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| Joshua 6:17-21 |
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Lesson # Josh. 6:17-21 Study Material - Josh. 6:17-21 You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth. Josh. 6:17-21 17 And the city shall be under the ban, 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 she hid the messengers whom we sent. 18 But as for you, only keep yourselves from the things under the ban, lest you covet them and take some of the things under the ban, so you would make the camp of Israel accursed and bring trouble on it. 19 But all the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron are holy to the LORD; they shall go into the treasury of the LORD.' 20 So the people shouted, and priests blew the trumpets; and it came about, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, that the people shouted with a 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. 21 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. The city is under the ban, or cursed. The Hebrew word here is 'cherem' which means shut in, a netted thing, trapped, trapped for the purpose of destruction, a devoted thing (a thing usually held exclusively for some religious ceremony), here that ceremony is its judgment to utter destruction. Jericho was probably the worst of the cities in the land, thus it follows the pattern of judgment of Sodom. Lot was saved from Sodom. Here Rahab will be saved. Lev. 27:29 provided the rule for ransom. No one who has been set apart to death can be ransomed. There is no one to ransom the doomed. God provides ransom in the form of the Cross and thus purchased all of mankind from the slave market of sin. We in effect are saved from the master of eternal doom (sin and death), but in so doing we must be obedient to our new master of eternal life. That obedience begins with faith in Christ. Those in Jericho refused to believe in the God of Israel, therefore they were the cursed, and anything under a curse is banned from any type of contact or relationship. The city belongs to God and all that was in it. It was Gods to do with as He saw fit. God has a policy of righteousness and justice. These two combine to form His holiness. Righteousness can have nothing to do with sin. Justice demands that all sin must be punished. God also has a characteristic of immutability and love, which brings his faithfulness and concern for mankind into a policy of grace. God looks down through the time tunnel of history future and sees positive volition in many, therefore the Cross is decreed in order to bring 'many sons to righteousness.' Those who believe in Christ will inherit the earth, the universe, the new universe to come. Those who reject God inherit the second death and eternal damnation. A very miserable life for all of eternity. Jericho was set apart to a devotion to God. Not a sacrifice, but certainly a reminder and a lesson that God is sovereign, and God is the final authority. Who came to the aid of the people in Jericho? No one. There is none other than the one God, Jesus Christ. Who has existed for all of eternity. Jesus Christ was not born to a mommy and daddy god in the past then came to earth by Mary via some type of marriage with God the Father as some incorrectly think. Jesus Christ was the occupant of the tabernacle. He occupied the Ark of the Covenant. His glory led the Israelites in a pillar of smoke by day and of fire by night, for forty years. He could be seen by all of the occupants of Jericho on each of the six days preceding their day of destruction. No other city will have so much exposure to God, and so long a period of grace than did Jericho. All in the city was to be killed and then destroyed except for that short list of silver and gold and such which was to go into the treasury of God. There was no exception. The Israelites were warned not to covet or even desire anything in the city. This is our lesson. Seek that which is spiritual first (study your Bible daily and grow up spiritually), then all that you need will be provided for you by God. Do not seek first those things of your lust, else you will lose sight of life and perhaps lose a great deal of your eternal inheritance. Those in Jericho stood on the wall and when that last round on the seventh day was completed, the horns sounded, the people shouted, the walls crumbled with many on those walls, and who no doubt died in the fall (remember that the walls were very high). Then the Israelites charged the city straight in from all sides. Those peoples who remained alive were killed by the sword. There was no mercy. Those who hid, were dragged out and killed with the sword. What is being destroyed? Evil in its worst form. These people of Jericho were not nice people. They practiced human sacrifices and all manner of vile degeneracy. This was a judgment. God ordered it and the Israelites carried out the sentence to the letter. Recall our study of Nebuchadnezzar ad how the watcher angels brought back the details of those living on earth (of Nebuchadnezzar), and how a body of angels issued their decision as to his punishment. God first revealed in a dream the details of his future life, which the king (Nebuchadnezzar) followed to the letter without error on Gods prediction. Nebuchadnezzar had a choice and he had the opportunity to avoid the unpleasantness in his own life, but he ignored the warning. Likewise, God is consistent in history. The people of Jericho would also have been under observation and judged independently by that ruling body of angels. God does nothing arbitrarily. Your life as well as my life are not dealt with in a knee jerk fashion, but with systematic evaluation of what we think, of what we do, of how we handle our lives. There were no innocents in Jericho save Rahab and those with her. Rahab the harlot was saved by faith, Heb. 11:31. By the way Rahab is going to become an ancestor of Jesus with her marriage to Salmon giving birth to Boaz, and to Boaz will be born Obed by Ruth, and to Obed, Jesse, then David. Neither Rahab or Ruth were Israelites. So the line of Christ is not a pure Jewish line. Genetics is not an issue in the spiritual life. Faith alone is the issue. We are not told how long this attack lasted, but no doubt it was pretty graphic. Public opinion of our day would really rip Joshua for sure. But then today we are a pretty politically correct, compromising and superficial people. Evil is to be dealt with swiftly and permanently. We are to keep evil out of our individual lives, thus our fellowship confession is to be often (as often as necessary) and not dragged out or ignored. Evil is a place of doom and destruction. The spiritual life is a place of victory and blessing. There is a stark contrast between those who won and those who lost the battle of Jericho. So also, there is a stark contrast in the lives of those who advance to spiritual maturity and those who do not. The spiritual life is in your soul (what you think), therefore we cannot see in public what your status might be. But we can imagine the differences between the victors, and those tossed on the burning fires of Jericho. A rather obvious difference ashes verses life. So do not judge people by what you see, because you cannot see inside their soul. In fact do not judge people at all, but take care of your own spiritual life. It is far better to build up reserves of gold and silver (spiritual growth) in your own soul, than to end life with nothing. 
Now is the time to post a prayer. End Of Lesson Study to show thyself approved (mature) unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (studying/discerning), the Word of truth. |
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