Jericho: the Heart (part 8 of 8)

The Aftermath

After they captured and subsequently destroyed Jericho, “Then Joshua made them take an oath at that time, saying, ‘Cursed before the Lord is the man who rises up and builds this city Jericho; with the loss of his firstborn he shall lay its foundation, and with the loss of his youngest son he shall set up its gates’” (Joshua 6:26, NASB).  Then, about 500 years alter:    

In his days [wicked king of Israel Ahab’s days] Hiel [“God lives”] the Bethelite [a person who lives in the house of God] built Jericho; he laid its foundations with the loss of Abiram [“father of loftiness”] his firstborn, and set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son Segub [“elevated”], according to the word of the Lord, which He spoke by Joshua the son of Nun.  (1 Kings 16:34, NASB).

It is noteworthy that Abiram is also the name of the mountain or range of mountains from which Israel descended from into the plains of Moab before they crossed the Jordan to enter the Promised Land.  It is also from where the Promised Land could be seen in its entirety from an overviewing perspective, and where Moses died.  It is also noteworthy that the city of Jericho (as defined by its walls and gates only) is what God and Joshua seemed to have meant by it not being rebuilt; its existence today and in Elisha’s day (as evidenced by Elisha and a school of prophets which lived there [2 Kings 2:15-22]), suggest that it had only to do with its former form or construction, i. e., about those manmade high and thick walls.  Indeed,

But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.  FOR IF I BUILD AGAIN THE THINGS WHICH I DESTROYED, I MAKE MYSELF A TRANSGRESSOR.  For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God (Galatians 2:17-19, emphasis mine, KJV).

In the end, Jericho existed without walls and without limits, with eternally sweet waters that nourished all the land of its area.  From here Joshua continuously went in and out using it as the base of his operations, the place where he planned his strategies for conquering the rest of the Promised Land.  Thus what began in seed form, God’s still small voice spoken into the heart of man, is expected to echo and escalate in volume in the soul, and eventually reach the pitch of a scream to the five senses of the body.  Jericho must enlarge and fill the entire Promised Land.  The miracle of a breathing moon, a fragrant moon, is about a moon inextricably tied to its source of emanation, Jesus Christ.