Joshua 06
6:1 Now Jericho was shut tightly because of the Israelites. No one was allowed to leave or enter.
Jericho was frightened. They shut their city gates.
6:2 The Lord told Joshua, “See, I am about to defeat Jericho for you, along with its king and its warriors.
The Hebrew verb is a prophetic perfect, meaning that the victory had already been won by God Himself.
6:3 Have all the warriors march around the city one time; do this for six days.
Israel had no battering rams, catapults, or siege weapons. Therefore, God told the soldiers to march around the walls one time a day for six consecutive days.
6:4 Have seven priests carry seven rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day march around the city seven times, while the priests blow the horns.
On the seventh day, the priests were to march around the city, blowing trumpets.
6:5 When you hear the signal from the ram’s horn, have the whole army give a loud battle cry. Then the city wall will collapse and the warriors should charge straight ahead.”
When the trumpets were blown, the walls would fall down. The soldiers were to charge into the city.
6:6 So Joshua son of Nun summoned the priests and instructed them, “Pick up the ark of the covenant, and seven priests must carry seven rams’ horns in front of the ark of the Lord.” 6:7 And he told the army, “Move ahead and march around the city, with armed troops going ahead of the ark of the Lord.”
Joshua commanded the seven-day march to begin.
6:8 When Joshua gave the army its orders, the seven priests carrying the seven rams’ horns before the Lord moved ahead and blew the horns as the ark of the covenant of the Lord followed behind. 6:9 Armed troops marched ahead of the priests blowing the horns, while the rear guard followed along behind the ark blowing rams’ horns.
There were soldiers in front and behind the priests.
6:10 Now Joshua had instructed the army, “Do not give a battle cry or raise your voices; say nothing until the day I tell you, ‘Give the battle cry.’ Then give the battle cry!” 6:11 So Joshua made sure they marched the ark of the Lord around the city one time. Then they went back to the camp and spent the night there.
This trip covered about eight acres at most, so each procession took about thirty minutes. Instead of attacking, Israel went back to camp.
6:12 Bright and early the next morning Joshua had the priests pick up the ark of the Lord. 6:13 The seven priests carrying the seven rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord marched along blowing their horns. Armed troops marched ahead of them, while the rear guard followed along behind the ark of the Lord blowing rams’ horns. 6:14 They marched around the city one time on the second day, then returned to the camp. They did this six days in all.
Israel received what must have seemed like silly battle plans. They were exposing themselves to ridicule and danger. Canaanite soldiers on the wall were most likely mocking them. Canaanite soldiers could have shot arrows at the Israelite army at any time. Israel had no siege weapons. They had to put up with this verbal abuse for six consecutive days. God could have been giving the Canaanites more time to repent and turn to God.
6:15 On the seventh day they were up at the crack of dawn and marched around the city as before – only this time they marched around it seven times.
On the seventh day, the Israelite army marched around Jericho seven times. These seven circuits probably took about three hours.
6:16 The seventh time around, the priests blew the rams’ horns and Joshua told the army, “Give the battle cry, for the Lord is handing the city over to you!
After the seventh circuit, Joshua commanded the soldiers to shout. He reminded the soldiers that God was fighting on their side and He had already decided the outcome of the battle.
6:17 The city and all that is in it must be set apart for the Lord, except for Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house, because she hid the spies we sent.
Rahab and her family were the only Canaanites to be spared.
6:18 But be careful when you are setting apart the riches for the Lord. If you take any of it, you will make the Israelite camp subject to annihilation and cause a disaster.
Israel was not allowed to rape women or take any plunder. These were unusual battle orders for ancient armies.
6:19 All the silver and gold, as well as bronze and iron items, belong to the Lord. They must go into the Lord’s treasury.”
All of the plunder belonged to God. It was either destroyed or used for God’s treasury.
6:20 The rams’ horns sounded and when the army heard the signal, they gave a loud battle cry. The wall collapsed and the warriors charged straight ahead into the city and captured it.
When the walls were dug up by archaeologists, they were found to have fallen outward. Conservative and liberal archaeologists have different views on the dating of pottery found at the site. Liberals tend to give the pottery a later dating. This is a biased attempt to discredit the Bible. Conservatives give the same pottery a date which matches the time period of Scripture. Since the Bible contains no mistakes, and since the Bible records history before it happens, then it would be foolish to take the word of a skeptical archaeologist over that of the inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word of God.
6:21 They annihilated with the sword everything that breathed in the city, including men and women, young and old, as well as cattle, sheep, and donkeys.
According to the Ras Shamra tablets, the Canaanites were a degenerate race who were involved in sexual prostitution and bloody infant sacrifices. If the Canaanites were not completely destroyed, then they would seduce Israel into these same practices. There was no way that Israel could become priests to the other nations as long as the Canaanite influence was upon them.
God is a God of grace who will always show grace to His children throughout eternity. However, this is not true for God’s enemies. A day will come when the cup of wrath fills. When this cup fills, God moves in judgment. If God remains a God of grace forever, then evil will never be eliminated. For evil to be eliminated, God must discontinue His grace and move into judgment.
God told Abraham that the Amorites had 400 years to repent, and then comes judgment. The 400 years were completed. Only Rahab and her family believed on Jehovah. God called for the genocide of the Canaanites. Israel was not able to finish this job and would later become seduced by the Canaanites. They would actually become worse than the Canaanites themselves. However, God would not exterminate the Jews, because of the promise which He made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Abrahamic Covenant is the only reason that the Jews still survive today.
The genocide of the Jews is a small scale version of what God will do during the Great Tribulation. One of the reasons for the Great Tribulation is to purge evil and evil ones out of this world. Israel would fail at exterminating the Canaanites, but God will not fail. He will allow the cup of the wrath of the world to fill, and then He will execute global genocide on all of His enemies.
Liberals like to call God cruel and unjust, but it is not cruel and unjust to eliminate evil. To live in a perfect world, the evil ones must die and be removed from earth and heaven. God is full of love and grace, so He must eliminate evil out of His universe. Evil and good cannot co-exist in the world. One must cancel the other out.
6:22 Joshua told the two men who had spied on the land, “Enter the prostitute’s house and bring out the woman and all who belong to her as you promised her.”
When archaeologists dug up the remains at Jericho, they found one portion of the wall still standing.
6:23 So the young spies went and brought out Rahab, her father, mother, brothers, and all who belonged to her. They brought out her whole family and took them to a place outside the Israelite camp.
According to Matthew 1:5, Rahab, a Gentile prostitute, became part of the messianic line.
6:24 But they burned the city and all that was in it, except for the silver, gold, and bronze and iron items they put in the treasury of the Lord’s house.
Archaeologists have confirmed that the city and the walls were burned. Liberal archaeologists disagree with the dating for biased reasons, but even the liberals agree that this was the biblical city of Jericho, it was burned, and there was one part of the wall that did not fall.
6:25 Yet Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, her father’s family, and all who belonged to her. She lives in Israel to this very day because she hid the messengers Joshua sent to spy on Jericho.
Rahab was alive at the time of this writing. This verse shows that these events were written by eyewitnesses. It is bias for liberal theologians to come around 3000 years later and claim that it did not quite happen this way. How do they know? Were they there? It seems that the Biblical eyewitnesses who were there would have a lot more first-hand knowledge than that of the biased liberal skeptics.
6:26 At that time Joshua made this solemn declaration: “The man who attempts to rebuild this city of Jericho will stand condemned before the Lord. He will lose his firstborn son when he lays its foundations and his youngest son when he erects its gates!”
Joshua predicted that if any man attempted to rebuild the city of Jericho, then he would lose his firstborn son. He also predicted that if anyone attempted to rebuild these gates, then he would lose his second born son. Five hundred years later, Hiel the Bethelite attempted to rebuild Jericho’s walls, but it cost him the lives of both his sons (1 Kings 16:34).
6:27 The Lord was with Joshua and he became famous throughout the land.
Joshua not only became famous, but he also became feared throughout the land. If Joshua would wipe out all of the Canaanites, then there would be no Canaanite influence ever to seduce Israel from becoming priests to all of the nations. However, Moses had already predicted that Joshua would not be successful.