Chapter 6
The taking of Jericho is a figure of the Christian’s victory over the world.
God made the earth a beautiful place, but the world is that which man has made, and Satan is the prince of it. All this world’s thoughts and plans are all man’s; God’s thoughts and God’s ways are all forgotten in the world. Therefore there is enmity between the people of the world and the people of God, and Satan uses the world to keep God’s children from taking possession of the joys of heaven.
The Lord Jesus has overcome the world, and the Christian has to do so too. Now the Christian is not armed with a sword as the children of Israel were, but his sword is the Word of God, and his shield is the shield of faith. Truth and righteousness too are parts of the Christian’s armor.
When the priests blew the trumpets as they marched around the city walls, it was really calling upon God. They were prepared to fight, yet they called on God, and waited for Him to give them victory. They did not talk about it, they did not boast that the walls would soon fall down, but silently, patiently, round and around they went. There was nothing to be heard but the sound of the trumpets, and God was listening to that sound. No doubt the people inside heard it too, but to them, it was the sound of coming judgment.
They went round the city seven times on the last day to show that they were not getting tired or unbelieving about it; they had even more patience and determination at the end than at the beginning. The Scriptures tell us that “they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.” Isa. 40:31.
A Christian overcomes the world by faith in the Son of God. “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith,” 1 John 5:4, because faith believes that Jesus has overcome the world.
“Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” 1 John 5:5. If a child of God has learned that Jesus is the SON OF God, then this world to him is like a great walled city full of enemies, but he knows that Jesus has gone up to God’s right hand in heaven, and this makes the Christian able to overcome, so that when he comes to the world like an armed man and like a priest, the walls are no walls at all, and the enemies are no more than dead people. They can do him no harm because if God is for him, who can be against him?
A Christian shows that he has overcome the world by keeping himself from the things that are in the world. And this was Joshua’s warning to the children of Israel. He said, “And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.” v. 18. They were not to take anything in Jericho for themselves.
Just so, God’s children now are told to “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world... is not of the Father, but is of the world.” 1 John 2:15, 16.
There are two things that are competing for our hearts, dear young Christian—the love of the Father, and the love of the world. It is very sad when a child of God does not keep himself from the things of the world, because it shows that he loves the world better than he loves the Father. “If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
ML-07/10/1977