a sermon 6th Feb 2022
Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, Jericho, Jericho, Joshua fought the battle of Jericho and the walls came a tumbling down!
We love this story; we’ve been telling our children this story for years and yet I wonder if as you grew up or if as you look at it now as an adult you’re left thinking “Ooh that’s not as huggy and lovely as Jesus”. Why is the OT God always full of war and violence? What’s going on here?
The Main Take Home point for you today is that this is all about how amazingly Powerful and Faithful God is, and about the call for us to be Obedient as Disciples, as the people of God. So this is a sermon about God, rather than about you.
So the book of Joshua starts with the death of Moses – I would love to preach on this – here’s a minister who is burned out, he can no longer handle the pressure of leading these people before God and God says to him, ‘I think its best if you come home now’. I don’t view the death of Moses as judgement, I see it as a healing mercy.
Joshua takes over and he is really the New Moses, he reminds the people that they are a people under a covenant with God – God has promised them a family, and land and that they will be a blessing to all nations – and look here we are and we are a family, so let’s see what happens to the rest of God’s promises.
Joshua ch5 they all check to see if they have been circumcised – we read how they remained in camp until they were healed – and then they celebrate the Passover.
In Chapter two, the spies go and visit Rahab in Jericho, she hides them and tells them that she can see that “the Lord your God is the God in heaven above and on the earth below”. So, she is converted! And she is saved by tying a red scarf to her windows.
But the last bit of Joshua 5 – just before our reading today – Joshua himself meets with the commander of the army of the LORD. And Joshua’s question is Whose side are you on, mine or my enemies?
And this is the key to understanding what happens at Jericho.
The question is all wrong. The real question is? Are you on God’s side or not? Its not: Is God on your side, but Are you on God’s side?
So we are then given two battles – Jericho and Ai.
At Jericho we see God’s power and faithfulness and we see the passivity of God’s people. They march around, silently – and maybe they are waiting to see if Others, like Rahab, will convert.
Rahab – she was making her living as a Prostitute but she will live. So many others cleverer than her, richer than her, and yet she grasps at God’s mercy – and because of that she will live, she will become – through the book of Ruth, she will be Mother of Boaz, the great grandma of King David. So her small act of faith has huge repercussions.
Here is the awkward embarrassing inclusivity of God – Rahab is not the sort of person we might think to invite to an Alpha course, invite to Church, but here she is, and through her the people of God will thrive and survive and through her eventually we come to Jesus.
It pays to be not too snobby about who we invite to an Alpha! I’ve had folk say to me “Oh you wouldn’t want me in your church!” Alas for their presumptions, I think they would find that we are not as judgemental as they think we are.
I find it very interesting that there’s no parlay, there’s no treaty or talk of surrender, there’s only walls. Why don’t the people of Jericho come out and talk? They will with other cities.
Back in Genesis 15, God promises this land to Abraham, but with this sense of Not Yet, as if, like Nineveh, there’s a chance for them to repent of their ways. And here we are over 400 years later let’s see. But it would seem that they are morally bankrupt, and that they approve of child sacrifices. Again and again, the patriarchs ask their children Not to marry a Canaanite, Esau does it out of spite! (Why are you marrying me? Just to annoy my dad!)
But note also that whilst there’s talk of utterly destroying, killing men women children and animals – yet elsewhere (Dt 7) we read how they are to “drive out”, and then later to “destroy” the people in the land, and then they’re told to Not Marry them, and then they’re told to Not have any business dealings with them. So I think there’s a good deal of hyperbole going on here.
Joshua 10 we’re told that Hebron and other places are utterly destroyed, no survivors, and yet Joshua 15 these places are still populated.
So yes there’s war, but perhaps not the genocide that the text at first seems to suggest. Rather God is keen to hammer home to the Israelites to not become like the locals, morally corrupt, child sacrifices, Don’t stoop to their level.
So we have two battles – Jericho in which we see God’s faithfulness, there’s the Ark the presence of God, there’s trumpets and worship music, and silence – you just need to “Trust and Obey”.
And so onto the next battle of Ai. Here the Israelites fail. They discover that one of their own – we’re given his name – Achan has stolen goods from Jericho, he has broken the rules of war, and God is saying- as the commander of the LORD’s army had said – the question is not Is God on my side, the question is Am I on God’s side? Am I walking the obedient life? And what does the Lord require of you?
Achan wasn’t. And the repercussions were for the whole family of God. The Solution was Repentance before they can move into God’s gift.
After these two detailed battles there’s lots more little ones – but they split into two categories – the Gibeonites who parlay and come to an understanding, and then there’s the Alliance of Kings who want to fight – and so the Lord fights.
Key thing to note here is You don’t get special treatment. This is not about God being on your side, this is about you being obedient to the covenant promises that God has made.
So after all this comes the most tedious chapters in the bible, unbelievably dull, the dividing up of the Land. Of course its not dull if you remember the three promises of God – family, Land and blessing – and so here we see the fulfilment of that promise. Here is the Land.
But even as the book of Joshua closes ch24 there’s the reminder that to be faithful to the God who is faithful to them – if you want to live long in the land which the Lord your God is giving you then this is how you live – but if you don’t, then not only will your lives be shorter but ultimately you will go into exile.
Keep reading your bible and you will see that that’s what happens. They are not faithful, God will send Prophet after prophet to warn them, they will fall into the culture of the Canaanites by going after other gods, and child sacrifices, and God will drive them out and off into Exile.
We love this story because here we see the Power of God – over history all sorts of people have converted because they have discovered that this God is more powerful than the gods they have been worshipping. Clovis the pagan King of the Franks in 500ad says to God IF you help me win this battle then I will convert. Oswald king of the Northumbrians persuades his leading knights to be baptised IF God will help them defeat Cadwallon at the battle of heavenfield 634ad, and St Boniface chopping down Thor’s Oak in a German wood and using it to build a chapel to St Peter – powerful stuff and many were converted as a result of it.
We like power stories. I guess that’s why we like Jericho. But remember its about God being powerful not about us. This is if anything a warning for us to be faithful, obedient – Look what God can do through us and with us when we live lives under His covenant.
So how are you to live? What does the Lord require of you? Joshua ch 1 starts with the call to be Be Strong and Courageous, Keep this book close to you, read it, live it, Don’t be afraid, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.
And Joshua 24 – ends with the urge for you to Choose this day whom you will serve whether it be the gods of Amorites, the Canaanites, and Joshua closes the book with this wonderful line – as for me and my household we will serve the LORD.
May you see in this battle of Jericho the Power of God, the faithfulness of God, and may you hear again the call of God, the call to be strong and courageous, not to be afraid, for the Lord you God will be with you wherever you go. Amen.