The People Shouted

Israel’s unusual battle plan for capturing Jericho is outlined in Joshua 6. We will consider God’s promises, Joshua’s obedience, and God’s faithfulness today.

You can play, download, or read the transcript of this Take Note Podcast below.

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Joshua 6:1-25

We’re entering the middle of a story from the history of Israel today
As God’s people enter their promised land and conquer Jericho
If you’re not familiar with this account, it is quite an unusual story of invasion
The city is well fortified and (as the text says) “straitly shut up” when Israel arrives
That’s when the leader of Israel, Joshua, receives instruction from the Lord
They are not the kind of instructions you might expect
But we’ll explore that today, from Joshua 6:1-25
Our theme: “The People Shouted”

The reason I said these invasion plans are unusual, is that they defy human thinking
They are plans from God, not from men
Left to our own way of thinking, we would have come up with other plans
Israel, likely, would have come up with other plans
But God had a purpose in mind for these plans
And we learn a good bit from them, even today
Israel must have learned a great deal more

Joshua has a history of confidence in God and trust in His word
And he’s been given certain promises and certain instructions by God regarding this task
Entering and obtaining the promised land
He’s been reminded to have courage
And to continue trusting God

Let’s observe the beginning of this first battle in his mission…

Joshua 6:1

1 Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in.

This is city that is concerned and prepared
In fact, that’s an understatement based on what we learn in the passages just previous
One resident, Rahab, said in chapter 2 “I know that the LORD hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.”

God reminds Joshua this is true…

Joshua 6:2

2 And the LORD said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour.

There is no reason to doubt
God has given them this city
And of God gives His people a city, no army ever assembled (or that ever could be assembled) can stand against them
It’s as simple as that

Now the instructions…

Joshua 6:3

3 And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days.

To the human military mind, this may not sound too illogical – yet
There is certainly a potential for intimidation, as anticipation within the city would no doubt build
What could happen next would be left to their imagination
And the imagination conjures a myriad of things in circumstances like this

What is next, then?

Joshua 6:4

4 And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets.

This is still sounding pretty good to human understanding
Who knows what fury would follow the blowing of the trumpets!
Would they then scale the walls
Or fire something beyond them
Or batter the gates?
Not exactly

And this is where we observe the foreknowledge of God
Which we don’t have
We find it difficult to see what He sees
But He sees accurately…

Joshua 6:5

5 And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.

The plan of man requires brute strength
It requires the man to do something
Not to simply wait for something to happen
Rarely has a general been known to order his men to simply wait for walls to fall
But that is, in essence, what God is asking of Joshua and Israel
Yes, they are to do the marching and the trumpeting and the shouting
But none of those activities are well-known for their wall destruction capabilities

They must do what God says
But what they do is not what accomplishes the task
It is God who will bring the walls down
The key for God’s people is their confidence in Him

And that’s what Joshua had – confidence in God…

Joshua 6:6-8

6 And Joshua the son of Nun called the priests, and said unto them, Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the LORD.

7 And he said unto the people, Pass on, and compass the city, and let him that is armed pass on before the ark of the LORD.

8 And it came to pass, when Joshua had spoken unto the people, that the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns passed on before the LORD, and blew with the trumpets: and the ark of the covenant of the LORD followed them.

Here we go
It appears that Joshua is going forth to obey his Lord
To embrace the unusual instructions
To see God work on Israel’s behalf
And this must be an almighty encouragement to us
If one man, not unlike us, could go into battle trusting
How can we not, who are often facing far less, trust Him too?

Let’s go on…

Joshua 6:9-10

9 And the armed men went before the priests that blew with the trumpets, and the rereward came after the ark, the priests going on, and blowing with the trumpets.

10 And Joshua had commanded the people, saying, Ye shall not shout, nor make any noise with your voice, neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I bid you shout; then shall ye shout.

Now we’re getting into the details of Joshua’s instruction-following
He intends to keep God’s word to the letter
He knows the shout is a key ingredient in God’s plan
So he bids them not to make a sound or say a word until it is time
And the time will come soon enough

Let’s read on…

Joshua 6:11-14

11 So the ark of the LORD compassed the city, going about it once: and they came into the camp, and lodged in the camp.

12 And Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the LORD.

13 And seven priests bearing seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the LORD went on continually, and blew with the trumpets: and the armed men went before them; but the rereward came after the ark of the LORD, the priests going on, and blowing with the trumpets.

14 And the second day they compassed the city once, and returned into the camp: so they did six days.

I can only wonder what the people were thinking at this time
On both sides of the wall
The children of Israel, who were given these unusual instructions
And the people of Jericho, who were experiencing the unusual from the other side
Few of them would have had any clear idea what was happening
But God saw everything
He knew what would happen
Not just with the walls, but inside men’s hearts
And while, even in obedience, men may doubt
There is no need to doubt where God has spoken

And He has…

Joshua 6:15-16

15 And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they rose early about the dawning of the day, and compassed the city after the same manner seven times: only on that day they compassed the city seven times.

16 And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the LORD hath given you the city.

It is clear that Joshua trusts God
He follows God’s specific instructions
In His mind, the city was theirs
And it reality, it was about to be
His people would observe God’s trustworthiness again
And have this city

First, a little background…

Joshua 6:17-19

17 And the city shall be accursed, even it, and all that are therein, to the LORD: only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all that are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent.

18 And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.

19 But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, are consecrated unto the LORD: they shall come into the treasury of the LORD.

If you know your history of Israel
And this journey in particular, then these are familiar details
If you don’t know them
Just go back and read from the beginning

We need to get to one of the highlights of the account…

Joshua 6:20

20 So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.

What God said was true
Every word
He was worthy of Joshua’s trust
Of Israel’s trust
He knew what was best
This task was not difficult for Him
He had given them the city long before those walls fell
Because He said it was theirs
And that was enough
His word is final
It is only up to us to trust

Here are the final details of the story…

Joshua 6:21-25

21 And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.

22 But Joshua had said unto the two men that had spied out the country, Go into the harlot’s house, and bring out thence the woman, and all that she hath, as ye sware unto her.

23 And the young men that were spies went in, and brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brethren, and all that she had; and they brought out all her kindred, and left them without the camp of Israel.

24 And they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein: only the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD.

25 And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father’s household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day; because she hid the messengers, which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

God keeps His promises
He has proven over and over that we have good reason to trust Him
For everything, in everything, and with everything

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