Preaching

‘The Wall’

Joshua 6: 1- 6 and verse 10
1 Jericho was bolted and barred shut because the people were afraid of the Israelites. No one could enter or leave.
2 The LORD said to Joshua, “I am about to hand Jericho, its king, and its warriors over to you.
3 All the soldiers will march around the city once a day for six days.
4 Seven priests will carry rams’ horns ahead of the ark. But on the seventh day you must march around the city seven times while the priests blow their horns.
5 When you hear a long blast on the horn, all the troops must shout very loudly. The wall around the city will collapse. Then the troops must charge straight ahead into the city.”
10 Joshua ordered the troops, “Don’t shout, make any noise, or let one word come out of your mouth until I tell you.

Life has taught me that people don’t change unless they are somehow ready to and want to change. Jesus has taught me the spiritual truth of that through my experiences. Over the years I thought I could change people’s minds by a good sound biblical argument or by using logical persuasive lines of reasoning, but I couldn’t. Jesus however has shown me that only He can open the eyes of the spiritually blind or unblock the ears of the spiritually deaf and all of us can be spiritually blind and deaf in different ways.

A few years ago Nina and I went to a Christian event with Rachel a gay woman from Liberty, there was a Christian woman attending. At first, this woman saw Rachel as a fellow sister in Jesus and was able to pray with her and talk to her on a spiritual level. But after Rachel told her she was a lesbian everything changed, once that was out of the bag a huge wall went up. She then only saw Rachel as someone who was deceived and could not possibly be a proper Christian. The wall was so thick that no matter what Rachel said to the woman it could not be heard, acceptance changed to utter rejection, and it hurt.

Again the experience was repeated a few weeks later. Rachel met a man who at first talked to her on the level of a fellow Christian. But once he knew she was gay the wall went up, from this point on this guy could not see his sister in Jesus. He could only see she was gay and according to the rules of his religion that meant that no way could she be a proper Christian. Rachel learned that there was no point in arguing with these wrong perceptions, the wall is was so high people cannot see over it and the wall is so thick people cannot hear through it.

In Acts 15 Paul had a meeting in Jerusalem with the church leaders in an attempt to stop the Jerusalem Christians making new non Jewish Christians follow Jewish religious rules and traditions. Paul was saying that non Jews were coming to know Jesus without following any Jewish traditions. Peter backed up Paul. These were the two most influential men in the early church, you would expect that their evidence would be taken on board. But Peter and Paul lost the argument, the elders didn’t budge an inch, in fact they sent out a letter to all the Gentile churches listing all the rules.

The Jerusalem church leaders insisting that every non Jewish Christian had to keep certain Jewish religious rules, like certain foods were forbidden including food containing blood. That means that they said non Jewish Christians shouldn’t eat black pudding a favourite of mine, if we used the bible as a rule book then I would not be allowed to eat black pudding.
But to my knowledge not many Christians follow that rule, those who do use the bible as a rule book pick and choose which rule to follow and which to ignore.

The Jerusalem Christians who ignored Paul and Peter were wrong but they couldn’t see it, their Jewish rules and traditions were too much a part of them, the wall of religions traditions was too thick, too high. Paul’s evidence of the Holy Spirit already working among the Gentiles without needing religious rules and traditions fell on deaf ears, the elders couldn’t hear, religions wall was too thick.

For years I wondered why Paul didn’t argue more strongly; he kept silent. Paul seemed to accept their final decision, of compelling the Gentiles to keep a list of Jewish practices. Rules that Jews for centuries had demanded that Gentiles, who worked in their households, had to keep. I just couldn’t understand, why? Why didn’t Paul make them understand? Why did Paul remain silent? Paul knew he would be wasting his breathe and so he kept silent, He had learned what Rachel and I took a long time to learn, that we can’t break down a religious wall by ourselves with our scriptural or logical arguments. It is impossible to pull down the wall by sound reasoning or good theology.

The story of the wall of Jericho shows this spiritual truth in picture form. The city of Jericho had a high thick wall that no army could breach. A prostitute named Rahab lived in the city, she knew God and trusted Him, in other words she had faith. Rahab helped the Israelite spies who were seeking information about the city’s defences, the spies told the Israelites that there was no way of breaching the wall.

However God knew different and said to the Israelites, ‘March round the wall for the next seven days in silence. And when I tell you to shout, shout as loud as you can and the wall will collapse and I’ll give you the city.’ The people of Jericho symbolise those living within a religious system, the wall represents the wall of the religion that keeps some in and keeps others out. The occupants of Jericho were the descendants of Hagar the slave who, according to scripture represent people in slavery or servitude to religion,

All religion, including the Jewish and Christian religion, is about man made rules to obey what people think will bring us closer to God. But we know it is a heart relationship with God and the trust or faith in God that comes from that relationship, that gives us a sense of closeness with God. Jericho’s wall is symbolic of all religion and its man made rules. The high and thick wall gives people inside a sense of safety and security. Those living inside the wall want the wall to stay strong and will vigorously defend it.

I asked the Lord, in the story of Jericho why did you have your people walk round the wall for seven days when you could have knocked the wall down immediately. I felt His answer was, to teach you that the wall that surrounds religion takes time to come down and it will come down in a miraculous way of My choosing. The wall will only come down when I say it will, and until that time comes its best to keep quite, I’ll tell you when to speak up.

Rahab the prostitute who knew and trusted God was trapped inside the wall, there are lots of people of faith trapped inside religion. They have a heart relationship with God and trust Him but are trapped into thinking they have to obey numerous man made rules and traditions. God brought Rahab out in his time according to His plan for her. Rahab eventually married and became an ancestor of Jesus.

What does all this ancient symbolic story teach us as individuals and as a church? We can’t bring down religions wall, only God can, by opening people’s eyes and ears and giving them a receptive heart. Until then it’s best to keep silent as you would be wasting your time and energy, the bible and theology can cause endless disputes, don’t get into those arguments, instead just tell people your story. The story or testimony of how you came to know Jesus and what its like knowing Jesus in your life, no-one can argue with that because your testimony is all true.

Remember at the Jerusalem meeting in Acts 15 when Paul put over his case that the new Christians didn’t need to be saddled with Jewish religious rules. Some listened and were influenced by Paul and Peter’s evidence that the Gentiles were coming to know Jesus without following any traditional religious practices, others took no notice and it made no difference to them. Even when Jesus performed His most incredible of miracle of raising Lazarus from the dead some Jews received faith and believed in Jesus, others didn’t and opposed him and some religious Jews even went on to kill Him.

So we as individuals and as a church we must not take the opposition to us personally, as Christians and as Liberty we rely on Jesus, not a code of behaviour and practises to make us right with God, Jesus is our centre. But remember religion opposed Jesus and will oppose us, and often people who know and love Jesus are stuck in the restrictions of the rules. Rules that are opposed to the freedom we have to be ourselves in our relationship with God. Our freedom is in Jesus alone and in all that He has done for us, plus the boundless everlasting love He has for us His holy ones, His saints.