Jericho

Jericho was the first stronghold the Israelites encountered when entering the Promised Land.

This real geographical place can represent our hearts. The Lord is doing a deep abiding work in our lives to root out the enemies known and unknown so we can experience freedom. Freedom to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Freedom to pursue His kingdom rather than our own fiefdom of fleshly ambitions and dreams.

To overcome Jericho meant overcoming other enemies. God goes after that one particular stronghold - that place where we have agreed to settle for something less than what God has prescribed for our lives - and by bringing down the stronghold, other places of bondage are weakened and utterly destroyed.

Rahab understood this principal by recounting Israels past victories. "We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. When we heard of it, our hearts melted in fear and everyone's courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below." (Joshua 2:10-11 NIV).

In destroying Jericho, Rahab was saved and brought into the lineage of Christ. But there was one other man whose stronghold of greed and covetousness would trouble the nation and his family. Achan saw a wedge of gold and a Babylonian garment after Jericho was destroyed. He took them into his tent just as he took them into the stronghold of his heart. Achan's lesson is an important one for us to heed. If we want victories of the Jerichos in our lives, it must come on God's terms.

Today will you be like Rahab who understood in the destruction of her home, her profession, her people would come the greatest freedom to walk away and enter into the Promise One. Or will you be Achan, the troubler of Israel (I Chronicles 2:7), who only strengthened his stronghold, but was destroyed in the end?