The Battle for Jericho
Joshua 6:15–25
The people shouted a great shout, and the wall fell down flat. Joshua 6:20

If you are a Christian, you are a soldier in God’s army and are engaged in a war where many enemy strongholds need to be conquered. We see them everywhere. There are fortresses of evil in our land, in the church, and, we must confess, in ourselves. They are surrounded by high walls. The gates are sealed. They are manned by strong and experienced defenders. What are we to do against such ancient outposts of God’s and our enemy? The answer is that we are to assault them in the way God has told us to wage warfare: by prayer, by the Word of God, and by our testimony. When we look at evil’s forces, we may think the ancient weapons of the church are inadequate and we may be greatly tempted to abandon them and use the world’s tools. This is a mistake. We need to listen to God and obey faithfully to the very end. When we do, then in God’s own time, the walls of Satan’s strongholds will tumble.

The apostle Paul wrote, “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds” (2 Cor. 10:4).

The book of Revelation says of the saints’ battle against Satan, “They have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” (Rev. 12:11).

If you are not a Christian—if you are still in arms against the Lord Jesus Christ, the rightful ruler of this world and all in it—you must remember that the victory won by the Jews at Jericho, followed by the destruction of the entire city, is a picture of what will surely come to you in the day of God’s judgment. You have shut your heart against God. You have manned the battlements of your life, and although you are trembling, you refuse to repent of your sin and turn to God for his cleansing. What folly! How can you hope to stand against the only sovereign God of this universe? If you do not come to terms with God now, if you continue to hold out, you will perish in the final judgment, and your doom will be just.

The Bible says, “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you perish in the way” (Ps. 2:12).

Rahab did that. The Bible says that the Jewish armies “burned the city with fire, and everything in it. . . . But Rahab the prostitute and her father’s household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho” (Josh. 6:24–25). Her position was neither better nor worse than yours, and she was saved. Why should her experience not be yours? Why should you too not escape wrath through faith in the God of Israel?