Strongholds
Now the gates of Jericho were tightly shut
because the people were afraid of the Israelites. No one was allowed to go out
or in. But the Lord said to Joshua, “I have given
you Jericho, its king, and all its strong warriors.” (Joshua 6:1-2)
Here’s what you
need to know about the walls of Jericho: they were immense, and they wrapped
around the city like a suit of armor – two concentric circles of stone rising a
total of forty feet above ground. Impenetrable. Its inhabitants were ferocious
and barbaric. They withstood all sieges and repelled all invaders. They were
guilty of child sacrifice: "They even burn their sons and daughters as
sacrifices to their gods!" (Deut. 12:31) They were the Bronze-age version
of the gestapo. That is until the day Joshua showed up. Until the day his army
marched in. Until the day the bricks cracked and the boulders broke. Until the
day everything shook – the stones of the walls, the knees of the king, and even
the molars of the soldiers. The unassailable fortress met the unstoppable
force. Mighty Jericho crumbled. But here’s what you need to know about Joshua: he
didn't bring the walls down.
Joshua's
soldiers never swung a hammer. His men never dislodged a brick. They never
rammed a door, or pried loose a stone. The shaking, quaking, rumbling and
tumbling of the thick, impervious walls? God did that for them. And God will do
that for you. Your Jericho may be your fear. Your Jericho may be your anger,
bitterness or prejudice. Your insecurity about the future. Your guilt about the
past. Your negativity, anxiety and proclivity to criticize, overanalyze or
compartmentalize. Your Jericho is any attitude or mind-set that keeps you from
joy, peace or rest. Jericho. It stands between you and your inheritance. It
mocks you and tells you to take your dreams back to the wilderness. It stands
like an ogre on the bridge of progress. It’s big, and it’s evil. It blocks your
way. And its walls must fall.
To live in the land
of your promised inheritance, you must face your Jericho. It's not always easy.
Every level of inheritance requires a disinheritance from the devil. Satan must
be moved off before a saint can move in. Joshua told his people to "go in
to possess the land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess."
(Josh. 1:11) The verb translated possess
means to occupy – as in driving out the previous tenants and then possessing what
used to be their place. Satan won't leave without a fight. He’ll resist. He’ll push
back. But he won’t win. Why? Because God has already declared that you’re the
victor. Satan, defanged and defeated at Calvary, has no authority over you.
God's word to Joshua then is God's word to us today: "Be strong and of
good courage." (v. 6)
Don’t heed your
fear. Don’t cower before your woes. Take the land that God has given you to
possess. "And the LORD said to Joshua: 'See! I have given Jericho into
your hand, its king, and the mighty men of valor.'" (6:2) God didn’t say,
"Joshua, go take the city." God said, "Joshua, receive the city
I have already taken." Joshua didn’t go up against Jericho hoping to win;
he knew that God had already won. The same can be said about you and your
challenges, too. God doesn’t say, "Bob, break your bad habit." He
says, "Bob, I have broken the bad habits of your life. Receive the
blessing of my victory." Remember, you are a co-heir with Christ. Every
attribute of Jesus is at your disposal. Was Jesus victorious? Did he overcome
sin and death? Yes. Will you be victorious? Can you overcome sin and death? Yes.
The question is
not, will you overcome? It’s when will
you overcome? Life will always bring challenges. But God will always give you
the strength to face them. Things are different in Canaan. Hang-ups and
addictions don’t have the last word. Today's trouble is not necessarily
tomorrow's obstacle. Don't incarcerate yourself by assuming that it is, and resist
the urge to self-label, i.e.,
"I'm just a worrier," or "Gossip is my weakness," or maybe,
"My dad was a drinker, so I’m doomed to carry on the tradition."
These words create alliances with the devil. They grant him access to your
spirit. It’s not God's will that you live a defeated, marginalized, unhappy and
weary life. Turn a deaf ear to the old voices and make new choices. "The
land you have given me is a pleasant land. What a wonderful inheritance!"
(Ps. 16:6) Live out of your inheritance, not out of your circumstance.
God has already
promised a victory. And he has provided weapons for the fight. I can just picture
the soldiers perking up as Joshua, their commander, announces, "It’s time
to take Jericho, boys!" "Great!" they reply. "We’ve got our
ladders and ropes!" "We’ll scale the walls!" "Our spears
are sharpened, and our swords are polished!" "Which side do we attack
first?" And then Joshua looks at his men and says, "Well, God has a slightly different strategy." The
general then outlines the most unlikely of attacks. "Take up the Ark of
the Covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before
the ark of the LORD." (Josh. 6:6) Joshua then commands his soldiers to
march before and behind the priests. He tells the priests to blow the trumpets
continually as they walk around the city once a day. And everyone else?
"You shall not shout or make any noise with your voice, nor shall a word
proceed out of your mouth, until the day I say to you, 'Shout!' Then you will
shout." (v. 10)
Wait a minute.
No war cry? No hand-to-hand combat? No flashing swords, flying spears,
battering rams or catapults? Just priests, rams' horns, and millions of people marching
in circles not saying a single word? Joshua has at least forty thousand
soldiers at his command, and he tells them to be quiet and watch? What kind of
warfare is that? It’s spiritual warfare. Every battle, ultimately, is a
spiritual battle. Every conflict is a contest with Satan and his forces. Paul
urged us to stand "against the wiles of the devil." (Eph. 6:11) The
Greek word he used for "wiles" is methodia,
from which we get our English word method.
Satan is neither passive nor fair. He’s active and deceptive. He has designs
and strategies. Consequently, we need to have a strategy as well; a method. For
that reason "though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the
flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for
pulling down strongholds." (2 Cor. 10:3-4)
Just as Jericho
was a stronghold in Canaan, we have strongholds in our lives. The apostle Paul
used the term to describe a mind-set, or attitude. "The weapons of our
warfare are . . . mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that
exalts itself against the knowledge of God." (vv. 4-5) The apostle defined
a stronghold as a high thing that "exalts itself against the knowledge of
God." It is a conviction, outlook, or belief that attempts to interfere
with the truth. Other translations describe a stronghold as "imaginations" (KJV),
"pretension" (NIV), "lofty opinion" (ESV), or "warped
philosophies" (MSG). A stronghold is a false premise that denies God's
promise. It "sets itself up against the knowledge of God." (v. 5) It
seeks to eclipse our discovery of God. It attempts to magnify the problem and
minimize God's ability to solve it. Does a stronghold have a strong hold on
you? Do you see nothing but Jericho? Do you feel nothing but despair? Do you
think thoughts of defeat?
Do you speak the
language of impossibility? God could
never forgive me – the stronghold of guilt. I could never forgive that person – the stronghold of resentment. Bad things always happen to me – the stronghold
of self-pity. I have to be in charge
– the stronghold of pride. I don't
deserve to be loved – the stronghold of rejection. I'll never recover – the stronghold of defeat. I must be good, or God will reject me – the stronghold of
performance. I'm only as good as I look
– the stronghold of appearance. My value
equals my possessions – the stronghold of materialism. Most Christians
don't recognize their strongholds. They live in the shadow of these joy-sucking
Jericho’s. But we don't have to be among them. Our weapons are from God, and
have "divine power to demolish strongholds." (2 Cor. 10:4) And isn't
that what we want?
We long to see
our strongholds demolished, and turned into rubble once and for all. We long to
see Jericho brought to the ground. But how does that happen? By keeping God in
the center. The ark of the covenant was the symbol of the Lord's presence.
Joshua placed the ark in the middle of the procession. Every activity orbited
around God. We don't attack our Jericho with anger, blame casting or
finger-pointing. Instead, we keep God center stage, using the weapons of
worship, Scripture and prayer. We employ every tool God offers: hymns, songs,
communion, Scripture memorization, and petition. We put down the phone and open
the Bible. We remember Jesus' promise: "I am with you always." (Matt.
28:20) We worry less, and pray more. We even blast our version of a ram's horn.
A ram's horn? What?
The Hebrews used
two instruments: the silver trumpet and the ram's horn. The silver trumpet was
used to call the people to assembly. (Num. 10:2) The ram's horn celebrated a
battle already won. When Abraham displayed his willingness to give up his son
Isaac as an offering, God stopped him and provided a ram. The ram's horn
reminds us of God's sovereign generosity. God gave Abraham a ram of
deliverance. God told Joshua to fill the air with sounds of a ram's horn
victory. And, just as curiously, he told the people to keep quiet. "Don't
say a word." (Josh. 6:10) No chitchat. No opinion-giving, or
second-guessing. No whining or small talk. Just keep your mouth shut and the
trumpets loud. And then imagine the reaction of the Canaanites as Joshua's army
marched circles around them.
The first day
they mocked the Hebrews. The second day they scoffed again, but not as loudly.
By the fourth and fifth days, the enemy had grown silent. What are these Hebrews up to? they wondered. On the sixth day the
Canaanites were dry mouthed and wide eyed as the Hebrews made their round. The
people of Jericho had never fought a battle like this. Just as challenging is
your battle with your archenemy, the devil. He has held this stronghold in your
life for months, maybe years. You've tried everything to overcome it: renewed
discipline, self-help books, pop culture gurus. Nothing helps. But now you come
in God's power with God center stage, Jesus in your heart, and angels in both front
and back. You come, not with hope of
a possible victory, but with the assurance
of a complete victory.
So, march like a
Canaan conqueror. Blast your ram's horn. Sing songs of redemption, and declare
scriptures of triumph. Marinate your mind with the declaration of Jesus,
"It is finished!" (John 19:30), and the announcement of the angels,
"He is not here; for He is risen." (Matt. 28:6) Personalize the
proclamations of Paul: "We are more than conquerors through [Christ]"
(Rom. 8:37), and "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
(Phil. 4:13)
As you do, the
demons will begin to scatter while another Jericho bites the dust. "Yell a
loud no to the Devil and watch him
scamper." (James 4:7) He will retreat. He must retreat. He’s not allowed in the place where God is praised.
Just keep praising and walking. Easier said than done, perhaps, because maybe
you’ve been walking a long time, or it seems like it. But it probably seemed
that way to the Hebrews, too. Joshua didn’t tell them how many trips they would
have to make around the city. God told Joshua that the walls would fall on the
seventh day, but Joshua didn't tell the people that bit of information. They
just kept walking. And the truth is, our Joshua didn't tell us either.
Through the pen
of Paul, Jesus urges us to be "steadfast, immovable, always abounding in
the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord."
(1 Cor. 15:58) So keep walking. For all you know this may be the day that the
walls will come down. You may be only steps from a moment like this: “On the
seventh day . . . they rose early, about the dawning of the day, and marched
around the city seven times in the same manner . . . And the seventh time it
happened, when the priests blew the trumpets, that Joshua said to the people: ‘Shout,
for the LORD has given you the city! . . .’ So the people shouted when the
priests blew the trumpets. And it happened when the people heard the sound of
the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down
flat. Then the people . . . took the city. (Josh. 6:15-16, 20) The very walls
that kept them out had now become stepping-stones upon which they could climb
in.
A great shaking
is coming for this world, too. Our Joshua, Jesus, will give the signal, and a
trumpet will blast. He will reclaim every spoil and repel, once and for all,
each and every demon. He will do again what he did in Canaan. But until he
does, keep marching and believing. Defeat your strongholds with the spiritual
weapons of worship, Scripture and prayer. Move from false premises to God's
promises. It's just a matter of time before your Jericho comes down, too.
Grace,
Randy
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