Joshua 6:1-5

1 Now the gates of Jericho were tightly shut because the people were afraid of the Israelites. No one was allowed to go out or in. 2 But the Lord said to Joshua, “I have given you Jericho, its king, and all its strong warriors. 3 You and your fighting men should march around the town once a day for six days. 4 Seven priests will walk ahead of the Ark, each carrying a ram’s horn. On the seventh day you are to march around the town seven times, with the priests blowing the horns. 5 When you hear the priests give one long blast on the rams’ horns, have all the people shout as loud as they can. Then the walls of the town will collapse, and the people can charge straight into the town.”

When the Lord spoke He revealed to Joshua His battle plan for Jericho and Joshua not only listened to the Lord but he:

• Trusted God’s Direction

It’s easy to talk about trusting God but did you really listen to the directions that Joshua was given? “Your entire army is to march around the city once a day for six days. Seven priests will walk ahead of the Ark, each carrying a ram’s horn. On the seventh day you are to march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the horns. When you hear the priests give one long blast on the horns, have all the people give a mighty shout. Then the walls of the city will collapse, and the people can charge straight into the city.” When it comes to military plans these are not only unusual, they are unheard of. Yet Joshua didn’t question them, why, because he didn’t focus on the plan he focused on the person of God. He knew God was trustworthy, time and again God had not only proven His power but also His promises. Joshua chose to focus on the faithfulness of God. When Joshua was first taking command of the Israelites after the death of Moses, God said to him in Joshua 1:9 “I command you be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” The reason God gave for Joshua living a courageous life is found in God’s unchanging plan, “I will be with you” The power of God’s plan is simply His presence, He would be with Joshua. Joshua trusted that God was with Him, so no matter what the specific details Joshua didn’t have to doubt. Today there is a famine of faithfulness in our families because we have a shortage of trust. There are people who let us down, who break trust and as a result we tend to transfer this into our relationship with God. We may hear His truth but do we trust His Word, there is a difference between listening to the Lord and lean on Him. But God is trustworthy, He has always kept His Word and done what He said He would do. Sometimes we act like we know better than God, as if He is holding out on us. We live like our ideas are somehow superior to him, but Joshua believed that God knew better and could be trusted. Isaiah 55:8-9 reminds us of just how limited we are compared to the Lord: “My thoughts are completely different from yours,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” Abraham Lincoln in response to the question of whether he believed that God was on the union’s side said: “My great concern is not whether God is on our side; my great concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.” God knows better than we do so why would you not trust Him? does the way that you live your life reflect that you trust God’s directions? Not only did Joshua trust God’s direction but he also:

• Obeyed God’s Instructions

It’s one thing to say you trust God but it’s quite another to act on that trust. My guess is that God is tired of people simply agreeing with Him, what He wants is people that will obey Him. God wants followers, not admirers. John Calvin said: “All true knowledge of God is born out of obedience.” Joshua chose to obey even if he didn’t fully understand. In reality he had no idea how God was going to make the walls fall using worship, yet he still obeyed. Many of us want to figure out the how before we bow and believe. But this is obedience based on faith not figure it out. The truth is there are plenty of things in this life that we don’t fully understand: Why do cats purr, how exactly do magnets work, or women (some things are just too complex for mere man). But what we need to remember is that God does, for He created everything that exists. Not only does He have it all under control but He sees the big picture that we don’t. So even though you might not understand remember that He does and you can trust Him. When we act on this trust we obey Him.  C.H. Spurgeon said: “God is too good to be unkind, He’s too wise to be confused, and if I cannot trace His hand I can always trust His heart.” Joshua also chose to follow God’s plans over any he might have had. he had been here 40 years earlier, and I suspect he had had times where he had not only pondered but probably planned how the Israelites could defeat these people and possess the Promised Land. He had probably already worked out a battle strategy, which may even have involved Joshua skirting around Jericho and avoiding it altogether. But when God delivered His instructions any plans Joshua had were quickly laid aside. You may have your life plans all mapped out, your career and life goals, along with how you’re going to get there, but if God’s map takes you in a different direction which will you follow? Proverbs 16:9 says: “We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps.” Not only was Joshua willing to put his plans aside but he was also ok with following God’s plan even if it made him look foolish. Imagine for a moment that you were one of the Israelites, how do you think you’d feel marching around the walls of Jericho blowing trumpets? Imagine those on the top of the walls ridiculing you, taunting and throwing their trash. Now that is just day one, imagine doing it for seven days. What would it have been like going back to the camp every night for six nights after marching around the walls and nothing happening day after day? Sometimes walking by faith seems foolish even stupid. But Joshua is not the first follower to look foolish and he won’t be the last. For a while Noah looked like an idiot, building a boat in a barren land. What if nothing had happened on the seventh day, or it hadn’t rained and the ark had ended up being nothing but an oversized lawn ornament? Or imagine how David would have looked if the rock he hurled had missed Goliath. Or is Peter had stepped out of the boat and immediately drowned. Sometimes saying yes to the Savior means risking looking stupid. But it’s in these moments that we see God move in miraculous ways. On the seventh day the Israelites were instructed to shout but I think most of us would have preferred to whisper. Many live life keeping their faith hidden just in case God fails. They don’t want to look stupid, they worry more about how they look than who they are living for. But let me ask you, who had the last laugh, it wasn’t the jerks of Jericho. There is a lot of truth in the saying: “Behold the turtle. He makes no progress unless he sticks his neck out.” As difficult as it is there are times when we just need to stick our necks out in obedience and let God take care of the rest. Joshua obeyed God’s instructions, what about you? Charles Swindoll says that the most important characteristic of the active spiritual life is obedience. Later in Joshua’s life he said: “So honor the LORD and serve him wholeheartedly. Put away forever the idols your ancestors worshiped when they lived beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD alone. But if you are unwilling to serve the LORD, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:14-15. For Joshua faith involved follow through, he was determined to obediently follow the Fathers instructions no matter what. How about you are you living an obedient life or is there an area in your life where you are wavering?

Joshua 5:13-6:5

13 When Joshua was near the town of Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with sword in hand. Joshua went up to him and demanded, “Are you friend or foe?” 14 “Neither one,” he replied. “I am the commander of the Lord’s army.” At this, Joshua fell with his face to the ground in reverence. “I am at your command,” Joshua said. “What do you want your servant to do?” 15 The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did as he was told. 6:1 Now the gates of Jericho were tightly shut because the people were afraid of the Israelites. No one was allowed to go out or in. 2 But the Lord said to Joshua, “I have given you Jericho, its king, and all its strong warriors. 3 You and your fighting men should march around the town once a day for six days. 4 Seven priests will walk ahead of the Ark, each carrying a ram’s horn. On the seventh day you are to march around the town seven times, with the priests blowing the horns. 5 When you hear the priests give one long blast on the rams’ horns, have all the people shout as loud as they can. Then the walls of the town will collapse, and the people can charge straight into the town.”

Before Joshua could face the giant of Jericho he had to first face his own fears and win the internal war being waged in his heart. In reality the battle begins long before the visible war is ever waged, and here in the life of Joshua we get to look at and learn how to win the war before the battle ever begins. The first thing that Joshua observed was the obvious obstacle that lay before him. The city of Jericho was a fierce fortress, with walls that towered over the terrain. What Joshua saw with his eyes was a giant of profound proportions, a physical impossibility. Jericho stood in the path of Gods promise, literally blocking the blessings of God. The truth is we all have some visible giant in our life, it could be an illness, or an attitude attacking the heart, it might be faith or a family crisis. But regardless of the origins of your particular giant it is real, towering and terrifying, and blocking the path, preventing us from believing in Gods promise. This is the visible war, yet as great as the visible giant of Jericho was it was not Joshua most pressing problem. It was the invisible war that Joshua first had to fight, the invisible and internal conflict that presents the greater challenge. In order to do this he had to overcome the problem of past failures. Joshua carried with him the miserable failure of Numbers 14:6-10, when Israel had refused to walk by faith and follow Joshua and Caleb into the Promised Land. Their formal leader Moses had to face his own failure, while Joshua had to wait and wonder for forty years because of the failure of others. One of the problems of past failures is that they affect our perception of our present problems. We tend to weigh our chances of winning the war against the way things went in the past. Our past failure poisons our perception of what is possible because we focus on the failure instead of the Father, a Father who not only has the power over our past and present but also our future. If we don’t give our past failures to God they will cripple us before the battle ever begins. In Philippians 3:12-13 Paul gives us a formula for dealing with past failure. First realize that we no one escapes failure, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected” Second leave the past in the past, learn to let go “forgetting those things which are behind” Third focus on the things you can do something about “reaching forward to those things which are ahead.” Not only did Joshua have to deal with his past failure but he also had to overcome his own preconceived notions of how the battle should be fought. Joshua was not going to be able to fight this enemy according to what he thought or felt, no this was a fight of faith, a fight that ultimately belonged to the Father.  Too many of us face the giants of our lives with our feelings instead of with faith. We respond based on what makes sense to us rather than what God says. Like Joshua we need to learn to do things the Lords way. Proverbs 14:12 reminds us that, “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death” Do you trust God to handle the hurts of your life and the problems of your past and present? His plan is probably very different than yours, “His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts” Isaiah 55:8-9. This meant that Joshua had to put aside his own attitudes. He had done everything God told him to but had still ended up having to live with the consequences of his complaining countrymen. It would have been easy to develop a poor attitude toward his own people. We need to learn that life doesn’t revolve around what we feel is fair it revolves around the Father. Are you trying to make life revolve around what’s fair or the Father? How many times have you pass problems through your filter of what’s fair only to end up getting frustrated? At times we all need the attitude adjustment that only the Almighty can bring. Attitudes of anger will only alienate, they will never accomplish God’s purpose. It is Paul who again in the book of Philippians draws our attention toward our attitudes, giving us several steps to having success in the area of our attitudes. First spend your energy praising God not promoting the problem, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again Rejoice” Paul does not tell us to enjoy our problems, he says to rejoice in the Lord in the midst of our problems. Secondly, we are told to pray and petition our heavenly Father, tell Him all that is going on in our lives. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Third give yourself over to God’s perfect peace, let His presence rule both your heart and mind. “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Fourth focus on the presence of God, stop dwelling on the difficulty and start dwelling on the Deity, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” Just like Joshua we face this twin battle, between the visible giants that we can see and the invisible hidden battle that wars within our heart. The key to winning the war before the battle begins lies in the person Joshua met that day. Not only did Joshua need to be observant to the battle before and in him but he had to be open to

• The Person of God

In order to get a proper perspective of the battle Joshua needed to focus on the person of God not the problem. Are you looking at things from your viewpoint or God’s vantage point? It is here as Joshua asks the powerful question: “are you for us or for our adversaries?” that he comes face to face with the power of God.  We tend to spend most of our time talking about our problems and not nearly enough time seeking our Savior. Are you going to focus on your adversaries or the Almighty? Joshua came face to face with the Commander of the Army of the Lord? The Commander is none other than Christ, notice that He spoke the exact same words that God spoke to Moses in Exodus 3:5 – “Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.” He allowed Himself to be worshiped, Angels never allow themselves to be worshiped, Revelation 22:8-9 and He is identified as the Lord 6:2. We need to stop focusing on our crisis and start focusing on Christ, the Captain of God’s army. He has promised to be with us always (Matthew 28:20), that He will not leave us like orphans (John 14:18). One of our greatest resources for facing fear is an awareness of the power of God’s presence in our lives. Not only did Joshua need to be open to the person of God but also to:

• The Plans of God

When we become open to the person of God we are ready to be open to the plans of God. Like Joshua we will not be ready to hear the plan of God until we have submitted to the person of God. After coming face to face with Christ Joshua responded to the call to obey with his whole heart. So often we try to discover Gods plan apart from His person. What if you really were open to His person and His plan, how different would your life be? Are you going to focus on the problem or the promises of God? What past failures, preconceived ideas or personal attitudes that are poisoning do you need to give to God? Preparing for battle simply means spending time in the presence of God, listening to the plans of God.