March 2, 2010 - Victory Depends On Absolute Obedience

Meditation on Joshua 6

God gave specific instruction to Joshua on how to destroy the city of Jericho. It must have been quite a scene to see the seven priests blowing the seven trumpets marching before the ark as they went around the city for seven days with armed columns of soldiers in the front as well as in the rear. On the seventh day they marched around the city seven times. All these times, they were forbidden to even talk until Joshua gave them the signal to shout. Then the wall came tumbling down.

Conservative Archeologists tell us that there were two walls at Jericho; one on the top of the mountain and one at the hill side. Possibly the brick walls on top came down and rolled over the bottom wall along the slope. So the Israelites soldiers just went straight up into the whole city and destroyed everything as the Bible described in detail. The archeologists discovered that there were many remains of jars with burnt corns and food supplies. It was an unusual situation because usually conquering party would take away all the food supplies of the defeated city. This showed that the biblical narrative is correct. The Israelites burnt the whole city with all things in it. They only took the metal products which dedicated to God. Moreover, it was discovered that the north side of the bottom wall had some part that was not totally destroyed. Possibly that was where Rahab and all her household lived. Her protection of the spies preserved their lives. She was a lower class citizen who lived outside of the main city on the slope. Her house was attached to the lower wall where she had a window to let down the spies with a robe.

God provided a great victory for His people who obeyed Him and protected those who trusted in Him. Praise the Lord!