Joshua 6:19–20

Joshua told them that Jericho and everything in it lay under God's curse. It all belonged to God alone. The city had to be destroyed completely, and its defilement burned away by fire. Whatever survived the fire — the silver and the gold — had to go into the treasury of Jehovah, because He had said that the silver and the gold are His. He claimed the metals that fire cannot destroy as His own share.

One part of the temple was called "the treasury." It held the things set apart for Jehovah, such as the gold, silver, and vessels of bronze and iron captured from Jericho (Joshua 6:19). The people also handed in their freewill offerings at "the treasury" (Mark 12:41, 43). On one occasion the Lord spoke to the people "in the treasury, as He taught in the temple." He was no doubt in the outer part, where He could watch the people bringing in their gifts (Luke 21:1; John 8:20).

At the taking of Jericho, Jehovah had already shown that His might alone gave the victory. Or rather, His might alone made everything fall before Israel, for the prince of this world had no power against Him. He had also shown that the gold and silver were His. So the people were not to seek the treasures of the conquered world, or enrich themselves with its spoils. As a rule, though, once Israel had wiped out their enemies, they took possession of everything, just as they took the promised land.

These were things that could stand up to the fire of God's judgment. Fire would only purify them, not destroy them. They all picture spiritual things that, used rightly, bring glory to God and blessing to the whole congregation. Gold, for instance, speaks of the glory of God. But people who only profess religion, people Satan has deceived, badly abuse that glory. We see it in Revelation 18:12, where the false church trades in gold — that is, it trades in what is only rightly used for God's glory. The same is true of silver, which speaks of redemption, and men's religions misuse that too. Bronze is named in the same verse as well. Bronze pictures the holiness of God, yet in their profitable religion it becomes merchandise too. How important to have these things rescued from unholy hands and given back to God!

The city and everything in it lay under the curse, and had to be completely destroyed, apart from the silver, gold, and vessels of bronze and iron, which were set apart for the Lord. This pictures the power of Satan in the world that stops the Christian's progress. The Christian must count it all as under the curse, though God may use such things by setting them apart for Himself.

God allowed Israel not a shred or a shekel from Jericho for their own glory or wealth. The men He called to carry out His sentence on the Canaanites were to take nothing for themselves. Yet Achan laid hands on both the garment and the gold — on what was cursed and doomed to the fire, and on what was set apart for Jehovah's treasury. Achan was a prince in Israel, and sin and sorrow often come in through the leaders rather than through the ordinary soldiers of God's army.

At last comes the crisis when faith had its answer… Can anything be more remarkable than the way Joshua calls the people to a settled and thorough assurance of what is going to happen to Jericho before it takes place? The means used were plainly not enough on human grounds. There is communion with the mind of God. It is as fully laid out before Joshua and all the people as if the city already lay in ruins.

But, someone may say, why not make the path simpler? Why all these complications? Why go round the city every day, and seven times on the seventh day? Why this procession with the ark and trumpets? Faith does not ask why. It does not reason about the means God chooses to use. It accepts them, enters into them, and gains the victory instead of being beaten by the enemy… Faith will tell you the reason for the seven days, the ark, the procession, the trumpets, and the shouts of joy. But it will only tell you after you submit to them. Otherwise it would be intelligence and not faith.

What could the blowing of rams' horns do towards throwing down the walls of Jericho? What could be more meaningless and ridiculous in the eyes of man?… The people of Jericho, apart from one singled out by grace, may have watched in amazement on the first day and trembled at what would follow. By the sixth day they had learned to mock the procession that seemed so foolish to them. The seventh day brought its dreadful reality — sudden and unrecoverable destruction… Faith was patient through the six days and triumphed on the seventh. God crowns it all by displaying His power as greater than man and independent of him.

Only then were the people of Israel to raise their voices, and at Joshua's command they gave a shout. The shout did not bring the wall down. But God, in grace, allowed His people to share the triumph over the power of the enemy. His almighty power made the wall fall flat. That power also made His people strong in the Lord, so they overcame their enemies.

Suppose Israel had said: Very well, let the power be God's, but let us work together to find the means to overthrow the walls of Jericho — what would have happened on the seventh day? Not a single stone of the wall would have fallen!

The shout of victory will soon sound! The Lord will give the word, and then the defences of evil will fall before Him… In view of that day, let every man go up straight before Him. Among the soldiers of Jesus Christ there is too much following of leaders, and too little simple obedience to the Lord. Men crowd on one another's steps, and the nobility of individuality is missing. Few dare to face the sneer of being odd by doing their own duty in obedience to the word of the Lord.

The battle was now the Lord's, so it did not matter what the weapons of war were… And so the shout of the soldiers and the blast of a ram's horn trumpet are enough. The walls of Jericho fall, and Israel takes that city as the firstfruits of the land. Faith did it and not force (Heb. 11:30) — faith which brings God in… But the world must be judged… Jericho is given over to the sword. It stood out as the sample of what was to be judged. Everyone in it, or belonging to it, was to be cut off — except the household of faith sheltered under the scarlet line.