The Israelites' Faith, Part 2

If you have your Bible, Hebrews 11, verse number 30 Hebrews 11, verse number 30, there are 40 years in between verse number 29 and verse number 30 You don't see that in the text, but that's exactly the time element. 40 years between them crossing the sea in verse 29 to them conquering the city in verse number 30 Those are the two major events collectively in the life of Israel that exhibited their faith in the true and living God Those 40 years in between, there was nothing worthy that they did that would put them in the hall of faith because they lived lives of disbelief

They lived lives that grumbled and criticized God's ways They lived lives that grumbled and mumbled against God's provision And so they wandered for 40 years in unbelief And it wasn't until Israel came across the Jordan, entering the land of Canaan, when they faced the great fortified city of Jericho, that they would once again exhibit faith in the true and living God In other words, they would take God at His word They would believe exactly what He said You know, we only have two options. I believe what God says, or I believe what I say, or what someone else says

But those are the only two options we have. I will take God at His word, or I will doubt what God says and trust someone else. I can trust my own intellect, my own instinct, my own ingenuity, or I trust in the inspiration of God's holy word The question comes, what do you trust in? What do you believe in? Do you live a life of faith? Because Israel, when they come to the walls of Jericho, faithfully and carefully follow everything God says to the nth degree Because faith is, as we have said for over 20 weeks, trusting obedience

It is believing absolutely in what God says and behaving accordingly to all that God says We've told you this for 20 weeks, and we're gonna continue to tell it to you through the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews Let me say it to you another way Faith receives categorically everything God says It doesn't receive it questioningly or with curiosity, no, it receives it categorically, emphatically, unquestionably, everything that God says When you came to saving faith, you believed that Jesus was the son of God

You took God at his word, that his death on Calvary's cross was sufficient for your forgiveness They took your place on Calvary's cross You believed what God said You believed that he died and rose again the third day You believed he's coming back to take you home to be with him You believed those things because God said them And you believe them because you've received them categorically You will see in the story of Jericho that they receive God's word categorically But not only does the people of faith receive God's word categorically, they rely confidently in God's word

They have to because they believe that what God said will happen And so not only do they rely confidently in God's word, but they risk courageously for the sake of God Men and women of faith risk courageously their lives because they believe what God says And they rest calmly because they know God is sovereign And they rejoice continually because they know that they have to rejoice in the Lord always And that's what they do Those are men and women of faith And all of those characteristics are evident in every character in Hebrews 11

It was characteristic of the life of Israel when they came to the walls of Jericho So the Bible says in Hebrews 11 verse number 30, by faith, the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days Now this was the greatest military siege in the history of Israel This is known by every Israelite, the great military siege of Jericho So turn back with me if you would to Joshua chapter six Joshua chapter six. I know you grew up in Sunday school hearing a story about the walls of Jericho

Maybe you walked around your classroom, you know, and walked around the chairs in your classroom and tried to reinvent the scene of the walls of Jericho come tumbling down It is a miraculous event But Israel had to believe what God said So let me look at the story with you this morning Joshua six, verse number one Now Jericho was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel No one went out and no one came in We'll stop right there This is the problem of faith, the problem of faith The task before them was insurmountable

Now, if you know anything about the walls of Jericho, there was, Jericho is built on a, is a tell, a city built upon a city built upon a city And the tell was surrounded by a rampart That rampart was a steep one And it stood about 15 feet tall On top of that was a wall that stood 26 feet tall, six feet thick And then there was a landmass which houses were built Many believe that Rahab's house was there We'll talk more about her next week And then there was another wall that stood 46 feet above the ground

So now you have Israel coming to this fortified city, which was an impregnable fortress, a magnificent structure How would they ever conquer it? But they had to conquer the enemies in the land of Canaan This was the problem of faith This is what kept them out of the land 40 years earlier Remember Deuteronomy chapter one? It says, this is what they cried, the cities are large and fortified to the heavens In other words, this is what they saw They saw cities that were huge and fortified up to the heavens, their walls were so high, which made them afraid

So Moses said, do not be shocked, nor fear them The Lord, your God who goes before you will himself fight on your behalf, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes In the wilderness, where you saw how the Lord, your God carried you, just as a man carries a son in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place But for all this, you did not trust the Lord, your God That's why they wandered for 40 years But it's reminded them of the fact that no matter how impregnable the fortress is, no matter how large the enemy, God has given you this land It's yours for the taking

And so they come to this very first obstacle, having crossed the Jordan, entered into the land of Canaan, the land of promise, the place where they've been waiting for 40 years as they wandered through the wilderness for another 430 years before that, before they actually were able to go from Egypt into the land of Canaan This was the place of rest But there was a problem That problem was that they had to believe everything that God said So you move from the problem of faith to the promise of faith It says in verse number two, the Lord said to Joshua, who is the Lord? Well, we know who he is

Earlier in verse number 15, he is the captain of the Lord's host who was speaking to Joshua Joshua came face to face with the pre-incarnate Christ at Christophany If we had time, we'd go back to tell you who is the Lord of hosts? Who is the Lord of armies? Yahweh sebeoth He is the Lord of multitudes He is the one who came face to face with Joshua who would speak to Joshua because the Lord of armies has given you the victory And this is the promise of faith He says, see, I've given Jericho into your hand with its king and the valiant warriors

The Lord says to Joshua, I've given Jericho to your hands. I've given you all the valiant warriors into your hands In other words, the victory is yours You've already won the victory This is the promise of faith Jericho, I mean, Joshua needed to understand this Joshua's a warrior He's a man's man He's ready to go to war God says, Joshua, I've given you the victory You are going to win Now that did not negate his responsibility, did it not? Of course not He still had to obey what God said He still had to be obedient and submissive to all that God said But God gave him the promise of faith

You've already won the battle Now think about that The Bible says in Romans 8, 37, that we, you and me, are overwhelming conquerors through him who loved us In other words, we've already conquered our enemy Who's our enemy? The world, Satan, and the flesh But they've already been conquered We've already won the victory John 16, 33 What did Christ say? In the world, you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer Rejoice continually Rest calmly Risk courageously Why? I've overcome the world The world's already been overcome By who? Christ himself Where does Christ live? Christ lives in us

We are overwhelming conquerors through him who loved us because he reigns in us He's already overcome the world He's already overcome Satan John 12, 31 He's already judged him Romans 16, 20 says, you will soon crush Satan under your feet Satan is a defeated foe How about the flesh? Galatians 5, 24 Those who put on the Lord Jesus Christ have overcome the flesh They've crucified the flesh You've gained victory over the flesh You're already a victorious warrior You've already won It doesn't mean you don't go to war You still do

You still put on the armor of God, right? You still have to be submissive to the word of God and trust God, but you are a victorious warrior because of who Christ is Here is a Christophany, the pre-incarnate Christ, coming to Joshua and saying, the city's yours You've won the victory Now he's gonna tell him how he's gonna win the victory So you move from the problem of faith to the promise of faith, to the perplexity of faith Listen to what he says He says, verse three, you shall march around the city, all the men of war, circling the city once You shall do this for six days

Also, seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams, ram's horns before the ark Then on the seventh day, you shall march around the city seven times and the priests shall blow the trumpets It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout And the wall of the city will fall down flat and the people will go up, every man straight ahead This is the perplexity of faith

Joshua's gonna be thinking, are you kidding me? We're gonna walk around the city? Well, the city was probably six acres on the inside of the wall, 10 acres when you surround the entire wall So it wouldn't take long for 600,000 soldiers to walk around those 10 acres, because they could do that in a very brief moment of time Think about how Joshua is gonna explain this to his soldiers Hey guys, we're gonna go to battle, the city's ours And as they're sharpening the swords and they're getting ready to go to battle, he says, this is how we're gonna do it We're gonna walk around the city

Then we're gonna come back and sit down for a while Then we're gonna wake up tomorrow and walk around the city again How does that go over? So this is what receiving categorically what God says without questioning what God says Faith doesn't question what God says Faith believes what God says It believes what God says unequivocally Trust what God says, and Joshua did You will note that in the crossing of the sea, they began to criticize Moses and complain against him But you will not read of one complaint or one criticism by the nation of Israel in Joshua chapter six, not one

Nobody says, Joshua, what are you doing? You're like Moses You have no leadership skills We're gonna be killed, we'll be shot at, we'll die No one says that, no one complains They learn from their fathers what not to say, what not to do, and they learn to trust what God says After 40 years of walking in the wilderness, waiting for that generation to die off, finally, when the last guy dies, it's time to go in They cross the Jordan, they face the walls of Jericho, and God says, this is how you're gonna do it It's called the perplexity of faith God asks us to do things that seem so perplexing

Now, we know the story, so we've read the story We understand the story, we reenact the story We can tell it how the nation had walked around the city for six days, then on the seventh day, they walked around seven times, they blew the trumpets, they made a shout, and the walls came down But put yourself in their sandals Think about what they were thinking In fact, let's do it this way Let's read what the Lord says to you and me about the perplexity of faith When he says, you've heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth But I say to you, do not resist an evil person

But whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other to him also If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also Whoever forces you to go one mile and go with him too, give to him who asks of you and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you And then he says, you have heard that it was said, you should love your neighbor and hate your enemy But I say to you, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you

So you may be sons of your father who is in heaven, for he causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous The perplexity of faith You've heard that it was said, that you're to love, who? Your brother But I say to you, love your enemy Pray for those who persecute you The perplexity of faith It goes on, Romans chapter 12 Paul says, never pay back evil for evil to anyone That's hard, isn't it? We wanna pay back evil for evil Respect what is right inside of all men, if possible, so far as it depends upon you Be at peace with all men

Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord But if your enemy is hungry, feed him If he's thirsty, give him a drink And so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good The perplexity of faith When someone does you evil, what do you do? Pay them back? No, you return good for evil How about in a nasty divorce, what do you do? Return good for evil Because that's what the Bible says It's called the perplexity of faith

How do we live a life of faith when we have to trust God absolutely for what he says? Can I pay back evil for evil just even once? Do I have to love my enemy when they're so vicious against me? How about forgiveness? Luke 17, Christ says, woe to you who caused your brother to stumble But if your brother repents, you need to forgive him And if he repents up to seven times a day, you ought to forgive him Luke 17, one to four The disciples say, Lord, increase our faith We can't do that We need more faith Christ says, you don't need more faith You just need to be obedient to what I say

Just do what I tell you to do So you come to Matthew 18, and Christ says that we are to be forgiving And Peter says, Lord, are we to forgive our brothers seven times a day? Which in a normal eight-hour day, or 16-hour day because you sleep eight hours, right? It's every two hours and 15 minutes, you forgive your brother But Christ says, no, no, no You missed the point, Peter It's 70 times seven Every 1.9 minutes, you forgive your brother You're always to forgive your brother There's never a time you don't forgive your brother You always have a forgiving attitude The perplexity of faith

The Lord is asking you to do things that seem completely illogical and unreasonable That's what faith is It's taking God at His word You say, okay, Lord, that's what you want me to do? I will rest calmly. I will rejoice continually. I will risk courageously to do what you said to do because I received categorically everything that you have said And I trust you to accomplish your purposes That's what faith is And this is the nation God says, the city's yours You've won the victory You can't sit back and twiddle your thumbs You have to be obedient to what God says

You have to be submissive to the word of God So God says, here is the plan This is how it's going to take place This is your responsibility as you live a life of faith Trusting in what I have already said to you What does John say in 1 John 5 for? This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith Trusting obedience, believing absolutely, behaving accordingly to all that God says That's what overcomes the world Trusting in the life of the true and living God

So you move from the problem of faith to the promise of faith, to the perplexity of faith, to the patience of faith, the patience of faith So Joshua, a son of Nun, called the priests and said to them, take up the Ark of the Covenant Let seven priests carry seven trumpets of ram's horns before the Ark of the Lord They said to the people, go forward March around the city Let the armed men go on before the Ark of the Lord And it was so

When Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of ram's horns, before the Lord went forward and blew the trumpets, and the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord followed them The armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets And the rear guard came after the Ark while they continued to blow the trumpets 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 shout So he had the Ark of the Lord taken around the city, circling it once

Then they came to the camp and spent the night in the camp This is the patience of faith The patience of faith Because they would do this every day Now think about this Joshua, the captain of Israel, the follower of Moses, the leader of Israel, sits down with his men and tells them how it's all gonna happen This is what we're gonna do today So they do They come back, waiting for the next day He tells them, today, we're gonna do the same thing we did yesterday And so they get up and do the same thing they did yesterday On day three, they get up

Joshua says, okay, on today, day three, we're gonna do the exact same thing we did yesterday Don't say a word, don't speak, impossible for people No earphones, no AirPods, nothing to listen to, no music to listen to They gotta be silent Only thing you hear are the trumpets that are blowing and the footsteps of the soldiers around you There's a purpose behind all this What is God doing with them? He's telling them and teaching them about the patience of faith Why? Because what's more important than winning the battle on the outside is winning the battle on the inside Very, very important

What is more important than conquering the city? It's conquering your soul Proverbs 16, 32 says, he that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh the city It's called the patience of faith God wants you to repeat, repeat the same thing over and over and over again How long do I return good for evil? You just keep doing it over and over and over again And over again How long do I love my enemy? You just keep loving your enemy over and over and over again How long do I forgive? You forgive over and over and over again It's repetition, same thing over and over But there's no results

They're walking around the city, no results Walk around the city, no results Walk around the city, no results It's called the patience of faith You see, when you conquer a city, there are trophies, accolades, applause There's recognition, everybody knows But when you conquer your soul, nobody knows And nobody cares, except God And that's the most important thing, conquering the soul Because what's on the inside matters And so the Lord was teaching the patience of faith Because you see, God asks us to do things that seem impossible, illogical, irrational That's what faith is

It's taking God at His word and saying, yes, Lord, I will obey Even though there are no results today, no results tomorrow or the next day, what is God teaching us? Patience of faith Keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking It's called the perseverance of the saints You just keep persevering on and on Why? Because what God says is more important than what somebody else is going to do You have to believe that Can you believe that? That's what faith is It's called the patience of faith And then, this is so good Then you have the passion of faith The passion of faith This is the next point

It says, now Joshua rose early in the morning, verse 15 Then on the seventh day, they rose early at the dawning of the day This is the passion of faith They could have very easily said, you know what? We're just walking around the city It doesn't take us that long to do it Let's just sleep in tomorrow We can do it tomorrow afternoon We don't have to rise early and walk around the city We can sleep in, we can do it in the afternoon We can have a little nap in the afternoon, maybe do it in the evening There's no big deal about getting up early and walking around the city

We can rest a while, take it easy See, the passion of faith is not lazy The passion of faith is very diligent It has a zealousness behind it They could very easily say, you know, we're just walking around the city Nothing's happening, no big deal But it is a big deal Because you see, you're believing in what God says And when you believe what God says, listen, there's always passion behind your life, always When you believe what God says, you don't delay When you believe what God says, you act obediently, immediately

When you believe what God says, you want to do it, even though there might not be any results happening, you're gonna do what God says because he said it That's a person of faith And God is teaching the patients of faith But all the while, there's this passion behind them, getting up early, putting on their paraphernalia, doing what they do, walk around the city, walk around the city, walk around the city And on the seventh day, on the seventh day, Joshua says, got a new plan We're not gonna walk just around the city once We're gonna walk around the city seven times today

Woo-hoo! Seven, not just once, seven times But don't say a word You can't speak a word Just gotta be obedient to what God says Until I say, shout Then you can speak But not until then You see, the passion of faith was strong They wanted to obey, and they did See, they had learned from their parents that if you disobey or you delay in your obedience, it's gonna cost you And they learned that lesson well And they weren't gonna follow that lesson They realized obedience is the answer And listen, when you truly believe what God says, there's an eagerness, there is a zealousness behind you

People of faith are not lazy people People of faith are not undisciplined people People of faith are not sluggish people People of faith are high-energy people, strong people They're energetic people They wanna serve the Lord because they're not serving anybody else but the Lord They're soldiers in the army of God And they know that God's word is at stake and that God has a plan, and you long to serve the true and living God And when you understand that, you can't wait to get up and do it, even though there might not be a result that day You get up

And ladies, you love your husbands even though they don't know the Lord And you return good for evil even though they don't know the Lord, because you're doing it for the Lord You can't wait to do it once again for the Lord You can't wait to forgive one more time for the Lord You can't wait to return good for evil one more time because you're doing it for the Lord That's people of faith That's why they're in the hall of faith The question comes, is that you, is that me? Because it needs to be Then you have the particulars of faith Three things, silence, submission, and shouting

These are the particulars You walk around the city and you don't say a word You do your obedience in silence That's hard for a lot of people God wants them not to speak to one another, not to say a word, but to keep silent until Joshua says you can speak But until then, you keep silent The Lord wants us all to keep silent They're very meditative for Israel But then they think about what they're doing Think about their trust in God, their belief in God Think about how God's gonna do this How's this all gonna play out? They had to wait for God to act The patience of faith was real

The passion of faith was real The perplexity of faith was real But the particulars of faith, they had to actually live out walking in silence Because they wanted to obey the Lord You know, so many times, it's hard for us to walk in silence Just do what God says without saying a word But the Bible says in Habakkuk 2, verse number 20, the Lord is in His holy temple Let all the earth be silent before Him God is speaking, God reigns Zephaniah 1, seven says, be silent before the Lord, your God

And you know the verse in Isaiah 30, verse number 15, which says, in quietness and trust shall be your strength But you are unwilling That's why the Bible says in Psalm 46, 10, be quiet, be still, and know that I am God Israel was being quiet They were being still because they were gonna let God be God You know, so many times, you just can't be still We can't be silent When we face an impregnable fortress, when we face something that sounds, seems so insurmountable, we have to say something We have to rationalize the conversation We have to bring people to our point of view, to our opinion

You just need to be quiet Trust the Lord to do what God's going to do And leave it at that And then there was submission They said to walk, obey, one day for six days, one time for six days, seven times on day seven They just had to submit to what God said And they did, without complaining, without grumbling There's not one complaint or grumbling noise in the crowd They simply do what God has told them to do And Joshua was the man who obeyed You know, God just wants obedience When God told the blind man in John nine to put mud on his eyes, go wash in the pool of Siloam Go wash

Why? It just sounds so ridiculous. I'm blind Now you want me to go wash in the pool? When God tells Gideon, Gideon, you got too many men. I'm going to tailor you down to 300 men Illogical, irrational Said to be submissive to what God said When you go to war, you're going to use torches, lanterns, pots and pans Irrational But they won the battle of the Midianites When David goes to war, he takes a slingshot and fires blue stones to defeat Goliath God just says, do what I tell you to do Be obedient, be submissive Let me do what I do You just follow me And God works

And then, when Joshua said to shout, they would shout So the Bible says these words, in Joshua chapter six, it says, that on the seventh day, they rose early at the dawning of the day and marched around the city in the same manner seven times Only on that day, they marched around the city seven times And the seventh time, when the priest blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, shout for the Lord has given you the city The city shall be under the ban And it shall, and 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 he had hid the messengers whom he sent But as for you, only keep yourselves from the things under the ban So that you do not covet them and take some of them or those things under the ban and make the camp of Israel accursed and bring trouble on it But all the silver and the gold and articles of bronze and iron are holy to the Lord They shall go into the treasury of the Lord So the people shouted The priest blew the trumpets And when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout and the wall fell down flat

So the people went up into the city, every man straight ahead and they took the city They shouted What did they shout? You know, Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, Jericho, Jericho No, I don't know what they said. I don't know what they shouted, but they shouted it loud And then the walls came They didn't shout after the walls came down They shouted and the walls came down And they could say, well, this is ridiculous What are we gonna shout at? What's that? Oh, you're gonna say, finally, we're done walking What are we gonna say? And how's that gonna cause the walls to fall? No questions asked

Just do what you're told to do And they did The walls came down, they went into the city Imagine that What an incredible scene That's the power of faith That's the last point, the power of faith The walls, the walls came down The people went in and destroyed everyone in the city They killed them all Look what the Bible says 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 Ooh, wow, why? They killed everybody

Sounds kind of cruel, doesn't it? Sounds nasty, doesn't it? Why would they kill all the men and women? Why would they kill all that lived there, even the children? Why would God have them do that? But God made it very clear to them in the book of Deuteronomy Deuteronomy chapter seven, verses one and two The Lord said these words

When the Lord your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Gragasites, the Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hebrides, Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you, when the Lord your God delivers you before them and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them

You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods Then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and he will quickly destroy you But thus you shall do to them You shall tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, hew down their ashram, and burn their graven images of fire, for you are holy, a holy people to the Lord your God The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth

And Moses repeats that When you go in, you kill them all, you destroy them all Because if you don't, they will turn your hearts So in Psalm 106, the Bible says, 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 and he abhorred his inheritance He didn't obey On this day, they did They took by faith what God said They went in and destroyed everyone and everything because God knew if they didn't do that, they would turn the hearts of the people away from their God And God says, I can't afford to let that happen You're too valuable to me So you must punish everyone, destroy them all They did They obeyed The city, of course, the city was burnt to the ground

It says in verse 24, they burned the city with fire and all that was in it Why? Because the Bible says our God is a consuming fire It's an illustration of God's judgment upon man As Sodom was destroyed by fire, so Jericho would be destroyed by fire And then Rahab The people were punished The city, the city was destroyed But Rahab, she and her family were spared Why? Because they believed what God said So what about all the people in the city? Didn't they have a chance to believe? Yeah, they did They did Because Rahab had heard about the crossing of the sea, about the Israelites

Rahab had heard about the God of Israel, and she believed in that God The citizens of Jericho had also heard, but they refused not to believe And you refuse to believe what God says about who He is and what He does? There's only a consuming fire that awaits you You must trust and believe what God says And God spared Rahab Rahab the harlot Wow, what a story And that's next week He rescues Rahab, and she becomes pivotal to the coming of the Messiah That's the miracle of Rahab

Not only is she a believer in the Lord God of Israel, but God puts her in the lineage of the Messiah to show His grace and His mercy upon people But she believed She had the faith that the Israelites had But they believed without reservation in exactly what God says because of who He is How about you? Is that your life? Is that the way you live every single day? Trusting and obeying without questioning what God says in obedience to His word and letting God do what God's gonna do in His timing, in His way, just submitting to all that He says That is the faith of the Israelites Let's pray

Father, thank You for today, the opportunity to give us a study of Your Word We are a blessed people Lord, go before us this day We want to live a life of faith, believing only in what You have said, not trusting our own instincts, our own intelligence, just trusting the inspired Word of God to live our lives In Jesus' name, amen.