The first city to be overthrown by Joshua and the armies of Israel, in taking possession of the land of their inheritance, was Jericho. The details of that victory are given in full. Everything seems to point out the prominence of the place as a type, and as the first place to be overthrown suggests what is the first step in true conquest in spiritual things.

Jericho was situated near Jordan-and is therefore suggestive of the nearness of death, and of judgment, to all that is fair in the world. Its name, "fragrance," describes the attractiveness of this world, while its great walls show how impregnable it is to any but a divine power.

This is what meets the Christian at the outset of that conflict in which he gets possession practically, not as a matter of doctrine merely, of his portion in Christ, in the heavenlies. We are blessed with all spiritual blessings, in the heavenlies, in Christ. But to enjoy them there must be a practical overcoming of the power of the enemy. The world is his great stronghold.

So long as the world controls the believer, so long as he has not, in faith and for himself, overthrown it, he can make no progress in spiritual things; he remains a babe. Hence the immense importance of overthrowing it. Nor is it a slight task, nor can it be said that many have truly won this great victory. What is emphasized is the power of God. The ark is borne about by the priests, and the trumpets are blown. The people simply compass the city with these. The ark was the center of all God’s dealings with His people. It represented His throne, and the One who is that, as it were, for Him. The ark went before them opening the way through Jordan. It was a type of Christ going down into death for us, and rising again. So that now His people, as dead and risen with Him are a heavenly company. It is Christ then, and subjection to God as seen in Him, who is the power of victory over the world. Is Christ known in the power of death and resurrection? To "bear about" this is the sure precursor of victory over the world. We cannot exalt Him and be enslaved by the world. The trumpets are the call to arms, as it were, the declaration that the year of jubilee is near, and for us that the coming of the Lord is nigh. Thus Christ exalted, and His coming awaited and announced, are the weapons of warfare which are "mighty through God."

All else tells of weakness. No assault was made upon the walls; no battering rams were set. Day by day for seven days there was the procession of weakness-and yet coupled with the perfection of divine strength, as suggested by the sevens. It is the weakness of man that gives occasion for the power of Christ. Let us exalt Him alone, and with Paul we can say, "I can do all things through Christ which strengthened! me."

Victory is assured, and the judgment is to be complete-everything is to be devoted or accursed. AH is destroyed, or belongs to God. So with the world. If in spirit we spare aught of it, which is not surrendered to God, it will soon be our Master. Zoar, ("is it not a little one?") has too often betrayed and held captive the saints of God. Paul could say, "the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world." For Him the walls of Jericho had fallen down flat, and everything in it was devoted.

Perhaps we need not so much exhortation as prayer for one another, that there may be, in a real sense, complete and practical victory over a world which bars the way to all progress. Is not the spirit of it increasing, and with those who once had clean escaped the corruption that is in it? Alas, with many who once had witnessed its downfall it has reasserted itself in much of its old power. One of the saddest things is to see this lapse under the power of a once conquered foe.

It is this which is suggested in the warning of Joshua as to rebuilding Jericho. "Cursed be the man before the Lord, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho:he shall lay the foundation thereof in his first-born, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it" (Josh. 6:26). This was directly fulfilled years later, when Hiel the Bethelite rebuilt the city (i Kings 16:34). It is a solemn thing to trifle with the word of God; in due time shall it be found that it will all be fulfilled.

But let us look at this rebuilding of Jericho. It was in the days of king Ahab that it took place. The ten tribes had become established as an independent kingdom-independent not only of David’s house, but of David’s Lord. The sin of Jeroboam always marked Israel-the calf of which Hosea speaks with such sorrow, as he plead for his God. Ahab not only continued in this golden calf apostasy, but added more sin of his own. "There was none like unto Ahab, who did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord." It was in his days-days of universal declension-that Hiel the Bethelite rebuilt Jericho.

Bethel is a name in Scripture that will always recall the history of Jacob, and link this with God’s house, the name given by Jacob to the place. He was a fugitive from his brother-with nothing save a staff-a wanderer from his father’s house, who falls asleep upon the hard pillow which he had made for himself. Many a man has made a stone pillow for himself, out of his own self-will. It was while he was asleep, unable to help himself, that God reveals Himself, the God of sovereign grace and love, who will fulfil all His promises, preserve Jacob wherever lie may go, and bring him back to the land in blessing. Such was Bethel. Years later, when sorrow and defilement had crept into Jacob’s household, he was called back to that place (Gen. xxxv). "Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there." The house of God was to be his dwelling-place.

The house of God! how much does that suggest. Its history spoke of grace and of power. "Holiness becometh Thy house O Lord forever." To abide under sense of grace, to be at home in the presence of God, to realize His holiness-such seem to be the thoughts suggested by the House of God. To dwell there means that one is born of God, is a member of His family, and partaker of the divine nature. How solemn then for such an one (known by the place of his abode), to forsake Bethel and go down to Jericho, the place under curse, to rebuild that which is the direct opposite of the house of God.

And yet is it an uncommon thing for the child of God to rebuild the things which he once destroyed? Scripture, history, and experience alike furnish examples of this. Abraham, the man of faith, the pilgrim, goes down into Egypt because of the famine in the land. A land where all is dependent upon the rain of heaven, is the place where faith can be tested. The man on the water is the one who will sink, if the eye be taken off Christ. A famine in the land would be but the opportunity for fresh exercise of faith, but Abraham departs to well watered Egypt, where there was no danger, apparently, of famine. He had no suffering there, his strait was relieved, but what shame! and what contentions in his own household resulted from his bringing back the Egyptian handmaid Hagar.

David too, in his day, came perilously near rebuilding Jericho. He left the land of Judah-the abode of praise-and went down to the Philistines’ land-the abode of formal profession. He lost, temporarily at least, his family, who fell into the hands of the Amalekites (i Sam. 30:).

In a spiritual way, the wisest of them all, king-Solomon, was engulfed in that which wrought havoc and shipwreck in his life and testimony. How low did he fall, and yet his name Jedidiah, "beloved of Jehovah," tells of his-and our-place in the heart of God. And these are not all.

But we must hold to our theme, which is the rebuilding of Jericho, the re-establishment of the world in its place of supremacy and power. It is not general declension of which we speak, but of the special form of world-attraction, which is so mighty in these days. Hiel sacrificed, lost, his first-born and his youngest son in rebuilding Jericho. Literally, how often has this been verified. A child of God, in spirit takes up the world; it has its attractions, which draw him from Bethel, and in his own family he sees the sad consequences. Why is there so much in the families of the Lord’s people to cause sorrow? Ah! have not the parents been rebuilding Jericho? Can parents expect to see their children saved out of a world by which they are themselves attracted? Eldest and younger are thus engulfed in that which has recaptured the parents. To recur a moment to a previous illustration, Jacob living away from Bethel, finds his family in the world. Thank God too, the way to return is open, and thus he has fresh power over his house. When he is at God’s house, he can guide his own house.

Nor is this truth confined to the family. Take an assembly of God’s saints. Let the world begin to creep into the thoughts and ways of the elder, and how quickly will it blossom into fruit in the younger. Young persons grow up under our eyes, we lament that they do not walk in a separate path, and again we find ourselves to blame-our worldliness has sacrificed them.

In like manner this heart-searching truth can be applied to our own spiritual state. The first-fruits of the divine love, "the joy of thine espousals," are lost as the world reasserts itself; and the later fruits of the Spirit cannot live in that baleful atmosphere. All is sacrificed, to what?

May our gracious God teach us His lesson in these things. Surely there is but room for prayer, confession and a fresh turning to Him. Need we add how ready He is to meet us at His house, and what wondrous recoveries His grace effects? Whether individually or unitedly, let us take to heart these things, and find still the blessing there is for us in a world despised and trodden under, that the things of Christ, and the word of God may be all in all to us.