The Walls of Jericho Fall Down, as the Army of the Lord Praises the Lord

One of the most eventful battles in the Old Testament was when the Israelites took on Jericho. An account of it is found in the Book of Joshua, Chapter 6. It begins thus: "Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in" (Josh. 6:1). The battle seemed impossible at first. The Army of the Lord was up against an impregnable wall. But then "the Lord said to Joshua, 'See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in'" (Josh. 6:2-5).

"So Joshua son of Nun called the priests and said to them, 'Take up the ark of the covenant of the Lord and have seven priests carry trumpets in front of it.' And he ordered the army, 'Advance! March around the city, with an armed guard going ahead of the ark of the Lord.' When Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets before the Lord went forward, blowing their trumpets, and the ark of the Lord’s covenant followed them. The armed guard marched ahead of the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard followed the ark. All this time the trumpets were sounding. But Joshua had commanded the army, 'Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout!' So he had the ark of the Lord carried around the city, circling it once. Then the army returned to camp and spent the night there" (Josh. 6:6-11).

There are some emotional situations that are so difficult that they demand our patience and our fortitude, and extraordinary sense of prayer. Once when Jesus' disciples asked him why they could not cast out an evil spirit they had encountered while on mission, he told them that some kinds of evil spirits were so strong that they could only be cast out through prayer and fasting (Mark 9:29). There are some kinds of negative emotions in our lives that are so ingrained, and so very serious, that the war against them cannot be anything other than formidable. Yet we cannot give up. We have to try. "Joshua got up early the next morning and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets went forward, marching before the ark of the Lord and blowing the trumpets. The armed men went ahead of them and the rear guard followed the ark of the Lord, while the trumpets kept sounding. So on the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp. They did this for six days. On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city!'

'The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into his treasury.' When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city. They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it - men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys" (Josh. 6:12-21).

 

So it was that, after seven days of fasting and prayer - a great deal of patience and extraordinary prayer - the Army of the Lord God took Jericho by storm and vanquished it. They completely sacrificed the city and everything in it, keeping nothing. Similarly, when we encounter very great negative emotions, we can vanquish them with patience and extraordinary prayer; negative emotions such as: chronic depression, melancholia, addiction and mania, and other kinds of neuroses - we can sacrifice and do away completely with them. Believe me, all the diagnoses that psychiatrists make every day about people - all of them can be dealt with via patient, extraordinary prayer. We will talk about this in subsequent posts. One more thing, before we wrap up this post: Rahab. We've mentioned her in passing in a previous post. She was a prostitute of Jericho that helped two Israelites that came to spy on the land before the battle itself, the one we've just seen. She knew the land was going to be destroyed, and she did not want to be destroyed along with it, and so she sheltered the spies and let them down the walls to escape. And the Israelites remembered her. They did not destroy her along with the city of Jericho. She eventually became an Israelite, and an ancestor of Jesus. Matthew's genealogy references her. Also recall, we have talked about the significance of her being an ancestor of Jesus' in a previous post. Recall as well in this regard what we said about the value of help and encouragement in our fight against negative emotions.

In sum, we have learned today that there are some deep, chronic emotional problems, such as depression, mania, anger, and other neuroses that are difficult to overcome. These ones can be overcome by patient insistence, and extraordinary prayer.