doesn't take long to think of easily one or two strongholds that you've faced before or maybe are still facing. It could be a temper that lets anger get out of control. A person could have trouble keeping the Sabbath or tithing. And, of course, the many addictive behaviors that are out there that can pull you in and are hard to overcome. But we think the worst of it is in your mind. Christ said that to lust is as bad as committing adultery physically. To hate is as bad as murder. With a standard like that, how hard is it for us to measure up to Christ in these ways? Well, I know the answer. It's impossible. That's how hard it is, at least without God working in us. And that's the crucial thing. By ourselves, we can never reach the standard. But with God, we can. With God, all things are possible. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I think I meant to leave a longer pause there, so I'd say, I just read this. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And I'm up here saying, I don't want you to think that I'm on this ego trip. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. Whenever we're struggling with a problem of any kind, any sin or temptation, we can think about those walls of Jericho. It's not just a kid's story. It really happened, you know, in real technicolor. I watched a little bit of that Bible story on History Channel. That portrayed it a little more realistically than the Bible stories, although it still fell short in some ways, I think. But we can think about that. The Israelites couldn't destroy those walls of Jericho, but God could and God did. Whenever there's a sin that you or I can't conquer, God can and He will. But there's where I want to look and I don't want to give the impression that that's all we could just set back and let it happen. And that's where some, you know, people who call themselves Christians get off the track. They say, oh, Jesus died for my sins. It's all gravy from here on out. Now, there's another lesson from the conquest of Jericho. God knew from the start that He was going to knock down those walls, but He didn't tell Joshua, I want you to go give this message to the Israelites. Tell them to sit back in their tents and relax, and I'll call them when it's all done. No, He gave them work to do. You know, God made them participate, you know, for seven days. And there, as I said, it's my personal belief that that's why God made the Days of Unleavened Bread seven days long to show us that overcoming sin doesn't happen quickly or easily. It's an ongoing process. It takes time. It represents the rest of our lives.

Because do we have any doubt that God could have knocked the walls down on day one?

You know, same wall, same God, same power.

He doesn't tell us why He waited to the seventh day, but I think it might have been partly to make a point. You know, He wanted the Israelites to know they're in it for the long haul. This is going to take some effort on your part. And when the walls did fall flat, they still had work to do. As I said, the children's story just ends there, and there's all smiles. There's no red on the spears and swords. But the Israelites had to go in and do work. And they had to go in and kill. I don't want to focus on the bloodletting or the gore. That's not something that's nice, but not nice to think about. And we don't want to imply that the Canaanites and the Amorites and Jebusites and... I think no minister can ever resist referring to the otherites. But, you know, we don't want to imply that they were any less worthy of God's mercy. They're going to have God's mercy when they're resurrected in the world tomorrow, and they're going to be forgiven and have a great life. So, you know, focusing on them getting killed isn't for that purpose.

But the fact that the Israelites had to go in and fight them after God knocked down the walls of Jericho can tell us something today. I think what it's saying is that God will do for us the things that we cannot do. But there are things that we can do, and He wants us to do it. We have to struggle. We have to be in there. We're going to have our skin in the game, so to speak.

And I've recently said this, or read this, let's go back to Romans 5. You probably have it memorized by now. I've read it so many times, but we'll do it one more time and then let it rest for a while.

Romans 5, verse 3.

Not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that the tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character. That's what we need. And character, hope. And hope doesn't disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit that's given to us. That's coming back to the point that I was making in my sermon two days ago about why we have to overcome sin. It's important, though, when I talk about how we have to overcome to build this character, the one thing I didn't mention in that sermon is that the fact that Jesus Christ makes it possible. We have to overcome. We have to struggle to build that character, but He's always going to make it so we can succeed. He's going to do for us what we can't do for ourselves. It occurred to me, though, it's funny, even I was always writing and so that, but you know what the scary thing is?

As Christians, we never know which is which. When you're facing that wall, can I knock it down, or does God have to knock it down? We're not going to know until we make our best efforts.

And then we can know that if we're not able to do it, God is going to do it for us, but we have to take on every fight, every challenge that we're trying to overcome. We have to go in.

And I'm pretty sure it was Herbert Armstrong that used to say, you have to work as though everything depends on you, and you pray as though everything depends on God. And as I said, we don't know which it'll be, but we have the reassurance that we see in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 13. This is a commonly memorized scripture, and for good reason.

No temptation has overtaken you, except such as this common demand. So we're all in this together, but God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tempted, or tested, or tried beyond what you're able. But with the temptation, with the trial, with the difficulty, He'll make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. I didn't really... He didn't... It doesn't say He'll make a way of escape so that you don't have to go through any suffering, but I'll make a way that you can bear it. Sometimes it means He's not going to get you out of it, but He'll strengthen you enough to survive it, or to die in the faith in the trial. You know, think of men of the Twelve Apostles, most of them martyred, but God says, I'm with you. I'll make a way. You don't necessarily know what the way will be. If Paul had been talking about the walls of Jericho, he might have used an analogy and said, God won't give you a fortress stronger than you can conquer, but if necessary, He'll knock down the walls for you. We have to march on as Christian soldiers, even when we see walls standing before us, and walls that we know that we have no power to destroy, but God will destroy them. But often after that, He still leaves us with battles to fight. As I said, the walls of Jericho tumbled, and He did that for the Israelites, but then they had to go in and take on the soldiers that had been hiding behind those walls. Sometimes God will do that for us in a temptation or trial. He knocks over the biggest barrier, but that just exposes the other battles in behind that He says, I'll strengthen you to do it, but you've got to go do it. And look where we left off in the book of Joshua was with the sixth chapter, and Joshua has what, 20 some chapters? I should know this.

Joshua seems like a long book. He had 24 chapters. So you know what was going on in a lot of those other chapters? They were moving on to the next fight, and then the next one. So God didn't do everything for them. He said you have to carry on and keep going, just as He tells us that. That's a lot of what the days of unleavened bread are about, is that we carry on all the way. You know, if you find some leavening in a cupboard somewhere that you miss, on day four, you take care of that, and God will forgive you for missing it, but He doesn't want you to leave it there and say, well, God, forgive me. I miss that. You know, I guess I'll eat it in a couple of days. So I guess we just spent some time looking back at this epic event in the history of our forefathers, but we're also looking ahead to what we see in the rest of our lives.

You know, our continued progress as Christians overcoming.

You know, I love to read stories from the Bible that have these important lessons, and they're fun stories to talk about. And the Fall of Jericho is one of those that gives, you know, this concrete demonstration of spiritual lessons. So it's exciting on its own. We could have just read the story and said, wow, that's a great story, but then the spiritual lessons make it all the better. And the children's book says that the Israelites came to the Promised Land, but Jericho was a big problem right in their way, and they didn't know the solution. But God had one planned all along. He was going to knock down those walls so that the Israelite soldiers could then deal with the enemies hiding behind them. God was always more willing to fight Israel's battles than the people were willing to ask Him for their help. Now, of course, they were unconverted, and they didn't want God telling them how to live. So there's where we can be different. God is just as willing to fight our battles. He wants to help us. And we're willing to ask, and we don't mind that He's going to tell us how to live, because He's already called us, and He's put His Spirit in us. Even those who aren't baptized have that Spirit working with you, showing you that you know this is the good way, and that's what you want. Overcoming sin is a huge challenge, and sometimes this is daunting as that big stone wall, and it's one that we can't accomplish on our own. Aren't you glad you don't have to? And that's, I guess, a bottom line, and you know already where I'm going with that. You don't have to overcome it on your own, and God is there. Now we have to do our part. We have to fight the good fight. We have to endure to the end, and never ever give up. With that in mind, I'm just going to read one more scripture rather than turning there. It's in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 57, if you want to make note. It's where Paul says, thanks be to God who gives us the victory. God gives us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.