It's true that the story in Joshua chapter 6 might very well be the most well-known story in the book of Joshua. The fall of Jericho. And it is a story that unfolds in an unexpected way, especially because the fall of Jericho begins the conquest of the land. The people have crossed the Jordan River. They have kept the Passover. They bear the sign of circumcision with the Abrahamic covenant. They are people set apart to conquer. And yet the conquest of the land begins in an unexpected way. The military strategy meeting must have seemed very strange, right? Because Joshua hears from the Lord, and he brings instructions to the people about how this is going to go. And they might have been debating among one another, I wonder what we'll say as we march around into the city. What kind of mantra or what kind of proclamation? And of course, Joshua's instruction to them is, you're actually going to be silent. You're actually not going to say anything. That's odd. And then are we going to just go through the front gates? Are we going to bash those down? Are we going to climb over those walls? Who's going to go where? And Joshua says, actually, you're going to walk around it for seven days and the walls are going to fall flat. And it's not that they haven't had reason to trust the Lord so far, but you do need to think from their vantage point. from an earthly perspective, how non-military all of that sounds. And so you look at these people who are ready to go and conquest the land and nothing about what Joshua's telling them would be greenlit by the generals of any army saying, absolutely, we've heard how that works elsewhere. Like this is just, you don't do this kind of thing if you're expecting to actually conquer the city. But if God and Joshua 3 can make water stand up like walls, Then in Joshua 6, he can make walls come down like water. This is the God of wonders. And they're gonna behold the wonders of God, having the same God with them as was with Moses. And the wonders of God with Joshua continue. Now, we don't know the exact size of Jericho in the days of Joshua. It was not a big city, but archaeological digs over the years, especially in the 1900s, lead people to suggest that Jericho covered about nine acres or so. And therefore, the circumference of the city would not have taken many hours for a large group of people to walk around, even at a very slow pace. So even though they were doing this for seven days, once a day for the first six, They're not spending all day having to walk around the city. But Jericho is a fortress. This is not a kind of metropolis with all these noncombatants and citizens. Jericho is a fortress of warriors. And therefore the fall of Jericho is going to be important as a down payment for the land promised to Israel. It is like a first fruits of their inheritance. For Joshua to overcome with these Israelites, to overcome Jericho by the power of God's own breath is to indicate that the rest of the land is certainly to be theirs. Here's the down payment. Multiple archaeologists have dated the remains of Jericho to a destruction in the 1400s BC when it was demolished. This fits, importantly, with the biblical timeline. When you look at the data of the various dates and sequence of events, it looks like the entrance to the promised land was in around 1406 BC. And some archaeological dating has suggested the ruins of Jericho date to that time period, which it's always nice when there is some archaeological data that can help us to see various things the Bible is already telling us, but others have discovered some external confirmation. of the events. And in verses 1 to 5, as this city is going to be taken down by the Lord, God's instructions to Joshua are the right place to start. In verses 1 to 5, God's instructions to Joshua begin with a remark about how sealed off the city currently is, and then the plan that's going to follow. The sealing off of the city in verse 1, we shouldn't just read verse 1 and then move quickly to the instruction because it tells us Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. We should draw from that the conclusion that the citizens of Jericho, these warriors in this military fortress, are afraid. They have sealed off the city and it's because of the people of Israel. None went out and none came in. Think of Jericho as a city now under siege. No one's getting out. No one's going in. And that's going to only be OK for a certain amount of time if you're a city sealed off. You're eventually going to need transport and commercial item. You're going to need water and you're going to need all sorts of things that you might not be able to source ably within your city. So this city shut up inside and outside because of the people. This is their response. The wicked citizens of Jericho respond this way and not like Rahab did. They know everything Rahab knows. Rahab said in Joshua chapter two, your God is God in heaven and on earth. We heard what he did when he parted the Red Sea, when he delivered you out of Egypt, when you brought down the kings of Sihon and Og, east of Jordan, we heard all of that. And now you've come here and I believe God's given you the land. It's as good as done. They knew everything Rahab knew and they refused to repent. They would not surrender. They would rather seal up the city, not go in and resist what was inevitable. God is merciful to the wicked if they repent. But Jericho is not going to do that. The king should surrender, but he doesn't. The soldiers should humble themselves before the living God, but they won't. What's foolish is to know everything Rahab knows and refuse the living God. In verse two, God says to Joshua, See, I've given Jericho into your hand with its king and mighty men of valor. It's quite a statement. Jericho still standing. Citizens are still there. King still living. The language in verse two is saying it's as good as done. That's how certain it is. And in verse three, he says, you shall march around the city. with all the men of war going around the city once. And thus you shall do for six days. So once a day for six days, seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark. And on the seventh day, you shall march around the city seven times and the priests shall blow seven trumpets. I'm including the seven there at the end there. The trumpets blown by these priests continue the theme of seven, and when they make a long blast in verse five with this ram's horn, you will hear the sound of the trumpet, the people will 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. The wall will fall down flat, which is a way, I think, of saying it is coming down, straight down to the ground, like a demolition. And if the people are marching around the city, it's not going to just be a wall that falls outward upon them, and it's not going to fall inward upon the citizens. It's going to collapse under the very power of God himself. You can notice the repetition of the number seven, that seems significant. Seven priests, seven trumpets, one for each priest. And they are going to march with these guards before and after them for seven days. And on the seventh day, march around seven times. It's this notion of completion that is being hit upon, this emphasis of seven. It seems to even refer by this week, if you will, of marching to a kind of week and Sabbath connection to Genesis 1. They're doing something for six days and then something very particular on the seventh day. Not only that, the ram's horn is used in Leviticus 25 for the time of Jubilee, when the time of Jubilee took land and restored it to rightful owners. In this case, in Joshua chapter 6, perhaps Jubilee is being echoed here, not because it's that month and time of the year, but because God, as the owner and creator of the world, is going to give the land to the Israelites who have been promised it. And so this ram's horn is going to blow. Now in verses six and seven, Joshua has these instructions and he's going to convey them. So he conveys to the priests in verse six and to the people in verse seven, what's to happen. And in verse six, he says to the priests, take up the Ark of the Covenant and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the Ark of the Lord. Now, according to the book of Numbers and in chapter 10, the Ark of the Lord, when brought up and carried and taken into battle, is a symbol of the Lord's presence with his covenant people. So that means it's not just the Israelites encircling the city. It's as if God himself is circling the city he is going to conquer. By taking the ark, it's to symbolize the presence of the Lord and the power of God on their behalf. And then in verse seven, he says to the people, go forward, march around the city, and let the armed men pass on before the Ark of the Lord. You do not have the entire nation of Israel doing this march. You have the men of war doing this march. The warriors are put in two places in the order. So here's how I think we should imagine this march. You've got armed men at the front, and then you've got the Ark of the Covenant being carried with priests blasting seven of these priests, blasting ram's horns. After these priests in the arc, you have another rear guard. So you've got warriors flanking either side of the arc of the covenant and ram's horn blowing priests numbering seven. And so with this order, they're gonna march around once a day for six days, and then seven times on the seventh day. And in verses 8 to 11, day one of the march is described. Let's see how the people do. The instructions have been given from God to Joshua, then from Joshua to the priests and the people, and then in chapter 6, 8. And just as Joshua had commanded the people, the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of ram's horns before the Lord went forward, blowing the trumpets with the ark of the covenant of the Lord following them. So this is good. You've got the trumpet blowing priests, you've got the ark of the covenant marching as instructed. And then in verse 9, 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. So you have the flanking warriors, don't you? So you have flanking warriors, ark and trumpet blowing priests, and they're marching just as Joshua said. The biblical author doesn't mind this degree of repetition. The words and phrasing that we've just looked at in verses eight and nine are overlapping with the instructions. The reason the biblical author is taking time to give you this much detail is to specify how obedient the people were. They didn't just obey in general. They obeyed specifically. And so they didn't say, well, I know seven of you were required to blow these trumpets, but I know others of you would like to join also. It was all very tailored. to the instructions of the Lord. We should behold their obedience. And then, in verse 10, 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 the Lord to circle the city, going about at once. And they came into the camp and spent the night in the camp. The camp there is Gilgal, where the Israelites have crossed the Jordan River to stay. And Jericho is not far from Gilgal, and therefore the warriors and the trumpet-blowing priests and the priests who uphold the Ark, they're circling the city of Jericho. But they're not saying anything, and that is ominous. I could imagine that given the places of military positioning for towers and places to just see over your walls and around the city, it's not lost on the people of Jericho what's going on. But it must have seemed very strange when they report back to their leaders and to their king that the people are marching around the city and are saying nothing. The people are completely quiet. How unusual would that be? No military cries, no mantra, no, you know, for Israel, you know, there's no like language of rallying the troops. They are silent. And they are to not shout or speak during this entire march. And the Ark of the Lord circles the city being carried by these people. It goes around once, the first day is over, the people go back to the camp. That pattern for day one is then given as the template as days two through six are summarized. In verses 12 to 14, days two through six are summarized like this. Then Joshua rose early in the morning and the priest took up the ark of the Lord And the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark of the Lord 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 the Lord while the trumpets blew continually. And the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. So they did for six days." What verses 12 through 14 are doing is just summarizing the continued obedience in days two through six that they did on day one. So it looks eerily the same. So if you're those people on those towers in Jericho and you're looking at the Israelites and they circle your city and then they disband, you're wondering with one another, what are they doing? They didn't attack anything. They didn't say anything. And they circled around and then they left. And then you say to your people the next morning, they're back here. They are circling again and again, not saying anything. And then they disband. And for six days, it must have been so incredibly confusing, but also psychologically intimidating. Consider how psychologically intimidating this must be. What are these people doing that this seems to be a strategy they are employing day after day after day? What is happening? Because here's what you know. You know what Rahab knows. You know that God parted the Red Sea, that he parted the Jordan River, that he brought down the kings of Sihon and Og, and this army is now walking around your city. In verses 15 to 21, we come to day seven. In verses 15 to 21, day seven and the fall of the city. On the seventh day, they rose early at the dawn of day and marched around the city in the same manner seven times. And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, shout for the Lord has given you the city. And the city and all that's within it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction. Now what Joshua is calling for them to do is to shout, and this is a shout before the walls fall. It's a shout before the army of Jericho is subdued. It's a shout in advance. It's a victory shout. It's not a shout of fear, not a panic, but a shout of confidence that God will keep his promise. It's a shout of faith. And so he tells them that you're gonna shout for the Lord has given you this city and here's what you're gonna do. The city and everything in it is devoted to the Lord for destruction. This is a city, a military fortress where it will not be spared. And those within it will be devoted to the Lord for destruction. Judgment has come. The Israelites are the means or the vessels of judgment for the city. In Genesis 15, God said to Abraham, that eventually your descendants will return to this land. For the time of the Amorites, or the sins of the Amorites, are not yet complete. But the day would come when they had fattened themselves for slaughter, so to speak, by indulging in their wickedness, immorality, and idolatry. And the judgment of these Canaanites in Jericho has arrived. And the Israelites have arrived as the rod of God's judgment. And so he says in verse 17, it shall be devoted for destruction. But we have some earlier parts of Jericho that help us here. We know that a woman named Rahab had confessed the living God and that she had hung a scarlet cord from her window as they had instructed her to mark out her home for deliverance and not for judgment. So he says in verse 17, only Rahab, the prostitute, and all who are within her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent. And all of that refers to the story back in Joshua 2. The spies that came into Jericho, and then they went and told Joshua, here's this Rahab, and here's this cord, and here's the plan that we told you, here's our agreement. Now Jericho's destruction has come, and Joshua is gonna keep the agreement that was made. Rahab and her family will be spared. This scene of Jericho's destruction is a scene of judgment and salvation in the same event. In the same event, the coming of the Israelites means judgment for the wicked, but it means salvation for Rahab. It means deliverance and rescue for her family properly marked by that cord. He says in verse 18, but you keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you've devoted them, you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it. He wants them to devote these objects to destruction because they're all connected to and associated with the idolatrous, immoral activities of this city. And it's as if everything is tainted by the uncleanness and defilement of the sin of Jericho. And so he says, it shall all be destroyed. Don't look at something in the land as a spoil of war and thinking, I'm just going to take that for myself. The instructions here in verse 17 and 18 are not the instructions for every single city or group that they're going to face in the promised land. But it is true for Jericho. This passage is also doing a little bit of foreshadowing. And we don't realize it as readers until we get to Joshua 7. when a particular Israelite took some of the devoted things for himself and brought trouble into Israel's camp. Here the warning is given and so the Israelites need to heed the warning of God because the judgment of God is not going to just favor the Israelites no matter what they do. Trouble and demise will come their way if they reject His commands. So this means if you're an Israelite or you're a Canaanite, the point is you need to be all in for the living God. Follow him, love him, obey him. It's not gonna go well for either Israelite or Canaanite if they reject his words. So he says in verse 19, but all the silver and gold and every vessel of bronze and iron are holy to the Lord. They shall go into the treasury of the Lord. Now, this language of holy to the Lord is part of this devoting something to God, either for destruction or for his use. Here seems to be the division. There's the majority of property and spoils in Jericho that will be destroyed. Particular materials made of bronze and iron, silver and gold, are gonna be devoted to the Lord for use and kept in the treasury of the Lord. The treasury of the Lord, we find out later in this chapter, is in the tabernacle, it's in the house of the Lord. This means these materials would be of use for the holy worship of the Israelites and the upkeeping of the vessels and structure of the house of the Lord, the sanctuary, in the days to come. After all, don't you know that some of these terms, bronze and silver and gold, we find these particular materials in the tabernacle's construction? So the Israelites are devoting things to destruction and some things setting apart for the Lord, but they're not to look at this as a time for personal advantage. Because this city under God's sovereignty is gonna be brought low and things divided in a particular way. So in verse 20 and 21, so the people shouted. If you're in Jericho, This seventh day looks really bizarre. Not only have the people arrived again, now, after circling once, you're thinking, okay, they're about to disband in three, two, no, they're walking again, they're walking again. And you just think, what's different today? And maybe, maybe the difference of how that started looking, that it happened a third time, and then a fourth circling, and then a fifth, if you started thinking to yourself, this is a different kind of day. What's going on today that's different from the previous days? And then, while the people had been silent for those six, now they shout. And when they shout, it says, In verse 20, at the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout and the wall fell down flat. And if you say, but how did it fall down flat? Did the people in Jericho do something? Did the people of the Israelites do something? Neither. The wall fell down flat because God brought down the wall. Just like he brings up water and makes it stand, he brings down the stones of Jericho's wall at his will. So this is a miracle, a wonder, where no natural explanation would suffice for explaining this kind of event. A shout? Their voices were not some kind of supernaturally empowered vibration that shook the stones loose. The Israelites are like, man, look what we could do together. The Israelites are not to look at the shout and think, the power of our voice did this? No. The only way to explain this is that God, who is the owner and creator of all life, has come to execute judgment. And the people of Israel witnessed the collapse of the wall. Every man then, he says, goes straight up before him and captures the city. Having been besieged for a week, the city is now devoted to destruction, both men and women, and young and old, and oxen, sheep, and donkeys with the edge of the sword. Language that implies a total subduing of the inhabitants. Even the word young there might stand out to you as you're reading in verse 21. And I should point out that in verse 23, the same word for young refers to the young men who had been spies and went in and brought out Rahab. I think that these ideas of young and old and men and women have to do with the hostile warriors and those alongside that same mission who resisted Yahweh and who hated the Israelites and wanted to see them die. Those are put down by the edge of the sword by the Israelite army, because God, as the sovereign owner and creator of life, is never wrong to execute judgment. There's no wrongdoing in Joshua 6 by the Lord and the Israelites. Instead, this is righteousness on display after the long-suffering, slow to anger, abounding in love character of God has been at work. And from the days of Abraham, the sins of the Amorites and the Canaanites were clear. And the Lord said, the day of judgment for them is still to come. The day has arrived in Joshua 6. And so they carry out the judgment of the Lord. God never being wrong to do or say anything that he does or says, has executed now what is faithful to and in keeping with his justice. So the fall of the city on the seventh day in verses 15 to 21. Then we read in verses 22 to 25, the deliverance of Rahab. Earlier, Joshua had mentioned only Rahab you shall spare. And here's some of the carrying out of that command. In verse 22, 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 belong to her, and they brought out all her relatives and put them outside the camp of Israel. What I love about this is that the same two spies she'd helped to spare the lives of are the two spies who go back into her house and so they come to her home which was part of the wall of Jericho in one of the windows and she sees these familiar faces. Now being along the wall of Jericho It would not have been lost on her that this Israelite set of warriors and some golden covered box that these priests are carrying and blowing trumpets, that they're going around the city, they're making noise, they're getting attention here, even if they're silent with their words, something's going on. And if you're Rahab, you know that the time for the judgment of Jericho has arrived. This is what she believes. God's going to give the Israelites the land. And if you're Rahab, you're also hoping that those two spies are going to keep their word. And then all of a sudden, the knock at your door, you open it up and there's those two smiling faces. Hey, Rahab, we're back. You know, we're here and you are to be rescued. Get all of your relatives, get everybody together. We are on our way out. You're coming with us. What a great assurance that must have been. What a relief that must have been. And so we're told that they brought them outside the camp of Israel. Does that language stand out to you? It sounds so exclusionary. You know, we've got the camp of Israel, you guys stay outside the camp of Israel. Doesn't it sound very inclusive? Why might this be the case? Well, these Canaanites, who have now thrown themselves in with the covenant people of Israel, represented by Rahab, who's confessed faith in the living God, They have the laws and ceremonies and rituals of the Israelites to keep and defilement and uncleanness that must be remedied by the ceremonies in the Levitical law. And until they are ritually fit to approach the tabernacle, they must remain outside the camp. So this is not an indictment of their spiritual situation. It's a recognition of their ceremonial state. They are from an unclean people. And therefore, when all of this is said and done, they will be rightly brought into the confines of the Israelite camp. But the Israelites are keeping them right outside the camp of Gilgal for ceremonial purposes that are made clear by passages in Leviticus and in Numbers and in Deuteronomy. In other words, we are seeing more and further obedience here. We're told in verse 24, and they burn the city with fire and everything in it. only the silver and gold and the vessels of bronze and 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. Now this obedience of burning the city in verse 24 and delivering Rahab in verse 25 is quite a pairing side by side. You can see here images of judgment and salvation. The Israelites have been ordered to bring destruction and also to execute deliverance on behalf of Rahab. And here in verses 24 and 25, back to back, we see these things playing out in the same event. Something like the destruction of Jericho and the deliverance of Rahab foreshadows in the scriptural storyline the kind of hope we have at the return of Christ. Because we know at the return of Christ, the wicked will be condemned. And we know that the people of God experience the consummate rescue in store for their lives. Resurrection from the dead and glory in the age to come. communion and everlasting peace and joy with God, our maker and redeemer. But we know that Christ Jesus has promised that he will bring both judgment and salvation. And when you see Old Testament episodes of God's arrival in some sort of way, either directly or through his people, his vessels, judgment and salvation can be often found together. And that's what's happening here. The city of Jericho is a warning, not merely on some physical level or social level for the Canaanites. It's more than that. We read this as a historical account, part of the unfolding character and redemptive plan of God, who warns the nations that when they hear of the living God, they should turn to him. They should repent of their idolatry. They should abandon the path of folly, because it is not safe to live in sin. Rebellion against the living God leads to the judgment of this city. And so we should look at a judgment of this city and we should think to ourselves, so shall it be for all who reject the living God. And these Canaanites may have felt so secure from so many other armies. Oh, look at how fortified our walls are. People have tried and failed. No one's gonna be able to penetrate the walls of this city and bring us down. But God can do what man cannot do. And the Israelites do not have to try to smash through these walls or bust through these gates or climb over in this fortress. God brings the walls down underneath. So you have this picture of the sovereign judgment of God over the wicked and the deliverance of Rahab. I want to share with you a few facts that these archaeologists have discovered in the 1900s that I think will be of interest. I want to mention three things because, after all, ancient Near Eastern territories are of great interest for archaeologists who are still looking through ruins and trying to date various elements that are discovered and still digging in the dirt and rock, trying to look into the ancient world with the various skills they have. And in the 1900s, various excavations from some Germans as well as a couple other archaeologists outside of Germany have led to several observations that are in line with the biblical record. So for instance, Some Germans in the 1900s discovered a portion of the wall of Jericho still standing. It's on the northern side of the city, where houses had been built against the outer city wall. The quote from this particular archaeology report says, the walls of the dwellings were thin, only one brick in width with the wall, indicating that this was likely a poorer part of the city. It is plausible, this report says, that this is the area of the city in which Rahab's house would have been located. Now consider for a moment the value of this, seeing ruins all around this region except for a part of the wall in the northern part of the city. One thing we could conclude from Joshua chapter 6 is when the walls collapse it couldn't very well be the walls of Rahab's house also If the wall where Rahab's house is located collapses, she dies and everybody with her. But if you have walls collapsing with the exception of one part of the city that remains standing, then any houses built along that wall can be spared. Another finding. says, and I quote, the destruction of Jericho was complete. Walls and floors were blackened or reddened by fire, and every room was filled with fallen bricks, timbers, and household utensils. In most rooms, fallen debris was heavily burnt, with the collapse of walls in the eastern room seeming to have taken place before, affected by fire itself. That archaeological point is important with the order because the walls did not come down because of fire, but fell, and then the city was burned. And this particular archaeological report says it does seem to be, especially when you look at eastern rooms on the side of that wall, that the collapse of the wall took place before the effect of the fire. To see such a thorough burning of the city in the ruins of what was discovered in all of this area, around these nine acres or so, further confirms the biblical record where God said to Joshua, and Joshua to the people, the city is to be thoroughly destroyed. Let me give you a third instance. A man named John Garstong, who excavated Jericho in the 1930s, and another archaeologist in the 1950s who confirmed the same thing, found storage jars filled with burnt grain. which is a very odd thing to see. And I want to make several observations from this article here about why that's intriguing to archaeologists. Several storage jars filled with burnt grain. If you have a city under siege for lengths and lengths of time, the grain stored by the people in the city gets eaten. They're not going to have any left. That's one of the benefits of besieging a city is you could starve it. You could weaken the city from within. Storage jars filled with grains suggest that the city was not under siege for a long time, because the food supply was still present. People inside the city would have eaten it. If people came in to overcome these warriors, the typical practice in the ancient world was for a conquering army to take all the goods and spoils from the city that they could, and that included food, anything in storage jars, as well as precious metals, what would be weird is burning the food. But if in Joshua 6 the instructions are to not take this as a time of personal advantage, devote certain precious metals unto the Lord, but otherwise burn and destroy the city, then it would explain why multiple archaeologists have found storage jars of burnt grain there. It would fit with the way the end of the city is described in the scriptures. So I found those three examples of some archaeological confirmations helpful as we consider our city today. We would love if every biblical narrative was able to be matched by various excavations and people had found this place or that place. Ancient Near Eastern archaeology is a live field and ongoing with greater discoveries. And so we love to hear of confirmations and stories like this. And I was happy to come across these things from the 1900s that deal with our story today. The writer of Hebrews is aware of what God did. not only because the writer of Hebrews knows the Old Testament, which the writer does and so very thoroughly knows the Old Testament. The writer of Hebrews in chapter 11 is looking for examples of faith in the Old Testament. Examples of faith to demonstrate for the people of God in his contemporary generation that you are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who looked unto God, worshipped God, trusted God, who walked by faith. And here's part of that list in Hebrews 11, beginning in verse 30. By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. Now, why did the writer phrase it that way? By faith the walls of Jericho fell. Because the people circled the city trusting that God was gonna do what they couldn't do. A takeaway from Joshua 6 is that these people trusted the Lord and I need to trust the Lord. I need to believe God because His wisdom is not like worldly wisdom. If worldly-minded leaders of an army listened to Joshua's strategy that the God of heaven and earth had said to him, they would laugh Joshua out of the room, saying, there's no way that's going to work. It's not practical. No one's ever done it that way before. How can you imagine that being successful? Consider how those walls are just going to stay standing despite what you do. So it says here in Hebrews 1130, by faith, the walls of Jericho fell down. The writer of Hebrews is attributing a faith response to the marchers. So when they're going around circling the city, these are people who believe God. and don't go by the standard and criteria of the world. In Hebrews 11 31, the very next verse. It says, by faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies, singling Rahab out there over against those who perished under the judgment. Now, who perished under the judgment of the Israelites in Jericho, where they were the rod of God's condemnation and wrath to those citizens? Hebrews 11 31 says, the disobedient perished. Disobedient to whom? Were they struggling with obeying the edicts of their king? No. The Canaanites are image bearers accountable to the living God, whose moral law upon their conscience and heart was jaded and hardened to a point where they were living in such abject idolatry and sin and immorality and rebellion that nothing other than judgment was what was just and fitting. So the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 11 31 calls the Canaanites who fell at Jericho the disobedient and that Rahab wasn't like that. Why? Well, by faith she didn't perish. What do you mean by faith? Joshua 2 tells us she confessed the living God. She knew he is God in heaven and earth and she's gonna be all in for him because she knows what God has done and what God has said. At the end of our passage this morning, we have two verses that end this chapter with Joshua's curse and his reputation. In verse 26, Joshua 626 says, Joshua laid an oath on them at that time, saying, Cursed before the Lord 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 younger son shall he set up its gates. In other words, this city is to be an abiding demonstration of God's judgment and not something to be rebuilt and then rebuilt and then rebuilt. It's to be an abiding symbol of wrath against ungodliness. There to point to what Jericho once was. And here Joshua lays upon them with this kind of pressure from an actual oath that the very curse and judgment of God will be upon the one who takes it upon himself to rebuild what God had condemned. And when you read later in the Old Testament, there's a scene in first Kings chapter 16. a man named Hiel of Bethel. Here's what it says. First Kings 1634, Hiel of Bethel built Jericho. He laid its foundation at the cost of Abiram, his firstborn, and set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son, Seguv, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Joshua, the son of Nun. So when you read later in the Old Testament narratives, you get to first Kings 16, and some person has taken it upon themselves, the folly written task of building Jericho. And the warning of Joshua is fulfilled. When it uses the language there in first Kings 16, 34, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Joshua. That's about our passage today. It's about Joshua 6, that if God has said that this is prohibited, that is to be prohibited. God here has said to Joshua, and through Joshua to the Israelites, this warning and judgment. The reputation of Joshua spreads. In the end of the chapter, in verse 27, it says, so the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame was in all the land. And it reminds us of the connection with Moses because God was with Moses. And as God was with Moses, so he is with Joshua. It's a big theme in these opening chapters. And just as Moses became a renowned leader among the Israelites, so Joshua's fame is lifted high among the people. It's not because Joshua is treated as an idol. The fame spreading means Joshua's leadership and how God has lifted high and exalted him over the people in a way that is right to lead them as the new Moses. And the fame of Joshua fills the land, which means just as Jericho knew all that Rahab knew, The Canaanites throughout the land would know and hear of what God did through the Israelites and Joshua's leadership at Jericho. The thing they should do when they learn of God, when they hear his promises and warnings, and when they see his commitment to both judge the wicked and save the repentant, is they and we should turn to the Lord with haste. We should not say, someday maybe I, we should think to ourselves, the living God judges the wicked in his perfect righteousness. And God extends mercy in his slow to anger abounding and steadfast love character and welcomes all sinners to come to him that they might be delivered from judgment. And we should think to ourselves, then I should go to Christ. I should see Christ as that great deliverer on my behalf. Consider what God has accomplished through Christ Jesus, a victory through a cross. How counterintuitive is that? How otherworldly is that? It confounds the wisdom of the world. This is 1 Corinthians 1, the power of the cross. People consider it foolishness and a stumbling block, yet it's the wisdom of God. And if you listen to the strategy of Jericho, somebody might say that's foolishness and a stumbling block, but it's the wisdom of God at work in Joshua 6. What's God doing in his wisdom? Exalting his own power and glory for all to behold. Because that is what the sinner's heart needs to behold. that we might be saved and that we might delight in Him and that we might exalt Him. We need to see the glory of God. And in Christ Jesus, the glory and wisdom of God is displayed in a cross. And it doesn't make sense to the world how a man dying on a cross for several hours hanging between two others could be the remedy for the ills of the soul and the curse of sin and death. But this is the wisdom of God at work. This is not the wisdom of man. And so therefore Paul says, I preach Christ crucified. That's what animates my ministry. That's the heart of my message. I want you to know Christ because that's the wisdom of God. And when you see the power of the cross, you realize over and over again in the old Testament, the way has been prepared for this because God has been displaying his glory and might throughout the old Testament in ways that confound the wisdom of people. And Joshua six is a story that does that. We should trust the Lord in all his mysterious ways, knowing that when Christ returns in 1 Thessalonians 4 and in 1 Corinthians 15, the trumpet shall sound and the resurrection of his people shall come. God will be faithful to us. And at the sound of the trumpet, rather than the encircling of the world seven times and seven times on the seventh day, we await the coming of the Lord Jesus to make all things new. And a story like this should give us hope in the providence and sovereignty and salvation of God on behalf of his people. And it should cause the hearts of the wicked to tremble before him because the city of Jericho and the fall of its walls and the destruction of those Canaanites is a picture of the justice of God upon the wicked on that final day. So let us look unto Jesus. whose perfect wisdom and glory and power was displayed in his substitutionary death in our place. Let's pray together.