SPEAKER_00: Well, the 1980s was a great decade.
SPEAKER_00: I was born in that decade, which makes it a great decade.
SPEAKER_00: But also some great movies were made in that decade.
SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite sports films of all time is the movie Hoosiers.
SPEAKER_00: Gene Hackman plays Coach Norman Dale, a former college basketball coach who gets hired as a new high school coach of a small town in Indiana.
SPEAKER_00: But from the moment that he arrives there, there's extreme tension between him and the entire town because high school basketball is a very big deal in Indiana, and his way of doing things is very different than anything they had ever experienced.
SPEAKER_00: At his very first practice, he quickly kicks a player off the team for having a disrespectful attitude.
SPEAKER_00: And then for the whole two-hour practice, he doesn't let any of the players take any shots at the hoop at all.
SPEAKER_00: He wants them to focus on the basic fundamentals of ball handling and passing, and he wants them to work on teamwork and working together and proper conditioning.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, at one point during the practice, he tells the boys that they're not going to be scrimmaging that day.
SPEAKER_00: They're used to scrimmaging during every practice.
SPEAKER_00: And one of them complains and says, that ain't no fun.
SPEAKER_00: To which he says, My practices are not designed for your enjoyment.
SPEAKER_00: A few days later, at their first game of the season, he gives them some very specific instructions during their pregame huddle.
SPEAKER_00: He tells them that on every offensive possession that they have, he wants them to pass the ball at least four times before anybody takes a shot.
SPEAKER_00: So every time they have the ball, he does not want to see a single shot go up in the air until the ball has been passed at least four times.
SPEAKER_00: Well, as soon as the game gets started, they immediately fall behind.
SPEAKER_00: Their opponent quickly scores and then scores again and then steals the ball and scores again because on each offensive possession, they just awkwardly attempt to pass the ball four different times, but they're not really moving at all.
SPEAKER_00: They're just trying to force their passes to each other, and the ball keeps getting stolen.
SPEAKER_00: Well, at halftime, they're way behind, and they go to the locker room all frustrated, and a player named Ray complains to the coach and says, we can't win if we don't score.
SPEAKER_00: But Coach Dale doubles down and he says, I know what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_00: I want to see four passes every time before we shoot the ball.
SPEAKER_00: But when the third quarter starts, it's clear that Ray is going to take matters into his own hands because on the very first possession, he dribbles right down the court, doesn't pass at all, takes a shot, and makes it.
SPEAKER_00: Next possession does the exact same thing.
SPEAKER_00: Dribbles straight down the court, doesn't pass, takes a shot, and makes it.
SPEAKER_00: But right after that, Coach Dale takes him out of the game because even though he's scoring points, he is completely ignoring his coach's instructions.
SPEAKER_00: Well, a few minutes later, one of the other boys fouls out of the game, and they only have six players on the team.
SPEAKER_00: So Ray jumps up off the bench and goes to check back into the game, but Coach Dale yells at him and says, sit back down.
SPEAKER_00: And so the ref comes over and says, Coach, you need one more player.
SPEAKER_00: And he says to him, My team is on the floor.
SPEAKER_00: And the crowd immediately begins booing him because he would rather play the game with four players and be one man short, but have four players who are coachable than put the uncoachable player back into the game.
SPEAKER_00: See, to the players on the team and to the people in this town and the people in the crowd, this coach's way of doing things made no sense at all.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Ray was the only player scoring any points.
SPEAKER_00: You can't win the game if you don't score any points.
SPEAKER_00: This was very confusing to them.
SPEAKER_00: But Coach Dale was thinking about far more than the results of just one game.
SPEAKER_00: He had a much bigger picture in mind because he knew that if they wanted the season as a whole to be a success, they needed to learn to play together as a team and be unselfish and coachable.
SPEAKER_00: So Coach Dale knew what he was doing and why he was doing it, even if nobody else in town understood.
SPEAKER_00: Well, as we continue our series in the book of Joshua this morning, we find ourselves at a specific point in the narrative where the instructions that God gives to his people probably made very little sense to any of them.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, a couple weeks ago, Andrew preached on chapter 5, which also contained some instructions from the Lord that at face value did not seem to make any sense, because after 40 years of wandering, this second generation of wilderness Israelites were finally on the edge of the promised land, and after crossing over the Jordan River, God tells them to do something that made for a terrible military strategy.
SPEAKER_00: He instructs all of the males of Israel to be circumcised.
SPEAKER_00: And from a strictly human perspective, the timing of that command made no sense at all.
SPEAKER_00: Why would you perform surgery on all of the soldiers in the nation and immobilize them right when you're about to go in and take the land?
SPEAKER_00: At face value, this would have been very confusing, but God had a much bigger picture in mind.
SPEAKER_00: Andrew talked about this, but because we pointed out back in chapters four and five, they crossed over the Jordan River on the tenth day of the first month, which marked the beginning of the process of Passover, because on that day they would select lambs to be slaughtered, and then three days later, on the 14th day of the first month, they would slaughter those lambs and officially observe the Passover.
SPEAKER_00: But in order to do that, this second generation of Israelites first had to receive the sign of the covenant, circumcision, before they could participate in the feast of God's covenant, Passover.
SPEAKER_00: So the Lord knew what he was doing and why he was doing it, even if nobody in Israel understood it.
SPEAKER_00: And likewise, in today's passage, God tells them to do something that from a strictly human perspective makes for just a bizarre and terrible military strategy.
SPEAKER_00: Now, before we dive into our text this morning, I want to devote a good amount of time to addressing the elephant in the room within Joshua chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00: Because this chapter details the beginning stages of the conquest of Canaan, with Jericho being the first city that the Israelites overtake.
SPEAKER_00: And if you recall from week one of this series, I mentioned the fact that this subject, the conquest of Canaan and going in and taking the land, is misunderstood by many people.
SPEAKER_00: I talked about how oftentimes it gets painted as a kind of an injustice on the part of the Israelites, as though they were these greedy bullies who saw this thing that they wanted, this land that they wanted, and so they just charged in and took it away from the innocent people who lived there.
SPEAKER_00: But again, that is not the case at all.
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's worth repeating the two quick reasons that I gave back in week one for why that is incorrect.
SPEAKER_00: So, number one, remember, taking the land was God's idea, not their idea.
SPEAKER_00: And all the way back in Genesis 12, when Abraham first arrived in Canaan, the Lord told him, I am going to give this land to your offspring as a gift.
SPEAKER_00: Because Scripture is clear, God made everything, he made the entire world, all of it belongs to him, he owns every destination on every map, he can give any piece of land to whomever he wants.
SPEAKER_00: And he promised this to Abraham's descendants.
SPEAKER_00: But not only that, in Genesis 15, God told him that his descendants were going to be slaves in a foreign land for 400 years, but that after that he would bring them back to Canaan when the sin of its current inhabitants was finally complete.
SPEAKER_00: So God was sovereignly delaying his judgment against the Canaanites for several hundred years, but eventually he would take action.
SPEAKER_00: He would bring judgment against them and give the land to Abraham's descendants.
SPEAKER_00: Which once again leads me to the second quick point that the sin of the Canaanites was horrendous.
SPEAKER_00: Repeatedly we are told that the people groups who lived there were shameless in their way of life.
SPEAKER_00: They were famous for practicing unlimited child sacrifice to the God of Molech, unhinged sexual perversion of every kind, unmitigated idolatry.
SPEAKER_00: It was a place of complete evil.
SPEAKER_00: Which is why in Leviticus 18, God told Moses to tell his people, you shall not do the things that they do in Canaan where I am bringing you.
SPEAKER_00: So again, it's not a situation where these are greedy bullies who see something that they want and they just go in and take it away from somebody who lives there.
SPEAKER_00: No, the land belonged to God.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, but still, somebody might say, I hear all of that, and I think I get it.
SPEAKER_00: But what do we do with all of this, with some of the specific details that we read about in the conquest?
SPEAKER_00: For example, in today's passage, we read this in verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: They devoted all the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword.
SPEAKER_00: This verse makes it sound like the Israelites charged in like barbarians and indiscriminately slaughtered every person in sight, including innocent women and children.
SPEAKER_00: That's how it reads.
SPEAKER_00: So, how in the world do we make sense of this?
SPEAKER_00: Well, throughout church history, conservative scholars have offered up some helpful points for understanding verses like this one.
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's worth taking our time this morning to go through some of these so that we can deepen our understanding of God's word and deepen our trust in God's goodness.
SPEAKER_00: For starters, some scholars have pointed out the fact that this specific kind of language that we find in verse 21 about total destruction of an enemy nation was extremely common in the ancient world.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it regularly shows up in archaeology in other writings outside of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And one of its common traits, and one of the common traits in this kind of ancient warfare rhetoric, as it's called, is the use of hyperbole or exaggeration in order to emphasize a military victory.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, archaeology has actually proven the fact that the language of total and complete destruction of every living thing, of man, woman, and child, of everything that breathes, was oftentimes more hyperbolic than it was literal.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason we know that to be the case is because both inside and outside of the Bible we find descriptions like this of the complete destruction of an enemy with supposedly no survivors left of all the men and women and children.
SPEAKER_00: But then, not too long after that, that exact same people group that is supposedly destroyed pops up on the scene all over again.
SPEAKER_00: For example, outside of Scripture, we find ancient writings like these.
SPEAKER_00: In the 15th century BC, there was a battle between the Egyptian and Mitanni armies, and the Egyptians wrote down that the Mitanni army was annihilated totally within one hour, and that they made them like those not existent.
SPEAKER_00: So this language makes it sound like the Mitanni army was completely wiped out and there were no survivors.
SPEAKER_00: But in reality, although Egypt won that battle, the Mitanni army continued to live on and battle with them for another hundred years or so.
SPEAKER_00: In the 13th century BC, the Hittites fought against the mountain people of Tari Karimu, and they wrote that they emptied the mountains of humanity, making it sound like there's no survivors.
SPEAKER_00: But in reality, the mountain people lived on for a very long time.
SPEAKER_00: They had just lost that particular battle.
SPEAKER_00: And in the 8th century BC, the Moabites defeated Israel in battle, and they wrote down that Israel has utterly perished for always.
SPEAKER_00: But of course, we know that that's not true.
SPEAKER_00: Israel lived on despite losing that battle.
SPEAKER_00: Also, this reality shows up in the Bible as well.
SPEAKER_00: In Joshua chapter 10, we read that Joshua defeated the Canaanites who lived in Hebron, and it specifically says he devoted it to destruction and every person in it.
SPEAKER_00: But if you keep reading, in the very next book of the Bible, in Judges chapter 1, we're told that Judah fought against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron.
SPEAKER_00: So of course, they were not completely destroyed back in Joshua chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: Lastly, in 1 Samuel 15, we're told that King Saul devoted to destruction all of the Amalekite people with the edge of the sword, leaving no survivors.
SPEAKER_00: But then only 12 chapters later in 1 Samuel 27, the Amalekites are still there, and they're still in the story of Scripture for several hundred years to come.
SPEAKER_00: So scholars who point this out, they make the argument that in the ancient world, this was just your prototypical warfare rhetoric that used hyperbolic or exaggerated language to describe a decisive military victory.
SPEAKER_00: And they also make the point that we tend to do this even in our own ways today.
SPEAKER_00: So it's like if I were to say that in 2024, the Washington Commanders utterly destroyed the Detroit Lions in the divisional round of the playoffs, which still stings.
SPEAKER_00: When I say that, I'm not literally saying that all of the Lions players were killed.
SPEAKER_00: I'm using hyperbole to communicate the fact that the Commanders won a very decisive victory over the Lions that day.
SPEAKER_00: And so scholars, these scholars believe that something similar to that is going on in these ancient warfare passages like this one.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, and still connected to this idea, these same scholars also make the argument that actually there must be some level of hyperbole being used in this verse, especially when it says men and women young and old, because archaeology actually indicates that the ancient city of Jericho was a military outpost that was full of soldiers, not a town that was full of families.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, they make the argument that this was the case with a lot of ancient cities, where oftentimes the city itself was more of like a fortified military garrison with soldiers and city officials living there, and all the women, children, and families spending their time in the surrounding villages.
SPEAKER_00: And if that's the case, then overtaking the city of Jericho was much more like overtaking Fort Knox with all of its soldiers, as opposed to overtaking New York City with all of its families.
SPEAKER_00: Which potentially reinforces the idea that there is some hyperbole being used here because this argument would suggest that it was mostly just men of war, not men, women, and children who were inside the walls of Jericho.
SPEAKER_00: And, not to be too graphic, but this also may explain why Rahab lived and worked there as a prostitute, because the soldiers of Jericho were probably regular customers.
SPEAKER_00: Now, these are interesting arguments.
SPEAKER_00: There might be some plausibility to them, some real plausibility, but not all Bible scholars are fully convinced by them, because some would argue that even if it is true that the language here fits the description of prototypical, exaggerated warfare language of the ancient world that we see all throughout history, which it does seem to match that.
SPEAKER_00: And even if it's true that the people groups who were supposedly fully destroyed there do show up again later on in the biblical story, which does seem to be the case.
SPEAKER_00: And even if it's true that the city of Jericho was probably a military outpost that was full of soldiers rather than families, which is very likely, even if all of that is true, some scholars would still say latching on to those arguments too strongly runs the risk of missing or minimizing the most important point of all.
SPEAKER_00: Namely, the fact that God is perfectly holy and perfectly just, and we are not.
SPEAKER_00: So we can trust that in God's perfect wisdom and in God's perfect justice, whether we're talking about Jericho in today's passage, or whether we're talking about the flood in Genesis, or whether we're talking about any of God's judgments in Scripture, not one innocent person ever lost their life.
SPEAKER_00: Because there's actually only ever been one innocent person who has ever walked the earth, but he willingly laid down his life for guilty sinners like us.
SPEAKER_00: So is there hyperbolic language being used in this chapter?
SPEAKER_00: Possibly.
SPEAKER_00: Was Jericho full of soldiers rather than families?
SPEAKER_00: Probably.
SPEAKER_00: But over and above all of that, can God be trusted to execute his justice perfectly?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00: Now, just to be clear, this does not mean that God's people have the right to reenact scenes like this one whenever they want to.
SPEAKER_00: This was a very specific situation with very specific instructions from the Lord at a very specific time in redemptive history.
SPEAKER_00: However, this does mean that we can rest easy knowing that God is good and God is wise and his judgments are always righteous and pure.
SPEAKER_00: All right, that felt like it was worth spending some time on this morning because that is a subject that people struggle with and struggle to make sense of.
SPEAKER_00: But now that we're about 20 minutes in, we should probably turn our attention to the rest of the chapter.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to move pretty quickly the rest of the way.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, but in Joshua chapter 6, the Lord sends his people on a seven-day mission to officially overtake the city of Jericho.
SPEAKER_00: And the narrative basically has two primary movements to it.
SPEAKER_00: Verses 1 through 14 focus on the first six days, and verses 15 through 27 focus on the seventh day.
SPEAKER_00: So we'll just go right ahead and jump into that first movement, which focuses on those first six days, beginning with verses one through three of Joshua chapter six.
SPEAKER_00: Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: None went out and none came in.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord said to Joshua, See, I have given Jericho into your hand with its king and mighty men of valor.
SPEAKER_00: You shall march around the city, all the men of war, going around the city once.
SPEAKER_00: Thus you shall do for six days.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, so remember, we were told at the beginning of chapter five that as the news began to spread to all the kings of the Canaanite cities that God had made the waters of the Jordan River stop so that Israel could cross over on dry ground, their response to that news was complete fear and dread.
SPEAKER_00: They had already been afraid of Israel because they had heard about their exodus out of Egypt and how they crossed over the Red Sea on dry ground.
SPEAKER_00: But now that it happened again at the Jordan River and they were officially encroaching on Canaanite territory, their fear and dread rose to a whole new level.
SPEAKER_00: So much so that they put the whole city of Jericho on lockdown.
SPEAKER_00: The walls and the gates are completely fortified and sealed.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody is allowed to leave, nobody is allowed to come in because they are terrified.
SPEAKER_00: And for what it's worth, in verse 2, God tells Joshua that he has given Jericho into his hands, and he specifically says, with its king and its mighty men of valor.
SPEAKER_00: So I do think this probably was primarily a military city with soldiers and high-ranking officers inside.
SPEAKER_00: And that being the case, the exact marching orders that God gives them from a strictly human and military perspective don't make any sense.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if they're supposed to overtake this locked-down, fortified city that's full of Jericho's men of war, you would think they would need a pretty aggressive and forceful plan of attack.
SPEAKER_00: But instead, God tells Joshua, here's what you're gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna take all the soldiers of Israel, you're gonna march around the walls of the city once per day for six days.
SPEAKER_00: That's the plan.
SPEAKER_00: Now, archaeologists estimate that the ancient city of Jericho was approximately half a mile in circumference.
SPEAKER_00: It was very small, which means walking at a normal, unhurried pace, it would have only taken about 10 to 15 minutes to do one lap around the city walls.
SPEAKER_00: So we could have done two laps together since the time I started this sermon.
SPEAKER_00: But God only wanted them to do one lap 10 to 15 minutes.
SPEAKER_00: Once per day for six days.
SPEAKER_00: Again, for these men of war, this would have sounded very confusing.
SPEAKER_00: But in the verses that follow, which I'll summarize, the exact specifications of what were supposed to, of what they were supposed to do while they march, are laid out in detail.
SPEAKER_00: So first of all, there's a particular order of procession that they must follow.
SPEAKER_00: So there's a group of armed men walking in front, followed by seven priests with seven trumpets, followed by the priests who are carrying the Ark of the Covenant, and then lastly, a rear guard of soldiers walking behind the Ark.
SPEAKER_00: That's the order of procession they're supposed to follow.
SPEAKER_00: And while they do this together, there's two primary things that they're told to do.
SPEAKER_00: The priests are supposed to play those seven trumpets continually while they march, and everyone else is supposed to remain completely silent while they march.
SPEAKER_00: They're not allowed to speak at all.
SPEAKER_00: And they do this every day for six days.
SPEAKER_00: But on the seventh day, things change.
SPEAKER_00: On that day, they're supposed to march around the city, not once, but seven times.
SPEAKER_00: And after completing that seventh and final lap, the priests are supposed to hold one very long trumpet blast.
SPEAKER_00: And as soon as that happens, all the people shout a collective shout together.
SPEAKER_00: And when they do that, instantly the fortified walls of Jericho will just fall down flat to the ground.
SPEAKER_00: And then all the soldiers will charge in together and overtake the city.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I would imagine that when Joshua was relaying these instructions to all of the soldiers, he was probably met with a little bit of confusion.
SPEAKER_00: All right, men, here's our plan.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to organize ourselves in this specific order.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to march around the city one time with the priests blowing the trumpet, and everyone else needs to be quiet.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Then what?
SPEAKER_00: Well, then we're going to go back to camp and call it a day.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: But don't worry, we're going to do it again tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, then what do we do after tomorrow's march?
SPEAKER_00: Well, we're going to go back to camp and we're going to call it a day.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to do that for six days.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, when do we actually make our move?
SPEAKER_00: Like, what are we going to do?
SPEAKER_00: Well, this is our move.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we're doing.
SPEAKER_00: We're marching once and going back to camp for six days.
SPEAKER_00: But on the seventh day, we're going to do it seven times.
SPEAKER_00: And then after that, there's going to be this long trumpet blast and a loud scream of all of us together, and then the walls are going to come down and we're going to go in and take the city.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to be careful because the text does not explicitly say that Joshua was met with skepticism by the soldiers.
SPEAKER_00: But just based on human nature, I would have to assume that for a lot of them these orders were very confusing.
SPEAKER_00: Especially later on, on like day four or day five, when you've done this for a few days in a row for just 10 to 15 minutes and then gone back to camp, and now you're just sitting around twiddling your thumbs, I'd be willing to bet there were at least a few type A personalities in that group who were thinking to themselves, there's got to be a better way to do this.
SPEAKER_00: But nonetheless, they buckled down and did exactly as the Lord commanded through Joshua, day after day after day, for six days.
SPEAKER_00: Which now brings us to the seventh day.
SPEAKER_00: As we continue in verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: On the seventh day they rose early at the day of at the dawn of day, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times.
SPEAKER_00: It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times.
SPEAKER_00: And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, 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 Lord for destruction.
SPEAKER_00: Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: 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 Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown.
SPEAKER_00: And 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.
SPEAKER_00: So they follow the Lord's marching orders to a tea.
SPEAKER_00: On the seventh day they march around seven times, which probably took about 90 minutes or so to do.
SPEAKER_00: And after that seventh lap, the priests let out their long trumpet blast.
SPEAKER_00: And then right before they do their collective shout together, Joshua gives them two final instructions.
SPEAKER_00: First, they need to make sure that the household of Rahab is kept alive and unharmed.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, back in chapter 2, Rahab protected the Israelite men who were spying out the land for Joshua, and after making this profession of faith in the Lord, she made a deal with the spies that she would hang a scarlet cord outside of her window, so that that way the Israelite soldiers, when they came in, they would know that's the house of the prostitute who repented and placed her faith in the Lord and saved the lives of the spies.
SPEAKER_00: So Joshua wants them to look for that scarlet cord and make sure they save Rahab and her family.
SPEAKER_00: And secondly, they also need to make sure they don't bring God's judgment upon Israel by attempting to plunder Jericho and snatch anything for themselves.
SPEAKER_00: He tells them, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them you take any of the things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it.
SPEAKER_00: This phrase devoted to destruction is translated from the Hebrew word harem, and it refers to something that has been set apart by God for judgment.
SPEAKER_00: So oftentimes in the ancient world it was common to plunder the belongings of your enemy after you defeated them, but they're being told not to do that, because if they do, they will bring God's judgment upon Israel as well.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, Joshua tells them that all the precious metals, the silver and gold and bronze and iron, are going to be put in the treasury of the Lord, because the purpose of this battle is not for the Israelites to enrich themselves.
SPEAKER_00: It's for God to bring judgment upon the sin of the Canaanites.
SPEAKER_00: So after Joshua gives those two final instructions, the the Israelite soldiers let out their collective shout together, and instantly these fortified walls of this military fortress called Jericho come tumbling down flat, and the soldiers charge in and take the city.
SPEAKER_00: And as they do, verse 25 jumps off the page as a beautiful case of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: But Rahab the prostitute and her father's household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive.
SPEAKER_00: And she has lived in Israel to this day because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.
SPEAKER_00: See, to readers in the modern world, the account of Israel overtaking Jericho often leaves people with some questions.
SPEAKER_00: We read it, we're not sure what to do with it, how to make sense of it, we have questions, but the truth is to readers in the ancient world, Israel taking Jericho would not have raised any eyebrows.
SPEAKER_00: Due to her unfortunate line of work, Rahab would have been seen as the last person in that city worth saving.
SPEAKER_00: Because, to put it bluntly, most people would have viewed her and her family as the worthless garbage of Jericho.
SPEAKER_00: They're just collateral damage.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody would have missed them.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not how Joshua saw her.
SPEAKER_00: He saw her as a redeemed daughter of God who had placed her faith in the Lord and was about to be welcomed into God's covenant people.
SPEAKER_00: And not only was she rescued from God's judgment, she was also rescued from her line of work, and she would never have to sell herself again because prostitution was fully outlawed in God's covenant community.
SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful picture of God's rescuing grace.
SPEAKER_00: See, whenever we read ancient warfare passages like this, we have to keep in mind and we have to remember the fact that God rules perfectly, judges righteously, and rescues graciously.
SPEAKER_00: God rules perfectly, judges righteously, and rescues graciously.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to wind down our time this morning by briefly considering each of these realities one by one.
SPEAKER_00: So first of all, God rules perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I understand that similar to the people in Hoosiers, when Coach Norman Dale came into town with his confusing techniques that made no sense to them, and similar to the Israelite soldiers when Joshua gave them these strange orders to march around the walls of Jericho for six days, there are times and seasons in the Christian life that are very confusing.
SPEAKER_00: There are occasions when we look around and it feels like nothing makes sense.
SPEAKER_00: And it's likely that some of you are in a season like that even right now, a season where you look around at your life and you're just completely confused about what God is doing.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're dealing with a specific hardship of some kind that is particularly painful and disheartening and frustrating, and you're not really sure how to grapple with it.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe it's not even something overly specific.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes that happens too, where you're just finding yourself overwhelmed and constantly discouraged, and you're stricken with this unexplainable, profound sadness.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're honest, it's tempting to conclude that whatever God is up to right now does not make any sense.
SPEAKER_00: He's always doing far more than we can see, a bigger picture that always works out for his ultimate glory and for our ultimate good.
SPEAKER_00: And for the Israelites in Jericho, they needed to trust that the Lord would provide for them and deliver on his promises of this land, which is why the author of Hebrews writes in Hebrews chapter 11 that by faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days.
SPEAKER_00: Because Joshua and that second generation of Israelites had faith and trusted in God's word, even when the situation was completely confusing, even when those type A personalities were thinking there has got to be a better way to do this.
SPEAKER_00: And likewise, we need to trust in God's word and have faith that he still does provide for his people and he still delivers on his promises.
SPEAKER_00: God rules perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: Even when we don't understand it.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, God judges righteously.
SPEAKER_00: He alone is the righteous judge of the earth and the author of life.
SPEAKER_00: He is sinless and all good and all-knowing and unwise.
SPEAKER_00: We are the ones who are unwise.
SPEAKER_00: We are the ones who are broken.
SPEAKER_00: We commit injustice.
SPEAKER_00: We destroy the world with our sin.
SPEAKER_00: And similar to the way that God sovereignly chose to delay his judgment against the Canaanites for several hundred years, but eventually their day of judgment came, likewise, God has sovereignly chosen to delay his judgment against the sin of the world for several thousand years, but eventually a day of judgment is coming.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the entire narrative that stretches from the Exodus out of Egypt all the way to the arrival in the promised land, that that whole story is not only a true story, but it's also an old covenant microcosm of the new covenant Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: Because think about it, God rescues his people out of slavery in Egypt through the blood of the Passover lamb, and then they journey through the wilderness for multiple generations, and God is leading them and preserving them the entire way, but they're not fully home yet.
SPEAKER_00: But then in Joshua chapter 5, the commander of the Lord's army appears and tells Joshua, Now I have come.
SPEAKER_00: And in the very next chapter, God judges the sin of the Canaanites and brings his people home to dwell in the land of promise.
SPEAKER_00: This is a foreshadowing microcosm of how God rescues us out of our slavery to sin through the blood of Jesus, the true Passover Lamb.
SPEAKER_00: And then we journey through this world for multiple generations, and God leads us and preserves us the entire way, but we're not fully home yet.
SPEAKER_00: And someday in the future, Jesus, the commander of the Lord's army, will appear out of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: He will come again.
SPEAKER_00: And after that happens, God will judge the sin of the world and bring his people home to dwell with him forever.
SPEAKER_00: All of this means that a final day of judgment is coming.
SPEAKER_00: God has chosen to delay that judgment against the sin of the world for several thousand years, but that day will come.
SPEAKER_00: But we can trust that when it does, in God's wisdom and in God's justice, not a single innocent person is going to receive God's judgment.
SPEAKER_00: Because the truth is, there is not a single innocent person among us.
SPEAKER_00: All of us are guilty of sinning against our Creator, and all of us are deserving of punishment.
SPEAKER_00: God judges righteously.
SPEAKER_00: But thankfully it does not end there.
SPEAKER_00: Because third, God rescues graciously.
SPEAKER_00: Back in Joshua chapter 2, Rahab told the Israelite spies, the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.
SPEAKER_00: This is the old covenant equivalent of saying Jesus is Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And to quote Hebrews 11 once again, it also says this that by faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.
SPEAKER_00: So the reason that Rahab did what she did is because she had faith that the God of Israel was the real God of heaven and earth and that he would protect her.
SPEAKER_00: And the outcome of her faith was that she was rescued by God's grace and she was welcomed into God's people.
SPEAKER_00: And if that is, if that was true for Rahab before the birth of Christ, how much more true is it for us now, after the life, death, and resurrection of Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Because Joshua may have led God's people into their inheritance and defeated their enemy, but Jesus is leading God's people into our eternal inheritance and defeating our greatest enemy.
SPEAKER_00: And as the only innocent person to ever walk the earth, he chose to lovingly lay down his life for guilty people like you and me.
SPEAKER_00: And as the commander of the Lord's army, he is the kind of commander and king who sacrifices himself to save prostitutes and pagans.
SPEAKER_00: So, yes, a day of judgment is coming, but forgiveness and salvation are available to anyone who chooses to repent and believe.
SPEAKER_00: God rescues graciously.
SPEAKER_00: So as we close our time this morning, I just want to say if your heart has been closed off to the good news of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Like the fortified walls of Jericho.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing's getting in.
SPEAKER_00: Please don't follow in the footsteps of the soldiers in that city.
SPEAKER_00: Follow in the footsteps of Rahab and her family.
SPEAKER_00: Repent and believe.