Joshua Didn’t Win the Battle of Jericho


Sermon by David Strain on February 20, 2022 Joshua 5:13-6:27

Well do please take a copy of the Scriptures in your hands and turn with me to the book of Joshua as we continue to examine the message of the sixth book of the Old Testament Scriptures. You will remember the story so far. After forty years wandering in the wilderness, the people of Israel have crossed the Jordan; they are now encamped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho on the eastern border of Canaan. And the first part of Joshua chapter 5, which we looked at last time, saw the people of Israel renewing their covenant with God. Before they were ready for the conquest of the land, they must renew their covenant. The men had to be circumcised; the whole nation had to celebrate Passover. You will remember the first generation who led the people out of Egyptian slavery had neglected these two principle sacraments of the church in the old covenant – circumcision and Passover – during the years they wandered in the wilderness. And so before the people would ever be ready to attempt great things for God in the conquest of the land, they had to celebrate these two ordinances that were designed to preach to them the great grace of God upon which they must daily depend. And now here they are with the festival concluded. This is where we pick up the story at the end of chapter 5, beginning at verse 13. Their faith is strengthened, their commitments renewed, and now finally at long last they are ready to begin the conquest of Jericho.

And we are going to look at this whole narrative, beginning in chapter 5 verse 13, under three headings. First, chapter 5:13-15, I want you to see the battle we must lose. The battle we must lose. Then chapter 6:1-21, the foolishness we must embrace. The foolishness we must embrace. And then chapter 6, going back through the chapter beginning at verse 15 through 27, the judgment we must flee. Alright, so there’s the outline. The battle we must lose, the foolishness we must embrace, and the judgment that we must flee. Before we get into all of that, let’s pause and pray and then we’ll read the passage. Let us pray.

O Lord our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth. With a word, You hung the stars. You said “Let there be light,” and there was light. With a word, the Lord Jesus opened the tomb of Lazarus and brought him alive again from the dead. And now we pray, speak Your Word into our needy hearts. Cause there to be new life where only there was death. Cause there to be godliness in place of sin. Cause Christian graces to ripen on the vine of our lives and sin to wither and die, for the glory of the name of Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.

Joshua chapter 5, beginning at the thirteenth verse. This is the Word of Almighty God:

“When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, ‘Are you for us, or for our adversaries?’ And he said, ‘No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.’ And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, ‘What does my lord say to his servant?’ And the commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, ‘Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.’ And Joshua did so.

Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, and none came in. And the Lord said to Joshua, ‘See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days. Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. And when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, everyone straight before him.’ So Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, ‘Take up the ark of the covenant and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord.’ And he said to the people, ‘Go forward. March around the city and let the armed men pass on before the ark of the Lord.’

And just as Joshua had commanded the people, the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the Lord went forward, blowing the trumpets, with the ark of the covenant of the Lord following them. The armed men were walking before the priests who were blowing the trumpets, and the rear guard was walking after the ark, while the trumpets blew continually. But Joshua commanded the people, ‘You shall not shout or make your voice heard, neither shall any word go out of your mouth, until the day I tell you to shout. Then you shall shout.’ So he caused the ark of the Lord to circle the city, going about it once. And they came into the camp and spent the night in the camp.

Then Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. And the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark of the Lord walked on, and they blew the trumpets continually. And the armed men were walking before them, and the rear guard was walking after the ark of the Lord, while the trumpets blew continually. And the second day they marched around the city once, and returned into the camp. So they did for six days.

On the seventh day they rose early, at the dawn of day, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times. It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, ‘Shout, for the Lord has given you the city. And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent. But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it. But all silver and gold, and every vessel of bronze and iron, are holy to the Lord; they shall go into the treasury of the Lord.’ So the people shouted, and the trumpets were blown. As soon as the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they captured the city. Then they devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword.

But to the two men who had spied out the land, Joshua said, ‘Go into the prostitute’s house and bring out from there the woman and all who belong to her, as you swore to her.’ So the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. And they brought all her relatives and put them outside the camp of Israel. And they burned the city with fire, and everything in it. Only the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. But Rahab the prostitute and her father’s household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

Joshua laid an oath on them at that time, saying, ‘Cursed before the Lord be the man who rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho.

‘At the cost of his firstborn shall he lay its foundation, and at the cost of his youngest son shall he set up its gates.’’

So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame was in all the land.”

Amen, and we praise God that He has spoken in His holy Word.

Well the passage before us this morning teaches us an overarching principle; the great guiding principle of all authentic Christianity. It is the principle of grace. The principle of grace. “By grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Grace. Grace is the foundation. It is the bedrock of salvation. It is the beginning and middle and end of the Christian life. Grace is the sine qua non – “that without which we have nothing.” Grace of course is just shorthand for the special favor and lovingkindness of God in which He acts despite our sin for our good and His great glory. That’s grace.

And in many ways, the whole book of Joshua to this point has reverberated with this theme of grace. Think about chapter 1 as God commissions Joshua to lead the people. He told him that He would go with him and bless him. It’s all about God’s grace to Joshua. Or think about the crossing of the river Jordan as the presence of God went ahead of the people, symbolized by the ark of the covenant and caused the waters to dry up so that the people could cross the river on dry land. What was that but a dramatic and extraordinary display of the grace of God. Or here in chapter 5, or the first part of chapter 5, grace was signified and sealed to the faith of the believing Israelites in the sacraments of circumcision and Passover. And now as we read Joshua carefully, I hope we are beginning to see that this is not mainly a book about Israel’s conquest of Canaan, so much as it is mainly about the grace of God that gives to Israel the victory. This is mainly about the grace of God that gives to Israel the victory. And now here they are, standing on the brink of their first assault of an enemy position inside the land, the city of Jericho.

The Battle We Must Lose

And it is grace that fills the eyes of Joshua himself. Would you look at chapter 5, verses 13 through 15 with me please, and notice how this principle of grace confronts Joshua. Here, in the first place, is the battle we must lose. The battle we must lose. Verse 13 tells us Joshua is no longer at Gilgal where Israel is encamped. Instead, he has gone up, alone it seems, by Jericho. Most commentators speculate that as the Israelite commander, he has gone on alone to engage in some private reconnaissance to spy out the city for himself to make sure he knows what’s what before he commands his army to advance. This is, after all, a new circumstance for the people of Israel. They have never before engaged in siege warfare in all their conflicts throughout their wilderness journey. And so Joshua is there studying the city.

But actually, it’s not the city that captures his attention, is it? Look at the text. “He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand.” Out of nowhere, as it must have seemed to Joshua, this man has overtaken him, ready for a fight, spoiling for a fight. So Joshua asks the age old question that’s been asked countless times by soldiers on every battlefield the world over, “Halt! Who goes there? Friend of foe?” Do you see the question? Verse 13, “Are you for us or for our adversaries? Whose team are you on? Are you on my side or their side?” It’s not an unreasonable question for the commander of the army to ask a man standing between him and the enemy city with his sword drawn. Probably Joshua is trying to determine, “Is this man going to attack me? Am I going to fight him personally? Is he perhaps an Amorite assassin sent to take out the Israelite leader?” And so as Joshua begins to steel himself for this man’s attack, the realization dawns on him that he has misread the situation almost completely wrongly. The man identifies himself, notice, as “the commander of the Lord’s army.” He tells Joshua to take off his sandals because the place where he is standing is holy ground. That language, by the way, should ring a bell for us. It was spoken – it’s almost exactly a quotation of words spoken by the angel of the Lord who appeared to Moses, Joshua’s mentor, on the mountain in Exodus chapter 3 in the burning bush. “Take the sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

That is a tale, it’s a clue to the identity of this man. He is no Amorite assassin. He’s not even an angel sent from heaven, as extraordinary as that would have been. He is the Lord of hosts himself. Like the middle of the three men that met Abraham at Mamre who was in fact the Lord, or like the strange figure who wrestled with Jacob all night long and dislocated the socket of his hip, this figure is none other than the Lord himself. This is what theologians sometimes call a theophany. Actually, I wouldn’t hesitate to say with the majority of the ancient interpreters of this passage, this is actually a Christophany, that is to say, it is a pre-incarnate appearance of the second person of the blessed Trinity. This is God the Son, whose office it is to reveal God to the world. He is the commander of the Lord’s army. He is the Lord of hosts.

Now in light of all of that, Joshua’s question, “Are you on my team or their team?” starts to sound frankly rather absurd, doesn’t it? “Are you for us or for our adversaries? Do you agree with me or do you agree with those guys? Will you support my agenda or their agenda?” That is, let’s be honest, that’s all too often our question for God. Isn’t it? As we face the coming battle, as Jericho lies over the next hill, we want to know, “Is God going to endorse our plan? I have submitted my plan to Him in triplicate. We should be good. I want God on my side. I want to co-opt the commander of the Lord’s army to my cause.” Have you ever felt that way? All too often that’s how we operate. But look at the answer Joshua receives. “Are you for us or for our adversaries?” “No.” It’s pretty definitive. “Are you for us or for our adversaries?” “No, I’m not for you or for your adversaries, Joshua. Joshua, you are asking the wrong question entirely. Whether I am for you or for them is really beside the point. The most pressing issue, the question you must settle before the battle begins is not whether I am on your team or their team. The real question, Joshua, is whether you are on my team. I am the commander of the Lord’s army. Now I have come. You will not co-opt me to your agenda. You must bow before me and serve my agenda.” God will not be co-opted to our agenda. Before Joshua has any hope of winning the fight at Jericho, this is a battle right here that he must first lose.

And dear friends, we must lose it too. We must lose it too. Maybe you’ve been arguing with God lately, fighting with Him. You want your own way. You’re not yet in that same place mentally Jesus got to in the garden, remember, where He was able to say, “Not My will but Your will be done.” You’re not there yet. You still want your will to be done and you want God to endorse your plan. Well the encounter between Joshua and the commander of the Lord’s army is God’s word to you today. This is a fight you must lose. You must lose it. We have to come to terms with the fact, brothers and sisters, that we are not in charge. You are not in charge. God is not your servant. The Lord reigns and we are His servants. Grace – you know, until we lose this particular fight we’ll never really understand grace. Grace is when we discover, were we in charge we never could win the battle. And what a mess of it we would make! But if we would bow in submission to the commander of the Lord’s army, bow in final trust before the Lord Jesus Christ, then our winning or our losing we’ll soon come to realize is entirely beside the point. And what will really matter to us is that the battle belong to the Lord. God wants Joshua, He wants you, trusting Him rather than in himself.

And so the question the text is asking each of us this morning is whether you will join Joshua on holy ground, as it were, bowed in adoration before the Lord, surrendered, submitted to Him, or are you actually here today because you think a little bit of religion gives you some leverage with God, is the best way for you to co-opt Him to your agenda, to make sure Jesus is on your team, know; He is an ally as you execute your life plan. Look, if that’s you, I want you to hear me say very clearly Jesus Christ will not be used. There is a battle we must lose. It’s the battle with our own egos at the end of the day. The battle to bend the knee to King Jesus. The battle we must lose.

The Foolishness We Must Embrace

Secondly, I want you to see the foolishness we must embrace. The foolishness we must embrace. Look down at chapter 6. Verse 1 tells us the city is shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. No one comes out; no one gets in. And the commander of the Lord’s army who is speaking to Joshua is now simply identified as the Lord himself, gives Joshua his instructions. And they start out sounding really very promising indeed. Don’t they? Look at verse 2. “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor.” Notice the past tense. “I have given them into your hand.” It’s not something yet to be determined; the outcome is not in any doubt. “It is a done deal, Joshua.” “Excellent! So what’s the plan, Lord? Shall we build a siege ramp, you know, up against the wall like the Babylonians and the Assyrians do? Or maybe we should send sappers under the wall to cause them to collapse. Or perhaps we should build a battering ram, you know, and attack the front door directly. Or just simply surround the city and hunker down for a siege and starve them out. What’s the best approach?” “Well, here’s the plan Joshua. Are you ready? You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. You shall do it for six days. Seven priests shall bear trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. On the seventh day, you shall march around the city seven times and the priests shall blow the trumpet. And when you make a long blast with a ram’s horn, you hear the sound of the trumpet, everyone shall shout with a great shout and the wall of the city will fall down flat.” “That’s the plan? It doesn’t really sound so promising after all.”

And on the first circuit around the wall, I’m sure the people of Jericho wondered what in the world the Israelites were up to. You can see the soldiers on the battlements, scratching their heads, looking quizzically as this little parade makes the first circuit, sort of braced for the first charge, the first assault. Then the sun sets and the charge never came. It didn’t come on the second day either. The day passed without incident. The third, fourth, fifth, sixth day, were the people of Jericho beginning to wonder if the Israelites hadn’t really actually rather lost their nerve? Were their catcalls and insults thrown from the battlements by now at the ridiculous spectacle of soldiers marching round and round, tooting their little horns, never once drawing their swords, never ever attacking the city? And I can’t imagine but that some of the Israelite soldiers had begun to feel pretty foolish themselves. “We have been preparing for this day sometime, Joshua. How long are we going to keep this up? We came out to fight. Let’s get fighting already! Come on!”

But while a week’s worth of marching and trumpet playing does seem to be a most unlikely military tactic, the apparent foolishness of it all really only lies on the surface. A closer look and we begin to see something of the real wisdom of God. Notice verses 8 and 9 and look at the order and placement of the various elements of this parade marching around the city of Jericho. First there’s a troop of armed soldiers walking in front of the procession. And then after them came the seven priests with the seven rams’ horns continually being sounded. Then came the ark of the covenant carried behind them. And then there are more soldiers bringing up the rear. And the author of Joshua is actually rather determined that we pay attention to that sequence and order of things. He repeats it several times over in the chapter. Verses 3 through 6, and again in 6 and 7, and again in 8 and 9, and again in 12 through 14. This little detail, the order of things, it really matters, do you see.

And so what is it designed to teach us? Well it’s teaching us, it was designed to teach Israel there on the plain, it was designed to teach the Amorites behind the walls of Jericho, that at the center of Israel’s strategy is not the skill of their mighty men of war nor the skill of their chief strategist, Joshua. At the center of their strategy is the presence and power of Almighty God Himself, symbolized by the ark of the covenant, carried like this at the center of the procession that is circulating around the city. And here again, here is the principle of grace on display. Can you see it? These walls, they are coming down. But not because of a battering ram or a siege work or some military tactic. They’re not coming down because of anything really that Israel does. They stand still, they blow their trumpets, they raise their voices and the mighty power of the grace of God turns these walls and ramparts into sand and rubble. God loves to use what the world calls foolishness to display the wisdom and power of His grace. He loves to do it.

That comes out especially clearly today. We see it most frequently in the preaching of the Gospel. You remember how Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, beginning in the nineteenth verse. “For the word of the cross,” he says, “is folly to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom. It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God stronger than men.”

That’s exactly what we see here in Joshua 6, isn’t it? The foolishness of God that is wiser than men and the weaknesses of God stronger than men. The grace of God in the Gospel of His Son looks like nothing so much as folly to the world. And those who preach it and all who live by it know better than these Israelite soldiers and Israelite priests marching around the walls of Jericho shouting and blowing their trumpets. It is laughable, impotent, powerless, foolishness surely. “You Christians are so naive to believe this nonsense about a crucified rabbi! What a ridiculous idea!” But the sound of the Gospel trumpet, the shout of good news to the world, however much the world scoffs at it, is nevertheless the power of God and the wisdom of God. And it may just be, dear non-Christian friend, that one day while you scoff at these poor, naive Christians, that this Gospel foolishness will make even your mighty walls come tumbling down. May God make it so. The battle we must lose. The foolishness we must embrace.

The Judgment We Must Flee

And then finally, look at chapter 6 verses 15 through 27 and let’s think about the judgment we must flee. The judgment we must flee. Day seven dawns bright and clear in verse 15. The Israelites have been marching around the city all week long, blowing their trumpets, and now on the last day they march around the city seven times. And on their seventh circuit, while the trumpet sounds, the whole nation shouts, for as Joshua reminds them, “The Lord has given you the city!” And then notice this language very carefully, “And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction.” That phrase drips with solemn and weighty importance – “devoted to the Lord for destruction.” Verses 18 and 19 explain a little of what is involved. “But you, then,” he tells them, “keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction lest when you have devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it. But all the silver and gold and every vessel of bronze and iron are holy to the Lord. They shall go into the treasury of the Lord.” So this is not about the Israelites invading and plundering their enemies. They’re not allowed to touch anything. Some things are to be given to the Lord for the service of the temple and the rest is to be destroyed. And everything in fact, verse 21 makes plain, everyone in the city is to be devoted to the Lord for destruction.

Now let’s pause there for a minute and recognize that many of us will have some deep ethical questions about Israel’s prosecution of holy war. Everyone in the city, men and women, young and old, every animal, every living thing is slaughtered. It’s a disturbing picture. And we have ethical questions about that, don’t we? And we really don’t have the time to address all the complexities that must be involved in an adequate answer to those questions. But suffice it to say that the author of Scripture is not nearly so concerned about some of those thorny ethical issues as we tend to be. It’s not that the ethics of this scenario are unimportant so much as when we get absorbed in trying to get God off the hook for what may seem to us monstrous, we generally miss the real lesson the text is trying to teach us. So let me say that I am not even going to try to get God off whatever charge we may intend to indict Him on here, especially not since the main point of this part of the chapter is actually to warn us about the indictment that God has leveled against us. Whatever moral challenges the total war approach that Israel is engaged with here may present for us, it is not God but it is we who stand in the dock and the Lord is the one who stands before us as the Judge.

And so with that in mind, I do want you to notice the Godward character of the warfare in which Israel is engaged at Jericho. They are to be devoted to the Lord for destruction. This really is holy war. Israel is acting here not in service of personal avarice or imperial ambition. This is not a land grab, you know, like Germany invading Poland in 1939 because it wants Lebensraum, you know, room for the German people. Israel is acting here only as the agents of the just wrath of the holy God who is judging the Canaanites for the abominations of their pagan idolatry. And so verse 21 tells us rather grimly, when the walls came down “they devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep and donkeys, with the edge of the sword.” Verse 24, “the city is burned with fire and everything in it.” And verse 26 crowns the picture with a solemn curse. “Cursed before the Lord be the man who rises up and rebuilds Jericho. At the cost of his firstborn shall he lay its foundation. At the cost of his youngest son shall he set up its gates.” This is, without a doubt, a chilling picture of the wrath and curse of God. Isn’t it?

The devastation is almost total. I say “almost” because it wasn’t quite total, was it? In verse 17, Joshua remembers the promise made to Rahab back in chapter 2 by the spies who came to check out the city. Rahab and her household were to be spared. And so verse 25, as the city lay smoldering in ashes behind the army of the Lord, “Rahab the prostitute and her father’s household and all that belong to her, Joshua saved alive.” Certainly this whole episode makes for grim reading, perplexing to our late modern ears. And we will have our questions about it. But let’s not use our preoccupation with questions about the morality of Israel’s warfare to avoid what is, after all, a very clear, even if very sobering, message. The message is not difficult to see.

What’s the message? “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” That’s the message. The day is coming, you must know, the day is coming when another trumpet will sound and another Joshua will come, the Lord Jesus Christ. And no matter what walls you build to hide from Him behind, every wall will come tumbling down. He will bring with Him the hosts of the Lord and His victory will be absolute. He will devote to destruction in the eternal fire of the fury of the thrice holy God all who have rejected and resisted him and no one shall escape. I think there is a link that we are actually meant to make between the seven days of marching around the city with the great climactic day on the seventh with the days of the creation week in Genesis chapter 1 with the great climax of the creation story on the seventh day. As if to say, this is a picture of de-creation. God spoke peace and order into the chaos and darkness of the primordial creation at the dawn of history, and in His judgment to all who reject Him and refuse His reign, He speaks de–creation. He unravels peace and the order. Instead of the “telos,” the denouement for which all human life is intended in the glory of the world to come, they receive only His wrath and judgment forever. For them remains only the dreadful de-creation of hell. Every single one who rejects the Lord Jesus Christ, the de-creation of hell where their worm does not die and their fire is not quenched and the smoke of their destruction goes up forever and ever. The prospect of that should fill every heart with profound dread.

But please don’t miss this. Don’t miss this. Like Rahab and her family, there is still an offer of mercy before the trumpet sounds and the shout rises and Joshua, the Lord Jesus, comes forth to judge. Today, while it is still called today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart.” He offers you mercy. He offers to every Rahab who will open the door to Him mercy and pardon and a place amongst His people. Actually, the real tragedy of Jericho, Deuteronomy 20 verse 10 and following, the tragedy of Jericho is that not one single soul in the city needed to die. Not of them. Deuteronomy 20:10 and following says that if any of the people in any of the cities of Canaan should open their doors and surrender to the invading army of Israel, they would all be spared alive. But chapter 6 verse 1 says, remember, that Jericho was defiant. The doors were locked and barred against them. And yet even then, Rahab and her family were spared so that even then there was mercy available and possible.

So look, do you see the point? Judgment Day is coming. It’s coming. But the Jesus who will come to judge on that day is today a Jesus who abounds in mercy to sinners. He’s a refuge for the guilty. That’s where to go with your guilt – you go to Him! He’s a friend to sinners. He died actually under the wrath of God. He Himself devoted to destruction at the cross that you could live. So now He offers you pardon. He offers you peace. He offers you a place. Nobody needs to perish. Not one. Not you. Not any of you. “Repent and turn from all your transgressions lest iniquity be your ruin,” the Lord says to His people through Ezekiel in Ezekiel 18. “Cast away from you all the transgressions you have committed. Make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God. So turn and live!” The great and terrible day is coming. Jesus is coming to judge the living and the dead. But cry to Him today, seek pardon from Him today, confess your sin to Him today, go to Him for refuge today – that’s all it takes! Trust Him today, and like Rahab long ago, you will be saved alive now and forever.

So do you hear God’s question to you this morning? His pleading voice? “Why will you die? There’s no need for it. None. Why will you die? I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Turn and live! Live!” Jesus Christ is available to you overflowing with all the mercy you could ever need. Come and surrender to Him, the commander of the Lord’s army. Let’s pray together.

Our Father, please, as we contemplate the awesome solemnity of coming judgment, please teach our hearts appropriately to tremble. Save us from a yawning indifference. Alarm us. Awaken us. Show us our need and show us that while justice is coming, grace is available. Help us now today, here, right now, to stop trying to co-opt the Lord Jesus to our agenda and instead would You help us, every one of us, to come and bend our knee to Him in renewed surrender, or in surrender for the very first time, to lose the battle and to let Him be our conqueror. Conquer us, we pray. Rule us. We would throw open the doors and not cower behind our walls anymore. Please, O God, have mercy and be our deliverer, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

© 2024 First Presbyterian Church.

This transcribed message has been lightly edited and formatted for the Web site. No attempt has been made, however, to alter the basic extemporaneous delivery style, or to produce a grammatically accurate, publication-ready manuscript conforming to an established style template.

Should there be questions regarding grammar or theological content, the reader should presume any website error to be with the webmaster/transcriber/editor rather than with the original speaker. For full copyright, reproduction and permission information, please visit the First Presbyterian Church Copyright, Reproduction & Permission statement.

To view recordings of our entire services, visit our Facebook page.

caret-downclosedown-arrowenvelopefacebook-squarehamburgerinstagram-squarelinkedin-squarepausephoneplayprocesssearchtwitter-squarevimeo-square