Shout! For the Lord has given you the city!

Joshua 6:1-27

Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout; then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.”

The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the army, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the city! The city and all that is in it are to be devoted[a] 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. 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. All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into his treasury.

When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city. 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.

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 the Lord’s house. 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.

So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land.

It was a war of nerves for the men of Jericho; day after day the encircling troops, the trumpet blasts, the silent army, building up to the great climax of the seventh day.

The city of Jericho has an incredibly long history of building and destruction.

Devoted things: The city and all its contents are dedicated utterly to God. It becomes sacrilege then, for anyone to take anything for themselves.

Why?

It is the Lord who destroyed the city of Jericho. They walked around the wall seven days and keep silent, and seventh time on the seventh day, when they shout, the wall was fall. Maybe there was an earthquake or nothing happened, but the wall was fall. It is the work of the Lord.

It is devoted to the Lord so the people were asked do not to take anything from this city, only the gold, bronze, and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into his treasury. For it belongs to the Lord.

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第六開始攻打取得應許之地，使用方式是繞城。60萬軍隊，繞城且不能說話，其實很容易，神是要考驗以色列人是否願意遵行神的旨意。人要聽話，神才會成就大事。如人要信才能得到救恩。如人中發票，必須按照規定去領，要帶應許的發票、證件才能拿到，雖然錢已經準備好了。神的吩咐合理或是不合理，只要遵行必得見神的作為。因為是可笑，無效的方法，才能顯明前面遇見的元帥的作為，不能憑約書亞自己的作戰方法，約書亞也全然信服耶和華元帥的話。人往往順服自己的理性判斷，想法，我們要信服神自己。這也是十字架道理的考驗。十字架在人看來是愚拙的，繞城表示以色列人的心完全敞開，他們心裏的堅固營壘、耶律哥城已經倒塌了。最難攻破的是人心裏的成見。耶律哥城不可重建，因為重建起來，表示人心裏的耶律哥城又建立起來了。林前1:18 因為十字架的道理，在那滅亡的人為愚拙；在我們得救的人，卻為神的大能。

神的心意是要救全耶律哥城，只有喇合願意順服而得救。人因信得救，至於他的身份，過去的事，被人瞧不起的人都不被神紀念。耶律哥城的其他人仍然背逆神，以致被滅亡。

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How?

Our God is the great God, no one can compare with Him. Obey the word of the Lord is the best way in my life.