Joshua 6:1-27
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There’s Guarantee of Victory with God
There’s Guarantee of Victory with God
The word victory is wonderful and pleasing to hear!
Humans love stories of victory! Right?
Movies were made left and right different of stories of victories!
Sadly, this love for victories created a lust for victories - people will do everything to come out victorious (cheating, lying, manipulating, destroying, game fixing).
Sadly, for majority of people, victories, successes, achievements have become their god!
Sadly, Christians have accepted this belief and are living as if worldly victories and achievements are the GOALS of life.
On the other hand, on the other side, some Christians live defeated lives! Absent of HOPE and LIFE.
This morning I pray that we might see and understand what VICTORY is from God’s Perspective and the Victory from Worldly Perspective.
That in God, there is Guarantee of Victory!
I. There is Guarantee of Victory against Evil / Opposing Forces (v.1-2)
I. There is Guarantee of Victory against Evil / Opposing Forces (v.1-2)
Now Jericho was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel; no one went out and no one came in.
Jericho - means “MOON”. The city is a center for astral worship (moon-god) in Joshua’s time.
Known for wickedness - Deuteronomy 9:4
4 “Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them out before you, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you.
Now Jericho was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel; no one went out and no one came in.
tightly shut - they want to defend their city very well. They want to send a message that they are ready!
But are they ready to face God and his people?
The Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and the valiant warriors.
God gave the victory to Joshua and the Israelites (v.2)
The present situation does not indicate victory yet for the gates were shut very tight (v.1) but God’s promise is already a guaranteed reality.
The Great Wall of Jericho was toppled down by the Great God
“Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.
The Great enemy Satan will be defeated and he know’s his time is almost up!
That is why we see injustices and evil around us - Satan will also do what he can to destroy God’s creation, discredit God’s goodness, and smear the name of God.
Human Problem:
We live as if we are defeated!
We live as if we have no hope and peace!
We live as if God is not powerful enough to bring Restoration and Reconciliation.
“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
II. There’s Guarantee of Victory when things are done in God’s Way (vv. 3-16)
II. There’s Guarantee of Victory when things are done in God’s Way (vv. 3-16)
“You shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once. You shall do so for six days. “Also seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark; then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets.
God at the front - Ark of the covenant
6 days - God is giving time for the people of Jericho to flee and escape the wrath of God. God is giving them chance to live and later on repent and follow God like Rahab and her family.
Those who did not escape and stayed thinking they will not be defeated, they experienced God’s righteous judgment.
7th day - This number, so often found in the Scriptures, is associated with the idea of fullness or completeness, release from trouble (
All they do was obey - to march and shout on the appointed time.
Remember, long before they do their job of marching around the city, God already made the promise (verse 2)
“It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people will go up every man straight ahead.”
Lesson About God’s Ways - God’s ways to achieve victory are different than the ways of the world.
Joshua, the priest, the people - they showed obedience and FAITH and they saw victory.
The great wall of Jericho cannot be destroyed by any weapons available at that time!
The strongest weapon they have is FAITH. They obeyed because they have Faith in God.
By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.
Their living faith shown in obedience is continually remembered.
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
Human Problem:
Faithless living - evidence of worry
Godless planning - evidence of rushing, and compromise (under the table, lying, using shady connections)
Compromise - as if a compromise is a way to victory.
God’s Way:
Faithful living - continual seeking and patience
God-centered planning - waiting and trusting
Firmness in the truth - no compromise
What is that GREAT WALL of problem or sin that you are facing right now?
We have an infinitely GREATER GOD who is able to demolish every stronghold and power!
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,
We fight our temptations to worldliness with wisdom, with obedience, and with the power of God’s Word.
This is why our minds must be equipped, strengthened, fed.
We need to have minds that are on guard against the subtle trap of Satan.
III. The Guarantee of Victory must cause us to honor and obey God (vv. 17-19)
III. The Guarantee of Victory must cause us to honor and obey God (vv. 17-19)
“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.
The City under Ban (v.17)
Everything in it belongs to the LORD. (v.17, 19). The Ban is an act (Hebrew “ Cherem”) which indicates things being set apart as sacred property.
Do not covet / Keep away / Do not desire for it
Do not take anything for yourself.
Do not profit from it!
“But as for you, only 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 accursed 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.”
Consequences for failure to obey (v.18)
- make the camp of Israel accursed or liable to destruction
- trouble will come
What is the purpose of the Ban?
For the people to remember to DEDICATE the victory a way of HONORING God who gave the victory to them.
Example from the OT
King David also dedicated these to the Lord, with the silver and gold that he had dedicated from all the nations which he had subdued: from Aram and Moab and the sons of Ammon and the Philistines and Amalek, and from the spoil of Hadadezer, son of Rehob, king of Zobah.
Example from the NT
Now Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian birth, who was also called Barnabas by the apostles (which translated means Son of Encouragement), and who owned a tract of land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
When we realize that is God who gave us what we have, we will be joyful in dedicating everything we have and all that we are to Him.
IV. There’s Guarantee of Victory to those who follow God (vv. 22-25)
IV. There’s Guarantee of Victory to those who follow God (vv. 22-25)
Rahab and her family came out alive and victorious because they follow the God of Israel. They realized that the “moon-god” was no matched to the Living God YHWH.
Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the harlot’s house and bring the woman and all she has out of there, as you have sworn to her.”
So the young men who were spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brothers and all she had; they also brought out all her relatives and placed them outside the camp of Israel.
However, Rahab the harlot and her father’s household and all she had, Joshua spared; and she has lived in the midst of Israel to this day, for she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.
Reflection today:
Reflection today:
There is Guarantee of Victory in the Savior Jesus Christ!
There is Guarantee of Victory in the Savior Jesus Christ!
- Jesus gave us the victory through his death and resurrection
“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.