The passage which most clearly
speaks of Jericho is in Joshua. In it we
see an entire account of the subduing
of the city of Jericho.
Joshua 6:26 says, "And Joshua
adjured them at that time, saying,
Cursed be the man before the Lord,
that riseth up and buildeth this city
Jericho." Thus, the name of this city
means cursed. This portion of history
speaks of the Israelites' first victory
over the enemies in Canaan. The
Canaanites signify evil spirits, which
are of the devil. They are the spiritual
forces of evil in the heavenlies
mentioned in Ephesians 6:12. We
struggle against them.
We have overcome the flesh and the
world; now we still must overcome
the enemy. The only way to overcome
the enemy is to believe in God's
Word, act according to His Word, and
believe that we will receive the results
of carrying out His Word. God has
spoken, and it is sufficient. The men
of Jericho said that they had a city; we
say that we have God's Word. The
men of Jericho said that their city was
as tall as heaven; we say that our God
is in heaven. The men of Jericho said
that every place surrounded by their
city belonged to them; we say that
God has promised us every place that
the soles of our feet will tread upon.
Many know only of the struggle
between the spirit and the flesh; they
are ignorant of the struggle between
the believers and the evil spirits. This
is what is spoken of in Ephesians 6.
The real spiritual warfare is the
warfare between us and Satan with
his evil spirits. Every mature believer
should join in this warfare. God's
children on earth are often attacked
by evil spirits. Some of these attacks
are in the environment, some are in
the physical body, mind, emotion, or
spirit. At these end times, the evil
spirits are particularly doubling their
efforts to frustrate the believers from
properly serving the Lord. In many
matters, believers will experience
great difficulties. They are not aware
that they are being attacked by evil
spirits. They do not know why
everything is against them and
everything is "messed up." They think
that these things are just naturally that
way and do not realize that they are
being harassed by the evil spirits.
In these end times, it is crucial that
the believers know their adversary
and know how to struggle against him
and overcome him. If we have
overcome the flesh and the world
without having overcome the work of
the enemy, we will still not be able to
go on.
It is not by power that Jericho fell, but
by the Israelites' relying on God's
Word and standing firm in their
position. In order to overcome the
attack of evil spirits, we first must
disregard every situation and feeling
and believe in God's Word of promise.
This will defeat the enemy. Second,
we must stand in the position that
Christ has given us, which is in the
heavens, and must put down Satan
and his evil spirits to their inferior
position.
Without God's Word and without
exercising our faith to choose the
position God has given, we cannot
overcome the enemy.