Circling Jericho – Overcoming the Strongholds and Battles in our Lives (Joshua 6:1-7)

     Jericho was one of many cities the Israelites would need to conquer in the land of Canaan. Repeatedly they would be called to go to battle, and to learn their victory was in God’s hands. God’s blessings in this land would have to be claimed, battles would present themselves over and over and confront the Israelites, much as they do in our lives. We all at times find ourselves immersed in circumstances that can seem insurmountable. And we much as the Israelites are called to know it is not us that will fight the circumstances we face, but Jesus. Our job is to trust and to stand firm in and through all we face, believing our God will get us through. And more times than not God’s purposes in all of this will not be understandable to us. How many times have you stood before a problem, before a circumstance that was beyond your abilities, questioning why, unable to let it go, looking at it from every possible angle trying to figure out a way around or through it. As we come to Jericho, we see the Israelites doing the very same thing. In fact, it was God who designed this very playing field. It was God that commanded they walk around the walls of Jericho 13 times. It is God that designs every playing field and circumstance we too face. Regardless of the circumstance our victory always follows the same path, the path of believing. Let’s go to the Lord’s word and then on to Jericho.

Read Joshua 6:1-7

As we study the Lord’s word, we know that the Lord was with the Israelites. We know He would bring them to the land of promise. He was with them as they crossed the Red Sea, He was with them and cared for them all through their wilderness travels. He was with them as they crossed the Jordan and now, He is with them as they are in the land of promise. You may find yourself asking if God has brought them into the land of promise why then will they face the insurmountable walls of Jericho and after Jericho another battle and another battle. Why if we are victorious in Jesus do we face one after another Jericho in our own lives? Our Jericho may not look like a city with two sets of walls surrounding it that we must break through. It may be something from our past that we cannot overcome, something that continues to trip us up. Our Jericho may come to us as something inside of us that we just cannot seem to beat or from outside of us, maybe in the form of a divorce, illness or death we never expected, and just cannot seem to get past. Our Jericho may come from problems at work, or with family and friends, maybe even at church. But all our Jericho’s all have one thing in common and that is they are too much for us, and their walls seem insurmountable.

But why do we continue to have to battle? Why if Jesus has overcome do we find ourselves repeatedly facing Jericho? We continue to face Jericho in our lives because we are never free of satans attacks in this life. In fact, the closer we come to Jesus, the more forceful satan will attack us. It is as Jesus said, that in this life you will have trouble, but He has overcome. We need to read this and know that we will face battles, battles that we fight from a place of victory with Jesus, that with Him we can and will overcome.

In today’s passage Joshua has been told that God has given Jericho into his hand. God has overcome what the people will face. Jericho with its mighty walls was going to fall. We are told that the city was shut tight, meaning that it was very strongly defended. The people and the fighting men of Israel are not being equipped with human weapons to tear down the walls. Instead, God tells them to simply march around the city once a day for 6 days. So, they marched around the massive walls looking at them from every angle and then returned to camp. They did this for 6 days and on day 7 were told to march around the city another 7 times. In verse 10 Joshua tells the people they are not to shout, make their voice heard, or let any word leave their mouth. They are to contemplate what faces them in silence. If the people were to be silent that meant they could not talk with each other to formulate a plan to take down the walls, or in any way discuss using their human strength in facing this battle. How much time do we spend talking about how we in our human strength can solve the circumstances before us? God’s instructions were to see what lay before them, and to understand the battle was too much for them, to know the Lord was with them as they marched with the Arc of the covenant, and to trust and obey as they waited.

 Surely as they marched around the walls, they realized winning this battle would be much too much for them, in fact they may have felt hopeless and that what God was asking them to do in marching around the city made absolutely no sense. How many times have we felt the very same way as we faced our circumstances and questioned the sense in any of it, doubted, worried, and feared? Maybe we have talked with others about the walls we face, trying to figure out what to do, maybe we have walked around them in painful silence. Only to come to the same conclusion as the Israelites, that this is too much for me, I do not have the strength, and I cannot win this battle.

In verse 2 and 16 we read that the land was a gift to be received by faith not won by human strength. Our part in winning the battles before us as with the Israelites is to trust and obey. To realize it is not my strength but the Father’s that wins our battles. To come before the Lord in quiet trust and sit in our circumstance before Him and turn it over to Him. As the Israelites were instructed to sit in silence before God, we too are to come before Him in our circumstances and helplessness. We are to know the battle before us is too much, we are to wait, we are to obey our Lord, we are to listen for His voice and direction, and we are to trust. Ours is to show up, to know our victory does not lie in our strength and to stand strong in our faith. As the Israelites marched around the walls it was a march of victory, but the victory had to be claimed and God had to be obeyed. So, how do we claim our victories and God’s blessings? First, we have to know God’s word and His promises to us. Second, we must claim them by believing them despite our circumstances and move ahead in faith as we obey God’s word. Romans 10:17 tells us our faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ. So, as we read God’s word our faith grows.

In conclusion, Hebrews 11:30 tells us that it is by faith the walls of Jericho fell. And it is by faith that the Jericho’s we each must face will fall.

As we close let’s go to the Lord in prayer:

Father, we give thanks for your word, and pray your strength in us that we may face the walls and strongholds before us with the knowledge that we do not walk alone. Give us the strength to stand as battles rage around and within, give us the strength to stand in quiet faith before you, believing that with You we can overcome. Amen

Thanks for joining us and until next time praise God and God bless.