Studies In The Kingdom Of God

Vol 2: Chapter 3: God Trains His Kingdom People To Obey & Cooperate With Him

"The LORD said to Gideon, "The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, 'My own power has delivered me.'"" Judges 7:2

When God told Joshua to lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land after the death of Moses, He encouraged Joshua not to rely on his own strength or to be timid and afraid of what was ahead of them. They knew there were giants in the land. They knew there were many enemies who had been entrenched there for a long time. He knew they weren't going to give up without a fight. He also knew God had promised this land to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their descendants. God had led them through the wilderness for forty years and they were finally on the doorstep of receiving what God had promised them.

As Joshua was receiving the commission and authority from God to lead the people of God after Moses' death, God spoke to Joshua and said, "Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."

When Joshua and the children of Israel entered the Promised Land and began to capture the cities of those who inhabited the land, they came to one of the most fortified and protected cities in the land; Jericho. As Joshua was preparing to lead the people against Jericho, to take it, he had an encounter that would significantly impact his strategy and plans for taking the city. "Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, "Are you for us or for our adversaries?" He said, "No; rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the LORD." And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, "What has my lord to say to his servant?" The captain of the LORD'S host said to Joshua, "Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so."

This person who stood before Joshua was the Lord, as He told Joshua to remove the sandals from his feet because the ground where he was standing is holy ground. Earlier, God told Joshua....no, God COMMANDED Joshua to be strong and courageous because the Lord was with him wherever he went. Now, the Lord stands before Joshua as the captain of the Lord's army. The Lord stood before Joshua in order to emphasize what He had told him earlier, not to fear or be dismayed but to be strong and courageous. The Lord was going to fight the battles for the Children of Israel against the peoples of the land that the Lord wanted removed. All God wanted His people to do was to be strong and courageous and to cooperate with Him in what He told them to do in the battles.

Later, as the children of Israel came to the city of Jericho to overthrow it, God told Joshua to have the people march around Jericho for seven days and on the seventh day they were to blow their trumpets as loudly as they could. Joshua also told the people, "You shall not shout nor let your voice be heard nor let a word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I tell you, 'Shout!' Then you shall shout!" So he had the ark of the LORD taken around the city, circling it once; then they came into the camp and spent the night in the camp." "Then on the seventh day they rose early at the dawning of the day and marched around the city in the same manner seven times; only on that day they marched around the city seven times. At the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, "Shout! For the LORD has given you the city." "So the people shouted, and priests blew the trumpets; and when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight ahead, and they took the city."