Marching Orders: The Fall of Jericho

Show Notes

Episode 481: 
In this episode, our main focus is the biblical story of the fall of Jericho from Joshua 6. We read through the passage and discuss the specific instructions God gave to Joshua and the Israelites. We highlight the importance of following God's commands to the letter, as partial obedience is still disobedience. The detailed recounting of the Israelites' actions emphasizes that details matter to God.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, everybody, we are so excited. Look who's back me the tsar ball. Yeah, I'm back from my trip to New York with excuse me, with my dad. Okay, how was it? It was great. You know, he's eighty five. And we got into the ferry and he's like, oh, this is my first ferry ride. I'm like what. And we got into a cab and he goes, this is my first cab ride. I go, come on, wow. You got to the subway. He's like, this is my first subway ride. I'm like, are you kidding me? And then here's ready for this one. We checked into the hotel and this is before the Empire State Building. In the hotel, we were on the thirty fifth floor and he goes, this is the highest I've ever been. Oh wow, And I said, I go come on. Apparently he's never left Youngstown. He's talking about elevation, right, you guys, weren't he said. Other than a plane, this is the highest I've ever been. Yeah, well yeah, so isn't that crazy? So anyway, so he had a lot of first. Whole bunch of, first whole bunch of Then you went up on the empire stability. Well, actually I said it wrong. It's I went up. We went we opted for the one World Trade Center. Oh yeah, which was half the price and just to side. So yeah, it was great. That's cool, super View. Well, we're glad to have you back. We missed you. Yeah, Kyle did a great job. I didn't watch any of it. If you miss a little bit because I was on vacation. If you miss a little bit, we've got a great replacement. So you get a great replacement. You didn't say a substitution. You said words the matter. Words matter, Chris. It's a huge, just trained substitution and a replacement. Right right. Ye. Well, Hey, today's Desiree wants us to start off with a special dad joke segment because we're talking about Jericho, Jericho. That's right. The walls of Jericho came tumbling down. So she has everything centered around jerk who wrote who writes dad joke Jericho jokes? I don't know. I haven't looked at my name, I have not looked at my fingerspe Okay, but I'll go first, Okay. What's the Walls of Jericho's least favorite kind of music? I don't know. Heavy metal. They can't handle the sound of it. Heavy metal, they can't handle the sound of it. Oh, that's awful. Sound is in quote? Sound? Okay? Okay, I don't think anybody writes Jericho Jet jokes. The reason why there's not a market for this. Well, this says special episode edition, by the way, is what this is? Okay. Why was the archaeologist excited about the Walls of Jericho Why because they heard it was a groundbreaking discovery. Oh, these are bad. That's a rough one. These are rough, all right? Number two? Uh, what would be the wall of Jericho's favorite modern day reality TV show? Modern favorite modern day reality TV show? I don't know. Probably Extreme make Over Home Edition. They'd be exciting, they'd be excited to see a rebuild. I'm telling you that's a rough one. These cannot get any work. Okay, Well, I'm enjoying the fact that they're so terrible. Here we go help without this one. What do you call it when the Walls of Jericho throw a party? What's that? A crashing success? Gosh, the look on your face is fabulous. I love this. These are so bad. I don't just don't. I just don't understand how bad these can be. Okay. If the Walls of Jericho had a podcast of their own, what would be the first episode's topic? I don't know. The art of the fall? How to go down in history with style? Okay? Style? How about this one? What's the Walls of Jericho's favorite game? What's the Walls of Jericho's favorite game? I don't know, Jeff, what is the Wall of Jericho's favorite Jenga's the best one? That's good? So far? One? Okay, I wouldn't say good. Good news is there's only four? Do you only have four? Yes? Only we have five? So yes? So let the yes here you go. Why do the Walls of Jericho join a band because they knew how to bring the house down? Oh? Just terrible? Oh man, all right? What's yours? Uh? Very similar to your previous one? If the Walls of Jericho could give a ted talk, what would be the most outrageous title they could choose? Something? Let me get something about the Walls coming down? How to fall? How to fall gracefully and still be the talk of the town. Wow, The young one wins. Jenga is the winner. Yeah, yes, those were rough. Yeah, I don't know that I want any more special editions put on that. Yeah, that was a rough one. Well, welcome back, Chris. Yeah, thanks that it wasn't a very good welcome. Oh my goodness. We need to spare these poor people. Well, hey, you know what, listeners, if you're still with us, let's move on. If you haven't died of boredom. Yeah. By the way, I am wearing a Stony Creek shirt and for those who are watching, they can see it. For those obviously not watching, but I just wanted to put a simple plug out there. If you are listening, perhaps in our area in Michigan, and you're not a tender of Heritage Church, just now that if you live anywhere close to the Stony Creek area, Heritage Church is launching a brand new campus at Stony Creek High School September twenty second. There you go. Yes, I just figured out so you were wearing that shirt to send a message. No, I just noticed myself on TV and I thought two things. Number one, look at that good looking guy. And the second thing was I should probably mention something Stony Creek. So I thought you were sending messages with your T shirts, and I was thinking, last time you hear you had like a Godfather T shirt on. Oh yeah, the gun take the canola. Yeah yeah. So I was just thinking back all the different T shirts that you were wearing, where they all messages to us too. Hey, hey, the Italian shirt is don't mess with Italians. That's true. Times are everywhere, they are everywhere. Okay, so we are talking about the fall of Jericho, and just to remind our listeners, you know, you had the whole weekend to maybe let your brain clear out. So Moses has died. God selected Moses to lay hands on Joshua and say Joshua's going to be the leader. Then God reminded Joshua, be strong and courageous, obey everything I commanded you. Then they crossed the river Jordan after sending in some spies Rahab the whole rehab story. Then they crossed the river Jordan. God does this amazing miracle with the priests stepping into the water and the water stops. They walk across on dry. Ground and now sorry I missed that. Yeah, And now here they are at the gates of Jericho. This is where they met Rehab a few days or weeks before, right, And so we're going to read Joshua six, and we're gonna start off in verse one. It says, now the gates of Jericho were tightly shut because the people were afraid of the Israelites. No one was allowed to go in, out or in. But the Lord said to Joshua, I have given you Jericho, it's king and all its strong warriors. You and your fighting men should march around the town once a day. For six days, seven priests will walk ahead of the ark, each carrying a ram's horn. On the seventh day, you were to march around the town seven times, with the priests blowing the horns. When they hear the priests give one long blast on the rams horns, have all the people shout as loud as they can. Then the walls of the town will collapse, and the people will charge straight into the town. So Joshua called together the priests and said, take up the ark of the Lord's Covenant, and assigned seven priests to walk in front of it, each carrying a ramshorn. And then he gave orders to the people march around the town, and the armed men will lead the way in front of the Ark of the Lord. After Joshua spoke to the people, the seven priests with the rams horns started marching in the presence of the Lord, blowing the horns as they marched, and the Ark of the Lord's covenant follow behind them. Some of the armed men marched in front of the priests with the horns and some behind the ark, with the priests continually blowing the horns. Do not shout, do not even talk. Joshua commanded, not a single word from any of you until I tell you to shout, then shout. So the Ark of the Lord was carried around town once that day, and then everyone returned to spend the night in the camp. Joshua got up early next morning, priests again carried the Ark of the Lord. The seven priests with the rams horns marched in front of the Ark of the Lord, blowing their horns again. The armed men marched both in front of the priests with the horns and behind the Ark of the Lord. All this time the priests were blowing their horns. On a second day, they marched around the town once and returned to camp. They followed this pattern for six days On the seventh day, the Israelites got up at dawn and marched around the town as they had done before, but this time they went around the town seven times. The seventh time around as the priests sounded the long blast on their horns, Joshua commanded the people shout, for the Lord has given you the town Jericho, and everything in it must be completely destroyed as an offering to the Lord. Only rehab the prostitute and the others in her house will be spared, for she protected our spies. Do not take any of the things set apart for destruction, or you yourselves will be completely destroyed, and you'll bring trouble on the camp of Israel. Everything made from is a silver, gold, bronze, or iron is sacred to the Lord. It must be brought into his treasury. When the people heard the sound of the rams horns, they shouted as loud as they could. Suddenly, the walls of Jericho collapsed, and the Israelites charged straight into the town and captured it. They completely destroyed everything in it with their swords, men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep, goats, and donkeys. Yuck, there you go, yuck on the swords, killing everything. But I get it, I get it. But this. Chapter, yeah it was a war, Yeah for sure. Yeah, this chapter though, as I'm reading through it, as you're reading through it, I was actually thinking to myself, God is so specific and then it records so specifically, which brought to mind that you know, details matter, and that when God gives specific instructions, you know it includes the fact that they did those things. It could have just said and then they did everything God said, right, but they didn't. They took several verses to say, Okay, here's what happened. They got up, they went around, they blew the horns, they did this, and it goes through and it's almost, in some ways a little bit painful, you know, just to read all those details. But again, it is just a reminder to me whenever I read things like that, as I always think, why it seems like filler words, But it's not. It's just it's a reminder of God's character, who says, I'm giving you very specific instructions. Follow exactly what I say, and that translates into the promises of today. Yeah. Well, partial obedience is disobedience, right, right, So if you only obey part of it. Then it's you're not obeying, you're disobeying. And so God is very precise because he's going to do a miracle. He already he just told them, hey, get up and I'm going to send you and the the town has already been defeated, right, that's what he's letting them know. I'm going to give you the king. I'm going to give you the whole town. Now do everything I told you to do. And God is very precise in the process. And partly I think you know, it's tedious. It's seven days. They're accustomed to working six days and on the seventh day resting, and said this time, on the seventh day they have a victory, which is which is really something. But he gives him this tedious job. It's how many people. So it mentions the armed men as being distinct from all the rest of the people. So it sounds like all the people are marching around the city and that the armed men are in front and behind the arc. Is that how you're hearing it? Yeah, I am. I'm picturing that the priests and the ark were in the middle of the warriors. Yeah. So then if you're thinking even just a million people. You've seen Jericho before? Have you seen Jerico? I seen? Haven't you seen Jericho? So Jericho, the ancient city is not very huge. It's it's I mean, we're not talking like New York City, right, they call it a town, right, yeah, here, I would say, I bet you it's not a mile all the way around. Oh wow, right, it certainly does. Say my wife and I were just in Germany and we were in a medieval town. It's one of the best preserved medieval walled cities in the world, Rotenberg, and it's like two and a half miles I think around the outside. And when we were in there, we walked on the walls all the way around, you know, big, big part of it. And I was thinking about Jericho then. Now, of course Jericho's walls were thicker and they had, you know, all this, but still the idea was having seen Jericho, the ruins of Jericho, and then being in this city. I don't think that they were much different a mile or two around. So you're talking about a million people, maybe two, maybe three million people, depending on how you think the thing were and whether or not the women brought the children, you know, I don't know how it doesn't say all that, but it certainly seems like there's a bunch of armed people and a bunch of unarmed people, right, and they're walking around that. To me, if I was part of the unarmed group, it'd be a little intimidating to me. But then God says, be silent, don't say anything, don't don't say a word. Joshua tells the people, when was the last time we could even get five hundred people in our auditorium and not say a word? Right? Right? But he gave them all these very specific rules. And then the depth of the people. So if this is like, let's say, let's say it's big, Let's say it's way big. Let's say it's three miles all the way around the outside. I don't know how big. How deep would the people be? A million people walking around a three mile Well. Yeah, because they can't overlap each other, right, I would think, so they'd have to be a pretty wide yeah. Yeah. And then it's just blasting on rams horns. So when you hear horns, it's not like Trumpe's Duke to de dou stuff. It's just it's like you ever listened to like a soccer game or something, a European soccer game and all blowing, right, that kind of thing, that's that's the kind of noise. And you look out your window and it's it's, you know, several hundred yards deep of people just marching around in total silence, with a bunch of armed guys and a bunch of people blowing horns. It would be unbelievably intimidating. And it happens day after day. There's a lot of psychological warfare going on here, is what I'm saying. It had been incredibly because they'd never seen that tactic before. Right, well, who would That's a crazy tactic, right right? Yeah? And then of course you know, they probably had no idea that the walls were just going to miraculously crumble. And by the way, I don't know if your brain works like this, but when you hear rams horn, what were they blowing? Like? What? What? What was God meaning when he said blowing the rams horn? A horn made from a ram horn, from. A rams horn? Right? Yes? Okay, So then my mind immediately went to the rest front. No, No, I didn't, although I thought of that, yes, but actually, because there's a restaurant in an area called ramshorn. No, I went to this. I went to this. Did God make the ram knowing that one day its horns would be a horn? Or did God make the ram? And then and all of a sudden, mankind decided, Hey, if I put a little hole at the end of this and pucker up, it makes noise. And then God just decides to embrace the rams horn because this is this is an embraced kind of thing by God. God is like, yeah, take the rams horn. You use the rams horn. This is a chosen instrument by God. He didn't say bang on drums. So so I'm just thinking, like, is God embracing mankind's distortion of this rams horn? Is it a distortion or is it a clever use? Okay, I'll give you that clever use. Because we still call all the instruments that you blow into the end of it, you call it a horn, right right, But they're not actually horns now there right, So it's like somebody blows in it into this rams horn and then they go, hey, I like that horn. That's cool. Now everything trumpets, trombones, everything's a horn now French horns. Oh yeah, I guess I guess you would think of that, right, trumpet. Yeah, so it's kind of that that has nothing to do with this passage of the fact that they're playing rams horns. But yeah, yeah, hey, many many of you don't know this, but Jeff played trumpet on a level where he played in the was it Detroit Symphony or. No, I played with the Motor City Brass but we did. We did concerts with the Detroit Symphony and stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah, many people don't know that. Yeah, back in the day, that's why I paid for college. So I was playing the horn. So did you know I also took the trumpet. I do you played until was it middle school? Yeah? No, up until fifth grade? Okay, middle school? Start third, fourth, fifth grade, seventh from oh okay, yeah, so but I was terrible at it. Yeah, I had to put up with people like you still am you did? Yeah? But yeah. Anyways, so God has said I'm going to give this to you, and I think that that's the key element to this entire Oh. I just looked up. The circumference of Jericho is about two point eight miles. Okay, so you were right. Let's pretend it's big, he said, three miles. Ye, yeah, yeah, so uh. Anyways, my favorite verse on the whole the whole thing is that God said He's going to give them to you, right that I think a lot of times if you and I were looking and this is the very first battle, there's ten big cities they're going to have to take. Yeah, right, And if you and I were getting ready to march across the river, we're thinking how we're going to get all these people across the river. That goes, well, I'm just gonna send the priests that would ry it out. Oh that's fantastic. But then you'd think, well, I used up all my miracles, right, I mean, what are the chances? So now you're looking at this big city. It's three miles around on the outside, it's the biggest walled city. Right, this is gonna be thet The hardest fight we have is this one. This is gonna be the hardest. And that's the place God took us first. God took us after the most difficult battle first. And you know, I saw a thing here. It says that the walls were what was the walls were like twenty five feet high and twenty feet thick. Yeah, that's pretty crazy. That is twenty feet thick. Yeah, that's right. That's the width of a road almost, yeah, right, and twenty five feet high. This is a big walled city. And how you're gonna It's gonna be a terrible siege. We're gonna lose a lot of people. They have the advantage they are twenty five feet high, so they just shoot down with arrows, they throw spears, they dump hot oil on us, or whatever, you know what I mean. So you're thinking, oh, it's gonna be a really long siege. We're gonna have to just come around and not allow anybody in any starve them out right right, it's gonna be this miserable experience that God goes, Well, so I had this idea, Joshua, Right right, I've already given you the king, I've already given you the city. It's it's a done deal. Just do what I tell you to do. Josh was like, okay, now you know, Joshua was a warrior, and everybody else none of them had been in any battles yet, not any big wars. And so God goes, Okay, just march around the city today, be completely quiet, have the priests play the horns, and then just go back to camp. It had been so weird. People will be like, I think Joshua's lost it, right, because these are bunch of complainers. Anyways, these well, we hate our we hate our food God gives us for free every night. We hate the We wish we could go back to Egypt for the cucumbers and the leaks and the garlics. Remember, there's such complainers. And now they come back after a day of marching all the way around the city and go, I think Joshua's got a screw loose. Well I doesn't say that, but based on. Yes, people, there's such complainers. You know that they're going, what's he thinking? Yeah, probably so right, and they could not have fathomed what was about to happen. And I think there's a lot of times where when God invites us to do what he tells us to do, we just can't fathom the miracle he's about to give us, right, we can't understand it, We can't work it out. And so a lot of times we get impatient. We jump in and decide we're going to go ahead. And you know what, if they had gotten impatient, decided to rush the gates right or set up a bunch of ladders and try to go over the wall or whatever. I think sometimes we get impatient waiting for God to do something, and we can mess things up, and we just need to If God said to do a thing, do the thing, and he's gonna bless what he promised he would do, right. You know what Another thought I had was, did you notice that there's no a voice of pushback in this one? Remember when the twelve Spies went in and all of a sudden, Joshua and Caleb would come out and they're like, hey, we can do it, you know, the Lord has given them to us. And then everybody else shouted, you know, they're crazy. We were like grasshoppers in their sight. And there was a voice of pushback that rallied the crowds that to the point where there wanted the stone Joshua and Caleb. Remember yeah, but but but again, this is the same Joshua. Right. So Joshua and is now the leader, the man who you know, forty years earlier, had you know been been you know, hey, I told you so, you should have trusted me, like he had the right to say all those things. Now he's the one that says, okay, this is exactly what God has said, this is what we're going to do. And notice now through this generational you know, lesson that they've been through that not a single person recorded anyway has said, no, this is a dumb plan. We have the numbers, let's go ahead, and just you know, nobody did that because at this point they've learned their lesson. That's right, I think so. Perhaps, and when they crossed the Jordan River, you were you made sort of a joke and you said, oh, we've run out of miracles. I would think the opposite of that. I would for me, I would think, oh, no, like, we can't even get across the Jordan River. And then when God stops the Jordan River, you think about how many gallons of water? Yeah, that is right? Just I mean, think about just the unbelievable. Yeah, I think I think the other side of it. How many times have you seen people who've lived a blessed life? Yes, and then they get oh at the doctor and they fall apart. Right, God, bless your business, God bless your marriage, God bless your children. God's given you this great life. And now you get to oh and they go, oh my goodness, right, and they freak out. Look at all the blessings God's done, and then they lose their faith or struggle with their faith when they get one bit of bad news. That's what I'm saying, is that the normal human nature is the good that God did for me yesterday. I forget about it in the crisis of the moment today. You're definitely right, That's just that's common. I've seen it a thousand times, and that's why God keeps having to remind us over and over and over again. God keeps his promises. He was good yesterday, He's going to be good again today. Just do what he tells you to do, right. And that's that's what I was thinking, is it's just common nature to do those those things. So, and then one thing that we should mention is that God had said, don't take anything any of the spoil of the city, right, leave it. This is mine. So out of the ten big cities are going to take, God says, I want the first tenth as mine. So the only things that were kept were for the temple and for that stuff, but nothing for the people. Right, the people didn't keep any spoils of this battle, this war, and from here on the plunder of all the other cities was theirs, but not this one. And of course we know the story if you read the next chapter. Achin one of the guys. He stole some stuff and he hit it away, and we're going to read it. No, we're not reading the story of Achin. We're moving on. Really. Yeah, sometimes we'll talk about it then. Yeah, well we only have it's twenty three minutes now, yeah. Okay, all right. Yeah. So anyways, God sends judgment on Israel and because there was sin in the camp, right, one person ruined it for everybody. And the next battle, they go to this little village called Ai and people die right right. Nobody dies in Jericho as far as Israels go. They go to this next village and God took his blessing off of the people because somebody was hiding sin. I'm said that, we're not. Yeah, yeah, that's a good story. And so they have to root that out and they have to get rid of the sin in their village. So you should read that passage. It's really incredible. It makes you think. But I don't want to be the one that you know, holds back God's blessing from our group or from you know, the the church or whatever. So we we talk a lot with our staff lately about be humble, be holy, right, and be helpful. And this is one of the reasons is you know, God pours out his blessing. But when you know, when you do exactly what God says, God blesses. When you break what God says, God curses. That's exactly what Moses had said at the end of Deuteronomy, and here they're living it out literally as at the first the day they crossed the river. That's the you know, the eighth day, after they've crossed the river, here we are. So anyways, I think that the big lesson for us to take away from this is this is why we need to know God's word, so that we can obey God's word as closely as possible. And God does the miracles when we choose to obey. That's great, it's a great word. All right. Well, hopefully we'll see tomorrow on the I have a guess, HM.