Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105

(262) 763-3021

How NOT to fight a war...humanly speaking Joshua 6:1-27 Promised Land Living in Problematic Sermon #9 Most students of American history know that Davy Crockett and 188 other Texans were killed at the Battle of the Alamo in the war with Mexico for the territory of Texas. You may not know though that the last battle in the war for Texas was fought at San Jacinto. The Mexican forces were led by General Santa  Anna, a self-styled “Napoleon of the West.” General Santa Anna had already devastated the Texas forces at both Goliad and the Alamo. Under his command were sixteen hundred men. It appeared that he would win the war and the territory of Texas would remain in Mexican hands.    The Texas forces were led by General Sam Houston. Houston had less than 750 men left in his army. He was outnumbered more than two to one. The two armies met at San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. Shortly before noon, for the only time in his entire military career, General Sam Houston called a council of war with his key military advisors: Should they attack or wait to be attacked? Two of his officers suggested attacking the enemy in his position; the others favored waiting for Santa Anna’s attack. Houston listened as his officers discussed and debated their options for several hours. When the others had had their say, Sam Houston looked at his watch. It was 3:30 in the afternoon. Sam Houston dismissed his council of war and issued the order to attack!   The Texans’ movements were screened by trees and the rising ground, and Santa Anna had no lookouts posted. The Battle of San Jacinto began at precisely 4:00 p.m. General Houston raised his sword and the last army of the Texas Republic moved up from the woods and across the sloping plain. At first there was no opposition, absolutely none. Then, the first enemy volley thundered and Houston’s horse was shot out from under him. He threw himself on a cavalry soldier’s pony and resumed the charge. His battle cry was, “Remember the Alamo!”   743 Texans against 1600 Mexican soldiers. The Mexican force was in such disarray and so unready, that the Texans were able to keep them off balance and drive them backwards into the marsh. The battle was over in less than twenty minutes. Santa Anna was defeated and Texas was our’s.    The “Napoleon of the West” was crushed in a battle that only lasted eighteen minutes. For Sam Houston was a brilliant military strategist and his attack was precisely timed. Though his forces were outnumbered by more than two to one, the decisive factor was in his favor. For Sam Houston knew what Santa Anna and the Mexican army did every day in the late afternoon. They took a siesta and Sam Houston caught them, literally, sleeping!   Military strategy is important. All great military leaders are passionate students of war and strategy. Engage them in conversation and you will find that they have studied Hannibal, Caesar, Lee, Grant, Sherman, Patton and MacArthur. But though they might allude to ancient warriors, none of them would refer back to the military genius of General Joshua. In Israel’s most famous battle, the battle of Jericho, we have a powerful example of How NOT to fight a war...humanly speaking. This is the craziest military plan ever proposed. March around an armed, walled city thirteen times in a seven day period. Blow trumpets and shout on the seventh day and the walls will come tumbling down. This is How NOT to fight a war. It is the most ridiculous, far-fetched military strategy ever proposed...or at least it would be if it had been man’s plan. But it’s not, it’s God’s plan.   It would be easy at this point to shut down our mental computers, reasoning that’s great, but I’m not in a battle. Really? The courageous early church preacher and martyr, John Chrysostom said “You are but a poor soldier of Christ if you think you can overcome without fighting, and suppose that you can have the crown without conflict.” The Christian experience is one of challenge and conflict. You and I are soldiers of the Cross. Our enemies are constantly waging war against us. Oh, they don’t launch missiles at us or shoot at us from behind stone walls. But they still attack us, tempt us and seek to entice us. If you fight fire with fire, if you engage in this war according to human reasoning, you will lose. Joshua 6 and the Battle for Jericho teaches us How NOT to fight a war. It is a powerful lesson in Heavenly Strategy for spiritual warfare. Like General Joshua, if we are going to successfully fight spiritual battles, we must fight God’s way, not our’s. The world, the flesh and the devil are united against us just as the seven nations in Canaan were united against Joshua and the nation of Israel. If we want to defeat your Jerichos, it is imperative that we do it God’s way.   Israel’s victory at Jericho illustrates several principles of spiritual conflict  and victory applicable to our lives today. If you want to win your war, you must fight according to God’s strategy! What are some strategies in Joshua 6 that we must discharge in our lives? 1. God’s battle strategy is that we fight from victory, not for victory, v. 2. Can you imagine an army, prior to the battle, declaring, “We’ve already won.” Yet, God promises Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.” The verb’s perfect tense indicates that this is a done deal. From God’s perspective the victory had already been won. It was a gift from God. Humanly, the situation appeared hopeless. Jericho seemed unconquerable. But from heaven’s perspective, Israel just needed to claim their God-given victory. In a very real sense we would have to say that “Joshua did not fight the battle of Jericho.” God did. Joshua merely claimed what God had already won.   Even God’s instructions regarding the type of trumpet to use was an indication that this was a victory celebration, not a battle. The Jews used two different kinds of trumpets, those made of silver and those made of ram’s horns. The silver trumpets were used by the priests to signal the camp when something important was happening (Num. 10). The ram’s  horns though were used primarily for celebrations. The common Hebrew word for “trumpet” is shofar; but for the “ram’s horn,” it is jobel, which is the root of the word jubilee. The “Year of Jubilee” was a special time of celebration in Israel (Lev. 25; 27:17‑14). The priests used ram’s horns, not silver trumpets in this event because Israel was not declaring war on Jericho. There was no war! The ram’s horns blaring were celebrating the victory.   Like Joshua, you and I have battles that have already been won. We must live like victors, not victims. Jesus told His disciples, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Paul writes “we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37) and then in 2 Corinthians, “Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ” (2:14). Believers are already victorious. Like Joshua, we must claim the victory given to us by God.   One of the greatest battles many believers fight is disease, most notably cancer. One victorious believer, Dan Richardson, ultimately died from  cancer. His life demonstrated that even though the physical body may be destroyed by disease, the spirit can remain triumphant. This poem was distributed at his memorial service: “Cancer is so limited...It cannot cripple love, It cannot shatter hope, It cannot corrode faith, It cannot eat away peace, It cannot destroy confidence, It cannot kill friendship, It cannot shut out memories, It cannot silence courage, It cannot invade the soul, It cannot reduce eternal life, It cannot quench the Spirit, It cannot lessen the power of the resurrection.” Divine Strategy #1: we fight from victory, not for victory.  2. God’s battle strategy does not line up with human reasoning, v. 2-5.   Last summer our family attended Focus on the Family’s Pastor’s Family Conference in Colorado Springs. Dr. James Dobson’s cousin, H.B. London, who was himself a pastor for many years, heads up Focus’s ministry to pastors. He shared that some years ago when Dr. Dobson had been a member of H.B.’s church. It bothered him though that at the same time Jim Dobson was sitting under his preaching was when Dobson wrote his best selling book, When God Doesn’t Make Sense.   This battle plan doesn’t make sense. The walls of Jericho are impregnable. There were probably two walls. First a short wall, a stone abutment over ten feet high and then the second wall over thirty feet high and twelve feet thick. There was nothing to prevent the Jerichoites from rushing out and attacking the marching Israelites, or at least raining down spears and arrows on them. And God’s instructions have no reference to any type of military strategy. But unlike Moses at the burning bush, Joshua does not argue with God.   God’s plans frequently don’t make sense. It’s apparent that God actually goes out of His way to choose humanly absurd means to do His will. John Huffman says that, “God’s whole modus operandi is to minimize human, prideful self-confidence.” While God’s strategy may seem strange to us, we, like Joshua, still have requirements when it comes to God’s plans. What does God require of us?   A. God’s plans require faith. Heb. 11:30 says, “By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.” The Jews weren’t pretending or trying to believe. They actually took God at His Word.   The text seems to indicate the Israelites were given orders on a daily basis. They didn’t have the whole picture. As they encircled Jericho day after day, the Jerichoites only saw an army carrying some strange golden box, but the Israelites saw the unseen through the eyes of faith. They saw that God was with them and persisted to victory.   This is the way God often deals with us. We live by faith today with little and sometimes, no knowledge, of tomorrow. But in faith, we believe God.    Israel walked around Jericho thirteen times in faith before the walls came down. What faith it must have taken! Even their shout is the shout of faith. Nothing happened, not even a crack in the foundation until thirteen circular trips around the city, the blowing of the trumpets and the great shout.   Friend, is there an area that you’re doubting God on? Do you need to take the first steps around the walls? Have you gotten discouraged in circling? Keep circling the walls in faith. The only way to grow in faith is to accept new challenges and trust God to give you the victory.   B. God’s plans require obedience. That’s what God expects of both Israel and us. What would you have thought of Israel’s faith if they had said that they believed God but did not obey Him by marching around the walls? Would we say that they believed God if they didn’t obey God? If we believe God, then we will obey Him. Can we say that we believe what God says about prayer but never pray? Can we say that we believe that the local church is God’s plan for this day but only attend when it’s convenient? Can we say that we believe that the Bible is God’s Word if we never read it? Can we honesty sing praises about how much we love the Lord if we knowledgeably disobey?  Faith and obedience walk hand in hand.   C. God’s plans require waiting. A seven‑year old told her mom, that a little boy in her class asked her to play doctor. “Oh, dear,” the mother nervously sighed. “What happened, honey?” “Nothing, he made me wait 45 minutes and then double‑billed the insurance company.”   Most of us hate waiting. Part of God’s plan is often after faith and obedience, we must wait. God could have caused the walls to fall down if they had never walked around them. He could have just as easily brought them down on the first or second day as the seventh. Why did God have them march around Jericho so many times? Perhaps to impress on their minds the futility of the situation. If God did not work a miracle, nothing would happen.  Most of us find it easy to believe and obey, as long as we don’t have to wait. All three though; faith, obedience and waiting are part of God’s strategy for spiritual growth.   Sometimes in the waiting we cry out, “Why doesn’t God do something?” He is doing something, He is testing our faith and obedience. One of the Puritans said, “Grace grows better in winter.” Waiting deepens our faith. 3. God’s battle strategy of promise keeping does not line up with human fickleness, v. 17. One Native American said, “The White Man has made us many promises and has broken but one. He promised to take our land, and he took it.” Since coming to America the white man has broken scores of treaties with the Indians. Why? Once the Indian had been conquered, all bets were off. Now that Jericho is conquered, it would have been easy to have forgotten about that promise to Rahab. Who would really care about a broken promise to a prostitute? God did!   Promises are important to God and they must be important to us. It’s Father’s Day, can I remind you of a promise that many of us in this room have made. Really more than a promise, a vow before God: I _____, take you ______, to be my wedded _____. To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish 'till death do us part. And hereto I pledge you my faithfulness.   God takes His promises seriously? Are you taking your vows seriously? Some of you are saying, “Well, I didn’t know what they were really like when I married them.” I don’t see that in the fine print of the vow. Or, maybe you’re saying, “If they would keep their part of the vow, I’d keep mine.” Let me remind you, it is not a conditional vow. If we are going to be godly, then we must be promise keepers.   If Hollywood were making a movie about the conquering of Jericho, it would be very different from the Biblical account. The focus would be on battle scenes. There is not one fight scene though recorded in Scripture about this battle. That’s not God’s emphasis. Eighty-six words in the Hebrew text are devoted to Rahab’s rescue. The destruction of Jericho, what appears to us to be the focal point, only has 102 words. The salvation of Rahab, keeping the promise to her was as important as the destruction of Jericho to God.   But God does not just keep His promises of blessing. He also keeps His promises of cursing, v. 26. Joshua pronounces a curse on the man who seeks to rebuild the fortifications of Jericho. While it was not a problem living in Jericho, Jericho was re-inhabited to some extent shortly after its destruction (Judges 1). This curse was upon anyone who attempted to make it a fortified city. Jericho was to never again be used as a military base, signifying the totality of God’s judgement upon Jericho.   Sadly, man typically believes what he wants to believe. Rather than taking the God Who never lies at His Word, He experiences the fulfillment of God’s promises...sometimes in a tragic way, I Kings 16:34. Some five hundred years later at a time of terrible spiritual apostasy under King Ahab’s reign, this man named Hiel, determined to rebuild Jericho. He discovered with the loss of his two sons that God means business and will always keep His promises.   God keeps His promises both for blessing and cursing. It’s important that He keep His promises even to prostitutes. Promise keeping is important to God. Is it important to you? 4. God’s battle strategy of first-fruits devotion does not line up with human greed, “The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the LORD” (v. 17a) and v. 19. Jericho is the first-fruits from the conquest of Canaan and was to be totally devoted to God. Neither Joshua or the people would be enriched a penny by this conquest.   If you know much about warfare, particularly ancient warfare, then you know one of the benefits was that you pillaged the conquered foe. You were personally enriched for fighting. Rather than taking for themselves, the Israelites give the entire bounty to God as an offering. This the Biblical principle that we find in Proverbs 3:9-10, “Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.” Just as the first fruits of a crop were given to the Lord as an offering, so the conquest of Jericho symbolized that Israel would receive all of Canaan from Him. It was an act of worship and faith. Prior to entering the land, Israel was allowed to take a portion of the spoils and after Jericho, they again were allowed to take a portion of the spoils.   The principle of first fruits is critical. That’s why Jericho as the first conquered city was dedicated to God. It was this command that Achan disobeyed and the whole nation suffered as a result.   This principle has not changed. We are to worship God with our first fruits. Sadly, many worship Him instead with their “left-overs.” If there is any money left over at the end of the week or month, then they decide to give. Often it’s not money it’s time. Many believers will give God time...if they can spare any. Many are so “busy” that they are too busy to serve God.   Scripture has no divorce between sacred and secular. Everything is to be done to honor God, even the conquering of a heathen city. That’s why the first fruits were to be dedicated to God. Tragically, human greed demonstrates a lack of proper priorities, a lack of worship and also ingratitude.   Paul Tillich shares this insight about thanks and thanksgiving. "The reason most of us do not respond to ‘thank you’ or do not say ‘thank you’ is because we instinctively realize that it makes us somehow dependent on that person. If I thank you, I am saying that I am dependent on you, and I am publicly affirming it before God and people. Gratitude is an action that has its roots in grace, the free undeserved love‑action of God. When we are truly grateful, we become starkly aware that we are wholly dependent for everything upon God and upon our fellow human beings who are made in His image. When we are truly grateful, we recognize that God has favored us, whether we deserve favoring or not." Why are we often so stingy with our money and time? Because to give the first fruits of it to God would be to acknowledge that we  are dependent on Him and that we are not self-made. It is acknowledging too that every single minute and penny we possess was given to us by God. To worship with the first fruits is confess our dependence upon God. Conclusion: As we tie this up this morning, can I remind you of another wall that many of us thought would never fall, the Berlin Wall. But it did in November, 1989. Do you have some Jerichos or Berlin Walls in your life that you doubt will ever fall? The victory is already your’s. But for us, as for ancient Israel, the real battle is not at Jericho, it’s in the human heart.   Let me ask two questions before we close.   Question 1: What is the Jericho or what are the Jerichos in your life? Make a list of those points at which you are most vulnerable. What are the temptations? What are the points of spiritual warfare? Is it a struggle with doubt? Is it a hard time taking God and His Word at face value? Is it a struggle with an unforgiving spirit? Resentment and bitterness? Is it a struggle with illness that is getting the upper hand? Is it the loss of a loved one? Is it a struggle with an addiction? Is it a struggle relationally with a partner or child? Is it a struggle with emotions that are confusing? Perhaps you need to surrender in this area of giving God the first fruits? Maybe you’ve been rationalizing sin?     Question 2: Are you letting God conquer your Jerichos for you?   Perhaps you have been seeking to fight spiritual battles in human strength. Take your Jericho but do it God’s way. Is He being allowed to wage the battle or are you doing it in your own power? Is the strategy His or yours?   Joshua 6 reminds us that God is in the business of giving victory to His obedient people when we move beyond our own clever plans to a straightforward trust and obedience. This is where the words of Hebrews 11 makes so much sense. It’s “by faith” that the walls of Jericho fell down. It was the ark of the covenant, representing the presence of the Lord, not human energy, that carried the day.   We must be honest; we need to admit our area of weakness and relinquish it, allowing God to work in our lives, doing what He wills. It will require faith, obedience and patience. God works in unseen and unheralded  ways; and sometimes that victory takes a little longer than we desire. We may not even see the victory in this life but that does not make it any less real. You and I though are privileged to model what it means to be “more than conquerors” to a lost, losing world!