July 3, 2016 - Joshua at Jericho

TONY & MICHELLE

MEMORY VERSE

Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the Lord swore to their ancestors to give them, 

Deuteronomy 31:7b

Last time we talked about how God sometimes asks us to do things that are scary.  It takes a lot of faith to follow God in these times. We learned that when we don't have the faith to follow God even in the scary times, we can miss out on the wonderful things that God has planned for us.

Last week, we saw the Israelites were too scared to enter the promised land and were made by God to wander in the wilderness for forty years.  Only the two spies who had courage in their faith in God, Joshua and Caleb, survived and were able to come back to the promised land.

By this time, Moses was one hundred twenty years old and he knew that he would not live much longer.  He appointed Joshua to take his place as leader of the Israelites and lead the people into the Promised Land to conquer it.  The people all promised to follow Joshua just the way they had followed Moses.  After Moses died, it was time for Israel to take the land God had promised to them.

The Israelites came to the Jordan river and camped on the

other side from Canaan.  Joshua knew the first city they would come to was a great walled city named Jericho.  He sent two spies to go and check it out and report back to him.  So the two spies crossed the Jordan river and entered Jericho.  They stayed with a woman named Rahab and her family. 

Now the king of Jericho heard that there were two Israelite spies in the city and that they were staying with Rahab.  Knowing that the Israelites were a mighty people who had a Mighty God, the king wanted to get rid of these spies right away.  He shut the city gates so they couldn't escape and sent soldiers to arrest the spies.

 Luckily, Rahab heard about it in time and hid the two men on her roof.  When the soldiers came to her door, she said, "What men? Oh, you mean the two that were here earlier.  I didn't know they were spies.  They left a while ago, just before you

shut the city gates.  If you hurry you might be able to catch them."  In this way, Rahab was able to fool the soldiers into leaving.

Rahab then told the Israelite spies, "I know who you are and I know you are here to conquer Jericho.

 Everyone in the city has heard about you and what your God has done for you.  We are all so scared that it feels like our hearts are melting inside of us.  Since I just saved your life, I want you to promise me that, when you come, that you will spare me and my family."

The spies agreed and told her that she needed to hang a red cord our of her window so that the army would know which house was hers.  Then, since her house was on the city wall, she was able to let them out her window outside of the city walls so they could escape.  

The spies then went back and told Joshua all that had happened and he agreed to spare Rahab and her family.  

Now it was time to cross the Jordan River into the land of Canaan.  Getting two spies across was one thing but getting millions of people across was quite another.  Upon

God's orders, Joshua gathered the people at the river bank and put the priests with the Ark of the Covenant in front.  He then had the priests with the Ark stand in the water.  Just as they did, God caused the water upstream to be

stopped up and the river ran dry.  So all the Israelites were able to walk across the riverbed safely.

Joshua had twelve men, one from each tribe, pick up a large stone from the riverbed and take it across to where they would camp

on the other side.  Once they were all across, the priests came up out of the riverbed and God once again released the water to flow normally.  Joshua then had the men stack the stones in the camp. He told them, "whenever your children ask you what this pile of stones means, tell them what great thing your God did for you

today."  

But how were they going to conquer Jericho when such a huge wall had been built around it?  Upon God's orders once again, Joshua gathered the people. He then had them walk around

the city  in silence while being led by seven priests blowing ram's horns.  Then they went back to camp.  The next day they did the same thing. Then again on the third day, the fourth day, as well as the fifth and sixth day.  The people inside the city couldn't figure out

what they were doing and started laughing at them.  But everything was going to change on the seventh day.

On the seventh day, Joshua had them walk around the city seven times.  Then, as the priests blew the horns, the Israelites shouted and God caused the walls to tumble to the ground.  The great wall that had protected the city was GONE!  The Israelites rushed in and conquered the city.  Everyone and everything, including the animals, were killed.  That is, except for Rahab and her family.  They were spared just as the spies had promised. (Eventually, Rahab married an Israelite and became the great-grandmother of King David.)

Afterwards, Joshua and his men burned Jericho to the

ground.  It had begun.  Israel was on its way to having the land that God had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob so long ago.