Today started out with the new generation of people getting circumcised. Since they were wandering around for forty years, they never really got to it. Also, the people that were originally circumcised are gone and/or are not allowed to enter the land anyway. So it was their children that Joshua had circumcised.
Then they had their first Passover in the new land. It was on the fourteenth day of the month, and they followed all the rituals; the next day they ate the produce of the land, unleavened cakes, and parched grain. The manna ceased the next day and there was no longer any, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.
When Joshua was by Jericho, he saw a man standing before him with his sword drawn. He asked the man, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” The man said that he was the commander of the army for the Lord. Which meant he was a heavenly figure. Joshua prayed and worshiped. The commander told him to take off his sandals because he was standing in a holy place.
Was this an angel? God in human form? Did he have a name?
When the people went to Jericho, they marched around the city once. They did that for six days. Seven priests had seven trumpets made from rams’ horns, and they blew the horns on the seventh day when they marched around the city seven times.
When the priests made a long blast with the horns, all the people let out a great shout, because the Lord was giving them the city; and the wall of the city fell down flat. The city and all that was in was now devoted to the Lord for destruction.
Only Rahab, the prostitute and her family survived. The two spies she had housed went and got her and her family and took them out of the city for safety. She continued her life in Israel.
They completely destroyed the city. They burnt it to the ground. All things were devoted to destruction. Men and women. Young and old. Oxen, sheep, and donkeys.
Only the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and iron were put in the treasury of the house of the Lord. Israel was to keep themselves away from the things devoted to the destruction. They could not take any of the devoted things.
Joshua then laid an oath on the people at the time, saying “Cursed before the Lord be the man who rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho.” Laying the foundation would cost him his firstborn, and setting up the gates would be his youngest son.
The Lord was with Joshua, and his fame was all in the land.
The people of Israel broke faith with the rule regarding the devoted things, and God was furious again. Why? Why is this so damn difficult? I feel like I’m reading about Eve again, you had one job! Don’t take those items! Don’t touch them! I understand God’s anger, this is incredibly frustrating.
Because of this, the people of Israel were defeated. They broke the rules, God didn’t go to battle with them, and people died. Wait, I’m getting ahead of myself here.
So, Joshua sent men to check out the land of Ai. They returned and told him that there wasn’t that many people and not to send the entire army. He sent 3,000 men to take over the land. They ended up fleeing from the men of Ai and about 36 of them were killed. They chased Israel out of the city and struck them down at the stone quarries.
Joshua cried out to the Lord about this, wondering why he would bring the people over the Jordan at all just to give them to the hands of their enemies. Then he had the thought that all the enemies who heard of this would come and surround them to attack because they were able to be beat.
The Lord told him that Israel had sinned, and transgressed their covenant; because they had taken some of the devoted things. Therefore, the people of Israel could not stand before their enemies because they had become devoted for destruction. God would no longer be with them!
Joshua realized that this was crazy to punish the entire people, so they got down to the bottom of it and found the one that had taken the devoted things. He brought each tribe to him divided up by their clans. It was no use until he came to the tribe of Judah. A man from one of the clans had taken a cloak, a bar of gold, and silver. He admitted he had sinned…now that he had been caught anyway.
So they took everything the man had; the silver, the cloak, the gold, his sons and daughters, his oxen, donkeys, and sheep, and his tent. All of Israel stoned him. When they finished with him, they stoned the rest of what was brought, and everything was burned. All this was done to purge Israel of the trouble his actions brought onto them.
Then they built over him a great heap of stones. It says it’s still there today. This is another thing I will have to research…
Anyone out there know if these “landmarks” are actual able to be viewed today? As in, you could travel to these places and actually see the things the Bible talks about?