Sermon Tone Analysis

Joshua Didn't Fight the Battle of Jericho

John Butler / General

Joshua /

1. Who’s on Whose Side? 5:13-15

A. The Strange Warrior

Joshua is most likely out on a reconnaissance of Jericho.

He encounters a Stranger Warrior, with sword drawn.

Who is this man standing before Joshua?

A couple of clues comes from his description and what he tells Joshua.

We’re given this description of his stance: ‘his drawn sword in his hand’.

This language is used in to describe the angel of the Lord as he stood in before Balaam on the road.

He tells Joshua to take off his shoes because it was holy ground.

That is, almost verbatim, the charge that God gave to Moses at the burning bush ().

So then, along with his describing Himself as ‘the commander of the LORD’s army’, is we are left with the fact that He is the angel of the Lord.

But who is the angel of the Lord?

In , at the burning bush, the angel is identified with God and speaks as if he is God.

The Old Testament elsewhere indicates that the angel of the Lord is God (see ).

The same is true here in ; the appearance of the angel of the Lord evokes awe, submission and worship on the part of Joshua, because the angel is God.

Some commentators argue that the angel of the Lord is the Second Person of the Trinity, a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ.

B. The Submitted Warrior

Joshua challenges him: Who have you come for, that is, on whose side have you enlisted?

Neither, He says.

The question is, whose side is Joshua on?

When this Strange Warrior identifies Himself, Joshua submits himself to Him and His direction.

The point of the exchange seems to be that it was not for Joshua to claim the allegiance of God for his cause, however right it was, but rather for God to claim Joshua.

So often we want to turn to God to get answers, to know His plans (particularly, how those plans affect us).

And that’s a good thing.

But sometimes, we turn to Him more for His answers, than for knowing Him and recognizing Him as God.

That is, for what we hope to get, rather than for loving Him for who he is.

Examine our prayer lives — do we seek Him in prayer primarily for what we want from Him? Or do we seek Him, first?

2. This is Your Battle Plan? 6:1-5

A. The Outcome is Certain

Jericho is “Shut up” — graphic re it being on a tell.

The text literally says, ‘Jericho was shut up and it was shut up’; the double use of the verb is emphatic to underscore that from a military vantage point Jericho is secure and seemingly impregnable.

To our eyes it is impossible.

God’s declaration is that it is certainly going to fall.

“…sometimes nothing looks so unlikely as the decree of God.”

B.

Not your typical military operation order

It becomes quite evident that this breakthrough isn’t going to come about by any human means, conventional or unconventional.

Why has the Lord planned a seven-day ritual before he causes the city to fall?

Part of the answer lies in exercising Israel’s faith.

Yes, the walls will collapse by the work of the Lord.

But he wants Israel completely resting its faith on him before he hands over the gift.

Just as the days at the river forced the people to place all confidence in the Lord before the miracle, so now during seven days of marching around mighty Jericho, the Lord will direct all faith toward himself.

The author of Hebrews stresses the faith aspect of the coming victory.

He says, “By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days” ().

Their obedience to the Lord’s commands will show their faith, a faith the Lord will build up during the seven days of spiritual and physical exercise.

Their faith will lead them to accept God’s promised victory.

The Lord always wants much more than that his people receive his material gifts.

He wants an ever-growing trust in him as the giver of those gifts.

To that end he directs and rules our lives.

Our faith in him and growth in that relationship is far more important than the individual gifts, just as Israel’s faith in him was much more valuable than Jericho.

3. The Action at Jericho, 6:6-21; 26-27

A. The centrality of God in the circumstances, 6:6-15

Chapter 6 mentions God’s ark 10 times.

it is God’s presence, symbolized by the Ark, that will make all the difference.

God is fighting Israel’s battle, and we need to recognize and acknowledge the centrality of His presence and activity in the conquest.

We are to be struck with the relative passivity of God’s people in this operation.

Usually, God operates through the instrumentality of His people.

But this time, it is different.

Yes, they do have a role in the marching and shouting, but in it all God appears to be setting the stage for His activity and glory to be front and centre.

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

B. The devotion of God’s people, 6:16-21

The priority of obedience to God’s command

In the midst of any command, there is also the potential for disobedience.

There is always defeat to be snatched from the jaws of victory.

The wall falls down flat.

It seems to just disintegrate before their eyes.

Bryant G. Wood, an authority on Canaanite pottery, presents strong evidence for a 1400 B.C. destruction of a level of the site for Jericho.

There is clear evidence of levelled walls and destruction by burning.

Large stores of grain, mostly scorched, in the houses were also destroyed at the same time.

This abundant grain correlates with two facts from the Joshua account: (1) Jericho was taken during Nisan, the month of the spring barley harvest; (2) the city did not fall after a long starvation siege, common at the time, but after just seven days while plenty of food was still in the houses (Biblical Archaeology Review, March/April 1990).

C. The question of genocide

This order to put to death the people of Jericho, from the oldest person to the youngest baby, and everyone in between (except Rahab and those of her family who have fled to her house) constitutes one of the great dilemmas in understanding the Old Testament.

Sometimes people attempt to explain away this order, but it is evident that it is annihilation of the Jericho populace that is in view.

And looking at this some would argue that it is unworthy of God to be depicted as sanctioning and ordering the destruction of the Canaanites at Jericho.

How could a holy and loving God give instructions for the utter annihilation of the Canaanites?

Or, why would we want to serve such a God?

This is a question of what is called theodicy, which is an attempt to understand the nature and actions of God in the face of evil and suffering.

Again, how could God act this way?

A foundational observation to make is that God does, in fact, order the destruction.

There is no way around this truth.

Moses tells the people before the conquest:

But in the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes, but you shall devote them to complete destruction the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites and the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, as the LORD your God has commanded (; cf. ).

How could God order such a thing?

First, it needs to be pointed out that Israel is to take possession of the land by the immediate hand of God, who has an absolute right to exercise his power in any way he wills.

It is God’s desire, good pleasure and purpose for Israel to inherit Canaan.

When the apostle Paul explains the sovereignty of God to the men of Athens he includes the following description: ‘And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place …’ ().

Secondly, the Canaanites were in no respect innocent as they stood before God and Israel.

Were they a peaceful, righteous, upright people?

Were they in some way undeserving of God’s justice?

In God explained to Abram that his descendants would not inherit Canaan immediately but would come back in the fourth generation, ‘for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete’.

The implication is that God was being patient with the present inhabitants of the land but that when their sins had reached the limit, he would use Abram’s descendants to bring judgment upon them.

When God promised him that his descendants would inherit the land of Canaan, he said it would not occur until ‘the fourth generation’ because ‘the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete’ ().

Since the time of God’s giving this promise to Abraham, the Canaanites have been heaping up sin.

recounts the wicked behaviour of the Canaanites: they practise child sacrifice, incest, adultery, temple prostitution and various other abominations.

Therefore, we see God’s justice going forth against the Canaanites in the book of Joshua because they rejected God and his law.

Israel acts as an instrument of God’s judgement on the Canaanites.

In one sense this should not be troubling since elsewhere God uses pagan nations to punish his own chosen people (; ).