Joshua And The Battle of Jericho
Text: Joshua 6:1-16
Pastor Phil Hughes, American Fork Presbyterian Church, UT
July 14, 2024
In these sermons we are taking the stories that we may have heard as children in Sunday School and we are trying to come to them with adult faith. If you didn’t grow up with these stories you may have heard of them anyway. Noah and the ark. Joseph and his coat of many colors. The birth of baby Moses. Joshua and the battle of Jericho tend to be thought of as mere children’s stories. Actually, they are very much for adults. We are trying to reclaim them for grown up faith.
By the way, has your faith matured as you have grown older? Do you have a grown up faith?
No one knows for sure who or when the song “Joshua Fit The Battle of Jericho” was born. Most believe it was from enslaved peoples in the first part of the 19th century. It was published in two different song books in 1882. The first recorded version came from a choir known as Harrod’s Jubliee Singers in 1922. Such gospel greats as Paul Robeson, Mahalia Jackson and Clara Ward all made recordings of the song.
For many people, that is all they know about Joshua.
Joshua was a military leader of ancient Israel. He succeeded Moses and was charged with leading Israel into Canaan. Canaan was the land the Lord promised to Israel and where they were to live, find rest, and live faithfully with the Lord. The point of the book of Joshua is how God gives this land to the Israelites. After forty long years of wandering in the wilderness, God is ready to bring his people to the land.
The first battle in entering what God called “The Promised Land” was the conquering of the ancient city of Jericho. Other cities will be conquered but this gets special attention because it is the first, and perhaps how the Lord did this.
Jericho might be oldest city on earth. It was and is below sea level. Because of this it had a great deal of spring water. Jericho was kind of an oasis amidst a vast dry and desert region. Jericho has sometimes been referred to as the “city of palms.” A great deal of archaeological work has been done in Jericho over the centuries. There is lots of debate and speculation about the date of this conquest, and whether the walls have been found because walls have been found. There are many books and sites that discuss all of this and I leave it to the really interested to find those.
Joshua has been told by the Lord to be strong and courageous because he is going to lead them into the land. Joshua sends spies into Jericho. They are housed by the “lady of the evening” Rahab who makes a deal with them to spare her and her family when Jericho is attacked.
The first thing the LORD says to Joshua is “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and fighting men.” Past tense. The LORD has already ordained this will happen. Apparently this is a done deal.
How many times has God already signed the deal, but just needs us to act or trust or walk through? This also shows that really it wasn’t Joshua and the army of Israel who won this battle. It was the Lord.
But the army of Israel still has a part to play. They still have to get themselves ready, organize themselves, and march. They are to march around the city for six days. Seven priests with rams horns – also known as shofars – are to go with the army. They are also to bring the ark. This is the Ark of the Covenant. The ark carried the tablets with the Ten Commandments and Aaron’s rod. It represented and was the presence of God with the people. At this time the Ark of the Covenant was the most sacred object for Israel. It was also placed in the center of the Tabernacle which was a large tent-like structure that Israel carried, setting it up and taking it down, as it moved through the land.
The significance of the ark is to show that it was because of the LORD that Jericho was conquered. The Lord’s presence precedes and goes with the marchers. There is no victory for the people of God in any situation without the presence of the Lord.
The trumpets as I said were ram’s horns or shofars. Shofars were blown to signify battle and also to call people to worship.
Seven priests. Seven days. Seven times around the city. Seven is a prominent and holy number in Scripture. It is associated with completion, fulfillment and perfection. God rested from his work of creation on the seventh day. Every seven years was the year of Jubilee when the land would be allowed to rest and all debts were forgiven. Two of Israel’s great feasts – the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Tabernacles – lasted seven days. The candlestick in the tabernacle had seven branches. Various rituals throughout the Old Testament were done seven times. Seven baskets full leftover after Jesus’ feeding of the multitudes. In Revelation there are seven churches symbolized by seven golden candlesticks. There are seven trumpets blown, seven bowls, seven angels. A lot of sevens in the Bible.
Joshua is told to march around the city seven days. Not two. Not five. Not six. But seven. We always must act on God’s time. What is to take place may not be immediate. We may impatiently want things to move faster but we walk according to his plan. To follow the Lord you have to be on his clock.
Israel marches in silence. They are seen but not to speak. The city of Jericho sees the multitudes marching. We’re told that people had already heard about Israel’s crossing of the Jordan river and that leaders lost courage to face Israel. We’re not sure why the Lord told Israel to march like this. Perhaps they didn’t know. I wonder if the silence was more intimidating than if they had been shouting. But the Lord says no voices are to be raised until that seventh day.
On the seventh day they are to march around the city seven times. And it says, “The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, ‘Shout! For the Lord has given you the city!’” Again, “the Lord has given you the city.” It is the Lord who does this.
Now, we stopped our reading at v. 16. And what comes next certainly isn’t in our Sunday School curriculums. If you continue it says that everything in the city is to be devoted to the Lord. This isn’t what it may sound like. What it means and what follows is that the army goes in and kills every living thing, plunders all the silver, gold and valuables, and burns the rest. The only exception is Rahab and her family. They are safely led out before the destruction.
Kill all living things. Here we confront the violence we sometimes find in the Old Testament. And once again, as with Noah, as with Joseph and his coat, we find one of our cherished children’s Sunday School stories is really quite violent. And it is legitimate for people to ask “why would the Lord command the killing of men, women, children and livestock”?
It’s interesting that this passage does not appear in the Common Lectionary. The Common Lectionary is a series of readings from the Bible that many mainline churches use, Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox. Over a three years period major portions of the Bible are read. Each day there is always an Old Testament passage, a Psalm, a reading from a Gospel, and one from a New Testament letter. Some pastors use this to arrange their preaching each week.
Joshua 6 and the battle of Jericho is not in the schedule of the lectionary. Why? Because of the killing that comes. I don’t like it either, but if you are going to read the Bible you have to deal with this stuff as uncomfortable as it makes us.
We find this call to destruction in other places of the Old Testament as well, particularly in the taking of the promised land. There is a part of this I don’t think we can ever get around. But first, the Canaanites were not a nice culture. Child sacrifice was practiced among other highly evil things. That doesn’t answer the question of why kill even children, but the Lord will not have Canaanite practices continue.
Now, as we read on we find out that Israel did not wipe out all the Canaanites because they keep showing up. So what is meant by “all” might be a gross, overgeneralization. We get to the book of Ruth and we find Ruth was a Canaanite. She also becomes important in the genealogical tree of the Messiah. So we have to maybe take some of this with a grain of salt.
Second, the Lord did not want his people in any way being influenced or taking part in Canaanite ways. He wanted a people for himself, who were devoted to God and did things only as God and his unique people would do.
Such total destruction of a place and people is not upheld in the New Testament faith that comes in Jesus. It is not something to be done today.
Maybe you are getting that sense that there was a lot more to this Joshua and Jericho thing than you ever knew.
This can be a tough story to find some relevance for our lives. We can say it is about bringing down the walls we put up in ourselves, among others, and in our world. But it is more than a metaphor. I think it is about going into a challenging and hard time. Israel would go into Canaan, face many battles, and experience a number of obstacles.
First, Israel did what the Lord commanded. The priests, the ark, the shofars, the order in which people were to march, the days of marching, not shouting until told – all of this is exactly what Joshua was told to do. We do things according to the Lord, not our best laid plans.
Second, Israel did the hard thing. Even though the Lord had already delivered the outcome, it was not without struggle.
The book of Joshua begins with God telling Joshua to lead the people and to be strong and courageous. Why does God have to tell him this? Because he is calling Joshua to something hard. Where he may want to quit. Where he may want to back away. Where he may become fearful. Because doing things for God can sometimes be daunting.
In the height of the civil rights movement the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was preaching one night in a church in Chicago. He was stressed, tired and seemed a little unsure. The brutality being dished out to black people was making many scared. As Rev. King searched for words to speak, the great singer Mahalia Jackson sensed his struggle and the anxiety in the people, so as King stood in the pulpit searching for what to say, she stood up and started belting out that old spiritual “Joshua Fit The Battle of Jericho.” I suppose she could have sung a lot of songs but she chose this one. Because it means something to black people. That song stirred the preacher and those who were facing the hard struggle of being treated with dignity and equality.
This gospel song came from a people who faced what was unimaginably hard. And they kept walking and things began to change. They found courage.
Sometimes we face things that are hard. We know we have to walk on as God wants us to do. But it isn’t easy. Just because the Lord had already given Jericho and subsequently the land to Israel didn’t mean the years were easy. They weren’t. But when God is moving and we faithfully face what is hard, he is faithful and he will give us the victory he wants to give. I know God’s ultimate factory will come for this world but it is sure hard getting there.
Jesus faced what was hard. His whole ministry was full of conflict, opposition, and finally betrayal, arrest and a cross. But God had already spoken the victory.
There are all kinds of things that are hard that God may ask us to do. It may be being a leader in your church. It may be being a caregiver to someone who is seriously infirmed. It may be going through a hard time with a child. It may be following Jesus amidst very difficult circumstances. It may be being part of a movement to bring major change to a nation like the civil rights movement. It may be living with some life-long temptations or addictions.
To move forward for God even when it is hard takes faith.
Deep in the New Testament is Hebrews 11. It is a chapter all about faith. And in this great list of people of faith there is one line about Joshua and this event in Jericho. It says, “By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.”[1] The writer of Hebrews uses Abraham, Moses, and Joshua among others that the only right path for God’s people is one of faith.
Faith isn’t just believing something in our minds. It is more than one hour every Sunday. No, faith[2] is lived. Faith…
1. Involves confident action. Faith is active. It takes steps. It uses its hands and feet.
2. Action taken in response to the God who is unseen. None of us will have to lead a military march on a walled-in city. But we may need to help someone in need. We may need to take a stand in our family or in our community for something that is right. We may feel the nudge of the Spirit of God to act.
3. Involves God working extraordinary things in the lives of ordinary people. God works through us with all our faults, smudges, and weaknesses. Go on in Joshua and he didn’t always hit it out of the park. And there is no one in the Bible, save Christ, who didn’t have weaknesses and flaws.
4. Is most often a response to God. God calls we answer. God opens a door and we walk through. Just like the defeat of Jericho was the Lord’s work, so whatever we do for the Lord is just a response to his hand.
5. Has a variety of outcomes. Sometimes we see the results right away. Sometimes we don’t. Things can happen right away and sometimes it can take years.
It takes faith to do Vacation Bible Schools when you are a small church with a few children. It takes faith to sponsor a couple to escape the ravages of Ukraine. It takes faith to keep praying when things are hard. It takes faith to be a Christian when others are dropping out or see it as foolish. It takes faith to live a life that reflects Jesus when so many misrepresent Christianity.
Faith doesn’t comfortably sit in a pew or on the sidelines. It acts. It walks. Joshua was strong and courageous. He responded to what God was doing. He responded to what God wanted him to do. And as we read each of these stories week by week we find that God does a lot.
Prayer: Lord, make us courageous and faithful people. People who live out the faith we have in you. Show us what our steps are to be. Thank you that you are a God who prepares the way and who will be with us as we go. Amen.
[1] Hebrews 11:30
[2] From IVP Application Commentary on Hebrews: pp.388-389