Sermon Tone Analysis

Last week, we read about the conquest of Jericho.

I tried to raise all sorts of weird, unpleasant questions, because I think the story raises these questions.

Why did Yahweh mark off Jericho as dedicated to himself?

Why were the Israelites supposed to kherem the city-- devote every single person, and every single thing, to Yahweh for destruction (with just a few exceptions)?

I promise I'll try to explain this before this series is done.

But I don't want to rabbit trail down this, and lose our sense of the book as a whole.

The idea of kherem is going to come up again in Joshua, and I think it'll be easier to explain there.

But when I was trying to mess with you, and get you to see how weird the conquest of Jericho is, I actually missed the main point of the story.

I was so pleased to have made a decision about kherem, and so happy at messing with you to push you in the same direction (if I'm honest), that I didn't take the last verse seriously--the one where AJ explained what we were supposed to learn from the story.

So let's start by rereading the last part of Joshua 6, starting in verse 16:

(16) And then at the seventh time, the priests blew on the horns,

and Joshua said to the people,

"Shout!

because Yahweh has given to you the city.

(17) And the city will be kherem-- it, and all that is in it-- to Yahweh.

Only, Rahab the prostitute will live-- she, and all who are with her in the house--

because she hid the messengers who we sent."

(18) while, only, you, keep (yourselves) from the kherem,

lest [while?] you are devoting to destruction (khereming),

and you are taking from the kherem,

and you are making the camp of Israel for a kherem and bring trouble on it,

(19) while all the silver and gold, and all the copper/bronze vessels, and iron is holy/dedicated to Yahweh.

It is (to) the treasury of Yahweh that it will go.

(20) And the people shouted

And they blew on the horns.

And then, when the people heard the voice/sound of the horn, the people shouted a great shout,

And the wall fell under it,

And the people went up to the city, each man straight ahead,

And they captured the city,

(21) And they kheremed all that [was] in the city, both man and woman, both youth and old, both ox and donkey for kherem,

(22) while it was to the two men spying/exploring the land that Joshua said,

"Go to the house of the woman prostitute

and bring her out from there, the woman and all who are with/for her just as you swore to her."

(23) And the youths, the ones spying/exploring, went

And they brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brothers and all who with her,

while all of her clan they brought out and set them outside the camp of Israel,

(24) while the city they burned with fire, and all that was in it.

Only, the silver and the gold and the copper/bronze vessels and the iron they gave (to the) treasury of the house of Yahweh,

(25) while Rahab the prostitute and the house of her father and all who were with her Joshua caused to live,

and she lived in the midst of Israel up to this day

because she hid the messengers that Joshua sent to explore Jericho.

(26) And Joshua swore at that time, saying,

"Cursed is the man before Yahweh

who rises and rebuilds this city of Jericho.

It is at the cost of his first born that he shall lay its foundation,

and it at the cost of his youngest that he shall set up its gates."

(27) And Yahweh was with Joshua,

And his fame/news was in all the land.

When we focus on verse 27, and let AJ tell us what we should focus on, we are supposed to hear this story as teaching two things:

(1) Yahweh was with Joshua.

The book of Joshua begins with Yahweh making great promises to Joshua:

(1:4) It is from the desert and this Lebanon and up to the great river--the river of Euphrates--, all the land of the Hittites and up to the great sea, the great setting of the sun that will be your territory.

No man will stand before you all the days of your life.

Just as I have lived with Moses, I will be with you.

I will not abandon you,

and I will not reject you.

(6) Be strong

and be brave

because it is you who will give this people the land

that I swore to your fathers to give to them.

(7) Only, be strong and be brave exceedingly,

to keep to do according to all the instruction

that Moses my servant commanded you.

(8) This scroll of the instruction must not depart from your mouth,

and you must mutter over it day and night.

in order that you may keep to do everything written in it

because it is then that you will be successful in your roads/ways,

and it is then that you will prosper.

(9) Did I not command you be strong and be brave?

Don't tremble, and don't being terrified,

because it is with you that Yahweh your God is, in everywhere that you are walking."

The way covenants work, is that both sides have obligations.

Yahweh promises Joshua: (1) The entire land will be yours; (2) No man will stand against you as long as you live; (3) I will be with you; (4) I will not abandon you; (5) I will not reject you.

But in verse 7, Yahweh adds a qualification.

"Only, your job, Joshua, is to be brave, and obey my word."

It is then that you will prosper.

So what we saw in the conquest of Jericho, is what this relationship between Yahweh, Joshua, and Israel is supposed to look like.

Yahweh wants to keep his promises.

He has a plan for Joshua, and Israel.

He wants to bless them.

He wants to be with them.

Only, they have to obey.

So that's the first thing we were supposed to see in the Jericho story.

Verse 27 again: "And Yahweh was with Joshua."

Verse 27 continues in the second line: "And his fame/news was in all the land."

The result of this conquest, was that his fame/news was in all the land.

Whose fame?

News about who?

I think we are supposed to read "his," and say, it's ambiguous.

News about Joshua, and news about Yahweh, has spread throughout the entire land.

More and more people, are hearing more and more things about Joshua and his God Yahweh.

So we were supposed to step back, and the end of chapter 6, and see the story of Jericho as teaching two things.

Yahweh is with Joshua; their fame is growing everywhere.

And in all of that, Joshua and the Israelites perfectly obey.

Joshua 6 is a picture of how the covenant life between Yahweh and Israel is supposed to look.

Israel obeys; Yahweh is with Joshua.

And when we read Joshua 6, we are supposed to respond by praising our God, who is faithful.

When God is with you, fighting for you, that's a very good thing.

This brings us to chapter 7, which opens on an ugly note, that flips everything upside down:

(1) And the sons of Israel treacherously did treachery