ATTENTION: Please note that this is The Adult Sunday School Lesson, God Is Victorious aka God Gives Victory, on Joshua 6:2-3, 4b, 12-20 or Joshua 6:2-4, 12-20 for the 6-26-11 International Sunday School Lesson. You will find the 6-19-11 lesson, God Protects aka God Protects His People directly beneath this message and on the right side.
Jed
God Is Victorious
or
God Gives Victory
Joshua 6:2-4, 12-20
International Sunday School Lesson
June 26, 2011
Commentary
By
Jed Greenough
What comes to your mind when you read today’s scripture? Do you picture what this vast army of Israel’s must have looked like to the people of Jericho as it marched around their city? Can you see and smell the dust; hear the footfalls, the blast of the trumpets? How about the eerie quiet of no war cries, no threats and no taunts?
For myself, I can see the Ark of the Covenant showing to all that God was present. I can imagine the terror of a people within the walls of Jericho too petrified to flee or fight. I can sense the confidence that Joshua exudes that is then carried over to his unquestioning people.
As a child I loved the simple story that I heard and read time and time again of God allowing the people to play a part in the taking of this city. They marched faithfully around the city, they blew their ram’s horn trumpets, they shouted as the final long trumpet blast blew and the walls came tumbling down.
Like the faith that can move a mountain here was a faith where a shout could tumble a fortified city’s walls. But God is in that faith and He makes these things happen according to His holy will.
Just like today’s scripture selection when I was a child, we never covered the verses that follow. But I know that unlike when we were children we won’t just think about those images we started out with. No, we adults know that what followed was the annihilation of every living thing behind those fallen walls. It is important that we not be like children or we will come away with an incomplete picture of what our holy God is like. Remember from last week, that “fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”
This aspect of Joshua 6 and other scriptures that do not fit the image that some want to have of God do not hide anything and we should not hide from them. Some would say as Israel later did that, “The way of the Lord is not just.” But God’s reply is, “I will judge each of you according to his own ways.” Ezekiel 33:20a.
God knew what He was doing and he let the people of Israel and us in on it if we read Deuteronomy 20: 16-18
16 However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. 17 Completely destroy them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the LORD your God has commanded you. 18 Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the LORD your God.
For Discussion:
1. Read Joshua 6:26 and 1 Kings 16:34.
2. Discuss thoughts concerning Joshua 6:1 in that no one came in or out of Jericho.
3. It is hard to know, but discuss whether all of Israel was included in those that marched around the city or just the fighting men.
4. Be prepared to explain the repetition found in 12-14 if people read outside the assignment verses 5-11.
5. Discuss the significance of the number 7.
6. What do you think happened to the Ark of the Covenant? Have you ever done a study on the Ark? Do you have an image in your mind of its appearance? Read Exodus 25:10-22
7. Discuss how we can be like Joshua, like the people who followed Joshua and follow God’s will without question. What victories could you and your church have as a result?
8. Review Deuteronomy 20:16-18 and ask, perhaps not even discuss, but ask, “What things have we allowed ourselves to be exposed to that have taught us to follow detestable things and thus sin against the Lord?”
7-03-11: God Responds to Disobedience (God Reacts to Disobedience) Joshua 7:1, 10-12, 22-26
7-10-11: Listen to God’s Judges; Judges 2:11-19
7-17-11: Use God’s Strength Judges 3:15-25, 29-30
7-24-11: Let God Rule Judges 7:2-4, 13-15; 8:22-26a or Judges 7:2-4, 13-15; 8:22-25
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved
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