Very good morning to you. Let us first turn to the Lord in prayer.

“Our gracious God and our heavenly Father, as we come to study Your Word, it is meaningless for us to do this without Your help. There’s nothing we can understand without Your blessing, and so we pray. We look to You. We ask for Your blessing. Help us now, in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.”

Now how would you describe a Christian? To whom or to what would you liken a Christian? Would you say a Christian is like a doctor? People all around us are dying, and we are here to save their lives? Would you liken a Christian to maybe a super nanny who is here to feed you and clothe you and to care for your needs? Is a Christian like a lawyer who is here to defend people, to argue on behalf of people? Now let me remind you that as we are looking at this series, we have just finished a section in this book of Joshua from chapter 1 to 5. It was a section where we saw the Israelites entering the Land, this Promised Land. God has promised it to them. He’s fulfilling His promise. That section was about entering the Land.

But now we move into a new section, a big chunk. This new section is about taking the Land. And the tone is set for us because just a few verses before chapter 6, we see Joshua. As he was looking out in this land, he saw a man. And this man was dressed for war. He had a sword drawn in his hand and he asked this mighty warrior: “Are you for our enemies or are you for us?”. Well, this warrior is none other than Jesus Christ himself coming, manifesting Himself. A Christophany. And He says, no. Wrong question. Don’t ask Me whose side am I on. I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Ask yourself: Are you on the Lord’s side? I would liken a Christian to a soldier, and we are at war.

Today we shall like to just answer this one question: How do we fight this war? Let us look at our text for today, Joshua chapter 6. Now in verse 1, we see who we are up against- the enemy. Verse 1 says: “Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel; none went out, and none came in.”. We see here the language used: “securely shut”. It is like saying I lock it and then I lock it again. Some translations would say: “It was locked on the inside and the outside”, suggesting that that is not just a great wall over here. There’s an outer wall; there’s an inner wall. This is impenetrable walls, and the cities were known for their, how you know whether a city is strong?

Well, look at their walls. And here we have the strongest of all. There are many enemies to fight, they start with the most difficult one- Jericho, with the tallest, the strongest of walls, and they were secure. It’s almost like saying there’s a double locking here, totally shut down. Locked down. No one is getting in; no one is getting out. And it is amazing as we look at verse 2, the Lord said to Joshua what? He said: “See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king, and the mighty men of valour.”. The word ‘see’ there is pretty amazing here if you are reading this story for the first time. We have just seen in verse 1 a picture painted of the enemy- strong, mighty, with impenetrable defences. And God said: See, we are winning. We already win. Victory is guaranteed.

How do we fight this war? I have three headings for us today. Heading number one, trust God’s Word alone. God’s Word. His promise is given over here. And it is not difficult or rather it is very difficult to trust because it’s not easy to see. Why would He say see? Because humans we can see. We see how strong the enemy is. What do you mean when you say see? There’s nothing to see. I see the strong walls, the tall walls. What do you mean victory is guaranteed? Will you trust God’s Word alone and not depend on your own human sight, your own human understanding? But verse 3 is equally important and equally amazing. While God says I promise you victory, I guarantee you victory, you shall march around the city. You do this six days.

Right here we see in perfect harmony the doctrine of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. If rightly understood, no Christian would consider this doctrine of God’s sovereignty and say: Oh, let us all relax. This was not the soldier’s response when the commander of their army says victory is guaranteed. They didn’t start making some tea and sit down and eat biscuits. All the more they will say: Yes, let’s go. God says I promise you victory, and yet the very next verse it says: You go. You do this, you work. You work for it. I’m giving this victory to you, and yet there is something for you to do here. The doctrine of God’s sovereignty, when properly understood, would drive a Christian to action, not inaction. And so perhaps we can even imagine the soldiers here maybe being a bit happy. Maybe they are all cheering.

Yes, God has promised us victory although we can’t see it yet, although our enemies are here with strong walls, giants living in there, mighty soldiers. But since God has promised us victory, let us go. We are motivated to go and fight. What weapons shall we use against these mighty walls? Shall we launch Operation Mole in a Hole, where we dig underground? Maybe surprise them with an underground attack. Shall we launch Operation Brute Force, where we launched mighty stones at the wall? Maybe hopefully the wall will start to crack. Or Operation Humpty Dumpty, where we launched a rope over the wall, launched some stones over the wall, and hopefully, it has a great fall? Joshua says: How about Operation Big Bad Wolf, where we huff in a puff and we blow the walls down?

You can imagine the soldiers as they are listening, the people of Israel, their eyes are opened wide. We are about to become the joke of the century. We are facing a powerful enemy, and you are telling us what? Take up your rams’ horns. Take up these trumpets. March around and blow your trumpets. Listen to the instructions here, all the way from verse 4 all the way to verse 5. And then Joshua repeats this instruction to the people, and he goes through great elaboration and detail, telling them every detail of what God says. There’s going to be a certain formation you take up. There’s going to be seven priests, you take up the seven rams’ horns. The mighty men in front and behind, surrounding the priests, carrying the ark of the Lord. What would you do? What would you do if you hear God’s commands?

Do you find it strange? God’s ways are strange, and for sure these soldiers are tempted to ask: Why, why, why? I have so many questions. Why God? Why, why? Why this way? Why this method? To be polite, to be at the very least, this way, this strategy sounds ineffective at the very least. But to be brutally honest, this is just downright foolish. How? Who would go to a war carrying trumpets? Who would go to face an enemy with strong walls and our strategy is to march around, not even touching the walls? Will you trust God’s Word alone? Now you might be wondering what kind of war are we facing here. Are we called to pick up weapons as well to fight? And what kind of strategy are we given by God? But the New Testament does mention that we are all soldiers in this warfare.

If you look at Ephesians 6, we know the famous verse, verse 12 that says: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”. Consider also Second Corinthians chapter 10. What does Paul say here? 2 Corinthians 10:3- “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ”.

And so Paul here says: Yes, we are at war, but not so much of a physical war where we have to use our punches and our kicks. The weapons of our warfare are not physical, but mighty in God. Yes, we are tempted to question God’s ways. As God gives the instructions over here, they are tempted to question God. God’s ways are strange. We are not asked to understand all of His ways. We are asked to trust. And so just at the very beginning, trust God’s Word alone. What would you do, Christian soldier, when God promises you victory? He says victory is guaranteed. What is your response? Are you going to doubt Him, or rather does His promise here drive you to action? God promised victory. All the more I want to go. All the more I want to fight.

A simple application of this is the doctrine of election. When God says He has promised to save some people, He’s already chosen these people to be saved. Does it cause us Christians to just relax at home and say because God is going to save them, He’s going to do it Himself? Or does this doctrine drive you to action? God has chosen somebody to be saved, all the more I want to quickly bring the gospel to them. Where’s my Bible? Let’s find them. Let’s preach to all. God’s commands are strange. We cannot understand it. What is your response? What is the proper response? Well, that is heading number two, respond by faith alone. Trust in God’s Word alone, yes. But the only response is respond by faith alone.

And so from verse 8 onwards until verse 14, you will see an elaboration. Let me read verse 8: “So it was, when Joshua had spoken to the people, that the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the LORD advanced and blew the trumpets, and the ark of the covenant of the LORD followed them. The armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard came after the ark, while the priests continued blowing the trumpets.”. Now over here we will see again the instruction. Somehow we might even feel that the instruction is being repeated here. Why? Why would the narrator go on and repeat and repeat and repeat himself? Why don’t just say God gave the instruction, Joshua told the people, and the people did so? Finish.

Why spend almost up to 20 verses over here telling them, and then repeat, and then repeat? Is it just mere repetition? Is it meaningless repetition over here? I think by understanding how many verses dedicated by the narrator (the storyteller to this account), we can see his point. We can see his purpose of writing this story to us. Twenty verses of all these activities, these details of the information, of the formation they are to take, and the action they are to take. And only five words. Five words dedicated to describing the fall. “The wall fell down flat”.

It is an amazing story, but the narrator just spends five words talking about it. The entire account is showing us, is leading us somewhere. How do we explain when people hear a ridiculous command from God and yet they obey? And not just obey, the details here are showing us that they obey every detail. They didn’t even miss one detail out. They fully obeyed this command. This text, the word ‘faith’ is not even in this text, and yet as we read it, it is oozing with faith. And of course, this is confirmed by Hebrews chapter 11. As we look at Hebrews chapter 11, what does it say in verse 30? Hebrews 11:30- “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days.”. This is the explanation.

This is the evidence of their faith. God’s soldiers, Christian soldiers, this is the evidence of your faith. When we have received a seemingly unreasonable command, when we are called to go to war and yet the strategy, the methods of God is looking so foolish, the evidence of faith is that we fully follow. We fully obey. And the narrator goes at length. He labels that point, showing us that these people follow every last detail what God says. We see the evidence of faith. Respond by faith alone. That is the only appropriate response, Christian soldiers. But consider also the patience of their faith. Their faith was an enduring faith. It wasn’t a faith where they were all happy and hyped up and so for one day, they obeyed this. They obeyed and obeyed for how long? Verse 14: “So they did six days”.

Imagine if every night they had a debrief, and the commander says: Sergeant left-wing, progress report. How’s the wall looking from your end today? Still rock solid, not a single crack. Sergeant behind, what’s the progress report? Nothing, not even a single dent. Sergeant front-wing, how about your side? No progress, sir. How would they feel? Goodnight. See you tomorrow morning. Round two, and go on. Second night, third night, fourth night. Debrief, debrief, debrief. No progress made. Here our faith is being tested, Christian soldiers. Your faith is not a faith that comes out of some emotion and is strong for a few years maybe. And after a while, when we see no progress, no progress, no progress, we question God. Is His method really working? You’re telling us to march around with these ineffective instruments. Have you got it wrong?

This is suicide to go into this war with such silly weapons and silly strategies. Our faith is being tested. Is your faith a true faith? When tested, does it endure, or is it only for a while? Very often when we are engaged in this war where we have a resistance to the gospel perhaps when we are preaching and preaching and as Paul said just now, what is our enemy there? It’s all the arguments, everything that exhorts itself against God. And that is what we see Jericho a picture of. A picture of a challenge. Jericho is challenging. God has His army ready to enter this land and they are to take this land. But there is a challenge, and Jericho is providing that challenge with their tall and strong walls. These people were given six full days to look at these solid walls so that what?

Well make no mistake, it is real. Six days, I’ve looked at the wall, I’ve marched around it. Make no mistake. If these walls were to fall, it is because God made it fall. God alone can do this. Trust God’s Word alone, respond by faith alone. And finally, glory to God alone. As we look at the many elements in this story, surely it is a famous story, but let us go through the details. We know the famous part about this story where they blew the trumpets and they shouted and the wall fell down flat. But again, that is not the narrator’s point. He spent just a little bit of time on that describing of the walls falling. He spends a lot of time pointing our attention to something. Let’s consider the narrator from the beginning.

In verse 1, he points us, he paints a picture of a strong enemy. And then he shows us after that the weapons that we are to use or the strategies that we are to take. So while our enemy is strong, we are so frail, so weak. Our weapons doesn’t seem to be working. There’s no contribution on our side. Look at the various elements over here in the description. You might even look at verse 10 where Joshua says what? “You shall not shout or make any noise with your voice, nor shall a word proceed out of your mouth, only until the day I say to you, ‘Shout!’ Then you shall shout.” Here the narrator has a point to make.

He’s saying that God’s ways are strange, but these people are to trust and to follow God’s ways, not trying to invent your own way, not try to come up with your cleverness, and somehow contribute to the victory. No, the people do not contribute anything. They were to just obey. What is the focus over here? To show us how weak we are and how strong the enemy is? What is the narrator trying to point us to? The key surely is in verse 11: “So he had the ark of the LORD circle the city, going around it once.” The ESV would say: “So he caused the ark of the LORD to encircle the city”. If you are a highlighter of your Bible, if you were to highlight the word ‘ark’, you will see it everywhere. Your whole Joshua chapter 6 is full already.

In ten verses, the “ark of the covenant of the LORD” is mentioned ten times. This is the focus. The focus is not so much of how Israel is able to defeat the enemy. The focus is Israel’s God. He paints us a picture where the army of Israel is so weak, not contributing much. They’re just marching around, blowing their trumpets. Don’t tell me that these sound waves are going to make the city fall, make the walls fall. No, make no mistake. If the walls were to fall, it is God and God alone who did it. No one can attribute any contribution, any success to man. Consider also verse 19 as Joshua says the instruction is to destroy.

Yes, destroy every man, woman, living thing, young and old. “But all the silver and gold, and vessels of bronze and iron, are consecrated to the LORD; they shall come into the treasury of the LORD.” Christian soldier, you fight. And when you win, don’t take any spoils of the battle. Don’t take any souvenirs for yourself. Don’t show your next-generation look at this necklace, remind me of that time when we beat the walls when we beat Jericho. No, everything glory to God alone. Strong enemy, strong walls, weak people, weak methods. So you look at this story. Glory to God alone. We dare not try to explain away this work, this mighty work of God.

It would take a lot of explanation from perhaps the best minds of this world to explain how by maybe the sound waves, maybe the power of their lungs, the blowing, the shouting. Maybe the right frequency, resonance, somehow causes the vibration of the wall at just the right moment. No, if you tell this story to the little boy, a seven-year-old little boy, he would say: These people march around? These people blow the trumpet and shout, and the walls fell down? And the little boy will say: “My God is so big, so strong, and so mighty. There’s nothing my God cannot do.”. Let us not try to look at Hebrews and say: Look at that. The walls fell because of what? Because they encircled it.

No, even a little boy can say that if you encircle walls, it’s not going to fall. If you shout, you blow trumpet, you blow all sorts of musical instruments, they are not going to fall. A little boy will be able to say my God is so big. This is God who did it. Glory to God alone. We, Christian soldier, that is our only response as well to say at the end of our victory: Glory to God alone. Psalm 115: “Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but to Your name give glory”. Let none of us who are in this Christian battle, this Christian war, let none of us congratulate ourselves at the end of the day. Don’t pat yourself on the back. Don’t say glory to the Reformed Baptists, we are the ones. Don’t say glory to GRC, we are the ones.

A.W. Pink made this comment. He said: “Imagine a remark like oh, how great is that preacher, or what a wonderful Christian that guy is, what a holy man this guy is. Where does God get the glory in that, these kind of remarks? No wonder the unction of the Holy Spirit is today so withheld.” When we congratulate each other as if we were the ones, this story shows us the emphasis as we participate in this war, in this battle. Every element of this story, every detail the narrator includes is just trying to point our attention that it is God and God alone causing these walls to fall. Glory to God alone. Some people would not like this verse or not like this book. This book of Joshua is cruel, is violent, killing people, killing men and women, young and old.

This God is not for me. This book is not for me. But no. Glory to God alone because when we read this, as we read this account and we try and recall what kind of a people were living there, we will say glory to God alone. This is a God of justice. Go back and read Leviticus 18 and it will describe to you what kind of people are living there. Depraved, perverted, twisted people, performing all sorts of perverted acts, and you wonder how long will God be patient with them. And God was patient with them for so long. Glory to God alone for His patience. Glory to God alone for His justice. This is a just God. For people who say they cannot accept this, what is the alternative?

You want a God who is not just? You want a God who doesn’t punish sin? He will look at the guy who steals your handphone and say it’s alright. I’m gonna look away. Or He sees the guy murder, commit murder in broad daylight, and He says I’m a loving God, it’s okay. I’m gonna forgive everybody. Are you really asking for a God like that, a God who is not just? This God of the Bible is too holy for you, not for you? No, glory to God alone. This is a just God, and His justice is on display here, His patience is on display here, and His grace is on display here as well. What a glorious God, so patient not only with these people who are so wicked but in the most wicked of nations we have the most wicked of professions.

Rahab the harlot was living there, and yet God showed mercy to her, saving her and her household. And so while we look at this story of Jericho, a wicked nation, still is not hopeless for them. Let us conclude in this war that we are fighting, we are part of God’s army, and we have been given a royal task. The only way God’s kingdom is to come is when we preach the Word, we preach the gospel. Of course, there are obstacles, there are challenges, and here we see Jericho as a challenge. The kingdom of Satan would hate it for us to preach the gospel and God’s kingdom to come. He would put all manner of defences and all resistance and all opposition to this work. But make no mistake. Christians, victory. Victory is guaranteed already. God has promised it.

Will you trust His Word alone? Will you respond by faith alone when God tells you that the way to victory is by the preaching of His Word? Such a simple act, holding a book. People will not believe it. How can this strategy be the strategy to win? It is ineffective, can’t trust it enough. We don’t believe that this simple act is good enough. And so we have to add. We have to add our own cleverness to it. We have to contribute a little bit of our own ideas of how to make the gospel more attractive. Will you respond by faith alone? The people, this generation, this new generation. Not the generation under Moses, this new generation showed their faith because they fully obeyed every detail of God’s command. And at the end of it all, glory to God alone.

Now we have plenty of encouragement here as we fight this war, but let me urge you for those who are not in this army, who are not in the Lord’s army, then there is no encouragement for you over here because if you are not in the Lord’s army, there is only one other place you are in. You are in that city of Jericho. The Sunday school song says: Oh, sinnerman, where will you run to? Run to the rock, the rock won’t hide you. Run to the sea, the sea is a boiling.” Run to Jericho, their strong walls and their tall walls will provide security for you.

Look at what God says to them: “See! I have given Jericho into your hand”. God looks at man’s resistance and man’s opposition, and He laughs at it. The walls are nothing, and these walls that you hide behind, that you find security in, these walls will fall down flat. Come to Christ today. Do not hide behind this city of Jericho. Let us pray.

“Our dear Father in heaven, indeed not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to Your name give glory. As your soldiers, help us fight. Help us trust in Your Word alone, not doubting, not trusting in our own cleverness. Help us respond by faith alone to fully obey, and at the end of our life, help us give all glory to You for every success we see instead of patting ourselves on the back or congratulating ourselves or the church. Help us to give You glory alone, in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.”

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.