The battle of Jericho

 Christ in all the scriptures

Jericho   Joshua chapter 6

There is no doubt the narrative of the destruction of Jericho has much wider, prophetic implications.  Jericho is Yarikh in Hebrew, the name of a lunar deity who was worshipped by most in the city.  Jericho, therefore was a city of gross idolatry, and the immorality and debauchery involved in that.  900years before God had cursed Canaan, and 400 years before, He declared a time of restraint.  That time was now fulfilled, in the language of scripture-"the iniquity of the Amorite was now full"-refer Genesis 15v16-21.  The tribes included in the title Amorites were stated as "The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites".  All these were under the judgment of God, and Jericho stood at their entrance.  It was a strongly fortified city, idolatrous, immoral, and hostile to Israel.  The gates and doors were closed, there was no comings and goings between the two.  Jericho stands as an illustration of the world without the true God.  The present world is a fortified system, hostile to God, and fearful of the people of God who threaten their lifestyle.  The present world is "kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men"-2nd Peter 3v7.  God is "longsuffering, not willing that any should perish", and He has demonstrated that He is "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful, and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children unto the third and to the fourth generation"-Exodus 34v6/7.   He is slow to anger, He is merciful to all, but when people continue in rejection of Him, He must, and will act.  He was merciful to the Amorites for 400 years; He has been merciful to the present age for nigh on 2000 years.  For Jericho the time was now past; for the present world that time is almost upon us.  The destruction of Jericho was total, apart from faithful Rahab and her family; the destruction of the entire world will be total, apart from the faithful in Christ Jesus.

The six days in the story take us back to creation, and the seventh day to the new creation.  The six days are the days of our lives here on earth; the seventh day is the day of eternal rest.  The "New Testament Joshua" will lead the armies of the Lord against the rebellion of man.  Just as there was no battle in Jericho, there will be no battle in the end times, when heaven opens to reveal the Commander of the armies of heaven (Revelation 19).  The day of God will come, in which there is "a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness"-2nd Peter 3v13.  A world without sin, transgression, or rebellion; a world in harmony with the Lord God, and with each other.  

Jericho, and its idolatrous and immoral ways will be no more.  The trumpet blasts of the priesthood on the seventh day alongside the Ark of the Covenant (symbolic of Christ in His death), and the victorious shout of the people of God in victory, collapsed the fortified walls of Jericho and the armies walked in and took control.  The victory shout of the people of God is repeated in the New Testament (Romans 8v37 and 1st Corinthians 15v54-57.

For six days they marched in silence around the walls of Jericho, no attack was made, just a testimony to their faith in the living God.  This is the role of the Church today, make the hostile world aware of our stand.  On the seventh day the walls fell-scholars tell us that this meant that the walls fell into the ground as in an earth tremor, and they entered Jericho on the flat.  This miraculous invasion of Jericho will be repeated on a global scale when Christ comes; then every building on earth that had been used to promote anti-God truths will be ground to powder (Isaiah 28v17; Revelation 16v18-21).  There will be an earth tremor under every city on earth.

The chapter ends with the delightful story of Rahab and her family.  Picture the scene.  Israel, with the help of the Lord, overrun Jericho, finishing the idolatrous worship of the moon, and its inhabitants perish.  However the Gentile Rahab and all her family were saved, and theirs were the only part of the wall which did not fall.  This was not the convenience of the moment, it was a lifelong and beyond commitment: 

"And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father's household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the messengers which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho"-Joshua 6v25.

She is a picture of the Gentile Church which was grafted in to the good olive tree of Israel (Romans 11v17) to be part of the people of God forever.  Centuries later Rahab appears in the genealogy leading to Christ (Matthew 1v5).  We Gentiles today are very much part of the new creation, as it says in Romans 11v16, "If the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy, and if the root be holy, so are the branches".  We are both (Jew and Gentile) in unbreakable union with Christ (Romans 11v25-32). 

It is a story of tragedy and triumph, and so is the story of the world.