The Power Of Three: Foundation - Jericho March

It would seem appropriate when talking about laying foundations that the subject of "walls" would be included.  So, this week we talked about the march around Jericho (Joshua 5:13-6:27).  I didn't prepare any slides for us to review because I wanted to have us "dig" into this as a group to uncover the nuggets of Truth buried in the scripture just waiting for us.  Here are some of the highlights from our excavation (BTW, yes, I purposely used as many puns as possible):

There is an overarching structure in how God chose to work with Joshua and the people of Israel:

• Direction
• Action
• Reaction

Though we didn't cover this much in previous weeks, this structure is also seen in both the Commandments and the Plagues.  When we look into our own past, we see often this is evidenced in both small and large events in our lives.  Should we note this and then begin to look forward to it in future events as God leads us?  I think the answer is "yes".  There were three tiers of direction noted here: God spoke to Joshua first and then Joshua spoke to the priests and then Joshua finally spoke to the people.

Of all of the points we spent time on, there are three that I will write about here:

• Joshua 6:2 (MSG) "God spoke to Joshua, "Look sharp now. I've already given Jericho to you, along with its king and its crack troops."  This is significant (as was brought out in our discussion) because God has done something and provided direction.  The action is in response to that direction.
• The people of Israel were a terrifying force according to Rahab as recorded in Joshua 2:8-11 (NLT) "“I know the LORD has given you this land,” she told them. “We are all afraid of you. Everyone in the land is living in terror.”"
• Jericho is the first city taken after the nation of Israel entered the Promised Land.  As such, God required it be given to Him as an offering, or first-fruits of the land.  Note in Joshua 6:18-19 (NIV) "“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.”"

We'll be making reference to these highlights in coming weeks.

There was much dicussion about the size and construction of the city itself, the number of people marching around it, the composition and order of those people, and obviously, the end result of Jericho itself.  I won't take the space to document that here as it's been covered in many different places and many different times.  Suffice it to say, God is Great, He is Almighty, He is the same: Yesterday, Today, and Forever (Hebrews 13:8).

I continue to look forward to where God is taking us in our journey - see you next week.  Blessings!!

"... as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come."
-- Joshua 5:14 (NIV) --