One of my favorite “fun read” books as of late was Newt Gingrich’s Gettysburg, and I must confess, until I saw it on the shelf I didn’t know that Gingrich was a writer. I only knew him from the political headlines he made a few years back so I was very surprised to find him to be not only a writer but a very good one. I really enjoyed the three books that he wrote about the Civil War. I hope he writes more!
One reason his writing hooked me was the different “spin” he put on this familiar war. I mean everybody and his brother has written novels about the war between the states but Gingrich did something different. In what would only loosely be described as historical fiction, he changed many of the crucial events of history in the plot lines of his books. For example, in his version of the Civil War Robert E. Lee and his army of Virginia win the battle of Gettysburg. Don’t misunderstand: Gingrich’s books are very anti-slavery and the south still loses the war eventually, but by changing the outcome of this decisive battle, Gingrich was able to show you things, true aspects of that horrible war that we would miss otherwise.
For example, his books help the reader to see what the mind set of the northern states was really like during the war as they read newspaper stories about the war, especially stories about Lee and his victorious troops moving further and further north. Gingrich also shows how fortified Washington, D. C. was during the war-and it really was-because in a very real sense we were behind “enemy” lines during that conflict.
But the main thing Gingrich’s unique writing style showed me was how very important military strategy can be. I mean, the slightest mistake or misjudgment can change the outcome of a huge battle, and sometimes even an entire war. For good or ill, so much of our nation’s history has hinged on a general’s plan of battle.
And Gingrich’s book gives a prime example of this principle because in his re-telling of the story, General Lee actually listened to the warnings from other generals like Longstreet and decided not to attack the Union lines that were entrenched up on Cemetery Ridge. And because he didn’t, that part of the real battle of Gettysburg that we refer to as Picket’s charge, the attack that has been called the high water mark of the Confederacy during which the South suffered 75% casualties, well it never happened in Gingrich’s book.
Instead Lee changes his strategy and leaves a small rear guard to make it look like his troops are still there in the trees to the west of Gettysburg, while in actuality he force marches his army south skirting Union lines through Emmitsburg and Taneytown until they get to perfect defensive ground in a place called Union Mills. By the time the Union forces realize what has happened Lee is gone and is in fact dug in on a long ridge overlooking Pipe creek. The Union has no choice but to attack him there, on ground of his choosing and when they do they are utterly defeated. In fact the proud Army of the Potomac is absolutely decimated, suffering enormous casualties.
Well, Lee’s strategy and the amazing victory it helped him win causes panic and even rioting in the cities of the north. Lee goes on to capture Baltimore and attack D.C. And, the fragile Union almost comes apart because many people in the North feel like the war is just not worth fighting, not if they have to pay the price that the Army of the Potomac paid.
Now I share all this alternate history with you because if you’re as old as I am then you know that life in this fallen world of ours is full of “battles” in one form or other. I am sure that right now each of you is thinking of a struggle that your are dealing with right now-parental struggles, health struggles, marital struggles, career struggles-because life is full of “battles.”
And to be able to deal with all them, well, just as Gingrich’s writing style illustrates, we need to learn to employ the correct battle strategy. We need to use the right tactics. I mean, as any general worth his stars will tell you, strategy is everything.
Well, this morning we are focusing on the strategy that a general named Joshua used to conquer Jericho. And as I studied it this week I uncovered much more than information about this chapter of Jewish history. I came to see that the principles behind Joshua’s battle tactics in this particular conflict will help us in the struggles of life because there is indeed a sense in which we all face our own “Jerichos,” seemingly insurmountable trials and tribulations that often block our path.
Now, I’m no Gingrich, but let me try and recount the story of this crucial battle in the history of Israel. And I’m not changing history here; this is all true, it actually happened!
Let’s start with the setting. Palestine was and still is a very hilly, even mountainous country in places. I remember when I was there back in 1994 being quite concerned several times as our tour bus flew along roads that were built on the edge of a sheer mountain cliff, roads with no guard rail and almost no shoulder. I prayed a lot as we toured the heights of the Holy Land and I looked out my bus window down into nearly bottomless ravines!
Well, during Joshua’s time the major passage through Palestine was a connecting road that ran from south to north through the highest portions of the land. Joshua’s battle strategy was to drive westward from the Jordan Valley toward that high road, thus dividing the country. Then, with the enemy forces thus divided, he would lead his army first destroy the opposition to the south and then the opposition to the north.
As we continue our study of this book in coming weeks you’ll see that this is a rough outline of the campaign described in Joshua, chapters 6-11, and it was a very good strategy indeed. In fact British field marshal Edmund H. Allenby decided to use Joshua’s strategy himself when he successfully liberated Palestine during World War I.
But, as I said, before this strategy could be initiated, before Canaan could be divided into two conquerable halves, a wedge had to be driven from the Jordan River valley westward up to the mountains. And the first obstacle they faced in this part of the invasion plan was Jericho.
Remember? Last time I told you Jericho was a military fortress designed to prevent this kind of invasion strategy from working. Jericho’s purpose was to defend the eastern approach to the high country of Palestine.
Now, Joshua had to deal with Jericho, he couldn’t just bypass it, because to do so would mean leaving a large military force at his rear, and that would be foolish strategy indeed. On the other hand, conquering Jericho was easier said than done because its walls were strong and high. In fact, as I told you last time, Jericho had not one but two walls. The outer wall was six feet thick and the inner one was twelve feet thick. These double walls, combined with the position of the city, made it virtually impregnable.
How then could any general hope to conquer this fortress city? Well, there were several options, several strategies, available to Joshua and I’m sure he would have heard them if, like Robert E. Lee, he had gathered his generals to seek their counsel:
- For example someone would have probably suggested that he build siege ramps. This is what the Romans under General Silva did in order to get his soldiers up to the fortress on Masada and over its walls in order to attack Jewish zealots after the fall of Jerusalem.
- Another general might have advised Joshua to do nothing. You know, just dig in, surround the city, and starve its defenders into submission. That was another common strategy to employ when dealing with a fortified city. You may remember that Jerusalem was besieged more than once.
But the Biblical record shows that Joshua did not adopt either of these strategies. In fact, he didn’t even seek them. You see, Joshua was in constant contact with his Commander-in-Chief-the One Who made the rocks out of which Jericho was built, as well as the mountain on which it stood. Joshua’s Counselor and Guide was-and still is-an infallible Strategist and Commander as we will see in our text for this morning.
Take your Bibles and turn to Joshua 6 and let’s read God’s strategy. It’s recorded in verses 2-5:
2 -Then the LORD said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.
3 – March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days.
4 – Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets.
5 – When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have all the people give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the people will go up, every man straight in.”
This is the Word of the Lord…Thanks be to God.
Now, if you were a soldier in the Hebrew army attending Joshua’s briefing and heard this plan of battle for the first time, what would you think? Wouldn’t you question your leader’s sanity? I mean, high, thick, fortified walls do not fall to the noise of tramping feet. Cities are not won by trumpets. Yet the Biblical record tells us this is exactly what happened. The people did not question Joshua’s sanity or his orders because they knew that they were God’s commands. And one thing they had learned in their 40-year-long desert boot camp, was to obey God.
So, each day for six days they all walked in silence around the watching city and on the seventh day they repeated this apparently futile exercise seven times. No one spoke, not even a whisper. The only noise was the sound of the rams’ horns blown by the priests. Then, on their seventh lap on the seventh day, when the city was entirely surrounded by the Jewish people, Joshua commanded saying, “Now! Shout! For the Lord has given you the city.”
And the people did shout. Verse 20 says, “When the trumpets sounded the people shouted, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in and took the city.”
However, I would remind you though, that one portion of the wall did not collapse: that portion containing Rahab’s home with that scarlet chord dangling from it’s window. Remember our study a few weeks ago? And not all the residents of Jericho were destroyed; Rahab and her family were spared. Look at verses 22-25:
Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her.”
So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her.
They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel.
Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of the LORD’S house.
But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho…
Now, many people have questioned the accuracy of this battle as recorded in Joshua. In essence they think someone like Gingrich has stretched the facts a bit. They think this because they have had a hard time believing that marching and shouting and trumpet blowing could bring down massive double walls. But an article in U.S. News and World Report back in October of 1991 told of scientists who now confirm the Biblical record. Here’s a direct quote from the article:
“The city’s wall do appear to have collapsed suddenly and the blackened timbers and stones, as well as a layer of soot dating to 1400 B.C., .all suggest that the city burned, as the Bible says it did. Archeologist Kathleen Kenyon also found bushels of grain on the site, .consistent with the Bible’s account of a springtime conquest so rapid that Jericho’s besieged populace had not exhausted their food.”
With such a superb confirmation of the biblical account, no wonder TIME magazine titled it’s article on the same discovery, “Score One For The Bible.” (March 5, 1990)
Now, before we try to learn from Joshua’s specific battle tactics there are two important principles we need to remember when it comes to dealing with our own struggles. Think of these principles as basic training for any soldier of the Lord.
A. First, we must understand that consecration comes before conquest.
In other words, as Wiersbe puts it, in every battle of life we must devote ourselves to God completely. We need to embrace a mind set that says,
“I will always obey God. He is the Commander-in-chief of my life. This is His battle, not mine. My goal in life is to further His purposes not my own.”
In any struggle we must respond not by trying to “win, ” not by trying to “look right.” No, instead we must seek to respond in ways that further God’s kingdom.
We see this principle of consecration lived out in Joshua chapter 5. I say this because after the crossing of the Jordan there was a re-institution of the covenantal rite of circumcision and a new observance of the Passover. In other words, before the battle the entire nation consecrated themselves to God. With these symbols they put Him first in their lives.
Then later in the chapter we read that when they came near to Jericho, Joshua met the captain of the host of the Lord, the pre-incarnate Christ Himself. Joshua asked Him, “Are You for us or for our enemies?” The Captain of the Host of the Lord replied, “Neither, but as commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come.”
And Joshua’s response was to fall face-down on the ground in reverence and ask, “What message does my Lord have for His servant?”The Commander said, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did.
This encounter helps us to understand that when God comes on the scene He doesn’t come to take sides, but to take over. He comes to use us to further His purposes! So, in order to deal with our own struggles we must first consecrate ourselves to God. We must let Him take over. Our hearts have to be right. We have to commit ourselves completely to God and His eternal kingdom.
In a meeting with a small group of missionaries in China, Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission, reminded them that there were three ways to do God’s work:
“One is to make the best plans we can, and carry them out to the best of our ability, or, having carefully laid our plans and determined to carry them through, we may ask God to help us, and to prosper us in connection with them. Yet another way of working is to begin with God; to ask His plans, and to offer ourselves to Him to carry out His purposes.”
That’s the mind set I’m talking about. And it leads to the second “basic training” principle:
B. No matter how overwhelming the “enemy’s walls” may seem we must remember that as Christians-as “soldiers in the Army of the Lord”-we fight from victory not for it.
In other words, as we face the “Jericho’s” of life we must remember that since we “fight” for God, since our task is to further His kingdom, nothing can truly defeat us. In fact, the battle is already won. Even Rahab understood this. Remember? She told the two spies in Joshua 2:8,
“I know that the LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you.”
Well, perhaps the reason the Hebrews followed Joshua’s “odd” battle strategy so unquestionably was because they knew this as well. Perhaps as they marched they remembered God’s promise of victory to Moses. In Exodus 23:27 He had said,
“I will send My terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run.”
God had kept this promise. He had already gone before Joshua, and He does the same for us. When we strive to accomplish His will, when we are following His orders, we must remember this. The victory, God’s victory, our victory, has already been won.
Do you remember Jesus’ words in John 16:33? He said, “In this world you will have trouble, [you’re going to face ‘Jericho’s] but take heart! I have overcome the world.”
God’s victory is already won. As Paul reminds us in Romans 8:31 “If God be for us-or if we be for God, who can be against us?”
This week in my study I learned that back then the Jews used two different kinds of trumpets. Some were made of silver and others were crafted out of Ram’s horns. The silver trumpets were used especially by the priests to signal the camp when something important was happening and the rams’ horns were used primarily for celebrations.
Well the priests didn’t use the silver trumpets in this event. They used their ram horns because Israel was not declaring war. There was no war. They were celebrating victory, God’s victory. We must remember this as we encounter obstacles in our attempt to live for God. We don’t fight for victory but from it because the battle is the Lord’s and He has already won.
Let’s put it this way. We should live not like victims but as victors because that’s what we are!
Okay with that basic training done, we are ready to proceed in our briefing. Let’s take a close look at Joshua’s strategy to see what we can learn. According to James Montgomery Boice, there are two steps in his strategy and we need to be familiar with them because they make all the difference as we face our own “Jerichos” in life.
(1) The first step in Joshua’s plan was silence before the Lord.
Remember Joshua’s briefing from God? The people were to keep absolutely quiet as they encircled this doomed city. Their lips were not to speak a word. Look at verse 10.
Joshua…commanded the people, “Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout!”
Now, think of it. This must have been a very difficult thing for the people to do. For one thing, there were several million people trying to do this at the same time, and it is hard to imagine any large group of people moving anywhere without at the very least a noisy hum. Think how hard it must have been to obey that command. I mean, there were soldiers to get in line, children to keep track of, a route to be pointed out and taken. Plus, I’m sure the Hebrew people would have had difficulty ignoring the taunts of the encircled citizens of Jericho as they looked down from their fortified walls.
Now, I imagine that on the first day the Canaanites would probably have been quiet too, watching to see what the huge encircling army would do. And can you picture how bizarre that sight would have been? Think of it: a silent attacking force of millions watched by silent defenders, waiting for something to happen that never did. I bet you could have cut the tension with a knife!
But I’m sure the defenders’ silence would not have lasted beyond the first day. Eventually they would have begun to mock the Jewish soldiers saying things like: “What do you think you’re doing, marching around our walls? What are you looking for, a way in? Do you think we’re so foolish as to have left a door open somewhere? Are you afraid to fight? Why don’t you climb up here? Come on, give it a shot. We’ll show you how a city should be defended. Cowards!”
I bet their taunts increased and became more vulgar as every day passed. And I’ll tell you this much, under such circumstances, it would have been difficult for me to keep silent! And, then what do you think the Hebrews were thinking about during their silent march as they ignored the jibes of the Jerichoites? I mean, they didn’t have anything else to do but think, so what went through their minds?
Well, for one, I bet every step they made deepened their conviction that if there was to be a victory, it had to come from God. With every lap they saw up close how high and how impregnable those walls were and how impossible it would be to break down the massive reinforced gates of the city. They must have thought, “God’s going to have to do this.” And in my mind their next thought was, “Well of course He will. After all, He’s promised us that He would!”
Perhaps at this point in their mental processes they remembered that in Exodus 14:14 Moses had said, “The Lord will fight for you; and you shall hold your peace.”
Now this first step in Joshua’s battle strategy, this silence before God, is a lesson we all need to learn even today as we face seemingly undefeatable foes. Let me put it this way: one necessary and effective battle strategy for every Christian soldier is to stop and listen to the commands of our General.
Now, we pray, but unfortunately, most of us only talk to God. Our prayer life is a “one-way” conversation. We don’t listen to God’s response. It’s as if we believe God’s end of the “phone line to Heaven” is equipped with a receiver but no mouthpiece. And because we “pray” like this we miss out on the main benefit of prayer: God’s specific guidance, tactical guidance, strategies that are essential when it comes to the struggles that come with life in a fallen world, real struggles that as Paul says, are not against flesh and blood but principalities and powers.
Well, over and over in the Scripture we see this particular battle strategy emphasized. In Psalm 46:10 God says, “Be still [hush up! listen!] and know that I am God.”
Ecclesiastes 5:1 says, “To draw near [to God] and listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools.”
Proverbs 18:15 “The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge; the ears of the wise seek it out.”
And, do you remember Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:24-25, where He said, “Every one who hears these words of Mine is like a wise man who built his house on a rock.”
In Luke 8:18 He made it even more plain by saying, “Consider carefully how you listen.”
So to deal with the “Jerichos” of life we need to learn to listen to God. We need to train ourselves to be open and receptive to the promptings of His Spirit. And make no mistake, He does speak to us!
In George Bernard Shaw’s play, St. Joan, one of the characters asks Joan of Ark why the voice of God never speaks to him as she claimed it constantly spoke to her. She says, “The voice speaks to you all the time. You just fail to listen.” And that is so true. God speaks to us all the time but most of us fail to stop long enough and be still enough, to listen.
This week I came across an old proverb that says, “All those who open their mouths, lose their eyes.” I like this proverb because the purpose of silence before the Lord is to be able to not only hear but see what God wants us to do and where He wants us to go. So many of us fight the battles of life blind because we never listen to God’s guidance, guidance that is given through His Spirit, through His Word, and through His people.
Erik Weihenmayer is blind, but in spite of that, on May 25, 2001 he reached the top of Mt. Everest. Suffering from a degenerative eye disease, Weihenmayer lost his sight when he was 13, but that didn’t stop him. On a mountain where 90% of climbers never make it to the top (and 165 have died trying since 1953) Erik succeeded, in large measure because he listened well. He listened to the little bell tied to the back of the climber in front of him so he would know what direction to go. He listened to the voice of teammates who would shout back to him, “Death fall two feet to your right” so he would know what direction not to go. He listened to the sound of his pick jabbing the ice, so he would know whether the ice was safe to cross.
Well like Weihenmayer, when we take a perilous journey, listening well can make all the difference. In the battles of life successful soldiers learn to say with Samuel, “Speak Lord, for Your servant is listening.” This leads to the second step in the strategy that Joshua employed in his attack on Jericho:
(2) Unquestioned and continued obedience.
I put it this way because a careful reading of the text indicates that Joshua did not tell the people how many times they were going to have to circle the city or even exactly what was going to happen at the end of their seven days’ marching. No, the people were given their instructions one day at a time. At the end of their assignment for that day, having encircled the walls, they were directed back to their camp, and nothing happened. They had obeyed Joshua, who had been obeying God. They had encircled the walls, but when they returned to camp, the walls were still standing, no one had surrendered, and the Jewish armies seemed to be no closer to the final conquest of Canaan than they had been the day before.
This is how it was at the end of the second day and the third and the fourth and the fifth and the sixth. This is what things looked like after the sixth lap on day seven. Absolutely nothing appeared to have changed. Jericho’s walls stood intact and its ramparts were still full of soldiers bristling with weapons.
This aspect of this battle reminds me of the experience of the Syrian general Naaman who had leprosy and went to Elisha the prophet for help. Remember? Elisha told him that God said Naaman would be healed if he bathed in the muddy Jordan river seven times. Naaman didn’t like this idea. He preferred the clear mountain streams of his own nation. In 2 Kings 5:11-12 he said, “Are not the Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than any of the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed?”
It must have been very difficult for this proud, pagan general to follow God’s orders and wash in the Jordan seven times. He did so only because his servant told him it would be foolish not to try. But I think Naaman continued to question this cure. I bet he voiced his objections to his trusted servant every time he came up out of the water. After the first plunge he must have said, “Look, nothing has changed. I’m still as leprous as before!” And his servant must have said, “Keep trying master. Go under again.”
After his second dunk I bet they had a similar conversation. Naaman protested saying, “I’m just getting wetter and muddier.” But the servant urged him, saying, “Remember, master the prophet said to dunk seven times!” And Namaan reluctantly obeyed over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. And it was only after the seventh dunk, after he obeyed, and continued to obey, that Naaman was healed. 2 Kings 5:14 says, “His flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.”
Well, it was only after the seventh lap on the seventh day and the shout that followed, that Jericho’s walls collapsed. The victory was won only after the people obeyed and continued to obey God.
We need to learn to practice this same strategy in our own struggles because there is no substitute for continued obedience to God. I mean, even when we can’t see success we must obey and obey and obey and obey. Remember, the kind of faith that pleases God is an obedient faith, obedience in spite of the results. Hebrews 11 compliments the faith of people like Abraham who obeyed like this. Remember, when Abraham was, “called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance obeyed and went even though he did know where he was going… "
Hebrews 11 compliments other heroes of the faith, people who “were still living [and obeying] by faith when they died [even though] they did not receive the things promised.”
In his commentary on Joshua Dr. Alan Redpath suggests that “many people don’t see the answers to their prayers simply because they have stopped one round short in their conquest of their personal Jericho.” We may have been doing the right things but we simply stop doing them.
Now think about that for a moment. How many marriages do you think ended because a husband or a wife gave up too soon? They obeyed God, but not long enough.
How many lost people have not become Christians because their believer friends stopped praying for them, stopped looking for ways to share the gospel with them, stopped obeying the Great Commission too soon?
How many Christians have not become all that God wanted them to be simply because they stopped trying? How many of us have failed to defeat our own “Jerichos” because we gave up.
We tried, we made a couple “laps” around its walls, but we weren’t persistent enough in our obedience. Well, people, that old saying is true, quitters never win. To deal with the Jericho’s of life requires consistent and persistent obedience.
George Danzig was a senior at Stanford University during the Depression. All the seniors that year knew they’d be joining unemployment lines when their class graduated. There was a slim chance that the top person in the class might get a teaching job. Well, George was not at the head of his class, but he hoped that if he were able to achieve a perfect score on the final exam, he might be given a job. He studied so hard for the exam that he arrived late to class. When he got to class, the others were already hard at work. He was embarrassed and just picked up his paper and slunk into his desk. He sat down and worked the eight problems on the test paper; then he started on the two written on the board. Try as he might, he couldn’t solve either of them.
He was devastated. Out of the ten problems, he had missed those two on the board for sure. But just as he was about to hand in the paper, he took a chance and asked the professor if he could have a couple of days to work on the two he had missed. He was surprised when his professor agreed. George rushed home and plunged into those equations with a vengeance. He spent hours and hours, but he could find the solution for only one of them. He never could solve the other. It was impossible. When he turned in his work, he knew he had lost all chance of a job. That was the darkest moment of his life.
The next morning a pounding on the door awakened George. It was his mathematics professor, very excited. “George! George!” he kept shouting, “You’ve made mathematics history!” George didn’t know what his professor was talking about so the professor explained. Before the exam, he had encouraged the class to keep trying in spite of setback and failure. “Don’t be discouraged,” he had counseled. “Remember, there are classic problems that no one can solve. Even Einstein was unable to unlock their secrets.” He then wrote two of those “unsolvable” problems on the blackboard. George had come to class late and missed those opening remarks.
He didn’t know the problems on the board were impossible to solve. He thought they were part of his exam and was determined that he could work them. And he solved one! Thanks to his persistence, he did the impossible. That very morning the professor made George Danzig his assistant. He taught at Stanford until his retirement.
Danzig’s persistence enabled him to get a job, it made it possible for him to win the battle of unemployment, and our dogged determination to obey God and keep on obeying God will help us deal with our own struggles. Remember, as Eugene Peterson said, “Christian discipleship is a long obedience in the same direction.”
I guess you could summarize Joshua’s battle strategy in two words: hear and obey. Hear God. Listen to His leading. And then obey Him and keep on doing so.
Okay, it’s evaluation time. Or, keeping with our military theme, it’s inspection time soldier! So, how are you doing when it comes to Joshua’s battle strategy? Have you learned to be silent before the Lord? Do you listen to your General’s commands?
And then, is your life one of not only obedience, but continued obedience?