THE WALLS OF JERICHO Today we are looking at the story of Joshua leading Israel in the defeat of the city of Jericho, where the walls of the city fell down as the priests and soldiers marched around the city for seven days with the priests carrying the ark of the presence of God. From the moment that God commissioned Moses to take Israel out of their captivity to Pharaoh in Egypt and to lead them though the wilderness and into the Promised Land, it was the power of the presence of God w...
THE WALLS OF JERICHO
Today we are looking at the story of Joshua leading Israel in the defeat of the city of Jericho, where the walls of the city fell down as the priests and soldiers marched around the city for seven days with the priests carrying the ark of the presence of God.
From the moment that God commissioned Moses to take Israel out of their captivity to Pharaoh in Egypt and to lead them though the wilderness and into the Promised Land, it was the power of the presence of God with them that prevailed for them.
When God first told Moses to do this work, he said to Moses "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. Then Moses said to Him, "If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? (Exodus 33:14).
God’s presence was with Israel in every situation of their forty-year wilderness journey in an outward demonstration of God’s supernatural power. God’s presence was seen in the cloud that followed them during the day, and the pillar of fire over them at night. There was the manna that fell from heaven to feed them. The presence of God resided in the ark of the covenant that was carried by the priests though the wilderness and placed in the tabernacle every time they set up camp (forty two times). There was the tent of meeting that Moses erected for himself - to go outside from the camp and meet with God in his presence where God would speak with him.
Moses died at the end of that forty years journey and Joshua had to lead Israel into the Promised Land across the flooded river Jordan. God miraculously held back the waters of the river Jordan when the priests stepped into the flooded river bearing the ark of God’s presence just before arriving at Jericho. The people of Jericho would have been terrified by the sight of over two million Israelites with thousands of head of cattle creating an enormous cloud of dust that would have been visible from afar as they slowly advanced. The Bible tells us that all these instances of the outward power of God’s presence on that wilderness journey in those days were examples for us to learn from for living in his presence today.
1Corinthians 10:11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were lessons for us, written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the age has come.
Jericho was the first obstacle in their way to going in and fully possessing the Land and it had to be conquered. They were told that Jericho had to be devoted to God as holy ground, and the Lord spoke to Joshua about this outside the city walls.
Joshua 5:13 Then Joshua fell with his face to the ground and worshipped. Then he said, ‘What does my Lord wish to say to His servant?’ The LORD said to Joshua, ‘Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.’
Then God gave Joshua his marching orders for Jericho.
Joshua 6:2 the Lord said to Joshua, "Jericho and its king and all its mighty warriors are already defeated, for I have given them to you! Your entire army is to walk around the city once a day for six days, followed by seven priests walking ahead of the Ark, each carrying a trumpet made from a ram's horn. On the seventh day you are to walk around the city seven times, with the priests blowing their trumpets. Then, when they give one long, loud blast, all the people are to give a mighty shout, and the walls of the city will fall down; then move in upon the city from every direction."
Jericho was the fertile oasis of all oases and had outer walls 2 metres thick and 5 metres high plus one tower, and inside the outer walls were higher fortification walls that surrounded the busy city.
Those walls have spiritual meaning for us today. They represent the walls of self-protection that we spend years building around our hearts by either not realizing the Holy Spirit’s work in our hearts or by resisting his work in our hearts. His work never ceases to create in us a new heart that knows the love of God, a heart that believes in the work of Jesus, and a heart that chooses to do the will of the Father.
Just as Jericho behind those walls had to become holy ground so also do our hearts. God also made a decree that the walls of Jericho were never to be rebuilt – and they never were! (Joshua 6:26). This work of God in re-grounding our hearts is a day after day process of keeping our hearts centred in the presence of God, just as the battle of Jericho was a day after day strategic discipline of carrying the power of the presence of God around the walls of the city. Day after day nothing appeared to happen until on that seventh day when God was ready to go into action and miraculously collapse the walls.
His work is to collapse the walls – our work is to be present to his presence – result is an ever-expanding growth in faith. Presence awareness is NOT an idle stillness.
The number seven features significantly in this story and is symbolic of the completion and fulness of God’s purposes in the earth, and that includes God’s desire to do a complete work of healing and transformation in our hearts. Our strategic discipline is also about practising the presence of God without trying to make God do anything, but by having faith and patience for a complete work of God in bringing down the walls of self-protection around our hearts that we have built over the years. We have added more and more bricks to our Jericho wall of self-protection each time our heart has suffered rejection or been misunderstood or felt mistreated in any way. We also put up a wall when we allow negative imaginations to inflame our defence mechanisms, and the Bible tells us to ‘cast down imaginations and every barrier (hypsoma – wall) that exalts itself against the knowledge of God’ (2Corinthians 10:5).
Our heart is God’s holy ground because he created our heart to be protected and fulfilled by his love. It is the fertile oasis of all spiritual oases; it is his dwelling place.
As we set aside time to let his presence surround and penetrate our hearts, we create space for him to occupy that holy ground of our hearts and for its brokenness to be healed. It may seem like nothing is happening during those times of being present, but his Spirit occupies more territory each passing moment. And when we invite the feelings of hurt and brokenness into that place that he now shares with us, that becomes the brick-by-brick removal of our Jericho wall of self-defence. A new wall gets built around our hearts – the wall of faith and hope in his healing love.
When we consider the outcome for Israel in their conquest of Jericho, we see that this was the first major obstacle to be overcome for them to go in and finally possess their inheritance, the Promised Land. But that was not the final obstacle of Israel’s taking of the Promised Land. In fact, it was just the beginning. There were seven major tribal nations to do battle with before they could establish Jerusalem, speaking of the fullness of darkness and corruption and sin and idolatry that was out there trying to overcome them, and in many ways it did. But to those who remained faithful, the conquest of Jericho had grounded them in confidence that the word of God and his presence was always with them to guard their hearts and bring them back into his will.
The same applies to us today, because our inheritance, which is the fulness of the life of Christ within us will continue to present its challenges as we commit to live in light and truth. That pursuit brings us into a contending with the powers of darkness, or contention with people who do not welcome the light or who could wish us harm. But with a conquered ‘walls of Jericho’ experience we can have faith to find grace and live out from a ‘holy grounding’ of God’s work within us and through us and around us.
