Lessons from the Jericho Road

Jesus Christ taught his disciples that all of the scriptures speak of him (Luke 24:27; John 5:39,46).  There are many signs and references to the person and work of Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah. Lessons for gospel work are to be found throughout the lively book of Joshua that figures the Old Testament type of Jesus in the person of Joshua. As Joshua led God's people, so Jesus has come to conquer Satan's kingdom, to establish his own permanent kingdom, and to lead his people in victory.

A striking lesson is found in Joshua 5 where we with the historical Joshua meet the Commander of the Lord's Army (Joshua 5:13-16). He is referenced as a man yet equally God (note the reference to holy ground like that of Exodus 3:5). Joshua's "Moses experience" was meant to encourage him in the arduous task of leading the Lord's people to conquer the land. More than that we are to see the pre-incarnate Christ leading his people as the one who will gain the certain victory. 

The active leadership of Jesus Christ, The Commander of the Lord's Host (see Revelation 19:11ff), is demonstrated in the unconventional overthrow of the city Jericho in Joshua 6. Jericho was a great walled city on the plain of the Jordon River Valley that was essentially the gateway to the mountainous interior of the land of Canaan. There are valuable lessons in the way that the battle for Jericho was waged. 

The first lesson is the LORD's call to Israel to be obedient. They were given specific instructions that must have seemed unrelated to taking a fortified city in battle. Israel was to march its army surrounding the priests blowing trumpets and carrying the ark of the covenant around the city one time for six straight days. On the seventh day they were to march around the city seven times with the people shouting on the seventh march.  The Israelites were to obey God and watch his work.  We need to be obedient and faithful to his word.

The second lesson is that the Lord's power alone gains the victory. We all know the story of the walls of Jericho falling by the mighty hand of the Lord. God was showing that his strength alone would bring the victory. Christ is building his church. We are to point to him and glorify him. The Lord brings the victory in gospel work.

Thirdly, the blowing trumpets and shouts of the people are used by the Lord to point to something other than physical warfare. The use of blowing trumpets are found in Revelation 8:6-11. We see seven trumpets, an interesting repeat of the same number. In both instances of Joshua 6 and Revelation 8:6-11 the trumpets announce the judgment of God. Yet I cannot help wonder that the trumpets don't also refer to the announcement of the gospel which "...is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (I Cor. 1:18). It is the gospel that is the power of salvation, not the power of mankind. Christ build his church by his word.

The shouts of people glorying in God and the blasts of trumpets seemed incongruous to the battle of a walled city. Israel was being taught to trust in the Lord and to glory only in him. Today we wage a war against sin and see the spiritually dead raised not by the power of human programs and activism but by the power of Christ leading us in obedience in proclaiming his word. The glory belongs to Christ Jesus alone!

Why Worry?

At our mid-week Prayer & Study group we’ve been working through Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. We read a section, talk about it, and use its message to help us to pray for one another. Matthew 6:25-34 was our recent text and many felt it to be very applicable to where their lives are. Worry. Do you do that?

It’s important to see Jesus’ comments on worry in relation to the bigger theme he paints of the kingdom citizen begun in Matthew 5. Specifically, Jesus’ warnings about our tendency to worry follow his reminder that we cannot serve two masters; God and money or material possessions (Matthew 6:24). When our lives are focused on material things, treasures on earth (Matthew 6:19) instead of on spiritual things, God himself, we are subject to worry. Which of us can guarantee worldly wealth whether to achieve it or to maintain it?

What struck me about Jesus’ exhortation in Matthew 6:25-34 about worry was how we get things backwards. What do you worry about? Did you look at the list Jesus gives in Matthew 6:25-31? Its all stuff. Yep, we worry about material stuff. What is missing? In so many conversations I have with people most hardly ever say they worry about spiritual things. I’ll ask, “What happens at death?” The common response is, “I don’t know.” People seem to be entirely careless about a fact that everyone of us will face, death. We just don’t think about it let alone worry about it. We worry about what might happen regarding our stuff but we don’t worry about what we know will eventually happen to us.

This is where Jesus’ answer in Matthew 6:33 comes into play. When we seek God first, when we think about our spiritual need to be right with God, his righteousness and our lack of it, we realize the other stuff gets taken care of. In fact, it has little importance. Putting God first, seeking his righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 3:22), and loving God for who he is changes everything about life. If you are known by God in Christ Jesus, why worry?

Facing Death

A death of a family member recently occurred in our church's fellowship. This prompted me to write about something we all experience. Most people if indeed not all believe something happens at death even if they say that nothing happens, that the person ceases to exist. That statement is a statement about something, and that "something" is a statement about existence. All this opinion making is a faith or belief statement. No one has ever come back to tell us what to expect except one, the Lord of life, the one who has conquered death. He didn't give us a lot of specifics about the experience but more importantly he gave us promises because, well, we know death is pretty final. But the Christian has hope in Jesus Christ. The non-Christian has just pure speculation and fear.

The Bible, as the very word of God and of Christ Jesus as the Holy Spirit directed the human authors to write it, gives a broad understanding about death in many places. This is where confessions and creeds help us because they summarize the Bible's teachings found in many places about particular subjects. Creeds and confessions aren't the word of God but they are helps. In that vein I want to look at the Westminster Confession of Faith chapter 32 as a helpful guide to what the Bible teaches and what the Christian believes. Here is help for you when you face this inevitable experience in your life. 

The chapter begins, "The bodies of men, after death, return to dust, and see corruption:..." The Christian believes what the Bible teaches in Genesis 3:19 that God promised Adam and his posterity that he/they would die and their bodies return to the dust of ground from which they were taken because of Adam's sin. "The wages of sin is death..." (Romans 6:23). This is the first point about death. Death isn't natural in the sense that is a necessary part of God's creation. It is the common experience and is the natural affect of sin but death didn't have to be a part of our experience. In fact, before there was sin there was no death. The presence of death reveals the presence of sin (Romans 5:12).

Secondly, death is not just physical. There is a spiritual death. In fact we are born physically alive but spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1-3). It is by the gospel promise, faith in Jesus Christ alone, that God makes us spiritually alive (Ephesians 2:4,5)

Physical death results in the separation of the two component parts of a human being. At conception a union of a soul or spirit and a body is formed and person has being. Death is the violent separation of these two parts as a judgment for sin against a holy God. Because the sin of Adam is imputed to all human beings descending from Adam by ordinary means (Romans 5:12-14) that sin has corrupting effects on the physical bodies of all human beings and makes them subject to suffering, disease, and death. This is the third point we need to understand about death.

Even Christian believers die. Flesh and blood, these corrupted bodies, cannot inherit the kingdom of God (John 3:5,6: I Corinthians 15:42). Yet for the Christian believer, his death is not a judgment but an entrance into the holy presence of the risen Jesus Christ. Because of Christ's victory over death, God uses death as an act of his love to finally free believers perfectly from sin and misery experienced in this life in the union of their corrupted bodies (Isaiah 57:1,2; Revelation 14:13). This is the fourth point about death we need to understand. God uses an "evil," death, by his love for the good of his people. Christian believers being united to Christ are freed from sin and misery at death.

Here we see God's grace in the face of the terminal condition we all face. We all know and experience the corruption at work in us due to sin. The amazing grace is that God turns the death sentence of sin into a blessing in Christ by his love for us in Jesus Christ. We can chose to ignore death but it will come. We can pretend to have no fear of death but death will take your life, your loved ones, and all that you hold dear. It is relentless. The Christian has hope despite all this because Jesus has conquered death for him.