JERICHO OPERATION

Joshua 6:1-27

Key Verse: 6:2

“Then the Lord said to Joshua, ‘See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men’.”

Happy New Year! I know all of you are eager to start this year with new resolutions and have a victorious and fruitful year. Our Christian life is compared to a battle. We are called Christian soldiers. How can we win personal victory in our spiritual battle in this year? That’s what I want to share with you today. In today’s passage, we learn how God enabled his people to destroy the Jericho fortress. In this passage we learn not only the victory of the Israelite soldiers, but also how to win personal victory in our lifetime. Do you want victory in Jesus? If you want victory in Jesus say “Amen.” God wants us to be his victorious people. May God bless us to learn spiritual principles to become victorious people of God in 2002.

PART I. I HAVE DELIVERED JERICHO INTO YOUR HANDS (1-5)

God called Abraham and gave him a promise to make him a great nation in Genesis 12:2. Finally, Israel people came to the entrance of the Promised Land. Moses saw the land God promised from the mountaintop but could not cross over into it. His mission ended right there. Now Joshua took over the leadership position from Moses. It was not easy for Joshua to fill in Moses’ leadership. So God gave him his word of encouragement in Joshua 1:7, “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.” Joshua needed courageous faith and Bible study to overcome many obstacles in order to conquer the Canaan land. If Joshua and his people obey God’s word, they will be successful wherever they go. Here we see that their success of conquering war depended on God’s help. By the help of God Joshua crossed the Jordan River as on dry land. They tasted God awesome power when they followed God’s instruction. Now Jericho was a big obstacle for Israel people to overcome. How did God help Israel people to prepare for the war? In the chapter 5 God commanded his people to prepare for the war and told them how to destroy the invincible Jericho fortress. Commonly speaking, war preparation requires boot camp training and full-fledged army training to destroy the enemy. The Taliban forces were defeated when U.S. Armed Forces prepared the war against the terrorists thoroughly. It took only two months to dismantle the Afghanistan Taliban government. But God did not command General Joshua to train Israel special Green Beret forces. To our surprise, God commanded General Joshua to circumcise all his people again with sharp flint knives. Circumcision was to cut off the foreskin of the child-producing organ around seven inches under the belly button. What a spectacle it was to see all the men of Israel after having been circumcised, lying down here and there, groaning. All of them would have been killed if the Jericho army attacked them. It was a risky and dangerous command to obey. But they obeyed God’s command faithfully. Spiritually speaking, circumcision meant to have a right heart in the sight of God. And it was to have an identity of being his people. It was to remove sinful habits from their hearts. In this way God prepared their hearts to conquer Jericho Fortress. Spiritual warfare is different from the military warfare. We have to prepare our hearts to win spiritual battle. Our Bible reading retreat was to circumcise our hearts before God and prepare for our spiritual battle in this year.

Look at verse 1. “Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.” At that time it was impossible for the Israelite army to destroy the Jericho Fortress. The Jericho Fortress was located to the west of the Israelite camp, between the desert and the Promised Land. The Jericho Fortress was around ten miles square. The area between the desert and the Jericho fortress was well-fortified with all kinds of defense equipment. The fortress was built of granite stones, with many archery holes and hot water tanks and fire hoses to throw fiery brimstone on the invaders. It looked invincible, impregnable, and unconquerable. But before conquering the Jericho Fortress, Israel could not advance into the Promised Land. Moreover, circumcision pain was lingering after the circumcision. When they looked up at the Jericho fortress they lost their spirit. How did God help Joshua in this critical time? According to 5:13-15, God sent his army to help Joshua in advance. God was with Joshua to win the battle. At this time, the thunderous command of God Almighty came to Joshua. Look at verse 2. “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.” The soldiers of Israel might have thought, “It’s impossible to conquer the Jericho Fortress,” but the power and dignity of God’s thunderous command subsided their fear and filled them with confidence in their hearts. When we look at verse 2, it is God’s mighty promise. God had a plan to deliver Jericho into the hands of Israel army. God used the verb the past participle “have delivered”. Even though Jericho was not conquered yet, it was already conquered like the past event to God. It was a matter of entering. God’s promise is reliable and trustworthy. It is different from man’s promise. Maryland football coach promised before the Orange Ball, “We will deliver a victory.” But he could not back up his promise when Maryland players were too slow like turtles to catch up speedy Florida wide receivers. But God would deliver Jericho into the hands of Israel people as he promised. In order for this promise to be fulfilled there are certain conditions to follow. Israel people must follow God’s battle plan exactly. They must depend on God not their own military strategy.

Then, what was God’s command for the battle plan? It was as follows. Look at verses 3-5. “March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse, and the people will go up, every man straight in” What a battle plan! It looked like a children’s soldier game. However, it was God’s battle plan. In awesome fear, General Joshua and the people of Israel first armed themselves with the word of God. They believed that although they had no military power, God would help them destroy the Jericho Fortress. Here, when we carefully read several verses, we see that victory or defeat was determined when God’s fear came upon the people in the Jericho Fortress. So they escaped into the fortress and shut up all the doors of the fortress (1). They had no strength in their fingers to adopt an attack strategy, they adopted a negative strategy, that is, “Wait until the fear in our hearts subsides.” They did not have an aggressive strategy. Rather they were too fearful to prepare for war against the Israelites. What was worse, the soldiers of Jericho were very complacent and depended on the fortress. One’s entire life is like a war and one’s daily life is like a battle. The key point to win the spiritual battle is to follow God’s direction. God shows the way to win. Our spiritual battle must be fought in God’s way. In Exodus 17:8-16, the Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites. Moses sent Joshua to fight the Amalekites. But there was a strange thing in the battle. “As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning.” After defeating the Amalekites, Moses built an altar and called it “The Lord is my Banner.” (Exodus 17:15) Moses knew that the victory came from the Lord. Thirty-two thousand men came when Gideon went out to battle against the Midianites in Judges 7. God chose only three hundred men who passed his test by lapping the water with their tongues like a dog. The rest of them failed by kneeling down to drink. They dropped their weapons in order to drink. Three hundred men held their weapons and they were ready to fight the battle in God’s way while the rest of them were not ready. It is important to follow God’s word in our daily spiritual battle. Do your daily bread daily. Joshua and his people captured Jericho Fortress by following God’s direction. But in chapter 7 they were defeated in the battle against a small city called Ai because they did not listen to God’s word of warning. Apostle Paul said 2 Timothy 2:3-4, “Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs-he wants to please his commanding officer.” Here we learn that we are soldiers of Christ and our life goal is to please our commanding officer Jesus Christ. We need Jesus-centered life. We must follow two winning spiritual principles in our spiritual battle here: First, we must endure hardship. This means that there will be many hardships in our spiritual battle. Please don’t try to avoid or escape hardship or quit but endure it by faith. Take up your cross daily. Second, do not involve in civilian affairs. Soldiers are different from civilians. This means that we need to discipline ourselves to engage in our daily spiritual battle.

PART II. SHOUT! FOR THE LORD HAS GIVEN YOU THE CITY! (6-21)

After hearing God’s command, General Joshua called his people and commanded them to advance and fight and destroy them all. General Joshua called the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant of the Lord and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it.” He ordered the people to “Advance and march around the city, with the armed guard going ahead of the ark of the Lord.” Going around the city quietly one time a day didn’t look like destroying the fortress of Jericho. But the army of Israel had fully prepared themselves through circumcision. Their hearts were full of strength and a sense of victory (6-7). This was the strategy of paralyzing the enemies in fear. General Joshua spoke to the people. Then, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets before the Lord went forward blowing the trumpets and the ark of the Lord’s covenant followed them. The armed guard marched ahead of the priests who blew the trumpets and the rear guard followed the ark. All this time the trumpets were sounding. But General Joshua had commanded the people, “Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day l tell you to shout. Then shout!” The army of Israel under General Joshua’s command absolutely obeyed the command Joshua had given them. As General Joshua commanded, they advanced, softly stepping around the city of Jericho. And then the army of Israel returned to the camp and spent the night there. I don’t know whether they took a shower or not, but one thing is very clear, they won the victory in going around the city of Jericho in silence. Silence was their prayer. They acted like one man. The army of Israel’s obedience to their commander and controlling their mouths imply that they had already won the war. But on the seventh day they got up earlier and they circled the city seven times. What did Joshua and his army do after they circled around on the seventh day seven times? Look at verse 20. “When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city.” God brought a great victory to Joshua and the people of Israel. Finally the Jericho fortress completely collapsed to the ground. The soldiers of Israel were empowered by the Spirit of God. We call this Jericho Operation.

We can learn three spiritual lessons from the Jericho Operation. First, it was the work of obedience. The victory came when they obeyed God’s command through Joshua. Therefore we can say that victory came only from God. The ark of the Lord was leading the march. This means that God was leading the march. The Israelites were trusting God in their march. They believed that God was with them during their seven-day Jericho Operation. They believed that God had delivered the city of Jericho into their hands. They had faith in God. By faith they moved the mountain of the fortified city of Jericho. Obedience comes from faith in God. Their obedience brought a great victory to them. Hebrews 11:30 says, “By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.” The victory in Jericho was the result of obedience by the people of God. I Samuel 15:22b says, “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.” When we obey God’s word, we can overcome our personal Jericho and will experience the power of God. In feeding 5 thousands with 5 loaves and 2 fish in John chapter 6 Jesus accepted Andrew’s faith of obedience instead of Philip’s smart calculation. God uses a man of faith not a man of calculation. Last semester the door of campus seemed to be shut tightly and it was not easy to open the hearts of the students. Then 9-11 tragedy hit the nation. We grieved for the loss of many lives. In the middle of national crisis we obeyed Jesus’ command “Feed my lamb” and marched around our campus everyday. God blessed our obedience and began to open the hearts of many students. God began to fill our center with many eager students who are hungry towards the word of God. In 2002 we may obey God’s word and feed 300 students and win many spiritual battles by faith. By faith each of us can feed five sheep. Women coworkers enjoyed Bible reading retreat and climbed the mountain by faith.

Second, it was the work of patience. The Jericho Operation required a great patience to the people of Israel. It was not easy for them to march around the city seven days without doing anything. They wanted to attack the city right away. Seven days looked like seven long years to them. They wanted to rush to the city when they saw their enemies. But God told them to march around the city silently. They were tired of waiting game. One day passed and they waited. Two days passed and they waited. Six days passed and nothing happened but they continued their march. Seven days passed and they waited. God wanted them to wait for God’s time. When God’s time came, they shouted and the wall collapsed. God was putting fears to the people of Jericho during the seven-day march. The downfall of King Saul was caused by his impatience according to 1 Samuel 13:8-9. Saul grew impatient when Samuel did not come. So he offered up the burnt offering by himself. Then Samuel came and rebuked his impatience. But David waited for God’s time enduring many sufferings and Samuel anointed him to become the king of Israel. Abraham waited to have Isaac for 25 years. Jacob waited seven years to marry Rachel. Simeon and Anna in Luke 2 were waiting for the consolation of Israel and finally they saw the baby Jesus with their own eyes before their deaths. The father of the prodigal son in Luke 15 waited for his run-away son patiently. Finally, his lost son came home and the father welcomed him with arms of love. We have to wait for God’s time when we feed sheep. We need patience to wait for sheep to grow slowly. Of course, we want our sheep grow faster and become shepherds right away. But that’s not the way God works. This applies to our children. We want our children to become dream kids doing everything perfect. But children do not grow as their parents expected. There will be God’s time for them to grow and become mature servants of God. Until then we have to wait for them with much prayers. In 2002 God may teach us how to wait for his timing by following God’s direction faithfully.

Third, it was the work of coworking. The march consisted of three distinct groups-like priests, music servants, and armed soldiers. It was not easy for them to walk along together for seven days. They had to march silently. But nobody acted selfishly. They acted like one man. They worked together very well. All of them played their own role faithfully. To the armed soldiers their actions looked very dangerous and foolish from the military point of view. But they did not complain to Joshua and they did not doubt God’s word. The music servants blew the trumpets all the time during the march. But they did not complain. The priests who took the ark did not complain. They all coworked well. When they were asked to shout, they all shouted loudly. Then the walls of Jericho collapsed. God’s way of working is beyond human reason. The secret of our successful spiritual life is to work together with others. We have to recognize the gifts of others and use them for the work of God. When the disciples did not work together, they were defeated. When they worked together, they changed the world. The world mission was possible when 120 people were united in prayer in the upper room. Acts 1:14 says, “They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.” The world mission looked impossible but it became a reality when 120 people coworked together in prayer. God’s work is not one man show. It is the work of a vessel making through working together. M. Moses worked together with M. Sarah, Becky and Bob Woods, S. Tinuke, and Folake last year. His fellowship overcame many obstacles together and rendered glory to God. In 2002 God may help us work together in our Fellowships. Music team worked well like one man and made spiritual environments for the Sunday worship service. Each team worked together. Volleyball team worked together. YDJ grew a lot through their coworking though they were different in many ways. God prepared his strong vessel to conquer 206 campuses through us.

PART III. RAHAB AND HER FAMILY WERE SAVED (22-27)

Look at verse 25. “But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho- and she lives among the Israelites to this day.” General Joshua commanded to protect Rahab the prostitute and her family three times in this passage (17,22,25). Rahab the prostitute was precious in the sight of God. But human beings can ignore such people after the victory. Even after the victory, General Joshua wanted to spare Rahab the prostitute. Why? She sided with God’s people by faith. She was included in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1:5, “Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab.” By faith she brought salvation to her family. In addition, Joshua gave a warning not take any devoted things to God in verses 18 and 19. Later in chapter 7, Achan took some of them and brought defeat to the Israelites due to his sin. Joshua wanted to prevent his people from falling into material temptation in the Promised Land by giving them this warning. It is important to remember God’s word and keep God’s command after his blessing.

In conclusion, what are the three secrets to win the spiritual battle? What is our Jericho to conquer in our spiritual battle? It may be our school problem, health problem, financial problem, family problem, marriage problem, 5 1:1 Bible study, 206 East Coast pioneering, or world mission. But God promised us in verse 2, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands…” Yes, I believe that God has delivered UMCP, GMU, GU, TU, JHU, and UMAB into our hands this year. We need to obey God’s command and go there by faith and march around them and claim them one by one as our own. May God be with you this year and give you many spiritual victories through your life of faith. May God bless year 2002 when we obey God’s word and wait for his time and work together like one man. Let’s read the key verse 6:2.