The story of the Battle of Jericho is one about many things but one of the most important ones is perseverence. You have to keep going even if you don't understand the way Yahweh is working. Yesterday we talked a little about how unexpectedly Yahweh acts and how we can never really predict the 'how' or 'when'. The 'why' of Jericho was a little easier to answer: the city was quite simply in the way and it couldn't be skirted. It had to be removed for the stability of the future nation and Israel did not have the natural means to remove it. It didn't have the siege tools and implements, and it didn't have an adequately trained military force. It was in every way a ramshackle, inexperienced army incapable of modern warfare against a highly trained and experienced foe.

Jericho has come to represent any obstacle that stands in our way of progress. And it's not merely a passive object like a mountain. Roads can be made to bypass mountains. No, Jericho was an active, potentially aggressive and lethal opposition, a mortal danger, even thouigh for the moment it was held in check by Israel's reputation. Unfortunately, the fear element generated by a reputation (the destruction of Pharaoh's Army in the Red Sea) doesn't last indefinitely, especially when the miraculous element starts dying down, as they did eventually. In any case, some things you can't just 'let live', like a life-threatening illness or a maniac stalker out to kill you, and there was no saying when the King of Jericho would get emboldened in the future. Thus potentially aggressive enemies have to be confronted and neutralised at some time, and better to do it sooner rather than later.

Not that Jericho was the only 'active-aggressive' obstacle, for in truth Israel faced many others in its conquest of the Promised Land, but it was perhaps the greatest and therefore required Someone greater than themselves to take care of it. Their fallibility was soon demonstrated in the Battle of Ai, news of which which would have been enough to build confidence in and aggressive alliances between Canaanite city-states. That is another reason why obedience to the mitzvot (commandments) is so important and why we cannot become flippant and careless. There are always enemies lurking, waiting for us to trip up. waiting for that spiritual door opened up by sin through which to rush and cause us havoc. And, yes, I have seen careless, cocky Christians beaten up by demons in deliverance ministry, let alone human beings no longer impressed by Yahweh's defenseless witnesses. It only took one man, Achan, to break the Israelite communal covenant by stealing Jerichoite booty under the divine ban for the catastrophe to happen at Ai. It certainly shook the Israelites up, who were starting to feel infallible and getting over-confident in themselves, forgetting Who was empowering them and on what conditions.

We're in the days of Israel's second great leader now. The leadership of Moses was characterised by numerous great miracles, the most spectacular of which was undoubtedly the parting of Yam Suf, the 'Red Sea'. Indeed, Joshua had just had his own little 'Red Sea' miracle to establish his reputation as the legitimate successor to Moses, and, like it or not, reputation does count in leadership, or what the Hebrews called having a shem tov or 'good name'.

Now the Jordan was smaller body of water to be sure, not at all as great as the Red Sea, yet the supernatural blocking of the Jordan River had nevertheless been no mean miracle either. Only two such miracles are known to have ever happened historically. Walking between two walls of water across the Red Sea must have been awe-inspiring enough but the water heaping up like a mountain but not spilling over on one side must have been amazing and frightening enough for the second generation who hadn't been at the Red Sea, except maybe as toddlers.

The first miracle was a 'prophetic job' with Moses parting the waters with his rod or staff; this time, though, it was the Priesthood's turn to stand in the breach, carrying our Joshua's orders, by planting themselves plumb in the middle of the dried river with the Ark of the Covenant, with the ever rising mountain of water behind them as they stood and watched the entire nation cross. This time the burden of emunah (faith) was shared by a representative sample of the whole ministry of men, including representatives from each of the 12 tribes, and not just one Moses-man. They had to stand there ther whole time, potentially in great danger, while the whole nation crossed. No 5-minutes stint here! That gives you a picture of the kind of faith required of ministers. You have to stand the whole course while the flock crosses whilst yourself wanting to make a dash, like the honourable captain staying with his sinkling ship until everyone has been transferred safetly to the lifeboats.

We need to remember that each year when we come to our Jericho assemblies. There was still a leader, a navi (prophet), in Joshua, as there had been in Moses, but in the second phase of spiritual maturation that burden of leadership had to be shared with men especially consecrated to the task.

It's no different today. Yahweh begins a new work often with a single man, and then calls others to rally around him. The burden for Moses had been especially heavy as he had to deal not only with murmuring, complaining and rebelling Israelites but even his right-hand men and women - his brother, the Cohen Gadol or High Priest Aaron and his sister the neviah or prophetess Miriam - over petty jealousies about leadership, and the navi's (prophet's) marriages. Moses being married to a black woman seemed to bother Miriam just as racism is a problem in our own day and has been in every age, though today it's white people who are being victimised and even murdered simply because of their skin colour. We had pretty much got racism licked a decade or two ago until a communist trouble-making American president, himself of mixed race, started stirring up social strife between the races.

But there's a second problem now, though it wasn't back then, except, apparently for Miriam: Moses had two wives, Zipporah the Midianite and Tharbis, daughter of the King of Ethiopia whom Moses married when he was a Prince of Egypt, also known in other accounts as Adoniah [1]. Today in our militantly feministic world the very thought of a navi (prophet) of Elohim (God) in the Body of Christ having more than one wife is enough to send modern Christians and Messianics into a meltdown. Yet if Isaiah 4:1 is to be fulfilled - and it must be fulfilled before a complete restoration of divine power takes place (the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day during the Second Exodus) - 21st century believers are not only going to have to get over racism and hostility to mixed marriages but their hostility to multiple marriage too because whether they like it or not, it will be one of the marks of the last generation Remnant.

You may think that Yahweh will skirt around these things but He won't, and I am here to tell you that, love me or hate me: the Remnant cannot have so much as a hint of racism in it or hostility toward Israelite multiple marriage if it is to fulfil its task. If either of these things offends you, as it did Aaron and Miriam, then you need to go back into the desert because you can't cross the 'Jordan Rivers', or be used in the leveling of any 'Jericho's', that lie ahead. In short, you can't be in the Remmant. It doesn't mean to say you have to 'have' an inter-racial or multiple marriage as Moses did but it does mean you have to bless those who do, accept divinely appointed leadership, and learn to get on with everyone who is in the mixed multi-ethnic company that is end-time Messianic Israel.

I meantion this simply because Yahweh cannot take a body of people to the 'next stage' or 'next level' until they are reconciled to scriptural truth principles along the way. If there is hostility to emet (truth), then there has to be a pause in the journey until hostility or objection to these truth principles are overcome, otherwise the camp must stay put exactly where it is. The company of Joshua was the second generation of Israel just as the generation coming after my own is the second generation of Remnant Messianic Israel, the generation that's going to greet Messiah in the air when He returns (1 Thes.4:17). The prejudiced, bossy Miriam and the carnal, weak Aaron have to first be subdued, though, and learn to do things Yahweh's way, or step down.

Much as we'd like to know about Mrs.Joshua, we're not told but we are told about his right-hand man - Caleb. And if Joshua was your equivalent of a 'white man' (in reality he probably had olive-coloured skin, like Caleb), Caleb was your equivalent of a 'black man', or the equivalent of Moses' black first wife, the princess from Meroë in Nubia, or modern-day Sudan. Caleb, the only faithful man with Joshua of the first generation, was an Edomite, the mortal enemies of Israel but a convert adopted into the Tribe of Judah. And as some of you know, I have been praying for the blessings of Caleb half my life!

Yahweh is no respector persons, He doesn't care about your skin colour, and He doesn't care whether you have one wife (like, presumably, Joshua, though who knows) or many (like Moses, and Jacob and Abraham before him). It has been the consistent policy of this ministry to stamp out racism and hostility to multiple marriage, as though of you who have followed our work in East Africa will know.

My point is this: there was an important immediate history before the Battle of Jericho, one that had to be completed before the Jericho Project could be undertaken. There are always 'little Jerichos' before you get to the main one, as Joshua did, before Yahweh intervenes big-time. And these 'little Jericho's' include conquering your prejudices as Miriam and Aaron had to. Fail to do that and you'll never witness a Jordan crossing, you'll never witness the tumbling down of Jericho's walls, and you'll never witness a conquest of any Promised Land. True, Israel failed to complete its last task (the complete conquest of Canaan), allowed herself to be tricked by Gibeonites, and failed to fully carry out prophetic instructions. King Saul was the same and tried to cut corners and disregard divine instructions.

But we aren't going through that again. This Final Gathering, the Second, Last and Final Exodus cannot, and will not, accept failure on the part of Israel this time. There is no postponing the Second Coming. This time you're either in or out, and no compromises. That's why only two souls - Joshua and Caleb, your metaphorical 'white man' and 'black man', of all those hundreds of thousands of souls, made it through into the Promised Land, and that's why Yah'shua (Jesus) taught that when He came back the second time, there would be precious little faith on the earth and it would be like the days of Noah all over again (Lk.18:8). So, once more, my friends, there will not be many overcomers when the Saviour returns but they will be united band, brothers and sisters firm and true like Joshua and Caleb, though in rather larger numbers this time round!

So if you have issues with divinely-appointed authority (whether in the home or in the Messianic Community), with race, or marriage as Miriam, Aaron, Korah and the other rebels did, don't even imagine you'll be crossing any 'Jordan' soon or marching around any 'Jericho' because you won't receive the most precious inheritance - you'll have to be content with the spiritual equivalent of an east-bank life, like Reuben, Gad and East Manasseh, the realm of the second resurrection for disobedient believers, because they, like the prodigal son, wanted an early inheritance and ended up being the first to be attacked by invaders and were frequently overcome. And if you're struggling with these three issues, then you can be pretty sure it's because you're struggling with other Gospel issues too. So there is work to be done! Get stuck into our website and join with us in our discussion groups online!

Have you even wondered why Israel had to march round Jericho six times before the final victory? Well, I could spend a whole day preaching about that one, but I am hoping most of you have already figured that one out. If you haven't, join me again tomorrow and the four days after that, as we see what it is Yahweh wants us to learn and do. For there are most certainly things to be done on the seventh day, as I was shown in a vision yesterday while preaching to you - then we can have a well-earned sabbath break on the 8th day of the month! Yahweh bless you all. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 2.10; also see Second Exodus Lineup: II. Moses and the Twelve Moses-Men & Second Exodus Lineup: IV. Yahweh's Exodus Women

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