Joshua 6 Bible Study (Fall of Jericho) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

So if you're at Joshua chapter six, you want us to pray together as you're tuning in, and then we're gonna dive in together to the word of God. Lord, we thank you for the word of God. We thank you for the fact that we can run to the scriptures, and we could we could take refuge in your truth. In the midst of all the confusion and chaos and turmoil, Lord, we hide under the shadow of your wings. And so, Lord, we pray for protection over the livestream, over our minds, our hearts, that, Lord, in the midst of so much information and arguments and debate, that all of that would cease in this moment and that your truth would prevail and that what you have to say will trump over everything else.

Give us that discernment and give us that willingness to receive it. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Joshua chapter six. Now if you remember when we started the book of Joshua, we gave a structure to the whole book and how this book is in fact divided into sections that presents a theme in each section.

And Joshua six is important because it is the commencement of a new section in the book. And so when you look at Joshua chapter one to five, what you'll realize is that there is a theme. And the theme between one and five is the nation entering into the land, receiving instruction and operating in faith to come into the land of Canaan. But when we come to the second section, which is six to 12, it's not about entering into the land. Now we are starting to talk about and describe conquering the land.

It's gonna be about the strategies and the conquest and the battles that are detailed for us and how they are going to make those necessary steps, partnering with God to receive their inheritance as the people of God. And so this is an exciting chapter because you and I are going to begin this new section, and this new journey, this new theme. And what's beautiful about it is that we are seeing them facing these towering walls in a famous story known as the fall of Jericho. The fall of Jericho is an amazing story because it's a miraculous story, and it's something that we can almost read and and we're so familiar like many other stories where we kinda miss the value and the the themes and the principles that are there for us, and we're not gonna do that tonight. We're gonna dig in and to see what God has in mind for this chapter for us today.

So let's read as we start this new section. In verse one of chapter six, it says, now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, and none came in. And the Lord said to Joshua, see, I have given Jericho into your hand with its king and the mighty men of valor. And so here's the scene.

The last time we talked together, Joshua faced the manifestation of the person of Jesus Christ as a soldier, as a warrior, and he worships him. And from that scene of worship, we now see Joshua ready to receive instruction from God to know what to do with Jericho. And we're told that this city is shut up. It's it's under siege almost. They are protecting themselves by letting nothing or no one come in or out, knowing that the spies came in.

They're going on shutdown mode. But it's not verse one that we wanna pay attention to. It's the verse two. Look at the terminology. Look at the tense that God gives concerning this promise to Joshua and the Israelites.

And the Lord said to Joshua, see, I have given Jericho into your hand. He didn't say, see, I will give Jericho into your hand. He says, I've already done it. It's a done deal. It's settled.

Now that's important because he is declaring something to be true even though it is not experienced. He he is giving a future reality as a present promise. And now why would God do that to Joshua? Is he giving him false hope? Is he giving him some kind of an expectation?

Is he just playing on his emotions? No. It's settled. It's secure. Though not one soldier has died, though not one plan has been given, God already determined, and he's letting them know the victory is already yours.

Now why would God do that? Because God wants to build something in Joshua, and it's something he wants to build in you and me. Confidence and comfort. Confidence and comfort. Now that's what God wants to do with Joshua, and that's what he wants to do with all of us.

But that confidence and that comfort will never go unchallenged because for those things to be experienced in us, it needs to be connected with something called faith, a trust, an agreement. It's one thing to know God said something and to acknowledge that God said it, and it's a whole different thing to believe God when he does say it. So it's not for us to just know that God gave us promises. It's to believe the God who made those promises. And the promises that God has given you and I in our land of Canaan, so to speak, in our inheritance, outshine what Joshua is about to experience because this idea of a prophetic present promise is something that you and I are given as well.

Here's an example. In Romans eight thirteen, look what the Holy Spirit says to Paul concerning our inheritance as Christians. He says, and those whom he predestined, God says, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified.

See, we can read, like, a verse two here in Joshua six and even in Romans eight thirty and and miss the the tense that's being presented here. Notice that God says justified, past tense. And not just justifies, but glorified, past tense. Now how can that be? What does it mean to be glorified?

We're talking about the final state of God's redemptive work in us. We're talking about God completing his deliverance by giving us resurrected bodies and being in his presence for all eternity. That is something that has not yet happened. We are awaiting that. And yet Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is telling us Christians that it already happened.

In God's mind, it's not that we are experienced glorification, but that experience is secured for us to have in the days to come. Now why is that given to us? Because it's a done deal. The fact that it is in the past tense declares that you are headed towards that no matter what. It's a finished contract.

It's something that you and I are predestined to because we are in Christ. So what should that cause us to do? Well, the same thing for Joshua, a confidence in our relationship with God and a comfort in our walk in this journey. It doesn't even end there. We go to Hebrews ten fourteen.

Now look at this. For by a single offering, he being God, has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Again, past tense, perfected. Would anybody dare say that I am currently perfect? No.

And that's not what he's trying to say. Positionally, that perfection that you and I are going to experience because the Bible says that when we see him as he is, we will become like him in his character and nature and holiness. And yet Hebrews, which is amazing because Hebrews carries such grave warnings about what we do when we trample concerning the grace of God and the blood of Jesus Christ, but yet here we see in the very chapter that describes that a promise, a future promise that you and I are to know today, you're already perfect in the eyes of God. As you are being perfected, as you are being sanctified, you should take hope. You should be courageous.

You should be comforted to know that God in his mind already sees you and filters your life, your soul, your mind, your actions as already deemed as perfect. There's no argument here. Now here's the challenge though. I can look at that and and agree that God said it, but not experience the blessings. The reason why God gives it is so that we can experience, we can taste something of that.

Now what good would it do for Joshua to hear that God had already given him victory, but not to believe it? How would that affect his whole experience in this chapter? Well, I'm sure as a human, he would be fearful. He would be filled with doubt. He would almost come up with a plan b of how he's gonna overcome Jericho if God doesn't pull through with his promise, but that's not what God wants him to do.

God wants him to endeavor this journey with a rest in the soul to know that God has already accomplished the task, and he just needs to walk it out by faith. And the same frustrations that Joshua could have experienced if he didn't trust God, believe me that many believers are experiencing right now because they're not trusting completely in the promises that God has given us like in the verses I just read. They don't have that security that they are already in God's mind settled and secure. That glorification has already taken place, so to speak, though not experientially. They don't understand fully that they are perfected in the eyes of God, and and so they struggle with with painful doubts wondering where they stand with Christ.

And they stumble and they sweat and they exhaust themselves emotionally and mentally, and it does so much to their journey because of a lack of a simple trust. So the goodness of God is manifested in this prophetic present promises. It's gonna come experientially, but I want you to know that it's already a done deal. That was true for Joshua when it came to these walls, and it's true for you and I when we pass through whatever challenges in this sanctifying walk that we're called to walk. Joshua was was supposed to hold on to that.

And from that place on, if you've read Joshua chapter six before, you'll notice from verse three, and you can argue all the way down to verse 15, we get this detailed command of how they were supposed to come in war against Jericho. And if you're honest, you'll admit that it's quite repetitive, and the same details seem to be resurfacing over and over again. And as you read it, the temptation there is to almost try to find some kind of hidden meaning in these symbols and these details, but that's not the point. It's the bigger picture that we need to look at. So let's summarize what this mission is.

You're familiar with it, I'm sure. God says this is gonna be a seven day mission. For the first six days, you're gonna have seven priests with seven horns with the ark of the covenant surrounded by before him and after him soldiers that are gonna walk around the walls of Jericho one time a day. The soldiers, they ain't saying nothing. They're not gonna shout.

They're not gonna whisper. They're not gonna make a sound. As this is happening, you're gonna go and you're gonna walk, and you're gonna go back home. You're gonna wake up, and you're gonna do the same thing. When you come to the seventh day, you're gonna do this, but you're gonna do it seven times.

You're gonna walk around this wall seven times while the priests are blowing on the horns, but the soldiers, they're not saying nothing. They're keeping their mouths shut. The only noise that's gonna be made by these soldiers is the feet as they walk and contact the ground. But what's gonna happen is after the seventh time, the priests are gonna blow their trumpets with a long blast, and that's gonna signal for the army and the rest of the people to shout with everything within them. And after you shout, the walls are gonna come crumbling to your feet, you're gonna enter in, and you're gonna destroy everything.

That's the plan. That's what Joshua received from the Lord, and this is what Joshua was supposed to give to the people. And I can guarantee you this, that this could have been quite the experience for the Israelites and even for the citizens of Jericho. This this would have been something jarring to them. I mean, here is the first opportunity to conquer the land, and these are the instruction God gives.

So let's consider putting our feet in the sandals of the Israelites at this time. They received this instruction from the Lord. And you think, well, what's the point? Well, here's the lesson, that they're about to be taught something about the power of faith. See, to hear this as a soldier, to hear this even as a leader like Joshua would make absolutely no sense in the realm of military conquest.

This is nonsensical. How does me coming against these people, how does this add up to victory? How does this add up to us outweighing them and outnumbering them and outpouring them? This doesn't make any sense. You're telling us to pretty much have a seven day parade.

And so there's a challenge to the intellect. There is a there is a challenge even to their pride. There is a challenge to to everything that makes sense in combat, in war. You don't have to be an expert or a strategist to understand that this is not how you do battle, and god is aware of that. God is fully aware of that.

And so the reason why he's doing this is because he wants him to respond. He wants him to come to the conclusion that the only appropriate response to such a list of commands is to have childlike faith. Everything about the story of Josh Joshua and Jericho in this scene has to do with faith. Here's the evidence of that. You go to Hebrews eleven thirty, and here's the Holy Spirit's commentary on this chapter.

It says by faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. So we're not here to look at what do the horns represent? What is the ark of the covenant? We could, but the Holy Spirit already gave us commentary. Zoom out, look at the whole picture, and this is the lesson, faith.

To look at such a thing like this and say, this is gonna require nothing but simple trust. Not to figure God out, not to calculate how this makes sense in our wisdom, but this simply says, okay, Lord. If that's what you said, we're gonna obey. Everything about this mission required faith. Think about the timing.

Seven days. If you can have an ability to to go back and forth with God, when you say, lord, can we just do this in one? Can we just get this over on one day and let's move on? Why seven? Why do we have to march once a day every day and then on the seventh day?

Why? Why can't we just move forward? Isn't it amazing that even us today, we argue with God concerning the timing of his events in our lives? Lord, why now? Why this early?

Why this late? Why interrupt my life in this manner? And we we debate with God as though he doesn't have a clue on his best interest for us concerning the timing of things. Wouldn't it make sense for things to happen sooner so they can experience a promised land faster? To us, that's what we debate.

But to God, he says, you gotta trust that seven days and the endurance of this is my perfect will. Not just the timing. Think about the vulnerability. They're in war here. They're not volunteering to march up and down Jericho through the streets so that people can No.

No. No. This is a war, and here they are scaling through the walls day by day, putting themselves at risk of obviously people being able to shoot them with arrows or roll stones to crush their skulls. There's no instruction about how to protect their heads. Here is another element of trust as you walk through these walls.

You know, maybe at day one, they'd be freaked out wondering what's going on here? What are they doing? Is this some mystical thing? But after day three, perhaps they were being like, what is going on here? And who knows?

Who knows the temptation that these citizens had? But it was a trust that they needed to have concerning God's wisdom. Never mind the vulnerability. Think about the strategy itself. The only thing that makes sense about this whole list is that when the walls would come down, they would go in and destroy everything with their weapons.

Why not God just cause an earthquake, let us save our energy, we'll run-in, and we'll do a better job doing the things that we need to do? Why make us do this whole thing again? Trust. And the reason why God is doing this right now from the get go is because this is the very first mission, the very first opportunity to take over the land. And what God wants to instill, he wants to set a precedent that if they were to see him pull through with this kind of a command and this kind of a battle, they can trust him with any future challenge if they would simply obey this one.

I mean, if you see god pull through with this, would you doubt any other thing he would ask you to do? Surely not. And God is gonna ingrain that. He wants to make sure that after this moment, they would have this burned in their memory for the rest of this journey, and they would trust God with whatever. And and you say, well, why?

It could be so much easier. Well, listen. Do you wanna know how you please God and how I can please God? It's very simple. It's called faith.

There are many things in your life and mine that we like to experience to bring pleasure to us. Correct? Hopefully, righteous ones. In God's economy, when we give him trust that pleases him. There's a stirring in his heart of delight when he sees a people receive what he has to say and joyfully respond in obedience.

This is what God is trying to pull out of these people. But it's not just the element of faith. Do you realize that this experience is opening them up to to being objects of ridicule? This this looks like foolishness. So so think about it from the angle of these citizens of Jericho who are looking at these marching soldiers that are presenting no threat other than just waltzing around the city walls day by day.

And if the Israelites had to surrender anything at this time, guarantee that they had to surrender any sense of pride. This is them going, okay, Lord. We don't understand it. This doesn't make any sense. In fact, if we're honest, it's kind of silly.

It doesn't seem like it has any threat, but we're gonna do it. Now we don't have the reaction of the citizens of Jericho. We don't know what went through their minds. But just looking at it from our perspective, we can almost say, this is this is a little out there. And the point is this, that as Christians, when we choose to obey the standards and the commands and the decrees of God, we always put ourselves out there to look like fools before an unbelieving world.

Always. When we choose to surrender and adopt to the written word of God and apply our lives to what God says you need to frame your life by, you and I, in some sense, present ourselves to an unregenerate world to scoff and mock at us as we walk out the will of God to a different beat than they do. Everything about who we are is different than what the world understands, and that is something that we have to expect. The foolish things that the world calls foolish, these things are spiritual to us. In fact, listen to this verse in first Corinthians two fourteen.

The natural person does not accept the things of the spirit of God. When he means natural, he's speaking about the person who's not been reborn, the person who's not been transformed by the spirit, the person who is still being dominated by the flesh. The natural person, he he can't receive the things of the spirit of God, for they are folly to him, foolishness. It's idiotic, and he is not able to understand it because they are spiritually discerned. And so we look at this, and we think maybe the citizen of Jericho thought, what in the world is this?

But but trust that as you live out what god calls you to live out, we are subject to the same kind of scorn. Because when a person who's not been transformed in their mind and their heart listen. This is how this is great evidence that you have not been transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit through the gospel, that you hear the standards of the scriptures. And it's not that you don't understand them. You are not willing to accept them.

You know what's amazing, though? If there's anything that we can take out of these instructions is the number seven. Seven priests, seven trumpets, seven days. On the seventh day, encircle it seven times, seven seven seven seven seven. Why the number?

Because the biblical interpretation of number seven is perfection, completion. And what that's telling us is that as much as these commands seem foolish in the eyes of the world, they are God's perfect will for those who would obey it. Foolish? Sure, to the world. But in God's eyes and those who are spiritually discerned, it's perfect.

It's complete. It's just right. It's exactly what God wants from us, and it will produce the exact results that God wants to produce. And so here are the people, and and here's the temptation, that people who hear the things about this word pertaining to all matters of life can say, well, I I can't think like that. I can't relate this way.

I can't imagine changing my life in this manner. Just like some would look at this command and say, that's not the way you do warfare. This is putting my life at risk as a soldier. I wanna waste a week doing that. Do you see?

But if we are spiritually transformed, not only do we see God's command and trust it, we delight in them and we are willing to submit to them, unlike the unbelieving. And that's important to understand because every faculty of to be transformed by the will of God. Here's an example. And we're going out there. It has nothing to do with this, chapter, so to speak.

Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, you remember that sermon? The greatest sermon ever preached. We see here when we go to Matthew, and let's turn there, and let's see what Jesus asked of his people. When you come to that sermon, Matthew five, six, and seven, you realize that Jesus is asking much from us in every detail of who we are. Matthew five forty three, He says, you have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

Where did that idea come from? And we have to be careful. People read this verse and they say, see, in the New Testament, God asked that we love our enemies. In the Old Testament, God asked that we hate our enemies. Is that true?

If you believe that, please go to Leviticus nineteen eighteen, and you will see that the scripture says, love your enemies as you love yourself. That's tucked in the book of Leviticus of all places. So it can't be that Jesus is contrasting between the Old Testament and the New Testament. No. There were some teachers of the law who chose to add or take away from the Old Testament and to interpret in such a manner that they come to this conclusion.

He says, you have heard it was said, love your neighbor, but hate your enemy. But he brings correction. Verse 44. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. You know, I read that the other day, and I thought to myself, this is not a suggestion.

This is not a recommendation. This is a command. Love your enemies and, listen, proactively pray for those who persecute you. Some of you watching have been persecuted, maybe being made fun of by family members or or coworkers for your stance on Christian truth. Think about the challenge here, that when you experience that, you go over to your family's house and they mock you, you go over to your school and they mock you, that the thing that should be reacted within you is, I gotta pray for them.

I gotta go home tonight and pray for them. Think about the challenge there. We We want all these big spiritual truths. We wanna do miracles. We wanna see miraculous things.

This is a bigger miracle to take such ridicule and scorn and say, okay. My job is to pray for them. And love your enemies. Love your enemies. What does that mean?

Well, we see God's example of what it means to love. In verse 45, so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven. Now now God is gonna teach us how to love our enemies, for he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust. Do you see what God does in this world? Do you realize that in this wicked age that we're living in, in all this confusion and hatred and turmoil and division, God is still showing his love.

You know why? Because the sun was shining today, at least in our part of the world, and he allows it to reign. What is he doing? He is feeding their needs. He is ensuring that listen.

Even though he has the knowledge that the very breath he's going to give them, they are going to use that breath to blaspheme his name. The fact that he is going to allow them to be provided for for their basic needs, they're gonna use that to be comforted and to all the more enjoy the central pleasures of life. Even though he has the knowledge that they are still going to reject him, he still allows the warmth of the sun, their bodies to be healthy, all these different things, these matters of life to continue with ease and grace. Why? Because he loves.

So what does it mean to love our enemies? To meet the needs of those even though we do not agree with them. Even though we do not understand where they're coming from, even though they're living in a way that is contrary to the word of God, we're not called to agree with them. We're not called to partner with them. We're not called to say it doesn't matter what you do.

God will still love you and bring you to heaven. No. But we are called to, as God does, meet their needs so that we can be called sons of the Father. Doesn't even end there. Verse 46, for if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?

See, the world knows how to do that. The natural mind says, yeah, of course, love those who love you. That that's just basic common sense. But if Christians love only those who love them, they're no better than the world. We're no different than the world.

It doesn't even end there. And if you, verse 47, look how detailed Jesus gets. And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? We wanna talk about spirituality, Jesus is about to talk about how to say hi to somebody. We're talking deep spiritual truth.

Oh, people wanna prophesy. People wanna preach at crusades. Here's what Jesus is concerned about, how to greet somebody. What more are you doing than others if you only greet with people that you like? We're we're thinking no different than the world, and we think that this isn't a problem.

This can be a problem in the church. You know it's possible for people to come in every Sunday morning or Friday night, And as they come in, they can walk by everybody and only greet and communicate with those that they wanna be with, and completely dismiss other people. Not even greet. You know, it's possible for even Christians to come into the house of God and not willing to initiate conversation unless somebody comes and initiates it with them. That's not that's not what Jesus is teaching you.

He's saying you're thinking just like the world. Hey, this is Bible. This is not my opinion. And this is why something like the greeting ministry in a church is vitally important. Because as strangers come in, they should see a different standard of greeting than how the world does it.

This is profound, is it not? Again, we we wanna discover the mysteries of of predestination and free will, and we wanna solve things. And and Jesus is like, listen, in the greatest sermon ever preached, don't greet people like the way the world does. Go above and beyond. And this is why something like, again, like the greeting ministry is absolutely important because it's important to Jesus.

But listen, greeting should not be a ministry, it should be the lifestyle of the Christian. That when it comes to the moment where the sermon ends and we all fellowship with each other, it should be an explosion of initiating love and care and compassion, or else we're no different than the world. The natural mind reads something like this and they go, this is asking way too much. But the spiritually discerned, they accept it and they run with it. Are they challenged by it?

Sure. Do they get convicted by it? Sometimes. But they're willing to embrace it. Like the citizens of Jericho who would have watched a nation doing something that is not the norm, warfare.

This is not how you do warfare. You don't march around and ever pray. And look at you, 90% of you are silent while this trumpet is blasting. In like manner should the world look at the church and wonder why they do things differently. Knowing that the same way they're about to experience great reward, likewise the Christian who trusts in God's commands even to the nitty gritty details.

We do warfare differently than Joshua. We have different weapons, kindness and love and service and sacrifice. In the old covenant, it was swords. It was plagues, and then it was all these different things to defeat the enemy. We have a different warfare that we're fighting, and it's important for us to understand that.

Now let's go back to Joshua six verse 17. He gives these instructions about the seventh day. Now when the seventh day actually came, remember, they were supposed to encircle seven times and then and then the the priests were supposed to blow those trumpets, and then the people were supposed to shout. And as they're about to shout, he gives these instructions of what they were supposed to do when the walls would come down. And it says here in verse 17, and the city and all that is within shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction.

Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she had hid the messengers whom we sent. See what Joshua is doing? He's saying, listen. We're about to go in there. The priests are gonna trumpet.

You're gonna shout. Once you shout and you go in there, I want you to not forget about Rahab. Remember Rahab. Right? Well, let's go to verse 22.

He says, but 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. What do we see here? Joshua was faithful to Rahab. Rahab, back in chapter two, put her faith and trust in the God of Israel. And when judgment was going to come against Jericho, Joshua, on more than one occasion, proves that who he has in mind in the midst of all of this was somebody who had a cord of red hanging from her window.

And he made sure that she would not be numbered amongst those who were appointed unto wrath, but that she would be set apart and spared from God's divine discipline upon this people. Who he had in mind during all of this scene was a prostitute by the name of Rahab, and he ensured that she would be redeemed. See, Jesus is the greater Joshua, and this is a prophetic picture of what's to come. That when this world will experience judgment, and oh, if we can feel it and smell it more than ever, surely today we've gotten a hint of it. But when he does come, know this, he has you and I in mind, and he will deliver us, and not a hair of our heads who'll experience his punishment.

You know what's amazing is that it says, go into where? Verse 22. He says, go into the prostitute's house. Now by this point, the wall's already fell. So he tells the two spies, go to the prostitute's house.

Go to the prostitute's house. Now if we go back to Joshua chapter two, we would understand where she lived, and we would understand a greater picture here. So listen to this from Joshua chapter two verse 15. This is when the two spies met with her in her house, and they were escaping her house. It says, then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the city wall so that she lived in the wall.

And you come to Joshua chapter six, you go to verse 22, the walls came down. But Joshua says, go and get the prostitute from her house. We get a different picture then, don't we? Here's where we can come with a conclusion concerning this, that when the priests blasted their trumpets and when the soldiers lifted their voices with a shout of victory, you would hear the cracks coming through those walls, those fortresses, and they would come crumbling down to their feet. But over to the right, let's presume, was a section that was preserved, and there was a hanging ribbon of red, and it was Rahab's house.

Kept from judgment, not one brick was misplaced from her home that would have caused any harm to her or those who trusted in her message. And so it is with god that there is not one detail of your life or mine that is outside of his control. Think about it. When those walls came down, God decreed that those cracks or whatever means he used to bring it down would not come near the parameters of her own abode. How much more is God surveying your life and mine?

What a sight of grace to see this. What a sight to see that one section with the ribbon that signifies the blood of Jesus standing still. This is the only thing that would deliver us from the wrath of God when we choose to shelter and cover ourselves with the blood of Christ. What a picture of the cross in Joshua chapter six. But we see that there's another set of instructions in verse 18 of chapter six.

But you keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them, you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it. So there is things in there that were devoted to destruction, these different items. And the temptation of this this people was to take things for their personal gain, but these things were devoted for destruction. And the warning was, if you take this for yourself, you're actually gonna bring harm. And look at the language here.

Trouble to the camp of Israel as a result of your personal disobedience. You know, that's a clear instruction, and there was somebody who heard those words. And we are being prepared for Joshua chapter seven, that when a man blatantly disobeyed this, because he thought that even though I am personally doing this, this isn't gonna affect everybody else, but it's a clear picture as we're gonna learn that when we make these private decisions, we put the camp at risk of being troubled. It's unfortunate how sometimes we can be so engulfed in our selfishness, in our lust, in our desires, in our ambitions, that even when we fully are aware that they can bring harm to others, we could care less. And look what he says in verse 19, but all silver and gold and every vessel of bronze and iron are holy to the Lord.

They shall go into the treasury of the Lord. Here's another temptation, that they would go in and they would do what? They would see gold and silver and bronze. And what they do, they would say, I want this for myself and and fill their pockets with it. And Joshua is saying, be careful.

Every ounce of anything of any monetary value is going to be set apart onto God in his treasury. And that's an amazing thing. Right? The very material that people could have been worshiping in Jericho, the very thing that they could have used to make idols, God wants to redeem and bring into his house and sanctify for his own usefulness. What a parallel picture.

Why? Because God is doing this with actual material, and he's actually doing it with a person named Rahab. If you look at the description of Rahab in this chapter, when Joshua says go get her, she's called Rahab the prostitute. Rahab the prostitute. Go to the prostitute's house.

Why are we being reminded? We know from Joshua chapter two she's a prostitute, but God wants to reinforce the fact that this woman who lived a certain lifestyle is being redeemed. Listen. And in the same way that God is going to redeem these elements so that he can bring into his house and sanctify them, so it is that he's gonna bring this prostitute into his people, his covenant, and make our trophy of his grace for us to behold and see. God is in the business of redemption.

God is in the business of taking us, transforming us, and then displaying us in his own treasury. And Rahab, even in the New Testament, is seen as a treasure of God's grace for us to understand that Jesus Christ was willing to associate with a prostitute named Rahab for his own lineage. Now as we come to the end of this chapter, we see something interesting in verse 26. It's all said and done. Rahab is delivered with her family.

They're brought in, and we spent a whole bible study on the person of Rahab. But let's look what happens in verse 26. Joshua laid an oath on them at that time, saying, curse before the Lord, be the man who rises up and rebuilds the city Jericho. And what's the curse? Here's the curse.

At the cost of his firstborn shall he lay its foundation, and at the cost of his youngest son shall he set up its gates. So what's being said here? After they destroyed the city by fire and they are standing on rubble, Joshua makes this prophetic oath saying, listen, if anybody builds the foundation of the city again and fortifies it by building its gates, at the cost of his firstborn will it be and his youngest. It's a profound warning. And we're not talking about building on this site.

We're not talking about that. We're talking about reviving the city and fortifying it again in the same way that it was before God destroyed it. Now can I ask you something? If you were to read something with such clear and dire consequence, would you ever, ever, ever entertain the thought? Would you ever look at something like this and be like, you know what?

I think I want to build Jericho. This looks really appetizing. This looks really appealing to me. You would say, you would be out of your mind. For this to cost the life of your children, it doesn't matter what your ambition or purpose is in doing so, stay away from this as far as possible.

Right? Well, as you read through your bibles, you realize that somebody did do this. You go to first Kings sixteen thirty four, and listen to this. This is a man under the reign of Ahab, one of the most wicked kings of Israel. And look what it says.

In his days, meaning king Ahab, Hael 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, Saggob, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Joshua, the son of Nun. Insanity. Here is a man who is clearly familiar with the scriptures, and despite that, who knows who warned him that if he were to take this upon himself that his firstborn would die or his youngest would die. He still went for it.

Construction doesn't happen in a day, but he does it. He does it surely with the knowledge that it has been foretold that whoever would would lose two of his children, and he didn't care clearly. You know what this declares? I'll tell you what it declares. The utter depravity of man.

You know, we read something like this and we go to first king 16, we go, yeah, this is like a barbaric society that had no sense of value for human life. Listen, we all come from the same race, and it's Adam's race. And what you and I have to understand is that we are capable of the same confusing, chaotic ability to make decisions because of our sinful nature that will actually come to this degree of darkness. Don't question it. Don't doubt it.

Do you know what you and I as Americans have been experiencing in this past week? I'll tell you what we've been experiencing. Something more dangerous than the coronavirus. It's a different type of virus. It is the manifestation of unrestrained, indwelling sin.

And I can tell you this, unrestrained indwelling sin will cause more heartache, pain, destruction, and death than what COVID nineteen has been doing in the past few months. Be assured of this, that even with warnings from God as we see in the scriptures, men can hear it preached, men can hear it preached from a man who would weep out as he preaches it, and they are still willing to walk out of that door and do the very opposite of what God asked of them. Unless the Holy Spirit comes in and transforms our heart, even something as clear as this will not be discerned, accepted, or applied. We are at the mercy of the Holy Spirit's work in our hearts. And the only thing that will keep, like a man like Hael who destroyed his family, the only thing that will keep a family man, a church, a city, or a nation from self destruction is when we fear God again, and we take him at his word.

And if we throw away the fear of God, we throw away life itself. The fear of God is the element within us, the necessary ingredient that hears a word from God and says, if God said it, I'll do it. When you throw away that disposition of the heart, we haven't seen anything yet. We haven't seen anything yet. Have you been disturbed?

We haven't seen anything. But God can change it. And here's my prayer, that God would change it. And we're gonna ask God to do that just now. Lord, we thank you for this Bible study in Joshua chapter six.

Lord, we receive your word and we say, if it's faith that you want, we'll give you faith. And if we look like fools in the eyes of the world, we're willing to be foolish. Lord, in a day where we're hearing so many debates and arguments and politics, help us view everything in the lens of the gospel. And we ask God that we would walk by a different step, we would speak with a different tone, we would set our convictions and our lifestyles according to a different set of rule, and that is yours. Lord, help us realize that things have already been established.

Our salvation is established. Our redemption is established. This is not our home. We're going home soon. But we pray that you would allow us to be vessels used by you to hopefully be agents of the Holy Spirit to see people transformed to their mind and hearts by the gospel, that they can join the people of faith in knowing what you are willing to give us as we surrender to you.

Lord, we love you and we honor you. We pray for America, that you would bless her. We pray that you would heal her, that you would revive her. We pray for our president, that you would give him wisdom, and our governors, that you would give them, wisdom and the fear of God for our police departments, Lord, to trust in you. For those who are hurting, because of the confusion and the pain and the distress that has been caused because of the murder of a man, for for just a sense of the blanketing work of the Holy Spirit to cover this place from coast to coast, for there be a renewing of this generation's mind.

We trust in you in these times. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We'll see you this Sunday morning.