Israel: Faith to Conquer Jericho (Hebrews 11:30)

Hebrews 11:30 and the Faith of Israel at Jericho

Can we turn now please to Hebrews chapter 11, Hebrews chapter 11.

We're going to read together verse 30 and verse 31, and then we'll open our time of prayer. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 30. By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.

By faith, Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient after she had welcomed the spies in peace. Let's pray together. Our Father, we come to your word now and it is our desire that we may be attentive to your word, that you would grant us open eyes and open hearts to see in your word, truth regarding you and your working in history and the connections with us today.

We pray that your Holy Spirit would be our teacher and our guide, and that we may understand your words that we may give to you obedient hearts and lives that are honoring and glorifying to you in all that we do.

We pray this blessing upon our time here in Christ's name.

Amen.

Well, we are returning to Hebrews chapter 11 today. We have two more examples to go in our Hebrews hall of faith of people who are listed of their faith along with some incident in their lives. We're getting close to the point in the passage.

You can see it in verse 32 where the author confesses that he's running out of time, and so he says, what more can I say for time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets.

So he lists people there without any direct reference to what they did in faith. And then beginning in verse, what is it, 33, he lists a bunch of things that were done in faith without any connection to anybody in particular.

So he lists the people and then he lists the examples of faith, and he's just sort of running through a history of Old Testament persons and incidences there. And what else do you do when you're running out of time other than just dump everything you can on people as fast as you can before you're done?

At least that's why I think this was a message and not necessarily a written work at first. It was probably something that was preached because if he were writing, he wouldn't say time would fail me, would he?

He would just say, look, pick up volume two and let's go on with the rest of the Old Testament examples. But we have two more, Joshua and Rahab. These two are the last two in our list where their name is connected with something that is done in faith.

We read of Joshua in verse 30 and of Rahab in verse 31. And if you're quick and astute, you'll say, but hold on a second, I don't see Joshua's name mentioned in verse 30. Did you notice that? In fact, did you notice that not only is Joshua's name not mentioned, nobody is mentioned in verse 30?

Did you notice that? It says that by faith the walls came down after they had been encircled, but it doesn't tell us who encircled it. We know who encircled the walls and it doesn't tell us who was at the head of that.

We know that it was Joshua and that he's anything but just incidental in the events that are being referred to here. But it is somewhat out of keeping with the pattern of the author who up to this point has given us a name and then tied that to some example of faith in the life of that person that he has named.

So you get to verse 30 and you want to read about Joshua, but Joshua is not mentioned. And so then that makes you wonder, well, whose faith is being described then in verse 30? Who's the key player there or the key players in verse 30?

We'll get to that a little bit later on. Chronologically, you'll notice that the author is keeping with this chronological order that he has had all the way through the book of… through Hebrews chapter 11 thus far.

And we've noticed that there's no divergence from this chronology. You may say, well, the spies came and to Rahab and she kept the spies before the walls fell down, so that seems a bit out of chronological order.

But the author is really describing the overlapping experience and time of two people, Joshua and Rahab here. And yes, she kept the spies or received the spies, but the wall falling down and her preservation of it really is the emphasis of verse 31, by faith, Rahab the harlot did not perish, along with the disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace.

So Rahab is mentioned, and what she did, she did not perish, and it was by faith that she did not perish, and she did welcome the spies. So there's a little bit of overlap here between Joshua and Rahab, and we're going to get to Rahab more next week.

So really it is two players here, one event, and that is the destruction of the walls of Jericho and the walls of Jericho falling down. So now we need to go back and take a look at this incident back in the book of Joshua.

Joshua, Rahab, and the Fall of Jericho

So turn now back to Joshua chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 11 is providing us the opportunity to jump back into the Old Testament and tackle some big passages of Scripture, some lengthy passages of Scripture.

Actually, turn back to the book of Joshua chapter 1. The incident of Jericho is in chapter 6, and we're going to do a flyby of the first five chapters. Time does not permit me to go through everything in the first five chapters of Joshua.

So when we get to the beginning of the book of Joshua, the event surrounding Jericho and the falling of the walls of Jericho, them come crashing down, you may not, if you're not really familiar with your Old Testament chronology, I know there may be a few people who are like this, you may not know exactly where it is that that falls in the series of events as it's unfolded.

You may have been familiar with that story because you heard it told in Sunday school or someone has preached on it, but you may not know exactly where to put that in the history of the nation of Israel and how it relates to Moses.

Well, when we last left off in the book of Hebrews chapter 11 verse 29, Pharaoh's army was being immersed in the Red Sea. You remember that? And after they were immersed in the Red Sea, just you can go ahead and chuckle.

It was a little tie back to last week's message. After they were immersed in the Red Sea, then the children of Israel had been delivered from Pharaoh and his army, and they went into the wilderness, and they ended up wandering around there for 40 years because of the disobedience of that very same generation that came out.

Of Egypt.

When Moses sent the spies up to spy out the land, they came back, 12 of them, and you remember 12 men went to spy on Canaan and 10 were bad and 2 were good?

Remember?

What did they see when they spied on Canaan? You remember 10 were bad and 2 were good? Am I the only one here that knows that song? Me and my children know that song. Right, 10 bad and 2 were good. So, because of those 10 bad spies who came back and gave a bad report to Moses, the nation of Israel came under the curse of God for 40 years, and God's judgment upon them was that they would wander around in the wilderness, and that generation who had responded with a lack of faith would not enter into the promised land, but the next generation would enter into the promised land.

So, now we pick it up at the end of the book of Deuteronomy, at the beginning of the book of Joshua, and only roughly 40 years has passed since Moses led the children of Israel through the Red Sea and out into the wilderness.

Now, 40 years has gone by, all of those who came out in that generation who were 40 years or younger, they have died off. Joshua was one of the faithful spies who had come back with a good report and said, look, it is as dire and as horrible and as daunting as these men say it is, but our God's fighting with us, so we've got this.

We can do this if we let our God fight for us. That was a great expression of faith. So, we're already familiar with Joshua's faith. So, now as we enter into the book of Joshua, Joshua has taken over from Moses, and since we spent so much time talking about Moses and his faith, it seems appropriate to look at his death.

So, if you just turn back one page in your Bible to Deuteronomy chapter 34, follow with me the account of the last days of Moses. Now, Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho, and the Lord showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan and all Nephthali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah as far as the western sea and the Negev and the plain and the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees as far as Zoar.

Then the Lord said to him, this is the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, I will give it to your descendants. I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.

So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab according to the word of the Lord, and he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth Peor, but no man knows his burial place to this day.

Although Moses was 120 years old when he died, his eye was not dim, nor his vigor abated. So the sons of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab 30 days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses came to an end.

Now Joshua, the son of Nun, was filled with the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him, and the sons of Israel listened to him and did as the Lord had commanded Moses. So Moses, the leadership that was given to Moses, is now bestowed upon Joshua in the sight of all the people.

We know of Joshua's faith. The nation of Israel knows of Joshua's faith. He's only one of two men, Joshua and Caleb, who were part of that previous generation who had come out of Egypt and now was ready to enter into the land of Canaan.

Everybody else had died off. So Joshua is alive, and now the leadership has been given to him. He has been something of a disciple, a disciple of Moses as Moses has trained him. It has probably been on the radar for a period of time that Joshua was going to take over for Moses.

Now let's finish off Moses, the story of Moses, verse 10. Since that time, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, for all the signs and wonders which the Lord sent him to perform in the land of Egypt against Pharaoh, all his servants, and all his land, and for all the mighty power, and for all the great terror which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.

So Moses is renowned. He is singularly unique in the history of Israel, something that we would expect for a man who served as a prophet, and in some sense as a priest, and in some sense as a.

King.

He had all three of those functions in the nation of Israel, establishing the theocracy, bringing them out of bondage, and the children of Israel revered him to a degree that is difficult for us probably even to imagine, which is why the Lord buried him in a place himself where they didn't know where Moses was buried.

Why did the Lord do that? So that the children of Israel didn't do what it is the natural inclination of all men to do, and that is to worship at the grave of somebody who is buried there. Why didn't they carry the bones of Moses into the promised land like they did Joseph's?

Remember, they're carrying Joseph's bones with them. Why wouldn't they do that with Moses' bones? Because Moses' bones were not bones yet. Moses' bones was a corpse at this point. You don't carry one of those around in the desert for months while you're looking, or you're conquering cities.

And if you do, you certainly don't want to be the guy tasked with carrying that around with you in your caravan. So instead, the Lord buried him off in the land of Moab, and that is where Moses will be resurrected.

And you say, it's really horrible that Moses didn't get to enter into the promised land. He will someday.

Just be patient.

He will. In a resurrected body, Moses gets to enter into that land with you and I in resurrected bodies and worship the King of kings. Now, notice Joshua's…God's promise to Joshua, Joshua chapter 1. We're just going to continue right into the next book because the story continues that.

Way.

And we are going to get to Joshua chapter 6, but there's some essential background information, a bit of a table that we have to set here in Joshua chapter 1, beginning of verse 1. Now, it came about after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' servant, saying…now take note of what Joshua has promised.

Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel, every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses.

From the wilderness and this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, as far as the great sea toward the setting of the sun will be your territory. Now, here is the promised land before him, just on the other side of the Jordan River.

And the Lord is now reiterating the promise that He gave to Abraham and then repeated to Isaac and then repeated again to Jacob, and then He has given this promise to Moses. So now you have this long lineage of godly men who have been promised that the land is still there in spite of the rejection of an entire generation of unfaithful Jews, they still get to inherit the land.

God is still going to fulfill His promise. And Joshua now understands that their possession of this land rests not on anyone except for God's willingness and ability to fulfill His promise. Four hundred years have passed since that promise was last given to any of Abraham's descendants.

And now they are absolutely confident that they will receive exactly what they were promised because God Himself has promised it and God will fulfill His promise.

Verse 2….

Sorry, verse 5, no man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you. I will not fail you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.

Notice the repetition of the fact that God has sworn to do this. They are getting a land not because they are a strong and mighty people, certainly not because they are morally worthy of receiving these promises, but they are getting a land for one reason and one reason only and that is God has promised it to Abraham.

And because God has promised it to Abraham, God will always fulfill His promise. So now they are going to come into part of the possession that God has sworn to them. Notice the phrase in verse 6, be strong and courageous.

That is repeated. You're going to see it two more times. It's spoken three times in this passage. Verse 7, only be strong and very courageous. Be careful to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you.

Do not turn from it to the right or to the left so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have success.

What is the book of the law that he is describing there? It is the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. By this point, that much divine revelation had been given and probably a couple of psalms.

We know that Moses wrote one of the psalms and if my suspicion is correct, they would have had the book of Job by this point, Job being a very ancient record and the very first book of the Bible written.

So that is the book of the law that they have. Specifically, he's talking about the law given to Israel at Mount Sinai that regulated their national life, regulated their religious life, regulated all the ceremonies, and now Joshua is being commanded to obey that and as long as he obeys that, God has promised that he will do exactly what it is that he is promising to do.

He will fulfill it. Verse 9, have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous, do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. That is clear revelation to Joshua that he is God's man, that he is the one who is going to bring the nation into this land and give them possession of the land just as God has promised to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob.

Now, chapter 2, the spies enter into the land ahead of their crossing the Jordan and Rahab hides them and she's promised deliverance for her faith. We'll look at that next week. Chapter 3, Israel crosses the Jordan River, God parted the waters for them.

This would have happened just north of the Dead Sea. If you remember in your mind a picture of the land of Israel, you have the Dead Sea at the bottom end of that, of the nation of Israel. You have the Jordan River that flows from the north up at the top is the Sea of Galilee.

The Dead Sea is at the very bottom end of that. The Dead Sea is the Salt Sea and they would have been on the east side of the Dead Sea, just above the Dead Sea, ready to cross the Jordan River. That's chapter 3.

Jericho was just inside the boundary of that, just on the other side of the Jordan River, a couple of miles from the Jordan River. In chapter 5, Israel is circumcised because those who were born in the wilderness had not been circumcised, so the entire nation, all the males of the nation were circumcised there and it took some time, Joshua 5 verse 8 says, for them to be healed and then they celebrated the Passover.

So that gives you an idea in your mind of what time of the year this was. The Passover celebration would have been March, April of our time of the year and this would have been, of course, the beginning of the year for them.

Do you remember when we looked at the Passover, that the Passover celebration was to begin the calendar year for the nation of Israel? And also in chapter 5, then the Lord begins to dry up the supply of manna, the supernatural supply of sustenance in the wilderness because now they're about to enter it, they've crossed the Jordan River, they're in the land and now they can begin to eat from the fruit of the land.

Chapter 5 verse 13, this is a game changer. Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand.

And Joshua went to him and said to him, are you for us or for our adversaries? He said, no, rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the Lord. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and bowed down and said to him, what has my Lord to say to his servant?

The captain of the Lord's host said to Joshua, remove your sandals from your feet for the place where you are standing is holy. And Joshua did so. Who is this? Is this an angel? Michael? Gabriel? No, those would be the hosts, right?

The Lord's hosts? This is the captain of the Lord's hosts. Who is the captain of the Lord's hosts? I'll give you a hint, he is called Yahweh down in chapter 6 verse 2. This is an Old Testament appearance of God, it is a theophany.

And if our understanding of the Trinity, if we are to interpret this in light of our understanding of the persons of the Trinity and their role within the Godhead, this is a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ.

He shows up before Joshua dressed as a soldier, we can only assume, with a sword in his hand. And Joshua says, whose side are you on? And the angel of the Lord says, I didn't come to take sides, I came to take over.

I'm the captain of the Lord's hosts, and now everything that you are going to do, you are going to do at my command. And then in chapter 6, he begins to give him some of those commands. So this is Yahweh in the second person, the divine Son, who is now appearing to Joshua to give him instructions on what he is to do at the city of Jericho.

So this is the same one who was the destroyer 40 years earlier, who went through the streets of Egypt and killed all the firstborn of Egypt. This is that one. This is the one who appeared in the pillar of fire in the cloud in the Red Sea, and it says that Yahweh looked down through the pillar of fire and smoke, and then smote the Egyptians and drowned them in the Red Sea.

This is the same one. This is the one who has promised victory to Joshua. This is Yahweh who is appearing to Joshua. So now, and you kind of get the sense of that when he says to Joshua, take off your sandals because the feet on which you stand is holy.

When was the last time that was said? In Exodus chapter 3, the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a blazing fire from the midst of the bush, and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed.

Then he, that is the angel of the Lord, said, do not come near here, remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. So Joshua now gets exactly what's going on.

This is Yahweh. Verse 1 of chapter 6, it says, now we finally get to it. That's right. Now Jericho was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel, no one went out and no one.

Came in.

Yahweh said to Joshua, see, I have given Jericho into your hand with its king and the valiant warriors. See, in verse 2, this one who is speaking to him, same one back in chapter 5, and I know you're tempted to think, wait a second, that was chapter 5, this is chapter 6.

Ignore the chapter division because those are irrelevant. This is Yahweh who is speaking to him in the appearance of the angel of the Lord, is going to give to him all of the instructions now to take Jericho.

Jericho, it says, was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel, no one went out and.

No one came in.

Jericho, of course, would have known that Israel was on its way. They knew of the spies who had come into the land, had come into the city, had stayed with.

Rahab.

They knew of that. They knew of the children of Israel. Rahab had already confessed to the spies who had come in. The hearts of all the people are melting because of you, and when that massive nation came across the Jordan River into that land and camped for a couple of weeks right next to the Jordan River on the… on the western side of it, and they had the circumcision and the celebration of the Passover and the healing, and they're all mustered there, they would have seen that nation and they would have had every reason to be fearful and they would have locked the gates and shut the windows and barred the door, Katie, because they're coming and they were ready and no one went out and no one came in to the entire.

City.

Jericho was a… not a large city, but it was a fortified city. It's north of the Dead Sea. It is west of the Jordan River, a couple miles from the Jordan. It was what was referred to or what we would call a frontier town.

It was on the edge of Canaanite civilization and it would have been a well-fortified city. So it wasn't enormous. It's obviously not enormous because an entire army marches around it seven times in one.

Day.

So don't think of it as something the size of this room, but don't think of it as something the size of Coeur d 'Alene either. It's somewhere in between. It's not a… it's not a massive city. In fact, the significance of Jordan has nothing to do with its location or with its size.

It was the fact that it was well-fortified. And so Israel's first city that they have to take is a well-fortified frontier city. Everybody is shut up inside. No one is going in. No one is coming out.

And it was obviously the intention of all the inhabitants of Jordan to simply wait out this nation and eventually these people who cannot scale the walls, they cannot knock over the walls, it's a well-fortified city, eventually they would give up and just go home.

Of course, they have no home, right? Guess what? This is their new home. So this is where they're going. They're going to Jericho. And Israel was ill-equipped for this because they had no machines of war.

This is an ex-slave nation who spent 40 years wandering around in the desert. So they don't have the typical high-tech weapons of war that would have been part of an army in those days. They couldn't topple the walls.

And Jericho's significance is not again its size and not again its location, but the fact that it was well-fortified and the fact that it was the first city. So God is going to do something at Jericho to set the tone for the next several years.

He's going to do something to demonstrate that He is the one by His power who would give this to them. Verse 3, you shall march around the city, hear the instructions, again that the angel of the Lord has given to Joshua.

You shall march around the city, all the men of war, circling the city once. You shall do so for six days. Also seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark. Then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times and the priests shall blow the trumpets.

It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout and the wall of the city will fall down flat and the people will go up, every man straight ahead.

So the angel of the Lord has given them the arrangement of the army, that the ark is to be out there, the priests are to be out there, they're to blow the trumpets, they're to march for six days, one lap on each of those six days around the city and then go back to camp and then on the seventh day they were to march seven times, all the time they were to have the seven priests with the seven horns and you say, what is with all the number seven?

Did you notice it when we were reading through it? That's a lot of sevens, isn't it? Is there a significance to the sevens? We'll return to that in just a moment. Verse 6, so Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, take up the ark of the covenant.

Now Joshua was just giving exactly what the angel of the Lord has given to him. Take up the ark of the covenant, let seven priests carry seven trumpets of ram's horn.

Before the ark of the Lord.

Then he said to the people, go forward and march around the city and let the armed men go on before the ark of the Lord. And it was so that when Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of ram's horns before the Lord went forward and blew the trumpets and the ark of the covenant of the Lord followed them.

The armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets and the rear guard came up after the ark while they continued to blow the trumpets. But Joshua commanded the people saying, you shall not shout nor let your voice be heard nor let a word proceed out of your mouth until the day I tell you.

Shout, then you shall shout. So he had the ark of the Lord taken around the city circling at once. Then they came into the camp and spent the night in the camp. So the people now are obeying exactly what Joshua was told them to do.

And they're silent. They uttered not a word at any point during this. Verse 12, now Joshua rose early in the morning. The priest took up the ark of the Lord, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark of the Lord went on continually and blew the trumpets and the armed men went before them and the rear guard came after the ark of the Lord while they continued to blow the trumpets.

Thus the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp and they did so for six days. They do exactly what they're instructed to do. Now we're going to fast forward to the end of the story in verse 15, but before we do, I want you to imagine the picture of this, not from the perspective of the Israelites who are marching around the city or Joshua or the commanders of the priests or anybody else in Israel.

I want you to imagine the perspective of this, what it would look like to have seen this if you're one of the inhabitants of Jericho. You're held up inside of a well-fortified city. Your expectation is that you can simply wait it out and Israel finally comes up and they finally start to gather out in front of the city gate.

And if you're one of the inhabitants of Jericho, you might be up on top of the well-fortified wall kind of looking down on them, thinking to yourself, this is a curious battle formation. They're all kind of lined up in a line right here and they've got some big shiny metal golden thing, a box of some sort out there in the middle of that and priests, those are not warriors and ram's horns, we're not sure what benefit that's going to be.

And then as they start marching around the city, you'd be thinking, OK, now what's going to happen? What are they…. Where are they going?

Are they….

Where are they going? They're going…. Oh, they're just going over this side of the city and you follow them all the way around.

The city.

The whole time it's a very curious thing. You've never seen a battle tactic like this before in your life. You're wondering what it is that they're possibly going to hope to accomplish and they come all the way around full circle and they get back to the front and you'd be thinking to yourself, OK, it was a reconnaissance mission.

They want to find out, did we leave any doors open in the city somewhere on the backside? Is there a window open, a ladder up there that somebody forgot to take down? Just a reconnaissance. OK, now they're getting ready to attack.

Oh, no, they disband and go back to their camp this evening and they're going to wait it out. That was weird. Wasn't that weird? They've said nothing. They're not shouting back at you. They're not saying, we're coming to get you.

Yeah, you're coming down. None of the… no taunting, nothing. They're silent. So then you can imagine the King of Jericho would gather together as joint chiefs of staff into the room. You'd have all the Jericho generals there in the room and you start to….

Let's assess what happened here. Jericho generals sounds like a basketball team, doesn't it? Like the ones who always lose into the Harlem Globetrotters. You have all the Jericho generals gathered together around the table and you say, let's assess what happened here.

Are they going to come back? That was a very curious thing. Maybe they're going to leave. Let's wait it out. So the next day, early in the morning, it happens again and you watch them do this the second time and the third day the third time.

And then all of the Jericho generals get together after every day, they gather up and they say, what is going on? Are they just… is this their game plan? They're just going to walk around the city looking for an opening and they're going to do this until we all starve?

On day five and day six, you begin to think this is really ridiculous. And you might even just leave your weapons at home, go up on the wall with your bucket of popcorn. You're just going to watch these fools walk around this city today just like they did the day previous.