The Fall of Jericho

Context

Joshua is leading Israel toward the land God had promised, and Jericho stands closed in front of them. It is a fortified city, alert and sealed because of Israel’s presence. The story does not begin with Joshua drawing up a clever battle plan. It begins with Joshua learning that the LORD himself commands what is about to happen.

The ark of the covenant is central in this scene. It represents the LORD’s covenant presence among his people, and it will be carried in the middle of Israel’s procession. Another person also matters: Rahab, a woman in Jericho who had hidden Joshua’s messengers. An oath had been made concerning her and the people gathered with her. As Israel faces Jericho, the question is whether they will follow the LORD’s word exactly, even when his command does not look like ordinary warfare.

Story

Near Jericho, Joshua looked up and saw a man standing opposite him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went toward him and asked whether he was for Israel or for Israel’s enemies.

The answer was not what Joshua expected. The man said he had come as commander of the LORD’s army. Joshua fell with his face to the ground, worshiped, and asked what his lord had to say to his servant.

The commander told Joshua to take the sandal off his foot, because the place where he stood was holy. Joshua did so.

Jericho was shut up tightly because of the people of Israel. No one went out, and no one came in. Then the LORD told Joshua that he had given Jericho into his hand, along with its king and its fighting men.

But the instructions did not sound like a normal siege. The men of war were to march around the city once each day for six days. Seven priests were to carry seven ram’s-horn trumpets before the ark. On the seventh day, they were to march around the city seven times, while the priests blew the trumpets. When the people heard the long blast of the horn, they were to shout with a great shout. Then the wall of the city would fall, and the people would go straight in.

Joshua called the priests and told them to take up the ark of the covenant. Seven priests went ahead of it with the trumpets. Armed men moved in front, the priests blew the horns, the ark followed, and a rear guard came behind. Joshua also commanded the people to keep silent. They were not to shout or raise their voices, or even speak a word, until the day he told them to shout.

So the ark of the LORD circled the city once, and the people returned to camp for the night.

The next morning Joshua rose early, and the priests took up the ark again. The same procession formed: armed men, priests with trumpets, the ark of the LORD, and the rear guard. The priests kept blowing the trumpets as they walked. The people circled Jericho once and returned to camp.

They did this for six days. The city remained shut. The people remained silent. The sound that marked those days was the steady blowing of the trumpets before the ark, while Israel walked the path the LORD had commanded.

On the seventh day, they rose early at dawn. This time they marched around the city seven times in the same manner. At the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua told the people to shout, because the LORD had given them the city.

Joshua also gave a solemn warning. The city was devoted to the LORD for destruction. Rahab and everyone with her in her house were to live, because she had hidden the messengers Israel had sent. The people were to keep away from the things devoted to the LORD. The silver, gold, bronze, and iron were not to become Israel’s plunder; they belonged in the LORD’s treasury.

Then the priests blew the trumpets, and the people shouted with a great shout. When the people heard the trumpet sound and raised their shout, the wall fell down flat. Israel went up into the city, each person straight ahead, and they took Jericho.

The destruction that followed was complete and severe. The inhabitants and the animals of the city were put to death. Yet Joshua remembered the oath concerning Rahab. He told the two men who had spied out the land to go into her house and bring her out, along with all who belonged to her.

The spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father, her mother, her brothers, and all her family. They were placed outside the camp of Israel. Rahab and her father’s household were kept alive, and she lived among Israel, because she had hidden the messengers Joshua had sent to spy out Jericho.

The city itself was burned, along with what was in it. Only the silver, gold, bronze, and iron were put into the treasury of the LORD’s house.

At that time Joshua pronounced a curse before the LORD on anyone who would rise up to rebuild Jericho. Its rebuilding would come at the cost of his sons, from the laying of its foundation to the setting up of its gates.

So the LORD was with Joshua, and Joshua’s name became known throughout the land.

What We Learned

• Joshua’s first lesson at Jericho is not that God joins Joshua’s side, but that Joshua must listen to the commander of the LORD’s army.
• The fall of Jericho is presented as the LORD’s gift, not Israel’s achievement. The ark, the trumpets, the silence, and the shout all point to obedience to God’s word.
• Israel had to keep walking before anything changed. The repeated march shows trust in the LORD’s command when there was no visible progress yet.
• Judgment and mercy stand side by side. Jericho is destroyed, but Rahab and her household are spared because she received the messengers and Israel honored the oath made to her.
• The treasures of the city belonged to the LORD, and Joshua’s fame spread because the LORD was with him, not because he seized glory for himself.