"Total War", Joshua 5:13-6:27 with Justin song

Covenant Reformed Baptist Church

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It's falling from the clouds, a strange and lovely sound,

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I hear it in the thunder and the rain, it's ringing in the skies like cannons in the night, the music of the universe plays, and we're singing, you are holy, great and mighty, the moon and the stars declare who you are, and I'm so unworthy, but still you love me, forever my heart will sing of how great you are, beautiful and free, the song of galaxies, reaching far beyond the milky way, it's joining with the sound, come on let's sing it out, as the music of the universe plays, we're singing, you are holy, great and mighty, the moon and the stars declare who you are, and I'm so unworthy, but still you love me, forever my heart will sing of how great you are, all glory, honor, power is yours, amen, all glory, honor, power is yours, amen, all glory, honor, power is yours, forever amen, and we're singing, you are holy, great and mighty, the moon and the stars declare who you are, and I'm so unworthy, but still you love me, forever my heart will sing of how great you are, starting in Joshua chapter 5 verse 13 through all of chapter 6, hear the word of the

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Lord, when Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him, and with his drawn sword in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, are you for us or for our adversaries, and he said, no, but I am commander of the army of the

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Lord, now I have come, and Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshipped and said to him, what does my

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Lord say to his servant, and the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy, and Joshua did so, now

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Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel, none went out and none came in, and the

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Lord said to Joshua, see I have given Jericho into your hand with its king and mighty men of valor, you shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once, thus you shall do for six days, seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark, on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets, and when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall go up, everyone straight before him,

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Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark of the

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Lord, and he said to the people, go forward, march around the city, and let the armed men pass on before the ark of the

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Lord, and just as Joshua had commanded the people, the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of ram's horns before the

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Lord went forward, blowing the trumpets with the ark of the covenant of the Lord following them, the armed men were walking before the priests who were blowing the trumpets, and the rear guard was walking after the ark while the trumpets blew continually, but Joshua commanded the people, you shall not shout or make your voice heard, neither shall any word go out of your mouth until the day

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I tell you to shout, then you shall shout, so he caused the ark of the Lord to circle the city, going around it once, and they came into the camp and spent the night in the camp, then

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Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord, and the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark of the

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Lord walked on, and they blew the trumpets continually, and the armed men were walking before them, and the rear guard was walking after the ark of the

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Lord while the trumpets blew continually, and the second day they marched around the city once and returned into the camp, so they did for six days.

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On the seventh day they rose early at the dawn of the day and marched around the city in the same manner seven times.

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It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times, and at the seventh time when the priests had blown the trumpets,

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Joshua said to the people, Shout, for the Lord has given you the city, and the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the

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Lord for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent.

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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.

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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

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Lord. So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city.

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Then they devoted all the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep and donkeys, with the edge of the sword.

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But to 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.

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So the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her, and they brought out all her relatives and put them outside the camp of Israel, and they burned the city with fire and everything in it, only the silver and the gold and the vessels of bronze and iron they put into the treasury of the house of the

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Lord. But Rahab the prostitute and all her father's household and all who belonged to her Joshua saved alive, and she has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom

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Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. Joshua laid an oath on them at that time, saying,

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Cursed before the Lord be the man who rises up and rebuilds the city of Jericho. 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.

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So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame was in all the land. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his holy word.

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I remember fields. Do you have any fields that you remember? Fields you learned maybe to play ball in?

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I remember fields. I remember the fields surrounding the little town of Kennet, Missouri, where my grandparents were from, where my mother was born and raised, and what they call the boot hill of Missouri.

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It's that little part of Missouri that kind of juts down into Arkansas. It looks like it should belong to Arkansas, on the banks of the

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Mississippi River. There you look out on those fields, deep in the middle of this country, and that flat, fertile ground.

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It's got to be some of the most fertile ground in the world. And it feels like you're surrounded by an ocean of agriculture, nothing but fields planted for as far as you can see.

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The rest of the world just seems like it's light years away. And I remember my grandfather who lived there saying something like, you know, we

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Americans should just leave the rest of the world alone. Stay here. Let the other distant nations, let them fight their wars.

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Isolationism, it's called. We can, with the Atlantic on one side, the Pacific on another,

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Canada and Mexico around us on our borders, we can be isolated from the rest of the world, we think.

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No need for wars, and so no need for sacrifice, for courage.

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That's the way Americans thought, really, for decades. The world, the rest of the world, with its wars, is just so far away across two huge oceans.

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We'll just stay here and mind our own business. On December 7, 1941, that mindset was shaken when

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Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. But still, that's Hawaii, halfway, almost halfway across the

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Pacific, and some blamed America even for that. They say if we hadn't cut off oil to the

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Japanese, all because they invaded China, well, they would have left us alone.

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And so the idea has persisted for a while that we can be insulated from the rest of the world with its wars.

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And then almost 70 years later, on the morning of September 11, 2001, the reality of a world at war came crashing down on us when those planes targeted us.

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Would we be strong and courageous? Well, a group of passengers on United Flight 93, taking off from Newark, New Jersey, sat down as strangers, a group of people who'd never met each other before.

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But before the day was over, before about an hour or two was over, they arose as one, and in incredible bravery, they saw what had to be done, and they had the courage to do it.

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They saw that they were at war, and that it was a total war, that there would be no prisoners taken, there'd be no ransom sought, no negotiations.

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And Providence had brought together a remarkable group of men on that plane. One was a martial arts expert, a black belt in judo, ranked third in the

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USA in judo. Another was a rugby champion. Another had been the quarterback for his college football team.

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One of these men, a Christian man by the name of Todd Beamer, before they launched their assault, got on the phone to get to somebody and prayed with him, recited

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Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

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I will fear no evil, for you are with me. He said amen, hung up the phone, said let's roll, and they brought down that plane in a field in Pennsylvania so the terrorists couldn't bring it down on a building in Washington, D .C.

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They were strong and courageous. And a lot can happen in fields.

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That field in Pennsylvania where those brave men brought down United 93 tells us that even today we are not that far from the plains of Jericho, that the field is right outside that city where Joshua stood looking at this fortress of a city,

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Jericho. This will be his first target. But how? He's strategizing.

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He's examining the enemy for weaknesses. He's considering how to attack. In the military they call it reconnaissance.

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And then he sees at some distance a man standing firm with a drawn sword, an impressive looking man, no doubt.

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Joshua walks up to him, perhaps with a few guards, we're not really told, perhaps with his own sword drawn out.

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And he challenges the man, are you for us or for our adversaries? It's a good question.

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He just asked it of the wrong person. No is the answer. The divine no.

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Neither. None of the above. It's God's refusal to be used by us, to kind of fall into line behind us.

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Here God says, I'm not for you and I'm not for your enemies, but I am the commander of the army of the

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Lord. Now I have come. Now Joshua knew immediately that he was faced with his commanding officer, that God is the one who cannot be asked that question, that he cannot get

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God to be on his side, that he must be on God's side. And so notice here, he falls down, prostrate.

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He gives humble worship on the ground, reverence. Here's the mighty

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Joshua, practically a king, even though he's not literally called that, of Israel, and suddenly he's the one on the ground with his face in the dirt before this man with the drawn sword, the man that he must be for.

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No arguing with him. No wrestling. Like Jacob was faced with God coming in human form, wrestled with him all night.

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Joshua doesn't do that. He asks, kneeling, bowing. Joshua simply does what he's told.

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Takes off his shoes, gives humble worship, obeys. God is not for us, and that he will support, you know, whatever we choose.

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He'll support our cause, our nation, our interests.

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Yes, Scripture says that if God be for us, who can be against us? But the us there is his people.

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The people that he has chosen, those whom in Romans 8, it earlier says that he has foreknown, those people that he has called from every race and ethnic group and nation, the people that he has called out of the world to be a church, it's those people that God says he's for them and no one can be against them.

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He called Rahab out. He was for her, even though she was a Canaanite.

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And it is all the more so today after God has clearly revealed through Christ that he is calling all kinds of people together.

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He is not for us if by us, you know, we just mean our kind of people, the people that we choose because they share our race or our nationality or they agree with our politics or our taste in music, something like that.

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We can be for God, but God is not for us.

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If we try to force God into a choice, like Joshua kind of innocently does, unknowingly does here, either be for us or for our enemies, he'll say no, none of the above.

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The attempt to make God serve our interests, to be for us, like a genie in a bottle. We think if we rub him the right way, he'll do what we want for him.

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The laws of Feng Shui that we can master for our gospel.

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Confess the right thing, we can get him to do what we want for us. Ancestors that we can give to in the hopes that they'll be good luck for us here.

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It is this sinful insistence, which Joshua just kind of innocently does here, that God has to decide either before us,

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God, or before our enemies. And God says, no. He will not be for us.

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He will not serve our interests, advance our causes, be at our beck and call.

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In fact, we are either for him, or we are for his enemies.

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We are either serving his interests, we are advancing his causes, at his beck and call, or we are for his foes.

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The true war is not us versus our enemies. It's God versus his.

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God will not take our side. We must take God's side. Now some think

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Joshua asked a bad question. You know, that life is not so simple, and it's such an either or choice.

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It's not so black and white. But really, it wasn't a bad question. It was just ask of the wrong person.

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The rest of us must throw in our lot with one side or the other. There is no middle ground.

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There are no neutral countries in this war. There's no isolating yourself from this war.

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You have to choose. James says that friendship with the world is enmity or hostility against God.

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It really is either or. The Lord will say, you don't have to choose.

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But really, it will make you choose too. It just will lie to you about not having to choose.

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They will say, you can have both the Lord and self -indulgence.

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You can serve God and mammon, the world says. No need to sacrifice respect.

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No need to have to be different. It will tell you that lie while it is in fact forcing you to decide between the

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Lord and the world. The Lord is more honest. He's more upfront. He tells you right out what you're going to have to give up.

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He tells you from the start, just like here, make your choice. Joshua doesn't know it, but he's asked the

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Lord here to make that choice. And then he's confronted with a blunt, no. No.

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But then he shows his choice when he realizes what he's done and gives humble worship.

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This passage divides, I think, into three parts. The paragraph at the end of chapter five about humble worship.

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And then about the holy walk described for us, mostly through the instructions. And finally, the heavenly warfare.

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First, Joshua shows his humble worship. He is told that he is speaking to his commanding officer to take off the shoes from his feet because the place where he's standing is holy.

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He obeys with humble worship. No attitude here.

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No arguing. Even Moses, when he's told to take off his shoes, kind of argues with the Lord for a while.

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Joshua doesn't. He's not so full of himself. He doesn't try to give the

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Lord a high five. Hey, Lord, you're on our side. Great. Give a high five and chat with him. What do you think?

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I thought about we should come up the other side with a ramp or anything like that. He doesn't ask to, you know, hey, that's a cool sword you got there,

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Lord. Can I have a look at that? What, did Gabriel fashion that for you? He bows, asks for his orders, and obeys.

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Now, Joshua had no doubt gone to see Jericho to plan his attack. But God gives him a strategy that he would never have thought of because it's a strategy, like the way they crossed the

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Jordan, that depends on God intervening. This is God's war.

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And he starts this war with a victory achieved by his strategy and power. And that's described over and over for us in that first 14 verses of chapter 6.

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God's strategy and power. The symbolism is there all to show Israel and everyone else who hears about this that God did it.

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Notice how many times the Ark of the Covenant is mentioned. Sometimes it's called the Ark of the Lord. It's prominent there.

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It's in the middle of their marching around the city. It's not a military weapon. Why put that in the middle of an army?

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You know, it has no military advantage. It's not like having a battering ram or something like that you could actually use to get in.

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Well, it's prominent. It's in the middle. There's seven trumpets blown by seven priests. You know, priests are probably older.

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What are you putting them out there for? That probably doesn't really scare those people in Jericho. Okay, they're blowing trumpets.

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What's the deal? Seven days of marching around the city concluded by seven circuits on the last day and then the shouting and the collapse of the wall.

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All that symbolism is there shouting to us, the Lord, the

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Lord, the Lord. God alone did it. And here is the secret of the kingdom of God. It requires 100 % of us but depends on 0 % from us.

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In the later battles, God gives them a victory through the normal means of fighting. You know, as we read the rest of the book of Joshua, God advances

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Israel there through normal battles, you know, with sword thrusts and hurled spears and shot arrows.

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Here, however, for the initial attack, God shows them that this is his war.

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No battering ram brought down those walls. It wasn't demolished, you know, but some have even silly suggested, the high notes and the low notes.

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Maybe the trumpets, the high notes, they could dissolve the mortar in the wall. Then the low notes of the shouting, maybe that finally undermined the ground.

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No, that's ridiculous. Even though people participate, it is only a supernatural work that brings down the defenses.

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The kingdom of God here advances by 100 % of God's work, 0 % of ours, while we're acquiring 100 % of our commitment.

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And Joshua, by obeying, by leading the people to do exactly as the Lord has instructed, even as weird as it may appear, shows that he understands.

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He's for God. Another way the Lord impresses on Israel that they must give 100 % is that the city was to be, as they call it here, devoted to destruction.

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In verses 17 and 19, Joshua tells them that everything that could be killed or burned was to be killed or burned.

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And even the precious metals, the silver and the gold, was not to be kept as loot. That's odd in their day.

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That's the way armies paid their soldiers. You know, basically on a commission basis. You get to keep anything you capture from the enemy.

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All right, let's go. But that every ounce of it, all the gold, everything, was to be taken to the tabernacle as a gift to the

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Lord. So they get nothing out of this for themselves, materially. This was God's war, and it was a total war, utter annihilation, absolute obliteration of the enemy, complete extermination.

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And still today, God is at war. And we are in it, and we are in it either on one side or the other.

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There's no neutrality. There's no like Switzerland in this war. You can go and be, you know, uninvolved.

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There's no fence sitting. There's no fence. The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 12, verse 30,

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He who is not with me is against me. There's no way out.

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There's no sanctuary to retreat to, to avoid this conflict. There's no demilitarized zone.

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There's no oceans isolating us from this conflict. We are either for God or we are for His enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil.

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And just like God's war then, God's war now is a total war.

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The end of chapter 6 shows us how seriously Joshua is committed to no compromise, how total this war is.

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You know, not only is it enough that all the city in the present and in the past, everything be destroyed, but the destruction is to be so complete that even the one in the future who would dare to try to rebuild this city,

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Joshua says, let him lose his children, his first and last son. There can be no compromise with God's enemies.

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We cannot think that God will be for us. Well, we can give unto the world. We can absorb its priorities and its attitudes.

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We can serve God and money, living for money, our expensive houses and cars, or indulge the flesh with its passions and desires.

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We cannot surrender a little to Satan, being like him, you know, trying to take glory that should be given to God and give it to another, especially to ourselves, as we think that God must be for us, no matter what we do.

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And if he's not, God's not for us, what do many people think? Well, what good is he?

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That's what their religion is about, isn't it? Getting God to be for them what they want. But many say, it isn't so.

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You're making it too black and white. They say, you know, you can be a carnal

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Christian. You can have Christ as your Savior, but not as your Lord, they say. You know, it's like a cafeteria.

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You get to choose what everything you want. I'll take a little bit of the Savior stuff. I'll skip on the Lord, Chip, as though God will be for us, even if we are not for him.

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That's what that means. God's for us, but we're really not going to be for him.

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When people say, I'll have Jesus as my Savior, but not as my Lord, that's what they're saying. He's going to be for me.

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I'm not going to be for him. But consider, as the commander of the Lord's armies here, look at this.

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Here is probably what most Christians consider the second person of the Trinity in the flesh coming to Joshua, identifying himself as the commander of the

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Lord's army with a drawn sword, who expects someone even so prominent and important as Joshua to prostrate himself before him.

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Be assured, Christ the King will sit on no other place in your heart than the throne.

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He's not taking second place. He won't be for us as our assistant. He's not going to be our co -pilot.

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You forget that. He's overqualified for that job. He will be the pilot. He will be the boss. He will require no less than 100%.

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He will be the commander, or we'll be against him. The war is total.

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We can't negotiate with our sin, giving it a little. We can't make peace with the world.

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For Scripture says in 2 Timothy 3, verse 12, that all who desire a godly life in Christ will be persecuted.

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Ah, but some will say, you know, don't be so uptight. Loosen up a little. Give a little.

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You can have your god, a little of this and that too. But that's their propaganda.

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In a war, usually the enemy has propaganda, the lies they tell.

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And that is all their propaganda, to lay down your weapons, to relent from fighting the total war.

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And what God wants from us is 100%, our total being, humble worship, like Joshua in the dirt before the commander of the

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Lord's army, for us to pray, what does my Lord say to his servant?

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Well, the weapons are different now. The enemies are different. They're not primarily flesh and blood people.

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But the reality of warfare is not different. The reality is that war is total, that there must be annihilation of the enemy.

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Paul describes it as every act of disobedience must be punished.

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Every thought must be made captive to God and brought to surrender.

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All of that is true today as it was then. The kingdom of God still requires 100 % from us, while still relying on 0 % of us.

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Well, there's not only humble worship, but there is also the holy walk. From verses 1 to 14, chapter 6, the holy walk is described, the instructions given how to do it, and then it's applied.

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This wasn't just practical flesh and blood military strategy, just pragmatics.

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How are we going to take that wall? Break down that wall, get in that city. Well, no. This was symbolic, a holy walk around the city with the

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Ark of the Covenant, no battering rams to intimidate Jericho, but the symbol of their relationship with God to lay claim to what

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God has promised to them. They did it once a day for seven days with seven priests, with a trumpet each, seven trumpets, and not just any trumpets, but the ram's horns trumpets, called the shofar in Hebrew if you want to know that.

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Ram's horns trumpets, which were normally used, those kind of trumpets, for signaling some kind of celebration, particularly the year of Jubilee.

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Leviticus tells them to blow that trumpet in particular, that there is a year of Jubilee, that there is now liberty in the land, and that's what they were doing.

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They were signaling celebration, signaling that they were liberating this land from the iniquity of the

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Canaanites, that now God had tolerated enough of their sin, and the land couldn't stand them any longer.

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Seven priests, seven trumpets, seven days, then seven times on the seventh day, all those sevens, fullness, completion, the time for achieving the promise had perfectly come, and nothing could stand in the way, not even the walls of Jericho.

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That holy symbolic walk for a week is described repeatedly in the first 14 verses. You notice it sounds, to our ears, the way we're used to reading, it sounds a little redundant maybe, repetitive, but that's for a purpose.

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So much instruction on how it's to be done. They follow God's plan, and then the walls come crashing down, probably killing most of the fighting men in the falling debris, probably on the wall or in the wall, and then the people descend from every side and take

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Jericho. Now some think today, that sounds so brutal, so barbaric, the killing of so many people.

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Now surely today we can be much more civilized, more rational today.

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Anyway, what does that have to do with us, all this ancient viciousness, this kind of brutal, barbaric warfare?

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What's it have to do with us in our spiritual life? The assumption of many today, our spiritual life is all about insulating ourselves from these kind of things.

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The church, spirituality, is all about escaping from these kinds of things. But today people want to be assured that God is on their side, no matter what they do.

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And indeed, that's what itching ears crave to hear. And this passage shows us that there is no escape from this war.

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That the Lord himself is a commander of armies, and you are either one of his soldiers, or you are one of his enemies.

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In Acts 14, the apostles strengthened the church. Luke says in Acts, the apostles strengthened the church.

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Not by telling them, you can be isolated, you can escape from conflict, from tribulation, from persecution.

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You can be insulated. How did they strengthen the church? By telling them everything that was kind of positive and cheery, cheer up.

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They tell us there, the apostles in Acts 14, that to enter the kingdom of God, that is to leave the cookie cutter presses of the world, to be free of the bondage of self -indulgence, living for wealth or whatever pleasures, to finally be able to leave your ego and self -righteousness behind, and really worship

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God. To really be for God, and not expect him to be for us.

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How did they strengthen the church? In Acts 14, verse 22, they say, they tell the church, through many tribulations, we must enter the kingdom of God.

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Good news. You got a lot of trouble coming. There's a lot of conflict coming. So that strengthens you.

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Well, it does. It makes you ready for it. You have to go through conflict to get to your goal.

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God's kingdom. Just like those heroes in United 93. I guarantee you, that Judo Black Belt fought harder than he ever fought in his life, as he fought his way up the single aisle of an airplane.

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Ever been on an airplane? You know how narrow those aisles are? He fought his way up that aisle, against guys with knives, slashing.

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They were determined to reach their goal, the cockpit. One of the last things that is heard, recorded, on that plane, was one of them shouting, we've got to reach the cockpit, or we all die.

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Nothing was held back. If you want to enter this kingdom, it will require the same focus, the same radical commitment, 100%, no compromise, nothing held back.

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Your prayer, I've got to reach the kingdom of God, or I die.

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Well this holy walk, was taken at God's word. And so as to be free of theirs.

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Did you notice that in verse 10? Joshua tells them, don't say a word, while they're circling the city.

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No idle chatter among themselves. Talking about the weather, nice day for a walk. About what they're going to eat tonight, and I hope the missus got some good lamb, cooking, whatever.

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They're marching around. No trash talking to those soldiers, probably looking down from Jericho. We're going to get you, none of that.

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Nothing. Holy. The walk uncontaminated, with their human words.

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Just the discipline of a held tongue. The silent resolution, that they will take this city,

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God's way, by God's power. In Joshua 6 we see not only their holy walk, after their humble worship, but finally their heavenly warfare.

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From verses 20 to 25. We see destruction, mixed with salvation.

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Now after all this build up, notice this first 14 verses, really build us up.

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All that repetition of the instructions of how to do it, really build us up for the moment. The conquest.

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All that build up, no idle chatter, disciplined tongues, the blowing of the seven trumpets, finally the shouting.

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After all this description, the account of the taking of Jericho, is only half a verse long.

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How odd. The end of verse 20. It's reported so matter of a factly.

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Like it was just a foregone conclusion. Like yeah, of course. Because it was. God had already told

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Joshua in verse 2, that God says to Joshua, I have given you, past perfect tense,

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I have given Jericho into your hands. It's a fact that's complete in God's mind, and so certain to happen in the world.

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This is God's war. Not ours with him just kind of helping us out.

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Happening to be on our side. We're his sheep. He's not our trained animal.

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He leads us. And sometimes he leads us to the valley of the shadow of death.

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The key question is, it's still Joshua's. It was a good question. Are you for us?

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Or against us? Joshua asked the right question. He simply asked it to the wrong person.

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God is the only one who doesn't have to answer that question. We do.

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Are we for him? Or are we against him? If you're for him, it doesn't matter what your nationality or even your background is.

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You can be, as Rahab here shows us, you can be a Canaanite and a prostitute, and yet enter the kingdom of God.

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You can be saved out of total destruction. And from verses 20 to 25, the story alternates purposely between destruction and salvation, back and forth, between the destruction of Jericho and the salvation of Rahab.

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That is the story. Destruction and salvation is the story of God's heavenly warfare in this age.

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God is both now at the same time destroying and saving. His kingdom is coming into this present evil age and is right now destroying.

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It's bringing thoughts captive. It's sometimes coming into judgment. Trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.

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In about two weeks, less than two weeks, is the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, where on another field in Pennsylvania, thousands of Southerners died, marching through half -grown corn into the terrible swift sword of the fire of the

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Union Army. There is destruction, but also salvation.

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Rahab and her family are saved from the rubble of the city. In verse 22, they are first in.

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You notice there, first saved out, and they are placed, it says, outside the camp. They're not included quite yet in verse 23.

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She has not yet fully learned how to live as one of God's people. As she learned, she could change and grow.

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There is salvation, but still, now there remains destruction. In verse 24, it shifts back to the total war that's going on.

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They burn down the city and everything in it. Archaeologists have found where they believe Jericho was.

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We saw this on Wednesday night. And they found granaries there that were apparently full of grain when they were burned.

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Apparently, they filled them with grain expecting a long siege. But the Israelites burned them with the grain in them.

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That's total war. And then again in verse 25, back to salvation.

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Rahab has been living among the Israelites now. Notice that now, by verse 25.

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Now she's in Israel, no longer outside. Now a part of them, no longer apart from them.

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She has entered the kingdom of God through much tribulation. The question still echoes today.

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Are you for him? Or against him? The choice is simple, stark, and clear.

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The enemy will try to tell you different, but that's the choice. You can say, well, it isn't so.

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You can go about your life. You can think you can be unperturbed by conflict. You can be isolated from the struggle.

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You can think you can be insulated from this heavenly warfare. Maybe you think your money will do it.

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Or your family insulates you. Or even a religion will tell you that you can have peace with God if you do this ritual or you say these right words.

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And now you can go make friends with the world. That you can have Christ and your sin at the same time.

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That you can ask God to be on your side. But he'll say, here. No. The question remains.

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Are you for him? Or against him? If you think you can drift along, kind of compromise, get by, then you've made your choice.

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You see, if you're not for him, you are against him, and he will be against you. Not only does this chapter show us that we have to be for God, that it is a total war, but that there is destruction for God's enemies.

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Modern people are really squeamish about this. And really about much of the book of Joshua. Wanting to apologize for the slaughter here.

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But the Bible isn't squeamish and doesn't apologize. This is what befalls

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God's enemies. Any or all of the people of Jericho could have been saved if they had simply done what

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Rahab did. And taken the Lord's side. But they would not. Instead they shut themselves in.

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Notice that in chapter 6, verse 1. They shut themselves in and God out.

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Out of all the citizens of Jericho, only Rahab and her family take the narrow road that leads to life.

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The rest were destroyed. Them and everything having to do with them. And it will be the same with people today.

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Even people who thought that they could remain insulated from the war. There will be eternal destruction.

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At Jericho, there were only two alternatives. The same two that we have today in our heavenly warfare.

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Either take the Lord's side and live or go another way.

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Any other way. Any of the many broad ways that lead to destruction.

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Joshua made his choice. He had heard God say, No. The divine and transcendent.

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No. I'm not for you or against you. I'm the one you must be for or against.

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And so Joshua made his choice to be for the Lord. And finally at the end of this chapter, do you notice that at the end we're told, the passage begins with God saying,

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No, I'm not for you. But it ends with God saying, I am for you.

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With that being the case, God says he's for Joshua. Who could be against him?

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And on that field outside of Jericho, in the Jordan Valley, the valley of the shadow of death, a man with a drawn sword said,

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Now I have come. Now. At that time, he came as a warrior to destroy.

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Later, he came to deal with sin. He came to seek and to save the lost.

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To save you if you are for him. But scripture says that he will come again, and again he will come with a sword.

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He will come to you, like that man on the plains of Jericho. He will come to you either as a savior, having taken away your sin, or as a judge, as an enemy against you.

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He will come to you, either saving you out of the world as it's crumbling around you, or he will catch you unaware, bringing destruction, eternal destruction, casting you out with his enemies.

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You may have thought that you isolated yourselves from that war, insulated yourself from that choice.

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Oh sure, you've made your compromises, but you think, come on, who hasn't? You're more sophisticated to believe that the choice of your life was as stark as either being for or against God.

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You thought you could negotiate a little with both sides, you know, get God and his enemies both on your side.

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Put God off for a while, maybe, while you take care of whatever you think you need at the moment.

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Relationships, money, no holy walk, no heavenly warfare needed, but it won't work.

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If you weren't for him, he will be against you, and what a fearful thing that will be.

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But now, if you will be for him, if you will determine to go through tribulation, to get into the kingdom, if you will pray, what does my

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Lord say to his servant? Then you will see him, the commander of the

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Lord's armies, coming with a sword, and like Joshua, you will bow in humble worship, and then, then, he will be for you.