I’ll ask you to open your Bibles, brothers, to Joshua—please, chapter 6. Well, chapter 5.
As we come again to the study of God’s Word, I remind you of that principle of Bible study that is absolutely indispensable—a principle that we often take for granted, but which we must not take for granted. If we take it for granted and view it as helpful rather than indispensable, then we’re going to miss out on everything: total reliance upon God’s Holy Spirit.
It is not a mistake that the Lord Jesus was called the Word, and the Bible is called the Word. Jesus is like the Bible: there are two sides, a human side and a divine side. We need to study the human side, but if that is all you get—the human side—you’ll miss the Lord.
In the great message that Jesus gave on the bread of life in John 6, He gave the proof that you would know for sure if you were taught of God. How do I really know I’m taught of God?
“It is written in the prophets,
And they shall all be taught of God.
Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.”
That’s how you know. If it leads to Jesus, then you’re taught of God. Everyone taught of the Father, everyone who learns from the Father, comes to Jesus.
You know, it’s possible to come to this Book and miss the Lord. It is not possible to come to the Lord and miss this Book. And so, I’m going to ask you to join with me, please, as we pray together and ask the Lord to reveal Himself upon us. Let’s bow.
Our Father, we thank You again for Your precious promises in the Word: that You would hide these things from the wise and prudent, and reveal them unto babes. We know we cannot work up an attitude of childlikeness. You must draw us, make us as little children, that we might receive from You.
We thank You that You’ve hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in the Lord Jesus Christ, and then invited us to come to Him. We thank You that He is a treasure chest filled and filled for us. We pray that You would give us eyes to see. Take the veil away this evening, that we might behold, in reality, the Lord Jesus Christ; and, seeing Him, that we might be changed.
We thank You in advance for meeting with us, and we trust You now, Lord, to over-answer this prayer—not because in any way we deserve the answer, but because our Lord Jesus deserves the answer. And we pray it in His matchless name. Amen.
Well, welcome again, brothers, to our little look at this wonderful portion of God’s Word. We’re looking at Israel’s redemptive history from the crossing of the Jordan in Joshua 3 to the victory at Ai in Joshua 8.
By way of a quick review, we’re looking at four wonderful events:
We’ve been trying to focus, in a special way, on the instruments that God used to get His redeemed people to the place where they could enter in, abide in, live in, and live off that land which pictured our Lord Jesus Christ—the land of milk and honey, picturing the life of milk and honey in Him.
To take His people across the Jordan, He used the priests: those who had gone first in faith, who had taken a firm stand on ground that He had dried up, who just stood there holding up the ark—that symbolic representation of His throne and His kingship.
And then this morning we looked at that second illustration, at Gilgal. God used the elders to carry them to His wonderful truths, His wonderful realities, which He taught at Gilgal:
At Gilgal, we learn—and we need to teach others—that we are in Christ, that we are separated unto Christ, that we are to feed on Christ, and that we are to depend upon Christ to win the battle. That’s where we’ve been so far.
Now I’d like to continue our study this evening. How may we help others from Gilgal to Jericho, to take the wonderful land? After we have crossed the Jordan, and after we have learned the lessons of Gilgal, God takes us to Jericho.
Now, as you can imagine, since this is the first battle for the land of Canaan in that seven-year war to possess the land, you know how God has written the Bible: when you come to any first thing, pay close attention to that first thing. You’ll find in that first thing many principles for how that thing will be developed.
This is the first victory, and you would expect it to be a strategic victory, laying out the keys for all victory. Indeed, that’s exactly what you find here. As we looked at the priests for heaven’s wisdom on how to cross the Jordan, and as we looked at the elders for heaven’s wisdom on how to get to Gilgal, I’m suggesting now that Joshua—the successor of Moses, the God-appointed leader—is the one we look at so that we might learn how to take Jericho.
Joshua 6 describes the conquest of Jericho, but I want to begin where we left off. At the end of Joshua 5, Joshua encounters the Captain of the Lord’s host. I’m going to ask you to follow along as we read again this wonderful text, beginning at verse 13.
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?”
And He said, “No; rather I indeed now am come 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.—Joshua 5:13-15
The appearance of the Prince of the Lord’s host—or the Captain of the Lord’s host—is, in my view, the single most important passage in the entire book of Joshua. It not only contains the key to the victory at Jericho, but it contains all the keys to all the victories in every battle they are ever going to face. It is the key to the first battle and every battle.
I don’t think I need to spend a lot of time on the fact that this is the appearance of the second Person of the Godhead, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Man with the sword in His hand is the Lord Jesus in His preincarnate form.
One illustration of that is in verse 15, when He said, “Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.” Certainly that identifies this Person with the same Person who appeared in the flaming bush to Moses: “Take off your shoes. This is holy ground.”
Now, we appreciate the cardinal who gave us chapter and verse divisions, but sometimes we quarrel with them because they break them off in places that are not good. I think this is one of the unfortunate breaks. I don’t think Joshua 5 should have ended where it did; it should go on into Joshua 6.
The One who is speaking at the end of Joshua 5 is the same One who is speaking at the beginning of Joshua 6. Who is it?
Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the sons of Israel; no one went out and no one came in.
The Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and the valiant warriors.”—Joshua 6:1-2
“The Lord” there is the divine name. The Lord said to Joshua, “See, I’m giving Jericho into your hand.” We know, then, that the Captain of the Lord’s host is the same as the Lord. It is our Lord Jesus.
The Captain of the Lord’s host appears to Joshua—and remember, he is still at Gilgal. This Man appears at Gilgal with a sword drawn in His hand. The next time God picks up this picture is after the seven-year war, in Judges 2.
Now the angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim. And He said, “I brought you up out of Egypt, and led you into the land which I have sworn to your fathers; and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you.’”
—Judges 2:1
He is called the angel of the Lord. He is the Lord. He is the Son of God. At the beginning of Joshua, the angel of the Lord stood with the sword drawn in His hand. All that symbolizes: “I’ll fight for you. I’ll fight for God.”
When He appears in Judges, He does not appear with the sword drawn. He puts the sword back in its sheath, and that is why they wept. He says, in effect, “You’re on your own. Fight your own battles.” They named that place weeping because He put His sword back in His sheath.
But who is this? It is the Lord Jesus, the angel of the Lord. This is the single most important passage in the book of Joshua, not only for its relationship to Jericho, but for its relationship to the possession of the whole land of Canaan.
Who is the Captain of the Lord’s host? It is Jesus. What is the land a picture of? It is Jesus. That is why this is a key passage. It is teaching us that Jesus must take me to Jesus. Nobody else can take me in. Only Christ can lead me to Christ.
Only Jesus can take me to the land, and to the abundance and the fullness of the land. We learned about the finished work when we were at the Jordan. We learned about the power of God to separate us and to minister to us at Gilgal. But now we come to Him Himself—not His work, not His principles, not His truth, but Jesus Himself.
He says, “You’ve learned a lot. You’ve come a long way. You’ve seen the finished work. You’ve understood identification. You’ve understood what it means to be separated unto Me. You’ve understood what it means to feed on the Lamb. You’ve understood that I must fight for you. Now let Me, Jesus, take you to Jesus, and let Me take you to the abundance.”
This chapter begins climactically with the Lord taking us to the Lord. We need to understand that that is how it is. That is the final preparation.
Now let’s look at Joshua as he meets this wonderful Visitor. I want you to notice that this is an unsought-for visitation. Joshua was not praying to see the Lord. He was not seeking, as we say someone seeks the Lord. He was not only not seeking this; he did not expect it. It came as a great surprise to him.
If you study the Bible long enough, you know that the Lord gets a kick out of that—surprising you. He ambushed Jacob when he was all alone and just jumped out of the bush. It would have been a frightening thing for Joshua.
Now, so that we may clearly grasp the heart of God—and knowing that God has given us analytical minds, and that we think logically—I hate to break up a story like this and say, “There are three things,” or, “There are four principles,” because you can lose life. This really happened to this man. It is not an outline in his life; this is what happened.
But so that we can understand this, let me show you two things, at least, that he learned from this marvelous visitation of the Lord.
Try to picture it in your mind’s eye:
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.
—Joshua 5:13
Joshua was by Jericho. Read it in terms of context: he was on a reconnaissance mission. That is what he was doing. He was the military leader. He was planning a strategy.
In Joshua 1:9, God had told him to be strong and very courageous, not to tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord would be with him wherever he went. Joshua was trying to do that. He was trying to be brave. He had these people over there, and he had to take them into the land, but God had not given him any information up to this point. He did not have a clue, except that he saw these tremendous walls.
If we can believe the archaeologists who have dug up the walls and written the records, Jericho had double walls, not just single walls. We are not dead sure how high they were, but commonly accepted scholarship tells us they were about thirty feet high. The walls were double, about twelve feet thick, with about fifteen feet in between them.
What was Joshua doing? He was out there going, “Whoa.” He was walking around, on a reconnaissance mission, trying to discern some strategy as he examined the defenses of the enemy.
Rahab’s house was built on top of the wall. Now the walls were shut up tight, and Joshua was out there wondering, “How are we ever going to penetrate these fortresses? Are we going to have to scale them? Are we going to have to knock them down? Are we going to tunnel underneath them? We’ll probably have to starve these people out. How in the world are we going to do that?”
When the spies returned forty years earlier with the report, they said, “The people are strong, the cities are fortified and very large. They’re too strong for us.” Even on the east of the Jordan, when God gave victory over Og, Deuteronomy describes their cities as fortified, with high walls, gates, and bars over the gates.
So, yes, Joshua was out there as a commander-in-chief would have to be. He was looking around, looking at the walls, seeing how big they were and how high they were. And all of a sudden, He appeared. You’ve got to get that. Just all of a sudden, there He was—and He had a sword drawn.
My heart would sink. I’m being real sneaky; I’m looking from the bushes at the wall, wondering what I am going to do. Then all of a sudden, there He is, with a sword.
Joshua learned some of the greatest lessons that he ever learned in his life. To be honest with you, as I read this story, at the beginning it does not appear that this Man was anything other than a soldier to Joshua. He just looked like another man.
I don’t know, but it does not look like His face was shining, His sword was flaming, or that He appeared as some obvious deity. I don’t think Joshua saw that. He just saw a Man with a sword in His hand, and he asked:
“Are You for us, or for our enemies?”
—Joshua 5:13
It depends on your tone of voice when you read that. John Calvin thinks that Joshua was challenging Him to a duel: “Whose side are You on? Tell us. Are You on our side? Are You on their side? Speak up. Identify Yourself. Who goes there?”
There is another way to say it. My son Daniel and I were studying this, and I asked him, “How do you think Joshua said that?” My son answered, “With his fingers crawling.” He thought this was an impressive sight, and Joshua was saying, “Whoa! Whose side are You on? I hope You’re on our side.”
Either way, Joshua’s question became the occasion for this tremendous revelation of the Lord.
“Are You for us, or for our adversaries?”
—Joshua 5:13
My same son Daniel was not convinced that this was truly Jesus. He said, “You’ve got to show me that.” So I went back to the twenty-two angel-of-the-Lord appearances, trying to show him that the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament is Jesus. He was not convinced until he read this. Then he said, “I’m convinced.”
I said, “What convinces you?” He said, “He didn’t give a straight answer. It has got to be Jesus. ‘Are You on our side?’ ‘No.’ ‘Are You on their side?’ ‘No.’ ‘Are You on anybody’s side?’”
“No; rather I indeed now am come as captain of the host of the Lord.”
—Joshua 5:14
“I’m not on your side, and I’m not on their side. I’m on God’s side.” That is what He said. “I fight for God.”
If you are on God’s side, you are going to see a wonderful thing: “I’ll be on your side.” But if you are never on God’s side, you are going to find Me a formidable foe, because I’ll fight against you tooth and nail. “I’m on the Lord’s side. I fight for the Lord and for all who line up with Him.”
The Lord is not on Israel’s side or against Israel. He is not on Canaan’s side or against Canaan. God has a purpose. God has a will. God has a design. God has a plan. God has a name. God has a reputation. God has a cause, and God fights for God. He fights for His name and for His cause.
What is the second thing Joshua learned? Not only that God fights for God:
“No; rather I indeed now am come as captain of the host of the Lord.”
—Joshua 5:14
Major Ian Thomas, in his wonderful book The Saving Life of Christ, has one chapter on this story. He paraphrases it this way: “I didn’t come to take sides; I came to take over.” Oh, exactly right. Exactly right.
Joshua had to learn that. Remember, the angel of the Lord is talking to Joshua, the military leader—Joshua, little “c,” the commander-in-chief. This is General Joshua. This is top brass. This is the successor of Moses. This is the God-appointed leader of all the tribes of Israel.
When Jesus said, “I am now come as captain,” what He was saying was, “You are no longer in charge. They are no longer under your command. I want you to surrender your command to Me. Lay down your troops. Lay down your arms. Relinquish your command.”
We sort of read this lightly. The angel of the Lord stood there with the sword drawn in His hand, and He said, “I want you to know two things: I am fighting for God, and I’ve come to take over.” That is awesome. That is so awesome.
Brothers, we’ve got to watch Joshua if we are going to help our brothers and sisters take Jericho. Watch him respond as the angel of the Lord says, “I’m here fighting for God, and I’m here to take over.”
“No; rather I indeed now am come as captain of the host of the Lord.”
And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said, “What has my lord to say to his servant?”—Joshua 5:14
Oh, brothers, this is wonderful. He fell on his face, and he worshiped the Lord. It was at that moment, I believe, that he knew, with great relief, Who it was that was standing before him.
I do not know what was going through his mind when he looked at those thirty-foot walls and then looked back at what was his army. Then Someone showed up and said, “I want to be Captain.” “All right. Thank You, Lord. I am so glad You came, and so glad that You want the job. You’ve got it.”
I think that is how it went. I think it was with great relief when He said, “I’m the Captain of the Lord’s host.” Joshua fell down in gratitude and said, “Thank You, Lord. I didn’t know what to do.”
Brothers, aren’t we there as leaders? God has brought before us so many people, and we feel such a burden. We have been carrying them on our shoulders. They are going to possess Christ? You had better lay that burden down. You had better surrender all the troops to Him. You had better do what Joshua did.
It is a glorious picture. Joshua falls on his face, worships the Lord, and praises God because he was dreading it. He was dreading trying to penetrate the walls. He was dreading trying to get volunteers from that group.
Joshua could have said, “Lord, You do not know how good it is that You want to be Captain. I have considered the geography of the land. The spies came back and told me it is hills and valleys. I know hills and valleys. I am a military man. They are easy to defend, and they are hard to capture.”
“I heard about these people. They are vicious. They are wicked people. They are violent. They know how to fight. They are trained in war. There are giants in there. We have been an agricultural people, mainly wandering around—and You want to be Captain? I gladly hand in my stripes. You have the command. Here is the key to my office. It is Yours.”
Glorious liberty Joshua had that day. It was a hard thing, but it was a glorious thing. It was a relief for him.
I can picture Joshua looking over the host of his people—the nation. He had forty thousand troops from the east side, which was only about sixty percent of their armed forces. Evidently some stayed over there to defend the women and children. Then he looked at the hundred thousand or so other troops and said, “Lord, You want to be Captain of the host? There is a host. Take them. You can be Captain of the host.”
Joshua had such a low view at that point. But even a low view brought him great relief. He was in for a wonderful surprise, because he thought that was the Lord’s host. That was not the Lord’s host.
It is not only the armies of men; it is the armies of heaven and earth. He is the Lord of hosts, the armies of heaven and earth.
The unnumbered hosts mentioned in Hebrews always worship the Lord Jesus: His winds, His ministers, His flames of fire, His ministering spirits. Psalm 68 speaks about Mount Sinai and says that there were myriads of angels when God gave the law—ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands. This is the Lord of hosts.
Remember Elisha’s prayer for his servant in 2 Kings 6: “O Lord, open his eyes. Let him see.” The Lord opened his eyes, and the mountain was filled with horses and chariots of fire. This is the host of the Lord.
In one night, one angel killed one hundred eighty-five thousand of the Assyrian host—probably this Angel, the angel of the Lord. Revelation 5 describes before the throne of God myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands. “I am the Captain of the Lord’s host.”
I’ll tell you: when Joshua surrendered to this Captain, he joined the winning team. When he fell down before this Captain and said, “I want You to be the Captain,” he thought, “Well, there is my host.” The Captain said, “No, that is not My host. There is My host, and there is My host. I am the Captain of the armies of heaven and earth, and I have come to take over.”
Lord, open our eyes.
Brothers, if we are going to help others get into the land, it will only be because, like Joshua, God graces us to meet face to face with the One who has the sword drawn in His hand. By His grace, we fall at His feet and say, “What has my Lord to say to His servant?”
“I have given up guessing on how to take the wall. I have given up guessing on how to overthrow the enemy. What do You expect?”
You would think that would have been enough. Here is the angel of the Lord standing there: “I’m fighting for God. I’ve come to take over.” Joshua falls down, worships, lies on his face, and says, “Whatever You say, I’m going to do it.”
God humbles him more. That is not enough. Brothers, we cannot miss this.
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.”
—Joshua 5:15
He had to take his shoes off. On a low level of earth, that is a rather undignified thing for a general to do. He is on a reconnaissance mission. He is trying to figure out the strategy, and all of a sudden the Lord says, “Take off your shoes.”
Not only relinquish your hold and your authority over all the forces and all the people, but take off your shoes. Until we are on our faces and barefoot before the Lord, they are not going in. That is how God allows us to help them come in.
Human wisdom would think the opposite. “We are going into Jericho. This is the day of battle. You have to come up with some military strategy. You have to figure it all out. It is time to put on your military sandals. It is time to lace up your boots with the thickly studded hobnails. It is time to get ready. Sharpen your swords, gird yourselves, prepare your shields, lace up those sandals.”
No. Jesus stands there and says, “You really want to win a battle? You are going against Satan. You are going against hell. You are going against the forces of wickedness. You are going against the Canaanites. On your face. Take off your shoes.”
Man, this is so unmilitary. It is so divine. It is so wise, so prudent. This is spiritual warfare, and it is won when we are barefoot and on our face before the Captain of the Lord’s host.
What does it mean to be barefoot before the Lord? Most commentators talk about the words, “This is holy ground.” The idea is that God is holy, and the idea is reverence. When you are in the presence of God, you should not walk the same way you walk when you are in the world. It is not common ground. God is there.
But if you apply that literally, we would never wear shoes. If you have to take off your shoes when you are in the presence of God, when would you wear shoes? His presence is everywhere.
I traced through the Bible every time it mentions taking off shoes, every time it mentions barefoot, every time they took off their sandals. I traced out every reference that I could find, and I came up with something that I think is interesting.
It includes reverence, but I think it is a little more than that. It is true that God is holy, and we cannot contaminate His presence. But I think it includes something more. Let me give you a couple of illustrations.
When God sent Isaiah to preach against Egypt and Cush, the record is in Isaiah 20. He wanted to warn them that the Assyrians were going to come and take them captive. One of the things they were going to do was lead them into captivity naked. They would not have a strip of clothing on.
God wanted to deliver that message. He said, “You go out and tell them they are going to end up as captives, as slaves, naked. Now I want you to illustrate it. Take off your outer garment, and take off your shoes.”
For three years, Isaiah the prophet walked around barefoot, preaching to these people that Assyria was going to come and lead them away naked. “Why are you preaching to us barefoot, prophet of God?” “My feet are naked as an illustration that someday you are going to be naked. My God is a modest God. I am not going to walk around naked, but I am going to illustrate the principle of being naked with my feet.”
When Absalom chased David after that insurrection, in 2 Samuel 15, David was ashamed. He had been exposed, and he felt so bad because his son had done that. The Bible says he took off his shoes, and he fled with no shoes on. Naked feet—a principle, a picture.
Job, with his tongue in his cheek, spoke of his miserable counselors and how much they helped him. When God turned their wisdom, he said:
“He makes counselors walk barefoot
And makes fools of judges.
He makes priests walk barefoot
And overthrows the secure ones.
He pours contempt on nobles.”—Job 12:17-18
When God exposed these counselors, priests, and nobles, He said, “They are barefoot.” When a person lost a loved one in the Old Testament, part of the grieving process was to take off your shoes.
I cannot prove this, but to be honest with you, I am inclined to think that in Luke 10, when God sent out the seventy, He sent them out barefoot. He said, “Take no money bag, no bag, no shoes.” Now, I know some say that means no extra pair of shoes. I do not know about that.
But I know God is a modest God. He could have said to Moses at the bush, “Moses, take off your clothes. This is holy ground.” He could have said to Joshua, as he stood there with the sword drawn, “Joshua, take off your clothes. This is holy ground.” The whole Bible begins with man naked before God.
I think this principle of taking off your shoes, because God is modest, illustrates not only reverence, but nakedness before God, openness before God, transparency before God—coming before God open and naked.
Listen to Hebrews 4:12-13:
For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare before the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do.
I think that was all part of this humility. The angel of the Lord stands there before Joshua and says, “I am fighting for God. I have come to take over.” Joshua falls down on his face, worships Him, and says, “Anything You say—speak, and Your servant will do it.”
Then He says, “Take off your shoes. This is holy ground. Stand before Me. No faking. No playing. No acting. No kidding. This is real. Stand before Me naked, open, and exposed.”
You want to help the saints? Do not answer this, brothers; just think in your heart. When is the last time you felt the burden, the responsibility, of somebody else upon you? When is the last time you came before the Lord naked and barefoot, fell on your face, and said, “Will You please take over? They are Your responsibility.”
That does not mean you are not going to get up and lead the way. You will still be there. Watch Joshua. But it means the burden is gone. God has taken the burden. He has given it all over to the Lord.
That was the final preparation for taking people into the land: understanding Who this One was and falling before Him.
Now there is much that could be said if you turn to Joshua 6. The battle for Jericho is well loved. It is a beautiful portion, and so much can be said. From the natural standpoint, I think this much is clear: Joshua is not in charge.
The Captain of the Lord’s host is in charge. He is giving the orders. It even appears foolish to the eyes of the flesh, but Joshua goes forth barefoot and worshiping, trusting in the angel of the Lord, following every command.
We are not going to read the whole Jericho story; I think almost all of us know that story. Let me just tell it in my own words.
The angel of the Lord commands Joshua: there is going to be a parade around the walls, with at least four—maybe five—stages.
In the vanguard, there are going to be the armed men, probably from the two-and-a-half tribes—forty thousand men to lead the way. Behind the vanguard are seven priests blowing seven ram’s horns. Did you notice the word that is used? Those are Jubilee trumpets. That is the trumpet that was blown at Jubilee. This is a Jubilee.
Behind the priests blasting these trumpets comes the holy ark of God. It must have been something, from the top of the wall, to see the vanguard, all the armed forces; then the seven priests blasting the Jubilee trumpets; right behind them, the ark of God being held up and marched around; and then behind them, more soldiers.
Probably those soldiers came from the other nine-and-a-half tribes. Some commentators are not sure whether all the people joined at the end of the parade. I am inclined to think they did. Many commentators are inclined to think they did not. If you do not agree with me on this, you are in good company. As Vernon McGee said once, “You have now got a choice to make: do you want good company, or do you want the truth?”
They say the ancient city of Jericho covered about eight acres. It is estimated that it would have taken between an hour and an hour and a half to go one time around. Every day, for six days, in absolute silence, they were to make their round.
First the army, then the priests with the trumpets, then the ark of God, then more soldiers, and the people of God round the city in absolute silence. The only sound that could be heard was the short blast of the Jubilee trumpets.
If the trumpets could speak, they would be saying, “All eyes on the ark. All eyes on the ark. All eyes on the ark.” Everybody’s attention was called to the ark of God.
The angel of the Lord gave Joshua this much information right at the beginning. We also read that Joshua gave the people this much information at the beginning. They did not know the end. They had to go in faith.
Even though Joshua knew what God was going to do, he did not tell the people. Read the record—he did not tell the people. They were marching around in faith. I do not know what went through their minds. “This is dumb. Walking in circles. Walking over and over the same ground, with nothing happening.”
You ever do that? “How come we have to go over the same ground, running around in circles?” But the Bible says, “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down.”
Hebrew scholars think that the walls came down on the Sabbath day, because they marched for seven days. You know a Sabbath day is in there someplace, because it covered seven days. It would not surprise me if God gave the victory on the day of rest.
But they would have had to start out early to finish before the bell rang, if you know what I mean. Probably they went early on the last day because they had to go seven times around—probably ten or twelve hours on the last day.
One thing got accomplished with that. Why did God make them go thirteen times around the wall? Well, one thing I know for sure: they got thirteen good looks at the wall. If they had any doubt when they started about their own inadequacy, they did not have a doubt after they finished.
I told you the other day that God had everyone circumcised—the picture of babies, eight days old—and they were all marching around the wall. Then on the last day, God had them march around seven times: ten hours, eleven hours, twelve hours.
Anybody here ever go on a ten-hour, eleven-hour, twelve-hour hike? How would you like to go on a twelve-hour hike in absolute silence? Then God says, “Now, charge. Attack.” After twelve hours, He weakened the troops. He was going to show them that this was His battle and His victory.
They were so tired at the end, and now they had to go in and fight. Amazing wisdom of the Lord. Well, you know the story. That is how they got into the land.
Though there are many other things we could meditate upon in this taking of Jericho, there is one that stands out and leads us to our next message. With this principle, we will close.
I am referring to the strange ban that was given in this first battle—the cherem, that which was forbidden. One hundred percent, everything with the exception of Rahab and what belonged to her, was to be given to the Lord.
Notice Joshua 6:17:
“The city shall be under the ban, it and all that is in it belongs to the Lord; only Rahab the harlot, and all who are with her in the house, shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent.
But as for you, keep yourselves from the things under the ban, so that you do not covet them and take some of the things under the ban, and make the camp of Israel a curse and bring trouble on it.
But all the silver and gold, and articles of bronze and iron, are holy to the Lord; they shall go into the treasury of the Lord.”—Joshua 6:17-19
Everything in battle one was dedicated to the Lord: every person, every animal, every trinket, every coin, every article of clothing. Nothing was to be taken for personal use. Everything was given to the Lord.
Why? In His first battle, He is laying down the keys. He is laying down the principle. The principle is this: the spoils belong to the victor.
It is that simple. The spoils belong to the victor. Who is the Victor? It is the Lord. In this first battle, He is to get everything in order to illustrate that it all belongs to Him. He is the One with the sword. He is the One who gets everything.
You know, brothers, it is amazing to me. If you teach, “The battle is the Lord’s,” you get almost the universal amen from the people of God. But if you teach, “The victory is the Lord’s,” you get a lot of hemming and hawing.
It is amazing that they cannot see it is almost the same thing. The fact that He had the sword showed that the battle was His. The fact that He got the spoils shows that the victory is His.
The Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand.”
—Joshua 6:2
“I have given it.” It is a gift. Victory is a gift of the Lord.
Go to Joshua 8:2. This is the second battle. Listen to this:
“You shall do to Ai and its king just as you did to Jericho and its king; you shall take only its spoil and its cattle as plunder for yourselves.”
—Joshua 8:2
In the first battle, God says, “Don’t touch it. It is Mine.” Well, what is God’s heart? He wants you to have the spoil. He does not want to keep it from you. He wants you to have it, but He wants you to know it is His. It is not yours.
“Don’t go after the spoil. It is Mine. Now that I have it, I would love to share it with you.” That is not the same thing. The spoils belong to Him, and He wants to share them with us.
Sometimes we forget: the spoil goes to the victor. He is the Victor.
Achan’s problem in touching the spoils was that he was running after what God wanted him to have. God did not want him never to have the spoil. If he had waited one more battle, he could have had it all. Everything he hid in the tent, he could have had legitimately. It was right.
God wanted to share, but Achan went after the spoils, and he robbed God of glory. His glory He will not share with another. The victory is the Lord’s, and Achan went after the victory.
I hear people praying a lot: “Lord, give me victory over temptation. Give me victory over pride. Give me victory. I need patience, Lord. Give me victory over irritability. Give me victory over this habit. Give me victory over this particular sin. Give me victory over some lust, or some pride, or some unbelief.”
Learn it. Learn it quickly. Learn it well, brothers: there is no victory for you. There is only one Victor, and His name is Jesus. He gets all the spoils.
Now, He will share that with you, but that is not the same thing as you getting your own victory. You do not get something called victory. You have Christ, and in Christ you have everything else. He will share it with you.
That is why He will lead you, but it is in His triumph. That is why He says, “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world,” not, “You shall overcome the world.” That is why you reckon yourself dead in Christ Jesus: because you are in Christ Jesus.
He does not want to give you a rest of your own. He says, “Enter into My rest.” It is the rest that He has. He wants to share the spoil.
We need to follow Joshua. We need to bend our knee to the One whose battle it is and whose victory it is. He fights for God. He has come to take over.
There is a right way to sing “Onward, Christian Soldiers,” and there is a wrong way to sing “Onward, Christian Soldiers.” We are going to have to advance as Joshua advanced, yielding the whole thing over to this One.
We must ever relate the fight of faith with the rest of faith. Know the difference between fighting for rest and fighting from rest. Know the difference between the victory that He shares with us and the victory that we think we can have.
The battle is His. The victory is His.
You know what is amazing? In this first battle, the enemy was shaking in their boots.
You know what is happening today? The Christians are shaking in their boots, saying, “Satan is out to get me. The devil has done this. I have been opposed here and there.” What happened to this first victory? What happened to the Captain of the host of armies of heaven and earth fighting for us? What happened to us falling before the Lord?
They are the ones who should be trembling. The gates of hell will not prevail against the church. We are the aggressors. We are the ones going out. God’s people had their hearts melt like water.
We need to understand that it is His battle, that it is His victory. Once you have learned that, He is going to dump the spoil on you. There is so much spoil He wants to share. But you have to get it right. You have to learn: the spoil goes to the Victor. It is His.
That was all a down payment for what was coming. Well, we will close there and trust God to work it in our hearts. Let’s pray.
Our Father, we thank You so much that that wonderful angel of the Lord, the Lord Jesus, our Savior, appeared to Joshua. Unsought, unasked for, You just showed up. And You set that leader free.
Lord, will You show up again? Set Your people free. We gladly let You be Captain. We relinquish all the troops.
By Your grace, we ask You to pull our shoes off, even if You tear off our bunions. Pull off our shoes, Lord, that we might be naked and exposed before You, and that we might live now.
Teach us how to help others in. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.