The Battle of Jerico

Most all of us know the story of Joshua and the walls of Jericho, even if only from childhood recollections of the song "Joshua fought the battle of Jericho". This past Sunday's sermon was another in my pastor's current series on famous stories from the Bible: this one being about the walls of Jericho.

As usual, I saw things that I had missed before.

Although Pastor Voigt did not point this out, I had never before seen the "picture" of judgement coming upon the wicked inhabitants of Jericho much like the prophesies of coming judgement. Both involve trumpets. Both involve a great shout.

1 Thessalonians 4:16 "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:"

Revelation 10:6-7 "And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer: But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets."

(I have taken the liberty of adding bold type to emphasize certain parts of these verses)

Obviously if you are approaching this from a pre-trib or pre-millennial point of view, then the battle of Jericho does not fit your picture unless you add the appropriate amount of time between the walls falling and judgement coming.

Another point that Pastor Voigt made had to do with the wickedness of the inhabitants of Jericho. He took us back to the book of Genesis to (if I remember correctly) chapter 15:16 "But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." In other words, by the time that Joshua and the children of Israel crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho, the iniquity of the Amorites was full! This brought to my mind the danger of us looking at someone else's sin and seeing them as rightly condemned without considering our own sin, and how we deserve condemnation also. It is only by the mercy of God, through the redeeming blood of Christ Jesus, that any of us will escape judgement!