The Walls of Jericho

The story of Israel’s victory over Jericho under the leadership of Joshua has wonderful spiritual truths that relate to us today. Jericho is the first city conquered by Israel upon entering the promised land of Canaan. In order to take the city, God gave Joshua specific instructions. Israel was to walk around the city once each day for six days with seven priests blowing seven trumpets before the ark. On the seventh day, they were to go around the city seven times, again with the priests blowing the trumpets. When the seventh day came and as all the people heard the long blast of the seven trumpets they let out a great shout and the walls of Jericho fell.

This is a familiar biblical story but what is God relaying to us today? An important aspect of the story is the wall. Walls have been mentioned numerous times in the bible from the walls of Jericho to the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem by Nehemiah. Walls serve an important function. They keep out intruders and protect those inside them. The wall is often the first line of defense for a city. A city defends its walls because once breached the city is vulnerable. Beyond its protective features, it stands as a formidable symbol of a city’s greatness and can discourage the enemy from attack.

Jericho was fortified with such a wall which protected the city from external forces. However, Jericho was an enemy to God’s elect. It had to be overcome. Spiritually, there are many truths to be garnered from the fall of Jericho. You see, there is a Jericho in each of us. Jericho is a type of the carnal mind, the natural man, or the Adamic nature. The bible is clear that “the carnal mind is enmity against God” (Rom. 8:7). For the people of God to overcome Jericho, there was a barrier – an obstacle. This barrier was the wall surrounding the city. Spiritually, the wall represents man-made religion. Paul speaking to the high priest Ananias declares: “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall” (Acts 23:3). Ananias was a leader of the religious order of the day – he was part of the Sadducees who opposed the preaching of the gospel of the Kingdom.

As the walls surrounded Jericho and protected its people from the Israelites, so does religion. It protects and preserves the carnal mind. Religion does not develop Christ in a people instead it sustains the natural mind from being usurped by the mind of Christ. Religion fails to impart divine life but rather endorses self, works, and the law. Religion encourages one to imitate the life of Christ but refuses to surrender one’s life to the dominion of Christ. Religion protects the ambitions, dreams and yearnings of men under the guise of blessing. Religion exalts the will of man above the will of God. Religion wants no fellowship in the suffering of Christ. Through all its teachings, man-made doctrines, and soul-driven programs, religion justifies and promotes the existence of the natural man. Like Jericho’s wall, the man-made walls of religion must fall. And yes these walls have been erected in many of us who have been part of the institutional system of the church.

From my personal experience, I have shared with saints God has brought across my path about the wonderful truths of the Kingdom. Often times the things I’ve shared have been met with resistance. Irrespective of countless scriptures that I would share, people would struggle to accept these truths mainly because they were contrary to the doctrines they had been taught in the church system. Often times these are hand-me-down teachings that people heard and accepted without examining for themselves the scriptures. And despite numerous scriptures shared with them, they refuse to accept because they have fortified themselves within the wall of Jericho. And although they claim scriptures have the ultimate authority, in reality they don’t.

This is the wall of Jericho established in the hearts of men. And we are marching around the walls sounding the trumpet and the walls are cracking for they are walls without foundation. They are manmade walls that must come down. It is this wall that God desires to bring down in order to destroy the inhabitants of Jericho and to establish a greater city, one with greater walls – the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:10,12).

The Seventh Trumpet

The sounding of the seven trumpets is a key event in the destruction of the walls of Jericho. Spiritually speaking, the seventh trumpet is the proclamation of the full message of the kingdom. In Revelation 8-11 we read about the seven trumpets being sounded one by one – “and I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets” (Rev. 8:2). Seven is the number of completeness. The seventh trumpet is a declaration of the full gospel of the kingdom. In Rev. 11:15 as the seventh angel sounds the seventh trumpet, a loud voice in heaven is heard declaring: “the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever.” The seventh trumpet is a powerful message of the Kingdom of God that establishes the kingship and dominion of Christ within a people. It is the sounding of this seventh trumpet that leads to the fall of the walls of the religious mindset and practices of the carnal man.

The gospel of the kingdom declares the dominion of the King – Christ. It usurps the carnal mind and self who sit enthroned in the hearts of men. It is this gospel that exposes and abolishes the carnal mind. The voice of the trumpet shakes everything in us that needs to be shaken. For that which cannot be shaken is the Kingdom of God (Hebrews 12:26-27). The kingdom is now being established in the hearts of men by the sounding of the seventh trumpet declaring in spirit and truth the dominion of Christ. It’s a glorious sound, a message of reconciliation, a message of perfection, a message of great power and authority, a message of fullness in Christ.

The wall of the New Jerusalem

There is, therefore, another wall that God is building in those apprehended to sonship. It is the wall of the New Jerusalem. We read in Rev. 21:10 that the city had a wall that is “great and high.” The wall is described in great detail in the same chapter outlining its foundations and the stones with which it is built. This wall represents the establishment of the nature of truth. You see truth is not just a set of statements based on objective facts, truth is a person, it is the very nature of Christ. Jesus said: “I am the truth”. He is not a truth. He is the truth. Christ ruling in fullness within us means that He is establishing the nature of truth within us.

Being established in truth keeps one from error and from allowing lies from entering in. This nature is the great and high wall that cannot be penetrated by any enemy for it is not built by man but it is established by the Spirit of God. This is the ministry of the Spirit of God for Jesus said: “when He the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth” (John 6:13). This truth is the high wall of the New Jerusalem which we are. It is a great and high wall that nothing or no one can penetrate. The bible says concerning this in Rev. 21:27: “but there shall by no means enter it [New Jerusalem] anything that defiles, or causes abomination or a lie…” When you put on the nature of truth you are surrounding yourself with this divine protection for “His truth shall be thy shield and buckler” (Psalm 91:4).

Glory to God! God is destroying every wall of religion and He is building the walls of the New Jerusalem within us. He is establishing the nature of truth that is found in Christ within us. How precious and priceless this is. Notice the walls of the New Jerusalem are not made of mere stone but of precious stones, valuable stones, rare stones, beautiful stones. Amen!