Jericho Falls, Part 2

The third thing I want you to notice about the challenge is the passion of faith. Look what the text says in verse number 12 and verse number 15. Verse 12, Joshua rose early in the morning. Verse 15, so they rose early about the dawning of the day. Listen, when you know what God says, You have to get going undoing what God says.

And this was the passion behind their patience. They were passionately patient. They wanted to learn to wait upon their God, so much so they would rise early in the morning. You could hear what they're saying. We're just going to walk around the wall, sleep in. Who cares? I mean, it's no big deal. We're not going to go to war today. Let's get some rest. But no, they got up. They rose early. Because you see, there's something about believing in what God says that motivates you to action, that you want to do what God says.

And this is where these people were. And Joshua would lead the way. He would rise early in the morning. And then the soldiers, they too would rise early in the morning. To accomplish the task of walking around the city. But they never knew what Joshua was going to tell them that day. They didn't know that when they got up that day, Joshua was going to say, we're going do the same thing today we did the last four days, the last five days. Then on the seventh day, get up and say, Got good news. Things are going to change.

We're not going to walk around the city once. And they're saying, Oh, yeah, this is great. We're going to war. And Joshua says, No, we're going to walk around it seven times today. What a great strategy for battle. But you see, there was passion about what they believed in. And they rose early in the morning to accomplish it because they wanted to do what God had said. That's what faith is. It's believing in what God has already said. Which leads us to number. 3. The chronicle of their victory. How is it they actually won the battle?

There are three things you need to notice. One is their silence. Their silence. Look what it says. Verse 10. But Joshua commanded the people, saying, You shall not shout, nor let your voice be heard, nor let a word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I tell you, shout, then you shall. Shall shout. They couldn't say a word. They couldn't say anything. Now, you think about that. Why was God having them be silent? What was God teaching them through the silence in order for them to be able to accomplish what God had?

For them, they had to learn to listen to God. And when you're talking, you can't listen. And they had to slowly learn to listen to what God had said. The Bible says, Be still and know that I am God.

The Bible says in the book of Isaiah, chapter 30, verse number 15: In repentance and rest you shall be saved.

In quietness and trust is your strength. But you were not willing. In quietness and in tr shall be your strength. God was teaching them a very valuable lesson when it comes to winning the battle. And that is just be quiet and let God act. We don't have the patience for God to act. We don't have time to wait for God to act. We have to say something. We have to make our point of view know. Someone has to know my opinion. Someone has to see it from my perspective. They don't, but we think they do. And God says you be silent.

The Bible says in Psalm 62. My soul waits in silence for God only. From him is my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold I shall not Be greatly shaken. Verse number five of Psalm 62: My soul wait in silence for God only, for my hope is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation. My stronghold I shall not be shaken. On God, my Salvation and my glory rest. The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times, O people. Pour out your heart before Him. God is a refuge for us.

Silence was the mandate. Remember what the Bible says way back in 1 Peter chapter 3? When God gives word to Peter about how wives who live with unbelieving husbands are to act, It says this, In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands, so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be one without a word. by the behaviour of their wives, as they observe your chaste and respectful behaviour, and let not your adornment be merely external. braiding the hair, and wearing gold, jewelry, or putting on dresses but let it be their hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious In the sight of God, there's something precious in the sight of God.

It is that gentle, it's that quiet spirit, the spirit of silence. Now, I know people don't like to hear that. And maybe you're here tonight thinking, you what, Pastor? I don't have time for silence. My husband doesn't do anything. Someone's got to tell him what to do. Because if I don't tell him, nobody's going to tell him. That's probably true. But as long as you're telling them, you don't leave room for God to work in them. Let God work in them. Let God do the work. And you know, it's imperative that we begin to understand the whole principle of silence.

God says, I wanted you to be quiet because in your quietness and trust will be your strength, but you were unwilling.

God says, I want you to have strength, but you're unwilling to have the strength I want to give you because you won't be quiet enough or long enough for me to act.

And God says to Joshua, to the nation of Israel, just shh, be quiet, wait. And watch. That's the patience of faith. And this is how God was going to bring about a great and wonderful victory for the people of God. One author said that the whole kingdom of heaven is hindered in some instances because people will not hold their tongues. That's probably more true than we like to admit. But the second thing I want you to notice is not only their silence, but their submission.

Their submission. It says in verse number 8: and it was so. If you go back into chapter 5, verse number 15, when the Lord said, Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy. And Joshua did so. The people, as Joshua, obeyed. They submitted to doing what God said, even though they didn't understand it. Even though it really truly wasn't clear to them. Even though they couldn't understand why it is they had to walk around the city and just not. Knock down the walls.

It's because God would be glorified all the more. By knocking the walls down him, than if he empowered them to overtake the city and push the walls over. See, God knows that. See, God wants you to be able to stand back and watch Him work. He wants you to be able to be silent enough and submissive enough to let him do what he wants to do in his own time, in his own way. That's what he wants to see happen. Can you imagine the int this must have placed on the people of Jericho? Here they are walking around the nation of Israel walking around the walls of Jericho and not saying a word not saying a word You know, when you go to battle and your enemy is angry with you and your enemy is so bitter against you, and they just are just trying to get you to say a word, and you say nothing.

They can't handle it. They just can't handle it. You remember what the Bible says of our Lord over in 1 Peter 2, verse 21?

For you have been called for this purpose since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in his steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth. And while being reviled, he did not revile in return, and while suffering, he uttered no threats, but kept in trust. Himself to him who judges righteously. He said nothing. He just kept entrusting himself to the one who judges righteously in silence. That's what he did. He was submissive to the will of his father.

Joshua was submissive to the plan of God. You know, God had them walk around this thing. Maybe God had a purpose that he wanted them to realize that they could not do this thing. Alone. Maybe the whole scenario, but for them to walk around wall after wall, day after day, was for them to realize: you know what? We can't do this. We can't. So many times God does a work in us to teach us patience so that we come to the point where we realize that we can't change a thing. Because we so desperately want it to go our way.

We so desperately want to make a difference. We so desperately want things to change. And when we can't change them, we are frustrated. And when we can't change them so that we look better, we're even more frustrated. And you know, as they walked around the city, they became more and more aware that you know what? We can't do this. I love what Alan Redpath said about this whole situation. He says, the greatest difficulty in the Christian life is to get to the place where one is prepared to admit that the whole thing is too big for him.

and that the power of the enemy is too great for him. And if his Jericho is to fall, then somehow God must bring it about. I believe that before God entrusts any of his people with a real measure of spiritual power, victory, and blessing, he brings them to a place from where they have surveyed Jericho so long that they have come to see that its conquest. Is absolutely hopeless. God expects nothing more from us than failure. Yet we spend years trying to make ourselves something other than a failure.

So long as we think we can do it alone, the omnipotent res. Of God and Jesus Christ, our ar Lord cannot, will not help us. Think about that. Just think about that. God is teaching them as they walk around these walls, there's no way, no way they can knock them down. But God can. So he brings them to that point as they submit. To the will, to the plans, to the word of God. So the chronicle of their victory is very simple. Silence. Submission to what God says, walking around the city, not saying a word, and then to shout at the proper time.

To speak at the proper time on the seventh day, after the seventh time of marching around the city, it says in verse number 16, and it came about at the seventh time. When the priest blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, Shout, for the Lord has given you the city. Verse 20. So the people shouted, and the priest blew the trumpets. And it came about when the people heard the sound of the trumpet that the people shouted with a glory Great shout, and the wall fell down flat. So that the people went up into the city, every man straight ahead, and they took the city.

What did they say? What did they shout? They shouted, Joshua fit the battle of Jericho. No, that's not what they shouted. What did they shout? They shout, hallelujah. They say, fin, praise God. What do? I don know what they shouted. But I want to let you know something. It wasn't the loudness of the shout that caused the walls to fall. It was the confidence of the shout that caused the wall to fall. You see, it was a shout of confidence. It wasn like, oh, gee, it's about time. We can say something.

Finally, we can speak. It's not that. It was a shout of confidence. Because they trusted and believed in what God said so that they could know that it was time to speak for God. You see, let me tell you something.

When you are silent before your enemy in the midst of your battle. And you are willing to do what God says, no matter how ridiculous it seems to you, then you are ready to speak when God says to speak.

But until that time, you're not ready to speak. That's the lesson. See how clear that is? See how simple that is? But God has to bring you to that point. He has to help you understand: look, you got to do it my way. You got to follow my orders. You got to do what I say. And when you do, there's always victory. You'll always win. It's when you refuse to be silent and submissive. That when you speak, nothing happ. But when you're silent and submissive to what I've said. When I tell you to speak, and you speak, the walls come tumbling down.

And that's the lesson of the walls of Jericho. And they went straight in, and they conquered that city. And God did a great and mighty work. Let me talk to you just a few minutes about the consequences of their victory.

Four things I want you to notice. Number one, the people, the people were punished. The people were punished. The Bible says very clearly in verse 21 these words.

And they utterly destroyed everything in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword. Now think about that. That seems awful cr for a loving God to do that. Why would God send them in to destroy men and women and boys and girls? It's a good question. The Bible gives us an answer, and we need to understand it. God told them to do so. And they had to be obedient to God. See, but But they needed another chance. Let me tell you something.

They had 4 years to repent. All you got to do is read Genesis 15, 16. In Genesis 15, 16, God told Abraham. That after 400 years he would bring his people out of slavery after the sin of the Am had met its full measure. And we know that it was about the 430th year that Israel left Egypt, and they wandered for 40 more years, and there was 470 years they had the opportunity to repent, and they did not. Rah did. She repented. She believed. Joshua chapter 2, verses 8, 9, 10, and the following. We have heard.

We, not me, we have heard of the God of Israel. They had all heard. They had a chance to repent, and they would not repent. And they rejected the truth. And God said, they will die. Listen to what the Bible says in the book of Deuteronomy.

Seventh chapter, first verse. When the Lord your God shall bring you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and you shall clear away many nations before you. Verse 2. And when the Lord your God shall deliver them before you, and you shall defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them, you shall make no covenant with them, and show no favor to them. And then in the book of Deuteronomy, the 20th chapter, the 16th verse, only in the cities of these people that the Lord your God has given you.

as an inheritance. You shall not leave alive anything that breathes, but you shall utterly destroy them the Hittite, Amorite, Canaanite, Perizzite, Hivite, Jebus As the Lord your God has commanded you, in order that they may not teach you to do according to all their detestable things, which they have done for their gods, so that you would sin against the Lord your God. God says you go in and you wipe them all out because if you do not do that, they will teach you to sin against me, and I can't afford to let that happen.

So therefore you go in and you wipe them all out. Every one of them. You know, sometimes you like to. Dabble in sin, sometimes just little sins. Charles Spurgeon told the story of a lady who advertised for a chauffeur. Three men applied for the job in the interview. Each applicant was asked just one question. How close could you drive to the edge of a precipice without losing control? Number one answered, I can do it within six inches.

Number two answered, to within a hair breadth of the edge. And number three answered, Lady, if you want a daredevil for a driver, I am not your man.

My policy has always been to keep as far away from danger as possible. That's the one who got the job. You see, we don't like to stay far away from danger, do we? God says you wipe them all out because they're dangerous.

They're going to lead you astray. And if you don't kill them all, they're going to teach you to sin against me. And whenever Israel obeyed God, they succeeded. But you know what happened? They got a little soft. And they didn't wipe out the men and the women and the children. And listen to what the Bible says about that.

Psalm 106, verse 34. They did not destroy the peoples as the Lord commanded them. But they mingled with the nations and learned their practices and served their idols which became a snare to them. They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons. And shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with the blood. Thus they became unclean in their practices and played the harlot in their deeds.

Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people. God said, You got to wipe them out. You got to get rid of them. In the book of Deuteronomy, he said, This is what you got to do. If you don't do it, they're going to teach you stud against me. When they first began, they did it.

And then they got a little soft. They stopped doing it. And sure enough, it happened just like God said. And they even sacrificed their own children to idols. Because they were swept away, because they just played too close to danger. They walked too close to the edge, you see. The consequences on this day were accurate. They obeyed God. The people were punished. Number two, the city was consumed.

The city was consumed. Verse 2. It says, And they burned the city with fire and all that was in it. The city was consumed. They had to burn it because of purification purposes. You couldn't leave all the dead bodies just sitting out in the open. They burned them all. They burned everything. Destroyed it all. Because like Sodom, Jericho became a testimony to all those who reject the truth. The end. Is fire. The end is the burning hell. The Bible says in the book of Revelation 21, verse number 8.

but the fearful and unbelieving, the abominable, the murderer, the whore, the sorcerer, the id, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burn with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

The fires of Jericho are a testimony that God never, never appreciates or condones iniquity. It will always be destroyed. The people were punished. The city was consumed. But Rahab and her family were rescued. That's point number three.

Rahab and her family were rescued. The Bible says back in Hebrews chapter 11, verse number 31, these words, By faith Rah the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient after she had welcomed the spies in peace.

She did not perish because she was obedient. They were disobedient. She believed in the Lord God of Israel and they did not believe in the Lord God of Israel. She believes, see? Let me ask you a question.

Three times it says that she was a harlot in Joshua chapter 6. Did she deserve to die? You bet. So why did she live? The grace of God. It's a perfect picture of salvation. The world's going to hell. Are you going to go to hell with them? Oh, you'd be like Rahab and her family who believed in the Lord God of Israel. The Bible says in Joshua chapter 6, those great words, and she has lived in the midst of Israel to this day.

She has that everlasting abode with the people of God. The people were punished, the city was consumed, Rahab was rescued, and Joshua was justified. What's the last verse of Joshua 6? So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame was in all the land. The Lord was with him. Joshua was justified before the people of the land. All the people of the land would know about this great man. Why? Because he lived a life of obedience. trust and belie in the Lord God of Israel. And God honored him. And God gave him fame in all the land because he was the one who was willing to stand alone and trust his God.

And lead the people of God in the ways of God. Is that you? Are you like Joshua, the man of victory? You can be if you learn that when you go to battle, you silently wait upon God, submit to all that He says, and only speak when He says to speak.