Joshua: God’s Strategies for Victory, Part 1
Estimated reading time: 15 minutes
The Battle of Jericho
Strategy: A plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal.
God has a purpose for everything He put in His Word. We will see why these five battles or campaigns are in the book of Joshua. There were many other battles that they fought, but these are the ones God chose to inform us about.
Outline:
| Chapter | Topic | Subject | Strategy / Key | N.T. References |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joshua 5 | Introduction | Character of Joshua | Willing to be servant Meekness Dedication to God and his Word | I Pet 5:5–7 Matt 11:28, 29 |
| Joshua 6 | Jericho | Pride, idolatry | Obey all the steps Be quiet Praise Shout before walls fall down Work together | Rom 10:17 James 1:4 Eph 4:2 I Cor 4:5–7 Phil 1:27 |
| Joshua 7, 8 | Ai | Greed, lust | Firstfruits giving Deal with sin, but get back up Ambush “little city” Magnify the Word | II Cor 9:7 Eph 1:7 Eph 6:11 |
| Joshua 9 | Gibeon | Deception | Don’t walk by senses Deal with consequences | II Cor 5:7 |
| Joshua 10 | Southern Kings | Fear | Pursue until end of battle When own strength fails, God comes through Joy in victory: testimony | I Cor 9:24–26 Phil 4:13 Rom 8:15 Eph 1:21 |
| Joshua 11 | Northern Kings | Intimidation, frustration | Zero in on where control is Don’t trust in horses or chariots Occupy the territory Fresh “manna” (revelation) | II Tim 1:7 Acts 27:24 Roman 6:4 Eph 6:17 |
| Joshua 24:13–27 | Joshua’s Last Words | Tolerance | Serve the Lord | Eph 1:3–5 |
The Book of Joshua provides a comparison of an Old Testament situation with the experiences and battles in life that we encounter as born-again Christians. The theme of the book revolves around the events, the warfare, and the strategies of how the children of Israel went in to claim the Promised Land. We need to learn the same lessons to help us walk into the “promised land” (spiritually) of our lives.
Ephesians 1:3 KJV:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
There are certain common responses that Christians have.
- Some people want to stay in the world (stay in Egypt).
- Some people wander around in the wilderness, muttering and complaining.
- Some people want to stay on the east side of the Jordan and not move their residence into the promised land. They live like half-way Christians and don’t walk in the victory and rest that God has promised.
2 Corinthians 10:3–5 APNT:
3 For although we walk in the flesh, we do not serve of the flesh [the senses].
4 For the equipment of our service is not of the flesh, but of the power of God and by it, we overcome rebellious strongholds.
5 And we pull down reasonings and all pride that elevates [itself] against the knowledge of God and we lead captive all thoughts to the obedience of Christ.
We do not war according to our flesh, or physical senses, but it is by God’s power that we have victory in our lives. Spiritual warfare requires spiritual strategies that achieve spiritual victories. Our strategies are not carnal. Even as Joshua encountered and defeated enemy strongholds through the power of God, we must also depend on God to overcome rebellious strongholds in our lives. Verse 5 says, “we pull down reasonings and all pride that elevates [itself] against the knowledge of God and we lead captive all thoughts to the obedience of Christ.”
Victory only arises when one fully understands temptation and wholly depends on the Lord’s means of deliverance.
https://www.foundationsforfreedom.net/
It’s God’s means of deliverance; it’s not of the senses.
Joshua exemplified a man of meekness and dedication to God, willing to be an obedient servant. He served Moses selflessly for 40 years and learned how to submit to God’s will before he became the leader of Israel. He stayed strong in faith that God would provide what he had promised, even in the midst of decades of murmuring unbelief inside the camp and formidable enemies outside the camp. As they crossed over the Jordan River into enemy territory, Joshua remained focused on God and looked to him for direction and wisdom.
Joshua led Israel in battle against seven enemy nations in the land of Canaan–the Perizzites, Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, Canaanites, Gergashites ,and Hivites. Those “ites” also spiritually represent strongholds that we have to deal with and overcome in our lives in order to walk in the fullness of what God has promised and provided for us as his children.
Genesis 15:7 ESV:
And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”
Genesis 15:13–16 ESV:
13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”
God is so merciful that he gave the Amorites 400 years to repent of their iniquity (the worst kind of sin in the Old Testament). If they had repented during that time, He would not have destroyed them. But instead of repenting, they only grew worse. Their iniquity was full or complete by the time of Joshua.
In our live-and-let-live culture, it sounds very harsh to us that God told Joshua to completely wipe out the Canaanites. There are some details to understand.
Noah’s son Ham committed incest with his mother, and the resulting son was Canaan. Canaan was born of incest. That starts the iniquity.
They set up a culture of divine kings. They set up a God, who was eventually called Baal. Baal was imagined in ways that made him the closest to the true God, Yahweh. Baal is a counterfeit that appears very similar to the real thing. And the kings all claimed to be gods. So there is a very strong combination of idolatry and pride.
They stole the land that had been given to Shem. That’s why they were in the land of Canaan, which was not supposed to be their land to begin with.
There were many kinds of iniquity that they instituted. For example, their firstborn children would be killed, stuffed into a pottery jar, and placed in the wall of their house.
They had strong sexual perversions and orgies. Their rituals were so evil that we should be amazed that God had such mercy toward them for so long.
Joshua’s Character
If you read the first five chapters of Joshua, you’ll gain an appreciation for what a wonderful man of God Joshua was.
Joshua was willing to be a servant. He served Moses faithfully for over 40 years. He was very meek and faithful. He had a strong dedication to God.
When Moses went to the mountain to get the Ten Commandments, Joshua went with him. He didn’t go all the way up with Moses because he wasn’t supposed to, but he stayed partway up the mountain waiting for Moses for the entire 40 days that Moses was gone.
When Moses went into the Tabernacle, and the shekinah glory filled the Tabernacle, Joshua stayed right outside the door as long as Moses was in there. Joshua accompanied (and served) Moses everywhere Moses went.
Joshua learned from Moses how to be meek and how to submit to God’s will.
Joshua was also one of the 12 spies who had originally gone into the promised land when they first came out of Egypt. He and Caleb were the only two of the spies who were ready to obey God and go into the land and possess it.
Joshua and Caleb were the only two Israelites who were over the age of 20 at the time of the Exodus who got to go into the promised land. Moses didn’t even get to go into the promised land.
Joshua learned not to rush into things and to really endeavor to listen to God.
After the miracle where the Jordan River dried up so that all the people could cross over on dry land, you would think the people would be excited about taking the land, but no.
The first thing Joshua does after crossing the Jordan is to circumcise the men.
Joshua 5:4–5 ESV:
4 And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: all the males of the people who came out of Egypt, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt. 5 Though all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people who were born on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt had not been circumcised.
Joshua circumcised all the men while they were in enemy territory and vulnerable. They were vulnerable for at least a week!
Joshua 5:6–7 ESV:
6 For the people of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord; the Lord swore to them that he would not let them see the land that the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. 7 So it was their children, whom he raised up in their place, that Joshua circumcised. For they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way.
The complainers, those who had died in the wilderness without seeing the promised land, had specifically not circumcised their children. That’s an indication of the depth of their unbelief. They refused to recognize the covenant with God by circumcising their children.
Joshua 5:8–9 ESV:
8 When the circumcising of the whole nation was finished, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed. 9 And the LORD said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” And so the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day.
“Gilgal” sounds like the Hebrew word for “roll.” God rolled away the reproach so that they could come into covenant relationship with God again.
The second thing that Joshua did after entering the promised land was to keep the Passover.
Joshua 5:10 ESV:
While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho.
The huge stronghold of the city of Jericho was visible to the Israelites from where they camped in Gilgal. The celebrated and remembered Passover within enemy territory and within sight of Jericho.
Everyone today is a Joshua.
The name Joshua means Jehovah (Yahweh) Saves. God has laid out, spiritually, the land of milk and honey for all of us today. We can all be a Joshua.
Joshua 5:13–15 ESV:
13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” 14 And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” 15 And the commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.
Joshua asked him, What do you have to tell me? I’m listening.
That must have been an incredible encouragement to Joshua.
YouTube Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho:
Joshua 6:1–2 ESV:
Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, and none came in. 2 And the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor.
If you look at the outline (above), you’ll see that the “ites” they fought against in Jericho can represent, for us, pride and idolatry.
Jericho was a center of idolatry. The name Jericho comes from the name of the ancient Near Eastern moon god, Yerech. Jericho celebrated their idolatrous festival in the springtime, the same time that the Israelites came.
Joshua 6:3–5 ESV:
3 You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days. 4 Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. 5 And when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, everyone straight before him.”
The people in the city would have seen the Israelites marching around, would have heard the ram’s horn, the shofar, and would have thought that the attack was beginning. But the Israelites just went back to their camp.
And they do that for six days!
But on the seventh day, they don’t go back to camp after marching around Jericho. They don’t go back after marching the second time around, nor the third, fourth, fifth, or sixth. The Israelites obeyed God and, after the seventh time around, they shouted.
The strategy was that they had to obey all of the steps that God specified.
Mocking the moon god
Interestingly, part of the moon god ritual was that the people of Jericho went up to the citadel quietly for seven days. The Israelites marching around quietly was making a mockery of the moon god. Just as each of the plagues in Egypt had made a mockery of some specific god that the Egyptians had trusted in.
That’s part of why the Israelites had to do something that seemed silly to them.
Likewise, we have to be quiet and say, “Yes, God, I will do whatever you say, even if it doesn’t make sense to me. Because I know that you have a larger view.”
The people had to work together to organize and enact this whole parade. We need each other today, too. When we go up against a stronghold, such as pride, we need each other. We need to work together.
Great victories are often lost through the uncontrolled use of our tongues.
In every battle of life, to win great victories, overcome strong enemies, overthrow and conquer formidable strongholds, we must be obedient to divine instructions and also learn when to be silent, when to speak, and when to shout.
It’s always hardest before you get the victory.
Joshua 6:16–17 ESV:
16 And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout, for the LORD has given you the city. 17 And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the LORD for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent.
See also the teaching, A Life For a Life, in Part 1 of The Red Thread.
Joshua 6:18–19 ESV:
18 But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it. 19 But all silver and gold, and every vessel of bronze and iron, are holy to the Lord; they shall go into the treasury of the Lord.”
All of the battle of Jericho was to be devoted or dedicated to God.
Joshua 6:20 ESV:
So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city.
Archeologists dispute the story of Jericho. But the record in God’s Word is that the destruction of Jericho was complete and thorough, and it was never rebuilt. The modern city of Jericho is not in the same place as the ancient one.
When God told him to do something that seemed completely illogical as a battle strategy, he obeyed God to the letter, helped the people to work together, and they won the victory.
As we look to God with humility and obey his voice, we shall walk and live in great victory in our lives!
Scripture References
Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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