In short
Joshua ch. 6. Jericho is the first battle of the conquest of Canaan. The victory is decisive and unquestionably because of God.
Why it is important
It shows:
- Joshua as a great leader
- The Israelites obeying God’s commands! (I can’t believe it either!)
- Victory is always and only through the LORD
What is in this story
- Jericho is on lockdown – since they heard the Israelites were coming (v. 1)
- The LORD promises victory over Jericho (v. 2)
- The plan: The priests are to march around the city wall once each for six days (with trumpeting), then seven times on the seventh day, with trumpets and shouting at the end (vs. 4-7)
- They do this, with the ark in tow the whole time
- The “wall fell down flat” and the Israelites charge in and take the city (vs. 20-21)
- Rahab and her family are spared [more detail on her next week] (vs. 22-25)
Things that are not so well-known
- The Ark of the Covenant was carried by the priests (v. 12) but surrounded by “armed men” (v. 9)
- The first six days, trumpets are going but no one is allowed to talk (vs. 9-10)
- A curse if anyone rebuilds Jericho (v. 26), which happens in 1Ki 16:34, apparently
- They go back to base camp each day (v. 14)
- The way I read verse 11, there is a day zero of the ark doing a lap around. Verse 14 is “the second day”; vs. 12-13 is day one; so, v. 11 is before all of that, right?
The number seven in the story (verse 4)
- Seven priests go before the ark
- Seven trumpets
- Charge in on the seventh day
- Seven times marching around the city
Theology and doctrine
- It would have to reason that one of those days had to be a Sabbath, right?
- Conquest is going great! Tomorrow we cover the next chapter (hint hint)
- I suspect that the commander of the LORD’s army in chapter 5 is like the Angel of the LORD (Ex 3:2-4, for example), where the story shifts to the LORD himself speaking (Josh 6:1-2). In this case we have a chapter break, but it seems like it could be the same narration.
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