The Permanent Ruins of a Condemned World Text: Joshua 6:26-27
Introduction: The Theology of Rubble
We live in a sentimental age. We want a God who is always nice, never severe. We want a gospel that is all cushion and no backbone. But the God of the Bible is not a celestial guidance counselor; He is the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth. His holiness is an all-consuming fire, and His judgments are as real and as solid as the stones that made up the walls of Jericho before He brought them down.
The story of Jericho is one of the first stories we teach our children in Sunday School. We sing the song, "Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, and the walls came a-tumblin' down." And that is good and right. It is a story of magnificent faith and miraculous victory. But we often stop the story there. We pack up the flannelgraph figures before we get to the hard parts, the parts that make our modern sensibilities uncomfortable. After the walls fall, the city is devoted to the Lord, which is the biblical way of saying it was utterly destroyed as a holy sacrifice to God. And after the smoke has cleared and the dust has settled, Joshua does something extraordinary. He pronounces a solemn, prophetic curse over the ruins.
This is not the action of a bloodthirsty general getting carried away. This is the act of a covenant administrator, laying down a permanent boundary marker on behalf of the living God. This curse is a theological statement written in the language of rubble. It teaches us something permanent about the nature of God's victory, the nature of rebellion, and the nature of the world that stands in opposition to Him. God does not just knock things down for the sake of knocking them down. He clears ground. He demolishes condemned structures to make way for His holy habitation. And He posts warnings on the ruins, telling all who come after: "Do not rebuild here. This ground is mine."
We must understand this. The world is full of spiritual Jerichos, proud cities of man built in defiance of God. And when God, in His grace, brings those walls crashing down in our lives or in our cultures, He posts a warning. This passage is that warning. It is a warning against spiritual nostalgia for a condemned way of life. It is a warning against trying to rebuild what God Himself has demolished.
The Text
Then Joshua made them swear an oath at that time, saying, "Cursed before Yahweh is the man who rises up and builds this city Jericho; with the loss of his firstborn he shall lay its foundation, and with the loss of his youngest son he shall set up its gates." So Yahweh was with Joshua, and the report about him was in all the land.
(Joshua 6:26-27 LSB)
A Covenantal Warning Sign (v. 26)
We begin with the curse itself, which Joshua administers as a solemn oath.
"Then Joshua made them swear an oath at that time, saying, 'Cursed before Yahweh is the man who rises up and builds this city Jericho; with the loss of his firstborn he shall lay its foundation, and with the loss of his youngest son he shall set up its gates.'" (Joshua 6:26 LSB)
First, notice the authority. This is not Joshua's personal vendetta. The curse is "before Yahweh." Joshua is speaking on God's behalf, as His covenant representative. Jericho was the firstfruits of the conquest, and as such, it was devoted entirely to God under the laws of cherem, or "the ban." Everything in it was to be offered up to God, either by destruction or by being placed in the treasury. The city itself was a monument to God's judgment on the Canaanites, whose iniquity was now full (Gen. 15:16). To rebuild Jericho would be an act of profound sacrilege. It would be an attempt to reclaim for human glory what God had claimed for His holy judgment. It would be like trying to un-sacrifice a sacrifice.
The curse is a public declaration of this reality. It is a perpetual "No Trespassing" sign erected by God Himself. This is not an arbitrary prohibition. Jericho stood as a symbol of Canaanite pride, idolatry, and military might. To rebuild it would be to signal a desire to return to those very things. It would be a denial of the sufficiency of God's protection and a return to trusting in high walls and human strength.
Now, look at the specific terms of the curse. The man who rebuilds it "with the loss of his firstborn he shall lay its foundation, and with the loss of his youngest son he shall set up its gates." This is not a coincidence. This is the language of covenantal precision. The firstborn represents the beginning of a man's strength and his future. The youngest represents the completion of his family, the end of the line. The curse means that the act of rebuilding this condemned city will cost the rebuilder his entire future. The project will be bookended by death. From start to finish, from foundation to gates, the cost will be total. It is a perfect, symmetrical, architectural judgment. You want to build a city? The price of the foundation stone will be your first son. The price of setting the gates will be your last.
And we should not treat this as a mere rhetorical flourish. The Word of God is not filled with empty threats. Hundreds of years later, during the wicked reign of King Ahab, a man decided to test this curse. We read in 1 Kings, "In his days Hiel the Bethelite built Jericho; he laid its foundation with the loss of Abiram his firstborn, and set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son Segub, according to the word of Yahweh, which He spoke by the hand of Joshua the son of Nun" (1 Kings 16:34). God's Word does not expire. God says what He means, and He means what He says. Hiel's folly and his sons' funerals are a permanent testament to the fact that God's warnings are lethally serious.
The Source of True Fame (v. 27)
In stark contrast to the curse on the man who would defy God stands the blessing on the man who obeyed Him.
"So Yahweh was with Joshua, and the report about him was in all the land." (Joshua 6:27 LSB)
Here is the great antithesis. The one who rebuilds the city of man will lose his name and his posterity. The one who tears down the city of man at God's command has God with him, and his name is established. The verse begins with "So." This is a direct consequence of the preceding events. Because Joshua was faithful in obeying God's strange commands for the battle, and because he was faithful in administering God's covenant curse over the ruins, Yahweh was with him.
This is the secret to all spiritual success. It is not strategy. It is not charisma. It is not skill. It is the presence of God. "Yahweh was with Joshua." This is the same commendation given to Joseph, to David, and it is the ultimate promise of the New Covenant in Christ, who is Immanuel, God with us.
And what is the result of God's presence with Joshua? "The report about him was in all the land." This was not self-generated PR. Joshua's fame was the fame of God's mighty acts. The reports that went out were not about a clever general who had figured out a new siege tactic. The reports were about a man who served a God who could flatten walls with a shout. The fear that fell on the inhabitants of Canaan was not fear of Joshua's army, but fear of Joshua's God. His fame was a terrifying gospel proclamation to the pagans: Yahweh is here, and He is taking back His land.
This is the pattern for all Christian ministry. Our goal is not to make a name for ourselves, but to have the report of what God is doing through us spread abroad. When God is with His people, the world takes notice. They may not like the report, but they cannot ignore it.
Rebuilding Spiritual Ruins
As with all of Scripture, this is not just a historical account. It is written for our instruction. Jericho is a type, a picture of the proud, fortified city of man. It is the world system, with its foundations of rebellion and its gates of defiance against the living God. It is every institution, every philosophy, every habit of heart that says, "We will not have this man to reign over us."
And the central message of the gospel is that the true and greater Joshua, Jesus Christ, has conquered that city. By His death and resurrection, He has marched around the ultimate Jericho, and its walls have come crashing down. He has "disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him" (Col. 2:15). The world system has been placed under the ban. It is a condemned ruin.
And so the curse of Joshua echoes down to us today. "Cursed be the man who rises up and rebuilds this city." What does it mean for us to rebuild Jericho? It means trying to reconstruct our lives on the condemned foundations of the world. It means that after Christ has graciously demolished some proud sin in your life, you get nostalgic for the rubble and try to put the stones back together. It is the recovering alcoholic who thinks he can now handle "just one." It is the man freed from pornography who thinks he can flirt with sensual images. It is the church that, having been freed from legalism, decides to rebuild a new city of man called licentiousness.
To rebuild Jericho is to find your security, your identity, or your pleasure in the things that God has judged at the cross. And the warning is stark: it will cost you your future. It will cost you your firstborn and your youngest. It will devour your legacy. You cannot build a lasting, godly heritage on condemned ground. Trying to integrate the world's wisdom, the world's priorities, and the world's pleasures into the Christian life is Hiel's folly all over again. You will bury your children.
The alternative is to be like Joshua. The alternative is to live in the light of God's victory and to have God with you. The true blessing is not found in building our own little kingdoms from the rubble of the world, but in walking with the King. And when we do that, when we live as citizens of the New Jerusalem and treat the old Jericho as the ruin it is, a report goes out. The report is that our God reigns. The report is that Jesus is Lord. That is the only fame that matters.