Walls of Jericho

This Sunday, we were privileged at CDC to have Pastor Richard give the message on the famous story of the Fall of Jericho from the book of Joshua Chapter 6. Starting off the message, Pastor Richard brought us to the place where it happened, trying to capture the emotions of the people as they marched round Jericho again and again for days, and in silence. The people of Jericho must have laughed at them, thinking these people odd or insane. One wonders whether any stones were thrown, whether any arrows shot. Perhaps, the people were just too curious to see what this strange ceremony would lead up to. It was never done before and it would never be done again, but the result of that famous march is of course one of the greatest miracles the world has ever seen. 12-15 feet high walls crashing down altogether, pandemonium as the Israelites rushed into a shocked city. Just like the Titanic sunk, the great walls of Jericho collapsed.

The people needed faith to be obedient to Joshua, but miracles were not new to them. They had seen so many in the desert, they truly believed that anything was possible for God and we too need to believe that anything is possible for God! It does not matter how high our walls of imprisonment, how treacherous and huge our mountains.

However, we should well realize that before Joshua’s great victory, he first had a very powerful encounter, an encounter with the Lord. The man with a drawn sword in his hand, the commander of the Lord’s army, spoke to Joshua from the Lord Himself. Many scholars are sure that the commander of the Lord is actually the pre-existing Christ Himself for indeed Jesus Christ is the commander of the Lord’s army.

The main point of the whole message was to focus on this key word – Encounter. It is the basis, the foundation, from which we can have any true lasting victory in our lives. Joshua encountered God, he listened, he obeyed, and he was victorious. It is the same for us, we need to encounter God, to listen to Him, to obey Him, and then be victorious in Him.

If we don’t meet God, how can we listen to Him? If we don’t listen to Him, how can we obey? But how many of us truly set our hearts on meeting God, often and always? Much has been said about the great importance of the personal Quiet Time, and indeed, that cannot be emphasized enough. Christianity is not about a set of rules. Following rules in our own strength can get us nowhere. The most important thing is our heart, our desire to know what is God’s will. The Bible teaches us to live, but we can only truly understand what the Bible means if we know God and spend time with Him. We need to read, to listen, to pray, to seek God. As Paul says, God is not far from us. We only need to reach out and find Him.

All around us, there are many walls of Jericho in our lives - Walls of greed, walls of sorrow, walls of pride, walls of immorality, walls of racism. There are so many walls of sin, walls that reflect our shame and our failures.

Again, the key is the Encounter. As we continue meeting God, continuing to seek His face day after day, we will see these walls come down one by one, as the commander of the Lord’s army goes before us, to make straight paths for us. The Lord told the Israelites, “You need only be still. The Lord will fight for you”. And He swamped the Egyptian army into the Red Sea.

In closing, Pastor Richard led us in singing “Be still”, and indeed, may be learn to be still, to seek God, and encounter the joy and blessing of knowing our Savior. In Jesus name, Amen.