The Walls of Jericho

Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray.

If you see a random bumblebee run up here, don't be alarmed. He's just really full of himself today. So, to start out today, we're going to be, first I wanted to make an announcement about, we're doing the Bible Memory Project, if you're doing that or if you'd like to do that. It's just every month we learn a new verse every week. We have packs that come with a bookmark, a card to write out the verse, stickers, and bracelets that have the first letter of each word in the verse that helps to kind of jog your memory on memorizing Bible verses. And so, this is something Brandon and I started in August, and we, just to see how it was, and it's been going pretty well for us. So, if you'd like to participate in that, we'll have the packs on the back table, and there's two different sizes, so you'll just have to kind of figure out how big your wrist is, and, or if you don't want to wear bracelets, at least the bookmarks and cards and everything are super helpful. So, we're going to first read our verse

that we'll be memorizing this week, and it comes out of Psalm 51. That's the chapter... Oh, we have last week's up there, too. So, it's up there, too. So, now I lost my train of thought. Oh, we're doing Psalm 51 this month and next month. And so, last week was verse one, so we can read that together if you'd like, and then this week is verse two. And, yeah, so it's up here. If you'd like to read it with us, and it starts, "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgression. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin." This is the word of the Lord. All right? And so, once again, if you want to participate, check with Brandon, and we'll have those sitting on the back table now.

As we get started today, we're going to go ahead and stand, and we'll read our verses that are also coming out of Psalm as we begin our time of worship today, and they're coming out of Psalm 33, and we're going to be reading verses 20 through 22 together. And it says, "Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield, for our heart is glad in Him. Because we trust in His holy name, let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you." This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. God, we thank you for the opportunity to gather here today on this beautiful Sunday, and we thank you for those that are watching online, and we just thank you for the encouragement that we can have from one another every week as we fellowship together and we worship you.

And as we read the promises in your word, and you just remind us how you are helping our shield and how your love is steadfast and the hope we have in you is greater than anything that we can imagine. We just ask that you be with our service today and allow it to glorify you. In Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Our first Song we're going to be starting out with today is "The Lion and the Lamb."

He's coming on the clouds. Kings and kingdoms will bow down. Every chain will break. Broken hearts declare His praise. But who can stop the Lord Almighty? Our God is the Lion, the Lion of Judah. He's roaring with power and fighting our battles. Every knee will bow before Him. Our God is the Lamb, the Lamb that was slain. For the sins of the world, His blood breaks the chains. Every knee will bow before the Lion and the Lamb. Every knee will bow before Him. Open up the gates. Make way before the King of kings. The God who comes to save, is here to set the captives free. Who can stop the Lord Almighty? Our God is the Lion, the Lion of Judah. He's roaring with power and fighting our battles. Every knee will bow before Him. Our God is the Lamb. The Lamb that was slain for the sins of the world.

His blood breaks the chains. Every knee will bow before the Lion and the Lamb. Every knee will bow before Him. Our God is the Lion, the Lion of Judah. He's roaring with power and fighting our battles. Every knee will bow before Him. Our God is the Lamb, the Lamb that was slain. For the sins of the world, His blood breaks the chains. Every knee will bow before the Lion and the Lamb. Every knee will bow before Him.

All right. If you want to remain standing, you can, or you can sit if you'd like. We're going to be moving in to our prayer and share time. And if you're watching online, there will be a phone number for you to text if you would like to send us any prayer requests or anything you'd like to share here with us. Just do that, and we'll be sure to do that here. And then we're going to be muted here during that time in our service. So give us a few minutes, and then we'll be back and move into our time of communion. And we're going to be singing "Rock of Ages." Rock of Ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood of me. From thy wounded side which flowed, be of sin the double cure. Save from wrath and make me pure. Not the labors of my hands can fulfill thy laws.

Demand. Could my zeal no respite know? Could my tears forever flow? All for sin could not atone. Thou must save and thou alone. My hand I bring. Simply to the cross I cling. Naked come to Thee for dress. Helpless look to Thee for grace. Foul I to the fountain fly. Watch me, Savior, or I die. While I draw this fleeting breath. When mine eyes shall close in death. When I soar to worlds unknown. See Thee on Thy judgment throne. Rock of ages cleft for me. Let me hide myself in Thee. Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Thanks, Russell. So, last night we got the opportunity to go to a friend's house who has a massive telescope, and the kids in all of us got to see Jupiter and Saturn and the moon, and Saturn was pretty amazing. That was the one I was pretty most excited about, but it was really awesome to see. And last week when we were planning the best day to see all that, our friend asked Evelyn, "Do you know why Jupiter or Saturn has rings?" And she just said, "Well, that's how God made it," which was a very good answer. But when we were on the way home, we talked about how God also uses science and math, and how just using those things, he was able to create all of these things out of nothing. And the God who created, I mean, Saturn's just there. It's just chilling in the sky, which is

amazing. The God who created all of that and how he still cares in our lives and takes care of us here and the hope that we can have is even greater than Saturn and Jupiter and the moon. And I was thinking about how just in our little congregation, how many times we've relied on hope. I mean, Susan had a transplant. Brandon had a transplant. Neil took a detour, as he just keeps calling that, with his COVID. And Debbie got a house and all kinds of things like that. And we have new babies and we've got, we have grief and loss and all of that. And we still have hope in that. And I think this was the song that was Neil's favorite for a while, before his detour, and then probably after. But I do love this song because it just reminds us

of how great that hope is and how it affects each of our lives and how sometimes even just looking without a telescope at the stars to imagine how great and powerful God is. And he loves us so much. And his love, I think, is probably even greater than the power that he has to keep everything up in the sky there for us. So as we sing today, we're going to be singing "Living Hope," and then we're going to be moving into our time of communion. And I just wanted you to just focus on how hope has been in your life and how if that's something that you don't get to experience, you should look into the gospel because it's pretty, in the times when you feel when hope seems not there, it is there. And it's something that

sometimes you just have to grasp and hang on to to get through this life. So we're going to sing together this and then we'll partake in communion.

In desperation, I turned to heaven and spoke your name into the night. Then through the darkness, your loving kindness tore through the shadows of my soul. The work is finished. The end is written. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Who could imagine so great a mercy? What heart could fathom such boundless grace? The God of ages stepped down from glory to wear my sin and bear my shame. The cross has spoken. I am forgiven. The King of Kings calls me His own. Beautiful Savior, I'm Yours forever. Jesus Christ, my living home. Hallelujah! Praise the One who set me free. Hallelujah! Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in Your name. Jesus Christ, my living home. Then came the morning that sealed the promise. Your buried body began to breathe. Out of the

silence, the roaring lion declared the grave has no claim on me. Then came the morning that sealed the promise. Your buried body began to breathe. Out of the silence, the roaring lion declared the grave has no claim on me. Jesus, yours is the victory. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Oh God, you are my living hope. 1 Peter chapter 1 begins like this in verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born

again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And if you read in some different translations, one of the ways that this word has been translated in the past is not just a living hope, but a lively hope. And I love that picture of us having a hope that is alive, but it's also lively. And so in the spring when we're driving to my parents' house, there's a farm right around the corner and they always have baby sheep. It's one of those heartwarming things about spring to look out there and there's, you know, a whole bunch of little baby sheep and they're just sort of bouncing around the fields just full of joy. And the picture of the hope that you and I have in Christ is not one with sort of just an intellectual hope, and it's definitely based on fact and on reality, but it's a hope that has an effect on us, that it brings us alive. Listen to how Peter describes this hope.

He says, "To an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you." You see, we're used to things in this life that go out of date, that spoil, that aren't good anymore. Things that get dirty or get contaminated and we can't use anymore. Things that fade and wear out or things that are even in danger of being stolen. But listen to what we hear about the hope that we have. It's imperishable, doesn't spoil, it's undefiled, it doesn't get contaminated or dirty, it's unfading, it doesn't wear out, and it's kept in heaven for you. Peter will then end the chapter like this, knowing that you were ransomed from your futile ways of life inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver and gold, but that with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

He was foreknown before the foundation of the world and was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you, who through him are believers in God, and who raised him from the dead, gave him glory so that your faith and your hope are in God. And so this morning as we celebrate the gospel together here, as we break this bread in this cup that remembers the death of Jesus in our place for our sins, and as we celebrate on a Sunday morning just like that first day of the week 2,000 years ago as we see our hope in Christ being alive and greater than death and greater than sin and greater than our fear. We're going to remember that living hope this morning as we partake. Let's pray. We'll read from 1 Corinthians, and then we will partake of the bread and the cup together. Father in heaven, thank you that we have a lively hope.

A hope that is not just based in speculation or in wishing, but a hope that is based in the reality of your son and of his finished work on the cross. And so I ask this morning that as we break this bread, as we drink this cup, that you would restore our hope, that you would strengthen our hope, and that you would help us as we so many times become distracted and we shift our eyes to our worries and our fears and all of those things that threaten to overwhelm us, that in this moment you would help us fix our eyes on Jesus. We thank you so much for him and for his sacrifice on our behalf. I ask that you bless this cup and this bread. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Paul writes this. He says, "What I received from the Lord, what I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks,

he broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.'" Let's partake of this bread together. In the same way, he also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me." Let's partake of the cup together. "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes."

One of the truly astonishing and awesome things about the sermon Brandon preached last week, and he's going to continue preaching about this week, is that God the Father sent God the Son, whose parents and grandparents would have called Joshua, to speak to his namesake, Joshua. The end of the sermon this morning is going to be the fully human Joshua preserving Rahab, who will be the great-great-great-grandmother of Jesus, whose Hebrew name was Joshua. And the passage starts this way: "When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with a drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, "Are you for us, or are you for our adversaries?" And he said, "No, but I am the commander of the army of the Lord.

Now I have come." And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshipped and said to him, "What does my Lord say to his servant?" And the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, "Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so. Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out and none came in. And the Lord said to Joshua, "See, I have given Jericho into your hands and its king and mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days. Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark. On this day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. And when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the walls of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up.

Everyone straight before him. So Joshua, the son of Nun, called the priests and said to them, "Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of ram's horn before the ark of the Lord." And he said to the people, "Go forward, march around the city, and let the armed men pass on before the ark of the Lord." On the seventh day they rose early, at the dawn of the day, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times. It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. And at the seventh time, when the priest had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, "Shout! For the Lord has given you the city, and the city and all that was within it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent. But you, keep yourself from there.

Keep yourself from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them, you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it. But all the silver and gold and every vessel of bronze and iron are holy to the Lord. He shall go into the treasury of the Lord. So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, and the walls fell down flat. So that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city. Then they devoted all in the city to destruction. Both men and women, young and old, oxen and sheep, and donkeys with the edge of the sword. But the two men who had spied out the land, Joshua said, "Go into the prostitute's house and bring out from there Rahab and all who belong to her, as you swore to her." So the young men who had been spies

went in and brought out Rahab and her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. And they brought all her relatives and put them outside the camp of Israel. And they burned the city with fire and everything in it, only the silver and gold and the vessels of bronze and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. But Rahab the prostitute and her father's household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she has lived in Israel to this day because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. Jericho laid on an oath on them and at that time saying, "Cursed before the Lord be the man who rises up and rebuilds the city of Jericho at the cost of his firstborn son. He shall lay its foundations and at the cost of his youngest son shall he set up its gate. So the Lord was with Joshua and his fame was in all the land." This is the word of the Lord. Praise be to God.

All right, let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for your word, and we thank you for how you speak to us through Scripture. We thank you for the grace that you have shown us. And I just ask this morning that as we look through this lengthy section of Scripture, that you would help us to see that you are at the center, that you would help us to see the faith that is testified to in this chapter, that you would help us to see your judgment and help us to see your grace. Be with us this morning. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So we aren't like really big mall people. I'm not real excited about going to the mall. I don't really ever want to go to the mall. And as a result, our kids

maybe they've been in the mall once or twice, but this year, our two daughters have birthdays that are fairly close together. And so they're both really into Legos. And so we drove in toward D.C. and we went to a mall with a Lego store specifically. And I had forgotten that they'd never really ever been in a real mall before. And as we walk in, right, you're looking around and all of a sudden there's all of these things and all of these people. And at one point, we just stood and watched like the sushi conveyor belt for like 15 minutes. And they were fascinated by this because there was just so much to see. And as we come to the sixth chapter of Joshua, that's a little bit how I feel, right? You begin to look at this chapter and on the surface, probably a lot of us are familiar with this.

Joshua going into the promised land with the people of God. They march around the city of Jericho. The walls fall down. It's a great story. We've heard it. Maybe we've watched the VeggieTales movie of it. This is probably a familiar story. And when you begin to dig into this chapter, one of the things that begins to stand out is there is so much to see. So in the end of Joshua chapter 5 that Brent read a moment ago, we meet the commander of the army of the Lord. And this is God Himself. It's called a theophany. It's the sort of theological term. It's when God appears in a human form. This commander of the army of the Lord, likely Jesus, before He has been born, appears to Joshua. And in front of God's people is the city of Jericho. And Jericho has this sort of tactical position where if you come across the Jordan River, here is this city.

They are fortified, and before they can move into the land, they have to deal with the fortified city. Because if they just bypass it, which it seems like they could because the city is offering no resistance, they just shut the gates, fortify the city, and hope nothing bad happens. If you begin to move into the land, all of a sudden you have an enemy both at your front and at your rear. So they have to deal with the city of Jericho. And God, instead of sending them in and building, you know, siege works and building, you know, war engines to try to break down the gates or knock down the walls or ladders to climb, God gives them this really weird assignment. Just go out there, walk around the city once each day for six days,

and on the seventh day you walk around it seven times in a row. In fact, much of the verses you may have noticed, we jump from verse 7 all the way to verse 15, is because those instructions get repeated like two more times. God emphasizes this walking around the city, which seems like a really strange way for an army to destroy a city. You have this victory that's just remarkable. The walls don't tip outwards, killing the Israelites. They don't tip inwards. It just says they fall flat, and then every man in the army just goes right ahead of himself, right? They just sort of circle the city and invade it. You have all of those things happening sort of physically. But spiritually, it gets even deeper in this text. There's symbolic things happening. You have seven days of creation, seven days of marching.

You have this picture which one commentator points out that is Adam and Eve are kicked out of the garden. There is an angel there to keep them from returning, but here as they go into God's promised land, here is an angel welcoming them in. There's all of these trumpets which point back to the Feast of Jubilee. In fact, some of the Jewish writers, when they were translating this text and Joshua into Greek from Hebrew will call these trumpets the trumpets of Jubilee. There's a connection to Revelation and seven trumpets, the trumpets of the return of Jesus. You have all of these things. You have prophecy both made about this from Genesis 15, and you have prophecy that Joshua makes about the fate of this city in the future. The themes of faith that are found in this chapter are referenced in Hebrews chapter 11,

and in a few moments we'll see how all of this ultimately points to Jesus. There's just all of these pieces, both physical battle, the spiritual battle, all of these different parts of the Bible sort of put together in this remarkable way, and it's just so much to see. And in fact, if we were to try to unpack everything in these verses, we'd feel probably a little bit like the Israelites on day four or five, where we've marched around the wall, and we've marched around the wall, and we've marched around the wall, and we've marched around the wall. So what I want to do this morning is just sort of draw your attention to four big things that we find at the end of Joshua chapter 5 into Joshua chapter 6. And the first thing that I would point your attention to, and the thing that I think is at the center of this chapter,

is that God is at the center of the chapter. So I know growing up and hearing this story, the focus is on the Israelites, and the trumpets, and the shouting, and the walls going down, and the victory of the city, and of Raham. But that's really not the center of this chapter. Yes, there is a miraculous victory. Yes, the judgment of God that had been promised 400 years prior comes to fruition. But the heart of this chapter is the fact that God is at the center. And we see that in Joshua chapter 5, as Joshua meets the commander of the Lord's army, likely Jesus. And he says to him, "Which side are you on?" Which makes sense, because if you come across a strange soldier in the middle of the night, as you're out sort of scoping out the plan of your army to move into battle,

right? You have some concerns, right? Are you with us? Are you with them? And here's the first clue we get, that this is not about us or about the people, but about God, because this heavenly warrior, what does he say? I'm not on their side. I'm not on your side. The question is, whose side are you on? Because the most important side is my side. And so this whole thing starts by God saying, "I'm not on their side. I'm not on your side. You need to be on my side." You see throughout this that God is the one responsible for the victory. He promises that to Joshua in verse 2. He instructs Joshua in verses 3 through 6, "The city is his." That's what it means when he says, "This city is mine. It's dedicated to the Lord."

God is saying, "This belongs to me." He's the one who brings the walls down. When the people shout, they're not shouting to bring the walls down, they're shouting in celebration of the victory of the Lord. The Ark of the Covenant, which symbolizes the presence of God in the midst of his people, is mentioned here in this text ten times. And you have this sort of weird procession of people. And this is not a military procession. This is a parade. And there's a difference between a military attack and a parade. So it was a couple of months ago, Neil's son Matt had just started working from home, from the church basement. And I get a call from one of our neighbors, or a text, and he said, "What did you do at the church?" And I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "Well, there's police cars all over here."

And I look outside, and I only see one down there, so I said, "I'm going to go out and check the mail and see what's happening." And as I walk out, there's about eight different police cars lining the front of the church. They've got dogs, which turns out you're not supposed to pet the police dog when they're working. And what they were doing, they weren't concerned about the church. We were just a convenient parking area. But they were heading down the street a little bit, and just didn't want to be seen. So there's a difference in walking into that, or when you're at a parade, right? And the police cars are driving through, and all of those things, right? One's joyful, and one's, you're like, "Maybe I'm just going to go back inside and wait until this is over," right?

So these people, the people of God, marching around the city, this is not a military, this is a celebration. In the tradition of the time, the ruler would be led with his honor guard into the city in a parade of victory. And so when you have fighting men in front of the ark, and behind the ark, and the priests blowing trumpets, what you have in ancient times is a victory parade. And so what is happening as they march around the city, is God just saying, "I've won." The walls haven't even come down yet, and they are celebrating the victory. I want you to see that as we go through this text that it is God who is at the center. And so what happens when we begin to lose sight of the fact that God is at the center?

Things start to get a little bit weird. And so one of the habits that we tend to do when we move God out of the center is we like to put ourselves in His place. And so that leads us to come to chapters like this and see things like here's how you can knock down the walls that are in your way. Here's how you can overcome your obstacles. Here's how you can have the victory. That's not the point of this. This is not to say to us that I can go up and knock down the walls that overcome and are standing in my way. What this is saying is that God is the one who knocks down the walls, and God is the one who overcomes the things standing in our way. And so many times what happens is we begin to shift our focus

from God at the center to ourselves at the center. And the result of shifting that focus is one of two things. One will be really proud. Look at what I've done and look at what I've accomplished. The other side of that is that we will be discouraged and we'll say, "I don't know how I can do this. I don't know how I can face these obstacles. I don't know how I can face these walls." But when God is at the center, He removes our pride, and He removes our discouragement, and our hope is in Him, and He is the one who is ultimately victorious. And this chapter causes us to face the uncomfortable reality of asking a question, "What's truly at the center of my life?" Because over time, our center sometimes shifts or moves. A few months ago, I went to the eye doctor,

and I didn't think it had been that long since I had been to the eye doctor. And so I'm filling out the paperwork in the front, and they said, "When were you last year?" I said, "Oh, it was like a year or two ago." And they're like, "Well, the last time we have you here was 2017." And I'm like, "Oh, well, you may be right." A lot of things have happened between 2017 and 2022, right? I had brain surgery. I had a kidney transplant. There's a lot of things. There was two years of COVID where you guys weren't even seeing patients, right? We had a lot of things happen in those years. And so what happens, they begin to do an eye exam, and there was good news and bad news. The good news was that my prescription in part was way too strong, but the bad news was I'm going to very soon need glasses that have a different kind of prescription down at the bottom, right?

And what happened is over time, like many of us, vision changed. I said, "Well, what caused that?" She said, "Did you turn 40?" I said, "Yes." She said, "That's what caused that." And over time, spiritually, our vision changes, right? We can start out where everything is good and correct, but as time goes by, and if we keep going without evaluating where it is we stand, eventually our vision will shift from God to ourselves. And in order to put our vision on God, we have to minimize our vision of ourselves. Look at Joshua 5:15. And the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, "Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so. If you contrast this to what happens to Moses in Exodus chapter 3 and chapter 4,

because that's a picture of what's happening here. Moses, when God confronts him and says, "Take off your shoes," Moses does so. He says, "You're going to leave my people out." Moses says, "Well, I don't know if I can do that. I can't talk good." He will say, "Well, I just don't want to." Because Moses, as he faced this challenge, all he sees are the obstacles. Joshua, as he faces this challenge, all he sees in front of him is God. Both face insurmountable obstacles, but one person has their eyes on God. Martin Luther said this, "God created the world out of nothing, so as long as we are nothing, God can make something out of us." And so the first thing that this chapter calls us to do is to fix our eyes on the goodness and the greatness of God.

Secondly, it's a picture of faith. So faith is a word that we use pretty frequently in church. It's a word that comes up often. And I think one of the things that comes from frequently using a word is that sometimes we begin to forget what it means. So faith is deeper, and it's more than just simply agreeing with something, right? Faith is more than just hearing the word of God and saying, "Yeah, that sounds good. I agree with it." Faith goes deeper. Faith, scripturally, Romans 10 will talk about that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And the first part of faith is that we have to hear, right? We can't trust and believe and obey something unless we have heard it. But faith also involves a commitment of our life, a dedication of our intellect and of our emotions to this word of God.

Not just saying, "Great, I've heard that," but I heard that and agree with it. And for many of us, that's where faith stops, but faith goes even further. Faith obeys and takes action based on what has been heard. Listen to this: "By faith," this is from Hebrews, "the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith, Rahab, the prostitute, did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies." Do you see what faith does? It hears the message, it believes the message, and then it takes action on the message. And we see this in our life because we hear things all the time that we may agree with, but we don't take that final step. We don't take action. I remember when I was first diagnosed

with kidney problems, and the doctor said, "How many cups of coffee do you drink a day?" And I said, "I don't think you can count that high." And she said, "Maybe a little bit less coffee." So I heard it, I understood it, and even part of me agreed with it, but I sure wasn't going to do it. I was like, "Well, that's coffee, and that is how I live." And so faith is more than just simply hearing and agreeing. To be faith, you have to put it into practice. It has to take action, just as God, as He promises the victory, they respond in faith by following what He has said, just as Rahab hears, believes, and then responds by doing what God has said. And you see this picture of faith, followed very quickly by a picture of judgment. Listen to Joshua 6:17, "And the city and all that is within it shall be

devoted to the Lord for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live because she hid the messengers whom we sent." Now, I don't know about you, but judgment can be a difficult subject for most of us, right? We may even see the judgment here in Joshua 6 and say, "Wow, that seems like a lot that all of these people are being put to death. The city is set on fire. All of these things are taken, and it can be uncomfortable and difficult to come face to face with the judgment of God." And in part, that's because our thoughts turn to ourselves, and we think, "What happens if I come face to face with the judgment of God?" And most of us, we like to make excuses for why we haven't obeyed God,

or maybe we make justifications. You don't understand the circumstances, and you don't understand where I have been. And so when it comes to judgment, it's uncomfortable for us. It's also uncomfortable for us, because to acknowledge that judgment is real, we have to acknowledge that there is somebody greater than us who has the authority over us to be able to judge us. And as people who like to be in the first place, it's hard for us to submit to any other authority. In fact, if you read through Romans, the first chapter, you'll find that's the exact picture. That people knew God, but they did not give thanks. They did not honor Him in their hearts. They went about their own way, chased their own desires, saying, "Yes, God is the authority, and I know about it, but I'm going to choose to follow

myself." And when it comes to judgment in Joshua chapter 6, you find that God has been patient with these people. In Genesis 15, this is the first place we find this. God, speaking to Abraham, will say that your children and your children's children, they're going to go to a land that you do not know. They're going to be there for 400 years. At the very end, in verse 16, He will say this, "This is God, and they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete." Other translations will say the iniquity of the Amorites is not filled up. And what God is saying is that I am patient. And these people aren't going to come back and tell those upon whom I will have judgment have exhausted every chance that I have given them. And in the book of Leviticus, God will say this,

"The Lord said to Moses, 'Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God, you shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt where you live, and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan to which I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their statutes." And then he will go on in the entirety of Leviticus chapter 18 to line out the ways that they're not to live like the people from Egypt or the people in the land that they were going. And when we come to this judgment, it seems to us sudden. All of a sudden an army encircles the city and judgment is brought upon us. But this has been 400 years in the making. God has been patient with these people.

And we see two responses to the certain judgment of God. One is a response of stubbornness. Look at Joshua 6:1. "Now Jericho was shut up from the inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out. None came in. So here comes the judgment of God. And what do they do? Lock the gates and seek to defend themselves." But there's another option. In Joshua 3, we find this: Rahab saying, "As soon as we heard it, our hearts melted. No spear was left in any man because of you. For the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and the earth beneath. Now then, please swear to me by the Lord, I have dealt kindly with you, and you will deal kindly with my father's house, and will give me a sure sign that you will save my father and mother,

brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death." Right? So there is a choice here. Will we harden our hearts and shut the gates, or will we cast ourselves upon the mercy of God? That's the picture we see in Joshua, that for 400 years, these people have spurned what God has set before them, and when judgment comes, instead of seeking mercy at the hand of God, they shut the gates. And then by contrast, Rahab, in this same city, throws herself upon the mercy and the grace of God. And what does God do? He saves her. And you have this picture in this response. Rahab was saved because she humbled herself and threw herself on the mercy of God. And so we've seen this picture of what is in the

center. We've seen this picture of faith and obedience. And we've seen this picture of judgment and seen that there is two responses. That judgment was not ultimately inevitable if you seek the mercy of God. But the city, instead of listening, shut itself up, closed its walls. In fact, the only opening that we see is this picture of Rahab's window with the red cord of salvation hanging from it. Third, I want to point you to a picture of hope. We spoke earlier about Jubilee and the trumpets that circle this city. And that goes back to the feast of Jubilee, which for every seven years the Israelites would celebrate. And they would celebrate it almost as a Sabbath. And then after a week of Jubilee - that's seven years times seven - you would come to the year of Jubilee, where property

that had been sold would be returned. Freedom would be granted. You would eat the fields you find in Scripture. You wouldn't plant food, but God would provide food, and you would eat there without having to sow and to harvest. And what we find is that Jubilee is a picture of hope. It's a picture of rest. of restoration and restoring. It's a picture of hope for Joshua and the people as they come into this land and they eat the produce of the land that they have not planted. They are brought freedom from Egypt and freedom from the wilderness. But then in Luke, the fourth chapter, you have someone who just comes from the Jordan and stands in a synagogue and he says this, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and

recovery of sight to the blind and to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor or to proclaim the year of Jubilee." And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendants, sat down. All the eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." It's Jesus' first recorded sermon. Jesus, whose name in Hebrew is the same as Joshua's, that God saves, comes from the Jordan River to his hometown. And the first proclamation we have recorded is one of freedom and restoration and hope for God's people. And it's a picturesque one. In fact, all of these things that he declares have pictures with him. But my favorite, I think, has to be those last words, "Set at liberty those who are

oppressed." And the picture of that word "oppressed" is someone with burdens that are so big they are being crushed down underneath those burdens. And Jesus says, "I am coming. I am the fulfillment of Jubilee, and I've come to lift those burdens, and to restore sight, and to restore liberty, and to take those things that are weighing you down away." He comes from the Jordan, just as Joshua does, and proclaims liberty and peace. But then, a few years later, Jesus, whose name in Hebrew is Joshua, enters Jericho. And he was passing through, and behold, there was a man by the name of Zacchaeus. And if you sang the song in church, he's a wee little man. He was a chief tax collector and rich. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crown, he could not because he was small in stature. So he ran on a

head, climbed up in a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry, come down, for I must stay at your house today." So he hurried, came down, received him joyfully, and when they saw it, they grumbled. He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood, said to the Lord, "Behold, half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, today I restore it fourfold." And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, since he is also a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost." And this picture is remarkable. Jesus, whose name means God saves

in Hebrew, Joshua, comes to the city of Jericho. Just like Joshua is given credit in chapter 6 for saving Rahab the prostitute. Jesus comes and saves the lowly separated tax collector. But there is more than that. Because in the story of Rahab, her story doesn't end in Joshua 6, where she is kept with the Israelites and she lives with them for the rest of her life. That she goes on to be in a family tree that includes King David. And a family tree that according to Matthew 1 includes Jesus himself. You have Jesus, whose name means God saves, Joshua in Hebrew. The great, great, great, great grandson of another resident of Jericho, Rahab, coming to save another outcast in Jericho. It's a picture of how God saves and how God plans and how he lines up all of these wonderful things. And it's a picture of

invitation to us that Jesus has come to seek and to save the lost. Let's pray. Father, thank you for salvation. Thank you for hope. Thank you for how you work through your word as we've just scratched the surface of this passage and how you have knit together your word. We just ask for encouragement that this morning you would help us to choose and to decide to fix our eyes on you, that you would help us to see you clearly, that we would set aside our distractions, that we would walk in faith and in obedience, that we would run to you for salvation. And we thank you most of all for your son who stood in our place so that we could be saved. It's in his name we pray. Amen. So we're going to sing a song. We're going to stand and sing a song about how God takes

and turns everything upside down. So let's stand and sing "Graves in the Garden." I searched the world, but it couldn't fill me. Man's empty praise and treasures that fade. Are never enough. Then you came along. And put me back together. And every desire is now satisfied. Here in your love. Oh, there's nothing. Better than you. There's nothing. Better than you, Lord. There's nothing. Nothing is better than you. I'm not afraid. To show you my weakness. My failures and flaws. Lord, you've seen them all. And you still call me friend. Because the God of the mountain is the God of the valley. And there's not a place, your mercy and grace won't find me again. Oh, there's nothing better than you. There's nothing better than you, Lord. There's nothing. Nothing is better than you. There's nothing better than you. There's nothing better than you, Lord. There's nothing. Nothing is better than you. You turn mourning to dancing. You give beauty for ashes.

You turn shame into glory. You're the only one who can. You turn graves into gardens. You turn bones into armies. You turn seas into highways. You're the only one who can. Oh, there's nothing better than you. There's nothing better than you, Lord. There's nothing. Nothing is better than you. Oh, there's nothing better than you. Better than you, there's nothing. Better than you, Lord. There's nothing. Nothing is better than you. We are so thankful for you joining us this morning. We are glad you're here. We're going to be continuing on in Joshua for the next couple weeks, and then we'll take a little break, and then we will come back to Joshua a little later. So we are thankful for those of you who are here and for those of you who are joining us online. We'll be back on Wednesday. We've been going through a study

about the gospel, the good news about Jesus, and not just what the gospel is, but rather how the gospel practically plays out in our lives. How does it work in terms of things like sharing the gospel and evangelism? How do we deal with our neighbors? All of these different kinds of things. That's Wednesday night here at 7:00. So we're going to pray, and then I'll close with a verse of Scripture, and we'll sing the doxology. Father in heaven, thank you for your people. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for allowing us to gather together this morning, and thank you so much for our brothers and sisters in Christ to encourage us and strengthen us and help us. It's in your son's name we pray. Amen. I'm going to read from Psalm 34. Just a couple

of verses before and in the verses we read this morning. "Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield. Our heart is glad in him because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us even as we hope in you." Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. Praise him, all creatures here below. Praise him, above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.