Victory at Jericho

As I mentioned last week, we have a seven day and then an eight day feast of Tabernacles that we see in visions of the future. And yet God also gives us, here at the beginning of the year, the seven or eight, if we include the Passover as a continuing, He gives us a time to focus on some very important and significant issues. And of course, this time we've been focusing on Unleavened Bread. Unleavened Bread and the meaning of what Unleavened Bread pictures. And as I also mentioned to you last week, I hope that you have thought, I hope you've thought about how it is that you can be teachable, how that you are learning and growing in the attitudes and in the divine nature of Jesus Christ. See, that's something I've thought about. I know I've talked with my wife Pat about a good amount this week.

And I know she expressed an appreciation to be able to focus on that. Just how teachable am I? And if I am teachable, if my mind is attuned to God and to His Word and even asking for Him to show me my sins, to show me where I can grow, to show me where I can change, amazingly, He will do that. He will help us. And yet we need to be teachable and asking for that help. I want to cover a familiar story here this afternoon in this final sermon for the Days of Unleavened Bread for this year, a story that we find in the book of Joshua in chapter 5 and 6 and 7. It's the story of the fall of Jericho. And actually, this occurred as the Israelites were just about, they were beginning to enter into the Promised Land. And I believe, at least the calculations would show, that this was around 1400 BC. And so I'm not real good at all the timelines and everything, but I believe that that's pretty accurate. It was about 1400 BC. That the Israelites had come out of Egypt and they had wandered around in the wilderness for 40 years, and then right as we're going to read here in Joshua, God had brought them to the point to where they're about to enter the Promised Land. And I'm going to show you that this appears to be, at the time, that would be early in the year, early in that festival year, at the time of the Passover, and of the days following that, that we know to be the days of Unleavened Bread. So let's take a look at this. I want to read through this to begin with and then go back over some lessons that I believe could be helpful to us as we think about this story that is currently connected to the days of Unleavened Bread here in the book of Joshua. In Joshua, chapter five, actually prior to chapter five, here in chapter three, you see Israel, again having traveled through the wilderness. Most of the people, older people, had died over that period of time, and many of them were younger who were then a part of Israel. Moses, who had been the leader of Israel or the leader that God had put in place, he too was dying or had died, and a new leader had been appointed, Joshua. And Joshua was going to then be leading the Israelites into the land of Canaan. He was going to bring them into that land.

And God had said, this is the promised land. And you see that in chapter three, and I'm not going to read through chapter three, but they were to understand that God was with them. The Israelites at that time were to recognize that God was leading and guiding them. He was blessing them. And in verse 17 it says of chapter three, all of Israel were crossing over the Jordan River on dry ground. And see, that was again a completely different miracle. Brian was talking earlier this morning about the miracle of God bringing Israel through the Red Sea. And yet this is another miracle that God performed in helping them get over the Jordan and then into the promised land. But after crossing the Jordan River, you see in chapter five, verse one, all the kings of the Amorites. So these were the people who were in. They were living in the land that we would call Canaan. And they had several different groupings of people, but all the kings of the Amorites beyond the Jordan to the west and all the kings of the Canaanites by the sea, they heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the Israelites until they had crossed over and what happened? They were scared to death. It says their hearts melted and there was no longer any spirit in them because of the Israelites. See, the people who were then living in the land of Canaan, the people who were going to be dispossessed by God, and he was going to give this promised land to the people of Israel, you know, they were clearly afraid. They were mortified by the fact that not just this Israel was coming, but this Israel seemed to have a lot of help. This Israel seemed to have the help of a powerful Creator God. And so they were, and this is just the story that we will read through here, they were truly mortified. Although, you know, their cities were fortified. And clearly, the city that Israel was going to first come to was a very fortified city called Jericho.

And so the title of what I want to present today is Victory at Jericho because that was what God was going to provide for the people of Israel. At that time, he was going to provide them with a victory, certainly a victory that they had no way to predict. Certainly a victory the people of the land had no way of knowing what was going to happen. And yet clearly God was with them. I want to drop down chapter 5 verse 10 and give you the kind of the time frame, as I mentioned, while the Israelites were camped in Gilgal, that was just barely into the western shore of what we know of as the nation of Israel today.

They had crossed over the Jordan River. They were just barely into the land. They were in the area around Gilgal. This was, I believe, about five miles from where Jericho, a big, huge, fortified Canaanite city, actually a very dominant city that had been dominant for hundreds of years. It wasn't just right then, but it had been over a very long period of time, been a dominant city in that area. It says, when the Israelites were camped in Gilgal, they kept the Passover in the evening of the 14th day of the month in the plains of Jericho. And so they, as you can see, this is the time frame. They were coming into the land. They observed the Passover. And then on verse 11, on the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate the produce of the land, and they ate unleavened cakes, and they ate parched grain. And it says in verse 12, the manna that had been sustaining them for the past 40 years stopped. It ceased on the day that they began to eat the produce of the land, and the Israelites no longer had manna. They ate the crops of the land of Canaan that year. And so, in essence, they were beginning to thrive in the land. They were beginning to eat of the fruit that was there. And yet, clearly, this is describing the springtime, the time of the Passover and the days that would immediately follow, the days of unleavened bread. And I want to drop on down here to chapter 6, because here you find the instructions about what it was that at this time Joshua, what he was to do. Now, he was a new leader in Israel. He had been given authorization from God. He had been given the appointment through Moses, where to be the successor to Moses. And yet, you find here in verse 6, now Jericho was shut up inside and out because of the Israelites, and no one would go in or come out. See, the city was closed down. You know, any gates, they actually had huge walls around the city of Jericho. It was somewhat of a double wall, as we will find out later. A double wall, where there was an initial and then a secondary part to that wall, and even sections between those two walls, that gave a lot of protection and even allowed for people to live, even in that area, as we know Rahab did. She and her family lived there. But it says in verse 1 that Jericho was an extremely shut up place.

Right now, it was, you know, they were in fear of the Israelites. They didn't know what to expect. They wondered, you know, how would these Israelites come and try to overtake us? They really wondered about that. And starting in chapter 6, verse 2, you see the Lord saying to Joshua, I have handed Jericho over to you, along with its king and its soldiers, and you shall march around the city, all the warriors circling the city once. And thus you shall do for six days, and with seven priests bearing seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark, and in the seventh day, on the seventh day, you shall march around the city seven times, the priests blowing the trumpet. And when you make a long blast with the ram's horn, as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and all the people shall charge straight ahead. So these were the instructions that God was giving Israel. He was talking to Joshua. He was giving Joshua some direction about what he was to do, and perhaps he wondered. He may have wondered about this strategy. He may have wondered if this doesn't sound exactly like conventional warfare, and certainly if the others in the land have heard that, they would have wondered. That doesn't sound like much of a strategy. But, as we're going to see, you see in verse 6, Joshua, the son of none, quickly obeyed. But the Lord had told him, and he said he summoned the priests, and he said to them, Take up the Ark of the Covenant, and have seven priests carry seven trumpets of ram's horns in front of the Ark of the Lord. And to the people, he said, I want you to go forward and march around the city, and have the armed men pass on before the Ark of the Lord. And so here he clearly relayed what he had been told to do, what the strategy was, and he was going to pass that on to the people.

In verse 11, it says, So the Ark of the Lord went around the city circling at once, and they came into the camp, and they spent the night at the camp. Now, this would appear to be the time during the days of Unleavened Bread. These seven days that were going to follow the Passover, and the time when they were starting to eat unleavened cakes and the fruit of the land, these seven days were going to be the days where they would be marching around the city. And it says they did that on the first day. And then in verse 12, it goes ahead to say, Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the Ark of the Lord, and the seven priests carrying the trumpets and ram's horns, blowing the trumpets continually. And down in verse 14, it says, On the second day they marched around the city once, and then they returned to the camp, and then they did this for six days.

So it appears that that was the work that they were to do during that particular days of Unleavened Bread. They were even eating unleavened bread during that time, it appears.

That's what it says back earlier in chapter 5. But then, in verse 15, it talks about the seventh day. And this would seem to correspond to today, as we celebrate a seventh day of the days of Unleavened Bread. It says in verse 15, On the seventh day they rose early at dawn and they marched around the city in the same manner seven times.

And it was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. So again, you might say, well, that sounded like a lot of work. Well, this was the work that God was asking or telling them to do on that particular day. And in essence, it was in essence going to give them an entrance into the land. It was going to give them a victory over this highly fortified Gentile city. It was going to give them a beginning to their entrance into the Promised Land.

And so on the seventh day, in verse 16, the seventh day when the priest had blown the trumpets, Joshua said, Shout, for the Lord has given you the city and the city and all that is in it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction. Only he said, Rahab, the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live because she hid the messengers that we sent.

And I didn't follow. I didn't read through that earlier, but they had spied out the land. The messengers had come. Rahab had secured them. She had helped them and she had actually bargained with them. Well, if you'll help me, I will protect you. And so here we find, starting in verse 18, as for you, so here he was going to give them a charge. He says, we're going to go in. We're going to do what God has told us. We're going to circle the city.

We're going to do it in the formation that He has said. And we are going to then, whenever we get to a certain point, after we've circled that city seven times, we're going to have a great shout and we're going to see what God will do. He says in verse 18, as for you, I want you to keep away from the things devoted to destruction so as not to covet and not to take any of the devoted things and to make the camp of Israel an object for destruction, bringing trouble upon it. See, they were told not only what to do by this tactic that they were going to overtake the city, but they were also told that this entire city is a corrupt city.

It is a city that you want to stay away from and you want to stay away from all the stuff that is there because we're going to burn it to the ground or we're going to remove what valuables would be there and they are going to be a part of the treasury of the Lord. It says in verse 19, all the silver and gold, the vessels of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord.

They shall go into the treasury. So in verse 20, you see exactly what was going to take place. We know what happened. We can easily read this and we know what's going to happen. But it says in verse 20, as the people shouted and the trumpets were blown, as the people heard the sound of the trumpets, they raised a great shout and the wall fell down flat. So the people charged straight ahead into the city and captured it. And then they devoted to destruction by the edge of the sword all in the city, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep and donkeys.

Here you find, in a sense, a very unusual victory. A victory that could be likened unto coming out of Egypt. A victory that could be likened to going through the Red Sea or crossing the Jordan. A victory that certainly, you'd have to say, as you approach this final day, the seventh day, that would seem to correspond to the seventh day of the Days of Unleavened Bread, probably if the people inside Jericho were watching, they were probably wondering what in the world are these folks doing.

They had come out, they were circling the city once, and then going back. And they were coming out the next day and circling the city. They were probably, you know, probably was a joke among the people of Jericho about what the Israelites were doing. But what we find, and I want to read this out of a little write-up that I read about exactly what happened. When the priests completed their seventh encirclement, what we find here in verse 20, they sounded their trumpets and instantly a mighty earthquake shook the town.

Now, it doesn't directly say, it looks like for whatever manner, whatever way God used, if it was an earthquake or whatever type of an action, he caused the walls to noisily heave and crack and crumble. And normally, since the walls were reinforced from the outside, they would have collapsed in a heap. You know, if they would, if normally that would have happened, which still could have provided some protection from the invaders. But in this case, the walls appeared to defy gravity and to fall out flat, allowing the Israelite soldiers to quickly move over and through the rubble.

And so this was clearly an extremely unusual intervention from God in giving Israel a victory here at Jericho. The Bible account says that the walls fell down flat and the people went up into the city, every man, straight before him and they took the city.

And I wanted to read a little bit of information because, you know, Jericho does not exist as a city today. It is an archaeological site and there have been a number of different expeditions that have been in there to try to determine or try to figure out, you know, just exactly what happened in this area. And I want to read just a little bit that was in biblical archaeology review back actually almost 30 years ago in 1990. Archaeologist Bryant Wood wrote in the biblical archaeology review about his findings in Jericho. He mentioned that parts of the outer and the inner wall had collapsed outwardly, which allowed the Israelites to enter the city. His conclusions, based on studies of the devastation of the city, are fascinating. He asked the question, was this destruction at the hands of the Israelites? You know, the correlation between the archaeological evidence and the biblical narrative is substantial. And he actually lists several points in favor of this biblical account. So in a sense, they are, as they study this and as they look into it from the standpoint of archaeology, they are seeing that what God said happened. What we read here in Joshua chapter 5 and 6 and 7, you know, this actually occurred as God said it did. You know, he talked about, and in this article, he wrote about the city being well fortified. He wrote about the attack occurred just after the spring harvest because there was still grain there that they did find whenever it was uncovered. The inhabitants had no time or opportunity to flee with their foodstuffs, which they normally would take. If they had been able to do it, the siege was short.

The walls were leveled, possibly by an earthquake, and the city was not plundered. The city was burned.

See, this is just a verification of what we now see at the site of Jericho about what it was that God had performed. What type of miracle God had performed to give the Israelites a victory over this, and I would think it probably gave them a great deal of encouragement as they were to enter into a land and try to take a land that they were to inherit. That was certainly very remarkable. Here in verse 22, down to verse 25, Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, go into the prostitute's house to Rahab's and bring the woman out of it and all that belonged to her as you swore to her. And so they did. I'm not going to cover that section. I'm just going to say that she was spared. She and her household were spared because they also obeyed and did what these messengers had said. Now, verse 20, in a sense, is the conclusion. The people shouted, the trumpets were blown, the great shout, the walls fell down flat. You know, that's pretty easy to see exactly what happened, exactly what God did. But I want to follow this up by reading what we see in chapter 7, because this also ties together. You recall the warning that was given.

Leave everything alone. Don't be taking things out of here. All of this is going to be destroyed.

Now, here in chapter 7, you find an example of an Israelite who disobeyed. He said, he took some of the forbidden items. In verse 1, it says, the Israelites broke faith in regard to the devoted things. Achan of the tribe of Judah took some of the devoted things, and the anger of the Lord burned against Israel. See, even though just an unbelievable overthrow had happened, Achan got caught up in the sight of all the loot and all the things that he would be able to take for himself. And what you find is, verse 2 on down through verse 5, Israel goes up to try to take A.I., another city, and they find they can't do it. They're repulsed. They're overrun. A bunch of their own people are killed. And Joshua comes back in verse 6, and tore his clothes and fell on the ground. Joshua came back just stunned. He thought, what in the world has happened? God just gives us this miraculous victory, and a remarkable miracle happens, and then we can't even take a small town by the side of the way. And so, you see in verse 6 through 9 how Joshua is talking to God. He's distressed over what is going on. And yet God tells him in verse 10 what the case is. In verse 10, the Lord said to Joshua, Stand up. Why are you falling upon your face? Israel has sinned.

They have transgressed my covenant that I imposed on them. They have taken some of the devoted things. They have stolen, and they have acted deceitfully, and they have put them among their own belongings. Therefore, the Israelites are unable to stand before their enemies.

They turn their backs and run because they have become a thing devoted for destruction themselves.

See, what Achan had done, what he had done in sinning was bringing a destruction upon the people, the entirety of the group. And so, if you drop down, again, each paragraph gives you more information. And I'm only briefly wanting to go over this to remind us. I know I had not read this for a while, and it's always good for me to go back and read through it. And I'm only briefly reading some of it to you. Verse 16, on down to verse 21, shows how it was that Achan was discovered. And ultimately, it says, verse 28, and answered and told Joshua, it's true, I'm the one who sinned against the Lord. And this is what I did when I saw the spoil a beautiful manor from Shynar, and two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels. I coveted them, I took them, and I've hidden them in my tent. So he fast up. He said, what else could he do? He had been singled out, as you'll find. He was the one who had taken, the one who had hidden, and the one who had done all this secretly. And as you'll see, if you read verse 22 on down to the rest of the chapter through verse 26, Achan was stoned. He was put to death right there. And of course, the entire area there was called the Valley of Acor, or the Valley of Trouble, because that's what God had earlier said. If you obey, or if you disobey, then you will have trouble. If you sin, if you disregard my law, or my word in this case, not directly the law, but the instruction that God had given through Joshua, and you don't heed the warning that I am giving, then, you know, there will be trouble.

So that's a story that I want to remind you of here, again, on this last day of Unleavened Bread.

And I want to point out three different, I think, lessons or at least concepts that we might be able to take away from this. Again, this seems to be tied together with the Days of Unleavened Bread, although, you know, it may not as directly as it might seem. I can't directly prove that, because it doesn't say that they were doing this on this particular day, but it looks like, you know, they appeared during that time. First of all, I want to point out that the victory at Jericho occurred because of Joshua's faith and his obedience toward God. You know, it's very clear we've already read Joshua listened to what God had to say. He told everybody else what to do.

Did he have any idea if that would work or not? Well, clearly not. What we read in Hebrews chapter 11. If we go back to Hebrews chapter 11, we see listed among the many different Old Testament examples of people of faith. People who exhibited a faith toward God. People who were obedient and respectful to God. People who were uplifted by God's involvement in their lives. And you actually see whenever you read the story of Joshua even earlier, because he had been one of the spies who had been sent in 40 years earlier. He had been one of the good spies because he had gone into the land. He came back and said, we ought to go take it. Of course, that was discouraged.

And ultimately, Israel then was 40 years wandering. And yet, Joshua still had a very favorable spirit with him. He was still very positive, very optimistic, very faithful. And what we read here in Hebrews 11, it says in verse 29, by faith, the people pass through the Red Sea as if they were on dry land. And when the Egyptians attempted to do so, they drowned. And we heard about that this morning. In verse 30, it says, by faith, the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days. And in verse 31, it says, by faith, Rahab, the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had received the spies in peace. Now again, it doesn't directly mention Joshua, but I'm going to have to, in looking at the story, believe that Joshua was a prime candidate of an individual who would be exemplifying faith. And I think you can prove that by looking at other things regarding Joshua, but I'm simply going to mention to us that victory occurred because of the faith and obedience that Joshua displayed. And as we see here in Hebrews 11, you know, we might consider, you know, this was a tremendous obstacle that the Israelites were going to need to overcome. And as, you know, all of us, you know, face different obstacles in our lives, in our desire to obey God, in our desire to serve God and honor God, we're going to run into obstacles. We're going to run into difficulties. We're going to have situations that, again, may appear not to have an answer. But faith in God is what Joshua was using. And I think we could ask, you know, can our faith in God cause obstacles before us to collapse, like the wall of Jericho?

You know, can we exemplify that same type of faith? Can we ask God to give us that type of faith?

Can we be encouraged? See, in connection with what Joshua did, I want to mention, you can read here in the earlier parts of Joshua chapter 1. Joshua chapter 1, Joshua absolutely knew that God was with Moses. See, he had been Moses' assistant for quite some time. He had been part of the way up the mountain. Even when Moses was up receiving the Word of God, the Law of God, you know, for the 40 days, he had been an assistant to Moses. He knew who Moses was. He knew that God dealt with Moses. He talked to Moses in a different way than he did everybody else.

And of course, that was, I think, significant. But what we find here in chapter 1 is that commission from God was passed on to Joshua. He says in verse 5, as I was with Moses, or this is, again, I think the direction, better go back in verse 1, after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord spoke to Joshua and said, okay, this is the Lord telling Joshua, if we drop on down to verse 5, "...no one was able to stand against you all the days of your life, and as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not fail you. I will not forsake you. I want you to be strong and courageous. For you shall put this people in possession of the land that I swore to your ancestors to give them." Only I want you to be strong and courageous. And down in verse 9, it says, "...I hereby command you be strong and be courageous, and don't be frightened, or don't be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." See, God had given Joshua a good amount of encouragement. He had been encouraging him all along. He had been assisting Moses, but God was also preparing him to be the kind of leader and the type of servant who would exemplify obedience and then faith to God. And you see that in other of the verses that you could read about Joshua and his leadership of Israel.

If we turn on over to chapter 4, you see prior to what we were reading in 5 and 6 and 7, it says in verse 14, "...on that day the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of all the people, and they stood in awe of him." This is in chapter 4, Joshua 4, verse 14.

"...the Lord exalted Joshua in the sight of the people, and they stood in awe of him, and they, as they had stood in awe of Moses all the days of his life." See, he had been, you know, given a good amount of support, a good amount of encouragement. And again, whenever we think about that and we think about the fact that Joshua was a valiant leader, he was courageous, he was faithful, you know, we might ask ourselves, are we also confident that God is with us?

See, even more so, God is with us today. He is with you, as you have entered into, as we heard earlier today, a covenant with God, a commitment to God at baptism, as he has granted us the Holy Spirit, as he has empowered us to have faith from Him.

You know, are we confident about it? Sometimes whenever we make mistakes, sometimes when we sin, sometimes when we're just lazy or lethargic. We can question whether or not God is really with us or helping us. And yet I explain to you or encourage you to see that, well, Joshua, you know, he had a very difficult path. He had a difficult road to hold. It wasn't easy for what he was going to do, but he had faith in God because he knew God was with him. And I would say that all of us, all of us, you know, should have a same type of confidence, a confidence that's based on a belief in God's words and then an appreciation for the fact that, as God tells us, we can live by faith in God and know, know that He will help us, know that He will encourage, know that He will uplift us. So that's the first thing that I want to mention about this story that we read here in chapter 5 and 6 and 7. The second thing that I want to point out is in chapter 7 we read about Achan.

We read about Achan's hidden sin. This wasn't something that he brought out in the open. I know we read it in the first verse, you know, God in this writing of it tells us what the problem is. It tells us in verse 1, Achan had sinned against God, but that wasn't the way it really came down if you read through the whole book or the whole chapter. It had to be ferreted out. It had to be narrowed down to exactly who was disobedient because it wasn't just the fact that Achan had taken something that was not his. He had stolen. He had coveted the gold and silver and the mantle, whatever that was.

He saw those things as being desirable. He thought that he wanted those things, and so it wasn't a matter that he just took them. He coveted those. He took them, and then beyond that he hid them.

His hidden sin, again, brought shame upon Israel. And I think if we think about it, and again, if we understand this story, Jericho was, you know, an ancient city. It was a very fortified city. It had been around for many, many centuries. It was there in the plains that were going down toward the around the western coast. What we would think of the western coast, no, excuse me, the eastern coast of Israel today. It would be over toward the Jordan River, toward the Dead Sea. It actually was in this very similar area to where the city of Sodom and Gomorrah had once been. And it was an area that had been disputed, even by others of the biblical characters that we read about. They had come in contact with Jericho, but Jericho represented, in this case, for Achan, it represented an allure. See, they'd been wandering in the wilderness, and maybe they didn't have a lot of stuff. It said all their clothes lasted for 40 years. Maybe, you know, things were rather destitute. But nonetheless, Jericho represented the allure of a wicked society. See, that's what Jericho really was. And even though God was going to overthrow that city, and He was going to allow Israel to enter the land, what happened? Well, Achan allowed the sin of covetousness to kill him. He allowed that covetousness and that theft, and then the cunning deception with which he went about, He allowed that to ultimately bring about his death. Now, I mention this because, as we know, during the Days of Unleavened Bread, and as we think about our lives, and as we acknowledge that we need God's help to not only define sin, as we heard earlier in the sermonette, the law is what defines God's law, is what defines sin. But we also have to be on guard against this world, against the allure of the society around us, because all of us live in a very promiscuous society. We live in a society that is in such decline, and particularly right here in the United States. The contrast between 50 years ago and today is remarkably sad. It's remarkably declined as far as the way people look at things, and even the way people look at God, or the way people look at the Bible. And all of us, in a sense, are kind of like a frog, a frog who can be thrown into a cold bucket of water, and he will swim around, and you can make the heat come up on the bucket, and he won't know anything until he's starting to get dizzy and dizzy, and then ultimately with hot enough water, he's boiled.

You know, we're kind of in that type of a cesspool in society around us, and that's what Aiken ran into. He saw all these things, and certainly Jericho did represent the wicked society that was pervasive in the land of Canaan. See, God was not just mean to those people who happened to live in that land. They were horribly corrupt, horribly pagan in their actions, in their attitudes, in their resistance against God. That's part of why they were afraid whenever they heard that Israel was coming. But I point this out about Aiken, because we're warned. We're warned about this present evil age that we live in. I want us to look back at 1 Corinthians. I think this was read the other day, but I want to focus on it a little bit more, and you can think about, and again, think about hidden sins, because sometimes sins are obvious. Sometimes they're somewhat glaring.

Sometimes they're a donut. You never know. That's a real obvious situation. Sometimes that's the case, and certainly sometimes we can identify certain things, and there are certain things that we might be able to say that we got tricked into doing, or deceived into doing, or we were just too weak to not do whatever we knew was really wrong. That happens. And yet, what we find here in 1 John 2 is a warning. And it says in verse 15, and this is a part of the problem that Aiken had, and that he probably didn't even know what overtook him, because he suddenly came upon all of this loot, and he felt like he just had to have it. But here in 1 John 2 verse 15, it says, don't love the world. Don't love the world nor the things that are in the world, because it says the love of the Father is not in those who love the world. And see, I want the love of God to be in me. I want it to be in you. I want it to be in all of us. I want us to grow in an appreciation for God and for His Word. I want us not to be adversely affected by this corrupted and corrupting society that we have around us. It says, the love of the Father is not in those who love the world. For all that is in the world—I was going to mention three things there—it comes not from the Father, but it comes from the world. And it says the world and its desires are passing away. They're very temporary, but those who are going to do the will of God can live forever. See, that's what we want. We want to live forever. But I want to go back here to verse 16. All that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of riches, or the pride of life. These are all—they come not from the Father, but from the world, from the influence that Satan projects into this world. And see, God knows that we're in this world. Jesus prayed for His disciples on John 17. He says, I'm not praying that you would be taken out of the world. I'm just praying that you would be protected as you live in a corrupt society. They did back then, we clearly do today. And there is more and more of a difficulty, as you see described here, that is— sometimes I read the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride of life, and I don't even think about, well, what does that mean? I think there are numerous things that you could identify with each one of these. Some of them, it almost appears, could be identified somewhat age-specific. Younger? You know, the lust of the flesh, the desires of the flesh.

That wouldn't totally simply be younger, but it could be the desires of the eyes.

You know, if this society is not materialistic, if it is not covetous, if it is not based on a disrespect for the law and the word of God, you know, that's what we want to avoid. That could be someone a little older, could be middle-aged, and finally the pride of life and maybe pride and riches. That can even be a difficulty. That's something that all of us would hope as we get older than we would have a certain level of maybe wealth that God has blessed us with.

But there can be a pride in success. There can be a pride in having enough material things to know that that's going to last for a good amount of time. You see Jesus talking about the rich fool who was building more and more storehouses for his stuff. See, that could be someone older.

I'm not saying that that always is going to be the case, but see, I think you could also say that a certain level of pride would go with success and a certain amount of prominence, and you become self-satisfied. You forget, and this is even a warning that God gave Israel to, don't forget, whenever I bless you, whenever I cause you to be built up in a safe and secure area, don't forget how that came about. See, I can see even listening to people on TV that many people believe that what the United States has is because of them, because of their ability, because of their capacity, because of their initiative. And again, initiative is not wrong, but I've heard this directly said that we are a prominent country because of our greatness.

Well, we are following certain principles that might help produce greatness, but ultimately, the greatness that this land enjoys, and this is what God told Israel, remember, I'm the one who gave you. I'm the one who gave you what you have. I'm the one who is the author of all of these things, and I'm the one who's providing for you. So whenever we read the desire of the flesh, and the desire of the eyes, and the pride of riches or life, it says all of these are things that we want to be cautious about. We want to be thoughtful about how, and in many ways, whenever you think about this, you know, immorality, and materialism, and self-satisfaction, some of those things are pretty easy to hide. It can look rather good. It can look rather even righteous. Let's see, this is part of what we learned here with Achan. Let's look over to Luke chapter 17. I hope, again, as we think during the Days of Unleavened Bread, that we can ask God.

See, this is what I was thinking of here.

Jesus' description here in Luke 17. Luke 17, Jesus is talking about leading up to the coming of the kingdom of God. And he talks about several different things. In verse 22, the days are coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it.

And they will say to you, look here and look there, and do not go, and do not set off in pursuit.

For as the lightning flashes and lights in the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. See, he was talking about, you know, ultimately his return and his intervention in world affairs and his transitioning into the world to come. And if we go on down to verse 25, actually he mentions first, I guess that's where we are, verse 25, first he must endure much suffering and be rejected by this generation. And so he was saying that about his generation at the time. But just as it was in verse 26 in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. He says things will be going on, things will look rather normal, things will be rather common, even as it was in the days of Noah. And then, of course, as we know, you know, the ark's doors were closed. In verse 27, they were eating and drinking, marrying, and being given in marriage until the day Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed all of them.

See, society was kind of going on in its regular ordinary fashion, regular, in a sense, corruption, because God says the wickedness of man was so extensive at that time.

I'm sure everyone alive at that time thought this is just normal. And even he follows this up in verse 28, again talking about the destruction of Sod and Gomorrah, talking about the cities of the plains, the cities that were right around Jericho, that Jericho could easily have appeared to be a part of the system, the corrupt system, that God was going to destroy.

And with Sodom and Gomorrah, it says in verse 28, just as it was in the days of Lot, they were eating and they were drinking and they were buying and they were selling and planting and building.

But on the day that Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from heaven and destroyed all of them.

And it will be like that on the day when the Son of Man is revealed.

See, what he's talking about here in these descriptions is that life was going on as usual.

Life in its corrupted form, life in its sinful manner, was being, you know, it was so common, it was so ordinary. And certainly, as we yearn for Christ's return, Jesus is speaking here of a certain level of conditioning that is happening. See, I see this, and I think I mentioned it the other day, I see this in the undermining of our systems to where, you know, God is not spoken of or thought of in a respectful manner. You know, you see so many things that undermine even a belief that God exists. See, if a condition, if Satan can create a condition in society where people don't believe God exists, well then there are no rules. There are no laws. There is no sin.

If people don't have a faith in Jesus Christ, a belief in God, a faith in Jesus Christ, if they don't have a belief of the validity of the Word of God, a belief in the Bible as the Word of God, if you don't have that, that's been undermined a great deal here in the last 40 years. Certainly, it has been undermined more and more here in the last 10 or 15 years. It is getting excessively worse.

And clearly, people don't want to acknowledge the authority of the Creator God, the authority of the Creator God to tell us how to live. See, that's a conditioning, and this is, in a sense, what Jesus was talking about here. He was saying that society is in such a destructive form, even though it appears normal to most everyone. Brethren, we don't want that to be the case.

And we don't want secret sins or hidden sins. And I know we can. We can hide sins, and all of us do, to one degree or another. We need to realize, and perhaps we should ask God to show us our sins, and show us, you know, maybe where we're edging over the line and into an area that we ought to be backing away from. When it says to flee something, it doesn't mean to get as close to it as you can. It means to back away from it and see what's going on. See, here in 2 Corinthians 4, in 2 Corinthians, you see Paul writing about the ministry of reconciliation that we have been given.

Now, that being the Church has been given. The ministry of reconciliation. We are to help people come to understand their need for Jesus Christ and their need to be reconciled to God, because all of us need that. All of us need to be reconciled to God, and with His mercy, and with His forgiveness, and with His granting of the Holy Spirit, then He is reconciled to us. That's what we can be very grateful and very thankful for, but everybody needs that. And not everybody has that today. Many people, and I would say most people, do not have that. But He says, therefore, after He talks about the ministry of reconciliation, He says, therefore, in chapter 4, verse 1, since it is by God's mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, since it is by the grace of God, and the mercy of God, that we are in a ministry of reconciliation, we should not lose heart.

We don't want to lose heart. We want to be encouraged. We want to be uplifted. We want to be encouraged. But we also want to be on guard as He goes ahead to say in verse 2, we have renounced the shameful things that one hides. That's talking about sins, sins that I would know about, about me.

Sins that you would know about, about you, where you fall short or where you need help.

Those are things that I don't have to know except about me. I need to know them. I need to ask God to show those to me. But it says, we have renounced the shameful things that one hides. We refuse to practice cunning. See, what did Aiken do? Well, he practiced deceit. He practiced cunning.

He hit all the loot. He put it in his tent. He had to be pointed out. He had to be singled out in that case. I don't think any of us want that. We don't want to fit that category. And we don't have to fit that category if we are really learning what the Days of Unleavened Bread are about.

As we've been told numerous times, and as we'll also mention again, you know, we're celebrating days that picture sincerity and truth. Not cunning, not deception, not sin, not deceit. But he says, we've renounced the shameful things that one hides. We refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God's Word. But by the open statement of the truth, we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone on the sight of God. See, Paul was saying that I have nothing to hide. He had a past that you might want to hide. But he said, I have come out of darkness, and I have come out and into the light, and I have been shown my sins, and I hate those sins, and I want to move away from them, and I don't want to be corrupted by the world. So regarding Achan's hidden sin, I think we should ask ourselves, do we have any hidden sins that we ought to ask God to reveal to us and show us that we don't want to be corrupted by the society. We want to back away from society and be blessed with a knowledge from God. The final thing that I want to mention here today regarding, again, this entire story about the victory that God gave Israel at Jericho is described here in Joshua 5, and we didn't read that, and I wanted to go back to it, because it was an aid, it was a help, it was a power, it was a strength, a strength that Joshua had been given. Here in Joshua 5, we're going to read this section starting in verse 13 that talks about an understanding that Joshua had that each and every one of us, as Christians today, must have. Here in Joshua 5 verse 13, it says, once Joshua was by Jericho, and he looked up and he saw a man standing before him with a drawn sword in his hand.

See, now, when I read this not too long ago, I thought, no, I don't remember that. And yet, this is an extremely important segment of the way that Joshua was strengthened. In this particular case, he saw this man with a sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua said, are you one of us or one of them? Are you for us or are you for the adversary? And in verse 14, the reply said, well, neither.

But it says, as the commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come.

And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and he worshiped this commander of the army of the Lord.

This was an individual that appears to be the one who would later be Jesus Christ, the one who was the Lord of the Old Testament, the one who had appeared to Abraham, the one who had spoken to Moses out of the burning bush. He says, you know, I am the commander of the army of the Lord, and I have now come in order to help you, because he was going to help Joshua, and he was going to help the Israelites enter into the Promised Land. And he says, as it says in verse 14, Joshua fell on his face and worshiped him. And the commander of the army of the Lord said to Joshua, remove your sandals from off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy, just like it was with Moses. As he had been brought into a relationship with God and ability to walk with God, you know, he was going to come to worship and honor and be grateful and thankful for the relationship with the Lord that he, you know, he was able to have. See, this is something that all of us, I know we've talked about this before, but it's clearly an extraordinary aspect of Joshua's life. He had been given a very difficult task. He had been given a almost impossible task to try to lead the rebellious Israelites into a promised land. And yet he was not going to do that alone. He was not going to do that except through the power of the commander of the army of Israel. He was not going to do that except the power of the relationship that he would have with Jesus. That's what he would have. That's who the Lord of the Old Testament was, the one who would become Jesus. And what we see here in Deuteronomy 8, I want to turn to two other verses here that connect this together. In Deuteronomy 8, we see that God had brought Israel out of Egypt, and he had actually led them. Deuteronomy 8, verse 2, he says, I want you to remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness.

See, God was with the Israelites. They were, yes, rebellious. They were stubborn.

He was allowing some who were faithless to die off. Others were going to grow into the nation, the physical nation. And yet he says, God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness in order to humble you and to test you to know what is in your heart, to know truly what is in your being, whether or not you will keep his commandments. And he humbled you by letting you hunger, by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. See, this was instruction that in many ways we're more familiar with when you read information in the New Testament. We read in the book of John. But this is a description of how that Israel was worked with while they were being humbled and they were being led by God.

They were being tested, and yet they were to actually learn their dependence, the physical dependence that they had on manna had come from God. And yet we find Jesus explaining this even more in John chapter 6. As you, I'm sure, know, John chapter 6 talks about Jesus and him feeding the thousands of people on the hillside. He was able to provide food and fish for these people. He was able to provide bread. And actually what we see in a sense a connection here that, you know, he was talking to them, or they in this case were telling him, in verse 31, our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. See, that's what God had provided for Israel at that time.

But Jesus said in verse 32, verily I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you that bread from heaven, but it's the Father, my heavenly Father who gives you the true bread from heaven.

And so, of course, he was pointing out it was not simply the manna that they needed to seek, but that they needed to seek the true bread, the true bread from heaven. And this is what we find in verse 35. Jesus telling them that I am the bread of life. And in verse 48 he repeats that.

I am the bread of life. And in verse 51, he says, I am the living bread that came down from heaven, and whoever eats of this bread will live forever. And the bread that I give for the life of the world is my flesh. See, we rehearse all of this at the Passover, and we think about our connection to God that is through Jesus Christ. But what he clearly tells us is that we want to worship the one who has brought us to where we are on the verge of entering into the kingdom of God.

He's the one who is the commander of our lives. The one who is going to provide the power, he's going to give us a victory into the kingdom of God and into eternal life.

That's what he tells us here. And if we follow on down here in verse 33, well, I've already read verse 33. I want to drop on down to verse 56, because this is a section that we often read.

And of course, you know, this ties together with feeding on the bread from heaven.

See, the manna came from God. It came through Moses in a sense, but it came from God.

But the true bread, the bread that we want to feed on, the bread that we want to thrive on, and certainly the bread that will lead us to eternal life and that will give us the power and strengthen us to do that, is Jesus Christ. In verse 56, he has talked about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. In verse 53 and 54, in verse 56, he says, Those who eat my flesh and who drink my blood abide in me, and I abide in them.

See, Joshua was not alone when he was leading Israel into the Promised Land and into the around the city of Jericho. He was being guided by the commander of the army of the Lord, the one who would be Jesus Christ. And Jesus is telling us, you know, you need to worship my direction in your life. Worship my words, because he's later going to say in verse 63, it's the spirit that gives life. The flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit, and they are life. Those are the words that we want to thrive on. But as I was saying in verse 56, those who eat my flesh and who drink my blood abide in me, and I abide in them.

And just as the living Father has sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. And he says, this is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.

See, here he was giving us the direction. As Joshua was told, the commander of the army of the Lord is now come. He's now here. He's now available even more to help Israel conquer this hostile land. See, brethren, all of us, all of us have been brought to a point in our lives.

He has been working with us. He's been shaping us. He's been guiding us. He helps us as we keep these days of Unleavened Bread and, of course, all the other holy days throughout the rest of the year.

And he is going to give us a victory. He is going to cause us to empower us to be victorious. He wants us. I think this was already read earlier. He has begun a good work in us, and he's going to finish that work. If we do the simple things that are described here, he's going to empower us to be successful and give us a victory over this world, over the deception that Satan places all around us, and he's going to empower us into the kingdom of God. So if we confess our secret sins, if we acknowledge those, even as it was represented by Achan, Achan, of course, died for his sin.

And yet, a part of that was his covetousness, but also his deception and cunning and hiding, what he had done. We want to be able to see those things in our lives and then confess those sins.

We want to express faith in God and obedience to God, and then we want to truly trust.

Trust in Jesus Christ, the bread of life, in order to be able to live a life of sincerity and truth. That's what we read earlier in 1 Corinthians 5.

You know, as we keep the feast, we want to celebrate that festival, not in the old way of malice and wickedness, but in the new way of sincerity and truth. Those are the qualities and the characteristics that God is building in us. So, as we come to the conclusion of these days of 11 bread, I hope that this can be a springboard for the rest of the year. It should be. Every year, it should be a springboard in order to grow more spiritually. And being able to come out of the sins or prepare, keep from getting into sins, recognize what we're facing, and even ask God to show us our sins so that we're able to then be successful and be given a victory over that. So, I am thankful to see all of you here today. I appreciate your involvement over this past week and being able to celebrate the feast as we have. I hope that we can go forward as we were told this morning, that we would go forward from here and throughout the remainder of this year, truly pleasing God and thanking Him for the wonderful blessings that He holds out before us and also thanking Him for the victory that He is going to enable us to have.