The Fall of Jericho (No. 142)

There are many messages that develop and drive home the story of the millennial restoration. There are many parts of the Bible which relate to that story. It is appropriate that we start with the establishment of Israel. The Book of Joshua - Chapter 1, verse 1 is concerned with the occupation of Israel. Joshua son of Nun means salvation is born through endurance. Joshua (or Yehoshua) was the name of the Christ. There are parallels with the book of Revelation and with Joshua, and the fall of Jericho. There are spiritual lessons in the text, and there is an indication of what is going to happen in the last days, derived directly from the book of Joshua and the fall of Jericho. A lot of those things are not fully understood. The lessons have not been fully extrapolated and, hopefully, in this commentary, which it is more properly termed, we can draw the lessons out, and get some insight into how the Lord is going to establish the restoration of the last days, or at least some aspects of it. We start in Joshua 1:1.

Joshua 1:1 After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, (RSV)

We have two concepts there. Moses died as a servant of the Lord. Christ died as the son of the Lord. So we had two developments, the status of the son being greater than that of the servant. Joshua was Moses’ minister.

Joshua 1:2-3 "Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land which I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. ³ Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, as I promised to Moses. (RSV)

This is after the mourning for thirty days. They mourned for Moses thirty days, as we understand previously, from the Pentateuch. Moses was not allowed to go into the Promised Land. His system stopped short of the Promised Land and his successor took Israel on into the next phase. That is symbolic of Messiah and the system of the Holy Spirit taking Israel on to another phase.

Joshua 1:4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphra'tes, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. (RSV)

It is not just current day Israel at which we are looking. The land that has been given to Israel extends right up to the Euphrates, right across to the west sea, and down to Egypt.

Joshua 1:5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. (RSV)

This is a promise God made to Joshua. The sequence is that the commanders of Israel are given that promise, and while they walk with the Lord, the Lord will not forsake them or leave them, and Israel will stand. No nation will be able to come against it, while it obeys the laws of God. That is God’s promise and the way it is. When we fall from the laws of God, nations are allowed to entrain upon us.

Joshua 1:6-7 Be strong and of good courage; for you shall cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. ⁷ Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you; turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. (RSV)

There is the nexus. Keep the law and we will be successful. If we don’t keep the law, we will fail. All of that is found in Deuteronomy 28, the blessings and the curses. The understanding of the blessings and the curses is important. Bible study on Deuteronomy 28 is critical (see the The Blessings and the Curses (No. 75)). All those promises are made so that the nation is made the head and not the tail. The nation will be a net lender and not a net borrower. If we don’t keep the law, we will be put under the nations, and we will become a net borrower, which is exactly what is happening to our people. America is the biggest debtor nation the world has ever seen. Australia emerged from the Second World War with a surplus. We paid our way, we fought all over the planet, and we came out of the war paying all our debts, and we had a surplus. The Americans managed to go from the Second World War, through to today, through the Cold War, and emerge as the biggest debtor nation the world has ever seen. There is a lesson in that. They think they are righteous, and they are not righteous. The curses against Manasseh are great. There are all sorts of things that will happen to Manasseh and Ephraim, as we will see from this story today.

Joshua 1:8-9 This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success.⁹ Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; be not frightened, neither be dismayed; for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." (RSV)

Be strong and of good courage is repeated a second time in only a few verses. The promises are that one will put a thousand to flight, if we keep the law. If we don’t keep the law, one of them will put a thousand of us to flight. That is the sort of promise made to people as a nation. The elect exist within the nations, and our job is to pray and strengthen those people, but the people themselves will succeed when they fear the law. We have got down to the point where none of those things will happen to us again until the restoration follows from our purification by fire.

Joshua 1:10-15 Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, ¹¹ "Pass through the camp, and command the people, `Prepare your provisions; for within three days you are to pass over this Jordan, to go in to take possession of the land which the LORD your God gives you to possess.'" ¹² And to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manas'seh Joshua said, ¹³ "Remember the word which Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, saying, `The LORD your God is providing you a place of rest, and will give you this land.' ¹⁴ Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle shall remain in the land which Moses gave you beyond the Jordan; but all the men of valor among you shall pass over armed before your brethren and shall help them, ¹⁵ until the LORD gives rest to your brethren as well as to you, and they also take possession of the land which the LORD your God is giving them; then you shall return to the land of your possession, and shall possess it, the land which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you beyond the Jordan toward the sunrise." (RSV)

This concept is one where Israel is not the entire inheritance of the nation of Israel. The land east of the Jordan is also part of the inheritance of Israel. That point is never understood. When we go back into the millennial system, we will have lands outside of Israel given as the inheritance, and the tribes of Manasseh and Reuben and Gad, specifically, (and also Dan and Ephraim) will own lands east of Israel. That is important, and they will be given their rest, before the rest for the remainder of Israel. Their position is established prior to the full establishment of Israel under Messiah. This securing of the outer tribes occurs before, but the restoration follows the salvation of Judah (Zech. 12:1ff.). That is significant. That means there are things that will happen prior to the coming of the Messiah, which commences the establishment of the Kingdom. One can only speculate on the movements of the tribes and the allocations of the inheritance. The significance is, there were three tribes given inheritance east of Israel, and they sent, not everyone, but only their armed men, in to establish the Kingdom. In other words, we are the armed men of Messiah. We will go back to Israel, and there are people of us who will go into Jerusalem, but some of our inheritance will be left to our wives and children. In the spiritual sense, the descendants will be left to take up part of their inheritance, which is outside of Israel. That is very important. It is a speculative prospect; as to the extent of lands, nobody knows. There is, however, a promise given.

Joshua 1:16-18 And they answered Joshua, "All that you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. ¹⁷ Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you; only may the LORD your God be with you, as he was with Moses! 18 Whoever rebels against your commandment and disobeys your words, whatever you command him, shall be put to death. Only be strong and of good courage." (RSV)

Obedience to the national leader was paramount. Be strong and of good courage is mentioned for the third time.

Joshua 2:1And Joshua the son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, "Go, view the land, especially Jericho." And they went, and came into the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab, and lodged there. (RSV)

Why especially Jericho? Because that is where the system was going to be dealt with. Jericho, as we are now becoming aware, had occupation before the biblical account of the Adamic creation. It has had continuous occupation from 7000 BCE at least. That doesn’t square with the genealogies and the lineages in the Bible. That means there was another creation in occupation in Jericho (perhaps up until the flood). The name of Jericho means Moon City, and that appears to be significant also. The moon was a male figure in the Middle East in the Arabic system. The sun was a female system, and the attributes of the satanic system were applied to the moon, not to the sun. Baal worship is one later aspect, but within this system, the moon also, was centre of worship (cf. the paper The Resurrection of the Dead (No. 143)).

The Jews will go to great lengths to tell us that Rahab was not actually a harlot. The fact of the matter is that Rahab was a harlot. The reason they go to pains to point out the fact that Rahab was not a harlot, was because the entire kingship of Israel is dependent upon the descendants of Rahab, and Christ is a direct lineal descendant of Rahab. So therefore the Messiah is a direct lineal descendant of a harlot, who is not an Israelite. Now, that is significant (see also the paper Genealogy of the Messiah (No. 119)).

The real problem was that Temple prostitution in those days was normal within their society. Every female did her term of service at the Temple in worship of the gods – the mother goddess system of Asteroth or Astarte or Easter had an entire structure of temple prostitutes and that went right through until the time of Christ at least. In Corinth at the time of the Church in one Temple alone there were 1,000 prostitutes enrolled in the Temple of Artemis. So everyone had been involved in it and people were being called out from this system into the Church.

Rahab was to point towards the salvation of the gentiles and the salvation of people who had been involved in bringing them in out of sin and bringing them into Israel baptised and cleansed. Rahab was the ancestor of Jesus Christ and King David. By her lineage we were being shown that from the start salvation was extended to the gentiles. Also, forgiveness was extended through the Holy Spirit.

Joshua 2:2And it was told the king of Jericho, "Behold, certain men of Israel have come here tonight to search out the land." (RSV)

This concept of sending out two men relates to the witnesses, and it relates to the whole concept of the Messianic church system. We are sent out two by two to deal with areas and cities, to spy them out. We are there to use the weak, or those people who are given salvation. Rahab was given the opportunity to become a member of Israel and be saved under the system, and we will see how and why. Once we understand what is happening with Rahab we understand the Passover and salvation is of the gentiles.

Judah could have understood salvation from the gentiles with nothing else after the book of Deuteronomy, except the book of Joshua. If they only had the book of Joshua they could understand that salvation was going to be extended to the gentiles and they could have understood how it was going to happen.

Joshua 2:3-5 Then the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying, "Bring forth the men that have come to you, who entered your house; for they have come to search out all the land." ⁴ But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them; and she said, "True, men came to me, but I did not know where they came from; ⁵ and when the gate was to be closed, at dark, the men went out; where the men went I do not know; pursue them quickly, for you will overtake them." (RSV)

This woman was prepared to hide the servants of the living God, and she was prepared to face the wrath of her own lord, her own feudal liege, to protect the servants of God. That is a requirement of us. We are required to extend help to those people who provide assistance to us. We are required to extend salvation, and extend life through understanding.

Joshua 2:6-7 But she had brought them up to the roof, and hid them with the stalks of flax which she had laid in order on the roof. ⁷ So the men pursued after them on the way to the Jordan as far as the fords; and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut. (RSV)

It is a normal feudal system; a normal city system; where they shut the gates and bolt them at night for fear of attack. That was the defence in those days.

Joshua 2:8-10 Before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof, ⁹ and said to the men, "I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. ¹⁰For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites that were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. (RSV)

They were commanded to utterly destroy Sihon and Og, and the people in the plain (the people associated with the Nephilim). See the paper The Nephilim (No. 154)).

Joshua 2:11-14 And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no courage left in any man, because of you; for the LORD your God is he who is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. ¹²Now then, swear to me by the LORD that as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father's house, and give me a sure sign,¹³ and save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death." ¹⁴ And the men said to her, "Our life for yours! If you do not tell this business of ours, then we will deal kindly and faithfully with you when the LORD gives us the land." (RSV)

Rahab recognised that their God was God. We first have to understand the One True God in order to go into Israel and to become one of the elect. Rahab took that first step through an understanding of the One True God. She then was able to deal with the witnesses, protect them and know that what she was doing had a higher purpose and that she would be protected because she was dealing with the servants of the living God. Rahab was given understanding through the Holy Spirit, that Israel was to take over the land, and she asked that they enter into a covenant. That covenant is extended in us to the Gentiles.

The division is found in the parables of the sheep and goats in Matthew. The parable of the sheep and goats deals with those who deal kindly with the elect. They will be put on the right hand side of the Lord and rewarded, and those who do not deal kindly with the elect will be put on the left, and destroyed as goats. That parable is not to the church, it is a parable to the nations, so that the nations understand that they are judged by the way they treat us.

Joshua 2:15-19 Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the city wall, so that she dwelt in the wall. ¹⁶ And she said to them, "Go into the hills, lest the pursuers meet you; and hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers have returned; then afterward you may go your way." ¹⁷ The men said to her, "We will be guiltless with respect to this oath of yours which you have made us swear. ¹⁸ Behold, when we come into the land, you shall bind this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down; and you shall gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers, and all your father's household.¹⁹ If any one goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be upon his head, and we shall be guiltless; but if a hand is laid upon any one who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head. (RSV)

The marking of Rahab is a parallel of the Passover system. The scarlet cords were placed as signs on the windows, in the same way the Paschal blood was smeared on the doors.

This marking was a sign that a covenant had been entered into for the nation of Israel with a Gentile person, or that this house was included within the nation of Israel and the same application was that they were to remain within their doors as with the Passover. They were not to go out of their doors. If they went out of their doors, the blood was on their head as it was in the streets of Egypt when the death angel went over Israel. That is what the significance of the scarlet ribbons on the windows of Rahab’s house is all about. It shows, thereby, that salvation was granted to the Gentiles. That is the first indication, that the nations of the Gentiles will be awarded families who will be brought into Israel and protected under the blood of the old covenant and the necessary saving grace of Christ in the new covenant.

Joshua 2:20-21 But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be guiltless with respect to your oath which you have made us swear." ²¹ And she said, "According to your words, so be it." Then she sent them away, and they departed; and she bound the scarlet cord in the window. (RSV)

They were required to keep faith. It wasn’t a matter of giving lip service, and then changing their allegiance. She was required to keep faith to retain the covenant. The sentence means we are required to keep faith to remain in spiritual Israel and we are required to keep the covenant. When we don’t keep the covenant, the covenant is broken with us.

Joshua 2:22-23 They departed, and went into the hills, and remained there three days, until the pursuers returned; for the pursuers had made search all along the way and found nothing. ²³ Then the two men came down again from the hills, and passed over and came to Joshua the son of Nun; and they told him all that had befallen them. (RSV)

The three days in the hills in hiding is also of significance. It applies to the concepts of the first warnings. The three days refer to the concept of the harvests of Israel and Judah when in the third day our salvation is raised up (Hos. 6:1-2). It applies also to the times of the witnesses laying in the streets, and then the activities that go from that.

Joshua 2:24 And they said to Joshua, "Truly the LORD has given all the land into our hands; and moreover all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of us."

Joshua 3:1-4 Early in the morning Joshua rose and set out from Shittim, with all the people of Israel; and they came to the Jordan, and lodged there before they passed over. ² At the end of three days the officers went through the camp ³ and commanded the people, "When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God being carried by the Levitical priests, then you shall set out from your place and follow it, ⁴ that you may know the way you shall go, for you have not passed this way before. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, a distance of about two thousand cubits; do not come near it." (RSV)

We are dealing with a concept that the ark, which was in fact the power of God, would go forward to subdue the land, and that was the power of Israel. The three days represent the three years, which saw the purification of Israel in the last days. After the three years God raised up the salvation of Israel through His system, symbolised by the ark of the covenant. The distance is seen as a Sabbath-day’s journey. The Shekinah will show the way in the last days.

Joshua 3:5-13 And Joshua said to the people, "Sanctify yourselves; for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you." ⁶ And Joshua said to the priests, "Take up the ark of the covenant, and pass on before the people." And they took up the ark of the covenant, and went before the people.⁷ And the LORD said to Joshua, "This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. ⁸And you shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, `When you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.'" ⁹ And Joshua said to the people of Israel, "Come hither, and hear the words of the LORD your God." ¹⁰ And Joshua said, "Hereby you shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Per'izzites, the Gir'gashites, the Amorites, and the Jeb'usites. ¹¹ Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is to pass over before you into the Jordan. ¹²Now therefore take twelve men from the tribes of Israel, from each tribe a man. ¹³ And when the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be stopped from flowing, and the waters coming down from above shall stand in one heap." (RSV)

This is the second miracle of the crossing of waters, in order to take up the Promised Land. We went out of Egypt, through the Red Sea under Messiah, which was the concept of going through waters under divine protection into the wilderness, which symbolised the first advent of Messiah, and the establishment of the church in the wilderness for two thousand years. They went into the wilderness for forty years, which was symbolic of forty Jubilees, making up the two thousand years of the last days. The next phase was that they crossed the Jordan, going through water, which was then separated as a second sign from the subordinate to Moses, who took over the powers of Moses. So, there is a second Messianic advent. This is again symbolised by the actions of Elijah and Elisha separating the waters of the Jordan (2Kgs. 2:8,14).

Joshua 3:14-15 So, when the people set out from their tents, to pass over the Jordan with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, ¹⁵ and when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the brink of the water (the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest), (RSV)

It wasn’t just a trickle. In the time of harvest, the Jordan is in flood. That is why it was necessary for Joshua to be able to push the Jordan up in one heap, to get Israel to walk across. The harvest of the Church is done when the Jordan is in flood; in other words under adversity and tribulation (Jer. 12:5; Rev. 12:15-16). This is the understanding behind the saying If you cannot walk with men in peace how can you run with horses when the Jordan is in flood; in other words, during the wars of the harvest of the Day of the Lord (Jer. 12:5 KJV).

Joshua 3:16-17 the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap far off, at Adam, the city that is beside Zar'ethan, and those flowing down toward the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were wholly cut off; and the people passed over opposite Jericho. ¹⁷ And while all Israel were passing over on dry ground, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan. (RSV)

It is the responsibility of the priesthood to protect the nation in the occupation of the Promised Land. They had a specific function to get people into Israel. In other words, their care was necessary to prepare the nation to take up its inheritance. The elect can’t take up their inheritance unless there is somebody teaching them how to take up that inheritance. One has to know how the will has been made out, and we have to know how to go and claim. We have to know where to go. We have to be prepared for it, and we have to reach a certain age of maturity in which we can exercise judgment. Those are the laws of our people. One can’t give people an inheritance if they are under age. They have to be put in trust until such time as they can exercise their inheritance properly. It is the responsibility of the priesthood to prepare the people to take up their inheritance. That is the symbolism of why it was dependent upon the priesthood standing in the Jordan to bring them across in safety.

Joshua 4:1-8 When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, ² "Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man, ³and command them, `Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests' feet stood, and carry them over with you, and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.'" ⁴ Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe; ⁵and Joshua said to them, "Pass on before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel,⁶ that this may be a sign among you, when your children ask in time to come, `What do those stones mean to you?' ⁷ Then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial for ever." ⁸ And the men of Israel did as Joshua commanded, and took up twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, as the LORD told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to the place where they lodged, and laid them down there. (RSV)

That is what happens in terms of the stones being taken up out of the tribes of Israel to judge the Israelites. The twelve stones taken up became the apostles, and they became the judges of Israel. They were foreshadowed in the book of Judges, by the judges who reigned or ruled Israel. There were twelve judges, and twelve apostles, and both of those numbers total twenty-four, which constitute the number of the elders with Christ around the Throne of God (see Revelation chapters 4 and 5).

Joshua 4:9 And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the covenant had stood; and they are there to this day. (RSV)

There were twelve stones put in the Jordan, and there were twelve stones set up as an altar. There is significance in that event. The twelve stones that were put in the Jordan act as a boundary marker in the going across and they appear to relate to the twelve stars of the fallen Host (from the DSS and other Judaic writings). There is an application to the concept of the council of the elders, and the number of the elders who defected. They appear to be put there to show that the twelve who defected would not enter the Kingdom in the restoration.

Joshua 4:10 For the priests who bore the ark stood in the midst of the Jordan, until everything was finished that the LORD commanded Joshua to tell the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. The people passed over in haste; (RSV)

The nation passed over while the priests did their job, and they held the waters back. That is the significance. The priest cannot fail, or the nation is cut off in their movement into the Promised Land. If the priests fail, the weak will fail in getting their inheritance. That is why the priesthood are removed in the last days and replaced (see the paper Measuring the Temple (No. 137)).

Joshua 4:11-24and when all the people had finished passing over, the ark of the LORD and the priests passed over before the people. ¹² The sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manas'seh passed over armed before the people of Israel, as Moses had bidden them; ¹³about forty thousand ready armed for war passed over before the LORD for battle, to the plains of Jericho. ¹⁴On that day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; and they stood in awe of him, as they had stood in awe of Moses, all the days of his life. ¹⁵ And the LORD said to Joshua, ¹⁶ "Command the priests who bear the ark of the testimony to come up out of the Jordan." ¹⁷ Joshua therefore commanded the priests, "Come up out of the Jordan." ¹⁸ And when the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the LORD came up from the midst of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests' feet were lifted up on dry ground, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and overflowed all its banks, as before. ¹⁹ The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they encamped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. ²⁰And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal. ²¹ And he said to the people of Israel, "When your children ask their fathers in time to come, `What do these stones mean?' ²² then you shall let your children know, `Israel passed over this Jordan on dry ground.' ²³For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, ²⁴ so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty; that you may fear the LORD your God for ever." (RSV)

That compounded the miracle of the crossing. The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and they encamped in Gilgal on the east border of Jericho. The tenth day of the first month is, as we know, for the setting aside of the Passover Lamb. The tenth day of the first month has a spiritual significance. That was the date when Messiah entered Jerusalem to be slaughtered. The twelve stones which they took out of the Jordan, Joshua set up in Gilgal.

Joshua 5:1 When all the kings of the Amorites that were beyond the Jordan to the west, and all the kings of the Canaanites that were by the sea, heard that the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan for the people of Israel until they had crossed over, their heart melted, and there was no longer any spirit in them, because of the people of Israel. (RSV)

This will happen in the last days. There will be young men like lions in Israel, throughout the nations.

Joshua 5:2-8 At that time the LORD said to Joshua, "Make flint knives and circumcise the people of Israel again the second time." ³ So Joshua made flint knives, and circumcised the people of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth. ⁴And 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 on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt. ⁵ Though all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people that were born on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt had not been circumcised.⁶ For the people of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the nation, the men of war that came forth out of Egypt, perished, because they did not hearken to the voice of the LORD; to them the LORD swore that he would not let them see the land which the LORD had sworn to their fathers to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. ⁷ So it was their children, whom he raised up in their stead, that Joshua circumcised; for they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way. ⁸ When the circumcising of all the nation was done, they remained in their places in the camp till they were healed. (RSV)

There will be a restoration of circumcision in the last days. The flint with which Joshua circumcised Israel was symbolic of God who is the flint that circumcises the hearts of Israel. It is a concept that the people of Israel in the wilderness will be given spiritual circumcision and be prepared to take up their inheritance. All of Israel will be given understanding. We are a minority called out into a large nation. The nation does not understand anything. They can’t help it. It is not a matter of saying “we are better than they are”, and we have heard that sort of sentiment in the past. They are our people and God loves them just as much as He loves us, but He has chosen to put us here to do a job, to prepare us and polish us up. That nation will all be circumcised when they go into Israel; every one of them. Those who are not prepared will simply die.

Joshua 5:9And the LORD said to Joshua, "This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you." And so the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day. (RSV)

Gilgal means to roll away; a rolling. So the Lord used the concept of roll away the reproach of Egypt. The reproach of this age of the forty Jubilees of two thousand years of the horrors that have gone on will be rolled away from our people. Joshua the Messiah rolled away the sins of the world.

Joshua 5:10-12 While the people of Israel were encamped in Gilgal they kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month at evening in the plains of Jericho. ¹¹ And on the morrow after the passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. ¹²And the manna ceased on the morrow, when they ate of the produce of the land; and the people of Israel had manna no more, but ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. (RSV)

That was the first time they ate of the fruit, as they had eaten manna up until that time. They were fed by the Lord on sustenance and kept going until they were ready to take up their inheritance. We will be fed by the Lord over the two thousand years. Each one of us is fed and looked after, and we give ourselves to the Lord. We will not want. Our bread and water will be sure. Everyone will be taken care of and we will be dealt with. We will not be given luxuries because we are not rulers in this planet. We will be; and this whole structure is dealt with in that way so that we are prepared. When we take up our inheritance, and we go in, we will then eat of the fruit, and the whole of the nation will eat of the fruit of the millennial system. They do not yet eat. The world in general does not eat of the fruit of Messiah, and of the holy Promised Land, (the millennial restoration) our inheritance, until we get in to the millennial system.

Joshua 5:13-15 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood 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?" ¹⁴And he said, "No; but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come." And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and worshiped, and said to him, "What does my lord bid his servant?" ¹⁵ And the commander of the LORD's army said to Joshua, "Put off your shoes from your feet; for the place where you stand is holy." And Joshua did so. (RSV)

One has to give Joshua his due. He was brave. One would imagine that this chap would have looked fairly formidable. This commander, this captain of the army of the Lord, was Jesus Christ. Joshua knew who it was and fell straight down. This entity said exactly the same thing as the Angel of the Covenant had said to Moses. He was the same entity, the same individual. He bore the presence of God, and when we are in his presence, we are in the presence of God by delegation.

Joshua 6:1-5 Now Jericho was shut up from within and from without because of the people of Israel; none went out, and none came in. ²And the LORD said to Joshua, "See, I have given into your hand Jericho, with its king and mighty men of valor.³You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days. ⁴ And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark; and on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, the priests blowing the trumpets. ⁵ And when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, as soon as 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 every man straight before him." (RSV)

These circumambulations of Jericho represent the seven seals and the seven trumpets and the seven vials of the wrath of God of the revelation of the last days. Each one goes around in a sequence, and in the last day there are seven of them. At the end of that the great shout of the archangel, which we hear for the taking over of the world shatters the walls of the city of the world’s systems. It brings down the fortresses of Satan. That is the symbolism of Jericho. It relates directly to the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven vials of the wrath of God.

Joshua 6:6-7 So Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, "Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the LORD." ⁷And he said to the people, "Go forward; march around the city, and let the armed men pass on before the ark of the LORD." (RSV)

The seven priests, bearing seven trumpets of ram’s horns represent the seven angels who are given the seven trumpets to blow. They are also seven angels of the seven churches of the world’s systems. The seven angels develop the seven churches over the two thousand years, in order to prepare us to take over the system at the end. All of the people of the Lord are brought out under the angels of the seven churches. Also there are seven shepherds and eight principal (or princes of) men raised up to do this job (Mic. 5:5). This sequence occurs with the Messianic process as Micah 5:1-4 talks about the Messiah and goes on to the millennial peace from 5:5 ff. This peace follows the war of the Assyrians. In other words, it refers to the northern powers and the Babylonian systems of the last days. Here we see the young lions of Jacob among the nations. The false systems of Jacob will be destroyed, as are those of the nations (Mic. 5:9-14).

Joshua 6:8-9 And as Joshua had commanded the people, the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams' horns before the LORD went forward, blowing the trumpets, with the ark of the covenant of the LORD following them. ⁹ And the armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard came after the ark, while the trumpets blew continually. (RSV)

What is in the Ark of the Covenant? Originally, there were a number of things in it including the tablets of the law, Aaron’s rod and the manna.

In the last mentioning of the Ark of the Covenant there were only the tablets of the law. At this stage, there was the remembrance of what we had. There was the authority of the priesthood and the manna with which we were fed in the wilderness, and then with that were the tablets of the law. Those things went before as a sign that the Lord was with us and a sign that we were followers of the law. The reason the Ark of the Covenant went before was because we followed the law of God. That is the whole symbolism. Every man in Israel walked one foot after the other behind the law. That is why it was done that way. It was done to show us, and every other member of Israel, that their entire march in the wilderness was to be behind the laws of God, and we forgot that. We try to rewrite the law.

Joshua 6:10 But Joshua commanded the people, "You shall not shout or let your voice be heard, neither shall any word go out of your mouth, until the day I bid you shout; then you shall shout." (RSV)

In other words, the mysteries of God were concealed and issued under direction until the day the mysteries should be revealed and shouted out. That is why the world has not understood. Because these things were held under command and order that, in the last days, the mysteries of God should be revealed (as the first angel’s message). We are the stewards of the mysteries of God (see the paper The Mysteries of God (No. 131)).

Joshua 6:11-14 So he caused the ark of the LORD to compass the city, going about it once; and they came into the camp, and spent the night in the camp. ¹² Then Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the LORD. ¹³And the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the LORD passed on, blowing the trumpets continually; and the armed men went before them, and the rear guard came after the ark of the LORD, while the trumpets blew continually. ¹⁴ And the second day they marched around the city once, and returned into the camp. So they did for six days. (RSV)

When they go into the Promised Land, they are behind the Ark. Now there is a change in the order of march for battle. They have an advance guard and a rear guard and the Ark is protected. There is a symbolic change from following the Ark of the Covenant into the Promised Land behind the law of God, to standing before and behind in advance and rear guards of the law, as guardians of the law. When they start the system after the first phase, they become guardians of the law of God. Under the first seal, false religions were established. It was necessary from then on that the law was guarded by the elect, so their order of march was altered and the law could not be removed from the concepts of the Church and the nation.

Joshua 6:15-17 On the seventh day they rose early at the dawn of day, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times: it was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. 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. ¹⁷And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the LORD for destruction; only Rahab the harlot and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers that we sent. (RSV)

This is the seven trumpets and then the shout. The seventh trumpet is the destruction under the vials of the wrath of God.

Joshua 6:18-19 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 vessels of bronze and iron, are sacred to the LORD; they shall go into the treasury of the LORD." (RSV)

There is a specific instruction here. Everything about that system was to be destroyed except for the artefacts that were of value, which were taken and provided into the Temple of the Lord under a theocratic system so that it would be used in the service of God and would not be allowed to pollute the people. That is the same system that will happen in the Millennium. The metals and things that are used for weapons will be used for good. When we go into the battles of Armageddon we will find that a lot of the artefacts and the weaponry will be collected and used, providing resources for Israel in the establishment of the Millennium.

Joshua 6:20-21 So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people raised 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 took the city. ²¹ Then they utterly destroyed all in the city, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and asses, with the edge of the sword. (RSV)

It is not a pretty sight, but that’s what happens. This world’s system is going to be destroyed, and only those people who can be utilised to develop a new system will be kept alive.

Joshua 6:22 And Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, "Go into the harlot's house, and bring out from it the woman, and all who belong to her, as you swore to her." (RSV)

When we say the wall fell down, Rahab’s house was in the wall. There must have been divine protection on Rahab, to hold her house intact, so that even though the wall of Jericho fell down her house was miraculously preserved. That was indication of the miraculous preservation of the Gentiles who were nominated to come into the inheritance of Israel under divine protection; that was a miracle. It shows that Rahab’s place of safety was in the wall that was actually falling down around her, because the hand of the Lord was on Rahab. The concept of a place of safety is wherever the Lord puts His hand on us. We will see thousands drop by our right and left hand. We will see them drop dead of pestilence and disease. We will see them die of chemical weapons and warfare, and we will stay alive. That is the power of God, and if we don’t understand that we have no faith. If we think we need to be raptured off to a place of safety, our faith is weak and that is the problem with people who are tied to organised businesses. God puts His hand on us and we will eat and we will drink (our bread and water is sure; Isa. 33:16), until we are taken to Messiah, when he puts his feet on the Mount of Olives, and of that we can be sure (cf. the paper The Place of Safety (No. 194)).

Joshua 6:23-27 So the young men who had been spies went in, and brought out Rahab, and her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her; and they brought all her kindred, and set them outside the camp of Israel. ²⁴ And they burned the city with fire, and all within it; only the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD. ²⁵ But Rahab the harlot, and her father's household, and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive; and she dwelt in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. ²⁶ Joshua laid an oath upon them at that time, saying, "Cursed before the LORD be the man that rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho. At the cost of his first-born shall he lay its foundation, and at the cost of his youngest son shall he set up its gates." ²⁷So the LORD was with Joshua; and his fame was in all the land. (RSV)

Jericho has been rebuilt. From the beginning of the people who set up Jericho, they will have strife and destruction to their youngest sons, and that is why there is no peace in Jericho. There will be no peace in Jericho until Messiah comes, and these people will die. The peace treaty centred on that city is doomed to failure.

Joshua 7:1 But the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things; for Achan the son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things; and the anger of the LORD burned against the people of Israel. (RSV)

This is symbolic of the problems that came into the law through Judah. Judah perverted the law and, to this day, the law is not kept in Judah because they perverted the law. The inheritance was taken away from Judah, and the wrath of God was placed on Israel because of Judah.

Joshua 7:2 Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-a'ven, east of Bethel, and said to them, "Go up and spy out the land." And the men went up and spied out Ai. (RSV)

They then commenced the destruction and the pacification (as the Americans used to call it in Vietnam) of the rest of the nations. That is what happens: we go in and establish a foothold and then go on dealing with nation after nation. The millennial restoration of this planet is done on a systematic basis. There is a period of mourning. There is a period of occupation, and the occupation is then done systematically to deal with the nations. They are all systematically brought down in that wrath of God to be dealt with and destroyed as a group under the seven vials of the wrath of God, and the seventh trumpet, which is symbolised around Jericho. The systematic pacification of the planet is then completed so that the millennial system can be set up, and we can occupy the world in peace for the thousand years.

In this short Bible study of Jericho we gain an understanding of how Israel knew from the book of Joshua what the book of Revelation was going to say. Everything in the Bible is interlinked. The fact that the Jews do not have the New Testament does not excuse them, as we see from the study on the book of Esther. Judah has Joshua and they have Esther and the Song of Songs and they know what the end result is. One does not need the New Testament to find out what is going to happen in the last days. One can tell everything in the New Testament from Scripture, which is the Old Testament. The Old Testament will tell us the beginning from the end as Christ declared it under the direction of God through the prophets.

Through Joshua, we are able to gain an enlarged view of what actually was going on when we took hold of Israel in the first instance.

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