Trusting God's Plan

All right, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we are at Joshua chapter 6. Joshua chapter 6, we're going to talk about the destruction of Jericho. Oh, have you not done any Coffee and Devotions with me yet? We are all the way over here. We're gonna do all the j's this year. We're gonna do joshua and judges and joel And jeremiah and jonah joshua chapter 6 So this morning we're going to talk about the destruction of jericho really cool story.
All right, let's have some coffee We'll pray and we'll get into god's word Oh, do you want some actual coffee? Yes Burning hot It'll take your tongue right off Hey, hey, hey, don't drink all my coffee, boy. What are you doing, man? Let's pray. God, we thank you so much for this day. Thank you for the blessing of getting to spend time together. Thank you for your word. Lord, we pray that you would please teach us to follow you in Jesus's name. Amen. All right. Joshua, chapter six, right here. All right. So, Dandan, I want you to follow along, OK? Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel. None went out and none came in. And the Lord said to Joshua, See, I have given Jericho into your hand, its king and the mighty men of valor.
You shall march around the city. all you men of war, and you shall go around the city once. This you shall do six days, and seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets, and it shall come to pass when they make a long blast with the ram's horn. And when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout, then the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, every man straight before him.
All right, so this is the battle plan. They're around Jerusalem, or sorry, around Jericho, and God is going to do what? Destroy Jericho. Destroy Jericho. And they're going to do it by creating a siege mound. They're going to do it by throwing firing darts. They're going to do it by putting pirate ships out front to shoot them with fiery cannonballs. That sounds fun. They're going to use catapults. They're going to send spies in. They're going to crawl up Rahab's little core. They're going to plant bombs inside of it, and they're going to blow up the walls from the inside out.
That sounds cool. Is that what's going to happen? No. How's it going to go down? They're going to march around for six days. How's that tear down a wall? I don't know. I don't know either. But on the seventh day, what's going to happen? Yeah, that's right. Good. So on the seventh day, you shall march around the city seven times. So seventh day, seven times. Blow the trumpets. And what's going to happen when those trumpets blast? Yeah, they're going to shout and the city walls are going to fall down flat. Well, that's a crazy battle plan. Never heard of that plan before. Let's see how it works out. Verse 6.
Then Joshua, the son of Nun, called the priests and said to them, Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear the seven trumpets of rams horns before the ark of the Lord. And he said to the people, Proceed and march around the city, and let him who is armed advance before the ark of the Lord. Isn't that interesting? the seventh day they walk around seven times there's seven priests and seven ram's horns huh seems like maybe the lord likes that number seven i don't know why normally that's the idea of completion So it was when Joshua had spoken to the people that seven priests bearing the seven trumpets for 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 Joshua had commanded the people, saying, You shall not shout or make any noise with your voice, nor shall a word proceed out of your mouth until the day I say to you, Shout! Then you shall shout. So he had the ark of the Lord circle the city, going around it once.
Then they came into the camp and lodged in the camp. I wonder how the children felt when they shouted as loud as they could. Mmm. Yeah, they were probably scared, but they were probably at the camp with their mommies Well, I think I think these were the men of war Yeah I think this was the men of war who were there.
And Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. Then seven priests bearing seven trumpets of ram's horns before the ark of the Lord went on continually and blew the trumpets, and the armed men went before them. But the rear guard came after the ark of the Lord, while the priests continued blowing the trumpets.
And the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. So they did six days. But, verse 15, but it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose early about the dawning of the day and marched around the city seven times in the same manner. On that day only when they marched around the city the seven times. And the seventh time it happened when the priest blew the trumpets that Joshua said to the people, shout for the Lord has given you the city.
Now the city shall be doomed by the Lord to destruction, and it and all who are in it, only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. And you, by all means, abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take the accursed things and make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it.
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. So they were all quiet. They're going around. And then Joshua gives a stirring speech, but there's one qualification. What are they not supposed to do? Well, they're not supposed to shout yet, but they're also not supposed to take. where only Rahab is going to live. That's qualification number one. Rahab's the harlot. She's the one who hid the spies when they came to spy out the city. And he says, because she hid the spies that we sent her and anyone in her house, they're saved. Everyone else dies.
But when they go in there and they're conquering the city, are they allowed to take the silver, the gold or the clothing? No, no, that's all supposed to go to the Lord. They take the swords. No, everything goes to the Lord. So they just get the land. Well, this is meant to be a sign to the whole area that this is our land. God gave us this land and God's the one who said, wipe it completely out. And they wiped it completely.
So the people shot. Well, let's see if they do it. So the people shouted with the priests when the priests blew the trumpet. And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet and the people shouted with a great shout. What do you think happened? That the wall fell down flat.
Then the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city. And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and donkeys with the edge of the sword. But Joshua had said to the two men who had spied out the country, Go into the harlot's house. And from there bring out the woman and all that she has as you swore to her. And the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father, her mother, her brothers, and all that she had. So they brought out all her relatives and left them outside the camp of Israel. But they burned the city and all that was in it with fire.
Only the silver and gold and the vessels of bronze and iron they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. And Joshua spared Rahab the harlot, her father's household, and all that she had. So she, that's Rahab, so she dwells in Israel to this day because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. She was alive when Joshua was writing this, yeah? Then Joshua charged them at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before the Lord who rises up and builds this city Jericho.
He shall lay its foundations with his firstborn, and with his youngest he shall set up its gates. So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout all the country. His fame? I thought it was supposed to be God's fame. Well, but Joshua's becoming famous because he's conquering the land. God seems to be with Joshua like he was with Moses. That's kind of one of the key themes of the book of Joshua, that God really had chosen him to lead the people to conquer the land.
So, A, what's this about? Trusting God? No, no. What's it about just as a story itself? All right, Joshua Defeated Jericho by God's help good right because did Joshua throw a single rock at the wall Who made the walls fall? God Yeah, whose city was that? God's right did the people conquer the city who conquered it. Oh So whose was the stuff? God's. Right. The king gets a spoil of war first.
This was a declaration that God was the one who is leading his people. God was the one who is destroying his enemies. God was the one who is giving this to the people. Not because they're good enough, but because he's God. And he wasn't like, oh, you can take all the spoils. Well, later on, they're going to be allowed to, but not at this city. I'll just take maybe one man. Good. Yeah. So, so Joshua conquers Jericho with God's help. Great. Um, what about that whole Rahab thing? Oh, she was, uh, she, he knew that God was going to do it for her. Yeah, so she knew that God was going to do this. She knew that that the Israelites, their God was her God, and he was the God of heaven and earth, and he was going to give this land to her. And so where's she at when the wall falls? Bye bye. Well, she's in her house, right? Who else is in her house? All her family, right? All her family believes, too.
Good. So that's what this is about. In my Bible, I have the best verse underlined. Well, I have verse 21 underlined about the total destruction of the city. But maybe somebody would underline about the walls falling down, or maybe somebody would underline verse 27 about the Lord being with Joshua and his fame spreading. That's fine.
So let's go ahead and go to C, calling. What are we called to do? So you're called to march around your enemy's house seven times until the house falls down? I should just use that to Lady's Doghouse. Oh, you're going to do it to Lady's Doghouse? Oh, I know, I know. I know what this is calling you to.
This is calling you to go and to utterly destroy, to go on a holy religious war and kill everybody in a town who's not a Christian. Well, there's there's no walls around mediapolis Well, there's no wall around me both foods either Well the building yeah, well, I don't think the people at the grocery store are your enemies our gods enemies Oh Oh, if they charge $3 for chips, they become your enemies. You are a silly silly man. That's not cool Love those who persecute you right now bless bless those who persecute you love your enemies Well, okay, we're not on talking about the price of chips you're funny no, right What do we call it to do right? God might tell us to do things that seem Maybe a little bit strange Impossible unusual Well, I don't think God's gonna tell you to fall off a roof But he may tell you to do something like love your enemy He may tell you it's something like Rejoice when they persecute you Oh Maybe he'll tell you to put to death your sinful desires.
Yep. There are things that God tells us to do that may make us scratch our heads like we don't get it. We may not understand. But like Joshua, can we trust the Lord? Yep. And we can know that he's holy, that he's the one who conquers our enemies. And if God is for us, who could be against us? So we trust the Lord, right?
This is what it means to walk by faith. I'm sure they thought this is ridiculous. If they didn't have faith, this would be ridiculous. What do you mean we're going to march around the city? How's that going to defeat our enemies? They could throw rocks at us from the top of their walls. They could shoot arrows at us. We could die. They could just throw mines or bombs. I don't think they're throwing mines or bombs or explosives yet. thousands of years in advance. Well, they could just shoot cannons. No, they don't have cannons at this time.
But the point being, okay, point being, they had to do this by faith. And God had a perfect plan. The perfect God had a perfect plan and accomplished his plan perfectly. But it would never go wrong. If Jesus said you would conquer India, you would. Yeah. So if God goes before us, can we follow him? Yep. That's right. Let's pray. Know is what you can do because he said so. That's right. That's right. We can follow him. But how do we know what he tells us to do? Through Jesus. Well, specifically in the scriptures, right? Yeah. Now we go, now we go here. There's a lot of people who might, I think they might be really wrong or even crazy. We think that God tells them to do very specific things.
Uh, and if they're going against the scriptures, God's not telling you to do that. Somebody, something else or someone else's. God's not telling you to step your toe on a wall. No, he's not telling you to step your toe on a wall or to go murder someone or something like that.
So now let's go ahead and pray. God, we thank you so much. that you tell us to follow you. And by faith we do that, Lord. And Father, we thank you that you had a plan. You made a promise to your people to give them the promised land, and you did it. And you, the King, accomplished this victory. And you got the glory for it. Lord, we thank you that Joshua's fame spread because of this, but Lord, we know that it was your city, it was your victory, because you are the one who gave them the land and accomplished this.
And so, Father, as we think about even our own lives, we thank you that you accomplished the victory for us. Death has no more victory because Jesus has conquered death and has risen again from the grave. And so, Father, our last enemy has been conquered. We look forward to that day when our victor, when our true Joshua will come again. and when we will live with Him forever. In Jesus' name, Amen. May God bless you. May you follow after Him, even when it might seem a little counterintuitive. We'll see you next time. Bye.