Judges Part 2

Ch 5:13-15 The captain of the LORD of hosts declared the land by Jericho holy ground,

[Hallowed; consecrated or set apart to a sacred use]

Ch 6 Heb 11:30 The walls of Jericho fell flat (not a pile of rubble), except for one house in the wall. They were to destroy all the people, all animals, all the stuff. gold, silver, vessels of brass and vessels of iron were saved and added to the treasury of the LORD.

·       V25 Rahab and her family were saved alive because of her faith and she lived in Israel the rest of her life. Heb 11:31

·       V26 Joshua charged the people and pronounced a curse upon him who would ever rebuild Jericho. It would be done at the cost of his sons. The flattened wall of Jericho, the destroyed city was another memorial to what the LORD had done, that was to be seen through their generations.

Ø    1Kings 16:34 The city was rebuilt during the rein of the wicked king Ahab a man named Hiel rebuilt Jericho at the cost upon his sons.

Ø    Note Ch 17 of 1Kings. God withheld the rain 1Kings 21:29; 22:51-53 [The consequences of rebuilding Jericho?]

Ch 7 Begins with Joshua sending 3000 men to defeat Ai it should have been an easy battle. But, Ai routed the men of Israel and Joshua was devastated [V6-9] Joshua felt the defeat would embolden the nations whose hearts had melted.

·        The reason for the defeat was revealed V1.

·       Achan coveted gold and silver for himself and a “Babylonish garment” that should have been burned. “Babylonish garment” was the accursed thing. Deu 22:11 This would have been lavish multicolored garment. It may have been woven with more than one material, threads of precious metals.

·       Babylon the city of the land of Shinar, land of the Chaldeans. Is a nation that often came against God’s people. Job 1:17 used by Satan to temp Job to sin. Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and held Judah and Jerusalem in captivity for 70 yrs.

·       Achan, his family and all his possessions were burned and covered with a “great heap”. V26 of stones; another memorial.

·       V26 And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So the LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger. Wherefore the name of that place was called, The valley of Achor, unto this day. (God’s grace is seen here)

Ch 8 Victory after the sin of Achan was purged

·       The LORD led Joshua to a great victory over the same Ai of Ch 7

·       V29-28 The city of Ai was burned and left in a heap. The king of Ai was hanged on a tree and his body was taken down and covered with a great heap of stones

Josh 8:29 with Deu 21:22-23 with Galatians 3:13

·       Jesus was buried in stone and buried .behind a stone but unlike the king of Ai the stone could not hold him. . Heb 1;3, 1John 5:4 Our victory in Christ

 Joshua Part 2

The memorials of the stones:

·       Gen 28:11-28 Jacob made his pillows of stone into memorial to the place where he saw the ladder going up to heaven.

·       The army of Egypt sank as a stone in the Red Sea [Ex 15:15]

·       Often punishment for the wicked was to be stoned with stones.

·       Josh 4 stones out of the Jordon River bed

·       Josh 6 The wall of Jericho fell down flat

·       Josh 7 the “great heap” of stones upon Achan and his family

·       Josh 8:28 the heap made of AI

·       Josh 8: 29 the “great of stones” upon the king id Ai

·       Josh 8: 30-31 The altar on Mt. Ebal with a copy of the law written upon it [commanded by Moses Deu 27:4-8]

·       2Sa 18:17 And they took Absalom, and cast him into a great pit in the wood, and laid a very great heap of stones upon him: and all Israel fled every one to his tent.

Ex 20:25 And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. [De 27:5; Jos 8:31]

·       These stone that just happen to be laying around were the work of God’s hands

·       A hewn stone is the work of the hand of a man

·       The LORD knew if a man would hew these stones for a memorial unto Him an image of a false god would come out.

·       Acts 7:41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.

·       Isa 2:8 Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made:

·       Jer 1:16 And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.

·       Rom 1:23 man has always wanted a god that was the work of their own hands.

1Peter 2:4-9 God has his pile of stones today, the works of His own hands.