One of the fascinating things about the Bible is the stories it tells. You don’t have to know the Bible very well, or, for that matter, even be a Christian, to know some of the famous stories of the Bible. The story of the Battle of Jericho (that’s told in Joshua 6) may make the top—ten list of best known stories in the Bible. It’s the lesson every Sunday School teacher loves to teach. The kids will listen to this one.
For six days God’s people march around the city walls. The armed guard leads the seven priests with their trumpets who lead this Ark of the Covenant, this sacred box, and then the rear guard. On the seventh day they do the same thing, but seven times instead of one. And then, precisely when they were signaled, but not a moment before, the trumpets blast and the people let out a shout. And the walls come tumblin’ down—and not just a few entry points in the walls, but the entire wall. As Joshua says (v. 20), they charged "straight in."
It’s one thing to hear a great story. It’s another to figure out what the story means. Why is this story in the Bible? What is the message of the story of the battle of Jericho? For God’s people who heard this story told again and again over the centuries? And for us? How is this story part of our story, your story, and mine?
Often it’s not easy to figure out what the message of story is. You have to look for little clues, themes that repeat themselves, little twists and turns in the plot. But in this story of the battle of Jericho, a couple of things become pretty clear as we read it carefully: first, the battle of Jericho is more than a military battle; it’s a sacred battle, a cosmic battle, a "God battle," if you will. It’s a battle of kingdoms, and God and his kingdom prevail.
You can’t miss all the sacred, religious elements in this battle story. Probably the main religious element is this ark. The whole procession centers around the Ark of the Covenant, this sacred box that contained the two tablets of the laws God gave to Moses; and symbolized the sacred presence of God. God’s people always took the ark with them into battle. It reminded everyone that this was no mere military battle; it was a sacred battle. God’s battle.
Then there is that number seven that keeps cropping up. Seven days, seven times on the seventh day, seven priests. In the Bible, of course, the number "7" is significant. It symbolizes completeness. In seven days God made the heavens and the earth. If the Hebrews had been into Lotto, seven would have been their favorite number.
And then, finally, this whole emphasis upon the spoils of the battle going to God. The people didn’t take Jericho for personal gain, to line their own pockets with whatever they could confiscate. Everything was either destroyed or devoted to God.
The point with all of these things is that this battle is God’s battle. It is God bringing about his kingdom. The kingdom of light is locked in a battle with the kingdom of darkness. That’s the bigger spiritual battle that’s going on here.
Now notice carefully that I did not say, "Ah, this isn’t really a battle." There’s a tendency to try to take the edge off of the military, war talk of the Bible. We like to think of the kingdom of God as just a kingdom of peace and love, all tidy and nice. Christians today don’t sing "Onward Christian Soldiers" very much. It seems too harsh, so militaristic. Now, we have to acknowledge that often Christians have wrongly used the Bible to condone violence that can’t be condoned. But the fact is we Christians are in a battle. Now Christians today have different weapons than armies and guns, and killing people is not our goal, because other people are not the enemy in this battle; Satan is; but the battle imagery of the battle of Jericho is important.
In Ephesians 6, the Apostle Paul says we’re locked in a battle, not against flesh and blood, but against the devil’s schemes, against the powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Christians who are struggling for their life know this too well. In fact, I have heard more than one story of Christians in various cities marching around the houses of drug dealers seven times to send a message to those drug dealers "You will not rule our streets and our children." And the prayers that have been a part of such marches have sometimes brought these drug dealers to their knees and to Christ.
It’s easy for Christians who have pretty comfortable lives to think that the Christian faith, life in the Christian Church is not really a battle. It’s a set of beliefs or behaviors or practices, but it’s not a battle. But it is, according to Scripture from beginning to end—from the promise of God to Satan that he will crush Satan’s head in the greatest battle of all—on the cross——between God and Satan, life and death, a battle Christ decisively wins; to the end of history, where the struggle between Christ and the world will only intensify, and where finally the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our God. And all along the way, in between the beginning and end of time, we as Christians are engaged in this battle.
And who among us cannot identify with this battle? For some of us it’s the inner battle Paul mentions in Romans 7—the battle of temptation. We know what we should do, and we don’t do it; we know what we shouldn’t do, and we do it. It drives us crazy. That’s a paraphrase of Romans 7. Most of us know something about this battle within us. We seem surprised when we hear of someone who has ruined their life with some sin that didn’t have to be. We say, "I just can’t believe it. That person had everything going for him. And he threw it all away for a fling." But why does that surprise us so? All sin is foolish, it doesn’t make sense, it’s self—defeated. And we know that even as we sin. We know exactly what we’re doing and how destructive it is. But we do it anyway. And it’s not because we don’t know any better. We do! We do it because we succumb in a battle. A battle that’s often played on the battle ground of our bodies—our appetites, our impulses, our addictions—but not always. It’s a spiritual battle in which Satan is doing everything possible to get us to make horrible decisions that will destroy ourselves and our relationships.
Yes, this battle is an inner battle, but it’s also a battle of world views. For all of us, whether we realize it or not, as citizens of the kingdom of God we are engaged in a battle of worldviews. Everyone has a worldview, a framework for understanding life, a set of beliefs and values that makes life fit together. Materialism, consumerism, nationalism, racism, militarism—these aren’t just innocent trends in societies around the world. They are worldviews—that shape the way people get meaning in their lives. And they are not neutral. They stand over against the Christian world view, Where Jesus Christ is Lord, and all things are subject to him, and where Christ’s kingdom is all in all. Whether we know it or not, the church of Jesus Christ is in a battle for its life against world views that oppose the kingdom of God.
One of the amazing things about our world today is how global these battles are. Take materialism for example. We used to think of materialism—finding meaning in life in the things we possess, and giving our soul to possessing more things. . . we used to think of materialism as a particular disease of the west, particularly North America. But with globalization, materialism may be the fiercest world—wide battle against which Christianity is engaged.
Yes, there are the inner battles, the battles of world views. And it’s important to notice that whatever the battles, they are life—long. The battles we fight as Christians aren’t one time things that we fight, and then they’re over. I’m amazed how many older people tell me that their battles with Satan are more intense than ever, that they have to be more intentional than ever about prayer, that they have to remind themselves again and again of the great spiritual truths of God’s unconditional grace, because Satan works overtime trying to create doubt, self—doubt, doubt about the gospel, doubt that God could possibly love me unconditionally.
Yes, the Christian life is a battle. As children of light, we are engaged in a battle with the evil one. And we must live into the victory we have not just in this battle in Jericho, but at Calvary. Christ has won the battle over Satan. The decisive battle has been fought; the battles we fight today, we fight, knowing that Satan is doomed, and the victory is ours in Christ. We are "more than conquerors."
So the first thing to note about the story of the battle of Jericho is that the battle of Jericho is more than a military battle. It’s a sacred battle, part of the ongoing battle of Christ and the evil one, a battle we’re also caught up into this very day. The second thing to note about the story of the battle of Jericho is that it’s more than a battle story; it’s also a salvation story, a story about a saving, a rescue, a redemption! And that too is our story!
If seven is the most significant number in the Bible, then three is close behind. Three times in this story (verses 17, 22—23, and 25), Rahab is mentioned. No, not just Rahab, Rahab the prostitute. We cringe a bit at that. It seems like God could have just mentioned Rahab’s occupation once, in a footnote in chapter 2, and not brought it up anymore.
Three times, we hear about Rahab the prostitute and how God will keep his promise to Rahab and save her. Everything and everyone in the city is destroyed. But Rahab the prostitute is saved. In the middle of this battle where there is so much death and violence, there is salvation. And this Rahab ends up showing up in other places in the Bible—she’s part of a bigger salvation story the Bible is weaving together.
Rahab makes the hall of faith in Hebrews 11, a chapter of the Bible that lists the greatest heroes of faith ever. Yes, Rahab is one of the great heroes of faith. And she makes it into the family tree of Jesus. In Matthew 1 where the genealogy of Jesus is given, Rahab is mentioned in v. 5 as part of the family tree out of which Jesus was born. And then, when we think of Rahab the prostitute we can’t help but think of another story of a prostitute in the Bible, the prostitute Jesus rescued from shame. The Pharisees—the super religious people of Jesus day—were ready to stone her for her sexual sins and Jesus said, "No." That great story ends with Jesus saying to this broken woman, "I do not condemn you, go and sin no more."
Isn’t it interesting that God chooses the sin (sexual sin) that religious people most quickly use as the occasion to condemn people, to judge them, to shame them, to exclude them—Jesus uses that sin and people who have committed that sin, as the showcase of his love, his grace, his salvation, his acceptance, his forgiveness, not just his forgiveness, his inclusion—giving Rahab this great place in the Bible—she’s the only woman who makes both the Matthew genealogy and the Hebrews Hall of Faith. This is a story about salvation.
And the writer of Joshua 6 has no problem putting these two messages together, the message of a sacred battle, and of salvation. In fact, we know from the rest of Scripture, and from our own lives, that God’s reason for engaging the cosmic battle with Satan is because he wants to save; this is a battle to save the world, to save not only Rahab, but us.
Some of you today feel like a failure, like Rahab. You have done unacceptable things. You have been shameful in your life. If people knew everything about you, you are sure they would reject you—especially religious people.
Well, the God of those religious people comes to you today and says, I do know everything about you. And I still love you. And I want the best for you. I died for people like you. My goal is not to condemn you, but to save you. And then, once he has made it clear that he is for you, he loves you, he died for you to take into himself the punishment for your sins, then he says, "Go, and sin no more."
And he doesn’t just save you to some club with other people he’s saved. He saves you to enlist you in this battle, an ongoing battle that Christ, in his resurrection from the dead, has already won—the decisive battle of history has already been fought, the victory is secure. Won’t you join in the battle for peace, for goodness, for grace, for justice and righteousness in the world? God invites you to the most meaningful cause you can ever be part of. I hope you will join up—for his sake, for your sake, and for the sake of the world. Amen.
Duane Kelderman
Rev. Duane Kelderman is the Vice President for Administration and an Associate Professor of Preaching at Calvin Seminary in Grand Rapids. Before his current position he served as pastor in Christian Reformed congregations in Toledo, Ohio; Denver, Colorado; and Grand Rapids, Michigan. Rev. Kelderman is married to Jeannette and has three children and two grandchildren. He was born and raised in Oskaloosa, Iowa and attended Calvin College and Calvin Seminary. He enjoys reading and carpentry.
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