COV LIFE BLOG

Joshua 5:13-6:27 – The Gospel According To The Crumbling Walls of Jericho

This Sunday morning we have the opportunity to open our Bibles to the account of the Battle of Jericho where God caused the walls of the city to collapse such that the Israelites might enter in and take possession of the land which God had promised them, and for many of us this is a story for which we are incredibly familiar. We can recall how the Israelites walked quietly around the city one time each for six days and then how on the seventh day, they walked seven times, and at the end of those seven times, the musicians played their instruments and the people gave a shout, and at that moment the walls fell down, and the people rushed in to capture the city. And all that will for many be truly something they have heard a thousand times.
 
But you’ll notice in your bulletin that the title of the sermon is “The Gospel According to the Crumbling Walls of Jericho.” For many of us in this room we have heard the tales of this event so many times as children that its history has lost the marvel that it rightly deserves. And for all the wonder and excitement that this moment in history might generate, we may have still missed the great theological significance behind this event and what it represents in salvation history.
 
You’ll remember how in the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden because of their sin, but how years later, God began to call a people out for himself among their descendants and how we was going to make them into a great nation who would be a blessing to all the nations and how he made promises about how he would bring them back into the land he swore to their forefathers. But also remember that God said to the Israelites that he was not going to bring them into the promised land because of their own righteousness (Deut 9:4-5). God’s mighty working on their behalf was a display of his grace and his faithfulness to keep his covenant promises, and not because of their works or because of any inherent worth in and of themselves. And so we see God doing the work of bringing the people back into the promised land, by taking down the walls of the city, not by military might, but by a marvelous demonstration of his power.
 
But this marvelous demonstration of his grace is merely a small picture of the greater demonstration that he provided some years later on hill called Golgotha, where our Savior bled and died, such that once more a people might be brought back into the land. Not into a land where we might for a season allow our sheep to graze and where we might taste of a little milk and honey, but into a heavenly land, an eternally glorious land where God resides and rules forever in all of his splendor. Into a land where we might enter if we repent of our sin and turn to truly follow Christ as only Savior and Lord. And so this Sunday morning, let’s look afresh at the marvel that are the crumbling walls of Jericho, and let’s do so this time through the lens of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, that though we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Jay Gregory

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SCRIPTURES FOR THIS SUNDAY
Read Joshua 5:13-6:27 looking for the gospel themes throughout this passage and then ask yourself these questions: What difference has the gospel made in your life? And what difference does it make even in your life day-to-day? Is that something you are actively reflecting on and reminding yourself of? 

SONG FOR THIS WEEK
The Lord Is My Salvation by Shane & Shane