Joshua chapter 6 verse 1. We're just going to look at the first five verses here.
This is a story that some of you may be familiar with. Joshua and the battle of Jericho and
the walls came tumbling down. These stories are good. Oftentimes we kind of think of
these stories as being children's stories and oftentimes these are, we see them taught
in children's Sunday school. But there's a reason why they work good for children because
the message is really, I guess it's simple you could say, and I don't mean that in a
negative way, I mean that in a good way. It's a simple message that's easy to connect with.
It's good for us and easy for us to find application and make connection with stories like these.
And that's why we revisit them from time to time. And that's why they're good foundational
stories for young kids and even good for us to revisit if we've heard the story before
as adults. And so we're going to talk about it today. Maybe you've never heard this story
before. We're going to kind of read the introduction to the story as opposed to just kind of seeing
how it all folds out. I encourage you to read the rest of this chapter and even read before
and after it if you'd like to this week. But what we're going to look at in the first five
verses are going to be the commands that God gives to Joshua and the people as they're
going to Jericho. And all of these commands that God gives the people are carried out
just as God tells them to. So we won't necessarily look at the whole chapter of them being carried
out but but they are carried out exactly in the way that God had commanded. So let's pray
and then we'll dig into the text. Father God we come to you today and I thank you that
we can be here in your house. Dear Lord I pray that you would hide me behind the cross
God I cannot preach any word today that's worth anything God if it's not from you. So
dear Lord I pray that your Holy Spirit would just take control of me dear Lord I am unworthy
to be here to preach your word but dear Lord you have called me to do so and I pray God
by your strength and your power by your grace God that you would let your spirit feel this
place today that that your people today God would hear your word. God you know where we
are you know what we're going through in our life and God we all come here because we're
searching for you. And so God I pray today we find you in your word we find the strength
or encouragement or correction whatever it may be that we need God that we find that
in your word today that your Holy Spirit would open our ears that you free us from distractions
God the worries of the world the things that probably have already been popping into our
minds along the service God I pray that you just would block those things out for a few
minutes that we would hear your word and that it would really have an impact in our life
dear Lord and I ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. Now a little bit of a background
before we get into the text Moses had led the people out of slavery in Egypt and and
ultimately led them almost to the promised land but but they ended up wandering in the
wilderness for 40 years because of their disobedience and so many of that generation most did not
get to enter the promised land and Moses himself didn't even enter into the promised land that
fell to Joshua and and and Joshua had been there with Moses along the way and he'd kind
of been prepped for this and he was kind of Moses his right hand man and it was Joshua
who was going to lead that generation into the promised land so Moses led them they crossed
the Red Sea they wandered around the wilderness but now the time had come the 40 years was
up and Joshua is going to lead them the rest of the way into the promised land and so that
kind of gives us a little background that gets us to where we are in Joshua chapter
six verse one now Jericho was strongly fortified because of the Israelites no one leaving are
entering now this is an important note now if you go back and you read the chapters before
this you begin to see this story unfolding what you see in the chapters before this is
you see God's people and as they're getting ready to enter into the promised land they
arrive at the Jordan River and they needed to be able to cross the Jordan River now it
was likely a bunch of them probably hundreds of thousands maybe over a million there the
estimates get pretty high it was it was likely a large group of people that Joshua was leading
to go into the promised land and they arrived at the Jordan River they need to be able to
cross the Jordan River so what God does is he tells the people he says look he tells
Joshua you need to get the priest that are carrying the Ark of the Covenant now the Ark
of the Covenant was this big big huge beautiful ornate box that that that that said in the
Holy of Holy places and God's presence would come down there in the Holy of Holy places
and there was some some cool stuff inside the Ark of the Covenant and God's people would
carry this around with them now at that time they were still putting up this tabernacle
it was like a tent they were building it and taking it up as they went on their way and
they constructed it just the way that God said and and in that in that Holy of Holy
places of the tabernacle was this Ark of the Covenant and so they had to take it along
their journey and the priests were carrying it and God said the priests need to go and
they need to they need to step into the edge of the Jordan River and of course the priest
and Joshua did just as God had commanded and and as the priest stood in the Jordan River
as their feet touched the river the river began to stand still the scripture says it
said that the that the waters begin to to kind of stack up to build up to to become
a mass now I don't know what that looked like that's a that's a crazy thing to imagine
how God pulled that off a really similar event to what we see in the parting of the Red
Sea but it says that as the priest stood there and in the water in the edge of the water
with the Ark of the Covenant that the water stopped almost it sounds like like there was
a wall there and the waters just begin to back up and they begin to pile up because
there was nowhere that they could go because God was holding the waters back and it says
that as the priest stood there that they stood on dry ground and the people walked across
the Jordan River on dry ground now this was a big deal you can understand as this water
backs up and don't have anywhere to go the people in the land would know that there's
something going on the people in the land begin to hear about what was taking place
we see this in the chapters before they hear about this event that the God of the Israelites
was able to stop the Jordan River and they became afraid what in the world who are these
people and who is their God that he can stop the Jordan River and so word began to spread
among the people in that area as God's people had made their way across the Jordan River
the people in the land were afraid of Joshua and the Israelites and the God of the Israelites
and so that's why when we see here in Joshua chapter 6 verse 1 that Jericho was a strong
strongly fortified because of the Israelites well that's what it's talking about it's
talking about hey these people in Jericho had heard that God's people were on the way
and there was something special about these people and there were some some powerful things
that were happening around these people of Israel so they had it locked down no one was
entering or leaving now Jericho had a big wall around it it had some gates some doors
they kept those doors closed they didn't want anybody coming in and anybody going out they
wanted to they didn't want any way for the Israelites to be able to come in because they
knew that God's people were headed that way and so they were trying to be prepared they
were fortified they were ready to stand against the people of Israel or at least they thought
they were verse 2 the Lord said to Joshua look I have handed Jericho its king and its
fighting man over to you now this would have been a good news for Joshua to hear that God
says hey you're fixing to go to Jericho it's going to have some big walls it's strongly
fortified but I'm going to hand them over to you so God gives Joshua this good news
that that everything is going to be okay there's a there's a there's something big before you
something that that may even appear to be insurmountable but know that I'm with you
and everything's going to be okay I'm going to get you through it I'm going to hand them
over to you now there's a good lesson in there for us too because sometimes there are things
that we approach in life that are that are bigger than we can handle we may approach
some Jordan rivers in our life and we say well here's where I am and here's where I
want to be but man there's this there's this river in front of me I'll never get to where
I want to be I'll never get over this thing I'm struggling with I'll never I'll never
be able to accomplish this thing I want to accomplish or this thing I want to do life
is too hard and and it's just no way I can get past it but yet in the story of the Israelites
and the and and Joshua we see what God does he takes things that are in our path that
look insurmountable and yet he leads us through those things he brings us to moments where
we come up against things perhaps like Jericho things that seem too big for us to overcome
and we say well this is too much how will I ever overcome this how will I ever get through
this well we'll get through it the same way that the people of Israel and Joshua did we'll
get through it with the power of God now God tells Joshua here everything's going to be
okay but let's continue on as we read the story in verse 3 God gives him specific instructions
in verse 3 he says march around the city with all the men of war circling the city one time
do this for six days now this is kind of a strange instruction now I don't know I don't
know what the people thought maybe when they heard it they didn't question it at all they
said hey God told us to do it maybe there were some that were scratching their head
because this is kind of odd God says okay you're going to this big fortified city and
what I want you to do is every day I want you to march around the city one time all
the all the men of war now we see a couple of chapters back that there were about 40,000
men of war here that was in this group so this is the group that was supposed to march
around the city every day once a day for six days and as we see the story continue as we
continue to read through the rest of the chapter you'll see that that the that the priests
were supposed to blow the horns every day they were going to walk around and the priests
would blow the horns and they were to do this once a day for six days now God says I'm going
to hand the city over to you and here is what you need to do so the instruction is pretty
simple if not a little strange and maybe not make complete sense it's simple instructions
to follow nonetheless let's see what the next part of the command was in verse four have
seven priests carry seven ram's horns trumpets in front of the ark but on the seventh day
march around the city seven times while the priest blow the trumpets okay so the first
six days are all the same they're going to march around once a day on the first six days
but on the seventh day it's a little different they're going to march around seven times
on the on the seventh day now again kind of crazy instruction but nonetheless these are
God's commands for his people he says look I'm going to hand these people over to you
and here's how I'm going to do it here's your instruction here's what you need to do march
around that wall once a day for six days on the seventh day you get everybody together
and you march around seven times on the seventh day with the priest blowing the horns and
toting the ark of the covenant these are my instructions to you and we continue on in
verse five when there is a prolonged blast of the horn and you hear its sound have all
the people give a mighty shout so this is the last part of the command the marching
around the wall the blowing the trumpets all of that that was part of the command but the
last part of the command was on the seventh day after you've walked around the wall seven
times as the trumpets are blasting in the ark of the covenant is going around when you
hear a long trumpet blast then all of the people are to shout and these were the commands
of God this is what God says this is what you need to do now it's important that we
recognize the significance of the commands of God God gives us commands today we see
plenty of commands in the scripture perhaps through the Holy Spirit God calls us to do
things and leads us to do things that may not seem to make much sense we may have experiences
where we feel like God's saying okay I'm with you I'm going to deliver you I'm going to
be with you I'm going to help you with whatever it is you're up against but here's what I'm
calling you to do and sometimes the things that God calls us to do are scary sometimes
it may not make much sense but if we feel that God is calling us to do it if we feel
that God has commanded us to do it then we need to be obedient to the commands of God
even if we don't always understand how God is working even if what is before us seems
like it's impossible even if it seemed impossible for the Israelites to be able to overtake
Jericho to be able to overcome the walls that surrounded Jericho even if it seemed impossible
to them you know what the people of Israel did they did what God commanded we don't see
that they give God any question here we don't see that there's any doubt here if there was
it's not recorded God commanded Joshua this is how it needs to be done Joshua told the
people and God's people did exactly as God commanded and God told him I'm going to hand
Jericho over to you and that's exactly what God did on that seventh day they marched around
seven times and after that trumpet blasted for that long blast and Joshua gave the command
all of the people shouted and the walls came tumbling down the second part of verse five
here says then the city wall will collapse and the people will advance each man straight
ahead this was the command of God God spelled it out for his people here here's what I'm
going to do for you I'm going to deliver you I'm going to deliver your enemy over to you
I'm going to let you overcome your enemy I'm going to be with you and here are my commands
to follow and praise the Lord God's people here followed his commands that's how we overcome
that's how we overcome the struggles in our life that's how we overcome those walls in
our life and those burdens in our life and those things that are too big in our life
that sin that is so big in our life what's the wall that's been built up in your life
today maybe it's a wall of addiction or a wall of depression or a wall of any number
of sins and and perhaps we've been building these walls for years perhaps we just keep
putting another brick in the wall each time we sin and we give into this sin and we've
built these walls up and we see these things before us and these life situations before
us and these sins that are so heavy and so tough for us things that we want to overcome
but we look at them and we say there's no way I can overcome that it's too big it's
too difficult I'll never make it through I'll never find any peace I'll never be able to
overcome this sin but I want to tell you today that when we are obedient to the word of God
that's how we get the walls to come tumbling down that's how we read the word of God and
we see what God's Word says and we begin to be obedient to God when we begin to do the
things that God calls us to do when we begin to live the way that God calls us to live
and love the way that God calls us to love it is then that those walls come tumbling
down when we shout out to the Lord and say God I need you God there's this wall in front
of me God I can't overcome it God you're gonna have to help break this thing down and praise
the Lord that through the power of Jesus Christ that there is not a wall in your life that
cannot be broken down there is not a burden in your life that God cannot lift from you
there is not a sin in your life that God does not give you the power to overcome through
Jesus Christ crucifixion and resurrection there is not a wall in your life of addiction
that you cannot overcome there's not a wall in your life of pain or depression or anger
or whatever it may be these are walls that are constantly around us some of which we
do a little bit of building on ourself with our sin and some of which are just walls of
life just life circumstances that hit us in the face things we aren't prepared for we
lose a job we lose a loved one there's something that just goes on and we say man I don't know
that I can overcome this this wall is too big for me to overcome but praise the Lord
we serve a God who can help us overcome the walls in our life but we got to be obedient
to him that's the key we got to be obedient to what God says now now I don't suspect that
God's gonna come to you tonight in a dream and tell you whatever your your wall is to
go walk around it six days once a day and seven times on the seventh day he might but
there are other other ways that maybe God speaks to us and there are other ways that
God leads us and and and what we need to do and how he speaks to us and God's us and we
need to be obedient in those days in those ways in whatever ways that God is leading
us and speaking to us those are the ways in which we need to be obedient to God now what
I think is that wall probably wouldn't have come down if God's people wouldn't have been
obedient if Joshua would have told the people here's what God says and the people wouldn't
have done it I don't think the wall would have come down that that day and perhaps there
are some walls in your life today and maybe you just need to listen to the word of God
maybe you need to listen to the Holy Spirit in your life maybe you say well I don't know
about all that well have you have you tried to live in obedience to God now if you've
walls are there and and and they're and they're tough then the way you're doing it if you're
not able to bring those walls down maybe the things you're doing aren't the right way to
do these things maybe you need to try to do things a different way maybe we need to try
to do things God's way and listen to what God commands us to do and when we're obedient
to God we may find ourselves amazed at the power of God we may find ourselves amazed
that when God says go and we go that he provides a way for us that he parts the seas for us
that he stacks the waters up for us that he that he takes ground that otherwise look unpassable
and he makes it dry ground and we walk across with no trouble we may find that the biggest
walls that we've been trying to scale our whole life and continue to fall off of we
may find that when we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ and live in obedience to the
word of God we may find that God shatters those walls in an instant now even when God
shatters the wall sometimes sometimes we still have to walk through the rubble if a wall
comes tumbling down yeah they still could they still had to get into the city the wall
was was down but certainly there was some rubble there and sometimes in our life even
when God tears the walls down our journey is not always easy there still may be some
rubble that we have to go through but God will help us tear that wall down and God will
help us to overcome those temptations and God will help us to get to the other side
of that wall and to the other side of that rubble and to the other side of that mess
and he'll bring us into a place of freedom that's what God wanted to do for his people
he wanted to bring them into a place of freedom he wanted to bring them into a place of rest
he wanted to bring them into a place where they would be provided for and as they went
into the land when they were obedient to God he was with them and when they were disobedient
to the God to God they paid the price so let us not be those who are disobedient and lose
our battles and lose our struggles and lose against our sin let us be those who seek the
word of God who seek to be obedient to the word of God and the commands of God we know
and the things that God places on our hearts let us be obedient in those ways let us lift
our voice to the Lord let us lift our prayers to the Lord let us lift our requests to the
Lord let us lift our struggles to the Lord whatever they may be and know that the power
of our God is able to overcome the biggest and tallest and toughest walls that are before
us today through Jesus Christ let's pray Father God we come to you we thank you for this simple
but powerful message dear Lord God there are there are always struggles before us just
as there were before your people back then but God whatever our struggles are whatever
enemies that we are up against dear Lord you are bigger than our struggles you are bigger
than our enemies and God you want to lead us you want to protect us you want to help
us but dear Lord we got to trust you and God sometimes the things you call us to do may
not make sense we may not understand the things that are going on in our life but dear Lord
we got to learn that whatever you call us to we just got to trust you dear Lord because
it's the right thing we've got to learn to be obedient dear Lord and so I pray God that
we would do that that whatever walls may be before us today that God that we would seek
you that we can overcome those walls that those walls can be torn down dear Lord that
we no longer give in to the sin that we no longer give in to the depression that we no
longer give in to the anger that we no longer give in to the pain and the stress and the
struggle dear Lord but that we would just be obedient to you in whatever way that we
know dear Lord maybe maybe all we know is that we need to love other people dear Lord
let us let us start there whatever little bit of knowledge that you have revealed to
us whatever truth you've revealed to us dear Lord let us be obedient in that and let us
continue to seek your truth that we could be obedient to you in every way dear Lord
so I pray that we trust you this morning I pray that if there are some that are that
are up against something today that today they'd give it to you and maybe they've been
trying to figure it out on their own but God I pray that today they would know that it's
only through Jesus Christ that the walls can be torn down and deliverance can be had for
them so God I pray that if there are some that do not know Jesus that today they put
their faith in Jesus Christ to know what freedom and peace looks like God you desired it for
your people back then and and God we thank you that through Jesus you give us a better
freedom and a better peace and a better rest today and so God I pray that you would help
us to bring our walls down today and to find peace into that into that better place in
Jesus Christ and I ask these things in Jesus name Amen.