Joshua 6

Israel's victory in Jericho here in chapter 6 is going to illustrate four principles for spiritual conflict and victory that are very important for us today, no matter what spiritual battle we're called to fight, no matter what "Jericho" may loom before us in terms of personal challenge:

1. Before the spiritual conflict, remember that we fight from victory, not just for victory.
2. During the spiritual conflict, remember that we overcome the enemy by faith.
3. After the spiritual victory, remember to continue to obey the Lord's direction.
4. After the spiritual victory, remember to give the Lord all the glory.

(1) Now the gates of *Jericho were tightly shut because the people were **afraid of the Israelites. No one was allowed to go out or in.

• *Jericho (Bet Yerah - "the House of the Moon God") was the capital of the strongest of the seven nations then occupying the land of Canaan. Jericho was apparently a center of moon worship. (Can you think of any other religion whose symbol is the moon?).
• A large spring and the fertile plain surrounding the city earned it the distinction "the city of palm trees" (Deuteronomy 34:3; 2 Chronicles 28:15).
• Jericho was more a military fort guarding the entrance to the center of Canaan than a true city - like the forts in the West set up for soldiers to sally forth but also a place of refuge for people in the area to run to in case of Indian attacks. That is why it's only around seven acres. By the time the gates were "tightly shut", it was filled with Canaanites from the area.
• Upon the sight of so many people, and the news of their previous victories, peoples from miles around would have fled to the city of Jericho for protection. The imminent battle of Jericho loomed over the region like a storm cloud. Though small in stature, Jericho possessed extremely heavy fortifications, and could have easily survived a siege of perhaps up to a year or so. Local village residents fared a much better chance of survival by fleeing to the protection of the walls of Jericho. The battle of Jericho would have influenced the entire region's political and social structure.
• It had an inner wall and an outer fortified wall, several feet thick, separated by a distance of about 15 feet, enclosing about nine acres. Jericho was a formidable, even impregnable, obstacle.
• The pattern of divine strategy for the conquest of Canaan was based on geographic factors. From their camp at Gilgal near the Jordan River the Israelites could see steep hills to the west. Jericho controlled the way of ascent into these mountains, and Ai, another fortress, stood at the head of the ascent. If the Israelites were to capture the hill country they must certainly take Jericho and Ai. This would put them on top of the hill country and in control of the central ridge, having driven a wedge between the northern and southern sections of Canaan. Israel could then engage the armies of the south in battle followed by the more remote enemy in the north. But first, Jericho must
  fall—and it would if Joshua and the people followed the Lord’s plan of action.
• Jericho was about six miles from the Jordan River and about 10 miles northwest of the Dead Sea, 670 feet below sea level.
• Satan knew God's promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that this land was their land and the land of their descendants. So, Satan filled Canaan with those who worshiped him to be an obstacle to the Israelites coming in. Since they are, in effect, Satan's agents, they
  all had to be eliminated to avoid another Balaam type attempt to subvert the Israelites.
• APPLICATION: The first impediment put in our way by Satan is an apparently impregnable fortress, which it is impossible to enter or to quit: "None went out and none came in." What impediments and fortresses has Satan placed in your path to keep you from being successful in life as a
  Christian? He may have lost the war over you when you received Christ as Savior, but he doesn't give up that easily - he wants to ruin your
  life, ruin your family, ruin your reputation, rob you of your joy, rob you of your heavenly rewards, rob you of your witness, destroy your
  family, and take your life - he's a formidable, fearless, unforgiving, relentless, yet defeated, enemy. Never underestimate him and his agents!
• Archeology of Jericho:
  
  • Ancient Jericho is a mile down the road from modern Jericho. Its ruins include a round tower with a spiral staircase inside.
  • Kenyon, one of the Archaeologists exploring the ruins of Jericho 1952-1958, had this to say about its walls: “The walls were of
    a type, which made direct assault practically impossible. An approaching enemy first encountered a stone abutment 11 feet high, back and up from which sloped a 35 degree plastered scarp reaching to the main wall some 35 vertical feet above. The steep, smooth slope prohibited battering the wall by any effective device or building fires to break it. An army trying to storm the wall would have found difficulty in climbing the slope and ladders to scale it could find no satisfactory footing.
    
    Image from www.truthnet.org/biblicalarcheology/6/conquestcanaan.htm
  • Jericho has undergone massive excavation work over the years. The finds were a city wall 4 1/2 feet wide attached to a monumental round stone tower. They are some of the earliest fortifications known to mankind. Its outer city wall appears to come from the late Middle Bronze age (2000-1550 BC) whereas the inner city wall dates to the Early Bronze Age (3200-2200 BC).
  • Over the past century four prominent archaeologists have excavated the site: Carl Watzinger from 1907-1909, John Garstang in the 1930's, Kathleen Kenyon from 1952-1958, and currently Bryant Wood. First, they discovered that Jericho had an impressive system of fortifications. Surrounding the city was a retaining wall fifteen feet high. At its top was an eight-foot brick wall strengthened from behind by an earthen rampart. Domestic structures were found behind this first wall. Another brick wall enclosed the rest of the city. The domestic structures found between the two walls is consistent with Joshua's description of Rahab's quarters (Joshua 2:15). Archaeologists also found that in one part of the city, large piles of bricks were found at the base of both the inner and outer walls, indicating a sudden collapse of the fortifications. Scholars feel that an earthquake, which may also explain the damming of the Jordan in the biblical account, caused this collapse. The collapsed bricks formed a ramp by which an invader might easily enter the city (Joshua 6:20). Of this amazing discovery Garstang states, "As to the main fact, then, there remains no doubt: the walls fell outwards so completely, the attackers would be able to clamber up and over the ruins of the city." This is remarkable because when attacked city walls fall inward, not outward. A thick layer of soot indicates that the city was destroyed by fire as described in Joshua 6:24. Kenyon describes it this way. "The destruction was complete. Walls and floors were blackened or reddened by fire and every room was filled with fallen bricks." Archaeologists also discovered large amounts of grain at the site. This is again consistent with the biblical account that the city was captured quickly. If it had fallen as a result of a siege, the grain would have been used up. According to Joshua 6:17, the Israelites were forbidden to plunder the city, but had to destroy it totally.
  • In Joshua 2:15 we see that Rahab's house was "on the city wall." Wood explains how excavations in 1907-1909 give evidence of how her house could have been spared during the collapse. "On the north a short stretch of the lower city wall did not fall as everywhere else. A portion of that mudbrick wall was still standing… What is more, there were houses built against the wall!" These houses were located "on the north side of the city only a short distance from the hills of the Judean wilderness where the spies hid for three days (Joshua 2:16-22)."
  • The importance of the walls falling in and not out is, that an army besieging a town and trying to break into a city would leave a breach with rubble on the inside of the walls. But in Jericho, the evidence shows the walls fell outward. This is taken to demonstrate a direct divine intervention in the destruction of the walls, rather than a human-powered effort.
• **afraid: Deuteronomy 11:25: No one will be able to stand against you, for the Lord your God will cause the people to fear and dread you, as he promised, wherever you go in the whole land.

(2) But *the Lord said to Joshua, “**I have given you Jericho, its king, and all its strong warriors.

• *the Lord (YHWH): The "Commander of the Lord's army" is continuing his talk with Joshua. Jesus, Yeshua, was given "the name
  above all names" (YHWH - the Great I AM) per Philippians 2:9.
• **I have given you: Notice that this in the past tense - the battle had already been won - by the Lord, not by Joshua. Only if you
  already have something can you "give" it! Satan thought the town was his. All Joshua and the people had to do was to claim this promise and obey the Lord and follow His strange plan.
  
  • We too have already won the victory and Satan has already been defeated. When was Satan defeated? When was Hitler defeated? Germany was defeated long before they admitted it and surrendered.
    
    • Romans 8:37-39: No, despite all these things,
      overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow - not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below - indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
    • Hebrews 2:14-15: Because God’s children are human beings - made of flesh and blood - the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.
    • 1 John 3:8: But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the
      beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.
    • We have in this a reminder of 2 Corinthians 10:3-4: We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments.

(3) You and your fighting men should march around the town once a day for six days.

• But, why not simplify the path - why make it so complicated with so much "show"? Why all these complications? Why go round the city every day, and seven times the seventh day? Why this procession with the ark and trumpets? Faith does not ask, "why"? Faith does not question the means God chooses to use; it accepts them, enters into them, and obtains the victory instead of being beaten by the enemy. It was the same at the first Passover and at the Red Sea. Is faith without intelligence and my understanding - is it "blind" faith? Faith will tell you the reason of the seven days, the ark, the procession, the trumpets, and the shouts of joy, but it will only tell you after submission to them, otherwise it would be intelligence and not faith.
• There must be patience; the people had to march thus during six days, and then patience must have her perfect work. God wants to teach
  us patience (one of the fruits of the Spirit) - He works slow but sure.
• God’s methods are not at all what man’s reasoning and wisdom would suggest to be done. God loves "impossible" situations where you have finally given up and come to acknowledge not only the problem but the fact that you're incapable of solving the problem. But, our ego often keeps us trying and trying and trying until we finally surrender to His plan.
  
  
• The Lord chooses completely unconventional means for accomplishing victories for His people so that after He has shown Himself strong on their behalf that all of the praise and the glory for the victory can only go to Him.
• Each time that the children of Israel marched around the city they must have come to a greater realization that if the city were to be taken that it was going to have to be the Lord who was going to do it. Each trip around those impregnable walls helped the Israelites see how impossible the task of taking Jericho was - only God could do this! Thus, this memory was burned into their brains that they could do
  nothing without Him.
• In Joshua’s day there were 5 accepted ways to capture a walled city (but, God’s plan wasn’t one of them):

1. An army could go over the wall using ladders or ramps.
2. Or, they could dig a tunnel under the wall.
3. They could smash a hole through the wall.
4. An army could lay siege until the city starved into submission.
5. Or they could try what the Greeks tried - subterfuge - the Trojan horse thing.

(4) *Seven priests will walk ahead of the **Ark, each carrying a ***ram’s horn. On the seventh day you are to march around the town
seven times, with the priests blowing the horns.

• *Seven:
• We find seven angels with trumpets of warning beginning in Revelation 8:2: I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and they were given seven trumpets.
• The number seven figures prominently in this chapter. In fact, it is used eleven times. Seven priests, with seven trumpets were to
  march around the city seven days with seven trips around the city on the seventh day.
• The number Seven signifies perfection or completion.
• Here, the emphasis on the number 7 - the horns - the priests - leading the ark - 7 days - 7 times around on the 7th - all that is to impress us with the reality that this isn’t just a military campaign. This is a religious event. This is a battle - victory fought for and already assured by the "Captain of the Lord's Army". God’s battle plan. God’s victory.
• **Ark: Without the ark, there could be neither warfare nor victory. Notice in this chapter that the ‘Ark of the covenant’ which contained the two tablets, Aaron’s rod and a jar of manna, is in the center of all that God is doing, being mentioned 8 times.  We saw in the story of the crossing of the Jordan River how the ‘Ark’ was central to chapters three and four also, being mentioned 16 times there. The Ark represented God's presence with them. We don't need an "ark" today - the Holy Spirit resides within us instead. So, wherever we go, He is with us. Knowing that, knowing that we are part of the Church which is His body, knowing that He wants to be with us at all times and
  everywhere we go, shouldn't we be careful where we go and what we do?
• ***ram’s horn: Trumpets of Jubilee, of long sound:
  
  • Exodus 19:13: No hand may touch the person or animal that crosses the boundary; instead, stone them or shoot them with arrows.
    They must be put to death.’ However, when the ram’s horn sounds a long blast, then the people may go up on the mountain.” - a foretaste of the rapture?
  • Numbers 10:9: “When you arrive in your own land and go to war against your enemies who attack you, sound the alarm with the trumpets. Then the Lord your God will remember you and rescue you from your
    enemies.
  • The rabbis stipulate that this must be the left horn of a male flat-tailed sheep. It was used to remind the synagogue of the lamb that God used to provide as a substitute for Isaac, Genesis 22:13. It was primarily not a musical instrument, but a loud blast for religious and at times, military purposes.
  • The shofar is a Jewish instrument most often made from a ram’s horn, though it can also
    be made from the horn of a sheep or goat. It makes a trumpet-like sound and is traditionally blown
    on Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year. In terms of its Jewish history, the shofar is often mentioned
    in the Tanach, Talmud and in rabbinic literature. It was used to announce the start of holidays,
    in processions and even to mark the start of a war. Perhaps the most famous biblical reference
    to the shofar occurs in the Book of Joshua, where shofarot (plural of shofar) were used as part
    of a battle plan to capture the city of Jericho.

(5) When you hear the priests give one long blast on the rams’ horns, have all the people shout as loud as they can. Then the walls of the town will collapse, and the people can charge straight into the town.”

• Now, if the walls simply collapsed straight down, they'd actually make it difficult to scramble over the bricks and enter the city. Instead, as we know from archaeological findings, they fell outward, making it easy to enter the city.
  
  

(6) *So Joshua called together the **priests and said, “Take up the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant, and assign seven priests to walk in front of it, each carrying a ram’s horn.”

• *So: Unlike Moses, who at the burning bush argued at length with the Lord about His plan (Exodus 3:11 - 4:17), Joshua obeyed without
  question and without hesitation. But, remember, Moses' exposure to God at the burning bush was his first time. Joshua is by now a veteran at walking with the Lord and seeing what God could do and what happens if you go against His plan.
• **priests: Unlike a normal battle, this strange covered box carried by the priests called the "Ark of the Lord’s Covenant" is the carried symbol, not a flag or battle pennant.

(7) Then he gave orders to the people: “March around the town, and the armed men will lead the way in front of the Ark of the Lord.”

• "With wonder and alarm the watchmen of the city marked every move, and reported to those in authority. They knew not the meaning of all this display; but when they beheld that mighty host marching around their city once each day, with the sacred ark and the attendant priests, the mystery of the scene struck terror to the hearts of priest and people. Again they would inspect their strong defenses, feeling certain they could successfully resist the most powerful attack. Many ridiculed the thought that any harm could come to them through these singular demonstrations. Others were awed as they beheld the procession that each day wound about the city. They remembered that the Red Sea had once parted before this people, and that a passage had just been opened for them through the river Jordan. They knew not what further wonders God might work for them." (Ellen White, Patriarchs and Prophets page 448.)
• Evidently the whole Israelite nation did not march around the walls of Jericho. Only warriors and priests circled the city. The "people" referred to in the context were these people, not all the Israelites. Probably representatives of the tribes participated in this march rather than all the soldiers of Israel. The line of march was as follows: soldiers, priests, the ark and more soldiers (verses 6-9, 13).

(8) After Joshua spoke to the people, the seven priests with the rams’ horns started marching in the presence of the *Lord, **blowing the horns as they marched. And the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant followed behind them.

• *Lord: The terms "Lord" (YHWH) and "ark" occur interchangeably here. The Lord was over the ark, and the ark represented the Lord's presence.
• **blowing their horns: The first time that we read of a trumpet-blast is at Sinai, where the Lord announced His descent upon the mount to the people assembled at the foot to receive Him, not only by other fearful phenomena, but also by a loud and long continued trumpet-blast (Exodus19:16 & 19; 20:14). If, therefore, the blast of trumpets was the signal to the congregation of Israel of the gracious arrival of the Lord its God to enter into fellowship with it, no less did it proclaim the advent of judgment to an ungodly world.

(9) Some of the armed men marched in front of the priests with the horns and some behind the Ark, with the priests continually blowing the horns.

(10) “Do not shout; do not even talk,” Joshua commanded. “Not a single word from any of you until I tell you to shout. Then shout!”

(11) So the Ark of the Lord was carried around the town once that day, and then everyone returned to spend the night in the camp.

(12) Joshua got up early the next morning, and the priests again
carried the Ark of the Lord.

(13) The seven priests with the rams’ horns marched in front of the Ark of the Lord, blowing their horns. Again the armed men marched both in front of the priests with the horns and behind the Ark of the Lord. All this time the priests were blowing their horns.

(14) On the second day they again marched around the town once and
returned to the camp. They followed this pattern for six days.

(15) On the *seventh day the Israelites got up at dawn and marched around the town as they had done before. But this time they went around the town seven times.

• *seventh day: Presumably, this was the Sabbath. Were they "working" on the Sabbath?

(16) The seventh time around, as the priests sounded the long blast on their horns, Joshua commanded
the people, “Shout! For the Lord *has given you the town!

• Hebrews 11:30: It was by faith that the people of Israel marched around Jericho for seven days, and the walls came crashing down.
• *has given: Notice the tense of the verb. Notice that Joshua is making sure the
  soldiers and the people and the priests clearly understand that this is not their victory achieved
  by their efforts, but it is God's victory, not theirs. How does this apply to our lives?

(17) Jericho and everything in it must be completely *destroyed as an offering to the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute and the others in her house will be spared, for she protected our spies.

• *destroyed:
  
  • The city of Jericho is actually handled differently than any other city in that everything in the city is under the ban. This occurred because the city of Jericho was the “first fruits” of their land, and the Lord was always supposed to get the “first fruits”.
  • God gave His people under Joshua no command to conquer the world with the sword but a particular, limited mission - unlike in Islam. The conquered land itself would not become Israel’s national possession by right of conquest, but it belonged to the Lord. So, the land had to be cleansed of all remnants of paganism. Its people and their wealth were not for Israel to seize as the booty of war from which to enrich themselves (as Achan tried to do, chapter 7) but were placed under God’s ban (were to be devoted to God to dispense with as He pleased). On that land, Israel was to establish a commonwealth faithful to the righteous rule of God and be a witness (and a blessing) to the Gentile nations. If Israel became unfaithful and conformed to Canaanite culture and religion, it would in turn lose its place in the Lord’s land - as Israel almost did in the days of the judges, and as it eventually did in the exile.
  • One of the main themes in the Scriptures is God's holy warfare against Satan and against sin, beginning right after the fall. In Genesis 3:15 God declared war on Satan. The destruction of Jericho is just another chapter in this war that continues to this day. And, one day, God is going to declare ultimate victory when Jesus returns. There is a powerful picture in Revelation 19 of Jesus riding a white stallion, coming back as the conquering general, defeating all opposition.
  • If we eliminate this militant reality of our Christian faith, then we have to abandon the cross, because it was on the cross that
    Jesus won the victory over sin and Satan. In Colossians 2:15, Paul talks about the meaning of the crucifixion of Jesus: "In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross."
  • Every living thing in the city was totally destroyed, men, women, children and animals, except for those people in Rahab's house. This may seem appalling to us today (genocide) and the UN would probably be appealed to and NATO would be called upon to repel the Israelites, but we must remember that the inhabitants of the land (including Jericho) had been completely given up to demon worship. Baalbek, which is a temple site in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, has three temples on one huge site - a large temple complex - all dedicated to Baal. The relief work is all male genitalia. In Jericho - same god - same worship. A religion that included child sacrifices and homosexuality and ritual prostitution. The culture of the city was wicked and debased - hung up on sex (like today's society). The literature we have from that day is sexually explicit - pornographic. They had little figurines - that have been found all over - that were explicitly sexual. The songs they sang were about sex. In many ways, not unlike today. America is going to be judged, abortionists are going to be judged, child predators are going to be judged, purveyors of porn are going to be judged - all of Western civilization is on the edge of God's judgment (and deserves it) - God is holding back because of the small minority of real Christians in the midst of all this national sin approved by and encouraged by most of its political leaders. Jericho was perhaps the most twisted and vile culture of the ancient near east. It was singled out by God for destruction. First on the list of cities to be destroyed. For 685 years - from the time Abraham entered the land - till the destruction of Jericho - God had been patient. But, their sinfulness had reached the limit of what God would allow. God has His timing. There are limits that He sets. According to His justice, He brings about punishment. (Genesis 15:16: After four generations your descendants will return here to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.”)
  • The Hebrew term used here (kherem) refers to the complete consecration of things or people to the Lord, either by destroying them
    or by giving them as an offering; similarly in 6:18, 21.
  • Deuteronomy 20:16-17: In those towns that the Lord your God is giving you as a special possession, destroy every living thing. You must completely destroy the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites,
    Hivites, and Jebusites, just as the Lord your God has commanded you.
  • The inhabitants of the land of Canaan that the children of Israel never fully conquered were always leading them astray throughout
    their history.
  • This did not apply to cities outside of the Promised Land:
    
    • Deuteronomy 20:10-15: “As you approach a town to attack it, you must first offer its people terms for peace. If they accept your terms and open the gates to you, then all the people inside will serve you in forced labor. But if they refuse to make peace and prepare to fight, you must attack the town. When the Lord your God hands the town over to you, use your swords to kill every man in the town. But you may keep for yourselves all the women, children, livestock, and other plunder. You may enjoy the plunder from your enemies that the
      Lord your God has given you. “But these instructions apply only to distant towns, not to the towns of the nations in the land you will
      enter."

(18) “Do not take any of the things set apart for destruction, or you yourselves will be completely destroyed, and you will bring
*trouble on the camp of Israel.

• *trouble: The name "Achan" may have come from the Hebrew word translated "trouble."

(19) Everything made from silver, gold, bronze, or iron is *sacred
to the Lord and must be brought into his treasury.”

• *sacred: As the first fruits. The principle helped the people remember that all they had came from the Lord.

(20) When the people heard the sound of the rams’ horns, they shouted as loud as they could. Suddenly, the walls of Jericho collapsed, and the Israelites charged straight into the town and captured it.

• 1 Thessalonians 4:16: For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and
  with the trumpet call of God. First, the Christians who have died will rise from their graves.
• Revelation 11:15: Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices shouting in heaven: “The world has now become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.”
• The 7th angel, the trumpet and the loud voices show there is a deliberate connection between the victory over Jericho and the victory of Christ over the world in prophecy! This is precisely when Christ invades planet Earth and sets up his Kingdom reign.  In other words, it is his SECOND COMING!!!
• King James Version: So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound
  of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.
• The Bible text seems to indicate the walls as fallen more than is indicated by the illustration. The illustration by Gene Fackler
  reflects archaeological findings. A lower wall with houses built against it was found to have been on the north side of the city. Part of it did not fall. Image © 2002 by Associates for Biblical Research, (717) 892-1044.

(21) They completely destroyed everything in it with their swords - men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep, goats, and donkeys.

• Deuteronomy 20:16-18: In those towns that the Lord your God is giving you as a special possession, destroy every living thing. You
  must completely destroy the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, just as the Lord your God has commanded you. This will prevent the people of the land from teaching you to imitate their detestable customs in the worship of their gods, which would cause you to sin deeply against the Lord your God.

(22) Meanwhile, Joshua said to the two spies, “Keep your promise. Go to the prostitute’s house and bring her out, along with all her family.”

(23) The men who had been spies went in and brought out *Rahab, her father, mother, brothers, and all the other relatives who were with her. They moved her whole family to a safe place near the camp of Israel.

• *Rahab: Matthew 1:5: Salmon was the father of Boaz (whose mother was Rahab). Boaz was the father of Obed (whose mother was Ruth). Obed was the father of Jesse. Because Rahab, at this point, was still a Canaanite, and, therefore, ceremonially unclean, she was removed from the holy people for a time. However, verse 25 shows that she was later fully included in the covenant community.

(24) Then the Israelites burned the town and everything in it. Only the things made from silver, gold, bronze, or iron were kept for the
treasury of the Lord’s house.

(25) So Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute and her relatives who were with her in the house, because she had hidden the spies Joshua
sent to Jericho. And she lives among the Israelites to this day.

• This exception, being mentioned a few times, is intended to impress us with the reality of the grace of God in His willingness to save souls, even though God had decreed the destruction of the city and the entire country. Just so, today God has decreed the judgment of the
  world (Acts 17:31), yet in grace He is saving souls out of the world when in faith they receive the Lord Jesus as Savior.

(26) At that time Joshua invoked this curse: “May the curse of the Lord fall on anyone who tries to rebuild the town of Jericho. At the
cost of his firstborn son, he will lay its foundation. At the cost of his youngest son, he will set up its gates.”

• After Joshua destroyed it, it was abandoned until a new settlement was established by Hiel the Bethelite in the ninth century BC in Ahab's reign. The city was captured by the Herodians in 3 BC and rebuilt by Archelaus (2 AD). Then, that city was destroyed by Vespasian
  68 AD.
  
  • 1 Kings 16:34: It was during his reign that Hiel, a man from Bethel, rebuilt Jericho. When he laid its foundations, it cost him the life of his oldest son, Abiram. And when he completed it and set up its gates, it cost him the life of his youngest son, Segub. This all
    happened according to the message from the Lord concerning Jericho spoken by Joshua son of Nun.

(27) So the Lord was with Joshua, and his reputation spread throughout the land.

• Jericho is the type of the world ripe for judgment. The high walls are types of the walls of unbelief, apostasy, wickedness and self-security. Seven days Israel had to march around the walls. Seven priests with seven trumpets were there. On the seventh day they had to march around seven times and blow the seven trumpets. Note the number "seven." It stands for divine completion. How it all reminds us of the last book of the Bible with its seven seals, seven trumpets and seven vials. The trumpets, however, in Joshua are the trumpets of jubilee. The great jubilee, the time of blessing for this earth comes, when judgment is executed. As the walls of Jericho fell, so comes the day, when all the high and exalted things will be laid low (Isaiah 2:10-22) The stone will fall out of heaven (Christ in His second coming) smiting the image, representing the world-power. Complete ruins will be the result, never to be built again; but the smiting stone becomes a mountain, filling the earth. It is the prophetic picture of the coming kingdom.
• The enemies in the land of Canaan which the children of Israel fought symbolize for the Christian today his struggle with enemies of
  the world, the flesh, Satan.
• What are the Jericho's that are in your life? Are there areas in your life that you have been struggling to get victory over, and yet
  have found yourself failing time and again?  Does victory seem impossible to you?
• Romans 8:37: No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory
  is ours through Christ, who loved us.:
• "Do we really know what it means to be more than a conqueror? To be more than a conqueror means that before you ever get a problem, you already know that whatever problem comes your way, you can overcome it through Christ. You live with confidence that God loves you no matter what and He will never leave you nor forsake you. And when you have this kind of relationship with Christ, you aren’t constantly
  afraid of bad news or of things that may happen that aren’t in your plan. When the unexpected happens or you’re disappointed, you won’t be devastated by it. There is nothing that can happen that’s more than you are because there’s nothing that’s too much for Him! 1 John 4:4 confirms it: But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. It’s  important for us to get this truth down in our hearts and see ourselves as more than conquerors through Christ Jesus because if we don’t, then our enemy, Satan, will be able to confuse us and keep us from victory. And all the enemy wants to do is kill, steal and destroy what God wants us to have. He wants to diminish you – make you small-minded and small in spirit so you’ll live a small, frustrated life. But we don’t have to live that way. Every person who confesses that Christ Jesus is Lord, repents of their sin and gives their heart to God is a child of God and belongs to Him. And in Christ, we are made right with God, we are His righteousness, and we have the power of Christ in us to live right. Do you realize what this means? It means that as we spend time with God in prayer and studying the Bible, we can access the wisdom and strength we need to make right choices and behave right. It doesn’t happen all at once or overnight, but we will make progress every day that we seek God this way. Whatever your situation is today, God knows about it. He sees you and hears the cry of your heart. And if you will give Him your
  problems and do what He tells you to do, you will access His overcoming love, grace and power and be more than a conqueror. Because in Christ,
  as He is, so are we in this world!" The Reality of Being More Than a Conqueror in Life by Joyce Meyer: www.christianpost.com/news/the-reality-of-being-more-than-a-conqueror-in-life-58254/

---

NOTE: Unless otherwise noted, the scripture version used is the New Living Translation.

---

NOTE: Sources and References are on line at: http://joshua-biblestudy.blogspot.com/2011/07/joshua-references-and-sources.html

Joshua 5

(1) When all the *Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings who lived along the Mediterranean coast heard how *the Lord had dried up the Jordan River so the people of Israel could cross, they lost heart and were paralyzed with ***fear because of them.

• *Amorite kings west: More Amorites lived east of the Jordan. They had already been subdued.
  
  • Numbers 21:21-24: The Israelites sent ambassadors to King Sihon of the Amorites with this message: “Let us travel through your land. We will be careful not to go through your fields and vineyards. We won’t even drink water from your wells. We will stay on the king’s road until we have passed through your territory.” But King Sihon refused to let them cross his territory. Instead, he mobilized his entire army and attacked Israel in the wilderness, engaging them in battle at Jahaz. But the Israelites slaughtered them with their swords and occupied their land from the Arnon River to the Jabbok River. They went only as far as the Ammonite border because the boundary of the Ammonites was fortified.
• **the Lord: YHWH
• ***fear:
  
  • Exodus 23:27:“I will send my terror ahead of you and create panic among all the people whose lands you invade. I will make all your enemies turn and run.
  • Joshua 2:9-11: “I know the Lord has given you this land,” she told them. “We are all afraid of you. Everyone in the land is living in terror. For we have heard how the Lord made a dry path for you through the Red Sea when you left Egypt. And we know what you did to Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan River, whose people you completely destroyed. No wonder our hearts have melted in fear! No one has the courage to fight after hearing such things. For the Lord your God is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below.
  • There is a limit to divine patience, and the Canaanites had reached it: the iniquity of "the Amorites was full" and the cup of God’s wrath was to be poured out, using the Israelites as the instruments of his holy jihad against Canaan.
  • They were the instruments of Satan under whose control they were; their fear denotes Satan's
    fear. He knew the power of YHWH, Who had brought them into the land. Satan had tried repeatedly
    to prevent this day, but he had only succeeded in stalling it for 40 years.
  • Essential to spiritual victory is our understanding that in Christ all the enemies we face are defeated foes.
    
    • Romans 8:37: No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
    • 2 Corinthians 10:3-5: We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.
    • Ephesians 6:12: For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

(2) At that time the Lord told Joshua, “Make *flint knives and **circumcise this second generation of Israelites.”

• *flint knives: God specified knives of flint even though this was the Late Bronze Age and bronze implements were common. the Septuagint of Joshua 24:30 tells us that these very flint knives were later buried with Joshua.
• *circumcise:
• Why did God literally cripple Israel’s army before they needed to fight? Don’t you want to have your men go into the battle when they are the strongest, fittest and most rested? Not with God. God wants us to be dependent and trusting in Him alone before we can make walls tumble.
• This is not the only time that God had done this. In Judges 7, God told Gideon that his 32,000 strong army was too much to fight the Midianite Alliance. Eventually God sent 300 men, armed with trumpets and pots to destroy the great army of the Medianites.
• Circumcision was a sign and seal of the covenant of grace. Circumcision reminded God’s people that they were holy - chosen - set-apart by God and they need to remain pure in their relationship with Him. They were never to forget that they were God's covenant people. But they dare not enter this battle in any other way but in the strength of the Lord Almighty.
• The Israelites had apparently practiced circumcision of boys on the eighth day while in Egypt. But, during their wilderness journeyings, a whole generation of men and boys were uncircumcised. But, to observe Passover required the circumcision of all male participants and the time for Passover had come.
• Genesis 17:10: This is the covenant that you and your descendants must keep: Each male among you must be circumcised.
• Exodus 4:24-26: On the way to Egypt, at a place where Moses and his family had stopped for the night, the Lord confronted him and was about to kill him. But Moses’ wife, Zipporah, took a flint knife and circumcised her son. She touched his feet with the foreskin and said, “Now you are a bridegroom of blood to me.” (When she said “a bridegroom of blood,” she was referring to the circumcision.) After that, the Lord left him alone.
• Exodus 12:48: “If there are foreigners living among you who want to celebrate the Lord’s Passover, let all their males be circumcised. Only then may they celebrate the Passover with you like any native-born Israelite. But no uncircumcised male may ever eat the Passover meal.
• What are the typical lessons of all this? Circumcision stands for the carrying out of the sentence of death to the flesh. The death of Christ is for His people a circumcision. "When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature." (Colossians 2:11). But this fact that we are dead to sin by the circumcision, the death of Christ must be carried out practically. The sharp knife has to be applied to the flesh and the things of the flesh.
• Leviticus 12:3: On the eighth day the boy’s foreskin must be circumcised.
• Acts 15:1: While Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch of Syria, some men from Judea arrived and began to teach the believers: “Unless you are circumcised as required by the law of Moses, you cannot be saved.” ...
• Romans 2:29: No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law; rather, it is a change of heart produced by God’s Spirit. And a person with a changed heart seeks praise from God, not from people.
• Romans 4:11: Circumcision was a sign that Abraham already had faith and that God had already accepted him and declared him to be righteous - even before he was circumcised. So Abraham is the spiritual father of those who have faith but have not been circumcised. They are counted as righteous because of their faith.
• 1 Corinthians 7:18: For instance, a man who was circumcised before he became a believer should not try to reverse it. And the man who was uncircumcised when he became a believer should not be circumcised now.
• Philippians 3:3: For we who worship by the Spirit of God are the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort,
•  Colossians 2:11-14: When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision - the cutting away of your sinful nature. For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.

(3) So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the entire male population of Israel at *Gibeath-haaraloth.

• *Gibeath-haaraloth means “hill of foreskins.”

(4) Joshua had to circumcise them because all the men who were old enough to fight in battle when
they left Egypt had died in the wilderness.

(5) Those who left Egypt had all been circumcised, but none of those born after the Exodus,
during the years in the wilderness, had been circumcised.

(6) The Israelites had traveled in the wilderness for forty years until all the men who were old
enough to fight in battle when they left Egypt had died. For they had disobeyed the Lord, and the Lord
vowed he would not let them enter the land he had sworn to give us—a land flowing with milk and
honey.

• Numbers 14:23: They will never even see the land I swore to give their ancestors. None of those who have treated me with contempt will ever see it.
• Psalm 95:8-11: The Lord says, “Don’t harden your hearts as Israel did at Meribah, they did at Massah in the wilderness. For there your ancestors tested and tried my patience, even though they saw everything I did. For forty years I was angry with them, and I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts turn away from me. They refuse to do what I tell them.’ So in my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest.’

(7) So Joshua circumcised their sons - those who had grown up to take their fathers’ places - for they had not been circumcised on the way to the Promised Land.

(8) After all the males had been circumcised, they rested in the camp until they were *healed.

• *healed:
• They were put in the place where they could trust in nothing but God alone - a hard place, but a good place.
• Why didn't the Canaanites take this opportunity to destroy the Israelites when they were at their weakest? A perfect time for the enemy to attack!
• Genesis 34:24-25 describes how Simeon and Levi killed all the men in a city after tricking them into having them all circumcised. While the men were unable to fight properly, they were slaughtered in retaliation, because the prince of that city had raped Dinah, the sister of Simeon and Levi. This could have been the fate of Israel here in Joshua 5:
  
  • Genesis 34:24-26: So all the men in the town council agreed with Hamor and Shechem, and every male in the town was circumcised. But three days later, when their wounds were still sore, two of Jacob’s sons, Simeon and Levi, who were Dinah’s full brothers, took their swords and entered the town without opposition. Then they slaughtered every male there, including Hamor and his son Shechem. They killed them with their swords, then took Dinah from Shechem’s house and returned to their camp.

(9) Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have *rolled away the shame of your slavery in Egypt.” So that place has been called Gilgal to this day.

• *rolled away:
• Gilgal sounds like the Hebrew word galal, meaning “to roll” and galgal, meaning "wheel". A play on words. There's another "rolling away" in the Bible - where the stone was rolled away from the entrance to the tomb that held Jesus.
• As the foreskin of each male sex organ was cut away, God says that symbolically and spiritually all the reproach, failure, shame, guilt, and humiliation they had carried with them through all the years since the exodus from Egypt - all that had been "rolled away". The last 40 years have been wiped away. They were given again the sign of their right relationship with God.

(10) While the Israelites were camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, they celebrated *Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first month.

• Passover:
• Moses had neglected Passover too! Before they could successfully occupy the Land and before the "commander of the Lord's army" could appear, they needed to reinstitute circumcision and Passover. Before God can bless and lead, we must obey His rules and direction.
• This is the third recorded Passover; the last one being at the foot of Mount Sinai 39 years earlier.
• On the 14th of Abib they celebrate the Passover.  Exactly 40 years to the day that their fathers celebrated the Passover in Egypt.  God is making a point - the timing of their arrival was preplanned!
• Exodus 12:18: The bread you eat must be made without yeast from the evening of the fourteenth day of the first
  month until the evening of the twenty-first day of that month.
• Exodus 12:24-25: “Remember, these instructions are a permanent law that you and your descendants must observe forever. When you enter the land the Lord has promised to give you, you will continue to observe this ceremony.
• Leviticus 23:5: “The Lord’s Passover begins at sundown on the fourteenth day of the first month.

(11) The very next day they began to eat *unleavened bread and roasted grain **harvested from the land.

• *unleavened bread:
• Feast of unleavened bread ended 21st Abib (Nisan) at
  evening, exactly forty years from Exodus 12:41:
  
  • Exodus 12:37-42: That night the people of Israel left Rameses and started for Succoth. There were about 600,000 men, plus all the women and children. A rabble of non-Israelites went with them, along with great flocks and herds of livestock. For bread they baked flat cakes from the dough without yeast they had brought from Egypt. It was made without yeast because the people were driven out of Egypt in such a hurry that they had no time to prepare the bread or other food. The people of Israel had lived in Egypt for 430 years. In fact, it was on the last day of the 430th year that all the Lord’s forces left the land. On this night the Lord kept his promise to bring his people out of the land of Egypt. So this night belongs to him, and it must be commemorated every year by all the Israelites, from generation to generation.
• In the Feast of Unleavened Bread that followed the Passover, the people were able to use the grain of the  land to make bread. God now provided for His people's need for daily bread by giving them the produce of the land rather than manna, which now ceased:
• **harvested from the land: Apparently dried grain in the storehouses of the Canaanites who had fled into Jericho.

(12) No *manna appeared on the day they first ate from the crops of the land, and it was
never seen again. So from that time on the Israelites ate from the crops of Canaan.

• *manna:
• Exodus 16:31: The Israelites called the food manna. It was white like coriander seed, and it tasted like honey wafers.
• Exodus 16:35: So the people of Israel ate manna for forty years until they arrived at the land where they would settle. They ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.
• Numbers 11:4-6: Then the foreign rabble who were traveling with the Israelites began to crave the good things of Egypt. And the people of Israel also began to complain. “Oh, for some meat!” they exclaimed. “We remember the fish we used to eat for free in Egypt. And we had all the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic we wanted. But now our appetites are gone. All we ever see is this manna!”
• John 6:49-51: Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh.”
• We see some other examples of special provision in the Bible:
  
  • God sent a raven to feed Elijah during a severe famine (1 Kings 17:4-6), and later brought him to the home of a widow who only had enough flour and oil for one last meal to feed herself and her son. But because God touched it, "There was always enough flour and olive oil left in the containers..." until the famine was over (1 Kings 17:16).

(13) When Joshua was *near the town of Jericho, he **looked up and saw ***a man standing in front of him with ****sword in hand. Joshua went up to him and demanded, “Are you *****friend or foe?”

• *near Jericho:
• Evidently, Joshua was reconnoitering near Jericho, which was only about two miles from Gilgal. He was planning his strategy when he met this mighty warrior standing before him with sword drawn ready for battle.
• Joshua had never led an attack on a fortified city that was prepared for a long siege. In fact, of all the walled cities in Palestine, Jericho was probably the most invincible. There was also the question of armaments. Israel's army had no siege engines, no battering rams, no catapults and no moving towers. Their only weapons were slings, arrows, and spears - which were like straws against the walls of Jericho.
• Before the country could be divided, a wedge had to be driven from the Jordan River valley to the mountains. The first obstacle was at this point: Jericho. Jericho was a military fortress built to defend the approach to the high country. It could not be bypassed; to bypass Jericho would mean leaving a large military force at one’s rear. The strategy used by Joshua in conquering Canaan was later emulated by General Allenby in World War I.
• **looked up:
• Perhaps he'd been looking down in prayer asking for guidance and now looked up to heaven for advice and saw this unusual figure before him. He probably wondered, "How on earth are this city and its walls going to be breached". God was bringing him to a place that he had not been in before, to face things he had no experience of - as He does to us at times. God sometimes brings us to these places in our lives to help us to learn that we must ABSOLUTELY depend on Him and not on our own abilities to succeed at the task He's assigned to us (like raising children, being a great spouse, etc.) And then, as he lifts his eyes, this strange armed figure appears before him.
• ***a man: a "Theophany". A theophany is a visual manifestation of God by, through and in the Son.
• So, with whom was Joshua speaking in verse 1? Was God speaking to Joshua through the high priest then and directly now?
• This is none other than Jesus Christ, the Messiah Himself. "Lord" here is Hebrew Yahweh.
• Genesis 2:7: Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person. SO, knowing that God has no hands, who is this kneeling in the dust and kneading the clay into the man?
• Genesis 3:8: When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. SO, since God has not legs, who is this walking in the garden? Who was it that walked with Enoch?
• Genesis 12:7: Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your descendants.” And Abram built an altar there and dedicated it to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
• Genesis 17:1: When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am El-Shaddai - ‘God Almighty.’ Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life.
• Genesis 18:1,10: The Lord appeared again to Abraham near the oak grove belonging to Mamre. One day Abraham was sitting at the entrance to his tent during the hottest part of the day. ... Then one of them said, “I will return to you about this time next year, and your wife, Sarah, will have a son!”
• Genesis 18:20-22: So the Lord told Abraham, “I have heard a great outcry from Sodom and Gomorrah, because their sin is so flagrant. I am going down to see if their actions are as wicked as I have heard. If not, I want to know.” The other men turned and headed toward Sodom, but the Lord remained with Abraham.
• Genesis 28:13; 16-17: At the top of the stairway stood the Lord, and he said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants. ... Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!” But he was also afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!”
• Genesis 31:13: I am the God who appeared to you at Bethel, the place where you anointed the pillar of stone and made your vow to me. Now get ready and leave this country and return to the land of your birth.’”
• Genesis 32:28-30: “Your name will no longer be Jacob,” the man told him. “From now on you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have won.” “Please tell me your name,” Jacob said. “Why do you want to know my name?” the man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there. Jacob named the place Peniel (which means “face of God”), for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared.”
• Exodus 3:2-6: There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up. “This is amazing,” Moses said to himself. “Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go see it.” When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!” “Here I am!” Moses replied. “Do not come any closer,” the Lord warned. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. I am the God of your father - the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God.
• Exodus 23:20-23: “See, I am sending an angel before you to protect you on your journey and lead you safely to the place I have prepared for you. Pay close attention to him, and obey his instructions. Do not rebel against him, for he is my representative, and he will not forgive your rebellion. But if you are careful to obey him, following all my instructions, then I will be an enemy to your enemies, and I will oppose those who oppose you. For my angel will go before you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites, and Jebusites, so you may live there. And I will destroy them completely.
• Exodus 19:20; 33:18-34:8: The Lord came down on the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses climbed the mountain. ... Moses responded, “Then show me your glorious presence.” The Lord replied, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will call out my name, Yahweh, before you. For I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose. But you may not look directly at my face, for no one may see me and live.” The Lord continued, “Look, stand near me on this rock. As my glorious presence passes by, I will hide you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand and let you see me from behind. But my face will not be seen.” Then the Lord told Moses, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones. I will write on them the same words that were on the tablets you smashed. Be ready in the morning to climb up Mount Sinai and present yourself to me on the top of the mountain. No one else may come with you. In fact, no one is to appear anywhere on the mountain. Do not even let the flocks or herds graze near the mountain.” So Moses chiseled out two tablets of stone like the first ones. Early in the morning he climbed Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him, and he carried the two stone tablets in his hands. Then the Lord came down in a cloud and stood there with him; and he called out his own name, Yahweh. The Lord passed in front of Moses, calling out, “Yahweh! The Lord! The God of compassion and mercy! I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected - even children in the third and fourth generations.” Moses immediately threw himself to the ground and worshiped.
• Exodus 33:11: Inside the Tent of Meeting, the Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Afterward Moses would return to the camp, but the young man who assisted him, Joshua son of Nun, would remain behind in the Tent of Meeting.
• Numbers 12:6-8: And the Lord said to them, “Now listen to what I say: “If there were prophets among you, I, the Lord, would reveal myself in visions. I would speak to them in dreams. But not with my servant Moses. Of all my house, he is the one I trust. I speak to him face to face, clearly, and not in riddles! He sees the Lord as he is. So why were you not afraid to criticize my servant Moses?”
• Judges 6:11-22: Then the angel of the Lord came and sat beneath the great tree at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash of the clan of Abiezer. Gideon son of Joash was threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to hide the grain from the Midianites. The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the Lord is with you!” “Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The Lord brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the Lord has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.” Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!” “But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!” The Lord said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.” Gideon replied, “If you are truly going to help me, show me a sign to prove that it is really the Lord speaking to me. Don’t go away until I come back and bring my offering to you.” He answered, “I will stay here until you return.” Gideon hurried home. He cooked a young goat, and with a basket of flour he baked some bread without yeast. Then, carrying the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, he brought them out and presented them to the angel, who was under the great tree. The angel of God said to him, “Place the meat and the unleavened bread on this rock, and pour the broth over it.” And Gideon did as he was told. Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and bread with the tip of the staff in his hand, and fire flamed up from the rock and consumed all he had brought. And the angel of the Lord disappeared. When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he cried out, “Oh, Sovereign Lord, I’m doomed! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”
• Judges 13:16-18: “I will stay,” the angel of the Lord replied, “but I will not eat anything. However, you may prepare a burnt offering as a sacrifice to the Lord.” (Manoah didn’t realize it was the angel of the Lord.)  Then Manoah asked the angel of the Lord, “What is your name? For when all this comes true, we want to honor you.” “Why do you ask my name?” the angel of the Lord replied. “It is too wonderful for you to understand.”  Then Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered it on a rock as a sacrifice to the Lord. And as Manoah and his wife watched, the Lord did an amazing thing. As the flames from the altar shot up toward the sky, the angel of the Lord ascended in the fire. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell with their faces to the ground.  The angel did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Manoah finally realized it was the angel of the Lord, and he said to his wife, “We will certainly die, for we have seen God!” But his wife said, “If the Lord were going to kill us, he wouldn’t have accepted our burnt offering and grain offering. He wouldn’t have appeared to us and told us this wonderful thing and done these miracles.”
• Daniel 3:22-25: And because the king, in his anger, had demanded such a hot fire in the furnace, the flames killed the soldiers as they threw the three men in. So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, securely tied, fell into the roaring flames. But suddenly, Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in amazement and exclaimed to his advisers, “Didn’t we tie up three men and throw them into the furnace?” “Yes, Your Majesty, we certainly did,” they replied. “Look!” Nebuchadnezzar shouted. “I see four men, unbound, walking around in the fire unharmed! And the fourth looks like a god!”
• Micah 5:2: But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past.
• John 1:1-3; 14: In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. ... So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.
• John 8:56-58: Your father Abraham rejoiced as he looked forward to my coming. He saw it and was glad.” The people said, “You aren’t even fifty years old. How can you say you have seen Abraham?” Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I Am!”
• John 14:9: Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you?
• A theophany is a visual manifestation of God by, through, and in the Son. In the New Testament, there is no mention of the angel of the Lord; the Messiah himself is this person.
• ***sword in his hand:
• Numbers 22:23, 31: Balaam’s donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand. The donkey bolted off the road into a field, but Balaam beat it and turned it back onto the road. ... Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the roadway with a drawn sword in his hand. Balaam bowed his head and fell face down on the ground before him.
• 1 Chronicles 21:16: David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth with his sword drawn, reaching out over Jerusalem. So David and the leaders of Israel put on burlap to show their deep distress and fell face down on the ground.
• The sword is freely used in carrying out the divine judgments upon the ungodly tenants of the land. Yet, the first drawn sword, mentioned in the book, is in the hand of the Lord as He appeared unto Joshua. He fights for His people. He will yet execute the righteous judgments in the earth - it will be when He appears the second time.
• Joshua may have thought, “Since he is not one of ours, could he be the enemy, or perhaps someone who has come to help us?” But, in view of the answer given to Joshua, Joshua’s question reveals a typical mindset that poses a threat and a hindrance to our effectiveness in the service of the Savior.
• Joshua needed to acknowledge God’s claim over Joshua for God’s purposes. We tend to approach our battles and causes backwards; we turn things all around and try to get God to support us rather than to submit and follow Him. Certainly, the battle was a joint venture,
  God and the people of Israel under Joshua’s leadership as appointed by the Lord (1:1-9). But Joshua, as with all of us in the army of the King, must be following the Lord, submitting to His authority, taking our orders from Him and resting the battle in His hands because we realize it is really His battle as the Supreme Commander. There seems to be no question that Joshua understood this as evidenced by his question, “What do you want your servant to do?” Here he was asking the Lord for orders and it was surely then that he received the directions for taking Jericho which we read about in chapter 6.
• But after being confronted by the divine Commander, he was reminded of a truth he had heard Moses declare many years earlier when they stood on the banks of the Red Sea:
  
  • Exodus 14:13: But Moses told the people, “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again.
  • 1 Samuel 17:47: And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord’s battle, and he will give you to us!”
• God is not present to fight our battles or help in our causes or jump to our rescue when we get in trouble as though He were a genie in a bottle. Instead, it reminds us that the battle is His and that our role is that of soldier/servant. We are here to serve Him, to do His will, to follow Him and depend on Him completely. We tend to get involved in our project or goals or dreams and ask Him, "Well, are you with me or not?"
• *****friend or foe: In a sense, the Man refuses to answer Joshua’s question because it is not the right question, and it is not the most important question to be asked at the time. The question really wasn’t if the Lord was on Joshua’s side. The proper question was if Joshua was on the Lord’s side.

(14) “Neither one,” he replied. “I am the *commander of the Lord’s army.” At this, Joshua fell with his face to the ground in **reverence. “I am at your command,” Joshua said. “What do you want your servant to ***do?”

• *commander of the Lord's army:
• God is telling Joshua here that He is in charge of the battle, not Joshua! And, the battle has already been won because the real battle is against Satan and his forces.
• He neither came to support Joshua nor to support the enemy, but for a far higher purpose. He came as Commander of the army of the Lord. This could be no other than the Lord Himself, and Joshua fully gives Him this place.
• Ephesians 6:12: For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
• Behind the hardness of hearts against the truth, and the indifference of men and women to the
  gospel of Christ is the god of this world, who has blinded the minds of those who believe not. 
  Behind the divided home, the broken heart, the ruined life, wars, injustice, false religions like
  Islam is Satan, who in these last days of grace is turning on all his power, for he knows that his
  time is short. Who was guiding Nero, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Osama bin Laden and so many others
  in the past - and for what purpose? And who today is guiding such men as Ahmadinejad of Iran, Kim
  Jong-il of North Korea, Hamas, Hasan Nasrallah of Hezbollah and so many other evil men? Who guides
  the drug traffic?
• Jesus appears again as the Commander of the Lord’s army in Revelation at Megiddo and also in Zechariah 14:3: Then the Lord will go out to fight against those nations, as he has fought in times past.
• **reverence (worship): Though the title Commander of the army of the Lord could perhaps apply to an angel (such as Michael, based on a passages like Daniel 12:1 and Revelation 12:7), Joshua’s falling down and worshipping is inconsistent with angels, who never receive worship. Revelation 22:9: But he said, “No, don’t worship me. I am a servant of God, just like you and your brothers the prophets, as well as all who obey what is written in this book. Worship only God!”
• ***do:
• He had come to instruct Joshua in the plan to capture Jericho. Joshua will carry out a plan in the following chapter that is so improbable it could only have been initiated at the direct command of God. Most of all, He had come to conquer Israel - before Israel could conquer anything else in the promised land, they had to be conquered by God - and Joshua’s total submission shows that they are conquered by Him. This is the missing element in a life of victory for many Christians; they have not been, and are not continually being, conquered by God.
• Despite all that he has done, there is a lesson that he still has not learned, His question is this: We have to take the city of Jericho. How is God going to fit into that purpose? And God comes to him and says to him: Joshua, that is never the question you should be asking. You should never be asking the question: How is God going to enable me to do this? The only question that is relevant for the servant of God is this: How am I going to fit into the purposes which God has designed? How am I going to fit into the ways in which God is going to win His victory? Not, How is God going to fit into my plans? But, Are you prepared to fit into God’s plans?

(15) The commander of *the Lord’s army replied, “**Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did as he was told.

• *the Lord's army:
• 1 Kings 22:19: Then Micaiah continued, “Listen to what the Lord says! I saw the Lord sitting on his throne with all the armies of heaven around him, on his right and on his left.
• 2 Kings 6:11-17: The king of Aram became very upset over this. He called his officers together and demanded, “Which of you is the traitor? Who has been informing the king of Israel of my plans?” “It’s not us, my lord the king,” one of the officers replied. “Elisha, the prophet in Israel, tells the king of Israel even the words you speak in the privacy of your bedroom!” “Go and find out where he is,” the king commanded, “so I can send troops to seize him.” And the report came back: “Elisha is at Dothan.” So one night the king of Aram sent a great army with many chariots and horses to surround the city. When the servant of the man of God got up early the next morning and went outside, there were troops, horses, and chariots everywhere. “Oh, sir, what will we do now?” the young man cried to Elisha. “Don’t be afraid!” Elisha told him. “For there are more on our side than on theirs!” Then Elisha prayed, “O Lord, open his eyes and let him see!” The Lord opened the young man’s eyes, and when he looked up, he saw that the hillside around Elisha was filled with horses and chariots of fire.
• Psalm 148:2: Praise him, all his angels! Praise him, all the armies of heaven!
• Matthew 26:53: Don’t you realize that I could ask my Father for thousands (12 legions) of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly?
• 1 Thessalonians 4:16: For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the Christians who have died will rise from their graves.
• Revelation 19:11: Then I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. Its rider was named Faithful and True, for he judges fairly and wages a righteous war.
• **Take off your sandals:
• The command to remove his sandals would have convinced Joshua that this was the same God who appeared to Moses at the burning bush:
  
  • Exodus 3:5: “Do not come any closer,” the Lord warned. “Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground.
• Wherever God is, there is holiness. Even Canaan is holy when God stands upon its soil. And we must be holy if we would cooperate with him. We must put off the old man, with his affections and lusts; we must cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit; we must cast off the works of darkness, and array ourselves in the His light.

Joshua 6:1-2: Now the gates of Jericho were tightly shut because the people were afraid of the Israelites. No one was allowed to go out or in. But the Lord said to Joshua, “I have given you Jericho, its king, and all its strong warriors.

   God not only instructed Joshua concerning what he should do in the battle ahead, but this theophany assured Joshua that Yahweh would also personally lead His people in battle. We need not conclude, however, that this divine Leader continued to be visible after this. There is no reference to Him in the record of the battle that follows. His appearance on this occasion simply impressed Joshua with the fact that God would be leading Israel.

   Before Israel could conquer anything else in the promised land, they had to be conquered by God - and Joshua’s total submission shows that they are conquered by Him.  This is the missing element in a life of victory for many Christians; they have not been, and are not continually being, conquered by God.

---

NOTE: Unless otherwise noted, the scripture version used is the New Living Translation.

---

NOTE: Sources and References are on line at: http://joshua-biblestudy.blogspot.com/2011/07/joshua-references-and-sources.html

Joshua 4

(1) When all the people had crossed the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua,

•  Israel was now on the other side of the Jordan - in the Promised Land. But what is life in the Promised Land like?  Is it one glorious vacation time after another?  No; for Israel it was a place of battle, but most of all, it was a place of trust - they knew they had to trust God with every thing they had, because the challenges only got bigger in the Promised Land - but so did the blessings.
• The question has been raised as to why the Canaanites - who had a reputation for great ferocity - did not attack Israel when they crossed the river, a time when they would be very vulnerable. The answer is probably that the Israelites crossed the river at a location where the Canaanites would never expect the Israelites to cross - an area which was muddy and marshland. The rapid crossing in an unexpected location clearly caught the Canaanites and the inhabitants of Jericho off-guard. The fact that the Israelites were across the river at an unexpected location in a miraculous way, while the river was at flood stage, indicated that YHWH was acting on behalf of his people. No doubt, when news reached Jericho that the entire nation of Israel had suddenly crossed the river and were but a few miles away headed toward Gilgal, its inhabitants were terrified.
• Yet another significant thing to note is that once Israel crosses the river and the Jordan returns to flood stage, that the entire nation is now cut-off from any possibility of escape back into Moab. The entire nation of Israel is in Canaan - lock, stock and barrel. There is now no turning back. Israel must rely upon YHWH's power to keep his covenant promise and enable them to defeat the Canaanites. Israel must walk by faith and Israel obey YHWH's commands. Since the people have just witnessed YHWH's amazing provision for the crossing of the Jordan, he has given his people plenty of reason to trust in his covenant promise that he will drive the Canaanites out of the land. This is why YHWH orders the construction of a memorial to this event, because he knows that in our sinfulness and weakness, we always forget the good things that he has done for us.

(2) '"Now choose twelve men, one from each tribe.

(3) Tell them, "Take twelve *stones from the very place where the priests are standing in the middle of the Jordan. Carry them out and pile them up at the place where you will camp tonight.'"

• The erection of a memorial to commemorate the crossing of the river was something commanded of them by YHWH through the mediation of Joshua. The instructions from YHWH are quite specific.
• *stones:
  
  • There's another important stone in the Bible - the one that was rolled away from the mouth of a tomb!
  •  1 Peter 2:5: And you are living stones that God is building
    into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus
    Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God.

(4) So Joshua called together the twelve men he had chosen one from each of the tribes of Israel.

(5) He told them, "Go into the middle of the Jordan, in front of the Ark of the Lord your God. Each of you must pick up one stone and carry it out on your *shoulder - twelve stones in all, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel.

• *shoulder: These were pretty big rocks - closer to boulders!

(6) We will use these stones to build a *memorial. In the future your children will ask you, 'What do these stones mean?'

• *memorial:
  
  • The meaning of the Hebrew word for memorial is "to remember". At the foot of Mt. Sinai, Moses built an altar of stones to commemorate God's covenant with Israel (Exodus 24:4).
  • The memorial will be a sign to ensure that Israel never forget what happened on this remarkable day. Commemorating this event will also remind all Israel of the fact that God always keeps his covenant promises. Yet, there are Christians who believe that God has replaced Israel with the Church - thus, breaking His promises!
  • We see several stone memorials placed in Old Testament days. Jacob sets up a stone at Bethel after God revealed to him in a dream that he had not deserted him. "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven" (Genesis 28:16-17). After the massing Philistine armies were destroyed by a thunderstorm, Samuel sets up a stone and names it Ebenezer ("stone of help"), saying, "Up to this point the Lord has helped us!" (1 Samuel 7:12).
  • Memorials give us -- and future generations - points of reference so we don't forget the significance of God's past dealings with us. Nor are these memorials always set in stone. After the Exodus, God instructs the people to remember their deliverance out of Egypt through the Passover feast. To this very day, on Passover night, Jewish families prompt the youngest child to ask the ancient question, "Why is this night different from all other nights?" And the father replies by telling the story of God's great redemption, of the sacrificial blood of a lamb on each Israelite doorpost and lintel, of bread dough freshly made "before the yeast was added" (Exodus 12), and of the awesome crossing through the Red Sea. Notice the importance that the emphasis was on passing on this memory to the next generations!
  • God used Gideon to defeat the huge Midianite army with just 300 men. But afterwards, he fashioned a gold ephod with the plunder that became much more than a memorial of victory. "all the Israelites prostituted themselves by worshiping it, and it became a trap for Gideon and his family." (Judges 8:27). God-ordained memorials point to Him, not to themselves.
  • The purpose of this memorial was so that the people of Israel could teach their children about the great things God had done, so that the work of God would not be forgotten among the generations. Often, the faith of our children is weak because they have never been told how great God is and how real His working is in our lives.

(7) Then you can tell them, 'They remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of the Lord's Covenant went across.' These stones will stand as a memorial among the people of Israel forever."

(8) So the men did as Joshua had commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan River, one for each tribe, just as the Lord had told Joshua. They carried them to the place where they camped for the night and constructed the memorial there.

• Here, the twelve from each tribe construct the memorial. In verse 9, Joshua constructed the memorial in the middle of the river.
• They were to be a sign constantly under their eyes and those of their children.

(9) Joshua also set up another pile of twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, at the place where the priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant were standing. And they are there to this day.

• The twelve stones in the river-bed tell out the story of the death of Christ and our death with Him. We are dead to sin and to the law as well as crucified unto the world. We must, therefore, reckon ourselves dead unto sin. The other memorial was erected at Gilgal. As they looked upon these stones and their children asked them, "What mean these stones?" they could point to them and say, as these stones were taken out of Jordan on the dry land, so had they been brought out of Jordan into this land of promise. This memorial is the type of the fact "that we are alive unto God in our Lord Jesus Christ." We are a new creation in Christ Jesus, the old things are passed away, behold all things are become new. It is the memorial which tells us, that we are raised up and seated in Christ in the heavenly places.
• When the water comes back only God will know what happened to those stones. But the memory lives on - in Joshua's mind - in the minds of the people.

(10) The priests who were carrying the Ark stood in the middle of the river until all of the Lord's commands that Moses had given to Joshua were carried out. Meanwhile, the people hurried across the riverbed.

(11) And when everyone was safely on the other side, the priests crossed over with the Ark of the Lord as the people watched.

(12) The armed warriors from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh led the Israelites across the Jordan, just as Moses had directed.

(13) These armed men - about *40,000 strong - were ready for battle, and the Lord was with them as they crossed over to the plains of Jericho.

• *40,000 out of 100,000 counted in Numbers.

(14) That day the Lord made Joshua a great leader in the eyes of all the Israelites, and for the rest of his life they revered him as much as they had revered Moses.

(15) The Lord had said to Joshua,

(16) "Command the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant to *come up out of the riverbed."

• *come up: Revelation 4:1: Then as I looked, I saw a door standing open in heaven, and the same voice I had heard before spoke to me like a trumpet blast. The voice said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after this." - Speaks of the Rapture.

(17) So Joshua gave the command.

(18) As soon as the priests carrying the Ark of the Lord's Covenant came up out of the riverbed and their feet were on high ground, the water of the Jordan returned and overflowed its banks as before.

(19) The people crossed the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month. Then they camped at Gilgal, just east of Jericho.

• The month Nisan or Abib, which from the time of Israel's coming out of Egypt was appointed the first month of the year, (Exodus 12:2); on the fifteenth of which month they came out of Egypt, having kept the Passover on the fourteenth in the evening; so that their coming out of Egypt, to their entrance into Canaan, was just forty years, less five days. This tenth day was the day in which the Passover was taken from the flock, and kept till the fourteenth, on which day the children of Israel kept their first Passover in Canaan, in the plains of Jericho, (Joshua 5:10).
• It is interesting that over a thousand years later, at that very spot at Bethabara, "House of Passage," John 1:28, John the Baptist pointed to this very memorial to make his point. Matthew 3:9; Luke 3:8.
  
  • Matthew 3:9: Don’t just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.’ That means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones.
  • Luke 3:8: Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. Don’t just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.’ That means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones.

(20) It was there at *Gilgal that Joshua piled up the twelve stones taken from the Jordan River.

• *Gilgal:
  
  • Gilgal will become their base of operations for the conquest of the entire Promised Land. Therefore, it was appropriate that the first work at Gilgal was to set up a memorial to God's great works.
  • Militarily, one would have expected the first act to be to prepare for battle!
  • Gilgal, was on rising ground, and, according to Josephus, nearly five miles from the river, and consequently about two from the city itself. The site of the camp was no doubt fortified by Joshua, as it constituted for some time the abiding foothold in Canaan, from where he sallied forth to subdue the country. It was also the place of safety where the ark, and no doubt also the women, children, cattle, and other property of the people were left. Hence, the demolition of Jericho and Ai, strong fortresses in the neighborhood of Gilgal, was no doubt dictated by sound policy as well as by religious obligations.
  • This was the place where Israel would camp, renew the covenant and celebrate the Passover. Both a sanctuary and an altar to God would be built here as well. Gilgal was the place where later on in Israel's history, Samuel would offer sacrifices and where Saul was made king. By the time of the prophets, five hundred years later, Gilgal had become closely associated with paganism, and this place became a sad symbol of Israel's apostasy.
  • When Samuel made his tour of holy places where he judged the people at Bethel, at Mizpeh, he also came to the holy place of Gilgal. In a time of great national crisis, the whole nation gathered together to renew their vows at Gilgal. It was at Gilgal that Saul was crowned king over all Israel. It was also at Gilgal that Saul was disfranchised, that he was rejected from being king over the people of the Lord. It was at Gilgal that Samuel cut Agag, king of the Amalekites, in pieces before the Lord. This campsite became one of the holy places in Palestine, and it was located just beyond the western bank of the Jordan River.
  • The memorial altar of stones erected there became a pagan shrine of later years against which Hosea (4:15) and Amos (4:4) warned the people.
    
    • Hosea 4:15: "Though you, Israel, are a prostitute, may Judah avoid such guilt. Do not join the false worship at Gilgal or Beth-aven, even though they take oaths there in the Lord’s name.
    • Amos 4:4: “Go ahead and offer sacrifices to the idols at Bethel. Keep on disobeying at Gilgal. Offer sacrifices each morning, and bring your tithes every three days.

(21) Then Joshua said to the Israelites, "In the future your *children will ask, 'What do these stones mean?'

• *children:
  
  • As our children grow older and more independent, we need to take opportunities to tell them of the God's ways when they are in need of wisdom or perhaps discerning God's will for the many decisions and choices that they make in life. When we have grown old, we need to remind our children and our children's children of all that God has done for us throughout all of our years.
  • Do you take time to tell you children about God's work in your life? Do you have a story of God's work in your life?
  • In two places in the chapter, parents are reminded of their responsibility for the communication of God's Word and His calling on their children, generation to generation. Parents dare not and cannot abdicate this to others. God charges parents with this privilege and responsibility.
  • Consider what legacy for your life you would like to leave to your children after you pass from this life? How do you want your life to count for God?
  • We have a sacred responsibility to take the truth of God and see that it is passed down to the next generation. Psalm 102:18 says, "Let this be recorded for future generations, so that a people not yet born will praise the Lord." ”Those who are older have a special obligation to pass on the stories of what God did for them. Now that I am old and gray, do not abandon me, O God. Let me proclaim your power to this new generation, your mighty miracles to all who come after me. (Psalm 71:18). As Joshua makes clear, parents bear the first responsibility to teaching their children - and not just parents in general, but fathers in particular. God holds fathers accountable for the spiritual development of their children.
  • It is the responsibility for both parents to build and explain memorials, God's Word to their children. The most important role of the parent is to build these memorials in the lives of their children. To do this we must first have memorials in our lives to remind us of what God has done for us.
  • What kind of memorials have you built in your life? For our children and grandchildren to see? At my wife's family reunion, I was asked to give a short talk about what the reunion represented and I mentioned this memorial at Gilgal and that all about 50 (with many missing) were a memorial to Arlo and Byrnece Harris and all of them came from two people who loved each other and loved the Lord.
  • If we do not pass along the faith to the rising generation, we have failed at our most important task. We must tell them what God has done for us - and then we must tell them again and again until the stories are tattooed on their souls. Tell your children how God answered your prayers in times of trouble. Tell them how Jesus rescued you from a life of sin. Tell them how you saw God do amazing things - tell the stories and then tell them again. Every generation needs its own stories. The older generation had the Red Sea, the younger generation had the Jordan River. Joshua wasn't concerned about his generation - they had seen the mighty works of God. Though he was past middle age, he was looking to the future, thinking about the legacy of faith he would pass on to the next generation.

(22) Then you can tell them, 'This is where the Israelites crossed the Jordan on dry ground.'

(23) For the Lord your God dried up the river right before your eyes, and he kept it dry until you were all across, just as he did at the *Red Sea when he dried it up until we had all crossed over.

• *Red Sea: The crossing of the Jordan certainly reminds us of the passage of the Red Sea. But the emphasis in the case of the Red Sea was Israel's deliverance out of Egypt; while the crossing of Jordan emphasizes Israel's entrance into the land of promise. This is the positive side of Israel's blessing and reminds us of God's words concerning the saints of God today, "blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3). Thus, the death and resurrection of Christ not only separates us from a hostile world, but it invests us with wealth beyond all imagination in a place of pure joy and eternal glory. Canaan is of course only a faint picture of this.

(24) He did this so all the nations of the earth might know that the Lord's hand is powerful, and so you might fear the Lord your God forever."

• Here, God was again reminding Israel of her purpose as a nation of priests (Exodus 19:4-6; 1 Peter 2:5, 9-11). The application to us should be obvious. Christians are living stones of a holy temple, living memorials of the power of God. But we too face the threat of forgetting the Lord by forgetting our pilgrim character through preoccupation with the world.
• As in the passage of the Jordan all Israel came up on to the river's bank, so in the resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus, the whole Church of his redeemed passed over to resurrection ground, and are, in the purpose and thought of God, already seated in heavenly places.
• They are not just to be a memorial for Israel, but a message to all nations of who God is, that He is over all and that He can and will accomplish all he sets His hands to.
• There are two significant events in the Old Testament that the writers refer to over and over and over again. The first is the deliverance from Egypt and the passing through the Red Sea - when God's people ceased being slaves and became a nation. All of which took place under Moses. The second significant event is the crossing of the Jordan. The crossing is more significant than the conquest of the Promised Land. The longest journey begins with a single step. The crossing is the first step.  The step of faith that moves the nation from wanderers in the desert to possessors of God's promised land.
• All Israel knew that God would given them the land, as did the Canaanites, about whom we read in verse 1 of chapter 5, ";When all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings who lived along the Mediterranean coast heard how the Lord had dried up the Jordan River so the people of Israel could cross, they lost heart and were paralyzed with fear because of them." YHWH displayed his mighty power so that all the peoples of the earth might see and know that He is the LORD.
• Ironically, the same thing can be seen in the public ministry of Jesus–the greater Joshua. When John was concluding his gospel in John 20:30-31, he wrote these words: “Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.” God does not act in dramatic and powerful ways to impress us, like some kind of cosmic magician who can do magic tricks which seemingly have no rational explanation. No, the miracles of God have a very specific purpose–they are signs to strengthen the faith of those who believe, and warnings to those who don’t.

---

NOTE: Unless otherwise noted, the scripture version used is the New Living Translation.

---

NOTE: Sources and References are on line at: http://joshua-biblestudy.blogspot.com/2011/07/joshua-references-and-sources.html