Today’s passage: Joshua 6:1-27
Helpful thoughts:
- You might notice a pattern in these first chapters of the book of Joshua.
- God tells Joshua what to do.
- Joshua leads the people to do what God said.
- The people do what they were told…until they don’t (Next chapter).
- As loud as the people might have shouted, the walls of Jericho went down because God made them fall.
- The people were commended for their faith in God’s promise in Hebrews 11:30.
- The army of Israel killed everyone and everything except for Rahab and those in her house due to her repentance and allegiance to the God of Israel.
- God had commanded this in Deuteronomy 20:16-18.
- This destruction was God’s chosen method of judgment for the sin of these people (Genesis 15:16).
- This destruction was to prevent Israel from assimilating the pagan worship of these people and then practicing it in their own lives.
- God had commanded this in Deuteronomy 20:16-18.
- Joshua’s curse over Jericho would be fulfilled in 1 Kings 16:34.
Questions to consider:
- What do you think was communicated to the region by this event?
- What do you think was communicated to Israel by this event?
- How might a passage like Isaiah 55:9 or Romans 11:33-36 help us to think about all the death in this battle? Why do our ideas of fairness often fall short of God’s will and ways? How might our accusations against God evidence an incorrect high view of ourselves? (Think Ephesians 2:8-9)