Joshua 6:20 … Bringing down the Walls (02/03/17)
“Hate is not the enemy of Love; indifference is …
To truly Love, we must oh-so-softly hum the tune played at Jericho.”
~ anonymous
Note here first of all that Jericho is believed to be one of the oldest inhabited cities of the world, and the city with the oldest known protective wall around it. This means that Jericho – in its day – was nothing less than a most formidable stronghold — and yet still its walls fell … As such, on its face this quote seems to state that actively caring for others need not be loud to be powerful – that it is necessary to Care and that it is necessary that said Caring be active, and yet that it is not necessary to “blare one’s trumpets” (see Joshua 6) to bring down the fear-based “walls” of the other – that softer, quieter acts of Love are enough to open the doors to an intimate connection therewith.
And yet when we examine many of the other facts surrounding the Battle of Jericho (aside from the wickedly ruthless, highly immoral, and indeed fully anti-Christian thoroughness with which that city was ransacked by Joshua after its walls fell), a few deeper meanings to this quote reveal themselves as well … Consider:
*First of all, the road between Jerusalem & Jericho was not only frequented by bandits in Jesus’ day, but many religious travelers as well – making it the perfect setting for one of the most important of Jesus’ teachings: the Parable of the Good Samaritan (see Luke 10:25-37), a tale that encouraged us to not only actively Care for those we liked, but to do so for our enemies as well.
*Secondly, it is interesting to note that the only survivors from Jericho (it was common practice to slaughter all the citizens of a city once its siege had been broken) were Rahab and her family members – Rahab, who was not only a prostitute, but a traitor to her people as well. Intriguingly, showing mercy to Rahab was instrumental in effectuating the birth of Jesus Christ – seeing as how she proved to be one of his direct bloodline relatives (his great x32 grandmother, see Matthew 1:5).
*Finally, it is interesting that Rahab – a Canaanite women, was integrated into the Jewish community, seeing as how there were direct Old Testament prohibitions against such a move (see Deuteronomy 20:16-18 & Deuteronomy 7:1-4) – prohibitions that Jesus himself later openly violated (and effectively dismissed) by being openly kind to the Canaanite woman at the well in Matthew 15:21-28.
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