The Fall of Moon City

Joshua, being commissioned by God to lead Israel into Canaan, sent two spies into Jericho. By the efforts of Rahab, a Canaanite woman who feared the Lord (see Joshua 2), the spies were protected from harm.

Jericho was a walled city, which was common in the ancient world, the wall would have been the chief means of defense against enemies. Lying on the outer edge of the Promised Land, Jericho was the key city for the Israelites to conquer in order to possess Canaan.

Jericho was well-equipped to take on a siege by invaders, for those wanting to take this city had to get past the mighty wall. We are all familiar with how our Great God took the walls down. The Israelites marched around the city with the ark one a day for six days while the priests blew trumpets. And then on the seventh day they marched around the city seven times, blowing the trumpets and then everyone giving a shout(their battle cry). After the shout the walls fell flat, not by the magnitude of sound, but by the Lord's power and the Israelites conquered the city, destroying everything and everyone, except Rahab and her family.

This destruction of everyone even the "women, young and old," and even the animals had troubled me, but after a little more studding I learned that it was not an uncommon practice in ancient wars. But more importantly, God being the giver of life has the authority to take it. God charged the Israelites to eliminate everything, not so much because they(the Israelites) were so much holier than they but because the pagans in Canaan earned it. I see the salvation of Rahab and her family to show that even the holy war against the Canaanites was not absolute. Those who were willing to turn from sin and serve the LORD, the true God, were to be spared.

Created about 2 years ago