Observation: God is about to lay out his plan for defeating Jericho - which involves marching around the city for seven days when the walls will then fall - and Joshua will act on that plan in total faith. However, the Lord introduces the conversation with an interesting statement, and that statement is directly tied to a significant fact.
The Lord says he has already given Jericho to Israel ... past tense. Yes, the most likely 'theological' reason for this is that God is over all time and therefore knowing something will happen is the same as it already having happened. That said, the precursor condition to this conversation is significant. The residents and leaders of Jericho are scared to death of Israel. They have locked down the city, creating their own self-imposed siege and prison. In effect, they have already surrendered and become defeated victims by their own decision, caused by their fear. There is still the action of Israel required to complete the task of destroying the city, but as for the people of Jericho, they are already destroyed.
This idea - that people are destroyed or defeated not when they are killed in battle or have their city burned, but when they have realized that their way of life is opposed to Yahweh's will and direction, and thus turned inward and out of fear changed their lives to avoid Yahweh's truth - is prevalent throughout the Old Testament. It applies to individuals who have defied the Lord then attempted to seek sanctuary in safe cities, other countries, or even within regulations and traditions involving things like temple practices. This same idea applies to Israel itself when it attempts to defend itself from the Lord's curses already pronounced on them by Moses, where they lock themselves in Jerusalem to the point of their own starvation despite having active prophets remind them that their actions are fruitless as they committed the sins defined by God's curse.
Yes, the Lord does "destroy" people, but that destruction is rarely about how they die, and actually more reflective of how they live in hardship and misery, imprisoned by their fear of what the Lord may do to them.
Application: I think that, if Jericho would have simply opened their city and surrendered to Israel, based on the knowledge they already had that Israel had divine power behind them, they would have simply lived a good life. They would have aligned themselves to the Lord's will, and just been incorporated into that will. Their destruction was ensured when they became afraid God's will, and they had already "lost" when they behaved in alignment to that fear and thus lived their lives with dread and doom.
I know there are bad elements of the world, but I do not live in fear. This was emphasized during the pandemic, when I truly never once felt fear, nor embraced the idea of living in a manner of dread to some illness. Those who did ... have literally had their lives destroyed, mostly mentally. It is so sad to see how their outlook in life is forever altered for the worse.
For the most part, these people are still alive, living in a manner that actively resist God's will, and thus the common motivator for their lives is fear. Make no mistake, they are already destroyed.
Prayer: Lord, I have often prayed for you to give comfort to those who have lived, and are living, in fear and burdened by mental hardships caused by the events of the past five years. However, today I see this situation differently. These people are your enemies who act in resistance to you, which creates fear in their hearts, and you have, in fact, already defeated and destroyed them. Yes, I hope some will change their hearts and minds and join you, like Rahab's family. As for the rest, I don't know what to pray, but that your will, and your victory, has already been done. Amen.
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