Joshua 6:15-27 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs,
Today’s passage is Joshua 6:15-27. Let’s go!
Joshua 6:15-27 (NIV)
15 On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times.
16 The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the people, “Shout! For the LORD has given you the city!
17 The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the LORD. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared,because she hid the spies we sent.
18 But keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it.
19 All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the LORD and must go into his treasury.”
20 When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so every man charged straight in, and they took the city.
21 They devoted the city to the LORD and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it–men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.
22 Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her.”
23 So the young men who had done the spying went in and brought out Rahab, her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. They brought out her entire family and put them in a place outside the camp of Israel.
24 Then they burned the whole city and everything in it, but they put the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron into the treasury of theLORD’s house.
25 But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, with her family and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho–and she lives among the Israelites to this day.
26 At that time Joshua pronounced this solemn oath: “Cursed before the LORD is the man who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho: “At the cost of his firstborn son will he lay its foundations; at the cost of his youngest will he set up its gates.”
27 So the LORD was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land.
On verses 15-27: On the seventh day in accordance with God’s instructions, Joshua commands his army to march around the city of Jericho seven times and then, at the sound of a trumpet blast, to shout. The army does so, and at their shouts the city walls of Jericho come down and the Israelite army charge in and take the city, sparing only Rahab the prostitute and her family “because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho” (v25).
What can we learn from this?
1. God’s ways are unusual but highly effective. They may not always make sense to us, but they certainly get the job done. We’re better off trusting in God’s ways than our own ways, no matter how much our own ways may make sense to us.
2. Because Rahab let in and hid the spies Joshua had sent (v17, 25), Rahab and her family were saved while the rest of the city was destroyed. Similarly, when we let in and hide in our heart the man God sent, Jesus Christ, we are saved from otherwise certain destruction. So let your heart be Jesus’ hiding place.
Heavenly Father, Your ways are higher than my ways. Thank You that when I let in and hide in my heart the outsider You sent, Your Son Jesus, I am saved. Jesus, let my heart be Your hiding place. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
