Joshua 6:6-21
At the end of Joshua 5, we find the Lord taking His place as Captain of His host. In chapter 6, the action of Israel as the army of God begins immediately after the command is given by their Captain. Up to this point God has been bringing His people into Canaan and giving them of its food to prepare them for war. So the establishment of the Christian in grace must precede his being an effective soldier of Christ. A child of God who doubts his sonship or is engaged in spiritual struggles with himself is not an effective soldier of Christ.
Also, if Christian liberty is known as a matter of faith, there must be holy living in order to maintain spiritual conflict. Subjection to God and obedience to the Scriptures are necessary for true Christian warfare. We must walk with God if we would war for God. Christian soldiership demands that there should be both faith in what God has done for us and a yielding to His working in us.
Entrance Into Heavenly Places
Both the blessing of the believer in Christ and the healthy state of the Christian’s soul, as seen in the types and figures in the book of Joshua, are preliminaries to active warfare. The passage of the Jordan shows us, in figure, the believer’s entrance into the heavenly places. Gilgal shows his true place of liberty, while the partaking of the feasts of the Passover, unleavened bread, and the old corn of the land proclaimed true feeding on Christ. Upon these great realities came the vision of the drawn sword and the commands relative to the overthrow of Jericho. It would appear that Joshua gave his orders to Israel immediately upon receiving them from the Captain of the Lord’s host. Faith is equally balanced in its energy and patience, for faith is simply carrying out the mind of God. To the priests the word of command was, “Take up the ark”; to the armed men, “Pass on, and compass the city, and let him that is armed pass on before the ark of the Lord.”
He has promised the victory as He promised it to Israel. They believed Him, and “by faith the walls of Jericho fell down.” Let the soldier of Christ, at his Lord’s bidding, go forth to fight for Him, and let him be as assured of victory as was Israel. Soldiers of Christ, stir up the soul to courage! Christian courage tells upon adversaries as nothing else does. Also, let us stir up our souls to hardness. Warriors do not fight upon featherbeds, nor stretched at ease in armchairs; the Christian soldier must expect hardship. Moreover, he must not entangle himself with the affairs of this life, but please Him who has called him to be a soldier. Life’s duties must be honorably performed, but we are forbidden to entangle ourselves with them. There are many “indispensables,” as we may call them, which are really entanglements and which a Christian, zealous for Christ, learns to discard. Like the runner, he lays aside every weight. Anything that keeps the mind busy, to the exclusion of Christ’s interests, should be suspected.
A Good Soldier
A good soldier loves his profession, and a true Christian soldier loves Christian warfare. He takes pleasure in hardships and weariness. Forward, ever forward, is his cry. It is no burden to him, but rather his happy service to spend and to be spent for his Lord. Idleness and ease are a distress to the one who is fired by eternal prospects, energized by the Holy Spirit, and constrained by Christ’s love. Eternity, he whispers to himself, when his weary body almost resents carrying out the orders of his soul. Such a spirit marks the front-rank men. May the young Christian who reads this be fired by the prospects of eternity and be filled with holy zeal the entire period of his life!
Joshua gave orders for the day only: “Pass on, and compass the city, and let him that is armed pass on before the ark of the Lord.” All work of faith is day-by-day work, step-by-step progress; this is the only true and happy way of living for God. In the happy satisfaction that they had obeyed God, Israel’s first day ended — a comfort which we trust may be ours too.
The Ark of the Lord
Early in the morning of the second day Joshua arose, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. A fresh fact is now presented, of practical importance. The seven priests “went on continually, and blew with the trumpets.” No voice was uttered by Israel; the only sounds were the continual tramp of many feet and the blast of the trumpets. Such a mode of warfare looked to the men of Jericho, very likely, as consummate folly. There was no casting up of mounds, no construction of battering rams, no scaling ladders—nothing but the trumpets of jubilee! The men of Jericho did not know what those blasts meant, nor does the world today understand the joyful sound of the gospel and the message that Christ is coming.
The priests — the men whose service on this earth was the worship of Jehovah — blew the trumpets. So the joyful sound comes from worshiping souls — a true testimony. Joy in His coming arises only when the love of Christ is sweet in the heart. The force of true Christian courage has already been spoken of, but true Christian joy is almost as great a witness of God’s presence. The soul of the believer, brought into the knowledge of perfect salvation in Christ, cannot help but express exuberant joy, and the joy notes of the jubilee trumpets lasted all the seven days — all the time of Israel’s compassing of Jericho.
The joyful sound was not merely a song of their own freedom, but the continuous witness that the powers of evil were about to be overthrown and that God’s kingdom should come. The obedience of the silent host and the continual sound of the trumpets proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord offer a very suggestive contemplation for Christian soldiers. Israel struck the blow that overwhelmed Jericho by blowing the trumpets.
The Sevenfold Energy of Faith
The seventh day was marked by special zeal and sevenfold energy. “It came to pass on the seventh day, that they rose early about the dawning of the day, and compassed the city after the same manner seven times: only on that day they compassed the city seven times” (Josh. 6:15). In view of this, we may well stimulate our souls to renewed zeal and fresh patience. Patience is stamped upon the mode of Israel’s warfare — that peculiar patience which goes on till God’s time of victory arrives. “Persistency” is the word every Christian needs to have inscribed on his banner. There is a sevenfold, a perfect, trial of faith for the soldiers of Christ in the path of obedience, and the nearer the day of final victory, the more the need of earnest toil for the Lord. The nearer the end, the more call for diligence.
The power of Satan cannot be overcome except in divinely given strength, and whatever the zeal of God’s saints, prayer is their constant need. “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance” (Eph. 6:18) is what God enjoins upon the soldier of Christ.
The shout of victory will soon be heard! The Lord will give the word, and then the defenses of evil will fall before Him. The time will come when men shall say, “Peace and safety”; then sudden destruction will come upon them. In the prospect of that day, let every man go up “straight before Him” (vs. 20) in simple obedience to the Lord. Let us be among the few who dare to brave the sneer of being peculiar, in doing each his own duty in obedience to the Word of the Lord.
H. F. Witherby (adapted)