February 11, 2014 - Tuesday

Start Time: 5:40 A.M.

End Time: 6:35 A.M.

Title: The Fall of Jericho

Scripture: Joshua 5:13 – 15 to Joshua 6:1 – 27

God’s Message / God’s Promise / God’s Commands:

→Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”  “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord^[e] have for his servant?” The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so. 

NOTES:

Ø God offers His army to us when in battle, His angels are at our disposal with the goal of bringing victory to us!  God is a great God and He lends the best of His angels to battle with us in conquering what belongs to us.  His commanding angel who is in-charge of God’s army comes down and will fight for us just like any ordinary soldier so we can achieve the victory He promises!  This only shows that His promises are true and will come to pass no matter what because HE will do everything and offer nothing but the best to ensure the fulfillment of His words!  Hallelujah!  Thank You Lord because we can trust You to do everything to fulfill Your words including sending the best of the best of Your angels to fight for us!

→Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.  Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.  March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days.  Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.” So Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant of the Lord and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it.” And he ordered the army, “Advance! March around the city, with an armed guard going ahead of the ark of the Lord.”

NOTES:

Ø God’s presence brings this power that triggers panic and worry in our enemies! God causes our enemies to gather and secure themselves in one corner!  He causes our enemies to fear us that they will find themselves heaped together in one corner trembling and hoping that we won’t see or notice them. 

Ø God is our deliverer and He works in ways beyond logic or reasoning!  All we need is to listen and obey in Faith!  He delivers our enemies to us with the sound of trumpets, marching around it and loud shouts!  The blowing of the trumpets, marching and loud shouts, portrays worship and requires Faith in God for its effect to be true.  When Joshua heard what God said, he did not question, he did not ask God how it will destroy the wall…he just obeyed!  At times, we are asked by God to do something that is totally beyond logic and instead of asking or questioning, let us believe and obey in faith. 

→ When Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets before the Lord went forward, blowing their trumpets, and the ark of the Lord’s covenant followed them. The armed guard marched ahead of the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard followed the ark. All this time the trumpets were sounding.  But Joshua had commanded the army, “Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout!” So he had the ark of the Lord carried around the city, circling it once. Then the army returned to camp and spent the night there.  Joshua got up early the next morning and the priests took up the ark of the Lord.  The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets went forward, marching before the ark of the Lord and blowing the trumpets. The armed men went ahead of them and the rear guard followed the ark of the Lord, while the trumpets kept sounding. So on the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days.

NOTES:

Ø God works in ways that no man can claim glory of! In short, His works will always point the glory back to Him! God knows that man is boastful by nature and so when He works in our lives, He ensures that man cannot take credit of His works because all glory belongs to Him.  He will exalt His people but all glory falls on Him!  So His works or actions are truly impossible or irrational for human to ensure that man will know that it is His works! 

→ On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times.  The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city!  The city and all that is in it are to be devoted^[a] to the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent.  But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it.  All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into his treasury.” When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city.  They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.

NOTES:

Ø God spares no one or nothing from our enemies not because He enjoys eliminating them but because of His great love to His people!  He doesn’t want anything or anyone left that can destroy or ruin the journey of His people in possessing the Land He has promised.  God does not pity anything or anyone that can keep us away from Him or can lead us to sin.  He willingly destroys them for our sake!

→ Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her.” So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother, her brothers and sisters and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel. Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the Lord’s house.  But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho—and she lives among the Israelites to this day.

NOTES:

Ø God helps those who help His people!  God is true to His words even to those who are not His but are willing to lay their lives for His people.  God eliminated everyone in Jericho except for Rahab’s family because she helped the two spies.  There was a change of heart in Rahab and though she was a prostitute, it did not hinder God’s words to change her completely and so she was spared! 

→ At that time Joshua pronounced this solemn oath: “Cursed before the Lord is the one who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho: “At the cost of his firstborn son, he will lay its foundations; at the cost of his youngest, he will set up its gates.” So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land.

NOTES:

Ø God does not tolerate sin and anyone who rebuilt a sinful city is curse!  Whoever rebuilt whatever God destroys is curse!  There is a reason why God destroyed a city or allowed destruction in one’s life or one’s community and it is always for a good reason.  So whoever rebuilt what God destroys will be cursed the same way the city is curse!  So never let wrongful pity or mercy cloud our judgment and just trust God always!

Prayer:

Lord Jesus Great and Mighty Lord!  The Great I Am, wonderful savior and Sovereign God!  I am grateful for the victory You have given to me.  Thank You because You sends the best of Your angels to fight for my battle to ensure victory in every fight I take against my enemies.  Thank You because You presence causes them to tremble and gather themselves in one place, hidden and fearful.  Lord thank You because You win my battles in ways I cannot comprehend and at times these ways are irrational and impossible for me.  Thank You because Your works in my life clearly leads all glory back to You, in this way, there is no doubt that I will know that it is Your work!  Thank You Father and Jesus because You spare no one and nothing from my enemies to ensure my protection and safety.  Thank You because You help those who help us and changes them completely so they can live among us.  Lord thank You because You have cursed anyone and anything that rebuilt whatever You have destroyed.  Holy Spirit, I pray that You will guide me always and show me the reason why there’s destruction in one place or one person… let me see Your purpose Lord that I may not nurture a wrongly pity, mercy or love to sin.  Help me to see Your will Lord in everything.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen!