Walls of Jericho - Joshua 6

The people of Jericho knew that the soldiers of Israel were headed right for them, and like we discussed yesterday, the people were terrified, so they shut their gates so that “none went out, and none came in.” It was really all they could do because they knew that Israel was protected by God and even more than that, knew that God fought their battles for them, and they knew their city wasn’t a match for God. Presumably in the same conversation that Joshua was having with God at the end of chapter 5 when He appeared to him, He tells Joshua to have all the soldiers march around the city once a day for six days and while marching have “seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams horns, and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him”

The ark of the covenant is to be carried by priests at the head of the army. The IM explains why saying, “as the ark of the covenant symbolized the presence of God in the tabernacle’s Holy of Holies, so it symbolized His leadership of the armies of Israel as they carried it before them while they marched around the city. This was not a mere mortal conflict: Canaan was to be destroyed by the very God of Israel. This truth was impressively taught to Israel by the presence of the ark.” The ark was covered in gold and had several components that were made out of solid gold, meaning that it was a highly valuable treasure to Israel, not to mention it’s religious importance to the people. All this is to say that I don’t think most armies anciently took highly valuable pieces of property with them to battle, and they definitely didn’t have it at the very front of the procession because if they lost the battle, their very important property would have been taken by the enemy both for the monetary value but also the humiliation factor. I think having the most important item of your religious observances that was made of gold was militarily a good move just in case you lost. God had Joshua parade it around in front of his troops and the enemy because He wanted them to know that He had no intention of losing.

Of all the various ways to conquer a heavily fortified city, there could have been a siege, there could have been ladders, grappling hooks, arrows, I don’t know if they had like trebuchets back then, but there were tons of different ways that militarily would have been good strategies for taking the city of Jericho. Troops walking around a walled city blowing a horn was not good military strategy, it made no sense. The IM talks extensively about how the walls of Jericho could have possibly fallen down, and cite speculations of the walking weakening the walls, or the vibrations of the blowing horns disturbing the foundations, etc. But none of that makes any sense. There is no way that walking and horns were enough to bring down the city walls that had probably been there for thousands of years. Jericho is the oldest known city in all of recorded human history with the first recording of it being walled going back to 9,000 BC. Thousands of years these walls stood, there’s no way that a little walking and horn blowing physically weakened these walls enough for them to fall at the exact moment Israel obeyed God’s command to shout, makes no sense. The only explanation that even remotely comes close to being logical is that the power of God collapsed those walls at the exact moment He wanted them to collapse.

The ark went first, then the soldiers walked around the city once every day for six days. It’s also important to note that during these walks, the soldiers were told to be silent. TB suggests that this is because God wanted the people of Jericho to know that the people of Israel were not the ones who defeated their city, but instead that it was God who did it. Usually with warfare, the psychological aspect is important, and playing intimidating music or making loud, alarming screams can make a big difference in the enemies’ moral or psychological ability to fight, it can cause chaos and confusion and turmoil. It can distract attention or cause diversions. God didn’t want any of that. He wanted the people to Jericho to watch exactly what was going on and to not be confused at all as to who was in charge of the conquering. God was in charge and He didn’t want any of the people to be mistaken about it. He didn’t want the people to think “wow those Israelites are great warriors,” He wanted them to think about how mighty God is to do these things and a screaming Israel would have distracted from that.

After 6 days of making one single lap around the city, on the 7th day, the soldiers were to make 7 laps around the city and then at the end of the 7th lap, when given the signal, the trumpets, or shofars, were to play a loud blast and all the Israelites soldiers were to shout at once together and the walls of the city would just fall down and the soldiers could just walk in. When the shofar’s blew and the soldiers shouted, the walls fell and the soldiers moved in. They were commanded that “all the silver, gold, and vessels of brass and iron” were to be taken and “consecrated unto the Lord,” the soldiers were not to keep any of the precious metals for themselves, again a practice that was unheard of in the ancient military world. All the people, women and men of all ages were to be killed along with all the livestock. This is a difficult concept for me, and for most now I would imagine. TB notes that this practice wasn’t common anciently but it also wasn’t unheard of either. We know that the adults of these cities that were conquered without mercy were so wicked that their continued existence in mortality was a hinderance to their spiritual progression, which with the practice of pagan child sacrifice that has been talked about in other studies, killing the prophets, etc, that makes sense. But why the children and animals? That I’m not sure.

TB suggested in another lecture that anciently if a parent was killed, it was that child’s duty to avenge their parents which would have caused trouble for Israel taking in a group of kids who would eventually want to kill them. I don’t know if that’s the reason, but I guess it goes back to mortal life and death is viewed differently by God than by us, because He knows all things, He is the one who is obligated to provide for the law of compensation, He knows what both sides of the veil will look like for all these people and He comes to the conclusion that it is better for all involved to be on the other side, the next life. And if we agree that any horror allowed or perpetrated by God is for our ultimate benefit, then we have to acknowledge the belief that there is no other way to accomplish His purposes then with something we consider horrible. There is no other way, because if there was a less painful way for God to accomplish His purposes but He doesn’t take it, then that is cruelty, and we know that God is not cruel. So if we hold that God only works for our benefit, even when we are wicked, and that He only allows the amount of pain that is absolutely required to fulfill His purposes, then we have to accept that there is no other way, even if we don’t understand it. This has been a very difficult lesson for me to learn recently.

Important note here is that when the city wall fell, Rahab’s house remained with her and her family inside. The foresight that had to go in arranging that set of circumstances to make Rahab’s house be exactly on the wall so that spies could escape but also protecting it so that it didn’t fall when the rest of the wall did must have been intense. And that’s just for that one single incident. Can you even imagine how much time and attention Jesus puts into making the arrangements in our lives to accomplish His purposes? Another thing I just realized with this incident with Rahab is that her entire family was saved even though she was the only one who believed. God protected unbelievers because of the request of someone who had faith. I’m going to put that away in my heart that protection and intervention comes to the families of those who have faith, even when they don’t.

Interestingly, when the walls fall, Joshua sends the same two spies that Rahab helped back to her house to collect her, her family, and their belongings which makes sense because they already know each other, and she would recognize them. I wonder how she felt watching this event unfold over the previous week. I’m sure that her family was with her in the house watching this all play out and I’m sure that they were terrified because they might not have had the same faith that she did. I wonder if she sat there comforting them, telling them that they would be protected by this same God who was going to destroy the people, because she believed. I wonder if she doubted a little bit or if she was nervous. It’s understandable, this was a big moment. I just wonder what she said to her family and if any of them believed like she did.

The Israelites walk into the city, kill everyone and everything, take the metals and then burn it all down. At the end of the whole thing Joshua curses the city that anyone who tries to build it back up will also be cursed. And that was the end of the city of Jericho and “the Lord was with Joshua; and his fame was noised throughout all the country.” I don’t think Joshua wanted all that fame and notoriety with this defeat because I’m sure He didn’t see it like that, it was God’s victory, not his. But people probably wouldn’t have seen it like that, case in point, Rahab. When the news spread that Israel had defeated the other places east of the Jordan river and that God had parted the red sea for them, in that whole town, only Rahab took that as a belief in the power of God and the rest of the people were just scared of the Israelites as people, as a fighting force. They didn’t see all that evidence and think “wow that’s the true God,” they thought “those Israelites are scary.” But I’m sure God knew that’s how it would play out and I can’t imagine that Joshua cared for the “fame” that came with this victory.