SEVEN LESSONS FROM THE FALL OF JERICHO
DISCOVERING YOUR GIFTEDNESS
April 7, 2016
Our Choices Have Consequences
May 24, 2016GCC MESSAGE 2: May 2016
Joshua 5:13-15
Joshua 6:
1. THE PROMISE
VS.2 And the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor.[1]
God had promised to give them the land. The land was good, fertile, had milk and honey.
God has given us thousands of promises in his word.
Earlier on Joshua had an encounter with God, where he experienced God’s presence. Before the big task we need an encounter with God. Joshua is new to the task of leadership, he needed an assurance and God provided it.
Today God uses a prophetic word, he uses a good Sunday sermon, he brings someone to speak to us, to assure us. WHY? We are human and we always need that strong encounter to give us, fuel and courage for the task ahead.
2. THE CHALLENGE
Fortified Jericho, Mighty Men seasoned warriors.
The land had people who were idol worshippers, enemies of God’s way. They were an obstacle that had to be removed.
They were strong. They had walled cities, not very easy to defeat.
When God promises victory to us he does not say there are no problems. You cannot have victory without a challenge, or a war to fight. The Christian journey also has barricades to jump, yes there some real walls.
Attacks from Satan
Financial challenges
Opposition.
Sometimes it is waiting for a child after marriage. Sometimes it is waiting for years before you get someone to marry you.
Sometimes it is having ability to study but no tuition.
CHALLENGES NEVER MEAN GOD IS NOT THERE OR THAT HE HAS FORGOTTEN YOU. That is the normal way God works with his people.
BUT: Earlier on God had prepared Joshua.
Joshua 6: 14 And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” [2]
THE BATTLE AHEAD IS BEING LED BY GOD HIMSELF.
3. YOU HAVE TO MOVE
Verse 3. You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days[3]
Ugandan Christians are amazing at prayer, they can fast, they confess miracles. They are good at waiting on God. But friends what happens after prayer, what happens when God speaks to you.
PEOPLE WHO EVER ACHIEVE ANYTHING MUST BE MOVERS, NOT THOSE WHO HOPE OR WHO WISH.
This is acting on what you believe. It is telling others about what you have heard God say, it is mobilizing people for action. It is putting in that application. It is knocking on that door.
Matthew 7:7 7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.[4]
It is when you take action that you get to know whether you heard from God.
You can only get a yes or no. But if you do nothing you get neither.
4. OBEDIENCE
Joshua had served under Moses for many years and had learnt that God requires immediate, uncompromising obedience. When says stand- you stand, when he says move- you move. In Joshua 6: the pre-incarnate Jesus is portrayed as a commander of the Lord’s army. And if we are to see success ahead we better obey. That is the difference between those people who will have success in God’s endeavors and those who will stay on the average level.
Joshua 5:“15 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.” And Joshua did so. [5]”
Commanders do not suggest, they command, they bring instructions. God has some things he has demanded for us to do. We call them non-negotiables, just do them. The 10 commandments, the command to love God and neighbor.
5. GOD’S WAY MAY NOT MAKE SENSE.
Joshua 6: 3-5
3 You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days. 4 Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. 5 And when they make a long blast with the 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.”[6]
Many times what God requires does not make scientific sense. Sometimes it feels like unfair or a waste of your time. But friends. GOD IS GOD, HE KNOWS.
DO NOT SEEK TO UNDERSTAND FIRST BEFORE YOU OBEY. OBEY FIRST AND THEN YOU WILL UNDERSTAND LATER.
6. THE SHOUT
16 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. [7]
20 So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. 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.[8]
THE SHOUT is that action God required.
They had to claim their victory, the shout represents praise, it represents the declarations of God’s power and sovereignty.
It is saying our God reigns.
That shout came before the miracle, it is that shout that brought down the wall.
Are you willing to shout before your miracle?
To shout down the powers of darkness, to declare victory before you realize it?
SHOUT IT OUT, SHOUT IS OUT.
7. WHAT ABOUT RAHAB?
22 But to 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 belong to her, as you swore to her.[9]
25 But Rahab the prostitute and her father’s household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. [10]
WHY? DID GOD HAVE TO SAVE A PROSITITUTE?
It is GRACE. She responded to God’s people, realized that they were sent by God and in return God saved her and her family.
Many of us are like Rahab we have a very dark past, very sinful, very shameful very undeserving, but God whose wrath rises up against the sins of Jericho, will spare time to give us an opportunity.
Can you imagine, this woman, a gentile sinner became one of the inheritors of God’s promises, she became a great, great, great, grandmother of kind David. She is also named in the linage of our Savior Jesus Christ.
If you are Rahab today, you cannot miss out on getting your life right before God.
[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2001 (Jos 6:2). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2001 (Jos 5:14). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
[3] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2001 (Jos 6:3). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
[4] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2001 (Mt 7:7). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
[5] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2001 (Jos 5:15). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
[6] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2001 (Jos 6:3–5). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
[7] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2001 (Jos 6:16). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
[8] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2001 (Jos 6:20). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
[9] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2001 (Jos 6:22). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
[10] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2001 (Jos 6:25). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
