“Jericho had completely barricaded its gates against the people of Israel — no one left, and no one entered.”-Joshua 6:1
I hate to keep beating a dead horse here but understand that everything I teach in this blog is coming at you from one singular perspective.
And that perspective is…
…the Lord says what He means and means what He says.
When Hashem says His Torah is perfect, He really means it’s perfect.
When Hashem says His Law and commands are forever, He means they’re forever and not until further notice.
God isn’t playing games with us here.
This whole ridiculous idea that accepting Yeshua as Lord and Savior equals throwing into the trash everything that came before his coming is a tragedy of gargantuan proportions.
When we throw God’s Torah in the trash, we are throwing away the established God patterns that reveal to us the proper way to understand the rest of Scripture.
Another sad default is that we are kept in slavery to manmade doctrines that are burdensome at best or downright evil at worst.
So on that note, let’s take a look at a key God pattern we encounter right off the bat here in verse 1 of Joshua chapter 6 that was first established in the book of Exodus.
The pattern is this:
If we harden our hearts and minds against the Lord, destruction is guaranteed.
So how was this pattern first established in the book of Exodus?
Recall how Pharaoh of Egypt had continually hardened his heart against the Lord.
He kept doing it until he crossed some invisible line where it was then impossible to repent.
In fact by that point, the Lord stepped in and made sure Pharaoh’s heart stayed hardened so that his destruction was certain.
Well, the exact same thing is now occurring with the King of Jericho.
He had ordered his city to harden their hearts against the God of Israel and His people..
Once that happened, all avenues of escape and repentance were blocked off forever.
The Scripture tells us…
...”no one left and no one entered”.
This statement indicates that the population of Jericho wanted nothing to do with the God of Israel or His people.
They could have taken the wise path that the whore Rahab took and been saved.
But nope, they decided to sit in their stubbornness until they sat too long…
…and now they had reached the point of no return.
Once Hashem’s Holy Warriors surrounded the city, their fate was sealed and even changing their mind at that point wouldn’t have made a difference.
The part of the verse that says “Jericho had completely barricaded its gates” is communicating to us the utter finality of the situation.
No repentance was going to occur and even if it did, it would have been too late.
Remember, this is a God pattern…
…which means in the not too far future…
…gentile mankind is going to find themselves in the exact same situation.
We know that a good portion of the nations are going to harden their hearts against Hashem and His people to the point where their destruction will be inevitable.
Yet as of this writing, it’s not too late to walk the path of Rahab and call on the name of the Lord and side with His people while His grace still shines on the unsaved beckoning them to turn to Him for salvation.
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