The story of the fall of Jericho is one of those iconic Old Testament stories. Packed with drama, and involving a mighty miracle, it’s been a staple of Sunday Schools for generations…. but many of us reading it as adults may feel somewhat more ambivalent. The children’s version is a rip-roaring tale of derring-do; the adult version may well feel a certain horror at the levels of destruction involved, including the slaughter of residents that would nowadays fall foul of the Geneva Convention.
How do we reconcile these conflicting feelings? Many Christians read stories like Jericho and decide that most of the Old Testament really isn’t for them. The God they see described seems rather more severe than the God revealed in Christ: and yet the New Testament insists that we worship a God who is ‘the same, yesterday, today and forever.’ How do we make sense of this?
Here it’s valuable to introduce the vital concept of Progressive Revelation. This means that God reveals himself gradually to human beings. It’s not that God changes, but rather that the human culture of the time can only cope with a certain level of revelation – until the time of Christ when we finally get a full picture of who God really is.
The events at Jericho may trouble us now: but they were ‘normal’ at the time. Twice in the preceding centuries Jericho had been destroyed in similar fashion by other invaders. Situated in an oasis, it was a key strategic settlement. Human life then was not accorded the same value as it is now: a value primarily influenced by Christian theology over the last 2,000 years.
The God who is progressively revealed in the bible would, in time to come, make the value of all life clear to humanity. But at this point in time, in the second millennium BC, what the people needed to understand was that this God was Lord of all the earth, and that, having settled in the land, this people were to live conspicuously holy lives dedicated to this Lord. If Israel failed militarily, other cultures would automatically have assumed that their God was pathetic and unworthy of worship. Humanity simply wasn’t ready yet for the idea that true love and authority is manifested in gentle and selfless service – ‘weakness’, if you like.
The story of Rahab (to which we return tomorrow) is in fact the key pointer towards the direction of theological travel which the bible will undertake. A story of grace and redemption hiding in the rubble of Jericho. Such stories are seeded through the Old Testament like jewels hidden in a tapestry – or treasure in a field, as Someone once said.
Today, let’s give thanks that this God continued to reveal himself over time. And let’s pray that God continues to reveal more of himself – in truth, beauty, love and grace – to all of us. There’s always more to receive!