Reading: Joshua 5-8, Psalm 66
Some stories have a tendency to stick with us. Joshua and the battle of Jericho, where the walls came tumbling down, is one of those Bible stories that almost everyone seems to know, but which gets very rarely gets told with all it’s surrounding circumstances intact. Once we see what all those surrounding circumstances were, it will be easy to see why. A story where walls collapse and everyone gets to shout is a lot easier to teach kids than one about circumcision, public stoning, and spending all day listening to Joshua read a book.
The story today opens with the people of Israel on the plains near Jericho. They have begun to live off the land, and the manna stops. They have already spied out Jericho and know it’s people are terrified of them. One would think they would be in a hurry to start taking over this promised land. But God has some other plans. First, he has Joshua circumcise all the men. Ok, ouch, but why here and now? Apparently, the people had not been keeping the Abrahamic practice during the wandering years in the wilderness. Not ideal, because now they are all going to sit in the open disabled for a few days. Remember what happened to Shechem back in Genesis 34? It’s not a good condition for fighting a war. Second, they celebrate the Passover.
Let’s think about this for a minute. Israel crosses the Jordan, and all the surrounding people are terrified. Rather than capitalize on their advantage, God has Israel disable themselves by national circumcision, then has them take a week off to celebrate the Passover. This give the surrounding cities the time to prepare for battle. One might also ask if it makes them think Israel might be a band of lunatics, but the reality is Canaanite religious practices involved a lot of things we would see as nonsense, so probably not.
Anyway, after all this delay, Joshua goes out to look at Jericho, and he meets someone. Who was this? He calls himself the “Commander of the armies of Yahweh,” and seems generally angelic. But there is something in our story that raises the bar on who this character is. First, he is on nobody’s side but his own. Joshua’s question is binary- are you for us or our enemies? The answer ignores the question- he says No. Joshua falls down and worships this guy, and the guy doesn’t stop him. One of the consistent responses of angels to worship is to deny it and point to God. What does this guy do? He tells Joshua to take his sandals off, because he is on holy ground. This commander of the armies of Yahweh is answerable to no one, accepts worship, and makes the land holy. In the next scene, Joshua is receiving commands from Yahweh directly. The enigmatic character of the man with the drawn sword is not mentioned again. At least not for a long time.
Okay, so Joshua gets his marching orders at last. And that is what they are: marching orders. No battle plan or strategy. Just march around the city a bunch of times following the ark of the covenant. We know the story: Jericho gets six days of this, and on the seventh the people march around seven times, shout really loud, and the walls of Jericho collapse, allowing Israel to charge in and totally destroy the city, with the exception of Rahab and her family. Once they are done, Joshua pronounces a curse over the ruins. Not much “battle” in this story. More a miracle followed by a slaughter.
Immediately following the “battle” of Jericho is the battle of Ai. This much smaller city routes the Israelite army in their first actual battle in the land. Joshua, to his great credit, realizes this isn’t a question of strategy or numbers, and asks God what is up. God reveals someone disobeyed and took plunder from Jericho. There is an involved scene of determining who the guilty party is, and Achan confesses to succumbing to greed and taking loot from Jericho. He and everything he has are stoned to death and then burned up. A little harsh? Not really in the context of covenant breaking. Achan didn’t just steal something from a neighbor- there is a law covering that. He stole from a city devoted to God. The treasure of Jericho was declared to belong to God, so he was effectively stealing from the tabernacle. Achan also by his actions is held responsible for the thirty six men who died in the first battle with Ai. Israel’s response is in line with the law: purge the evil from among you. As a recipient of the covenant, Achan is subject to judgment for his crime. Joshua does exactly the right thing here, though to our eyes it appears harsh. To do less would be disobedient. Once the sin of Achan is revealed and judgment meted out, Israel goes out and destroys Ai under God’s direction. They basically lay a trap and use the overconfidence of the king of Ai to outmaneuver them.
After the battles of Jericho and Ai, Joshua gathers the people together and reads them the entire Law of Moses. Yep, Genesis through Deuteronomy. Probably took a while.
So the story we’ve heard today begins with a renewing of the covenant sign of Abraham and ends with a reminder of the covenant with Moses. In between we have the appearance of a man who behaves a lot like God, two battles that are defined by obedience and disobedience rather than methods of warfare, and an episode of Israel carrying out judgment on themselves. I said yesterday that the book of Joshua is an application of the books of Moses, and that is exactly what we see here. God is reconfirming his covenants, the people either obey or disobey, and the covenant blessings and curses are being carried out. This is the story of Israel. From this point on the story will repeat these events, with more and less obedience at different times. It would be a pretty depressing story, were it not for that enigmatic figure carrying a sword who is answerable to no one but himself. He will continue to show up as well, in types and foreshadowing, throughout the story.