Bible Commentaries
Joshua 6

Verses 1-43

XXI

THE FALL OF JERICHO, AI, EBAL, AND GERIZIM

Joshua 6:1-10:43

This section commences with Joshua 6:1 and the first item of the discussion is the capture of Jericho. The method of the capture of Jericho was intensely spectacular. The dramatic feature of it was cumulative; it got more intense every day. We have only to read two or three verses to see just what was done, and such a thing as was never done before or since, but done in the taking of the city. No sword was unsheathed, no man struck a blow in the capture of that place. The priests with the jubilee trumpets, not the ordinary trumpets, led the procession, seven priests, seven trumpets, seven days round that city. They would blow and the people were silent, not a word in the ranks. Once a day for six days they marched all around the high walls of Jericho and on the seventh day they went round it seven times, and at the close of the seventh time the trumpets sounded and the people shouted and the walls of Jericho fell, and each one in his position in their circuit, marched over the fallen walls and captured the city. It was God’s work throughout. You will notice that this capture was discriminative; that place in the wall where the house of Rahab stood did not fall; every other place fell.

The next thought in the capture of this city is that it was devoted. Learn the meaning of that word "devoted." That means, when it applies to man, that death occurs; when it applies to materials as spoils, that it belongs to Jehovah. The Israelites had nothing to do with the capture of the city. It was entirely God’s. And the strongest prohibition was issued, that no man must rob God by appropriating to himself any part of the spoils which had been set apart for Jehovah’s own use.

Now, we come to another feature of the capture, and that is a curse was pronounced on any man that ever attempted to rebuild the walls of Jericho, not Jericho the city, for that still existed, but the fortified part of the city, where the arms were kept. It must never be rebuilt. Turn to 1 Kings 16:34, and read that verse: "In his days did Hiel the Bethelite build Jericho; he laid the foundation thereof with the loss of Abiram, his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof with the loss of his youngest son Segub, according to the word of Jehovah which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun." That is many hundred years after Joshua spoke that word, and there you come to a great text and a very appropriate one, if you are going to make a prohibition address. One of the great arguments for the continuance of the sale of ardent spirits in a city is that it promotes the interests of the city; that the grass would grow in the streets of a city if you did not allow it. The statement is erroneous, but if it were true, men ought not to lay the foundation of the city in the souls of men.

You will notice that the next says that Joshua, whom they had supported as leader in this, acquired great fame by the fall of Jericho throughout all the Promised Land; among the enemies the fame and dread of Joshua spread.

It is in connection with the capture of this city that we come across the sin of Achan, and that is the second thought for us to discuss. The text says, "Israel’s sin," and the context shows that on Israel fell the punishment The real sinner was one person, Achan. Now, the question comes up, With what propriety can the action of a man with which the others had nothing to do, be called the sin of Israel and the Israelites be punished for the sin? You recall a passage in Corinthians, recently studied, where Paul accuses the church of sin in that it had retained one man and covered up the sin of that man that took his father’s wife, and he went on to say that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. So when you look at the solidarity of the people, their unity, or the solidarity of the church, a sin committed by one member that passes unrebuked will become the sin of the entire organization, and the whole body must suffer the penalty for what one does, because they being many constitute one body.

That is why this is called Israel’s sin.

I ask you to notice again the cause of this sin; it was covetousness. He knew about the prohibition; that he didn’t capture Jericho but God captured it, and that its spoils were devoted by the word of God, but he saw some gold and a goodly Babylonish garment and he took them and hid them in his tent. The people knew nothing about this sin. So far as they were concerned, it was a covered sin, and it doesn’t keep a ship from sinking when a leak is there, be it unknown to the captain of the crew. So that a covered sin is even more dangerous than a sin that is in the open. A fire that is merely smouldering, sending forth no blaze and no smoke, is more dangerous than a fire that advertises itself with its illumination and its roar, because in that case you can hedge against its spreading, but if it is unseen it spreads beyond control.

We now come to the nature of his offence. It was not ordinary stealing. It was not ordinary dishonesty. It was that blasphemy which robs God. You will recall in the New Testament that when the church had just started on its progress and donations were being given, people would sell their land and come and say, "It is all the price of the land," Ananias and his wife conspired together to keep back a portion of the price and thus lied not to man, but unto God, and if that sin had not at the beginning been punished by instant death, the church never would have retained its power. Just as in this new nation coming among enemies with a world of conquest just ahead of them, their sole dependence was keeping in favor with God. Whoever then lost them the favor of God practically would bring about their destruction; therefore, it was not a case for mercy. Now, we find Israel paying the penalty of that sin. A detachment of men was sent out to Ai, their next stronghold, and to their own surprise they became panic stricken and fled and a number of them lost their lives. You can see the significance of their defeat. The enemy had been panic stricken and the only way to succeed was to keep up their prestige. This defeat took away from the enemy their fear of Israel, and unless that sin had been discovered and speedily punished, Israel would have been beaten back across the Jordan or enslaved in a very short time. But one of the most remarkable things in connection with the sin of Achan is God’s omniscient method of ascertaining and exposing it. Dr. Burleson preached all over Texas from this text. "Be sure your sin will find you out.". And a great sermon of Jonathan Edwards that spread over a quarter of the nation and resulted in the conversion of 250,000 people was from this text, "Their feet shall slide in due time." "Sinners in the hands of an angry God"; there is no escape from the omniscient eye of God. There is no getting away from his presence, there is no evasion of his omnipotence. A man who has committed a sin is like a horse staked out on the prairie; the stake rope may be long but yet it is not long enough to enable him to be free. He can go only to the end of his tether, and every time the horse walks around the stake pin, shortens his tether, and after a time it brings his nose right up to the stake pin. So is any sinner in the hands of God.

When God maketh an inquisition for sin, he remembers, he doesn’t forget, he knows where to go to look for it. It has chanced that three times I have preached from the text, "Be sure your sin will find you out," at ten years’ interval, and each time I preached some one came and made me a confession that I never told, but the confessions of the strangest and most awful sin, and one of them was a young preacher. I have never been so puzzled as I have been puzzled by these three confessions. In two of these cases I was able not only to suggest a remedy, but to put the remedy into effect. The third case was not in any power of mine. Now, God’s plan was this: The whole camp, 3,000,000 of them, were drawn up and they were ordered to march by Jehovah, that is, where his presence was, at the tabernacle, and God would say which tribe, and he took one of the twelve tribes, Judah, and they were required to march by again and God designated which clan of Judah (the Zarhites) held the criminal, and that clan was required to pass by and God designated the head of the family, and the family was required to pass by and God designated the man. It is a remarkable exhibition of sin by divine Providence. When exposed, Achan confessed his sin and the Israelites, by purging themselves, regained the power over their enemies which they had lost. Following this detection and punishment of Achan’s sin, Ai easily falls before Joshua, as our chapter tells us and I need not repeat.

Now, with the conquest of Ai the children of Israel were established in an exceedingly strong strategical position. They struck a country sideways, about the center; they camped in the mountainous part that held the open ways to the south, and the open ways to the north, and the open ways to the west. Therefore we have an account of the first league. The nations around saw that no one nation could stand before Israel, and that as Israel was coming against all of them, it behooved them to make a defensive league. All the Amorites who held mountain country entered into that league except one nation, the Gibeonites, who held four cities in the mountains and controlled certain mountain passes. These Gibeonites came before Joshua disguised in apparel and in every way, and they told Joshua that they had heard of him and of Israel and that they came in peace. Now, Israel was allowed to make a league with other nations than the Canaanites, the enemies that inhabited the territory of Israel, therefore it was necessary to make treaty with these people. The only error of which they were guilty was in not asking God before they made it. It was found out that the Gibeonites’ territory lay in that path just ahead of them, but the covenant had been made and it was agreed that their lives should be spared, but they should become hewers of wood and drawers of water for the Israelites. This gave Joshua control of the crest of the land.

This brings us to consider the binding power of a nation’s obligation to God. It is just as important as that of individuals. If the United States makes a treaty with another nation, the national honor is involved in due observance of that treaty. Therefore this treaty with the Gibeonites, having been made, had to stand. Later we will see that Saul violated that covenant and his sons were hanged to pay for the violation of the covenant that was made with the Gibeonites. There are some people who say that one generation cannot bind another generation. Mr. Jefferson, in his works, goes dangerously near if not altogether right up to the thought that involves the very destruction of the idea of national responsibility, viz.: that every generation should be bound only by the obligations that that generation assumed. That would not have worked and did not work in the Achan case, and no statesman ought to stand in office who advises the people to disregard a national obligation. We have to meet it; we have to pay it. Suppose England should repudiate its national debt because this generation did not contract that debt, she would destroy all modern civilization. If the British debt was repudiated, the foundation of both continents would be destroyed.

Now, having obtained this strategical position, we come to Ebal and Gerizim. They are the two mountains that face each other. In Deuteronomy Moses commanded that when they got over into the land they must place half of the people on Mount Ebal and half on Mount Gerizirn and the priests with the ark in between, and the law should be read. When you come to the curses, the six tribes on Mount Ebal shall cry out "Amen"; and when you come to the blessings the six tribes on Mount Gerizirn shall cry out "Amen"; and when you come to the end of the law, all of the twelve tribes shall cry out "Amen." It was a scene earth never witnessed before, mountaintop speaking to mountaintop. The voice of the people aligning themselves with the decrees of God and pronouncing themselves to be cursed if they disobeyed and to be blessed if they obeyed.

The next item in our history is that five mountain kings, Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem, and Hoham, king of Hebron, Piram, king of Jarmuth, and Japhia, king of Lachish, and Debir, king of Eglon, were to make war on the Gibeonites (Jebus means City of Judah, finally called Jerusalem), because they had practically surrendered to Joshua and it behooved these nations to stand together and to punish the traitor. This is what they thought. Notice that Adonizedek is king of Jerusalem, that her king is no longer Melchidedek. You will find in your Hurlbut’s Atlas many maps that show Jerusalem, and you will have to study about Jerusalem all through the Bible, and when you get up to heaven to the New Jerusalem, you will still study about it. This is the first time you come to it.

This brings us to the great decisive battle of Beth-horon. When the Gibeonites found themselves invaded by these five allied kings, they sent a rapid messenger to Joshua at Gilgal, after he had gotten through the Ebal and Gerizirn matter. It is a very urgent appeal, "Come quick!" And Joshua marches all night and makes a certain attack and that brings about the decisive battle of Beth-horon. There are three stages: The first stage, Joshua attacks and discomfits them; they begin to retreat and seem to be about to get away. That brings us to the second stage, when God intervenes with an electric storm, an awful storm of hailstones, and more of that allied army perish by hailstones than by the sword of Joshua’s people. Hailstones are very large sometimes. If you take your encyclopaedia, you will find that a hailstone once fell that passed through a battleship and sank it, and another hailstone fell on land that buried itself, that weighed several tons, being as big as a house. You remember the remarkable account of the plague in Egypt and its awful destructive power, and if you ever have a chance to go to see the moving picture show of the life of Moses, you will see that hailstorm just as vividly as if you were standing looking on it, and you will see it kill cattle and people. In the third stage of the battle, the allies had been defeated, then they had been discomfited by the hailstorm. Joshua saw that a great deal depended on keeping the ranks together and so with sublime audacity he said, "Stand still," to the sun, and "Thou moon," that is, let the day be prolonged, and the record says that the sun did stand still and the moon, and that the day was so prolonged that there was no day like it before in the history of the world and none after it An infidel once said to me, "Do you know what Joshua ought to have done? He ought to have said, ’Stand still, O earth.’ " I said, "You are very smart in your knowledge of science. You could not stop the earth if you don’t stop the sun." The earth is a satellite and the moon is a satellite, and the earth’s motion is of two kinds, centripetal and centrifugal, those forces combined make a circular motion that carries the earth around the sun. Just like a mechanic with a complicated piece of machinery in order to stop the outlying wheels, all he has to do is to stop the main wheel. If you want to talk about the language of science Joshua said exactly the right thing.

Now comes up the question about that miracle. It is perfectly foolish for people to waste time in the discussion of the credibility of miracles, the supernatural. All you have to do is just admit one thing – God. Now, if there be a God, he can just as well control that which is above nature as nature itself. According to Horace in his Art of Poetry, "Never introduce a god unless there is a necessity for a god." Well, it certainly was necessary. Upon that battle hinged all the southern part of the Promised Land. That battle would have been no more than a skirmish if these nations had gotten away and gotten into their walled cities. What was necessary was to have time, daylight enough to prosecute the work So the God that intervened at the passage of the Red Sea and at the Jordan, and in shaking down the walls of Jericho, intervened here. Now, it is the object of the miracle to accredit, to attest. Joshua needed to be accredited; there must be the most overwhelming evidence that he stood for God. If he stood in heat of battle and commanded the sun to stand still and the sun stood still, and the moon, and God heard him, then he stood accredited before the people, before the nations of the earth.

This brings us to the book called Jasher. What is the book of Jasher? "Is not this written in the book of Jasher?" Now notice the full quotation: "Is not this written in the book of Jasher? so the sun stood still in the midst of heaven and hasted not to go down about a whole day. And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man; for the Lord fought for Israel. And Joshua returned and all Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal." That last sentence is a part of the quotation, for Joshua had not returned yet, but after the event, it was written in the book of Jasher. That was the poem that was said to have been written in that book of Jasher. It was a book of poems that selected the great events in Jewish history. Twice it is referred to in the Old Testament. David’s song was written in it and this poem on the battle of Beth-horon was put in it.

Still going back to the battle, they pursued the enemy until the five kings took refuge in a cave and Joshua sealed the mouth of the cave with a stone and still pursued until the destruction of the enemy was complete, and the result of the battle was that while there were few enemies left in the city, he kept marching on, taking one town after another until we come to this description, that his conquest extended from Goshen to Gath; from Goshen to Kadesh, Negeb, Hebron, to the Dead Sea. Here comes up a question about Joshua, and some of these people that can believe half things, but are utterly at a loss to believe all things. Some believe that Goshen was not a border of Israel. We will take the definition of the Bible. Don’t look at your commentaries, look at the Bible. It shows that by this one battle Joshua captured all the country upon the Mediterranean coast to Gath and from Gath to Jerusalem, and from there to Hebron, and from there to the lower edge of the Dead Sea, and extending up on a line with Goshen. One battle practically gave him the whole of the south country. I will add this, that the five kings were executed and then hanged on a tree, for "cursed is every man that is hanged on a tree."

I have one other remark to make. Later on in the book and even in the book of Judges you will find references to the conquest of certain places in this southern country that only Joshua took, but when you look at the details it mentions the junior officers that took it. From instance, Kirby Smith attacked the Federal outposts on the Mississippi River near Vicksburg and all on one day, and yet it was General McCullough, one of his subordinate officers, that attacked one point, and General Young that attacked another point. Now, if I should see in the life of Kirby Smith that he accomplished all that, and later if I take up the life of General McCullough and find that he took certain points, I would know which one was there. I do know, for I was there in it. Now, just so with these later accounts that some people use to indicate that the book of Joshua was not written until after the book of Judges. There is no evidence to show that any of these events occurred after the book of Judges, but they are generally stated here, and later, in putting the events of Joshua’s life, they will be specifically considered as when we come to the tribe of Dan.

QUESTIONS

1. Describe the capture of Jericho.

2. What discrimination in this capture?

3. What is the meaning of "devoted," & what prohibition was issued?

4. What curse was pronounced on the rebuilder of Jericho, its fulfilment and a present day application of the text?

5. What exaltation of Joshua as the result, & the effect on his enemies?

6. Why called Israel’s sin and why Israel’s punishment? Give New Testament explanation.

7. What its cause?

8. Its nature?

9. Its effect?

10. Effect of social sin?

11. Its result?

12. Significance of defeat of Ai?

13. What its method of exposure?

14. Its confession and punishment? Give New Testament example.

15. What was the first league?

16. Give the case of the Gibeonites.

17. What of the covenant made with them and who violated it and the result?

18. What the application to modern nations?

19. What command did Moses give concerning this transaction?

20. Describe its fulfilment.

21. Describe the confederacy against the Gibeonites, and why its necessity?

22. Describe the great decisive battle that followed, giving its 3 stages.

23. What the book of Jasher? What other reference to it?

24. What the result of the campaign? Outline the South Country.