As the story opens in today’s passage, the people of Israel were finally at the place they had feared 40 years ago when Moses had sent men to spy out the land of Canaan. Upon their return, Joshua and Caleb had told them:
“The land, which we passed through to spy it out, is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.”
But the people did not listen to them. Instead, they listened to other spies who told them that “the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there.” As a result, instead of fearing the Lord, they feared the men of Canaan.
So the people rebelled against Moses, seeking to stone Joshua and Caleb. Most importantly, of course, they rebelled against God. And because of their rebellion, they were condemned to die in the desert as they wandered through it for the next forty years.
But the day of reckoning could not be delayed for ever. Sooner or later, they would have to face the giants of the land of Canaan. Now, that day was here. Yet unlike 40 years before, Joshua and the new generation entered the Promised Land faithfully. They did this because they now feared the Lord as they remembered that He was their Sovereign Lord. Let’s see what this means.
Jericho wasn’t just any city. It was one of the oldest cities in the world. And it was surrounded by some of the earliest fortifications known to man. And some of the strongest. We’ve been told that Jericho was “shut up inside and outside.” So it is easy to imagine the nervousness, even doubt, that Joshua and the people felt as the came upon the city.
It is in this context that we can look at the appearance of the “commander of the Lord’s army” at the end of chapter 5. Who was this commander? Joshua wasn’t sure. But he had some questions for the commander to find out. Joshua asked, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?”
The commander answered, “No.” What a strange answer from our human perspective. But He wasn’t about to let Joshua force Him into such simple categories. Joshua and the rest of us would see no other options. Either you or with us, or you are agin us.
The commander pointed out a third option. He was the commander of the Lord’s army. He was on God’s side.
And so it is for us today. We are not to place God on our side and against our opponents. Instead, we must determine whether or not we are on God’s side. He is above us. He is our sovereign Lord. It is He who determines the sides, not us. His enemies are our enemies, not the other way around. And He will deliver them into our hands when He chooses.
What a comfort this must have been to Joshua. For in this passage, we see Joshua’s and Caleb’s prophesy from 40 years ago being fulfilled. These are God’s enemies and their protection has been removed from them. The people have very little to do. Simply march around the city, blow horns, and shout.
Just like Joshua, we too should be comforted by the faithfulness of the Lord as he protects us from our enemies, and faithfully delivers on His promised. But don’t forget that sometimes He delivers on His promises later than we expect: we see this here, with Israel entering the land 40 years later than they could have. So in order that we might not exhibit the faithlessness of the Israelites and bring sufferings on our own heads, let’s do what they didn’t do: fear the Lord by remembering His great works.
God understands how easily it is for us to forget about Him and His great works. He saw it in the wilderness of Sinai, as the people couldn’t even make from one miracle to the next without forgetting what God had done for them. They couldn’t even remember that He had parted the Red Sea and delivered them from the Egyptians. And they didn’t seem to remember that the manna they were still eating came from Him.
That is why God told them to set up an Ebenezer, or a memorial, out of 12 stones when they crossed Jordan. He wanted their children to remember that “the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord.”
I often marvel at the forgetfulness of the Israelites in the desert. I ask, “How could they possibly be that way with all those miracles, an even with God with them in the wilderness? Surely I wouldn’t have been that way?”
Yet, we really are. It is true that God usually works around us today through ordinary means. We don’t get manna from heaven today. But God is with us in a way that He wasn’t with the Israelites—He is within us through His Holy Spirit. We also have all the accounts of the great works of God right before our very eyes. We would be greatly benefitted to pay attention to them, instead of wondering about the stiff-necks of the Israelites.
In today’s passage, we have one of these great works. God makes sure that there is no credit for the Israelites in the destruction of Jericho. All they do is shout, and one of the greatest fortresses of the ancient world, locked up tight to foil invaders, falls into ruin. Perhaps we read these stories so often they seem normal. We accept them like we do a fairly tale, with little awe and wonder.
But here is a miraculous deed of the Lord recorded so that we might call Him Lord. This should be our Ebenezer. We should meditate on it day and night that we might not forget that He is Lord.
There is one more thing about fearing the Lord to think about, though. For remembering that God is Lord and He has done great works is not enough. As this passage makes clear, we should also fear the Lord by remembering who we are.
We see this in several ways in verses 17-19. Just before he lets the people shout, Joshua reminds them of a few things. The first is that the city and everything in it is to be devoted to destruction. This was the time that God has told Abraham about hundreds of years before. The time when the inequity of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites was complete.
It might have been easy, then, for the Israelites to have thought “It is because of our righteousness that the Lord has brought us in to possess this land.” But God reminded them this was not the case in Deuteronomy 9, “Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you.”
It is even more imperative for us to remember this, because, unlike the Israelites, we have not commanded to devote our enemies to destruction. We are in fact to love them. And we will never be able to do this without the humility of knowing all that we have in life is because of God.
The next reminder from Joshua helps us see this path to humility. Because he wants the people to remember after the battle that it was God who brought the victory to them, before they shout he puts before them the commandments of God that they are to obey amidst all the destruction. They are to save from destruction all the silver and gold and bronze and iron and deliver it to the treasury of the Lord. They are also to save Rahab and all her family from the destruction.
Here, we are reminded, just like the Israelites, that neither our victories or our defeats are our own—they all come from God, and we are to be obedient to his commands no matter what might befall us.
There is a problem here, of course. While we are commanded to be obedient, we will not always obey. Though we are called to humility, we will often be proud. What hope then do we have if we fail in these things?
It is not in us. And we will remember that if we remember who we really are—helpless inners in need of God’s mercy. As we remember this, we will also remember that our hope is in God and His mercy. Not everything at Jericho was devoted to destruction; though everything—and everyone—deserved it. Rahab was one of these. She had been a pagan living a very pagan life. Yet she was spared. It tells us here that she was spared because she “hid the messengers whom [Joshua] sent.”
But even more than that, she was saved because of her fear of the Lord. Unlike the Israelites 40 years before, or the people of Jericho, her fear of the Lord caused her to flee to His mercy. Because of God’s mercy, even in the midst of destruction, this pagan gentile and her family became part of God’s chosen people.
God also wants us to see salvation in the midst of destruction. No matter how much we have failed to keep His commandments, and no matter what destruction we see in our lives because of this, we too can be rescued like Rahab. And just like her, we too who once were far off can be brought near to Him by the blood of Christ.
Friends, just like Rahab, fear the Lord your God. Remember that He is your Sovereign Lord. Remember His great works. And remember that you are in great need of His mercy. Don’t forget these things, and even though the city is burning all around you, God in His mercy will save you from destruction.
This homily was prepared using Joshua: No Falling Words by Dale Ralph Davis.
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