Wednesday, September 12, 2007, Part 1
"By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days" (Hebrews 11:30).
IDEA: It took faith on the part of the people to believe that they could conquer a fortified city like Jericho by marching around it and making a noise.
PURPOSE: To help listeners see that faith may sometimes make us feel foolish.
Why do you think the writer of the letter to the Hebrews says that it was by faith that the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around for seven days? The account in the book of Joshua says nothing about faith.
I. Jericho would have been a difficult city to conquer, using ordinary means of warfare.
It was a well-fortified city.
Some archaeologists say that it was a double-walled city. It had a wall within a wall which could have been 20' high, 20' thick, with 12-15' separating the two walls.
The walls were far enough apart so that houses made of sun-dried brick could be built over the gap between the walls, supported by timbers bridging between the two walls.
It was in one of those houses that Rahab lived.
If an enemy succeeded in scaling the outer wall, defenders on top of the inner wall could kill their enemies as they entered the space between the walls. Invaders would have been easy targets. The city seemed impregnable.
How do you think the Hebrew soldiers and the Hebrew people felt when they saw that walled city of Jericho? How do you think the people of Jericho felt when they were behind those walls?
II. God’s instruction to Joshua and the people was to walk around the city once each day in complete silence for six days. Then on the seventh day, they were to circle the city seven times, and at the end of the seventh time, they were to shout and blow the horns.
How do you think one of those Hebrew soldiers or some of the Hebrew people felt when they heard these instructions? How do you think the people of Jericho felt when the Hebrews carried out those instructions?
Suppose they did what Joshua told them: they did that walking, they blew those horns, and they shouted as loud as they could – and nothing happened.
What would have happened to the future campaigns of the people of Israel when the news got around of this stupid venture that didn’t work?
III. Why do you think the writer of the letter to the Hebrews said that what they did was by faith?
At the very heart of the gospel is a claim that many people think is ridiculous: “How could a dead Jew hanging on a Roman execution rack outside the city of Jerusalem 2000 years ago have any effect on me today?”