Welcome to Joshua study number 6 chapter 6 we're going to cover 27 verses Lord willing and the church don't rise and we just kind of picture Joshua looking out on the city of Jericho as we begin this Chapter, Joshua has just circumcised the Israelites in a mass circumcision of all males born over the past four decades as of the time of our study here. And as they healed, they observed Passover, and then Jesus showed up at the end of chapter five in a pre-incarnate appearance, a theophany or Christophany. And that paints a very nice picture foreshadowing the fact that we must be circumcised in our hearts, a circumcision made without hands, in order for Jesus to come into our lives. As Paul explained in Colossians 2.11, in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in the putting in, putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. And now we have victory in Christ. We battle sin daily. We battle sin in this life, but he's overcome. We are saved. And when this life is over, we'll be as he is and live in a world without sin. Even as we're in glorified bodies during that millennial kingdom, we will be without sin even then. And now We see the same sort of picture with Joshua. By the way, we mentioned his name in Greek is Yeshua, or I'm sorry, in Hebrew is Yeshua, in Greek it's Yeshu, in English it's Jesus. And so now Jesus, Joshua, leads God's children to victory in Jericho, where we'll begin here in chapter six after a word of prayer. Father, we thank you, Lord, for this time in your book. We just ask you help us As we read, we will learn and understand. As Paul said in Hebrews, we see Jesus. We thank you for showing us these amazing truths in your book. In Jesus' name, amen. And now we come to one of the most famous chapters in the Bible that contains the fall of Jericho. And verse one, now Jericho was straightly shut up because of the children of Israel. None went out and none came in. When an enemy would approach Jericho, there had been a time they'd been confident and they'd had peace, in a sense, in Jericho. They weren't worried about anything. Those walls were world famous for being impregnable. But this time they're shut up and quaking with fear. As we recall the words of Rahab back in chapter two, verses nine through 11, she's talking to these Israelite spies. And she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land and that your terror is fallen upon us. And that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt. and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites that were on the other side, Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt. Neither did there remain any more courage in any man because of you. For the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and in earth beneath. And so that's what these people are feeling right now as we go in to verse two, where outside of the walls of Jericho, we see this scene. And the Lord said unto Joshua, see, I have given into thine hand Jericho and the king thereof and the mighty men of valor. So these weren't cowards or wimps, but they're gonna lose in Jericho. Let's keep reading, verse three says, and ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days. Verse four, and seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of ram's horns. And the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets And then verse five, and it shall come to pass that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him. This is all speaking prophetically at this point. And, of course, this makes no sense on paper. No one ever copied this battle plan and tried to replicate it in the midst of a battle. Even though, you know, much of what we have read and will read in the Bible, especially from Joshua through 2 Chronicles, it's been studied and replicated by military generals throughout the centuries. Stonewall Jackson and some of those guys at West Point talked about these things in their training. But it will work perfectly because of one word, God. Do not try this at home. Don't try this in the midst of a normal military excursion. The Jews in Israel shouldn't try this right now as they're going into southern Lebanon and Gaza as I speak here in October of 2024. God is here. Nothing is impossible with God. Also, don't miss the fact that the Ark represents His presence, the presence of Christ. That's what the Ark represents. And you can't lose when Christ goes with you. So now Joshua will give take the directive given to him and he'll pass it on to the people. Verse six, and Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said unto them, take up the ark of the covenant and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark of the Lord. Verse seven, and he said unto the people, pass on and compass the city and let him that is armed pass on before the ark of the Lord. And of course, it's that simple. They did just that. Verse eight, and it came to pass when Joshua spoke unto the people that the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of ram's horns passed on before the Lord and blew with the trumpets and the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord followed them. Verse 9 and the armed men went before the priests that blew with the trumpets and the rear ward came after the ark the priests going on and blowing with the trumpets I Love a parade I don't really like a lot of the modern parades. There's so much garbage they put in there. I used to love those. As a kid, downtown Portsmouth, Ohio, and they'd have the River Days parade at the end of the summer, and you'd have all the big marching bands. You'd have floats and clowns and people throwing candy at you and everything. We just had a great time. Well, this would have been quite a scene and quite a parade, but it wouldn't have been one that the Jericodeans would have enjoyed. And yes, I made that word up. The Jericodeans. I just like that. I think we should all start calling them that. But they would have looked out on this and been sick at their stomachs. I have no doubt they had a sense of foreboding, again based on what Rahab had said about how everyone there felt as the Israelites approached the city. As we read this, it's going to be an utter devastation. Some people call this genocide, and technically it is. But these people are just one of the tribes of people interchangeably referred to as Canaanites and Amorites. And we'll discuss that more in the aftermath, but just keep that in mind. These were terribly wicked people. We'll come back to that in a minute. Verse 10 says, And Joshua had commanded the people, saying, Ye shall not shout, nor make any noise with your voice, neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth until the day I bid you shout. Then shall ye shout. Just as it is when I take a swig of coffee, silence. Of course, it would be utter silence when it comes to voices, but then they would hear the sound of thousands of marching feet. It would have been very intimidating. When I was a kid, the high school marching band would come down over the hill into the football stadium, and they would do a death march, and you'd hear the The feet stomping as they marched, and the drums just drumming a cadence, a very slow dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. I just remember as a kid I'd get chills. But it was kind of exciting then, I wasn't scared. But that would have been the situation here, fear. Verse 11, so the Ark of the Lord compassed the city, going about it once, and they came into the camp and lodged in the camp. So that's all there was for that first day. They set up camp for the night, and then verses 12 through 14, and Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the Ark of the Lord, and seven priests bearing seven trumpets of ram's horns before the Ark of the Lord went on continually, and blew with the trumpets, and the armed men went before them, but the rear ward came after the Ark of the Lord, the priests going on and blowing with the trumpets. Verse 14, and on the second day, they compassed the city once and returned into the camp, so they did six days. So that's all they did for six days. Now at this point, some suggest that the citizens of Jericho, as I call them Jerichodians, might have been getting a little desensitized after six days of watching this go on, but on the seventh day, they were basically caught off guard by what happens. We don't know, no one knows exactly what was going on behind those walls in the minds of the people, but we can guess pretty well. And what the Israelites knew was that the six days of silent marching was about to end. Verse 15, and it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose early about the dawning of the day and compassed the city after the same manner seven times. Only on that day they compassed the city seven times. So the previous six days they marched around once went back and camped Not this time and I'd have to believe that when they took that second trip. I If there was anyone who had been desensitized by the previous six days of single trips around, they would have taken notice. And then by the time they got that seventh trip around, the whole city would have probably been on edge. And then verse 16, and it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, shout, for the Lord hath given you the city. Don't miss that moment here. I mean, after the trumpets sounded, all the citizens of Jericho, the Jericho-dians, would have heard his voice beyond the wall, speaking Hebrew. I don't think any of them would have understood, but they heard his voice. I think of a time You know you you might have been where you're up on a hill and it's quiet But then all of a sudden you hear a little voice of somebody down the trail down Below the hill a little bit or maybe you were below and maybe it's a better picture This city was probably up on the hill and you're down below, but you hear someone up there. You know that kind of thing That's the setting just a small voice in the distance and As we listen in, as Joshua speaks, we know what he said because of our English King James Bible. Verse 17, and the city shall be accursed, even it and all that are therein to the Lord. Only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. And in verse 18 says and ye in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing Lest you make yourselves accursed when you take of the accursed thing and make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it Now, this is the part you want to remember when we get to the next chapter. Someone's going to ignore this and violate this instruction. But the instructions were clear. Verse 19, but all the silver and gold and vessels of brass and iron are consecrated unto the Lord. They shall come into the treasury of the Lord. This is a mass execution about to take place of some of the most vile, wicked people on the planet. And that's why God says you kill everything and even the stuff that's worth something, you're going to set it apart. What they do is they'll melt it down and then they'll put it in the treasury. None of it can even touch the people. It's not so other than picking it up to put it in the treasury They're not to take it home put it on their person not to put on the jewelry or anything like that Because these people were so wicked they were among the most wicked people since the flood of Noah and we know what God did to all the people and except for Noah and his family of eight total at the flood of Noah. And this is actually a culmination of a prophecy that God gave to Abraham when he was still being called Abram back in Genesis 15. You can, of course, go back and listen to our study on Genesis 15 for more information if you want it. But Genesis 15, 13 and 14, the Lord is speaking. And he said unto Abram, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs and shall serve them. and they shall afflict them 400 years." Of course, that's the children of Israel in Egypt. And he goes on and says, and also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge. And afterwards shall they come out with great substance. And that's what happened. The Israel, I love it, it said borrowed of the people, but they never had to return it. And Pharaoh chases them, and Pharaoh and his armies were totally destroyed when the Red Sea came down on top of them. Then Abram was told, before this ever happened, hundreds of years beforehand, 400 years beforehand, And he was told that after he was dead and buried, in Genesis 15, 16, we read, but in the fourth generation, they shall come hither again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. And that is referring to all the Canaanite and tribes, they're called Canaanites and Amorites interchangeably, and that would include these Jerichodians, as I call them. So we're here. We're at the fulfillment of Genesis 15-16. The iniquity of the Amorites is full. God is sick of it. I mean, if you know anything about the long-suffering of God, you know that means that these people were committing all of the lewd, wicked atrocities listed in Leviticus 18. We urge you regularly, at least several times we've told you, be familiar with that. Because Leviticus 18 describes the people God is driving out of the land. And so when people complain about, oh, God is so mean, you go back and read that, and if you've got any sense of what you're reading, terrible people. So far gone that they were beyond saving. Read Proverbs 1, Romans 1, Sodom and Gomorrah, and that's who you're reading about right here in Jericho and all the Canaanites and Amorites. They were so bad that as I said, I think last chapter, the best they had to offer, I might've said this way back in chapter two actually, but the best they had to offer was a whore named Rahab. That's the best they had to offer. So nothing was to be left alive and anything of value would be melted down and consecrated to the Lord and put into the treasury of the tabernacle. Verse 20, 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. Verse 21, and they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox and sheep and ass, with the edge of the sword. Now, This one says about the walls falling down flat. There's Excavations have been made archaeologists have found these walls Of course, there's always these people who try to just somehow say oh, that's not really Jericho or whether But there's plenty of evidence for those who are not trying to resist God but as verse 21 says not only did the walls fall down, but they killed everything living and And that sounds harsh. And some people, I don't like that. Well, you'll have to lump it. God is God. He is holy. These people were devils with skin and had so sexually abused and spiritually and physically abused, even their children and even their animals, a thing called bestiality, just for starters, that God was simply putting them out of their misery. Unbelievers just about crawl out of their scales when I say this, but it's a fact You see all these innocent children Wiped out here. It seems terrible sounds terrible, but they're all in heaven I really believe that and if you don't you'll get over it when you get there and see it for yourself, but God spares only What we can only figure is the only real decent woman and her family, Rahab. Verse 22, but Joshua had said unto the two men that had spied out the country, go into the harlot's house and bring out thence the woman and all that she hath as ye swear to her. And you remember it was a scarlet thread that identified her home. Verse 23, and the young men that were spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brother and all that she had, and they brought out all her kindred and left them without the camp of Israel. I can't recall, it'd be interesting to know the number if that was eight, just like on the Ark of the Flood, but at any rate, Joshua was a man of his word and they left Rahab and her family outside of the walls and then went to business and did what they did verse 24 and they burnt the city with fire and all that was therein only the silver and the gold and the vessels of brass and of iron they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord and again historic fact It's established biblically and in extra biblical writings and archaeological findings. But one thing I found in Easton's Bible dictionary, it's part of the sword searcher software that I use, and it says in one of the Amarna tablets, Adonai Zedek writes to the king of Egypt informing him that the Abirai, which is Hebrews, had prevailed and had taken the fortress of Jericho and were plundering all the king's lands. He was probably wanting help because he could see the Canaanite kings were all being, you know, decimated. There are whole documentaries, books, and all kinds of materials discussing these events. And as I said, some try to explain these things away. They'll just flat out contradict the biblical text. But any sane, fair-minded reader will see that the proof is overwhelming in support of our text. And although we find out in chapter seven that someone actually didn't follow these orders in verse 24, we continue verse 25, and Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive and her father's household and all that she had. And she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day, because she hid the messengers which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. Unto the day, meaning the day that this book was written, up to the time that Joshua And this book of Joshua was written I believe in large part by Joshua himself But Rahab not only dwelt in Israel until the day that the book of Joshua was completed But the Savior of the world Jesus Christ had her DNA Rahab It's called Rechab, R-A-C-H-A-B in the New Testament, or King James Bible. She married Salmon, and they had a little boy named Boaz who grew up to marry Ruth. And when we come to the book of Ruth, that's what that whole book is about. And Ruth 4, 21 and 22 tells us, and Salmon begat Boaz, and Boaz begat Obed, and Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David. King David, of course, is in the lineage of Jesus Christ. And then Matthew 1, 5, and 6 explains, just for clarification, that when you see that Salmon begat Boaz, that's Rahab's husband. So she's the one who carried the baby and delivered the baby, Boaz. And it says, and Salmon begat Boaz, B-O-O-Z, that's Boaz in the New Testament. Salmon begat Booz of Rahab, which is Rahab. And Booz begat Obed of Ruth, and Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat King David. Now Matthew is the lineage of Joseph, who was not the natural father of Jesus, but Mary's lineage is given in Luke. It also says in Luke 3, 31 and 32, which was the son of David, which was the son of Jesse, which was the son of Obed, which was the son of Boaz, which was the son of Salmon, who was married to Rahab. So that son, Boaz, came from Rahab. is the lineage that produced Mary, whose father was named Heli. So when Joseph married the Virgin Mary, he became what we call the son-in-law of Heli. But that literally means that Joseph became legally recognized as Heli's son by marriage. Thus, Luke was accurate in saying in Luke 3.23, and Jesus himself began to be about 30 years of age, being as was supposed, the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli. And right there in both genealogies of Jesus, his biological mother, Mary, and his adoptive father, Joseph, came from the line of Rahab and her husband, Salmon. And with all that happening, unbeknownst to all involved, by the way. They didn't know all this that we're talking about with hindsight from the scripture. Verse 26, and Joshua adjured them at that time saying, cursed be the man before the Lord that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho. He shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it. You can read 1 Kings 16, 34, where that actually happened. And a guy named Hiel, the Bethelite, built the city and his youngest son, well, he laid the foundation there of an Abiram and his youngest son Segub and they died. It doesn't say God wanted that to happen. He was prophesying and it came true. And then verse seven closes. So the Lord was with Joshua and his fame was noise throughout all the country. And so much more we could say about that, but we'll close by just saying Joshua was the man, the man of God. And maybe we'll say a few things about this last verse when we pick up the next time in chapter seven in our next Joshua study.