Disclaimer: Please forgive any typographical, grammatical, and/or content errors in the following notes. They are not meant to be an exact transcription, but rather a helpful guide for those who appreciate the written word along with the spoken word. If you have any questions on what was taught, feel free to reach out on our ‘Contact Us’ page.
Today we will be covering the first 17 verses in chapter 6 of Joshua. In our text today we find ourselves first being assured by God himself that victory has already been given to Joshua, then in the following verses the Lord will be uncovering His rather unorthodox battle plan, and finally we will read of the faithful execution of the Lord’s commands by the newly formed nation of Israel.
In fact, the pattern we see here is the same pattern we have really been reading repeatedly in these first six chapters of the book of Joshua. First, God promises or assures something to Joshua, then gives clear instructions for him to relay down the chain of command, then rather immediately we witness God’s promise come to pass, just like he said it would.
This pattern of obedience and follow through is best described as faithfulness, which is a topic we have spoken a good deal on, so far up until this point, this being the 18th message in our series of the book of Joshua. But in this particular text we are covering today, I believe, gives us an opportunity to take a fresh look at a familiar story and speak on what I consider to be the primary fruit of faithfulness, which would be rest.
That being said, my goal for today’s message is two fold. One is to highlight how God wants Joshua and the people to fight this battle from a place of resting confidence in Him. But secondly to take a look at what the sabbath tells of God’s character, and how Jesus Christ has completely fulfilled that command, and as followers of Christ what it looks like to find our rest in him.
Please join me in chapter 6 of the book of Joshua:
Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, and none came in. 2 And the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor. 3 You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days. 4 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. 5 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.” 6 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.” 7 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.”
8 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. 9 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. 10 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.” 11 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.
12 Then Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the Lord. 13 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. 14 And the second day they marched around the city once, and returned into the camp. So they did for six days.
15 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. 16 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. 17 And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction.
Now, admittedly, the topic of rest was not the first thing that came to my mind on my first read through of this. Jericho is the capital city of the Amorites, who were one of the warring tribes in the land of Canaan, and they are no joke of a people, this was not going to be a day at the spa, this is war. Rest may be the furthest thing from our natural minds as we read this text.
But within these 17 verses I will show you 3 indicators that highlight God’s desire for his people to rest confidently in him
- First indicator pops up rather immediately into reading, it is something called the prophetic perfect tense
- The second indicator is that we have this curious number 7 that pops up over and over again
- And then our third indicator would be then us looking into the sabbath, and that will launch this message into a look of how Christ had fulfilled the sabbath and what the sabbath looks like for us today
As a way of reminder we left off with the last message in chapter 5, with Joshua’s encounter with the commander of the Lord’s army, which was the pre incarnate Jesus Christ. Matthew, by God’s grace, did a wonderful job showing us the 7 markers of a Godly leader, and now we find that Godly leader, Joshua, talking with God.
In these first 2 verses we have what is known as the prophetic perfect tense. That is when an event which has not yet happened, is spoken about in the past tense as if it already had.
In the first two verses we see God here echoing the promise he gave to Joshua back in the beginning of the book. Remember God telling Joshua that no man will be able to stand before you, everywhere the sole of your feet walk I will give to you, be strong and courageous for you will cause these people to inherit the land.
In chapter one we see God really provoking encouragement to Joshua, telling him to be courageous, reminding him that he will be with him just like he was with Moses.
Here it is different, God tells him, Look, I have already given you victory over the city, and its king and mighty men of valor. And then just moves right along to what Joshua is to lead the people in doing. The Lord did not need to tell Joshua that he had already given the city over to him, but he did. And there are two reasons why I believe God did in this case.
First of which, when any word the Lord has spoken comes to pass, that is just more fuel for the engine of faith to be churning out joyful obedience in the lives of those that are submitted to Him.
Secondly, for the heart that already has their trust and faith in God, not only is this word that God spoke an unmerited gift, but so is the faithfulness required to receive this gift, and the primary fruit of that gift of faithfulness is a true shalom rest. A resting confidence in His ability to see His word come to pass in every area of your life.
Back to our text, wasting no time, God unveils his perfect strategy to Joshua starting in verse 3:
“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.”
This is not a peer to peer conversation. When Joshua is receiving direct instructions from the Lord, I would imagine at this point in his walk, every word would be seared into his brain, not needing to make sense of it at the moment. But having a heart of humility, acknowledging his place before God, ready to comply and act. The struggle with this instruction would be giving it to the people who didn’t hear it directly from the Lord, the people Joshua is now going to relay these commands to. Because from a human point of view, this is strange, but from a tactical point of view… yep, it is still strange.
To give you an idea of how warfare of the late bronze age would go, laying siege to a city would often take months if not years. First the invading army would make sure supplies would be cut off to the city and then encamp themselves around the city, taking up whatever natural resources there were around it, timber, fresh water, the city most of the time would have crops planted outside the city.
So it would then be up to the defending city who would take a look at their supplies, see how much time they can hold out to either negotiate some form of surrender, to meet the aggressors out on the field of battle and push them back.
And par for the course, we read in the first verse of this chapter how all the people of Jericho have shut themselves into the city. Thinking themselves to be safe, at least for the time being, behind their 15’ thick walls
Who knows what was going through their minds? We know from Rahab in chapter 2, that their hearts have melted in fear before any of this so when they witnessed the Israelites crossing the Jordan, confirming the stories they heard of Egypt, they were now outside their walls initiating this week-long parade in which there was no talking, taunting or jeering. Just the sound of marching and trumpets blaring. Maybe the Lord is introducing a new form of psychological warfare here.
One detail that we must not overlook is the repeated mentioning of the number 7. Which brings us to our second indicator for today’s message displaying God’s desire for us to rest confidently in Him. God will often use patterns to help determine what is to be conveyed by the text and there is certainly a pattern going on here with these number sevens.
Many of you know of the number seven to represent a complete perfection and as a holy number, but I want to have a look at where its meaning comes from, so let’s look at Genesis chapter 2:1-3. This is the first time that the number seven was mentioned.
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
Utilizing the law of first mention, which is a tool used to interpret scripture stating that the first time the subject is mentioned the meaning that comes along with it in that first encounter will give a basis of future interpretation any time you see that subject repeated later on. So according to that law of first mention, we can easily see how the number seven represents complete perfection and is a holy number, but we know that creation was not perfect yet because God had not made his home with man, and there was still separation between us and Him. And we talked about that separation in chapter 3, when God required there to be space between His presence in the Ark of the Covenant and his people before the Jordan crossing.
Creation was complete. However, there was not a single thing that God had desired to create that he did not create, every desire God had to create, He fulfilled completely. Then we see that it was in response to this completion He set this seventh day apart from all other days and made it a holy day in which he rested from his creation. The 7th day broke from the pattern of creation that he established in the first 6 days, it was set apart and made to be holy unto Him.
And the 7th day of creation was the first full day of existence that man had, giving us, who have the full counsel of God’s word, some prophetic insight to God’s ultimate desire to have his creation enter into his rest with him. It would be a mistake to think we have a God who worked for six days to set everything in motion and is now tired, and now needs to take a nap then sit back with a basket of mana on his great white throne, and watch how everything is going to play out.
No, sir. In John 5:17 Jesus, very clearly and definitely declared, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” Who ever said Christ never calls himself God, never read the bible, amen?! Or at least the book of John. God rested on the 7th day from creating, because there was nothing more he wished to create, but he got back to work pretty soon after that because he needed to go and evict some tenants that broke their lease in the garden.
From creation we see the number 7 assigned the meaning of perfect completeness and holiness, set apart for the Lord. And the proper response we witness from God, in recognition of this perfect and completed work of His, is to rest, or cease from creation, making it holy or set apart from working in observance of the perfection that had been accomplished.
And another point about the number 7, I don’t know if you have ever thought about this, I hadn’t until preparing for this message, but nowhere in the world currently operates outside of a seven day week. Many civilizations have tried, the Romans had an 8 day week; West Africa, 4; Egypt, 10; China, 15; and even more recently the league of nations tried to solidify a new globally restructured week in the 1930s. One of the more humorous attempts however was the Soviet Union, they had tried to operate off of a 5 day week, and they named the days of the week colors, they spent a ton of money and made it this big effort which ultimately ended up in mass confusion.
This placed the Soviets in the same category as everyone else, no matter how big of an effort man made, they always reverted back to the 7 day week God had instituted in the garden. I believe the 7 day week is just one more thing that we all have, but few recognize, as evidence pointing being made in the image of God. Which is why there have been as many attempts as there have been from the world system to pervert it from God’s original design. This little detail speaks to the eternality of God’s word and how it is not merely contained to some words on a page but an inescapable reality of what is truth, whether we like it or not it is our reality. Now, anytime the number 7 or even a multiple of 7 appears in scripture, You can add this symbology into its meaning.
Here are a couple of examples of how to apply this:
Matthew 18, Peter and Jesus are talking about forgiveness and Jesus replies to Peter saying not 7 times but 7 times 70, this is how many times to forgive. The rabbis of the day taught that it was unnecessary to forgive more than three times. Then Peter asked the question , should I forgive my brother as many as seven times? Know Peter from the gospel accounts, 7 was more than double the number the rabbis taught in that day. He was trying to show off. Christ’s reply then to Peter, in saying no, not 7 times, but 7 times 70 in at least one layer of meaning here, is instructing to forgive as much as God forgives to which there is no exhausting and is perfect forgiveness
Christ immediately follows up with a parable illustrating this through the king releasing his servant from an unimaginably large amount of debt, then the servant turning around and doesn’t show that same mercy to someone who owed him a small fraction of what he owed.
But even if a 7 isn’t explicitly written, pay attention to how many times something is done or repeated. For instance in the gospel of John, there were 7 miracles recorded and we know that Christ performed more than 7 miracles, in fact, in the last chapter of John, he wrote Jesus did so many miracles there isn’t a single book that could contain the pages of all of them. John also included 7 “I am” statements, and if you look at all 4 of the gospel accounts Jesus himself has 7 statements that he had made while on the cross. All of these examples are to highlight the perfection of Christ and his divinity and atoning work, that no one could add anything to.
Now in our text today we have number 7 popping up 14 times, or 2 sets of seven. This is to tell both us as the reader as well as Joshua, the priest, and the soldiers, this is not their battle. What is about to unfold here at Jericho is not a battle between civilizations, remember chapter 5 when Joshua asks the Christ, “Are you for us, or for our advisories?” Christ responds by saying, No.
This was not a battle of man of which God has chosen which side he is going to help. No, there is only God’s side and whoever stands against his side. What the sevens represent here is a perfect and complete execution of justice of a holy God, to be led by the angel of the Lord commanding the Lord’s army. Church, you would do well to remember Deuteronomy 9:5, this is a critical verse to understanding how the rest of Joshua is going to unfold.
The Lord says, “Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”
The Lord’s will, will be done, Church. Amen?!
And through His sovereign election, he has chosen the Israelites to be the priests to go and execute his will. And here with the number seven being repeated they know that the Lord is fighting this battle, and he is making that very clear, with not only the pattern of 7 and the prophetic word he gave to Joshua, but because the only thing he has the people doing is marching and blowing trumpets! They were not even allowed to talk, this only adds to the oddity this spectacle would have been to the Amorites witnessing this silent march. This would serve a couple functions, on a practical basis, it would maintain order within the ranks, not allowing for any kind of false start. Also additionally, no one being able to talk would not allow the soldiers to pridefully taunt the enemy, taking credit for what is about to go down.
Recognize this pattern we see, Church. No one is able to steal the glory from our God, and he sets it up that way. The most anyone can say is that, I am a willing tool in the hands of my creator, he has chosen me before the foundation of the world was in place and he has used me to accomplish his perfect will! Be blessed to say that Church! Let all the glory go to God, amen?!
And when he commands you to shout, you ought to shout like your life depends on it because He, who is the creator of the universe, who breathes out stars and galaxies, He chose you, predestined you, justified you and to his good pleasure will allow for you to be glorified in him through Jesus Christ, amen?!
Church, to understand this, not just with your mind but experientially with your heart is the expression of the gift of faithfulness, and when your faith is placed in God, He will bring about a true shalom rest as the chief fruit in your life.
If you are familiar with the book of Revelation you may have picked up on the parallels here in this battle of Jericho and the battle of Armageddon, the battle of the end times that will bring about the final outpouring of God’s judgment to all who are against him.
John writes about it in Revelation chapters 5-11. God’s final judgment, the Lamb of God in Rev chapter 5 is the only one who is able to open up the scroll with the 7 seals that sets up God’s perfect judgment, and when the scroll gets to the 7th seal, out leads to the 7 trumpets that will be bringing a conclusion to God’s perfect Judgment to all who stand against Him. Isn’t God’s word amazing, did you pick up on the two sets of 7 in chapter 6 and here in Revelation. There are no coincidences in God’s word, church, this is by his design.
Revelation 9:20-21 reads, “The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.”
That was the heart of Jericho, Church, this is the heart of the world. Hallelujah to the fact we can rest confidently knowing God has made us a new creation and given us a new heart, amen?! A new heart that finds its true sabbath rest in him, which is ultimately what the sabbath was designed to point to. And it is this last point, our third indicator that we spoke of in the beginning of today message, in which will launch us into the conclusion of this message.
In our text today we see the people marching around the walls of Jericho for 7 days, the text gives no indication as to which day the march began or ended, but no matter how you slice up the days of the week that means they were marching on a sabbath day.
There is a lot of confusion in the church as to the significance of the sabbath for today, how it is to be practiced or even if it still is for today. Clearly we see here, God instructing his people to do some form of work, but we know the Lord will never contradict himself, so for the rest of this message I will seeking to clear up any confusion there may be to this command.
The first time a sabbath rest was taken, was back to the passage we read in Genesis 2, God created for 6 days and on the 7th he had rested. Nowhere in scripture was there any indication that God had given a command for Adam, Noah, Abraham, or anyone else to observe this holy seventh day and rest, as He had rested. It wasn’t until Moses came along where the concept of Sabbath goes from God to man.
Going from Genesis 2 and fast forward a few thousand years to Exodus Chapter 16. Here is the first time we see God instruct man to observe the sabbath, as a precursor before it is given to them in the 10 commandments.
The context is that the Israelites just recently left Egypt and started complaining to God about their food situation, and God demonstrated his miraculous provision to them through the raining down of manna in the wilderness. Now the people were instructed by the Lord to gather enough mana to eat for the day they were gathering it, and given a disclaimer from the Lord that anything that didn’t get eaten that day would begin to spoil and become infested with worms for the next day.
That was, except for the sixth day the people were told to go on the six day and gather enough for both the 6th and the 7th day so they would not need to do any work on the seventh day, and the sabbath day would be a day of rest. God said this was to serve as a test. And of course we read how the people gathered more mana than necessary just to find it the next day spoiled and infested with worms, just like God said it would be and the people even headed out on the sabbath to go and see if there was any for them to gather, and of course, just as God had said, there wasn’t.
The purpose of this test was to reveal the hearts of the people. Church, we know the all-knowing God of the universe does not need a test to tell him what was in the heart of man, but by his grace, he will regularly give us these tests to reveal where our hearts are at, giving another opportunity to be humbled so we can repent and be sanctified by a holy God.
Exodus 20 is where we have the Lord giving the 10 commandments over to Moses.
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”
Alright, so we first see the Lord take a sabbath on the 7th day of creation, then He instructs the people to take a sabbath back when they were collecting the mana to eat, and now we see the Sabbath make it into the big ten. The sabbath command was the crux of the ten commandments. It was from this command to observe the sabbath in which all of the other commands either led too, or flowed from. Not worshiping anything above God, creating any idols and taking the Lord’s name in vain, the first three commandments, will lead you to this day of intentional sabbath rest in him, recognizing him as the Lord of all who has redeemed you and is setting you apart. And flowing from the practice of the sabbath is where the Lord is sanctifying you, where you are not going to dishonor your parents, you are not going to murder, you are not going commit adultery or to steal, because of the work he is doing in your heart.
So far the major emphasis behind the 4th commandment has been for his people to rest and recognize in their hearts that Yahweh, is their God who has made them His people, He is the Lord over All of creation, but there are two more verses in scripture that reveal the Lord’s purpose behind this sabbath day:
First is Exodus 31:13 where the Lord address Moses saying, “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you.”
Similar to the circumcision of the flesh, the sabbath was a sign to everyone else that the Hebrew people belonged to the Lord, not merely a day of just ceasing from work, but a day of intentionally focusing on the Lord, reflecting on him and looking at yourself sober mindedly, where it is you stand with him, and that he would sanctify you, or shape you more into his image
And then we have Deuteronomy 5:15, “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.”
God never wanted His people to forget that he is their redeemer, their salvation is in him, the sabbath was to be a gift that was unique to the hebrew people that reminded them of these three things. Their God, the one and only true God,
- is the sovereign creator of the universe,
- who has became their savior
- for the purpose of sanctifying them and setting them apart from the rest of the world to better reflect his image
God desires nothing more than for his people to be joyfully obedient to him, because true obedience to him can only come from the overflowing recognition of God’s love in our own heart. That is worship to him church, and that worship brings glory to the Lord for all to see.
Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. God is not after a blind obedience, church. This is why it is so important to search out his word, spend time seeking out his character and seeking understanding of his motivation for why he wants us to do things like the sabbath. And it is for this reason that the Lord had given the sabbath to man in the first place!
in verse 4 of our text, and if you take notes you might want to write this down underneath or around rams horn. It is the word “Yobel.” Our brother, Barry, has so graciously volunteered to show us a shofar, or ram’s horn, that he had purchased in Jerusalem. Barry, you want to make a joyful noise on that thing?
This Yobel however, mentioned in our text, was not your typical everyday ceremonial shofar like Barry’s, this horn was specifically made and designated to be blown on the day of atonement signifying the sabbath year and the year of jubilee. Which means it would only sounds off once every 7 years. It was not a battle horn, it was a trumpet of celebration. Again pointing to the resting confidence they were to have in the Lord’s perfect work and perfect character in whom victory was already given before the battle was fought, remember the prophetic word the Lord gave to Joshua in telling him he has already given him victory over the city, this trumpet of celebration is a strong reinforcement of God’s desire for his people to rest confidently in His strength and ability.
The year of jubilee is an extension of the Lord’s command to observe His sabbath and can be found in Leviticus 25 & 26, and here we learn about how the sabbath was not just constrained to a day but of the week, but it was meant to be a lifestyle for the Hebrews.
Leviticus 25 and 26 introduce to us that there was to be a sabbath year the Lord commanded the people to observe, and every 7 of those sabbath years is what led to the year of jubilee. And rather than bringing about another form of rest for some of you by reading all of chapter 25 and 26 of Leviticus I will summarize for you.
First, real quick, I want to encourage your mindset regarding the law of God. It is perfect, and it so reveals the heart of God, and by having a deeper understanding of that law we can understand the life of him who fulfilled it perfectly, Jesus Christ himself.
So if you ever happen to catch yourself saying something like the law is boring, really challenge that mindset, church, by admitting the law isn’t boring, just your understanding of the law is just too shallow.
Similar to what God instructed with the gathering of mana, God now is saying to the children of Israel in these two chapters, now you’re going to eat of the fruit of the land, for 6 years you are to plow, plant and harvest but on that 7th year you are to leave the ground alone, no planting, gathering, pruning or harvesting. The Lord goes on to tell them it is in the 6th year that I will give you 3 years worth of food to carry you over, well into the harvest of the 8th year.
If that wasn’t enough, God goes on to say that every seventh sabbath year, so that would be 7 times 7 the 49th year, the following year, the 50th year, they were to have a year of jubilee. The year of jubilee, was the year of the Lord’s favor, all of the prisoners and slaves were to be set free, all debts were to be forgiven, liberty was proclaimed throught the land, and the land would be restored to the tribes God had given it to steward. This year of celebration was to be marked by the blowing of the yobel on the day of atonement.
Now the Jews were not really in the prisoner-taking game, the only ones in prison would be those in debt. God had set up a very efficient justice system in his theocracy, murderers and other violent criminals would not go to jail, but be killed by stoning. You can find all of this, and more, in chapters 25 and 26 of Leviticus for your own study on the year of jubilee
This command, when followed, would have had the Lord’s chosen people reflecting His character to the world. The prophet Hosea expressed God’s heart in chapter 6:6 – For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
Later, that would be quoted multiple times by Christ in the gospels as a rebuke to the religious establishment that had so twisted God’s law and made it into this legalistic monster that devoured all who were yoked to it.
Church, the practice of a sabbath was never meant to merely be constrained to a day to be fulfilled then the people going back to living their lives the way they wanted.
It was a gift of a lifestyle that the Lord gave to help his people keep Him at the center of their lives. If the Jews sought to understand God’s heart behind why he gave them the Sabbath, they would have never been taken in captivity in Babylon for 70 years. This was to be a beautiful gift from God to the Jews, one that told them, this life is hard, you have been born into a curse, but I want to give you a taste of what you were made for. This is a shadow of what eternity will be, enjoy my weekly sabbath, and every 7 years, yeah just go ahead and take that off, give the land a rest.
God through the sabbath is telling his people to just be with Him, do not worry about the cares of the world, He will take care of all of that for them. He knows all that they need. They were to celebrate Him and rest in the knowledge that He is their God and they are His people. Echoed in Christ’s own words: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
If they understood this church, they would have experienced true shalom, or a true peace that came as fruit from their faithfulness to living out the Lords commands.
Shortly before the Babylonian deportation, the prophet Isaiah was on the scene and foretold in chapter 61, about the coming Messiah and how he would usher in the year of jubilee, the year of the Lord’s favor. Something that was made to be such a beautiful gift from a loving father, turned into a curse.
490 years would pass where the people neglected to fulfill one sabbath year or jubilee during that time. 70 years that land should have gotten a sabbath, 70 years the people would have experienced such an overflow of prosperity and supernatural provision that comes with the presence of the Lord. “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap,” says Galatians 6:7.
Church, the Lord gave the land its rest of 70 years that it was owed, unfortunately for Israel it had to come at the cost of their exile to Babylon. We spoke earlier in the message about a conversation of Jesus and Peter regarding forgiveness. Remember Jesus’ answer to Peter? 7 times 70, that is equal to 490.
One interpretation of that would be that Christ is subtly referring to the period from King David to the time of the deportation of Israel to Babylon. This 490 year period, represented Israel’s disobedience to the keeping of the sabbath. But after the land received its rest, God had shown mercy to his people and forgiven them, allowing them to come back to the land after 70 years. Once more we see the meaning of the number 7, not contradicting the underlying meaning of the text but only placing greater emphasis for what was to be conveyed, that we are called to forgive as God forgives.
In the book of Luke chapter 4:17-21 we see Jesus, who is filled with the Spirit, right after his time in the wilderness, reading from Isaiah 61 on the sabbath in the synagogue. He reads, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.””
Church, this passage is where Christ, so boldly, is declaring himself as the Messiah who was foretold that would usher in the year of jubilee, the year of the Lord’s favor. Jesus said “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” The command to practice the sabbath, including the sabbath year and the year of jubilee has been fulfilled in Christ, that means through his whole life from babe in a manger to the cross of calvary there was no aspect of the sabbath that he did not perfectly fulfill as the beautiful expression of worship to his Father that it is.
You see, Church, in the garden is where we took on a debt, forcing us to be sold into slavery to the world, held captive by our flesh, until we could pay this debt in full. But we never could, we were even given a perfect step by step instruction manual on how to get out of this debt, God’s law.
No one had what it took to follow it through, to fulfill it to completion and get free from the debt we have brought upon ourselves, not one person, our sacrifices didn’t even cover the interest payments on the debt. We didn’t stand a chance. Till the cross of Calvary, where Christ, who did not come from the seed of Adam, but was God incarnate, completed his earthly ministry, making any and all who place their faith in him at one with God. Christ proclaimed LIBERTY to the captives through his life. But it was through his death where he had rendered this debt paid in full. It is Finished!
The Yobel, that shofar of great celebration, that was blown on the day of atonement to commemorate the year of jubilee said to all in the land, who have been sold into slavery or thrown into prision for debts they could not pay, in one sweeping act of grace and mercy, “You are free!”
And now Church, we too have heard the trumpet sound off and have been set free through our faith in Jesus Christ and his perfect atoning work on cross. Amen?!
This is why the primary fruit of faith is rest. No longer do we strive to fulfill the law, but now our job is just to abide in Christ. It is from abiding in him where we find our liberty. The bible is clear, church, the sabbath, under the new covenant, is no longer required to be observed in the same fashion it was in the old covenant.
In the book of Colossians 2:16-17, Paul writes, “Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”
Or Romans 14:5-6, “One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord.”
For the believer, for you and me, the sabbath is not a day, or a year even. It is a sabbath life that is produced by our faith in Jesus Christ, who as Paul puts it was the very substance that produced the shadow of the things to come.
That is why we as a church have a family sabbath every month where we don’t come together for our weekend gathering, not out of obligation, or to take a break from Church, but to serve as an opportunity to slow down from the hustling pace of life, reflect on God as our creator, and savior, spending more intentional time to be in his word, allowing Him to show us our hearts and being sanctified through it, or having a more intimate time of fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ, building community, doing good works as we see Christ performed on the sabbath, and above all else celebrating the freedom of expression of worship that we have in Christ.
The sabbath has always been a tool used by God to point His people to Him, but now under the new covenant revelation of Jesus Christ, that shadow has been illuminated. Now we have a clear picture of what it was pointing to producing in us confidence in the good news of King Jesus. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
It is when we understand the truth, the unchanging truth of who God is and what He has done for us, that is when we are freely able to receive His love and be filled with it to the point of overflowing into all of the actions we take in all of the life situations we find ourselves in. What a beautiful form of worship to a loving God, to have a resting confidence, a trust, that our victory has already been given to us, not for anything we have done to earn it, but to magnify the greatness of Him. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
But, Church, we know there is a point coming where Christ is returning to judge and condemn the world, in fact, the very verse Christ read in the synagogue from Isaiah 61 ended in the middle of a sentence.
He quoted, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor…”
Pause.
Jesus intentionally stopped speaking in the middle of a sentence. Church, this pause Jesus did signifies to us that this is where we are right now, in this very point in time of history, Because do you know how the rest of that sentence is finished in the book of Isaiah? “…and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;”
Right now Church, we are in the year of the Lord’s favor, the year of jubilee. We have died to ourselves and now Christ is living through us and empowering us through his Holy Spirit to continue his work, living out the great commission. Proclaiming liberty to the captives.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Church, Armageddon is coming. The battle of Jericho is a prophetic representation of that battle. There will be no middle ground, you are either found in the Lord through the faith you have placed in the atoning work of Jesus Christ or you have shut yourself up in the city with 15-foot thick walls thinking that will keep you safe from him.
And next week, Lord-willing, I will be able to speak more on the judgment of the Lord that is coming as we finish chapter 6.
Church, I know we had covered a lot of information, we got to uncover the prophetic perfect tense, a lot of cool things about the number 7, and tie in the sabbath. What that meant for the battle and what it means for you and me. I do hope that one of the things that you had seen in the message, although it was not explicitly mentioned, was that the God of the old covenant is the same God in the new. He is the great ‘I am’, church, with whom there is no shadow of turning, who always was, is, and is to come.
My desire is that God’s truth has just whet your appetite to having a sabbath life. Where your chief desire is to have the Lord be at the center of every aspect of your life, by faith leading you to rest confidently in Him. Resting confidently in the fact that he has already given you the victory in life, from a battle you could never win, freeing you from a debt we could never pay.
Living a sabbath life of knowing that God, who is the creator of the universe, who has established himself as your savior and redeemed you and is keeping you here on this side of heaven for the sole reason of shaping you more into His image.
Church, He is worthy of all you have to give, and so much more. Amen?!