The Joshua Strategy

February 23, 2014

Joshua:  Turning Obedience Into Blessing

Joshua 6:  “The Joshua Strategy”                       NOTES NOT EDITED

SIS—The Bible gives us a God-inspired strategy for breaking through any wall that stands between us and God’s blessings.

Webster’s Dictionary defines a “wall” as,  “a structure of brick, stone, etc., that surrounds an area or separates one area from another.”  Metaphorically a wall can be described as, “an extreme or desperate position or a state of defeat, failure, or ruin.” In our lesson today we will be dealing with both kinds of walls—physical and metaphorical.

Men have been building walls since the beginning of history. The Roman Emperor, Hadrian, built a famous wall across northern England. Construction started in 122 AD and took about six years to finish.  It stretched about 73 miles.  We all remember the famous line in a speech by President Reagan in 1987 when he demanded, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”  That wall was of course the Berlin Wall separating communist East Berlin from the free West Berlin.  By 1990 the 87 mile symbol of oppression was completely gone.

The most impressive wall of all time surely must by the Great Wall of China. This massive undertaking was actually the conglomeration  of several building projects beginning as early as the 7^th century BC (about the time Israel was going into exile in Babylonian) and continuing through about the 15^th century.  Some parts have long since given way to the elements, others have been repaired from time to time.  Historians estimate that the wall comprised about 13,171 miles across the northern region of China.  It is so massive it can be seen from space.

The wall facing the Israelites in our text today surrounded and fortified the city of Jericho.  The circumference of about 2000 feet.  The city was an area of about 6 square miles.  The wall rested on bedrock with an initial stage of stone with a mud wall resting upon the stone.  All totaled, the wall might have been 20 to 30 feet high.  Archeological evidence for the wall is sketchy.  It also may be that the wall was a “double wall” with houses built into the inner wall. The wall may have been six feet thick at the top and perhaps triple that at the bottom.  As I said, statistics on the exact size of the wall are not well established at this time.  What we do know is that Jericho was a well-fortified city with massive walls.  What we also know is, there is no wall high enough or thick enough to stand up against God!

The Bible gives us a God-inspired strategy for breaking through any wall that stands between us and God’s blessings.

Let’s Read About that strategy.  Joshua 6

I see four parts to a “winning strategy” for life that will break down and break through any wall—metaphorically speaking—standing between you and God’s blessings for your life.  First, you must

1.  Look Beyond Your Problems, not At Them (vv 1-2, 22-25)

Now Jericho was strongly fortified because of the Israelites—no one leaving or entering. ² The Lord said to Joshua, “Look, I have handed Jericho, its king, and its fighting men over to you.

Where does fear and anxiety come from?  It comes from dwelling on the problem, rather than claiming the promise.  REPEAT . . . . .

I have shared with you before one of the key principles in learning how to do “high speed maneuvers” in a police car, or in a race car.  If one’s car starts to skid into a spin, high speed drivers are taught to focus on where they want to go, not where they are going.  This focus allows the drivers to deal with what can quickly become an unmanageable, and deadly, skid.

This is true of life in general.  If we focus on our problems they will always look much bigger and more formidable than they really are.  The problem is stately clearly, “Jericho was strongly fortified!”  Jericho had heard rumors of the coming invasion and they stood ready behind massive walls.  Jericho was “strongly fortified.”   This was true of many of the cities in the Promised Land that Israel would do battle with.  Forty years earlier, the Israelites “looked at” this very same problem—with a very different outcome.  Numbers 13 tells us,

²⁷ They reported to Moses: “We went into the land where you sent us. Indeed it is flowing with milk and honey,  and here is some of its fruit. ²⁸ However, the people living in the land are strong, and the cities are large and fortified.

What was the result of Israel “looking at” the problems they faced.  Looking at your problems instead of looking beyond your problems always makes your problems look bigger and you look smaller.  Check out how this works.  Numbers 13 also says,

³³ We even saw the Nephilim  ^c there—the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim!  To ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and we must have seemed the same to them.”

The people looked like “giants” and they looked like “grasshoppers.”  Looking at your problems instead of looking beyond them will always cause anxiety and fear.

Before you ever consider busting through a wall standing between you and God’s blessing you have to stop looking at the problem and look beyond to the promise.  Let’s jump down our text in Joshua to verses 22-25:

²² Joshua said to the two men who had scouted the land, “Go to the prostitute’s house and bring the woman out of there, and all who are with her, just as you promised her.”  ²³ So the young men who had scouted went in and brought out Rahab and her father, mother, brothers, and all who belonged to her. They brought out her whole family and settled them outside the camp of Israel. ²⁴ They burned up the 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. ²⁵ However, Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, her father’s household, and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent to spy on Jericho, and she lives in Israel  to this day.

When God makes a promise, He always keeps it—always.  The first part of a winning strategy in life in regard to busting through walls is to “Look Beyond Your Problems, Not At Them.”

2.  Get On the Right Side (v 4)

⁴ Have seven priests carry seven ram’s-horn trumpets

in front of the ark.

Over and over again in these opening chapters we have come across the theme of “consecration.”  This is at least the sixth reference to “pursuing holiness” in as many chapters.  The Ark has been mentioned before.  The Ark of the Covenant was the holiest artifact in Jewish life that resided in the holiest place in the Tabernacle.  Priests were the “representatives of the people before God.”  The High Priest interceded on behalf of the people before God on the Holiest Day of the year—the Day of Atonement.  Holiness is woven through the fabric of God’s Word from beginning to end.  You cannot understand Christianity apart from understanding holiness.  As we read in Leviticus and it is repeated in Peter (1:16):

^{Leviticus 11:44} For I am Yahweh your God,  so you must consecrate yourselves  and be holy because I am holy.

The Bible repeats the number “seven” several times:  “seven priests, seven trumpets, seven times, and seven days.”  The number seven in the Bible refers to perfection, fullness, or completion.  In reference to God, it refers to His “holiness.”  A victorious strategy for life that leads to fullness and completion requires “holiness,”  thus, the repetition of the number, “seven.”  I’m sure more can be drawn out of the use of the number “seven” here, but that would require more time than you would likely want to spend this morning.

The words “consecrate” and “holy” come from the same root word meaning, “set apart.”  Our lives must be set apart for the exclusive use of God.  We are not to “set apart” one day of our lives, but every hour or every day of our lives.   Someone gave a good explanation of what it means to “be holy”:

I'll use His standards of right and wrong -- not mine.
I'll build on His morality in my life -- not mine.
I'll build on His expectations for me... not mine.

Holiness means that we make no claims to our lives whatsoever.  Everything we are and everything we have belongs to God.  This is a very high standard, and we can only achieve this standard by applying the “righteousness of Christ, Himself” to our lives.  The Bible says,

^{2Cor 5  21} He made the One who did not know sin  to be sin  for us,  so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Every time we assert any “right” in our lives we deny the transaction that makes us “holy” before God.  This pursuit of holiness must be all consuming because nothing of our flesh can enter into the Kingdom of God.  Holiness is the constant, moment by moment, annihilation of the flesh.  Paul says it this way,

^{Gal. 5   19} I have been crucified with Christ 
²⁰ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

The flesh must die for faith to live.  Holiness requires “we must die.”

^{Rom 8:13} for if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Sin feeds the flesh leading to death.  Sanctification, or the pursuit of holy living, puts the flesh to death by embracing God’s Spirit’s guidance in our lives.  We do this in many ways but foremost among them is Bible study and prayer.  Sermons help us pursue holiness.  Singing praises help us pursue holiness.  Fellowship with other believers helps us pursue holiness.  Serving a lost world in the name of Jesus helps us pursue holiness.

What does not help us pursue holiness is viewing pornography on our computers when nobody is around.  What does not help us pursue holiness is gossiping to others about others.  What does not help us pursue holiness is going to the beach when we should be in church.

I think you get the idea.  Holiness is an “all-consuming passion to please God with every thought and deed of our lives.”  This is a tall order, but holiness puts us “on the right side” – the winning side.

God’s wall busting strategy involved leadership by the priests and the presence of the Holy Ark.  Priests were the key to this military victory, not soldiers.  We must recognize that the key issues in life are spiritual, not physical.  Yet, we almost always focus on the physical. This part of God’s victory strategy reminds us that without Him, we cannot win any battle in life.  We have to align ourselves with Him and make sure we are pursuing a holy life.

3.  Third, you have to learn how to follow directions (8-20)

I won’t reread all the instructions given in regard to this military campaign against a “strongly fortified” city, but I’ll summarize the key elements:  seven priests, seven trumpets, seven times on the seventh day ending with a good ole Hallelujah shout!”

Now, there’s a military strategy that would make our Joint Chiefs of Staff scratch their heads—these include the generals, admirals, and top brass of each of our military branches.  These are guys who play with really big guns that make really loud booms, and really big divots in the earth. 

This military strategy seems almost nonsensical on the surface.  I’ve come to believe that God works more like Candid Camera than Chemistry experiment.  The Bible tells us that God , “uses the foolish things of the World,” to accomplish His purposes—a boat for Noah when it had never rained, a staff for Moses against the most powerful army on the earth, a slingshot for David against a professionally trained military giant.  A wooden cross to crush the Devil.

Yes, God works more like Candid Camera than Chemistry experiment.  “When you least expect it” . . . .  God takes no pleasure in being predictable.  God values faith and faith requires a measure of doubt or uncertainty.  Why hope for what is seen?

Here’s where many of us lose the battle and remain on the wilderness side of a wall.  We start second guessing God.  We fail to follow God’s direction in one of two ways.  First, they don’t even crack the Bible open to read the directions.  Second, if we do read it, we read it with no intention of fully obeying it.  Both scenarios will lead to the same place—failure!  [By the way, Lord willing, we will see this very issue in play next week.]

If you don’t trust God’s directions, you are left to follow the Devil’s.  It’s that simple.  Somebody is going to lead you.  As Bob Dylan sang a few years ago:

You're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
It may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody.

A common misconception people have about atheists is that when a person stops believing in God, they believe in nothing.   G.K. Chesterton once said, "It is often supposed that when people stop believing in God, they believe in nothing.  Alas, it is worse than that. When they stop believing in God, they believe in anything."  That “anything” includes the lie of the Devil.  So, if you don’t follow God’s directions, you will be following the Devil’s.  Let me give you a preview of how the Devil’s plan works out for him:

^{Mat 25: 41} Then He will also say to those on the left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels!

This comes at the end of the Lord’s sermon discussing “sheep and goats”—those that follow His direction and those who follow the Devil’s.  The Devil’s plan does not end well.  Those that either hear God Word and ignore it, or don’t even hear it to begin with, will end up in disaster losing everything—many even losing their souls.

Victory in life according requires following God’s directions.

I will admit people are not good at reading and following directions.  I know I am not good at it.  Sometimes, even the simplest directions seem to stump some people.  I remember reading about a lady staying at a hotel.  She wanted some ice so she went down the hall to the vending area.  A man overheard her talking to the ice machine saying, "You are a dumb looking button. You don't have much of a future, either. People are going to be punching you all your life. Then when you are broken, you are going to be replaced by a much better looking button."  The man was a bit puzzled by the conversation this lady was having with the ice machine with all the negative, insulting language.  He couldn’t help but ask, “Ma’am, what are you doing.”  The lady quickly replied, “I’m just following the directions.”  It says, “Depress the Button for Ice.” 

Joshua’s strategy for breaking through walls involves following directions—maybe just a bit better than that lady.

4.  Don’t Stop Too Soon (v14, 15)

¹⁴ On the second day they marched around the city once and eturned to the camp. They did this for six days. ¹⁵ Early on the seventh day.

Breaking down the walls of the fortified city of Jericho was not a “quick fix.”  It took time.  The amount of time was “seven days.”  That tells us the exact time it takes for any miracle to happen and for any breakthrough to come in our lives.  Exactly “seven” days.  Not five, not six, not 8—but, every miracle or breakthrough in our lives takes exactly “seven” days.

“Seven” as we just learned is “God’s number,” or the number of completion or perfection.  Miracles come in God’s time, not ours.  Breakthroughs come according to God’s chronology, not ours.  So much of the defeat in our lives comes because we “stop too soon.”  We give up too early.  We sell out to cheaply.

Jim Corbett was born in 1866 and died in 1933 at the age of 67.  He was a professional boxer best known for defeating the great John L. Sullivan.  He knocked out Sullivan in the 21^st round.  That’s right, the 21^st round.  In early boxing, there was no set limit on the number of rounds.  The fights went on until one fighter could not continue, either by knockout or the opinion of the referee.  Gentleman Jim once fought his cross-town rival, Petter “Black Prince” Jackson to a decision of a draw after 61 rounds!  Though he did not get a victory after 61 rounds, that determination is what sustained his very successful career in boxing.  Gentleman Jim once said,

“Fight one more round. When your feet are so tired that you have to shuffle back to the center of the ring, fight one more round. When your arms are so tired that you can hardly lift your hands to come on guard, fight one more round. When your nose is bleeding and your eyes are black and you are so tired you wish your opponent would crack you one on the jaw and put you to sleep, fight one more round – remembering that the man who always fights one more round is never whipped.”

Victorious living is not for wimps.  Too many people want the victory but run from the battle.  Victory takes time.  Victory takes a determined effort in one direction for an extended period of time.  Too many stop just short of victory.  Too many quit praying when the answer seems too long on coming.  Too many quit reading the Bible because the answer seems hidden too deeply.  The only way the Devil ever gets victory in a believers life is through “surrender.”  DON’T SURRENDER. 

Another great fighter, though in a different arena reminds us how important it is to keep fighting.  Churchill guided England, and the world to a great degree, through one of the darkest moments in history.  Hitler was sweeping across Europe like a plague.  In a speech to a college gathering in 1941Churchill gave this word of encouragement.    "This is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never!”

In another famous speech Churchill roused the House of Commons as British and French armies were forced to evacuate from Dunkirk early in WW2:  "We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing-grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender!"

God could have easily blown the walls of Jericho over with just the breath of His imagination.  In an instant, quicker than the twinkling of an eye and smoother than the beating of a butterfly’s wings God could have demolished Jericho’s walls.  But, God does not perform magic tricks for the delight of crowds nor does He perform like a trained monkey at the behest of some human organ grinder.  God has His ways and His ways are perfect.  God has His timing and His timing is always perfect.

Just don’t quit.  Don’t stop too soon.  Believe one more day.  Victory is not merely probable—it is inevitable!  God has ordained it.  Go back to verse 2:  The Lord said to Joshua, “Look, I have handed Jericho, its king, and its fighting men over to you.

God lays this promise at the feet of any and all who will follow His strategy for breaking through walls.  Look beyond your problems, not at them.  Get on God’ side.  Follow directions.  Don’t stop too soon.  This is Joshua’s strategy for breaking down any wall that stands between you and God’s blessings for your life.  It works every time!

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