Alright, Joshua chapter 6. Let's begin with the reading of God's Word. I want to begin back in chapter 5 and verse 13, just to make sure we get this context, even though this kind of begins where we ended last week. But chapter 5 and verse 13, I'll read down through the end of chapter 6. When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, Are you for us or for our adversaries? And he said, No, but I am the commander of the army of Yahweh. Now I have come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and worshipped, and said to him, What does my Lord say to his servant? And the commander of Yahweh's army said to Joshua, Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy. And Joshua did so. Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out and none came in. And Yahweh said to Joshua, See, I have given Jericho into your hand with its king and mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city, all the men of war, going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days. Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark. On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. And when they make a long blast with a ram's horn, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, everyone straight before Him. So Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark of Yahweh. And he said to the people, Go forward, march around the city, and let the armed men pass on before the Ark of Yahweh. And just as Joshua had commanded the people, the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of ram's horns before Yahweh went forward, blowing the trumpets, with the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh following them. The armed men were walking before the priests who were blowing the trumpets, and the rear guard was walking after the Ark, while the trumpets blew continually. But Joshua commanded the people, You shall not shout or make your voice heard, neither shall any word go out of your mouth until the day I tell you to shout. Then you shall shout." So he caused the ark of Yahweh to circle the city, going about it once. And they came into the camp and spent the night in the camp. Then Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of Yahweh. And the seven priests, bearing the seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark of Yahweh, walked on, and they blew the trumpets continually. And the armed men were walking before them, and the rear guard was walking after the Ark of Yahweh, while the trumpets blew continually. And the second day they marched around the city once, and returned into the camp. So they did for six days. On the seventh day they rose early at the dawn of day, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times. It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, Shout, for Yahweh has given you the city. And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to Yahweh for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent. But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them, you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it. But all silver and gold and every vessel of bronze and iron are holy to Yahweh. They shall go into the treasury of Yahweh." So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city. Then they devoted all the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword. But to the two men who had spied out the land, Joshua said, Go into the prostitute's house and bring out from there the woman and all who belong to her, as you swore to her. So the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. And they brought all her relatives and put them outside the camp of Israel. and they burned the city with fire and everything in it. Only the silver and gold and the vessels of bronze and of iron they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. But Rahab the prostitute, and her father's household, and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. Joshua laid an oath on them at that time, saying, Cursed before Yahweh be the man who rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho. At the cost of his firstborn shall he lay its foundation, and at the cost of his youngest son shall he set up its gates. So Yahweh was with Joshua and his fame was in all the land. Now one of the things you'll notice about that account is the way that it directs attention to the theological emphases of the chapter. It is not written in a particularly gripping narrative style. I say that, maybe you would disagree. Maybe that's a subjective position or interpretation. But one of the things that you notice is that when we finally get to the seventh day and we march around it seven times, Joshua says, shout! And then there's this long speech. And it's like we're ready to shout, ready to shout, waiting to shout. Joshua, whenever you get done, okay, now we can shout, you know? I think that that is actually dischronologized, real quickly. One of the things that you find very typical in the Old Testament is you'll have dischronologized elements. In other words, portions of the story that will be kind of flashbacks. And I think that's what you've got going on there. Joshua has probably given that speech to the people prior to that moment. When he says, shout, that's probably when they shout. He doesn't stop because how are you going to stop as the people are spread out in this line and give this great long speech, right? All of this explanation. Okay, here's the plan. Now, they've probably already received the plan. But now the narrator is flashing back, as it were, to say, this is what Joshua is communicating to the people. Now, you may say, well, I don't see why that would have to be the case. Maybe it's not. But one of the things that I think is interesting about that element of the story is that it does interrupt the narrative flow. And what it directs our attention to is what God is doing, not what the people are doing. The fact that God is sovereign in this battle, as it were. That God is exercising governance over the people. I mean, down to the smallest details of how they do things. when they march, where they march, what order they march in, what's going on while they march, what's not going on while they march, when they're going to shout, what's going to happen when they shout, what they're going to do once they shout, what they're allowed to do, what they're not allowed to do once they go into the city, all of that is under the governance of God. And so one of the things I would encourage you to think about is the fact that Joshua chapter 6 is not written just to be this thrilling story about the walls of Jericho. Joshua chapter 6 is communicating something to us about God. Now, is it historical? Of course it is. I mean, I'm not suggesting in any way, shape, or form this is not an actual event in history that God does, right? But the way in which the story is told, it's very, very easy for us, in the Old Testament particularly, to take exciting stories like this and kind of lose focus in terms of what it's actually there to communicate. We do this all the time with stories like David and Goliath, right? We do this all the time with stories like Samson, where suddenly now we are just fascinated with the event itself, as if this is a story about Joshua and the Israelites and what happens to Jericho. But it's not, fundamentally. Fundamentally, this is a story about Yahweh. So let's back up and make sure that we understand where we're at. I told you last week that the chapter division here is misplaced, right? In my judgment at least. It interrupts a unit of thought that goes together. And remember, the chapter divisions were not put there by Joshua or the other biblical writers. These come along much, much, much later. And they're to help us find our way through the books of the Bible. But in this case, and in a few other cases, you'll see chapter divisions that you say that really would go better a few verses before or a few verses after. The reason I say that is in chapter 5 and verse 13, where we began our reading, Joshua has this encounter with the commander of the army of Yahweh. We spent a lot of our time, in fact most of our time last week, just talking about that aspect, right? That this is a theophany. This man is not a mere man. This man is not even an angel. Although he is a messenger of Yahweh, he is Yahweh. And one of the ways that we know that is the way in which he speaks to Joshua. the description of this being holy ground, and Joshua needs to remove his shoes, the attribution of worship to this person, which no angel will receive or accept. And then, as you read on into chapter 6 and verse 2, you notice that the conversation continues, and now the speech is attributed just to the Lord, to Yahweh. Right? The commander of the army of Yahweh is Yahweh. This is, I would argue, a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. In other words, this is the Son of God prior to His incarnation as Jesus of Nazareth. Right? This is the Eternal Son coming in a visible form, in a human form. Joshua doesn't immediately recognize who he's speaking to, but once he recognizes it, he is on his face. And now God is giving instructions to Joshua. It's very, very important, because what you're seeing is kind of a recapitulation of Moses' ministry. Because Moses' ministry begins at the burning bush, with God appearing in this theophany, right? The angel of Yahweh is appearing in this burning bush to Moses. What does he say? Take your sandals off your feet, for the ground where you're standing is holy. You've got a repetition of that idea. God is the one who is directing this battle. Now notice what he says to Joshua, verse 2. See, I have given Jericho into your hand with its king and its mighty men of valor. Now that's funny because at this point Joshua is looking at the city of Jericho and everything's intact, right? I mean the king and his mighty men are safely behind the walls and the gate is shut and locked, right? It doesn't seem like we've already received the city. But I want you to recognize the parallel, if you will, right? When we look at pictures of salvation, typologically, things that point us to Jesus and things that point us to God's work of redemption in the Old Testament, this is a story that we go to. Now, unfortunately, the churches that I grew up in would oftentimes go to Jericho and say, God has to do His part, you have to do your part, right? God says, I give you the city, but they've got to march around the walls, and God's part plus my part equals deliverance. But interestingly, that's not the way the story is told, right? At the outset of the story, the Lord says, I've given you the city already. They're not obeying in order that they might receive. They are obeying because they have by faith received. By God's grace received. Now, are there conditions that God gives them? Absolutely. Is there a part that they play in terms of their obedience to the will of God as it is revealed through His servant Joshua? Yes, absolutely. We're not trying to deny the role of obedience in the life of the people of God. But what we're suggesting is that the victory belongs to Yahweh. And if we read Joshua chapter 6 as being kind of an apologetic for human obedience, human participation, then we're misreading it grossly. That's why we started just a minute ago saying, look at the way the whole story is told keeps focusing our attention on the Lord. And you say, but we have to... Wait a second. Wait a second. It's about God. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Yes, we have to obey. Yes, if we have faith, we will in fact obey God. But right here at the outset, God's very clear. I've already given you the city. And now this is how your faith and your gratitude will receive that grace, receive that gift. And what's interesting is God never leaves that up to His people to decide for themselves how they will honor, how they will give thanks, right? We don't decide what do we think will please God. We let God tell us what will please Him. That, by the way, is very, very important in chapter 7. But we're not in chapter 7. We're in chapter 6. So, the Lord gives them these specifications. Once a day, for six days, they're going to march around the city. You'll notice that the armed men are in front, the priest blowing the ram's horns, the ark, the rear guard of armed men. Who is at the center of everything? The Lord. In fact, you'll notice once in chapter 6, it doesn't refer to it as the ark, but it refers to Yahweh being with the people, right? Yahweh's presence is the reason that they are receiving this city, receiving this blessing from God, right? So they're blowing the ram's horns, and we mentioned this very briefly last week. The people are not to speak. They're not to shout. This is not the time to trash talk, right? They're not jeering. They're not threatening. They're watching and waiting silently for the salvation of God. They are waiting upon the Lord. But what does that trumpet indicate? How do we see this trumpet playing out over the course of redemptive history, right? How important does this trumpet become in the prophetic literature? in Revelation, and in the New Testament descriptions of Jesus' return, right? The Lord Jesus will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. But what is that trumpet herald? This is not a trumpet that says, woohoo, you know, we're having a party now. Maybe the saints are saying that, right? But this is a trumpet of judgment. This is a trumpet that is announcing God is coming in judgment against the wicked. And yes, it is a comfort for the saints. It is a blessing for the saints. It means the promise is now being delivered. But for the wicked, it is the trumpet of God's wrath and justice against them. And how do God's people respond in the face of that? Well, for these six days, they wait silently. I want to be careful. I don't want to get too allegorical, you know, in thinking about this story. But I can't help thinking about the way in which, in some ways, this week, right, kind of portrays our experience. I mean, here are the children of Israel. Already receiving, but not having received the consummation of that promise, right? I've given you the city, but you're not going to actually go into that city for another week, right? The walls are still standing, but the city's already defeated. You've got to feel that way every time you bury a brother or sister in Christ who has died, right? Because the New Testament says death is defeated. And yet death is not yet, that final victory has not yet been seen. Right? The consummation of that victory is not yet known. And yet Jesus, coming out of the tomb the third day, death is defeated. Right? The world lies under the power of the wicked one, but the Son of Man appeared to destroy the works of the devil. Right? And so this is the already But not yet, tension that some scholars have described as kind of the New Testament eschatology. Already Christ is reigning, but not yet in the way that we will one day see Him. Already the kingdom is here, but not yet in the fully consummated form that we will one day know it. Already we have received the promises. Already we have passed from death into life. But not yet have we seen the final climactic moment of those promises being fulfilled. And that's Israel for a week. So, during that week, what do God's people do? They let God's trumpet blow and they are silent. They wait and they walk. They are faithful. They put one foot in front of another. They do what the Lord tells them to do. They're not trying to figure out how to hasten this week. They're not trying to innovate some other plan for taking the city. Surely, about the second or third day, there are some of those warriors saying, listen, this seems a little bit silly. We're marching around these walls. These walls aren't going to fall down just because we walk around them, right? Surely, let's get some ropes, let's cut down some trees, let's build some siege works, let's get something going here. That's not what God's people are called to do. We're called to be faithful. To walk, to wait, to watch. Put one foot in front of the other. And then the moment comes. And now the trumpet is blown. It's been blowing, but now it's blown for judgment. Now the moment has arrived. And when that trumpet blows, what do God's people do? They shout. Now, if in fact we're reading this correctly, typologically and eschatologically, then you should be able to see that later in the Bible. And guess what? You do. Revelation chapters 18 and 19. When the trumpet is blown, when Babylon falls, what do the saints and heaven itself do? They shout. They celebrate. They cry hallelujah, right? And then the end, as it were, comes, right? This, I think, is in a typological way what we're seeing in the battle at Jericho. As you and I have already been told by the greater Joshua, right, that the city has been given to us. And yet what we're called to do is not to figure out how to now take it by our own strength or with our own wisdom. We're called to walk, and to wait, and to watch. To suffer in silence, right? To wait for the Lord, the day of the Lord to be announced, and then to welcome that day with joy and with a shout, right? I think you see these pictures all over the Old Testament. Over and over and over. That kind of already but not yet tension appears. Now, Joshua gives the orders. The people begin to do this. Verse 10, But Joshua commanded the people, You shall not shout or make your voice heard, neither shall any word go out of your mouth until the day I tell you to shout. Then you shall shout. How much sense does that make? Do you recognize? Now, I do think typologically, eschatologically, like I'm trying to say, there is significance for that. But would that make sense in the moment? Why can't we talk? Why can't we shout at the people looking over the top of the wall and saying, we're coming for you, our God is going to knock this city flat, right? Why can't we have just a conversation? Why can't we be whooping and hollering like wild Indians? I mean, what sense does this make? It's like when Lot and his family are sent out of Sodom, and God says, don't look back. What sense does that make? And yet, God has a reason for that. One of the things, I don't want to belabor this point, but it is not our place to try and figure out why God commands certain things to be done, and then decide, based upon our reasoning or our sense of the wisdom of that, which commands we're going to follow or not. Our responsibility is just to hear the word of God and believe it and obey it, right? And so God gives some very specific outlines for how the people are to conduct themselves, and their job is just to accept that as the people of God. Sharon, come on over here. Well, I'd just say it's a minor miracle that they all kept their mouths shut. These are the people that whined all the way across the desert for 40 years. Well, and maybe that's why. No, this is a great point. Their parents whine, complain, grumble, moan all the way across the desert and die. And one of the things you're going to see now, they're going to fail, there's going to be sin in this generation. But by and large, this generation is going to do everything well except one thing, and that is raise children. And it may be a testament to that wilderness experience that they keep this. Exactly. How many times do you see that in the Bible? Over and over and over and over again. Be still my soul. Didn't we sing that Sunday night, I think, right? Our closing hymn? How important is that? We see it in the Psalms. We see it in the prophets. We saw it in Exodus. I mean, they come to the Red Sea, and the Egyptian army's coming up behind them, and he says, stand still and see the salvation of God. How many of us need to hear that right now? with the events of the world around us, with us uncertain about what lies ahead for our nation, with all the questions and turmoil. How many of us need to be reminded, be still and know that I am God. Or as Habakkuk says, the Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before Him. In His own time, in His own way, He is going to bring the seventh day. And it's probably just a coincidence that the people of God walk and watch and wait for six days, and on the seventh day, God's rest finally comes. God's promise is finally fulfilled. You've got to believe that Jericho has eschatological implications, right? So, yeah, and I wanted to kind of tread carefully here. There is a lot of argument within archaeology and historical studies with regard to the conquest of Israel. I do think that there is credible evidence from Jericho that the walls fall out. But part of the problem is this is such a hotly disputed point of archaeology. You will hear all kinds of different ideas here. And admittedly, there is very little data with regard to the conquest. And that's actually one of the hotly disputed points. Now, Joshua actually gives us good reason for there to be very little data, because there are only three cities that are committed to the ban. There are only three cities that are actually destroyed totally. The rest of them, they don't destroy the cities. And so you've got critical scholars who are saying, where's the evidence of the conquest? We don't see it. You're not supposed to see it because they didn't go through looting and pillaging and burning cities like you typically would. Jericho, there are so many layers to it that there are even questions about which is the right layer. That is affected by your view of the exodus and affected then by your view of the conquest, the dates of the conquest. I do think you're right. I want to affirm that. I think there's credible evidence that the walls fall outward and we know that not all the walls collapse because Rahab survives. But I would want to just be careful because that's going to be a point where if you watch something on the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, the news media, they are going to say there's absolutely no evidence of this story or the conquest in general. In fact, a lot of historical scholars are just going to say the conquest never happened. It's a myth, right? And in many ways. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. So a lot of Old Testament scholarship since the late 1800s, mid to late 1800s, has argued that this is all basically written by Israel after the return from exile in order to create a history for themselves. And I'm about to show you a part of the story that belies that very notion. Okay. But You just need to be aware of it. I want you to be aware of it, not because I want you to feel like you need to go into the arena and tackle liberal critics about that, but I don't want you to be blindsided. And I don't want our kids to be blindsided. When they go into a college classroom and they hear a professor who says, there is no evidence that the conquest ever happened. I don't want that to be the first time that they hear that, right? I want them to have already been prepared to say, that's the position of liberal scholarship, here are the relevant issues, here's why that is not compelling, right? Here's why that doesn't undermine my faith. Unfortunately, what happens sometimes is our kids, they go out into the world, they've only ever heard the Bible story, and then when they get out and supposedly an expert disputes that, right? Then their faith is shaken, right? Okay, other questions about that before we move on? Alright, so, they're walking, they're waiting, they're watching, and then the seventh day comes. And we have Joshua's speech to the people, right? Which again, I think probably happens before this moment, but whenever it happens, Joshua instructs the people, verse 16, shout, for Yahweh has given you the city. All that is in it, all the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to Yahweh for destruction. It is set apart for God. It is under the ban. In other words, the items that are precious, that are salvageable, and that can be purified ritually, if you go back to our survey of the Mosaic Law, you'll see that there's regulations about this, right? The gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, those items can be purified. Those will be brought into the treasury of Yahweh. Everything else will be destroyed. Now, I told you last week I would probably start this week in Genesis 15. I didn't start there, but we've got to go there now, right? So hold your place here and go back to Genesis chapter 15 for a moment because easily the biggest criticism of the conquest narratives that liberals will offer is that it describes God in a genocidal way. Here is a God who orders the slaughter of an entire society. Men, women, children, and animals. How can that be just? How can that be the work of a good and a loving God? Right? Now, these are the kind of criticisms that come. Understand, this is not coming from people who believe that God is good and loving, and are now saying, why would God do this? Sometimes, Christians wonder those kinds of things. But this is the kind of critique that comes from an unbelieving perspective to say, here is an opportunity for us to drive a wedge within the Christian faith and to cause Christians to doubt the goodness of this God that they profess to serve. We go all the way back to Genesis chapter 15. And this is where God formally inaugurates His covenant with Abraham. He's already made this covenant by promise, and yet now He is going to go through a covenant-making ritual. He's going to put Abraham to sleep, and Yahweh is going to unilaterally secure the blessings of this covenant. But it's in that context that He says this, in verse 12, beginning of Genesis 15, As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Then Yahweh said to Abram, Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace. You shall be buried in a good old age, and they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." Why does God order the destruction of the Canaanites? There are multiple answers that you could give to that. You could say that God does that because He does not want Israel to be contaminated by their idolatry. That's true. He doesn't want Israel to be led astray by intermarrying with them. Insofar as that goes, that's true. But fundamentally, the reason that God orders the destruction of the Canaanites is this verse in Genesis chapter 15. It is an act of judgment against the Amorites for their sin. And you say, here are the actions of God in judging sin. Surely this is an extreme response. And I say, back up. This is 400 years earlier. God is saying 400 years before, it is not time yet. Do you recognize that the chapter before this in Genesis chapter 14, we meet? a priest-king in the land of Canaan named Melchizedek, who is a priest of God Most High? Do you understand that later in the book of Numbers, not long before the generation of the conquest, we meet a soothsayer named Balaam, who intermittently serves as a prophet bringing the word of God Most High? You recognize that the Old Testament focuses attention on Israel, rightly, because they're the covenant people through whom the Messiah is going to come. But you should understand that there are people like Jethro and Melchizedek and even Balaam, as bad as he was, who are bringing the word of Yahweh to other nations. And what are those nations doing? They have rejected Yahweh. They have rejected the Word of the Lord. They have participated in barbarous and idolatrous practices. Right? They are immoral. They are violent. They are rightly under the wrath of a holy God. And when God commands the Israelites to go in and wipe out the Canaanites, He is exercising judgment against them for their sins. He is using Israel just as He used Israel in Egypt to bring judgment. Now, it's not that the Israelites fight against the Egyptians, but the Israelites are the occasion for God to pour out judgment on the Egyptians by means of the plagues. He's using Israel in the way that he will later use the Assyrians to punish wickedness, and then the Babylonians to punish wickedness, and then Cyrus and the Persians to punish wickedness, right? He will use the Romans in AD 70 to pour out judgment on Jerusalem. This is what God does. He brings one nation to judge another nation. And understand that it is not because of the righteousness of the Israelites that they are used in this way by God. If you study Deuteronomy, you'll see that's not the case. Deuteronomy chapter 7, Deuteronomy chapter 9, God's very clear about this. It's not because of their righteousness that they're receiving these promises. It's because of God's goodness that He's going to keep His promises to Abraham. Habakkuk, my favorite Old Testament prophet, is Habakkuk, right? Habakkuk has to grapple with this issue when Yahweh tells him, I'm about to bring the Chaldeans against Judah, my people, to judge them for their sins. And Habakkuk says, well, I mean, Judah is worthy of judgment for their sins, but aren't the Chaldeans worse? And Yahweh says, yes, and I'm going to judge the Chaldeans for their sin, right? This is what Yahweh does. You need to recognize this. God uses nations to bring judgment against other nations, even when those nations don't know that's what's happening. And I don't see any reason to think that that isn't still going on today and even right now. And you need to be aware of that. So when you come into the book of Joshua and you say, how do we understand God ordering the destruction of these cities, the destruction of these people, men, women, children, animals? Understand this. The judge of all the earth will do right. In the same chapter where God is saying, destroy all of them, He also gives commands to save Rahab and her family. Why? Because Rahab trusts the Lord. Because Rahab sides with Yahweh and the people of Yahweh. And guess what? Not only she, but her whole household are spared as a result of that. So this is not without discrimination. This is not the arbitrary act of a vengeful God. This is the measured, righteous judgment of a holy God against sin. He is not judging innocent people. There's only ever been one innocent person, and that was Jesus Christ. Right? And so we need to understand that. That is the context. And do I expect an unbeliever to be able to appreciate that and say, oh, well, okay, that makes sense to me. God has the right to judge people who sin. I don't expect an unbeliever to understand that. Right? Do I expect the church to understand that? Absolutely. And it troubles me far more when I hear professing Christians critiquing the conquest than when I hear unbelievers. Of course an unbeliever is going to be disturbed by the conquests. Of course, they're unbelievers. But you and I as Christians need to understand, this is what God does, and this is one day what God is going to do with the whole world. is He is going to bring judgment against the whole world. Vengeance is mine, He says. Not vengeance is wrong. Vengeance is mine. He is the one who will bring justice to reign. And He will do that by judging sin and ungodliness. Art? Yes, indeed. No doubt. Our hands are covered with blood. We have taken the name of our God in vain. We have accepted His blessings, right? And spurned His law and His will. Yeah. At least fewer people are making the argument to me that America is a Christian nation now, right? So late. We're being taught as we progress through the Bible of what the Lord's intentions are from the very beginning. Yes. Those who sin will pay the price. That's right. We're seeing it in one picture on one nation. Yes. Oh, yeah. Yep. Right. Yep. Yep. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. And think about John's warning in 1 John chapter 2, right? That the world is passing away and all that is characteristic of it, all the lusts of it, but the one who does the will of God will abide forever. Right? Exactly. This is the picture, right? God's judgment being poured out on nations and on cities is typological of that final day of judgment. And they need to be told. And we need to be ready. Because the people that critique God for judging Jericho are one day going to stand before the same God and be judged by Him. Now, who does God save? I love this part of the story. Who does God save? A prostitute. Kids can go home and ask their parents what that means. He does not pick a moral person. See, there is no way for any of us to say, well, God punished the really bad people in Jericho, but He saved the really good people. No, there are no really good people in Jericho, just like there are no really good people in Israel, and there are, by the way, no really good people in this church. We are sinners saved by the grace of God. All the good that is to be found within us, we owe to God. He is the source of every good and perfect gift, and that includes any good that is in your heart or in mine. It's not there because we put it there. It's there because God worked that, right? He saves a prostitute. Who is incorporated into the lineage of Jesus? Matthew chapter 1. What do the women in Matthew chapter 1 have in common? Well, maybe that is a good homework exercise for you. You can go home and read that genealogy and figure it out for yourself. Hers is a story of grace. And if you haven't got clear in your mind yet the idea of covenant household blessings, here it is again. I know it keeps popping up. Covenant household blessings. Does this mean that every member of her family went to heaven when they died? No. I have no idea whether any of them believed in Yahweh or not. You know what I know? They believed Rahab enough to get in her house before judgment fell. Because the spies are very clear in chapter 2. Anybody outside of your house is dead. Anybody outside of your house is under the judgment of God. Those within your house are safe. They're safe. And what does Paul say in 1 Corinthians 7, verse 14? The children of even one believer are holy. Does that mean saved? No. I wish that's what it meant. Right? I wish that's what it meant. I wish it meant that any child of a believer is saved. But that's not what it means. But it means set apart. Now, here's the beautiful thing. You have a family in one house on the wall that is set apart for God. Guess what the rest of the city is set apart for God? But do you see the two different ways in which they're set apart? They belong to God. But one will be for the glory of God in salvation, and the other will be for the glory of God in justice and condemnation. And David knows where I'm going, right? Everybody's going to glorify God. Everybody's going to confess Christ. Everyone is going to bring glory to the triune, holy God. But some are going to bring glory to God in salvation, and some are going to bring glory to God in condemnation, right? And what is beautiful about this story is that God puts His hands around this family. Because she deserves it? No. She's a prostitute. But go back to chapter 2 and look again. That is a conversion story, my friends. She confesses faith in Yahweh. Same thing in Ruth chapter 1. Why is Ruth brought into the community of Israel when she's a Moabite? You're not supposed to marry a Moabite. You're not supposed to spare a Canaanite. This is not judgment without discrimination. This is not ethnic or racial bias. This is all about religion. I don't care what color the people are that my children may marry, but if they are not believers, they will not have my blessing. Period. Right? I don't care where they're from. I don't care what language they speak. I don't care what color they are. I care completely about their faith. Ruth is a believer brought into Israel. Rahab becomes a believer brought into Israel. The rest of Jericho is not made up of believers. What happens? They're set apart for destruction. See, that's the dividing line. It was the dividing line on that day of judgment. It will be the dividing line on a coming day of judgment. Do we see that? You've got to see that clearly. Otherwise, you are going to hear unbelievers who blaspheme the name of God because of events like this. And say, what kind of a God do you serve? What kind of a good and loving God is that? And you say, all I see in chapter 6 is a good and loving God. He is a good and a loving God, who is also a holy and a just God, and who had the right to reign hell on every person there that day. Every one of those Israelites was under judgment as well, and He brought them out of the wilderness, and He brought them into a place of blessing. And he did not have to save a prostitute and her family, but he did. And he does over and over and over again. And I love the fact that it's Rahab so that none of us can say any silly thing like, she deserved to be saved, right? Joshua laid an oath on them, verse 26. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm running past something I told you that I was going to point out. Verse 25. But Rahab the prostitute and her father's household and all who belonged to her, Joshua, saved the life. Time. Be that person in your family. who brings the Word of God, the presence of Christ, the light of the Gospel. Be that person in your family, even if your family are not believers. There are blessings to being in proximity to the covenant. It does not mean they will all be saved. Be that person in your family. What we keep reading, and she has lived in Israel to this day. Because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. When is the book of Joshua written? I don't know. Who wrote the book of Joshua? I don't know. I mean, it's not as though the book tells me Joshua wrote the book. But here's what I know. It's written within Rahab's lifetime. And let me tell you, unless there is just a massive piece of lying deception going on, that's not the kind of thing that you would put into a book that's being written a thousand, not a thousand, but 700 years later after the exile. You wouldn't do it. This is 1406, roughly. 1406 BC. Children of Israel come back from Babylonian exile in the 530s. So, 900 years. 900 years later. And you're going to include a statement like that in order to give it historical credibility? Only if the author is a liar. In which case, Why would we give the time of day to this book, right? But it's exactly the kind of thing that an author would write who is contemporary to the events, and who is writing 20 or 30 years later. Maybe it's Joshua. Maybe it's a scribe. Maybe it's one of the priests. I don't know who writes the book, right? But at some point in Rahab's lifetime, the notation is made, and by the way, she's still here. She still lives among us. Because not everybody who hears this book will have met her. But everybody is going to know her story. That gives historical credibility to this account because it is written by an eyewitness. Right? Now, real quickly, verse 26. Joshua laid an oath on them at that time, saying, Cursed before Yahweh be the man who rises up and rebuilds the city of Jericho. At the cost of his firstborn shall he lay its foundation. At the cost of his youngest son shall he set up its gates. Second homework assignment tonight, right? First one is read Matthew 1 and tell me what all the women have in common. The second one is that prophecy is fulfilled in the Bible. You can find where it is. You've probably got a cross-reference to it if you've got a Bible with cross-references. Otherwise, you're going to need to use a concordance. That prophecy does not say Jericho will never be rebuilt. It was rebuilt. But it was a costly prophecy to defy. You do not defy the Word of the Lord. Right? God's Word is true. And it will prove true. And this it did. Right? But notice the final statement. So Yahweh was with Joshua, and his fame was in all the land. If the Canaanites were afraid before, If Jericho was so afraid that they shut up the walls of the city, they basically put themselves in a siege situation. And the Israelites don't even have the good sense to build siege works. They don't even know how to lay siege to a city properly. They just march around the city and let their priests blow horns and then, oh no. One week later, the walls fall down. And if the Canaanites' hearts had melted within them before this event, as Rahab describes in Joshua chapter 2, what is it like now? Well, this is the key to the rest of the conquest. If Israel had had to fight city by city, town by town, village by village, the conquest would have taken many years longer than it did. As it is, it takes between six and a half and seven and a half years. But it would have taken much, much longer if they had gone village to village, town to town, city to city. But they didn't. And you know why? Because the Canaanites are terrified. And so they're going to band together, and they're going to think there's strength in numbers, and if we work together we can overcome them. But all that happens is it hastens the conquest of Canaan. There will be a central campaign, a southern campaign, and a northern campaign, and then it's done. And that's the rest of the first half of the book. So that's, we'll pick up in chapter seven next week, right? Art. Do you plan on sometime climbing on the roof? That's a beautiful story. Yes. But not till I get to judge it. It is a beautiful story. No doubt. And what it's about is particularly beautiful for those of us that love seeing Christ in the Old Testament. Right. Yeah. Lord willing, we're going to just work our way through all of the historical books, okay? I had intended, like I said a few months ago, I guess, I'd really intended to go into the prophets first, because I'm eager to teach the prophets here. But I think that this historical foundation might be more helpful to us. in terms of getting the material out of the profits that we need, right? It's going to give some historical context for studying the profits. So, just keep working our way through the historical material, and then we'll see where we're at, okay? All right, let's close with prayer. Our God and Father, thank You so much for the blessing of this evening, for the beauty and power of Your Word. O God, as critics are arrayed against You, as they seek to bring accusations against Your justice, against Your righteousness, and against Your essential goodness, O God, we pray that You would protect Your church, that we would be deaf to their insults and accusations, and that we would treat Your name as holy, and that Your name would be hallowed in all the earth. We thank You, God, for the picture of salvation that we see in the chapter that we've read even this night. We thank You for the way in which the outpouring of justice and judgment upon the ungodly is the herald of blessing for Your people. And we pray, O God, that You would fill our minds, our hearts with this glorious truth, that we would look for and hasten the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that we would long to hear the trumpet sound once more, and to see the end come, knowing that that end will be the beginning of blessedness for Your people forever. O Lord, come. We love You and we thank You for loving us. We pray that You would watch over us and keep us. In Jesus' name, Amen.