Outline // Sunday School #7: Joshua & The Battle of Jericho

March 28th, 2026

Recap

Last week Candace talked about Moses and how he was hidden in a basket to protect him from the orders of Pharaoh to kill all the male baby Hebrews.
How he was found by the daughter of Pharaoh and was adopted into the royal household.
Today we will be talking about Joshua and the Battle of Jericho. Now between Moses in the Basket and Joshua & Jericho there is a 120 year gap.
A lot can happen in 120 years and a lot did take place. So let's do a quick recap of the important events that lead us to this point.
Moses grew up in the royal house in Egypt, aware that he was Hebrew. And one day he saw an Egyptian slaver beating one of the Hebrew slaves and Moses murdered him.
Word gets around and Moses flees Egypt and settles in the land of Midian where he becomes a Shepherd.
Many years later God appears to Moses in the burning bush and tells him to go free his people from Egypt.
So Moses goes to Egypt tells Pharaoh to let my people go, Pharaoh is like no I'm good. So God’s like plagues it then.
And eventually Pharaoh lets them go after the death of his son and the Israelites leave Egypt. They cross the Red Sea and settle at Mount Sinai. Here God establishes his Covenant with the people of Israel; they build the tabernacle and the ark of the covenant God gives them the law and instruction on how he is to be worshiped.
A few years pass and God leads them to the edge of the promised land. Here God tells Moses to send 12 scouts to explore the land and return back with a report. One of these men from the tribe of Ephram was Hoshea or as Abraham referred to him, Joshua.
When the scouts returned only 2 of them gave a good report Caleb and Joshua. The rest of the 10 spread their negative reports to the people and the people plotted a rebellion to appoint a new leader to lead them back to Egypt.
And at this point Israel had broken Covenant with the Lord and God judged the people of Israel. He said to them none of that generation would step foot into the promised land except for Joshua and Caleb who gave good reports. He forced them to wander for 40 years in the wilderness until all that generation had died off. In that time Moses even sinned to where he wouldn't be able to enter the promised land.
Eventually that whole generation died and Joshua was appointed leader. And once that happened God was ready to lead his people to take the promised land of Cannan.
Joshua sent out two spies to scout the land and the city of Jericho. While inside Jericho the king caught word of the spies and a prostitute by the name of Rehab hid the spies for she had faith in God. And the spies promised to spare her life and the lives of her family for helping them.
The next day the Israelites set out and God stopped the waters of the Jordan river and the Israelites crossed the Jordan on dry land into the land of Cannan.
And that's where we pick up in Joshua chapter 5

Scripture

Joshua 5:1-11

God is preparing the way for his people. The fear of the Lord has swept over the land as word spreads of how the Israelite’s God stopped up the Jordan river and they crossed on dry land.
Rehab already confirmed that they heard about the crossing of the Red Sea and what God had done 40 years ago at this point but if they didn't believe it then now they are hearing what were probably eye witness accounts of the Jordan crossing all but confirming what they had heard and they were terrified. They had lost heart and were paralyzed.
Here God has Joshua circumcise all of the males of Israel. While they were camped on the plains of Jericho on the very doorstep of their enemies. Leaving them completely open to attack!
I don't know if you know much about circumcision but in a time before anesthetic, extremely painful. And takes weeks to recover. They were completely vulnerable.
But it's here that God reestablishes his covenant with his people in the land of promise.
The previous generation had broken covenant so completely with their God that they were kept from passing on the sign of the promise onto their children. They had also been kept from celebrating Passover.
This is the first Passover meal since their parents celebrated at Mount Sinai the second time after leaving Egypt 40 years ago. For many of them this was their first passover meal.
This brings to mind Psalms 23:5
- "You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings."
The takeaway here is the complete reconciliation that is taking place here between God and his people Israel. We see their faith and obedience in God on full display, a stark contrast from the previous generation.
And from here on out manna stopped appearing for the Israelites to eat. Yet another test of faith for them. Imagine having your food provided by God for basically your entire life then one day it stops showing up.
And even in the midst of that uncertainty we see no complaints against God or panic from the people. God reconciles his people.

Joshua 5:13-15 & Joshua 6:1-5

Here we see the introduction to an interesting character in the canon of scripture. A man identifying himself as the commander of the Lord’s army.
This is the only time a character identifying themselves as the commander of the lord army appears in scripture, so who is this commander? Well we get a pretty clear picture in the following verses.
First off we see Joshua fall on his face in reverence. And it's clear here that this is no mere angel. Angels in scripture refuse worship of man as seen in the book of revelation when John falls on his face in the presence of an angel. But this commander doesn’t refuse it. In fact he then tells Joshua to “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy”
If you’re familiar with the Old Testament up to this point that statement should be very familiar to you. This is what God told Moses when he approached the burning bush.
This is God himself standing before Joshua. Confirmed in verse 2 where this man is referred to as Lord.
This is called a Theophany. A visible manifestation of God to man. And beyond that to be more clear this is a Christophany, a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ.
We know from John 6:46 that no man has seen the father and from Colossians 1:15 that Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God.
So Joshua is visited by the pre-encarnate Christ and he asks him this question: “Are you friend or foe?” other translations closer to the original Hebrew word it like this: Are you for us or for our enemies. And he replies “Neither”.
What an interesting response.
Because you’d expect him to say friend right. I'm for you guys, the people of Israel.
But he doesn't, he doesn't take a side. Joshua was asking the wrong question. Now I don't think we can fault him for it. The text makes it clear he didn't realize he was talking to God in the moment but we all can learn something from this.
It’s easy to assume that God is on our side. What's hard is breaking down our motives and our desires to see if they are truly aligned with God’s will. We often assume we’re on the righteous side and the danger of this assumption is that all too often we aren't honest with ourselves about our true motivations.
We deceive ourselves; we do the right thing for the wrong reasons or the wrong thing for what we think are the right reasons. And we create a God in our head that’s made in our own image. A God that's on our side rather than submitting to the complete picture of God revealed to us in scripture.
The question isn't: Is God on my side? The question is: Am I on God’s side?
And when you ask yourself that question all of your motives become suspect. It's no longer about molding God into our image, it becomes about allowing ourselves to be molded into the image of God by the Holy Spirit.
And when we’re molded into the image of God, when we're living life in the spirit God will not deny what is of him.
The Commander of the Lord’s army then goes on to tell Joshua that the King of Jericho and all its warriors have been given to them. And then he tells them how they are to defeat them and it's rather unorthodox to say the least. But there is a reason for this and to understand it we need to look at a number that keeps showing up in these instructions. The number 7.
Numbers in scripture often carry meaning and 7 is one of the most common symbolic numbers used. The number 7 when used in scripture represents completion/perfection.
When scripture uses the number 7 its significance is simulator to how we use 100%.
We see they will march for 7 days, on the 7th day they are to march around the city 7 times, there will be 7 priests with 7 trumpets. So what's the message God is getting across here?
God is enacting a complete judgment on the city of Jericho, the Canaanite people and he is reserving everything for himself. This victory will be for the glory of God and God alone. And we see this in the instructions that will be given in the verses to come.
Later Joshua commands that everything in the city has been set aside for destruction as an offering for the Lord. All the men, women, children, and animals none are to be spared. And this is a special case in the battles Joshua takes part in.
In no other battle that Joshua engages in does God command such a complete destruction. Sometimes women and children are to be spared, other times animals are spared but no other time in the time of Joshua does God command such a complete destruction of a city. This is a complete destruction of the people of Jericho 100%.
And this bothers some people. Our modern sensibilities take issue with the wrath of God. We need to understand that Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John is not the complete revelation of who God is. It is further revelation completely understood only in the context of what has already been revealed. To understand God and his nature you have to take the whole of scripture into account.
The bible says that God is long-suffering. Not eternally-suffering. And when God’s suffering of the sins of mankind has reached its limit, who can hold back the righteous wrath of God?
But I want to stress the LONG in long-suffering. Do you know why the Hebrews had to spend 400 years in slavery to Egypt? There’s actually a number of reasons but one of the reasons God gives Abram in Genesis 15:16.
- "After four generations your descendants will return here to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction."
God refused to allow his people to enter the land of Canaan because entering the land would mean the destruction of a people whose sins had not yet warranted their destruction.
God was so merciful to an unrighteous people that he allowed for the subjugation of his own people for 400 years to allow time for the Amorites to turn from their sins or embrace them to a point that warranted judgment.
The citizens of Jericho were Amorites. At this point in Joshua it's been closer to 450 years, and they have remained unrepentant and their sins now warrant their destruction.
Are any of us willing to wait that long allowing evil before we’d like to see justice enacted? Go watch the news for 5 minutes and examine your own thoughts and desire for justice in your hearts. We can barely suffer a day, a week until we are calling for judgment on the guilty. The long-suffering of God stretches generations.
Will the clay call into question the judgements of the potter as if it were not part of his character? Think on that.
Israel is also not permitted to take plunder in this battle, another oddity. All they are allowed to take is the silver, gold, bronze, and iron which is set apart as sacred to the Lord and is brought into the Lord’s treasury. The Israelites aren't allowed to keep anything for themselves.
The unorthodox battle plans are also an oddity. After the Battle of Jericho all other battles Joshua leads will be won involving orthodox strategies of war.
This is not the Israelites' battle, it's God’s. And God is not sharing any of the glory, it is all dedicated completely to himself.
On top of all of that this is also a completion of the covenant promise of God to bring the people into the promised land.
The usage of the number 7 here is layered. I doubt I covered everything God was communicating but these are at least some of the things God was getting across.

Joshua 6:6-27

So the Israelites marched around Jericho for 7 days just as the Commander of the Lord’s army instructed. Then on the 7th day after the 7th time around the city Joshua commands the army to shout!
And here we see yet again the faith of this generation of Israel. Imagine being them. Joshua was the one who saw and received instructions from the Commander. The rest of Israel all they had to go on was the word of Joshua. How ridiculous would this sound being one of the troops? We march for a week and the walls will fall down… Rightttt.
But in this moment after marching daily for a week they’re commanded to shout as if victory has been assured. As if they’ve already won.
Hebrews 11:30 says this:
- "It was by faith that the people of Israel marched around Jericho for seven days, and the walls came crashing down."
Israel’s army wasn't merely obedient when commanded to shout. They shouted with expectation. And faith brought those walls down and brought victory.
Faith allows us to take part in God’s victories.
This was true for Israel and it was also true for Rahab. We talked about her briefly earlier but her and her entire family were the only ones in the city to survive. She was a prostitute and an Amorite but because of her faith she was spared and welcomed into the nation of Israel. And she also took part in God’s victories, Rahab is the 30th great grandmother of Jesus.
This is the story of Joshua and the Battle of Jericho and above all it is a story of faith. And what God is able to do through a people who trust in him.

Posted in Sermon Notes