JOSHUA 6
Read Joshua 6:1-27
At last we get to the battle of Jericho. But it is by no means a conventional battle. The old American spiritual song goes, ‘Joshua fit (fought) the battle of Jericho’, but in reality he didn’t – it was all God’s work.
There is all this marching round the walls every day and the blowing of trumpets and whatever. Not conventional siege tactics are they? And this chapter describes in detail Joshua and the Israelites carrying out God’s instructions to the letter.
So what does this chapter tell us?
Primarily it tells us of the centrality of God and his word. If we follow God’s word implicitly, even if it does seem a bit strange at times, then he will be with us. What is stranger than God coming in person and then dying a humiliating death on the cross so that we can be with him eternally? But that is what his word tells us in the Bible.
Following on from that is obedience to God. 1 John 2:5, ‘If anyone obeys God’s word, God’s love is truly made complete in him’ and 1 John 5:2, ‘This is how we know that we love the children of God; by loving God and carrying out his commands’. Joshua carried out God’s word and at the end of the chapter we read that the Lord was with him.
When the Israelites marched around the city walls of Jericho we note that the ark was at the heart of it all (verses 8 and 9). Remember that the ark represented the presence of God, and the symbolism is there – God is in the midst of his people, he is at the heart of all they do. Something for us to remember in a society that marginalises God, do we keep him at the heart of everything that we do?
In a couple of places we see that the promises that were made by the spies to Rahab in Chapter 2 were honoured. A reminder of the standards we are called to as God’s people, to be honest, to be trustworthy, to let our yes be yes and our no be no.
In Verses 17-19 the Israelites are told not to loot Jericho, everything is to be devoted to God. This illustrates the principle of the first fruits. At harvest time the first part of the harvest was given to God as a thanksgiving, for it was the promise of the rest of the harvest which was to come. In later conquests the Israelites were to keep the proceeds, but the first one was completely devoted to God. The New Testament describes Jesus’ death and resurrection as the first fruits – he went first and as such is a promise of the resurrection that is to come for we who believe (1 Cor 15:23).