Joshua 6: Jericho
Notes
Transcript
Brief Introduction:
Brief Introduction:
Historical Context of Joshua:
1. Genesis- where God creates and God calls. Foretelling of the Promise Land.
2. Exodus- God rescues His people from Slavery and leads them to the wilderness.
3. Leviticus- God gives a rule to govern his people in their new freedom in the wilderness.
4. Numbers- God grows and multiplies his people.
5. Deuteronomy- The second giving of the Law, expanding laws for life in the promise land.
6. Joshua- Sequel to the Exodus. God who rescued and brought out, now brings his people into the promised land. Led by a New Moses into a land they did not plant but are blessed to eat from. A land where sin is purged so that righteousness may dwell.
What Joshua is About: The Book of Joshua is about what life after salvation looks like: battling sin, being more than conquerors in Christ, and establishing the Kingdom of God—to live in and live out a life established in God’s Word.
Structure of Joshua: Chiastic
A. Death of Moses
B. Confession of Faith Rahab
C. Crossing the Jordan
D. New Israel is Circumcised/Conquest Begins
E. Dividing up the Land
F. Joshua 18:1 (Tabernacle in Shiloh)
E1. Dividing up the Land
D1. City of Refuge/Levites
C1. Crossing the Jordan
B1. Confession of Faith Joshua
A1. Death of Joshua/Eliazar
Joshua 6: Jericho
Joshua 6: Jericho
I. Conquest of Cleansing
I. Conquest of Cleansing
Israel is about to go to war. Jesus is commanding these attacks against the inhabitants of the land of Canaan and will cleanse the land of all Canaanites before giving the land to His people.
But why this Holy War?
Is God declaring war upon an innocent people?
Is there any other way that the Canaanites can escape the war with God?
What is God trying to accomplish in all this?
How does this relate to the Church in our present reality?
What are the implications of “cleansing” or making something clean before possessing it have?
What is the big picture being painted for us in Joshua beginning with Jericho?
A. The Fullness of iniquity.
A. The Fullness of iniquity.
12 Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him. 13 God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. 14 “But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. 15 “As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. 16 “Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”
B. Evil People.
B. Evil People.
24 ‘Do not defile yourselves by any of these things; for by all these the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled. 25 ‘For the land has become defiled, therefore I have brought its punishment upon it, so the land has spewed out its inhabitants. 26 ‘But as for you, you are to keep My statutes and My judgments and shall not do any of these abominations, neither the native, nor the alien who sojourns among you 27 (for the men of the land who have been before you have done all these abominations, and the land has become defiled); 28 so that the land will not spew you out, should you defile it, as it has spewed out the nation which has been before you.
C. Cleansing by Circumcision.
C. Cleansing by Circumcision.
1. Israel circumcises themselves.
1. Israel circumcises themselves.
1 Now it came about when all the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites who were by the sea, heard how the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the sons of Israel until they had crossed, that their hearts melted, and there was no spirit in them any longer because of the sons of Israel. 2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make for yourself flint knives and circumcise again the sons of Israel the second time.” 3 So Joshua made himself flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth. 4 This is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: all the people who came out of Egypt who were males, all the men of war, died in the wilderness along the way after they came out of Egypt. 5 For all the people who came out were circumcised, but all the people who were born in the wilderness along the way as they came out of Egypt had not been circumcised. 6 For the sons of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, that is, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished because they did not listen to the voice of the Lord, to whom the Lord had sworn that He would not let them see the land which the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. 7 Their children whom He raised up in their place, Joshua circumcised; for they were uncircumcised, because they had not circumcised them along the way. 8 Now when they had finished circumcising all the nation, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed.
2. Israel circumcises the city before they enter it.
2. Israel circumcises the city before they enter it.
3 “You shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once. You shall do so for six days. 4 “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.
D. Under the Ban “Herem”.
D. Under the Ban “Herem”.
17 “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.
“herem”- dedicated, devoted.
“under the ban.” This word is used is a particular sense throughout Scripture: Understanding its theological significance is key in understanding what will transpire in the following chapter.
The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible (Supernatural, Not Bizarre, Orientation)
The point is that the rationale for kherem annihilation was the specific elimination of the descendants of the Nephilim. Ridding the land of these bloodlines was the motivation.13 If Numbers 13:28–29 is to be believed, the Anakim were scattered throughout the land of Canaan. Joshua 11:21–23 makes it clear that these were the peoples targeted for complete elimination, not every last Canaanite.
12 “If you hear in one of your cities, which the Lord your God is giving you to live in, anyone saying that 13 some worthless men have gone out from among you and have seduced the inhabitants of their city, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods’ (whom you have not known), 14 then you shall investigate and search out and inquire thoroughly. If it is true and the matter established that this abomination has been done among you, 15 you shall surely strike the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying it and all that is in it and its cattle with the edge of the sword. 16 “Then you shall gather all its booty into the middle of its open square and burn the city and all its booty with fire as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God; and it shall be a ruin forever. It shall never be rebuilt. 17 “Nothing from that which is put under the ban shall cling to your hand, in order that the Lord may turn from His burning anger and show mercy to you, and have compassion on you and make you increase, just as He has sworn to your fathers, 18 if you will listen to the voice of the Lord your God, keeping all His commandments which I am commanding you today, and doing what is right in the sight of the Lord your God.
16 “Only in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive anything that breathes.
28 ‘Nevertheless, anything which a man sets apart to the Lord out of all that he has, of man or animal or of the fields of his own property, shall not be sold or redeemed. Anything devoted to destruction is most holy to the Lord.
III. Sound the Horn of Jubilee.
III. Sound the Horn of Jubilee.
8 ‘You are also to count off seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven sabbaths of years, namely, forty-nine years. 9 ‘You shall then sound a ram’s horn abroad on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of atonement you shall sound a horn all through your land. 10 ‘You shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family. 11 ‘You shall have the fiftieth year as a jubilee; you shall not sow, nor reap its aftergrowth, nor gather in from its untrimmed vines. 12 ‘For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its crops out of the field.
The Land goes back to its original owner- God.
God then gives it to his people after 7 years (which is the end of the conquest).
The cycle of sabbaths starts over and the people possess their own land which comes from God who cleansed the land and established it.
IV. Structure of Chapter 6:
IV. Structure of Chapter 6:
V. 1-2: No one goes in or out/ Kings and Valiant Men given.
V.3-5: The Lord Instructs Joshua
V. 6-7: Joshua Instructs the People
v. 8-9: People assume position
v. 10: Joshua commands people about shouting.
v.11-14: Circling the City for six days
v. 15: The seventh Day
V. 16-19 Joshua instructs the people: Shout/ban
V. 20-21 People shout and destroy city according to ban
V. 22- Joshua instructs spies to bring out Rahab and Family.
v.23- Spies bring out Rahab and family.
V. 22-23: Israels goes in and out/ Rahab and those with her are taken.