Johsua 6:2-7 - Can you imagine what Joshua thought as God announced his plan:
God: "See, I have given Jericho into your hand ..." Joshua: "Awesome!" God: "You shall march around the city ... for six days." Joshua: "Yeah! - Uh, what?" God: "On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times" Joshua: "Srsly?!?!"
But ... there's no indication that Joshua actually questioned or doubted or even wondered about this plan (I would have!). Instead, he just did it.
Joshua 6:11 - So, imagine, all the "mighty men of valor" of Jericho, sitting on the wall, ready for Israel to come, ready to fight. But instead, they watch them parade around. I imagine by day 6, they might be thinking that they will go out and take them, but they didn't.
Joshua 6:20 - ".. and the wall fell down flat." Imagine. Imagine.
This is a foreshadowing of the gospel, right here. They did nothing to bring the walls down, nothing. They simply obeyed and executed what, by any rational analysis, was a ridiculous plan. They marched, likely within sight and striking distance of the city, every day for a week. Then, when their big moment came, there was no need for a sword, their weapons were trumpets and their own voices - and faith. Faith that God was going to do the work, that he would do what he promised.
In the same way, those who approach God must obey in faith. The obedience, while necessary, does none of the real work, no more than their marching and shouting moved a single molecule of those walls. But His promise to them hinged on their obedience, as does His to us. He's told us that to be healed of the sin that seems so integral to our inmost being, that clings to us and has resisted our every attempt to wash it away, what is needed is a simple dunking in water. As Joshua knew that marching and shouting would not bring walls down,we know that a simple dunking cannot, in itself, remove sin. But, combine it with faith and a promise, just as Joshua had, and this dunking does what no other dunkings had done before, transforms us from sinful to righteous, from cursed to holy, from enemy to ambassador, from orphan to child.
Joshua 6:23 - Imagine - Rahab's house was built into the wall, the wall that had just "fell down flat." I bet there were some tense moments in the Rahab household, but then those men arrived and they were saved. I wonder, did she doubt? As the walls fell around her, did she wonder if they would in fact come? I'm sure she did, but not enough to flee. She stayed put, her hope in the only ones that could save her.
Joshua 6:26-27 - So, Jericho has been resettled, it's there today (although I guess there has been more than one Jericho in the area), I wonder,was this curse carried out? According to 1 Kings 16:34, yes it was.
