Lenten Devotions: Joshua

Joshua 6:1–5; 12–21; 23, 25

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

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.

God had given the city to them, but they were to use the appointed means. God’s election fulfils itself through earnest seeking on our part.

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.

4, 5 And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns: (Mean instruments were chosen to work wonders,) and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. 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.

Little connection was apparent between the means and the desired result, yet it was not for the people to reason why; it was theirs to follow the prescribed rule.

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.

They did precisely as they were bidden, no doubt greatly to the amusement of the sons of Belial, who thought the procedure a very unphilosophical one, and quite unfit for men of common sense to spend their time upon.

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

15 And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they rose early about the dawning of the day, and 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. (Their former silence had proved their patience, and this commanded shout was a token of the expectancy of their faith.)

17–19 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. And ye, in anywise 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. 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. (It was meet that the firstfruits of Canaan should be the Lord’s.)

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. (A strange method of overturning strongholds, and yet when God so ordained, it was as effectual as the best constructed battering-ram. How strangely must Rahab’s house have towered aloft, when all others fell in heaps. Faith pulls down, but faith also upholds.)

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.

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.

In the day of judgment the house with the scarlet line in the window is not left to perish in the general wreck. Perish who may, believers are secured by the promise of one who cannot lie, and they have nothing to fear.

25 And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father’s household, and all that she had.

Make bare thine own resistless arm,

Through all the earth abroad;

Let every nation now behold

Their Saviour and their God.