Has it ever struck any of you as being interesting that in the entire account of the conquest of Canaan only three places are named? First, and most important, which is what this seven-day observance is all about, was Jericho. Of all the cities conquered, it was a special case. Why? Because it was also an offering to Yahweh, a bikkurim or 'firstfruits' of the conquest, and the firstfruits of everything belongs to Him by way of an advance 'thank you' for everything He is about to do, both the things promised and the things we yet know nothing about. The offering of bikkurim is therefore an expression of the core principle of all relationship-building, namely, faith or emunah. It is, you will immediately notice, a practical or proactive 'faith' as it requires you do something concrete in the physical as a full and complete expression of that faith.

Two other places are mentioned in the Conquest, Ai and Hazor, and they, like Jericho, were also sacked. A reason, I suggest, that only these three are mentioned...and I do believe there are other reasons too...is because they alone were sacked - totally destroyed, burned, obliterated, because the purpose of the invasion wasn't only destruction but was, rather, primarily about possession. For atheists and unbelievers in general this is a sore point of contention and an excuse for rejecting the Bible and God, and we'll talk about that later. Of course, sceptics don't believe this was an historical event at all, but made up after the event as part of the myth-construction process. However, the archaeological record does not support that contention at all. Interestingly, I think, the archaeological record bears out the biblical witness that aside from Jericho, Ai and Hazor, the destruction to property was minimal, as we'd expect of a replacement population taking over the pre-existing infrastructure. The invasion was no 'scorched earth', no 'hit-and-run' affair.

If there was minimal destruction, as the Book of Joshua says, then we should not expect to find much archaeological evidence of this war. Yahweh was, after all, uniquely, at the head of this particular army, and no one knew better than Joshua after his experience recorded in chapter 5 of his book from the 13th verse onwards when the Malak (Angel) of Yahweh's Presence appeared to him and accepted his worship. Not only Joshua knew this, but Israel knew it, and Israel's enemies knew it too. Had your modern sceptic been there, he or she would have known it too, as the Ark of the Covenant and of Elohim's Presence (the pre-incarnate Yah'shua/Jesus) led the forces in their divinely choreographed daily marches. The enemies knew it so well that they locked themselves in the city and quaked in their boots (Josh.2:10-11; 5:1). And in the days ahead, as Judgment gets underway, and as extraordinary miracles do too, 21st century man isn't going to be in any doubt either that a Supernatural Being is orchestrating their judgment. The first of many such evidences will begin in three days' time. As miracles multiply, more will see and more will know until, at the Second Coming, whe whole planet will see the returning, conquering Messiah coming in the clouds - this time bearing a sword and not an olive branch - and be in not the slightest doubt that He is real and all-powerful. There will be no atheists or agnostics any longer, but by then it will be too late for any of them to exercise faith and receive a full salvation.

You might not think destruction is a good thing, and as a rule, of course, it isn't, but sometimes it can be. Yesterday evening my computer screen died and I was slightly grumpy as it was my main work VDU which which I prepare my sermons and articles. I disconnected it and placed it ready for scrapping. I knew I had some old secondhand screens but they were none of them as wide and were untested. I picked one out, connected it, and the quality was so good and so much better than the dead one, that I quite literally squealed with delight. It makes preparing sermons like this one so much more pleasurable. I mention that by way of illustration because whilst the destruction of Jericho was terrible for the Jerichoites, it was a blessing for Israel and, ultimately, for the rest of the world. We wouldn't otherwise be here. Had the Canaanites been receptive like our heroine Rahab, whom we talked about yesterday, then something akin to what happened to Nineveh in the days of Jonah would have been possible. But there was no chance for these particular Canaanites being let off the hook like those Assyrians because they were so utterly steeped in wickedness that they had crossed that final, fatal line beyond which Yahweh's grace - His undeserved loving-kindness, His unmerited favour - cannot reach.

Now it is not for you or I to pronounce an extermination order on anyone - ever. Our job, as Yah'shua (Jesus) reminded His talmidim (disciples) as they evangelised in Samaria, is to save, not destroy. As it is written:

"Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him (Yah'shua/Jesus) to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem. And when His talmidim (disciples) James and John saw this, they said, 'Master, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?' But He turned and rebuked them, and said, 'You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them.' And they went to another village" (Luke 9:51-56, NKJV).

Every time I hear of crazed zionistic evangelicals clamouring for war with Iran or some other hapless nation no more or less sinful than their own, or for the destruction of Damascus in order to fulfil a particular biblical prophecy, I think of this passage and what Yah'shua (Jesus) said: "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of" or "You don't realise what your hearts are like" (LB) [1]. Indeed they do not, for there are many believers in Iran and Syria and many unbelivers who will receive the Besorah (Gospel) when they get the chance to hear it which, if they are nuked by some neo-conservative hothead, they never will. The Samaritans were not ready because of their prejudices - the fact that the witnesses were heading to Jerusalem, a rival of Samaria, was why they would not listen. They probably would have listened if they had been traveling in the opposite direction! Silly isn't it? But Yahweh has ways around such silliness, a reason Paul once advised missionaries to dress like the natives if that would help them being accepted and heard.

The difference between modern Damascus and modern Tehran is that in Jericho were were no receptive souls to Yahweh (except for Rahab and her family) in spite of the witness of all those incredible, undeniable miracles in Egypt and now, here, in Canaan, what with the recent drying up of the Jordan River. Why were none receptive in Jericho? Because they were all 'satanists' of the darkest dye, accustomed to offering their babies and children as burned sacrifices to Moloch, they were into ritual torture, every sexual perversion imaginable, and worshipped the whole known demonic host in spite of the witness given to Egypt that their so-called gods were powerless to save them. These people were beyond repentance. If they had been allowed to remain, it would have been like having murderers, pedophiles, child-sacrificers, sadists, robbers, and torturers as your neighbours knowing that they would never reform and that you could never leave your children unattended or go out unarmed or without companions.

So no, you atheists, Joshua was not carrying out some horrible genocide and His Elohim (God) was not some maniacal murderer as He is falsely accused of being by Satan and his deceived human minions - He was commanded to do what had to be done for the 'good of the good' because Yahweh is not like our modern rulers who give more rights to criminals and law-breakers than to innocent, law-abiding citizens. We're actually on the way to becoming a wholly demonic society in a few decades if we don't repent because soon our children will not be protected by the law against child predators if liberals and Marxists get their way. The values of Jericho and Canaan as a whole were the diametric opposite of every value decent people aspire to, and you cannot have two radically opposed cultures like that co-existing for very long. There must inevitably by a separation and a judgment. Satan wants it all mixed so that the wicked culture can overrun the rightous one and so prevail, obviously, which is why the numerically increasing satanised masses raise such a political storm when good people speak against evil. This is why, I say again, this year's Jericho March is different from all the previous ones we have taken part in. This time the judgment is literally on the modern, global Jericho begins. You wait and see.

One last point before we move on - the reason the Samaritans did not receive Yah'shua (Jesus) and His talmidim (disciples) at that time, when James and John wanted to call down fire as in the days of Elijah, is not because those Samaritans wouldn't have received the Besorah (Gospel) under the right circumstances, accommodating their silly prejudices against Yehudim (Judahites, 'Jews'), but because it was not their time - Yah'shua (Jesus) had an appointment with death in Jerusalem and could not stop at that Samaritan village or town any longer. The talmidim (disciples) would return to it later, after His mission to die and resurrect had been accomplished, and after they had been endowed from on high with the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) in the First Messianic Shavu'ot (Weeks, 'Pentecost'). The fire-hurling death-wish was a rather immature, if not devilish, response, because these were not murderous people like the Jerichoites. Lots of Samaritans had already been converted after the woman-at-the-well incident.

Remember, there are divine timetables that take precendence over the 'good' things we may sometimes feel we need to do, even out of prophetic season. And when the apostles were unsuccessful in their witnessing, and angrily wanted Yahweh to destroy those local Samaritans, they drew all the wrong conclusions. You can't want someone dead because of a silly prejudice born of wrong-thinking caused by a poor education by ignorant religious leaders and racialist rivalries. As I was telling a sister yesterday, there is a time and season for all things, and that includes the receptivity of unbelievers to hear the Good News. That is why you need the New Birth and the Gift of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) to know the difference for you will not be able to figure it out in the flesh. We are not called to go and witness willy nilly - indeed, we sometimes end up doing great harm by our presumption and precipitiveness.

Now it is possible that more towns and villages may have been attacked than are mentioned in the account made by Joshua and the later Judges but the Scriptures do not demand such a record. Scripture selects that information, historical and spiritual, that is relevent to the narrative required by Yahweh for a spiritual end. Some records, which are not narratives but historical chronicles, may on occasion do that, though mostly they are concerned with kingly lines in order to establish chronological links between the narratives and to establish the messianic line, which is the golden thread running throughout the Tanakh (Old Testament). Lineage is important, both for kings and for ordinary folks, because life is all about families. I don't want to go further into the archaelogical record, fascinating though I personally find that as a scientist, other than to mention that Canaan wasn't Israel's only enemy though arguably the worst.

History is equally important in establishing the credibility of the biblical record so permit me to indulge in that so that you have a picture of what was going on at the time of the Jericho conquest because events like this don't happen in an historical vacuum. We're in the 13th century BC when major military actions and invasions were taking place - the Israelites under Joshua weren't the only ones wandering around with an army. We know, in support of what I have just claimed about the moral decadence and depravity of the Jerichoites and Canannites in general, that there was a general decline in cultural standards throughout the region much as there is in the West today, which is why I insist there are valid parallels to be made in explanation of why Yahweh is acting in our time and during our æon or age. I repeat, the bad times are only just getting underway (though there will be good times too).

At this time there were periodic rebellions in the Middle East against the Lord of Canaan who was Pharaoh of Egypt, the same Kingdom Moses had fled from and defeated at the Red Sea. Pharaoh was Lord not only of Canaan but of Lebanon and Damascus too, his governors residing in major cities like Gaza and Megiddo (of future Armageddon fame), and other places served as garrison towns. When these periodic rebellions happened, loyal neighbours would usually quell them or Egyptian forces themselves would be called to step in. Only now, as Joshua invaded, Egypt was weak and in decline (Pharaoh's defeat by Moses can't have helped his reputation as an imperial warlord), which had begun with Seti I's campaign in Canaan and east of the Jordan around 1300 BC. Shortly afterwards, his son, Ramesses II, had to curb a revolt following an unsuccessful battle with the Hittites in Syria. He penetrated as far as Moab at this time (about 1285 BC), territory that would eventually be colonised by the Israelite Tribe of Reuben.

So, you see, the defeat by Moses - in reality, by Yahweh, of course - at Yam Suf, the Sea of Reeds, of the 'Red Sea' as we call it - so weakened Egypt politically in its neighbouring colonies in Canaan and elsewhere to the north, that it enabled Joshua to invade without having to worry about any Egyptian garrisons to oppose him. These would have likely been withdrawn before Joshua arrived, in much the same way the Romans eventually withdrew from Britain because of domestic issues at home in Rome, leaving the British Isles vulnerable to Viking and other invaders. Yahweh coordinates events like this in order to achieve His purposes. Joshua didn't just 'arrive' - the way had been prepared beforehand, just as John the Baptist would prepare the way for Yah'shua (Jesus) and as nevi'im (prophets) in all ages, including our own, must prepare the way for events ordained in advance by our Elohim (God). That why people like myself announce various things. He's preparing the way on a much smaller scale for little people like me and you. He manages the sparrows and eagles alike with similar care.

Well, the history is actually even more involved than this, as any prfessional historian will tell you, which we don't have time to cover. I wished only to make a general point so that you would become aware of the extent to which Yahweh really is in control. Things may seem random in worldly events but everything is being steered, even the complex, dastardly schemes of the devil who has no idea how he himself, as a mere creature, however supernatural, is manipulated to ultimately do Yahweh's will, respecting, of course, human free agency which is why there are so many unpleasantries for us in the details or minutae of life. A bigger hand, you see, steers the rudder of history leading it to its inevitable and irresistable climax.

The greater miracle, to my mind, is how He works into the mix, our freedom to choose, something I know Calvinists, Moslems and other radical determinists cannot begin to understand, nor - importantly - the incredible love behind such an arrangement. (If you'd like to know more about this, please see my article, Molinism: Reconciling Yah's Sovereignty with Man's Free Agency or see the video #V057).

Which brings me to the 'meat' of today's message, because as we get closer and closer to Day #7 of this Jericho March, some important choices have to be made by people in high places, because judgment starts with them. However, this doesn't mean that everyone else doesn't have to make choices as well. I have no doubt some of you have marched around government buildings, hospitals, satanic covens, and other places or people you have wanted to influence in some way, literally or symbolically. It's quite a common practice of deliverance ministers - I have done it myself, sometimes with spectacular results, sometimes with none at all. But let me ask you this - and this was something suggested by my wife - have you ever thought to symbolically march around your 'self'...to bring it down? I mean to say, self - or the 'flesh', the 'carnal nature, or the 'Adamic nature' - is the biggest obstacle in life we all face because until the flesh is defeated - or "crucified" to use Paul's metaphor (Gal.2:20) - we are handicapped in practially everything else we want to accomplish of a constructive nature.

Marching around the walls of your self-centredness - your selfishness - consists of more than wishfull thinking or making bold declarations like some neo-occultic 'name it and claim it' charismatic. It's easy to make a resolution, as all those who make New Year resolutions know and spectacularly fail. Your own heart is probably snickering at your silly brain anyway because the heart has its own will and intelligence. This has to be more than a head decision.

You see, when those inner walls come down it will not only be painful but it will make you feel vulnerable and exposed. You will not feel 'safe' IF you have been trusting in self rather than in Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ). This is how you find out whether you have or not. Then you need to make a decision based on mind, heart, spirit and body in unison - in harmony, in agreement, as echad or one. That is a decision your whole soul must make.

As a matter of fact I saw a vision about this a few days ago. I saw a most beautifully decorated brick wall, with beautiful murals to please the eye, but it was all along a wall of self-protection - an internal device for protecting the self, keeping it alive, by presenting a 'nice' façade - a mask which others will like and accept. I asked Yahweh to tell me what was behind the wall and He showed me another vision - it was of a hand, and between the index finger and thumb was a shining pearl of extraordinary beauty. I knew that that was the real person-in-Christ, hidden from the world by the fake wall. And I should add demons not uncommonly reinforce and maintain these walls to the owner's great detriment, denying him or her such great potential and blessings, keeping him in bondage, and preventing him from shining.

The pearl, as you know, has a double symbolism. On the one hand, it is the "pearl of great price" symbolising the "Kingdom of Heaven" in Matthew 13:45-46 for which, if we are in earnest about obtaining it, we must sell everything we own - all our personal ambitions, image-making, attempts to be liked, or plans for the present and future. The second symbol is to be found in Revelation 21:21 which each of the twelve gates into the New Jerusalem, the Qadosh or Holy City, is represented by a pearl, because to enter that city - the abode and real of Elohim (God) and His Christ - you have to yield or surrender everything that may be described as worldly or attributable to self-desire. No easy 'name it and claim it' can ever accomplish that because it requires nothing less than death - death of self so Messiah bay be "all in all" (1 Cor.15:28).

Who would have thought that we have our own internal Jericho? Well, we do, and it must be conquered before we can even begin to embark on a career of wholehearted, dedicated, single-minded, consecrated service to our King as ministers in the Melchizedek Priesthood. No cockiness and stomping on demons as you sometimes hear from immature, worldly charismatics and others, but a humble recognition of the real problem and the courage to surrender. Then the walls of our internal Jerichos will come tumbling down, and into our hand will come the most valuable possession of all - the Kingdom of Heaven in glory.

Until tomorrow, Yahweh bless you all. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] This particular phrase is omitted in earlier MSS but the sense is implied anyway