Israel passed over Jordan, but there were more dangers in front; they escaped from one difficulty only to meet another. There stood Jericho, a strong city, walled up to heaven. But the command was still-Go forward, Jericho must be taken. It was the key of the country, and before they could open the country to take possession of the heritage their God had given them they had to take that key. They had to take it, or fail utterly; to take it or perish at the very threshold of their enterprise.
Of the many fortresses in Palestine, Jericho appears to have been the most nearly impregnable. The Israelites had no siege engines; neither battering-ram, nor catapult, nor moving tower. Their only weapons were slings, arrows, spears. Against the walls of Jericho these were as straws and thistle-down. There were two other passes by which Joshua might have entered the Promised Land. Neither of them was guarded. It is significant that God conducted him across the Jordan at the point where the strongest fortification in the country stood directly in his way; the point where the sole alternatives before him were victory that seemed impossible or defeat that would be ruin. Once before, the Israelites had entered Palestine. Then they approached from the south, crossed the border unopposed, and fled back before they were attacked. But in conquering Jericho they virtually subdued the Promised Land. No good or permanently pleasant possession is ever gained in this world except by overcoming obstacles. Jericho always bars the entrance to the Promised Land. We see some object of desire. We see the difficulties in the way. We wish they were removed. We attack them, if we dare, for the sake of what we see behind them. But in conquering our Jericho we always find something more precious than we see or seek. Is it wealth one longs for? It must be earned by toil, frugality, self-denial. Indolence must be overcome. Unless these difficulties have been mastered, wealth is no blessing. There are no beatitudes save such as are approached by steep and narrow ways.1 [Note: W. B. Wright, The World to Come, 75.]
1. Joshua was a brave military leader; but he needed Divine guidance in beginning the great campaign, and also Divine heartening and encouragement. It must have been a time of great suspense for him. In anxious mood he went forward alone to reconnoitre the place. While he was there, thinking and thinking, all at once there glimmered in the twilight over against him the figure of “a man with his sword drawn in his hand.” What was it? Dream of the night, or spirit of the dead, solid form or unsubstantial vapour, man or angel, friend or foe,-Joshua knew not, but he was ready for the encounter. Simple as a child, fearless as “one of the immortals,” he looked the Mystery in the face, and challenged the unknown warrior with the question, “Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?” Joshua knew of no neutrality in the warfare of God. The stranger must be friend or enemy. But there is something amiss with the question, for it is rebuked. “Nay,” says the vision, not for you, nor yet for your adversaries, am I come, but “as captain of the host of the Lord am I now come.”
Surely we are not told in Scripture about the Angels for nothing, but for practical purposes; nor can I conceive a use of our knowledge more practical than to make it connect the sight of this world with the thought of another. Nor one more consolatory; for surely it is a great comfort to reflect that, wherever we go, we have those about us who are ministering to all the heirs of salvation, though we see them not. Nor one more easily to be understood and felt by all men; for we know at one time the doctrine of Angels was received even too readily. And if any one would argue hence against it as dangerous, let him recollect the great principle of our Church, that the abuse of a thing does not supersede the use of it.1 [Note: J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, ii. 365.]
2. It seemed to Joshua that there were two sides, his own and the enemy's, between which the battle was to be fought out; he had to learn that it was not for him or for Israel to gain the victory, but for the Lord their God. Up to that time Joshua thought he was captain, but he was mistaken, and he saw it. In deep reverence he fell on his face, and was bidden, like Moses at the burning bush, to loose his shoes from off his feet, for the place whereon he stood was holy ground. Then the captain of the Lord's host gave His orders, told of His plan-not at all like the plans of Joshua-how Jericho was to be taken, not by might or strength of armed men, but by the blast of the Spirit of God toppling down the stupendous walls in which the heathen Canaanites put their trust. The Israelites were not to take Jericho by their own strength, or to lift sword or spear against it. Jericho was to be taken in God's way. The priests were to carry the ark round Jericho for seven days, bearing with them trumpets of rams' horns. On the seventh day, when they blew a blast, the walls would fall down.
Israel wondered but obeyed. Doubtless the men of Jericho laughed behind their strong walls, and thought that a few priests bearing trumpets could not hurt them. For six days the ark was carried round Jericho, but the walls stood as strong as ever. On the seventh day, whilst the people laughed, the priests went seven times round Jericho, and the trumpets sounded, and the people shouted, and the walls of Jericho fell down flat. By no human power had these walls fallen before the Israelites. The voice of God was the cannon that made the breach. One moment they had stood impregnable. The next they had fallen in ruins. The Israelites had only to reap the victory. It was God who had won it.
Jericho is a city surrounded by resources. Yet in war she has always been easily taken. That her walls fell down at the sound of Joshua's trumpets is no exaggeration, but the soberest summary of all her history. Judæa could never keep her. She fell to Northern Israel till Northern Israel perished. She fell to Bacchides and the Syrians. She fell to Aristobulus when he advanced on his brother Hyrcanus and Judæa. She fell without a blow to Pompey, and at the approach of Herod and again of Vespasian her people deserted her. It is also interesting to note that three invaders of Judæa-Bacchides, Pompey, and Vespasian-took Jericho before they attempted Jerusalem, although she did not lie upon their way to the latter, and that they fortified her, not, it is to be supposed, as a base of operations so much as a source of supplies. This weakness of Jericho was due to two causes. An open pass came down on her from Northern Israel, and from this both part of her water supply could be cut off and the hills behind her could be occupied. But besides this, her people never seem to have been distinguished for bravery; and, indeed, in that climate, how could they? Enervated by the great heat, which degrades all the inhabitants of the Ghôr, and unable to endure on their bodies aught but linen, it was impossible they could be warriors, or anything but irrigators, paddlers in water and soft earth. We forget how near neighbours they had been to Sodom and Gomorrah. No great man was born in Jericho: no heroic deed was ever done in her. She has been called “the key” and “the guardhouse” of Judæa; she was only the pantry. She never stood a siege, and her inhabitants were always running away.1 [Note: G. A. Smith, The Historical Geography of the Holy Land, 267.]
3. The host advanced straight into Jericho and captured it. Rahab, who had sheltered the two spies sent by Joshua to reconnoitre the town and helped them to escape in safety, had gathered her father and mother and other relatives together; and they were now led forth to a place of safety outside the camp of Israel. The rest of the inhabitants, without exception, were slain with the edge of the sword; the city was burned, and everything was consumed except the vessels of gold and silver, of brass and iron. And not only was the proud “City of Palmtrees” thus utterly destroyed, but Joshua pronounced a solemn curse on any one who attempted to rebuild it: he should lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son should he set up the gates of it (Jos_6:26). There was no reason in itself why the city should not be rebuilt. Taking its fine position into account, there was every reason why it should. But by perpetuating the destruction, Joshua was perpetuating the faith that destroyed it.
The capture of Jericho is the most popular of all Joshua's exploits. And yet it is the one about which we should be most cautious; for the narrative is composed of two accounts, one very ancient, which knows nothing beyond Joshua and the people, a silent invasion and a sudden storming and capture of the town, and another which introduces into the story the sacred procession, the priests, the Ark of the Covenant, and the portentous crumbling of the walls at the sound of the trumpets. What were the real facts of this bold stroke? Whether there really was a religious demonstration around the walls to divert attention from the siege operations, or whether Jehovah in this first stage of the forward march intervened with miraculous aid, we are no longer in a position to say. All those, therefore, who are anxious to teach nothing but what is certain will be well advised not to lay stress on the details of this campaign. One thing only we can be sure of, that it remained indelibly impressed on the memory of Israel as the type of the wars in which Jehovah Zebaoth worked with His people and the victory was won by a display of faith.1 [Note: A. Westphal, The Law and the Prophets, 216.]
By Jericho's doom'd towers who stands on high,
With helmet, spear, and glittering panoply?
“The Christian soldier, like a gleaming star,
Trained in the wilderness to iron war.”
Take off thy shoes, thy promis'd land is found,
The place thou standest on is holy ground.
“Take Thou the shield and buckler, stop the way
Against mine enemies! be Thou my stay!”
I am thy rock, thy castle: I am He
Whose feet have dried up the Egyptian sea:
Fear not, for I am with thee; put on might;
'Gainst thrones and powers of darkness is the fight.
“I go, if Thou go with me; ope the skies,
And lend me Heaven-attemper'd armories.”
Gird Truth about thee for thy mailed dress,
And for thy breastplate put on Righteousness;
For sandals, beauteous Peace; and for thy sword
The two-edg'd might of God's unfailing word;
Make golden Hope thy helmet; on, and strive:-
He that o'ercometh in those courts shall live,
Whose crystal floor by heavenly shapes is trod,
“A pillar in the temple of my God.”1 [Note: Isaac Williams, The Cathedral, 205.]
