The Liturgy of Conquest Text: Joshua 6:1-5
Introduction: God's Foolish War Plan
We have come to one of the most famous stories in the Bible, and for that very reason, one of the most misunderstood. The fall of Jericho is a story that every Sunday School child knows, but it is also a story that every modern, sophisticated pagan despises. To them, it is a story of primitive, bloodthirsty conquest, a clear example of why the God of the Old Testament is a moral monster. But to the saints, this is a story about the central business of our faith. It is a story about how God wages war, and how His people are called to participate in that war.
We must begin by dispensing with the sentimentalism. The conquest of Canaan was not an ethnic squabble. It was a direct, judicial act of God. Centuries before this, God had told Abraham that his descendants would not yet possess the land because "the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full" (Gen. 15:16). God, in His immense patience, gave the Canaanites four hundred years to repent. But they did not repent. Their culture had descended into a cesspool of idolatry, child sacrifice, and sexual debauchery. Jericho was not an innocent city. It was a festering sore on God's earth, and the time for the divine surgery had come. Israel was not the aggressor; Israel was the scalpel in the hand of the Divine Surgeon.
But the central lesson here is not about God's judgment, as important as that is. The central lesson is about the nature of spiritual warfare. The world thinks that power is found in bigger armies, sharper swords, and cleverer strategies. The world trusts in the arm of the flesh. But God determined to teach His people, at the very outset of their conquest, that this is not how His kingdom advances. He was going to give them their first and most fortified city in a way that would make it utterly impossible for them to take any of the credit. He was going to give them a victory, not through military might, but through a liturgical procession. The conquest of Jericho was an act of worship. And we must learn this lesson today, because the church is constantly tempted to adopt the world's methods for fighting the world's battles. We are tempted to trust in political maneuvering, marketing schemes, and worldly power. But God's methods have not changed. Our weapons are not carnal, but they are mighty to the pulling down of strongholds.
The Text
Now Jericho was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel; no one went out, and no one came in. And Yahweh said to Joshua, "See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and the valiant warriors. And you shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once. You shall do so for six days. Also seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark; then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. And it will be that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down beneath itself, and the people will go up every man straight ahead."
(Joshua 6:1-5 LSB)
The Impotent Fortress (v. 1)
We begin with the situation on the ground.
"Now Jericho was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel; no one went out, and no one came in." (Joshua 6:1)
Jericho is presented as the epitome of human self-security. It was a formidable fortress, with massive walls. And now, it is on lockdown. "Tightly shut" is the language of fear. The fame of Israel's God had preceded them. Rahab had already confessed that "the terror of you has fallen on us" (Joshua 2:9). The miraculous crossing of the Jordan at flood stage, a direct echo of the Red Sea crossing, had confirmed their worst fears. So they bolted the gates. They trusted in their stone and mortar.
This is a perfect picture of the world in its rebellion against God. Every Christ-less system, every secular ideology, every pagan stronghold is a Jericho. It is "tightly shut." It allows no one to go out to the truth, and it allows no one to come in with the truth. It is a closed system, proud in its self-sufficiency, defiant in its posture, and terrified on the inside. It presents a hard exterior, but it is rotting from within with fear. The men of Jericho thought their walls could protect them from the Israelites, but their real problem was that their walls could not protect them from the God of Israel. You cannot build a wall high enough to keep out the sovereign decree of Almighty God.
The Sovereign Declaration (v. 2)
Before any instruction is given, God declares the victory as an accomplished fact.
"And Yahweh said to Joshua, 'See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and the valiant warriors.'" (Joshua 6:2 LSB)
Notice the verb tense. It is past tense. "I have given." From God's perspective, the battle is already over. The outcome is not in doubt. Joshua is standing outside a city with its walls still very much erect, and God tells him the deed is done. This is the logic of faith. Faith is not a blind leap into the dark; it is standing on the sure Word of God who declares the end from the beginning. God was not asking Joshua to win a victory. He was asking Joshua to go and collect a victory that had already been won and handed to him.
This is foundational for all Christian living. In Christ, God has already given us the victory. We are seated with Christ in the heavenly places (Eph. 2:6). We are more than conquerors (Rom. 8:37). The fight we are in is not a fight to achieve victory, but a fight that proceeds from a victory already secured at the cross and the empty tomb. Our task is to believe God's declaration and to act on it. God says "See," and our job is to look with the eyes of faith and see that the city, its king, and all its might are already ours.
The Ridiculous Command (v. 3-4)
Now we come to the battle plan. And if you were a military consultant, this is where you would tender your resignation.
"And you shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once. You shall do so for six days. Also seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark; then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets." (Joshua 6:3-4 LSB)
This is not a military strategy. This is a parade. This is a liturgical act. Imagine the scene. The mighty men of war are to function, not as soldiers, but as silent escorts in a worship procession. The central focus is not the army, but the ark of the covenant, the visible throne of the invisible God. And leading the ark are not generals, but priests. And their weapons are not siege engines, but shofars, trumpets made of rams' horns.
Everything about this is designed to strip Israel of its pride. There is no room for human glory here. What military genius would come up with a plan to walk around a city for a week? The men on the walls of Jericho must have gone from terror to confusion, and then to open mockery. This is precisely the point. God's wisdom looks like foolishness to the world (1 Cor. 1:25). God chooses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. He was teaching Israel, and us, that the central weapon in our warfare is the public, faithful, obedient worship of the living God. When the church gathers, when the Word is preached, when the sacraments are administered, we are not hiding from the world. We are marching around Jericho. We are laying siege to the strongholds of unbelief through acts of worship.
The numbers here are dripping with covenantal significance. Seven priests, seven trumpets, seven days, seven times on the seventh day. The number seven in Scripture is the number of perfection, of covenantal completion. This was a perfectly executed act of covenant warfare. This was God completing His judgment against the Canaanites and fulfilling His promise to His people.
The Shout of Faith (v. 5)
The whole week of silent marching culminates in a single, decisive moment.
"And it will be that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down beneath itself, and the people will go up every man straight ahead." (Joshua 6:5 LSB)
After six days of silent obedience, the trumpets sound a long blast, and the people are commanded to shout. This is not the shout of an army trying to scare its foe. This is not a psychological tactic. This is the shout of faith. It is the Amen to God's promise. For six days they had acted on the promise, and now they were to give voice to it. They were shouting because the walls were coming down, not to make them come down. They were shouting because they believed the word God had spoken in verse 2: "I have given you the city."
And the result is supernatural. The wall will "fall down beneath itself." The Hebrew is literally "fall down in its place." It doesn't get pushed over. It collapses into a heap, creating a ramp for the Israelites to go up "every man straight ahead." This was a divinely-ordered, animated earthquake, as I have said before. God did it. He did it all. All Israel did was believe and obey. They walked, they blew, and they shouted. God flattened the city.
Our Jericho March
The writer to the Hebrews tells us plainly how we are to understand this. "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days" (Heb. 11:30). The instrument that brought the walls down was faith. And faith is simply taking God at His word and acting accordingly, no matter how foolish it looks to the world.
We are in a long war, and we are surrounded by fortresses of unbelief that mock God and His people. The academy, the media, the halls of government, they are all tightly shut. And we are tempted to despair, or we are tempted to fight them with their own carnal weapons of power, manipulation, and rage.
But God is calling us to the Jericho march. He is calling us to the steady, patient, faithful, and public worship of the Triune God. He is calling us to circle the strongholds of our age with the ark of Christ's presence at the center of our lives. He is calling us to blow the trumpet of the gospel, proclaiming that Jesus is Lord and that He has already won the victory. We are to preach the Word, baptize the nations, and feast at His Table. We are to do this day after day, week after week, with quiet and confident obedience.
This looks foolish. It looks weak. The world mocks it. But this is God's war plan. And at the appointed time, when the long blast of the trumpet sounds at the end of the age, and the great shout of the redeemed goes up, every wall raised up in defiance of Christ will crumble to dust. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty through God for the pulling down of strongholds. Therefore, let us walk by faith, and not by sight.