SPEAKER_00: So last week, you guys, we were in chapter five.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we covered uh the lion's share of that, and we talked a little bit about uh that that awkward conversation.
SPEAKER_00: You guys remember my story with Violet in the coffee shop, and I said, Do you want me to read to you uh some scripture?
SPEAKER_00: And I just wanted to go to the next spot uh where I was at, and it was on circumcision.
SPEAKER_00: And and I said it it had the idea and the word circumcision it like 70 times, and so I was kind of forced to either punt or tell her about it, and of course I punted.
SPEAKER_00: And uh but we had a uh we got to look at circumcision and how that was really God renewing his covenant with his people.
SPEAKER_00: And from that we see this whole generation come back into this place of obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: It's a really beautiful picture, and we also see that that although circumcision is one of those things that can be rather confusing and such a strange picture, uh it really lets us know that we're we're not supposed to put confidence in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: That's not where our hope is.
SPEAKER_00: And then also uh we are to pass this on from generation to generation, our faith.
SPEAKER_00: It is not supposed to start and stop with us, but be passed on to our kids, to our neighbors, and to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: That is that is really what we are to do and what we took from that.
SPEAKER_00: Um we saw the first Passover in the uh promised land as well.
SPEAKER_00: And then uh as we started to wrap up chapter five, I sort of ran out of a little bit of time, and I didn't even go into the very last portion.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you guys realize that I did not cover the last portion of chapter five?
SPEAKER_00: Just raise your hand if you realize that.
SPEAKER_00: Great.
SPEAKER_00: One of you guys actually texted me and said, Hey, what's going on here?
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: And um so here we are.
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna get it and we're gonna we're gonna go over and we're gonna wrap up chapter five and get into chapter six and look at some really unique events.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the a really unique event uh that happens in chapter six.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, but before you do that, let's let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, thank you for God just giving us the opportunity to gather as a church, Lord, as your people.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, surrender to you and ready to hear what you have to say to us.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, in this morning, God, uh in a in a really um obvious way to me, Lord, there is some challenging parts to Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: There is some weightiness to uh faith, belief, unbelief, Lord, that we're not confronted with all the time.
SPEAKER_00: At least we don't feel like we are, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So I pray, Holy Spirit, you'd help us uh understand what you have.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think that this is gonna be solved by amazing preaching.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think this is gonna be solved with uh the right analogy, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I think that your people need to bring this before you and settle it with you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So I pray that you would really just speak this this morning, God, to all of us, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let us leave here and do what I did with Violet and just punt this down the road, Lord, but but actually be willing to look at your word.
SPEAKER_00: God, we get in love with the culture of church.
SPEAKER_00: And we we come, but we don't really listen sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we come and we smile and we look at the things that don't matter, but we don't really hear you sometimes.
SPEAKER_00: And so this morning, God, I pray that we would just pause and we would hear you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So let's get into that tail end of Joshua chapter 5.
SPEAKER_00: It's verses 13 through 15.
SPEAKER_00: I believe it's on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: And uh it says, When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in hand.
SPEAKER_00: And Joshua went to him and said to him, Are you for us or for our adversaries?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, No, but I am the commander of the army of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now I have come.
SPEAKER_00: And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshipped him, and said to him, What does my Lord say to his servant?
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And Joshua did so.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: So what we have here is pretty unique.
SPEAKER_00: We haven't seen this type of event in Scripture very much.
SPEAKER_00: We did see it with Moses in the burning bush, and we'll get to that.
SPEAKER_00: But Joshua is just out.
SPEAKER_00: It says he's by Jericho.
SPEAKER_00: He's doing probably, I mean, he's a military guy, right?
SPEAKER_00: So he's probably doing some sort of pre-battle reconnaissance, uh, maybe some intelligence gathering, like how tall are these walls, uh, um, you know, how big is this city?
SPEAKER_00: And um, or maybe he was just walking around and praying.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: I've done that a few times.
SPEAKER_00: I get here a little early and I'm like, I study, study, study, and something like, I just need to pray.
SPEAKER_00: He'll just walk and I'll just walk around and I'll just pray.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe he was doing that.
SPEAKER_00: I don't fully know.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible is silent on what he was actually doing.
SPEAKER_00: We just know he was by Jericho, the city he was gonna go into battle with, the first city on the other side of the of the Jordan.
SPEAKER_00: And we're we we see this by himself.
SPEAKER_00: There's no indication that he was with anyone else.
SPEAKER_00: And he sees a man with a sword drawn and in hand.
SPEAKER_00: And I think the the natural reaction for a man of war, a commander would say, Hey, whoa, whoa, who are you?
SPEAKER_00: Are you are you my adversary or are you with us?
SPEAKER_00: And I think that that was sort of how he asked the question, because I don't know that Joshua immediately recognized this as a supernatural event.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know that this figure was 12 and a half feet tall and shining all around him.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have any indication of that.
SPEAKER_00: We just know the very first question that was asked.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Hey, are you with me?
SPEAKER_00: Are you with them?
SPEAKER_00: Are you with us?
SPEAKER_00: Are you with them?
SPEAKER_00: And uh Joshua wants to know, do I have a fight on my hands?
SPEAKER_00: He's out here by himself.
SPEAKER_00: And he approaches the figure as the superior.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the commander.
SPEAKER_00: I've been appointed by God to lead God's people.
SPEAKER_00: So I'll be asking the questions here.
SPEAKER_00: And the figure stops him and says, No.
SPEAKER_00: Neither.
SPEAKER_00: I am a commander of the Lord, of the army of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now I have come.
SPEAKER_00: And it's when he says these words, when he opens his mouth and speaks forth, that Joshua immediately falls, prone on the ground, face to the earth, it says.
SPEAKER_00: I've been like that before with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't happen as much as I would like, if I'm being honest.
SPEAKER_00: I'm too busy, too preoccupied.
SPEAKER_00: If I go on my face, there's a lot of other things, there's a lot of other battles that I have going on, and I don't spend as much time there as I should.
SPEAKER_00: But Joshua hears the Lord speaker and he's immediately prone.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, What does my Lord say to his servant?
SPEAKER_00: You know, I think that that's another indication that we know that the figure at first was not really uh as obvious of a supernatural experience because had he already known that it was the Lord, he would have been prone immediately.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't until the Lord spoke, actually, that Joshua realized it.
SPEAKER_00: And after one question and then one answer, Joshua goes from the commanding superior officer to servant, just like that.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what the Lord does.
SPEAKER_00: See, the Lord doesn't join our cause, right?
SPEAKER_00: Whose side are you on, Lord?
SPEAKER_00: We join his.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what's happening here.
SPEAKER_00: And it says in verse 15, what does the Lord say to, sorry, this is verse 14, what does the Lord say to his servant?
SPEAKER_00: It's not go here or do this or pay this money or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's take off your shoes because the place you're standing is holy ground.
SPEAKER_00: And Joshua did so.
SPEAKER_00: So what we have here, you guys, is a theophany.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: A theophany, uh, a visible manifestation of God in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: And more specifically, I believe this is a Christophany, a visible manifestation of Christ, actually, the second person of the Trinity in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: A pre-incarnate Christ happening right here.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll tell you this.
SPEAKER_00: This is the reason why I think this.
SPEAKER_00: This is why I don't think this is an angel.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is why I believe this is Christ.
SPEAKER_00: One, Christ, uh, excuse me, angels do not accept worship.
SPEAKER_00: We don't worship angels.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: We worship God.
SPEAKER_00: That's number one.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, he's not delivering someone else's message.
SPEAKER_00: He's not merely a messenger.
SPEAKER_00: He's speaking forth as God himself would.
SPEAKER_00: And so he doesn't speak uh as a message, messenger delivering someone else's words, but with divine authority.
SPEAKER_00: So that's reason number two.
SPEAKER_00: Number three, uh, I mentioned that these things don't happen very often.
SPEAKER_00: We saw with Moses in the burning bush that this um appearance of God uses almost the exact same language as we had then with the burning bush.
SPEAKER_00: In Exodus 3, uh it says, Do not come near.
SPEAKER_00: Take off your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.
SPEAKER_00: And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
SPEAKER_00: Moses encountered God and was told to remove his sandals because the ground is holy.
SPEAKER_00: Now Joshua encounters the commander of the Lord's army and is told the exact same thing.
SPEAKER_00: So there's three reasons.
SPEAKER_00: And the fourth reason is in the New Testament we see uh Christ as uh divine warrior and commander of the heaven's armies.
SPEAKER_00: And that's in Revelation chapter 19.
SPEAKER_00: And I can uh read that really quickly.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse.
SPEAKER_00: The one sitting on it is called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.
SPEAKER_00: And then verse 14 and 14 through 16 says, And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on a on white horses.
SPEAKER_00: From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down nations.
SPEAKER_00: On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
SPEAKER_00: Same God.
SPEAKER_00: Different incarnation, early incarnation.
SPEAKER_00: So when Joshua looks up and sees uh the man standing before him with a drawn sword, if identifies himself as the commander of the army lord, accepts worship, declares the ground holy, that's why I believe he's standing before a pre-incarnate Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So uh that's really important, actually.
SPEAKER_00: It's important as a prelude to chapter six, because in chapter six, we're gonna deal with something really challenging.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: And it's important when you hear something challenging to know who is delivering the message.
SPEAKER_00: Because the more challenging it is, the more you need to trust the source.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Um you're little, you're conditioned to eat your vegetables, even though you don't really want to.
SPEAKER_00: Because you love your mom or dad.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And they can tell you hard things.
SPEAKER_00: But if somebody you don't know walks up to you and says, you should eat your vegetables, you don't really listen.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: It's it's the harder it is, the more you have to trust the source.
SPEAKER_00: And it starts from when we're little.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: If somebody walks up to you and says, hey man, I think you're really, really sick.
SPEAKER_00: I think you might need you, you know, you might need some treatment.
SPEAKER_00: Who are you?
SPEAKER_00: You don't really know.
SPEAKER_00: But if your doctor tells you, hey, you're really, really sick, if you trust your doctor, well, then you will trust the information.
SPEAKER_00: And what's going to happen here in Joshua chapter 6, like I said, as we were praying through it this morning, the elders and myself, this is one of the more challenging parts of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And there's no other way to put it.
SPEAKER_00: But God preserves it here for us to hear this morning.
SPEAKER_00: So let's go ahead and start in Joshua chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 1 says, 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 shall you do for six days.
SPEAKER_00: Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark.
SPEAKER_00: And on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priest shall blow the trumpets.
SPEAKER_00: And when they make a long blast with a 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 will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, everyone straight before him.
SPEAKER_00: So, Jericho, first city on the other side of the Jordan.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a really massive city, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Um ten acres.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever been to my place and walked around the property?
SPEAKER_00: It's five.
SPEAKER_00: So it's just double that.
SPEAKER_00: It's not really, it's not huge, right?
SPEAKER_00: My place would fit in it twice.
SPEAKER_00: You know, and in I mean, you know, this Midwest people have these sprawling estates of a thousand acres, right?
SPEAKER_00: You fit, you know, a hundred Jerichos in it.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not very, very big.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but it had several thousand people uh probably in it at this point.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I have what I had five, uh, six people.
SPEAKER_00: At times I felt like I had a hundred people living at my house, but um there's five of us living at my house right now, so it's one per acre, okay.
SPEAKER_00: Back then it would have been more like 200 or so per acre.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so and then with the situation that's coming about, i.e., the the Hebrew people coming across the Jordan River, there's a good chance that more people sought refuge in Jericho.
SPEAKER_00: So there's at least a few thousand people in there.
SPEAKER_00: Um, there's a large outer wall in Jericho.
SPEAKER_00: They've uncovered it and they they've they've seen this large outer wall, and it's actually a two-layered wall, and uh what what archaeologists think is that it's about 30 feet tall.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, and it's about six feet thick.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's the outer wall, and then from that there's a an embankment that goes up, and then there's an inner wall.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so there's two uh giant walls around Jericho.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the inner wall, there's about six acres, and the outer ring makes up of the other four.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so really large walls, really thick, really hard to get in.
SPEAKER_00: The other side of that is there's a spring inside Jericho, which makes fresh water something they can get on a regular basis.
SPEAKER_00: So they can fortify for a lot longer.
SPEAKER_00: See, that's the problem with the uh the castle model that we saw in uh like in Europe in medieval times.
SPEAKER_00: They would get fortified, right?
SPEAKER_00: They'd fortify their city, and then you'd go around, you'd lay siege, and you'd cut off water and food.
SPEAKER_00: But the thing is, for Jericho, they had a spring on the inside.
SPEAKER_00: So they were really used to running to this city for refuge, right, and for for rescue.
SPEAKER_00: Um I mean, no doubt over the years, I mean, there's been there for hundreds of years.
SPEAKER_00: No doubt that they had probably won many victories because of their large walls and their ability to sustain themselves against bigger and badder people.
SPEAKER_00: Um but the people of Jericho, they have intel, they have an understanding of who they're they're up against.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: The Lord has brought the people into the promised land, and and and these guys are scared, actually.
SPEAKER_00: It says in chapter 5, earlier in chapter 5, that their hearts were melted.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't confident, they were scared.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I've been talking about the two storylines kind of at play here.
SPEAKER_00: One's really obvious.
SPEAKER_00: This is what God is doing in his people, fulfilling his promises through the children of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: But there's this other storyline of what's happening with the people who live, who are currently occupying uh the land of Canaan or the what's the promised land.
SPEAKER_00: 400 years, we know from Genesis chapter 15, 400 years this people has lived in rebellion against God and his efforts to get their attention and to get them to repent.
SPEAKER_00: 400 years, denying God at every turn, leaning into their own ways, not repenting, but resisting God, leaning into uh leaning away from the Lord's hand.
SPEAKER_00: You know, in this room, right here, church, we're sitting in a room with people for the most part, have heard the Lord and responded.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We've we've heard him, and and instead of resisting, we repented.
SPEAKER_00: We repented.
SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't want to live for myself.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have it figured out.
SPEAKER_00: I want to do that U-turn on the course of life.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to turn towards you.
SPEAKER_00: Even if that means that everybody else is going this way and you say go that way, I'll go that way.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's going that way, I'll go that way.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever you say, God, that's what I want to do.
SPEAKER_00: That's the decision that most of us in this room have made.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't want to say everyone, because I think, like I said earlier, there's a lot of people who just love church, right?
SPEAKER_00: The community, the people, they're rather friendly, and we can kind of get duped and we sit here, and all of a sudden God goes, oh, and wakes them up.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe that might be you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: But the world, the other storyline is this the world is actually a lot more like the people of Jericho, the world that we live in.
SPEAKER_00: See, God is at work, and and a lot of people out in the world who are not here this morning or at any church this morning, they kind of feel.
SPEAKER_00: They wouldn't ever say, I don't, I don't, no, I don't, I of course I believe in God.
SPEAKER_00: How could you not believe in God?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And they see, uh, I don't know, they they they see that we're not here by accident.
SPEAKER_00: That's a little too far-fetched for them.
SPEAKER_00: Uh they they um they know that science and medicine, although helpful, kind of feel like there's some holes and it's it's not really the end-all be-all.
SPEAKER_00: The end of life, they they don't feel like can just be like make a billion dollars or have a white picket fence with three and a half kids running around.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: Like they they kind of the world even kind of knows that.
SPEAKER_00: They kind of understand that there's something larger, something bigger at work.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, with the you know, I think the billion dollar thing, we could talk about all the uh billionaires in the world that we've seen make the headlines for being like super unhappy or just doing really dumb things.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and also I'll leave that alone.
SPEAKER_00: But the the three and a half kids one, that's like uh that's just the average, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's I think it's two and a half kids, it's the average, but my family and a few of you guys put it over the edge.
SPEAKER_00: It's more like three and a half.
SPEAKER_00: But um that dream is actually really good.
SPEAKER_00: I like that dream.
SPEAKER_00: I had that dream for a little while, and um now one kid moves out, and you start going like, oh, I see where this is going.
SPEAKER_00: My dream of just having a white picket fence and kids running around and laughing and playing all the time is a really small window.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't really work.
SPEAKER_00: So the money doesn't work, the family doesn't work.
SPEAKER_00: Most people in the world, I think, are starting to realize that there's gotta be something else.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a similarity between Jericho and the world.
SPEAKER_00: See, Jericho's heart was melting.
SPEAKER_00: They saw God moving, but they didn't repent.
SPEAKER_00: It's like the world who knows that it's not everything it's meant to be, but instead of repenting, they just keep going and they keep looking for joy and happiness and help and hope in other things.
SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, there's some similarities between those things.
SPEAKER_00: There's some similarity between Jericho and the world, and there's some similarity, you guys, between Israel and the church today.
SPEAKER_00: Some people would say it's almost a one to one, some people would talk about replacement theology.
SPEAKER_00: But we see some similarities, regardless of where you land on that topic, of what God is doing in his people there and what he's doing in us now.
SPEAKER_00: He's calling us to obedience, he's calling us to walk by faith, and he's calling us to respond to him.
SPEAKER_00: You know, the uh the reality is that between the two storylines that are happening, whether you're looking at the people of Jericho and the world or the church, is God is at work in both.
SPEAKER_00: He's actually working in both at the same time.
SPEAKER_00: As we look at chapter six, we're going to see a little bit more of how he's working in both.
SPEAKER_00: So let's look at chapter six, uh, sorry, verse six together.
SPEAKER_00: So Joshua, the son of Nun, called the priests and said to them, Take up the Ark of the Covenant, and the seven priests, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of horns, ram's horns before the ark of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to the people, Go forward, march around the city, and let the armed men pass on before the ark of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And just as Joshua had commanded the people, the seven priests, bearing the seven trumpets of ram's horns before the Lord, went forward, blowing the trumpets with the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord following them.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: 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 I tell you to shout.
SPEAKER_00: Then you shall shout.
SPEAKER_00: So he caused the ark of the Lord to circle the city, going about it once.
SPEAKER_00: And they came into camp and spent the night in the camp.
SPEAKER_00: So picture what's happening here, and let me just pick up two more verses here, or three more verses in twelve through fourteen, and give us a real good picture of what this looks like.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Then 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 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 Lord while the trumpets blew continually.
SPEAKER_00: And the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp.
SPEAKER_00: So they did for six days.
SPEAKER_00: So we have carbon copies each day of what's happening for six days.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: You take note of how many times the number seven is mentioned.
SPEAKER_00: So many times.
SPEAKER_00: And we could dig into that a little bit, but just know that the number seven has always been the sign of completion for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: This the sign of completion.
SPEAKER_00: Seven priests are walking around, these blowing seven trumpets, uh, ram's horns are also called shofars.
SPEAKER_00: And um other than that, silent.
SPEAKER_00: You have all these men of war quiet as they march around this 10-acre city with this wall, probably on their right or their left, right?
SPEAKER_00: Either on their right or their left, and no words coming out.
SPEAKER_00: So there's a procession, that means a group of people walking first, and then there's a rear guard, a group of people walking after.
SPEAKER_00: And right in the center is what?
SPEAKER_00: The Ark of the Lord, right, which is said to have the presence of God on the inside, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's it's this acacia wood box overlaid in gold with two cherubims facing each other.
SPEAKER_00: Inside is um uh Aaron's a staff is uh uh some manna, and then most notably, most people know, the Ten Commandments, and there's uh some posts with some gold rings and and priests carrying it, you know, um, behind them or next to them and in front of them, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: And the idea here is that we keep the Lord at the center.
SPEAKER_00: Of all of our battles, we keep the Lord at the center.
SPEAKER_00: And we saw it at the Jordan that the Israelites followed the presence of the Lord into the Jordan.
SPEAKER_00: And it was when the presence of the Lord stopped the waters, then everybody follow behind.
SPEAKER_00: And here we see we keep the Lord the center of what he's called us to do.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that that's a good word for us.
SPEAKER_00: The presence of God has to be our guide.
SPEAKER_00: It has to be what leads us, but then it has to also be the center, that which everything orbits around in our life and gives it meaning and significance.
SPEAKER_00: And then it goes on to say, on the seventh day, they rose early at the dawn of the day and marched around the city in the same manner seven times.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so on the seventh day, at the dawn of the day, they marched around the city in the same manner, but seven times this time.
SPEAKER_00: And 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 be 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.
SPEAKER_00: They shall go into the treasury of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So the people they did it.
SPEAKER_00: They shouted, and the trumpets were blown, and as soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, and the wall fell down flat.
SPEAKER_00: Archaeologists say that the walls fell outward, away from the city, which is interesting to think about.
SPEAKER_00: So the people went up into the city, creating a ramp.
SPEAKER_00: Those things fell downwards, and they went up in a ramp, every man straight before him, and they captured the city.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: The hardest verse that I read this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: We will move back to twenty-one in a second, but verse twenty-two, but 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 belonged to her, as you swore to her.
SPEAKER_00: So the young men who had been spies went in, brought out Rahab and her father, and her mother, and her brothers, and all who belonged to her, and they brought all her relatives and put them outside the camp of Israel, and they burned the city with fire and everything in it.
SPEAKER_00: Only silver, gold, and the vessels of bronze, of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord.
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 also, uh she lived in Israel to this day because she hid the messengers of Joshua, sent to spy out Jericho.
SPEAKER_00: Really tough passage to see here.
SPEAKER_00: So Pastor Dan's gonna come up and talk about it real quick.
SPEAKER_00: You guys, I asked the elders this morning to come and pray for us this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And they showed up, and we prayed that this verse wouldn't be something that we heard and therefore, for some reason, then rejected a part of God's character and his nature.
SPEAKER_00: God sometimes tells us really hard things about who he is.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you hear this portion of scripture and you're like, what's so challenging about this?
SPEAKER_00: It says that because of their sinful behavior, that Jericho met the edge of the sword, and everyone was killed.
SPEAKER_00: Not just the fighting men of war, but young and old, men and women and children.
SPEAKER_00: Not only that, they're animals.
SPEAKER_00: Just all slaughtered.
SPEAKER_00: And on top of that, so several thousand people killed in one day.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm building a case now that's I'm gonna have to try to undo and show you guys how God's at work in it.
SPEAKER_00: But on top of that, that's not it.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just like that happened.
SPEAKER_00: It's like God used his people, Israel, to do it.
SPEAKER_00: God's chosen people were called to carry out the judgment on direct order from the commander of the Lord's army.
SPEAKER_00: You guys, after 400 years, over 400 years of rebellion, described elsewhere, of what is going on over here in Jericho in the land of Canaan, we had sexual immorality, homosexuality, bestiality, child sacrifice.
SPEAKER_00: All happening for centuries.
SPEAKER_00: This is all happening.
SPEAKER_00: On top of that, Jericho had a front row seat to what God was doing in parting and stopping up the Jordan River.
SPEAKER_00: And then they also are watching for seven days the presence of God circle their city.
SPEAKER_00: And then on the seventh day, seven more times, and the whole time the people of Israel stay silent, giving anyone in the city a chance to cry out to God.
SPEAKER_00: And they don't cry out.
SPEAKER_00: God says, enough.
SPEAKER_00: It's enough.
SPEAKER_00: No more.
SPEAKER_00: And he wipes out an unrepentant and sinful people.
SPEAKER_00: That is heavy.
SPEAKER_00: But Rahab was saved.
SPEAKER_00: Rahab was saved.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: We can look at chapter two, but we can also look at little verses where we see God's character, his hand, and so many other areas.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Chronicles 16, 9, something you guys have probably heard many times, that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth.
SPEAKER_00: The whole earth.
SPEAKER_00: Even among pagan, heathen, wandering, stiff-necked people, God looks back and forth to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless towards him.
SPEAKER_00: Rahab did not meet the edge of the sword, and nor did her house.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because God is good.
SPEAKER_00: And he saw her heart that is blameless towards him.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what?
SPEAKER_00: She is a Gentile heathen prostitute.
SPEAKER_00: And that's who.
SPEAKER_00: And women and children and young and old and animals, they were all slaughtered and God saved a prostitute.
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because of faith.
SPEAKER_00: Rahab heard what was coming.
SPEAKER_00: Just like the entire city.
SPEAKER_00: And instead of rejecting it and hunkering down into her own devices, she cried out to God.
SPEAKER_00: And God met her and found her.
SPEAKER_00: In an amazing story.
SPEAKER_00: Again, that's chapter two.
SPEAKER_00: But we know that Rahab ends up putting a scarlet cord in her window, hanging out the side of her home, which is built into the city wall.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it was the inner or the outer.
SPEAKER_00: As a signal of what she actually believes and what she trusts.
SPEAKER_00: She's not going to trust the people that she grew up around.
SPEAKER_00: She's not going to trust the king or the ruler of her city.
SPEAKER_00: She's going to trust her heart in what it sees and what it recognizes.
SPEAKER_00: You know, instead of the fear that led and paralyzed the people of Jericho, she had fear that led her to cry out in faith.
SPEAKER_00: There's two types of fear.
SPEAKER_00: There's two types of recognition of God.
SPEAKER_00: And she had the right one.
SPEAKER_00: He honors his word and he's true to his promises.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that the Lord's hand is too short that he can't save some people.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Isaiah says.
SPEAKER_00: His ears dull, he can't hear them cry out.
SPEAKER_00: Opposite.
SPEAKER_00: He goes back and forth throughout the whole world, looking for people whose hearts are inclined towards him.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, this is a this scarlet cord is a shadow for us.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same scarlet red that we put our trust in.
SPEAKER_00: See, God provided a place for us.
SPEAKER_00: Because guess what, guys?
SPEAKER_00: Just because we're here, being here doesn't make you Israel.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't make you the church.
SPEAKER_00: You are in church, but just because you're here doesn't put you in the camp of God.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: That would be what?
SPEAKER_00: That would be works.
SPEAKER_00: Show up here, get this.
SPEAKER_00: Do this, get that.
SPEAKER_00: As though God sort of this transactional thing is a very one-sided transaction, is actually what happens.
SPEAKER_00: We are of Israel and we put our faith and our trust in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: In spite of what everything else around us is saying.
SPEAKER_00: Think of Rahab.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone else around her is reacting opposite.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone.
SPEAKER_00: Then think about Rahab.
SPEAKER_00: As awful as it sounds like to us, when we hear 3,000 people one day, one afternoon, those are the 3,000 people that Rahab knew.
SPEAKER_00: And still she hung on to that scarlet cord.
SPEAKER_00: You guys, when we accept Christ, similar thing happens.
SPEAKER_00: The world may come against us.
SPEAKER_00: Your family may come against you, but we have to hold on to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That is where we put our hope.
SPEAKER_00: It's in his shed blood.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, amen.
SPEAKER_00: But you guys, you know what's so funny?
SPEAKER_00: 3,000 people die that day.
SPEAKER_00: Today.
SPEAKER_00: What's today?
SPEAKER_00: The ninth?
SPEAKER_00: August 9th.
SPEAKER_00: This day, just like yesterday and just like tomorrow, 170,000 people in the world will die today.
SPEAKER_00: That's a fact.
SPEAKER_00: 170,000 people.
SPEAKER_00: That means 7,000 in this hour or so that I preach.
SPEAKER_00: That's two people per second.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
SPEAKER_00: Most of them don't know Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I'd say that.
SPEAKER_00: Most of them do not know Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We all die, but what state will you be in when you die?
SPEAKER_00: And so we may gripe and we may get frustrated with the Lord, like, Lord, I don't want to even confront the reality of your judgment right now.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to think of you being this angry God.
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you love and all these things?
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to think about that right now.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to think about the love.
SPEAKER_00: And when I read scripture like this, I'm gonna do, like I said, I'm gonna punt this down the road, I'll deal with it later.
SPEAKER_00: But really, it's sort of undermining our faith.
SPEAKER_00: And it's creating a situation for us to maybe go, hmm, I don't like it, so maybe it's just not true.
SPEAKER_00: Our truth is not determined by what we like and don't like.
SPEAKER_00: True is what corresponds to reality.
SPEAKER_00: And this is reality, you guys.
SPEAKER_00: When we gripe, but we do nothing, we have the truth.
SPEAKER_00: We have the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: So we sit and we complain about God's judgment and how people are just dying, and how could he do that?
SPEAKER_00: Yet we sit here with the solution, but we're afraid to talk about the gospel with our coworkers because we might miss a promotion.
SPEAKER_00: We might lose a friend, our neighbors might think we're weird.
SPEAKER_00: We might get canceled in some way.
SPEAKER_00: So we we sit silent and then we gripe when we read Joshua chapter 6.
SPEAKER_00: Rather than realizing God's given us the solution.
SPEAKER_00: He's given us a gospel message and said, hey, go.
SPEAKER_00: Where?
SPEAKER_00: Uh next door, out into the neighborhood, into your city, and throughout the world.
SPEAKER_00: And we gripe about that too.
SPEAKER_00: Can't I just go to work?
SPEAKER_00: You know, get my stuff done, get a vacation every month if I was happy, you know?
SPEAKER_00: Like, can't I just do that?
SPEAKER_00: You guys, our God is not unfair.
SPEAKER_00: He's really not.
SPEAKER_00: Our God is just.
SPEAKER_00: And we are our recipients of a grace that we don't deserve because of what Christ's death on the cross bought for us.
SPEAKER_00: If there was no Christ, God redeeming us would be a travesty of justice.
SPEAKER_00: It would make no sense.
SPEAKER_00: We are sinful.
SPEAKER_00: We constantly reject God.
SPEAKER_00: We constantly lean on our own understanding.
SPEAKER_00: If the Lord looked and said, Well done, good and faithful servant, based on what?
SPEAKER_00: Today, you.
SPEAKER_00: You'll be with me in paradise.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, of course I will be.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so good, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like, no, it it is only because of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible says there is no one righteous, no, not one.
SPEAKER_00: Not one.
SPEAKER_00: So that means we are more like the people of Jericho than we'd like to think.
SPEAKER_00: Jericho is actually a picture of what we all deserve.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we deserve is the sword from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But we get eternity, we get grace, we get him because of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It says Joshua in verse 26 laid an oath on them at that time, saying, Cursed before the Lord be the man who rises up and rebuilds the city, Jericho.
SPEAKER_00: At the cost of his firstborn shall he lay his foundation, and at the cost of his youngest son shall he set up its gates.
SPEAKER_00: So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame was within all the land.
SPEAKER_00: You guys, God did redeem Jericho at the cost of his firstborn.
SPEAKER_00: That's you and me.
SPEAKER_00: That is you and me.
SPEAKER_00: His only son, he redeemed you and me.
SPEAKER_00: This is hard, but we see who said it.
SPEAKER_00: We have to trust God.
SPEAKER_00: These are difficult things.
SPEAKER_00: If you believe they're coming from me, then you will not believe them.
SPEAKER_00: If you know it's the Lord, then we have a chance.
SPEAKER_00: To hear it, receive it, and respond to it.
SPEAKER_00: Guys, this morning, I don't know where you stand.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if if your faith is in a place where, you know, it's uh it's good when it's good, but when life is bad, you're good.
SPEAKER_00: Like, God, where are you?
SPEAKER_00: God means to have your whole heart in every circumstance.
SPEAKER_00: No matter who's around, when the world is falling, when everything is dark, hang on to the scarlet cord of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The blood bought grace of Christ.