Have you ever made up your mind “this is the way it’s going to be, and nothing will change my mind”, even if someone has a better idea? We can get ourselves into sticky situations with that thinking. However, sometimes we should be determined. The Canaanites thought they were making a determined stand against Israel when they actually bucked up to God’s decision. It has been said, “their hearts hardened to their own destruction”. Here’s the text we are learning from today:
Joshua 6: 1, 15-19, “Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in. … On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, ‘Shout! For the Lord has given you the city! The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. 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.’”
It’s likely after day one the Canaanites scoffed, threw stones, and shot arrows at the marching Israelites. We read of no casualties, so they must have been far enough out of their reach. Imagine being inside the wall seeing them march. It would be comical, giving them a sense of security, but making their day of destruction more terrible.
In turn, the hearts of the Israelites were being tested – their faith, obedience, and patience, too. When that seventh day came, the seventh time around, and they gave the shout, the walls immediately fell! How amazing that must have felt! Pure joy, relief, adoration and thankfulness to God for delivering Jericho into their hands. I love how it’s put in a commentary: “It was a shot of prayer, an echo to the sound of the trumpets which proclaimed the promise that God would remember them; with one accord, as one man, they cry to heaven for help, and help comes in.”
I want you to see God will ‘gain victory’ over those who make a stand against His people. Psalm 60:9-12, “Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom? Is it not you, God, you who have now rejected us and no longer go out with our armies? Give us aid against the enemy, for human help is worthless. With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies.”
Those are not people, mind you, for Jesus didn’t come to ‘condemn our world’ but to save us. John 3:16-17, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
We’re speaking of principalities and powers. Ephesians 6:11-12, “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
We must look beyond flesh and blood. The devils are spirits, seeking to annoy, provoke, assault, entrap us into any kind of sin possible. The Armor of God is our defense. Study it and practice it, all of it. Put it on each day. Guard YOUR HEART with it. Luke 6:43-45, “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”
May your heart be softened to the Holy Spirit’s teachings and tough to the enemy’s biddings. Just like the Israelites on this course, stay focused on the course God has put before you. Share with someone a way God has moved in your life recently. Have a blessed day!
In addition to putting on the armor of God, remember to ‘take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ’!
2 Corinthians 10:4-5, “The weapons we fight are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
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