We were in Jericho proper, a Palestinian controlled territory. I would get to teach from a balcony overlooking the oldest city in the world. Limestone houses dotted the panoramic view! To the right a tel, a mountain of dirt, held the secret remains of a city destroyed by the strategy of an army empowered by the God of the universe!
I, of course, taught on Joshua. Moses was dead and now Joshua had no recourse but to lead the children of Israel through the Jordan into the Promised Land! He could not go back! There was no other place to go but forward. After he gets across the Jordan, he knows that the next stronghold is Jericho, a strongly fortified city. One morning he is up, no doubt reading the Torah, filling himself with the Word of God, feeling a little apprehensive about taking the city. The Bible says that Joshua “lifted up His eyes and looked.” When the Bible uses that phrase, the one looking always looks up with expectation! And so Joshua did and, when de does, he sees “The Angel Lord” whom he worships as God. This “Angel Lord” gives his all the strategy he needs in order to take the city.
As I encouraged my tour group to “lift up their eyes” in their own Jericho-situations, I pointed above the tel of Jericho, and a rainbow appeared in the sky filling the panorama in front of us with undeniable color!
The story of Jericho and Joshua has taken on a greater meaning for me. I will never be able to read that Book or hear those names without remembering how God met me on the plains of Jericho in The Holy Land!
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