Jericho: the Heart (part 3 of 8)

Indeed, the first and primary battle is the battle for the heart, the adulterous heart of harlotry, our Rahab-like heart, the battle for that which is the most fortified (the tallest and thickest walls surrounded Jericho); win someone’s heart and you win every subsequent battle, lose it, and you lose everything.  The capture of Jericho is about capturing the heart, and capturing the heart is about capturing the entire person (their mind, will, and emotion [their entire soul] as represented by the entire Promised Land).

It starts out in harlotry, in bondage, in worldliness, in Egypt (another name for Rahab) and ends in the fidelity of marriage between man and God (spirit to Spirit), having been cleansed by the power of the blood of Christ, and restored or placed back into a full inheritance in the lineage of Christ.

Most genuinely spiritual Christians know that the Promised Land represents their beings, and more specifically, their souls.  The spirit is utterly saved via the insertion of the Seed of Christ into it causing a bond no less strict than a marriage bond; the body of death, our mortal flesh, is already condemned, dead, and only animated temporarily now here on earth until we are given our immortal bodies in heaven; between the live spirit and our dead body is our suspended-between-life-and-death soul.

The soul is ground zero, the zenith location of the war between flesh and spirit; until we, by the Spirit, eliminate all the “ites” and giants, darkness and falsehood, carnality and sin, resident there in the soul, our Promise Land or Eden remains overcome with the weeds of yesteryear, the false-hope-flowers of indulgence, and the multitudinous lies of many devils.

So we peak or even culminate all things at the battle of Jericho; when it is conquered, it is finished, like as Jesus is the peak or culmination of all things when He declares “it is finished” from the cross.  But this is a positional truth, not an experiential one; we MUST work out our salvation into actualities; we have a part in manifesting Christ in our mortal flesh.  

The first mention of Jericho in Scripture is found in Numbers 22:1 (Amplified Bible): “The Israelites journeyed and encamped in the plains of Moab, on the east side of the Jordan [River] at Jericho.”  From the east comes enlightenment, either from God or wrong sources; the plains of Moab are the pastures of carnal Christianity; the Jordan River, which means “descending,” dumps into the lowest-lying spot on terra-firma, into the Dead Sea (where nothing can live).

Thus we see that its first mention is closely related to Moab, flesh, the false enlightenment of strange fire, and a cesspool-like death stench.  Again this negative sketch keeps accentuating the deceitfulness and dirtiness of the human heart before redemption.

It is noteworthy that even contemporary news about Jericho speaks of the heart and heart cleansing.  Daniel Treiman, writing for the JTA, a Jewish newspaper, wrote an article September 30, 2013 entitled “Downcast in Jericho, then and now.”  It was twenty years ago, according to Treiman, that Israel handed the city of Jericho over to the Palestinians.

The Palestinians [the land of wanderers, or of those who roll in the dust] were unhappy then and now because of economic problems and Israeli military forces too near and around the city.  Also, anger was still polluting the hearts of both sides because of past indiscretions; indeed, also according to Treiman, “Two decades on, we’re still waiting for a final agreement [concerning land control], and for HEARTS TO BE CLEANSED” (emphasis mine).

The Palestinians supposedly have the literal Philistines as ancestors (but it seems they have all died out); but symbolically at least, they still do.  They are those who often fought with Israel and Judah, who even once captured the ark of the covenant; they are a back-flowing or backfilling force, an inverted stream of life (thus a stream of death like a backed-up sewer line) polluting the heart with the Adamic nature or carnality.  They are why the heart needs perpetual cleansing, because the carnal mind (or heart) is enmity with God.