Section 02 - The Jericho Experience

Joshua 3:3 and 4 says:

And they commanded the people saying, When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD [Yahweh] your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then you shall remove from your place, and go after it.
Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: do not come near to it, that you may know the way by which you must go: for you have not passed [this] way before.

Famous last words are,

We never did it that way before.

Have you ever heard them? Change; people don't like it. Change is a painful experience in life, because we humans are creatures of habit. We get into a rut.

We like to do things the way we've always done them. We are comfortable with it. We don't have to think about it. We know what is coming and we know how to handle it. And so when we have to do things differently it is a painful experience for us.

Moving home is a painful experience. You have just become used to which way to turn when you get up in the middle of the night and need to go to the bathroom. Now you have to learn all over again because it is in a different place.

You have come to know where everything has been packed in the cupboards, now everything is in a different place. Your whole lifestyle has changed because you are living in a different house.

It is a painful experience moving home. It is an even more painful experience moving cities, where you need to move away from the city you grew up in and where you know all the shops and all the streets.

You know all the places to go to, and now suddenly you have to live in a place that is totally different. It can be a very stressful experience.

How about moving countries? We know all about that one, especially when the country you are moving to has a different culture to the one that you came from.

And then they have a different language to the language you normally speak where you come from. It is a painful experience to go through change. Each one of us finds it very difficult to do.

Difficult to Change Others

Now if we find it difficult ourselves to come to grips with the changes in life that we need to experience, how much more difficult does it become when you now have to impose that change on somebody else?

If you have a family, you know what it is like dealing with a backlash from your kids when you tell them,

"We're moving. You will have to change schools and leave your friends behind. You will have to go and get new friends."

"Oh gee, but why?"

You have a problem on your hands that you will have to face when you have to deal with people.

It is bad enough to have to handle the change yourself. But when you have to now try and bring change to bear on others, it is an extremely difficult thing to do. But it is one of the major tasks that is required of one who is called to leadership.

In the Body of Christ when you are called to exercise a leadership ministry, and particularly when it comes to the realm of the apostle where you are at the top of the pile as far as leadership is concerned, you need to face the pain of change yourself. You also have to know how to bring that change to bear on others.

Joshua was Different

Why am I talking about change when I am supposed to be speaking about the Jericho experience? It is because the key note of the life and ministry of Joshua and the key function of Joshua is - different.

Let that sink deeply into you. Joshua is different. Different in what way? Joshua did everything differently to the way they used to do it before.

You say, "Well it was easy for Joshua. He just stepped into Moses' shoes. Moses laid the whole thing out for him. It was easy."

No, it wasn't easy, because Joshua didn't simply step in and continue to do what Moses was doing. Joshua had to do something that was different to what Moses had been doing. It was totally different, yet it followed exactly the same pattern.

We looked at Joshua in the last section and we considered the fact that Joshua was simply an extension of Moses; that he was simply to fulfill the mandate of Moses. Now perhaps you began to wonder,

"So what is so different about Joshua? Joshua really just had to take over, because Moses failed and he grew too old and couldn't do it anymore. So Joshua had to go and step in and try and be another Moses."

No, Joshua was never and could never be another Moses. I want to show you some very distinct differences between the way Moses operated and the way Joshua operated. Although Joshua was Moses' disciple and followed with him and worked with him all the way, Joshua was not the same kind of person as Moses.

He was not the same kind of leader that Moses was. Joshua did not have the same temperamental makeup as Moses. He was different. He was a different kind of person, and that is why God chose him to take Moses' place.

Parting the Waters

When they came to the Red Sea, Moses stood and held his hand up. He took the rod and parted the waters and said,

"Okay guys, I've opened the waters for you. Go on through."

Do you think that was bad? I think when they came to the River Jordan the people expected Joshua to do the same thing. They stood there waiting for Joshua to walk out there and say,

"Waters, part!"

"Great stuff, now we can go across the River Jordan just like Moses did for us."

Not a chance. Joshua said,

"Walk into the water."

"What do you mean, 'Walk into the water?' "

"Walk into the water."

"But it hasn't parted. We'll drown."

"The water is not going to open until you walk in it, now walk into it."

That was different. It was a totally different approach and a different way of doing things altogether. The people couldn't stand back and watch Joshua do the work now. Joshua made them do the work. He made them go and part the water. He said,

"You priests take the Ark and walk into the water. And when you walk into the water it will open."

They said, "It's easy for you to talk big mouth. You're not stepping into that raging river. You're standing here watching. If we miss it you'll say, 'Oops, sorry I made a mistake. Get some new priests.' It's easy for you."

Gathering Food

Joshua was different. The people cried out to the Lord for food, and Moses came and exercised his faith. He prayed and said,

"God, the people are starving. We need food."

Down came the manna and the quails from Heaven. They just got up every morning and breakfast was ready. The food was already there.

Today we have water on tap. In those days they had food on tap. It was easy. You didn't have to work for your food. You didn't have to go and pick anything in the garden. You had to just go and pick it up. It was lying all over the ground. Moses gave it to them. He did all the work.

What did Joshua do? He made the manna stop. He said,

"You guys, go and get the fruit of the land now. You will have to do some work to eat now. It's not just going to be lying there waiting for you."

"Oh no, I think I'd rather go back to the Moses era."

"Well if you want to keep on having cereal for breakfast, lunch and supper then that's fine."

Joshua was giving them something better, but it was going to cost them. It wasn't just going to be handed to them on a platter anymore. He was not going to do all the work for them anymore. They had to get involved in it themselves now.

Supplying Water

They cried out for water. Moses just went and struck the rock and the water came out. It was nice and easy. If they wanted water under Joshua they had to go and kill the enemy and take his water.

They had to fight for their water now. It wasn't just going to come flowing to them. They had to go and draw their water out. It would not be on tap anymore.

You say, "But I liked it the old way. I just got used to it. I mean we're used to doing things that way. What do you want to go and change it for?"

You think the people complained under Moses and had it tough under him? They had it even tougher under Joshua. He put it all back on them and made them do everything.

Other Differences

Moses led the people to the Promised Land. Joshua did more than that; he gave them the Promised Land.

Joshua had a far more active role than Moses. All Moses could do was tell them about this wonderful Promised Land and convince them that they should leave Egypt to go to this wonderful land.

When they got there and discovered all the giants and the problems they turned to Moses and said,

"Hey you lied to us, man. This Promised Land isn't so great. Yeah it looked pretty good, but you didn't tell us about the giants. You didn't tell us about all the problems we were going to face."

Joshua took them in, took the land and gave it to them. Joshua was more practical than Moses. He did it differently. He didn't just talk, but he put action to it.

Moses got the people through all the obstacles that stood in the way of them getting to the Promised Land. Joshua got the people settled into the land. It was a very different approach and very different task. It was a completely different orientation to what Moses had.

What was Moses' prime role and calling? It was to prepare the people for the new land, to get them ready and to change their mindsets. It was not just to get them out of Egypt, but to get Egypt out of them.

We have looked at that under the Moses Mandate in our Apostolic Office course. Moses had to work hard to bring change in the people. And the only way he could change them in the end was to kill them all off, get some new ones and teach them from scratch.