I want us to consider some questions that this story asks of us today.  Does God still perform mighty acts?  Does God still do wondrous things?  Has God forgotten us? Have we forgotten God?

There is a problem in front of us.  There is a challenge that looks insurmountable.  What are we going to do?  We have set up our stones at Gilgal to remind us of God’s mighty acts of deliverance.  Are those mighty acts over?  This is too much for us.  “Now Jericho was shut up inside and out because of the Israelites; no one came out, and no one went in.”  Jericho is an insurmountable obstacle.  The Israelites had heard that the cities they were going to encounter were fortified up to heaven, and after they cross the Jordan, they see such a city in Jericho.  The story of Jericho goes from a vision that Joshua has of a man standing with a drawn sword in his hand, to the description of the people of Israel marching around the city for seven days, to the walls falling, to the destruction of the city, to the sparing of Rahab and her entire family.  “By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days.” (Heb 11:30)   At heart, this is a story about trusting God no matter how insurmountable things look.  Let’s ask for help as we hear what God has to say to us this morning. The story this morning and see what God may have to say to our hearts….

Worship

When we last left the Israelites, they had crossed the Jordan.  The way has been made.  God’s presence goes with them.  They are united.  They have set up 12 river stones at Gilgal to remind them of God’s saving act.  God has made a way when there was no way.  This is what God does.  In Joshua chapter 5 we read about Israel’s response to God’s deliverance and it’s a good and right and fitting and proper response.  They worship.  The first thing the Israelites do is to circumcise every male that had been born in the wilderness.  The second thing that they do is celebrate Passover.  They are marking the sign of the covenant that God had made with Abraham so long ago.  They are marking the saving event in their history when God delivered them out of bondage in Egypt.  As such, they are following the command that we read about in chapter 1 to act in accordance with all that Moses had commanded them.  So far so good.  It is at this point that Joshua has a vision.

The Vision

“Once when Joshua was by Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing before him with a drawn sword in his hand.  Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you one of us, or one of our adversaries?”  He replied, “Neither; but as commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come.”  Who was this person?  We can’t know for sure.  Was it an angel?  Was it Jesus?  One thing we do know, Joshua is having an encounter with God.  Something similar happens with Abraham in Genesis 18 when he encounters three strangers by the Oaks of Mamre.  We are told that “The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day.” (Gen 18:1) Abraham had an encounter with God.  Joshua had an encounter with God.  God had promised Joshua that he would be with him as he was with Moses, and here we have the fulfillment of that promise.  This is a serious encounter.  A sword is drawn.  We’re talking matters of life and death here.  This is serious.  Joshua asks him, “Are you one of us, or one of our adversaries?”  This seems like a reasonable question.  A fight is in the offing after all.  An impossible fight is how it looks.  Are you with us or are you with them, because we’re the only two parties involved in this situation?  Right?

This figure is a reminder that there is a third party involved in the facing of the seemingly insurmountable obstacle that is Jericho.  “Neither,” says the man, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.”  The invitation is to trust in God.  Trust in God looks like something.  None of us may have a problem agreeing that we trust God.  The problem that always needs addressing with us followers of Jesus is the gap between what we believe, what we do, and what we say.  We may believe that we need God theologically or even theoretically speaking.  Functionally, we may operate quite differently.  Has God forgotten about us?  Have we forgotten God?  Have we forgotten what it looks like to seek God’s face together often and meaningfully – particularly in the face of an insurmountable obstacle?  Let’s not beat ourselves up too much about it because we’re listening and looking, and look who’s here!  “As commander of the heavenly army of the Lord, I have now come.”   God is with us, dear church family.  We’re not facing anything alone or in our own strength or by our own wits or looks or charm or business acumen or experience.  “I have now come,” says the man holding the sword, and we say, “Thank you, God, that we’re not alone here!”

The Response

As usual, Joshua has the good and proper response when confronted by God’s presence.  You know God’s story is not simply a set of moral tales and we know that often those who have gone before us (much like ourselves) are not models of moral behaviour.  Joshua is, like Paul, a beauty.  Hear how Joshua responds:  “Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped…”  He worshiped him.  He got down on his face and worshiped.  Do you ever get down on your face, if you’re able to, before God?  It’s meaningful, isn’t it?  Getting down on our knees, down on our faces.  He worshiped him.  Joshua asks this man, “What do you command your servant, my lord?”  This is a good question.  What is it that God is going to ask Joshua to do?  He tells Joshua to simply worship.  I say simply that worship of God is not the most important thing we could ever be doing with our lives.  It’s like when we say “Well, I can only pray,” like praying isn’t the single most important, most meaningful, truest thing we could do.  He tells Joshua to worship.  “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy.”  And Joshua did so.  Worship. Reverence.  This is what is called for.

The battle here, friends, is God’s.  The Battle Belongs is how one song which I’ve learned recently puts it.  “When I fight, I’ll fight on my knees,” the song goes.  God plays God’s part.  God tells Joshua to play his part – which is to worship.  “See, I have handed Jericho over to you, along with its kings and soldiers.”  When it comes to dependence on God on the part of the Israelites, this story couldn’t be clearer.  There is no battle plan.  There is no siege plan.  There’s no plan for how to breach the city gates or to build a siege ramp up against its walls.  There is no ruse in order to gain entrance into the city.  There is only worship.  Many of us are familiar with the details.  “You shall march around the city, all the warriors circling the city once.  Thus you shall do for six days, with seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark.  On the seventh day, you shall march around the city seven times, the priests blowing the trumpets.  When they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpets, then all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall charge straight ahead.”  Joshua lets the people know what God has commanded.  There is so little to resemble a regular siege here that the people of Israel return to their camp each night to sleep – what a great detail, and sleep is important after all.

Herem

The people of Israel are to worship, and God will bring victory.  They do exactly as God has commanded.  The walls come down.  They are told to destroy everything in the city except for silver, gold, and vessels of bronze and iron, which are to be put into God’s treasury.  We read “They devoted to destruction by the edge of the sword all in the city, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys.”  Is this difficult?  Everyone in the city was killed by the Israelites.  The word “devoted” here is a translation of the Hebrew word herem, which means “set apart as holy” or “devote to destruction.”  It’s a concept that existed in the ancient world that was applied to people and objects captured in war.  In the Old Testament, herem is closely linked with Israel not being led to follow other gods. It’s also linked with justice.  It may still be difficult for us, though we remember that the command to destroy was for a specific time and place.  It’s a reminder, too, that God takes sin seriously.  At the same time, we see God’s grace in the midst of destruction.  Rahab is saved along with her father, her mother, her brothers, and all who belonged to her. (Joshua 6:17, 21-22)

Our Offering

It has been thought by commentators that the devotion to God of all that is in Jericho represents an offering.  A first fruits offering made on behalf of the Israelites as they entered the land of promise.  In the middle of this offering comes salvation/deliverance.  Rahab is saved along with all her household.  We consider to what this offering/salvation points forward.  A life will be offered up freely on the cross on behalf of others.  Jesus’ self-offering, Jesus’ sacrifices, is not a passive act.  Jesus’ act on the cross is compared to him fighting for us.  God is portrayed throughout the OT as a divine warrior – one who fights for his people; oftentimes, they need only stand still. This is what the Israelites are told when they are trapped at the Red Sea, about to face the wrath of the Egyptian army.  “The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.”  The Psalmist writes in Psalm 20:7, “Some take pride in chariots, and some in horses, but our pride is in the name of the Lord our God.”

This image of God as warrior is carried on in Christ.  He’s not the type of warrior people were expecting.  Our King who rides into town on a humble donkey.  Our King who, as Paul wrote, “made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands.  He set this aside, nailing it to the cross.  He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.” (Col 2:13-15)  We’re not talking about a fight against people here.  Our fight is never against people.  God will fight for us.  Jesus has fought for us and won the victory; Jesus will fight for us and ultimately win the victory.  What is our role here?  Our role is to worship.

Let’s look again at what happens when Joshua realizes he’s in God’s presence.  He fell to his face on the earth and worshipped him.  “What do you command your servant to do, my Lord?” he asks.  The answer comes back, “Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place that you stand is holy.”  Trust God.  Serve God.  Worship God. Revere God. Hold fast.  At the end of his life, Joshua will tell the people of Israel, “But hold fast to the Lord your God as you have done to this day.” (23:8) He’ll say, “You know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one thing has failed of all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you; all have come to pass for you, not one of them has failed.” (23:14) He’ll say, “Now therefore revere the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and faithfulness.. Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living, but as for my and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (24:14-15)  

What is our role here?  Our role is to worship.  Wherever we find ourselves.  When we talk about worship, of course, we’re not just talking about our corporate worship, the worship that we do together.  We’re talking about our entire lives as worship, just like we talked about being living stones – reminders and proclaimers of God’s mercy in all we do and say, founded on Christ, our cornerstone.    Paul puts it like this in his letter to the Romans: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God (made acceptable through Christ’s sacrifice!), which is your spiritual worship.” (Rom 12:1) How do we get there?  It’s something we figure out together, isn’t it?  The people of Israel were all in on this battle.  They were together.  Do we want to be together on this?  In figuring out what it means to present our bodies as living sacrifices?  In figuring out what it means for us to live in the land of promise, following Christ and claiming his promise of redemption and peace and wholeness?  Of what it means to love him, to rest in him, to walk with him together just like those ancient Israelites walked around Jericho, and to see him win the victory!

Of course, we worship together too.  We gather together to remember, to proclaim, to look ahead at all that God has done, is doing, and will do. To celebrate Christ’s victory on the cross.  To celebrate God’s grand salvation plan.  To acknowledge that we want to be caught up in it, changed by it, and used by God to make his saving love known.  To acknowledge our trust in him and our willingness to be single- minded in our love and devotion, no matter what obstacle is before us.  The battle is the Lord’s.  May our hearts be open to God working wondrous acts of mercy before us, in us, and through us. May this be true for all of us.  Amen