Immerse: Kingdoms - Flipbook - Page 21
8
IMMERSE
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KINGDOMS
5:6–6:8
after the Exodus, during the years in the wilderness, had been circumcised.
The Israelites had traveled in the wilderness for forty years until all the
men who were old enough to fight in battle when they left Egypt had died.
For they had disobeyed the Lord, and the Lord vowed he would not let
them enter the land he had sworn to give us—a land flowing with milk
and honey. So Joshua circumcised their sons—those who had grown up
to take their fathers’ places—for they had not been circumcised on the
way to the Promised Land. After all the males had been circumcised, they
rested in the camp until they were healed.
Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the shame
of your slavery in Egypt.” So that place has been called Gilgal to this day.
While the Israelites were camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho,
they celebrated Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the first
month. The very next day they began to eat unleavened bread and roasted
grain harvested from the land. No manna appeared on the day they first ate
from the crops of the land, and it was never seen again. So from that time
on the Israelites ate from the crops of Canaan.
When Joshua was near the town of Jericho, he looked up and saw a man
standing in front of him with sword in hand. Joshua went up to him and
demanded, “Are you friend or foe?”
“Neither one,” he replied. “I am the commander of the Lord’s army.”
At this, Joshua fell with his face to the ground in reverence. “I am at your
command,” Joshua said. “What do you want your servant to do?”
The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for
the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did as he was told.
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. You and your fighting men should march around the town once a
day for six days. Seven priests will walk ahead of the Ark, each carrying a
ram’s horn. On the seventh day you are to march around the town seven
times, with the priests blowing the horns. When you hear the priests give
one long blast on the rams’ horns, have all the people shout as loud as they
can. Then the walls of the town will collapse, and the people can charge
straight into the town.”
So Joshua called together the priests and said, “Take up the Ark of the
Lord’s Covenant, and assign seven priests to walk in front of it, each
carrying a ram’s horn.” Then he gave orders to the people: “March around
the town, and the armed men will lead the way in front of the Ark of
the Lord.”
After Joshua spoke to the people, the seven priests with the rams’ horns
6:9-26
JOSHuA
9
started marching in the presence of the Lord, blowing the horns as they
marched. And the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant followed behind them.
Some of the armed men marched in front of the priests with the horns and
some behind the Ark, with the priests continually blowing the horns. “Do
not shout; do not even talk,” Joshua commanded. “Not a single word from
any of you until I tell you to shout. Then shout!” So the Ark of the Lord
was carried around the town once that day, and then everyone returned
to spend the night in the camp.
Joshua got up early the next morning, and the priests again carried
the Ark of the Lord. The seven priests with the rams’ horns marched in
front of the Ark of the Lord, blowing their horns. Again the armed men
marched both in front of the priests with the horns and behind the Ark
of the Lord. All this time the priests were blowing their horns. On the
second day they again marched around the town once and returned to the
camp. They followed this pattern for six days.
On the seventh day the Israelites got up at dawn and marched around
the town as they had done before. But this time they went around the town
seven times. The seventh time around, as the priests sounded the long
blast on their horns, Joshua commanded the people, “Shout! For the Lord
has given you the town! Jericho and everything in it must be completely
destroyed as an offering to the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute and the
others in her house will be spared, for she protected our spies.
“Do not take any of the things set apart for destruction, or you yourselves will be completely destroyed, and you will bring trouble on the
camp of Israel. Everything made from silver, gold, bronze, or iron is sacred
to the Lord and must be brought into his treasury.”
When the people heard the sound of the rams’ horns, they shouted as
loud as they could. Suddenly, the walls of Jericho collapsed, and the Israelites charged straight into the town and captured it. They completely
destroyed every thing in it with their swords—men and women, young
and old, cattle, sheep, goats, and donkeys.
Meanwhile, Joshua said to the two spies, “Keep your promise. Go to the
prostitute’s house and bring her out, along with all her family.”
The men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father, mother, brothers, and all the other relatives who were with her. They
moved her whole family to a safe place near the camp of Israel.
Then the Israelites burned the town and every thing in it. Only the
things made from silver, gold, bronze, or iron were kept for the treasury of
the Lord’s house. So Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute and her relatives
who were with her in the house, because she had hidden the spies Joshua
sent to Jericho. And she lives among the Israelites to this day.
At that time Joshua invoked this curse:
