Joshua 6

Though we appear unarmed in body, we nonetheless are bearing arms with which even in time of sunny peace we grapple in spirit against the unsubstantial foe. Now we need God to help us, and him only we must fear; without him our armor falls from us, but with him our armor gains strength. He will be your tower within the walls; he will be your wall where there are no walls.Let us hereafter recall the deeds of our ancestors recorded in the consecrated books. Observe who had the better protection—those enclosed in a city girded by great walls but without God, or those defended by God's strength and friendly support but without city walls. I refer to the city destroyed by the eager Joshua, whose own name was changed to delineate his power. He did not subdue it in the usual military way, by conducting the regular long and weary blockade. No, through God's help his army in sacred symbolism performed a lustration, brandishing its weapons without using them. It withdrew its violence; its arms were silent. For seven days they made seven repeated circuits round the walls. By the strength of this powerful number and by the fearful din of the priests' trumpets, which aped the flashing thunder of divine wrath, they laid hold of the enemy trapped within. Then that people which trusted in its wealth and city perished, and their graves were mingled with their houses.

But the Jews are sure to say that ever since this precept was given through Moses, the observance has been binding. But it is clear according to the text that the precept was not eternal or spiritual but temporary, which would one day cease. In short, so true is it that it is not in the exemption from work of the sabbath—that is, of the seventh day—that the celebration of this solemnity is to consist, that Joshua the son of Nun, at the time that he was reducing the city Jericho by war, stated that he had received from God a precept to order the people that priests should carry the ark of the testament of God seven days, making the circuit of the city; and thus, when the seventh day's circuit had been performed, the walls of the city would spontaneously fall. This was done. When the space of the seventh day was finished, just as was predicted, down fell the walls of the city. [By this] it is manifestly shown that in the number of the seven days there intervened a Sabbath day. For seven days, whenever they may have commenced, must necessarily include within them a Sabbath day; on which day not only must the priests have worked, but the city must have been made a prey by the edge of the sword by all the people of Israel.

For when they had passed over the Jordan, Joshua commanded them to go round Jericho seven days, each day once, and on the seventh day to go round seven times, and he and the priests were to go before them carrying horns and the ark of the Lord; and the whole people followed after Joshua and after the ark in simplicity, like children following their fathers.

The walls of Jericho fell down on account of the priestly trumpets because they contained within themselves a sinful people. A battering ram did not strike it, nor did a machine of war storm it, but—what is remarkable—the terror of the priestly sound brought it down. The walls that had stood impervious to iron collapsed at the sacred voice of the trumpets. Who would not be amazed that when the sound had been made, stones were broken to pieces, foundations were shattered by the noise, and everything collapsed in such a way that, although the conquerors did not injure their own forces, nonetheless among the enemy nothing remained standing? But although no one touched those walls, still they were taken from without at the sound of the righteous while sinners dwelled within. For this reason, then, they gave way, lest they offer resistance to the ones or somehow protect the others. To the righteous they opened a path and to the faithless they denied protection. Therefore, brothers, if the sound of the priestly voice was so powerful at that time, such that its blast in the air announced a certain confusion, how much more do we believe that that priestly voice is living now, which shows forth something magnificent when it speaks Christ in words!… Or how could feeling creatures resist when even unfeeling ones were unable to endure the sacred dread? For we believe that hearts can more easily be softened than rocks at the words of the priests and that sins can be forgiven in a shorter time than those stones were split asunder. For the voice of the Spirit, when it comes, destroys the stain of sin more easily than it breaks apart a tangible fortification of rock.

Last Sunday we said that the walls of Jericho were laid waste by the priestly trumpets and that, contrary to order and nature, an unfeeling thing gave way before the sacred sounds with a kind of dread of the threat, and everything so collapsed at the loud noise that the most solid fortifications fell to the ground and the sinful people remained without protection. The one occurred lest resistance be offered for any amount of time, the other so that they would be the more easily captured.But we have said that all these things were done then in symbol, for we believe that the priestly trumpets of that age were nothing other than the preaching of the priests of this age, by which we do not cease to announce, with a dreadful sound, something harsh to sinners, to speak of what is dismal, and to strike the ears of evildoers with, as it were, a threatening roar, since no one can resist the sacred sounds and no one can gainsay them. For how could feeling creatures not tremble at the word of God when at that time even unfeeling ones were shaken? And how could human hardheartedness resist what a stone fortification could not withstand? For just as, when the stone walls were destroyed, the clash of the trumpets reached the people within, so also now, when evil thoughts have been destroyed, the preaching of the priests penetrates to the bare parts of the soul, for the soul is found bare before the Word of God when its every evil deed is destroyed. And that the soul is bare before God the holy apostle says, "But all things are bare and uncovered to his eyes." In this regard, before the soul knows God and accepts the truth of the faith, it veils itself, so to speak, under superstitious works and surrounds itself with something like a wall of perversity, such that it might seem to be able to remain impregnable within the fortifications of its own evildoing. But when the sacred sound thunders, its rashness is overthrown, its thinking is destroyed, and all the defenses of its superstitions break asunder in such a way that, remaining unprotected, as it is written, the Word of God might penetrate even to the division of its spirit and its inmost parts. Just as the ring of the sacred sound destroyed, captured and took vengeance on a hardhearted people then, so also now the priestly preaching subjugates, captures and takes vengeance on a sinful people.

But what was done then to the city of Jericho, as we have said, was done in symbol, since now this very thing happens in reality. For we read that at that time the priests circled the aforementioned city continuously for seven days and that, although a band of armed men was unable to take it, it was overthrown by the sound of trumpets coming from all sides—of trumpets, I say, not played by a rough soldier but sounded by a consecrated priest. Who would not fear a person's trumpet if he did not fear his sword? After seven days, therefore, the walls that were circled fell at the priestly trumpets; we read that in seven days the works of this world were completed. You see, then, that with this number seven it is not so much one city that is destroyed by the priests as the wickedness of the whole world that is destroyed. For just as in the naming of a single city the condition of the whole world is symbolized, so also the course of seven days indicates the space of seven thousand years during which the trumpets of priestly preaching announce destruction to the world and threaten judgment, as it is written: "For the world will also perish and all the things that are in the world, but the one who does the will of the Lord endures forever."

Pay attention to me; how strange was the preaching of God's love toward humanity! He who says in the law, "You shall not commit adultery" and "You shall not commit prostitution," changes the commandment by clemency and proclaims through the blessed Joshua, "Let Rahab the prostitute live." Joshua the son of Nun, who says, "Let the prostitute live," prefigured the Lord Jesus, who says, "The prostitutes and tax collectors go into the kingdom of the heavens before you." If she must live, how can she be a prostitute? If she is a prostitute, why should she live? "I speak about her previous condition," he says, "so you may marvel at her subsequent change." He asks, "What did Rahab, to whom he granted salvation, do?" She accepted the spies peacefully? Even an innkeeper does this. However, she reaped the fruits of salvation not only by speech but beforehand by faith and by her disposition before God.And so you may learn the abundance of her faith, listen to the very Scripture that describes in full and bears witness to her achievements. She was in a brothel, like a pearl mixed up in mire, like gold thrown in mud, the rose of piety hidden in thorns, a pious soul enclosed in a place of impiety. Pay attention so you may understand well. She accepted the spies and the One whom Israel denied in the desert; Rahab preached this One in the brothel.

But let us see what it is that is indicated in what follows. For Jesus says: "keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest perhaps you covet and take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of the children of Israel accursed, and crush yourselves and the whole synagogue of the Lord." Such is what is indicated in these words: see that you have nothing worldly in you, that you do not carry along with you into the church worldly ways, nor vices, nor the shiftiness of the world; but let all worldly conduct be "accursed" to you. Do not mix worldly things with divine, do not insert the business of the age into the secret things of the church. This is what John too sounds forth with the trumpet of his epistle, saying: "do not love the world, nor the things that are in the world." And Paul likewise: "do not," he says, "be conformed to this world." For those who do these things "take of the accursed thing." But also those who, for example, though they are Christians, celebrate the festivals of the nations, bring "the accursed thing" into the churches. Those who search out the lives and deeds of men from the courses of the stars, who inquire into the flights of birds and other things of this kind, which were formerly observed in the world, bring "the accursed thing" from Jericho into the church, and defile the camp of the Lord, and cause the people of God to be conquered. But there are also many other sins through which "the accursed thing" from Jericho is brought into the church; through which the people of God is conquered and laid low by its enemies. Or does not the Apostle also enjoin these very things when he says: "a little leaven corrupts the whole lump"?

And when temples, idols, groves, and other things of the sort are authorized to be torn down, although it is evident when we do this that we are not honoring but despising them, still we should not take away anything for private, or at least personal, use so that our purpose in tearing down must be manifest as devotion, not cupidity. However, when such things are turned over for public, not private or personal use, as when they are used to honor the true God, that same holds true for things as for people, when they turn from sacrilege and impiety to the true religion. God is understood to have taught this by those texts which you quoted, as when he ordered wood from the grove of foreign gods to be brought for a holocaust and ordered that all the gold, silver and brass vessels be carried into the treasury of the Lord.

And did Joshua, the son of Nun, err in recognizing the leader of the heavenly host? But after he believed, he forthwith conquered, being found worthy to triumph in the battle of faith. Again, he did not lead forth his armed ranks into the fight, nor did he overthrow the ramparts of the enemy's walls, with battering rams or other engines of war, but with the sound of the seven trumpets of the priests. Thus the blare of the trumpet and the badge of the priest brought a cruel war to an end.

Besides the signs just mentioned and the voices which could be heard in the neighborhood of the ark, other miraculous testimonies to the law were witnessed. For example, when the people were entering the promised land and the ark was crossing the Jordan, the river stood still above them and flowed on below them so that the ark and the people had a dry place for crossing. Again, when they came upon the first hostile city where the religion was pagan and polytheistic, the ark was carried around it seven times and then, suddenly, the walls collapsed before a hand was raised or a battering ram was used.

So the walls of that city, called Jericho, which in the Hebrew tongue is said to mean moon, fell when they had been encircled seven times by the ark of the covenant. What, then, does the announcement of the kingdom of heaven portend—signified by the encircling of the ark—except that all the battlements of mortal life, that is, all the hope of this world, which is opposed to the hope of the world to come, will be destroyed by the sevenfold gift of the Holy Spirit, working through the free will? For, those walls fell of their own accord, not by any violent push of the ark in its circuit. There are other references in Scripture which suggest the church to us under the symbolism of the moon, as it makes its pilgrimage in this mortal life, amid toils and labors, far from that Jerusalem whose citizens are the holy angels.

The divine reading attests that the walls of Jericho at once collapsed at the din of trumpets. So there is no doubt that the sounds of music, at the Lord's command or with his permission, have unleashed great forces.

Jericho is overthrown by the trumpets of the priests. For at once, as soon as the blast of the trumpets sounded loudly, the whole circuit of walls was thrown down. We had already said before too that Jericho holds the figure of the present age, whose strength and defenses we see destroyed by the priestly trumpets. For the firmness and defenses which this world used as walls were the worship of idols, the deceit of divinations administered by the craft of demons, the fabrications of augurs and soothsayers and magicians — by all of which this world was fenced about as by the strongest walls. Moreover it was also fortified by the diverse doctrines of the philosophers and by the most lofty assertions of their disputations, as by certain tall and sturdy towers. But when our Lord Jesus Christ came, whose coming that former son of Nave prefigured, he sends his priests, the Apostles, bearing "trumpets of beaten metal," the magnificent and heavenly teaching of preaching. With the priestly trumpet Matthew first sounded loudly in his Gospel; Mark also, Luke, and John each sang with their priestly trumpets; Peter too resounds with the two trumpets of his epistles; James also and Jude. Nonetheless John also adds still further to sound the trumpet through his epistles, and Luke by describing the deeds of the Apostles. But last of all comes that one who said: "for I think that God has set forth us Apostles as the last," and, thundering in the trumpets of his fourteen epistles, he cast down to the very foundations the walls of Jericho and all the engines of idolatry and the doctrines of the philosophers.

I am indeed also moved by this, which the narrative relates: that not only did the priests sound the trumpets so that the walls of Jericho might fall, but also that, "when the voice of the trumpet was heard," it is said that "the whole people howled with a great howling," or, as it stands in other copies, "shouted for joy with a great jubilation." And although this word may seem to have been improperly translated — for in the Greek it is written ἀλαλαγμός, which properly signifies neither jubilation nor howling, but rather denotes that shout by which, in time of war, an army raising a united cry is accustomed with one mind to exhort itself to battle — yet in the Scriptures this word is customarily written down as jubilation rather than as howling, as there: "shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth," and again: "blessed is the people that knows the jubilation." And this saying too moves me: what so great a work this is, that it "makes the people blessed." He did not say "blessed is the people" that works righteousness, or "blessed is the people" that knows the mysteries, or that knows the reckoning of heaven and earth and the stars, but he says, "blessed is the people that knows the jubilation." In other places the fear of God makes one blessed, but it makes only a single man blessed; for so it says: "blessed is the man that fears the Lord." Elsewhere too more are made blessed, such as the "poor in spirit," or the "meek," or the "peacemakers," or the "pure in heart." But this beatitude is lavished abroad, and by some cause of blessedness, I know not what, so great a thing is here indicated, that it makes the "whole people" alike "blessed" — the people, however, "that has known the jubilation." Hence it seems to me that this jubilation indicates a certain disposition of concord and unanimity. And if it should fall upon two or three of Christ's disciples, whatever they ask in the name of the Savior, the heavenly Father grants to them. But if the beatitude be so great that the whole people remains harmonious and of one mind, so that "all say the same thing, continuing in the same understanding and in the same judgment," then, when such a people lifts up its voice with one accord, there will come to pass that which is written in the Acts of the Apostles, that "there was a great earthquake," where at that time "the Apostles were praying with one accord together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus"; and when the earthquake has occurred, all things that are earthly will be destroyed and will fall, and the world itself will be overturned. Hear, finally, our Lord and Savior exhorting his soldiers to this very thing, how he says: "be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." Under that leader, then, the world has already been overcome by us, and its walls have collapsed — the walls on which the men of the age relied. But each one of us too ought to accomplish these things within his very self. You have within you Jesus as your leader through faith; make for yourself "trumpets of beaten metal," if you are a priest; nay rather, since you are a priest — for you have been made a "royal race," and a "holy priesthood" has been spoken of concerning you — make for yourself "trumpets of beaten metal" out of the holy Scriptures; from there draw your meanings, from there your words; for it is on this account that they are called trumpets of beaten metal. Sound upon them, that is, "sing in psalms, in hymns, in spiritual songs," sound in the prophetic sacraments, in the mysteries of the law, in the apostolic doctrines. And if you sound upon such trumpets and carry the ark of the testament around "seven times," that is, if you do not separate the mystical precepts of the law from the evangelical trumpets, if you also exact from your very self the harmony of jubilation — that is, if the people of your thoughts and senses, which is within you, always utters a concordant and consonant voice, and you do not sometimes speak the truth and sometimes stain yourself with a lie by flattering a powerful person; if remissness does not at times make you fawning, and anger at times make you savage; if you are not found arrogant toward the lowly and humble before the proud; in short, if a battle is no longer waged within you while "the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh" — if these things now sound in unison and are in concord within you, send forth the voice of jubilation, since for you the world has been destroyed and cast down. Such, I suppose, was also that man who confidently said: "but far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."

Yet something in the passage still moves me: I seem to have perceived too little concerning the jubilation, to have said lowly things about great matters. At the coming of Jesus the walls of Jericho were overturned; at the coming of my Lord Jesus the world is conquered. Yet how the world is conquered, I would like to know more plainly and to understand more clearly the things that are said. I myself, who teach you, wish to learn together with you. Let us commonly take Paul to ourselves as our teacher; for he is the fellow-initiate of Christ, who can show us how Christ conquered the world. Hear him, then, saying: "that which was contrary to us, he took it out of the midst, nailing it to his cross; and stripping off the principalities and powers, he led them openly, triumphing over them on the wood of the cross." From these words, then, I understand this: that the heavenly powers, seeing the battle of Jesus, seeing the contrary "principalities and powers" stripped of their powers, seeing "the strong man bound and his vessels plundered," sounded their heavenly trumpets, because, when "the prince of this world" was bound, the world was conquered, and the heavenly army gave forth the voice of jubilation in the triumph of Christ. Truly, then, blessed is the people of the nations, which has come to know such a jubilation as this of the heavenly army, and which recognizes the mysteries and believes.

But let us see what things follow. Jericho is surrounded; it must be taken by storm. How, then, is Jericho stormed? No sword is drawn against it, no battering-ram is directed, nor are missiles hurled; only the priestly trumpets are employed, and by these the walls of Jericho are undermined. We frequently find in the Scriptures that Jericho is set down as a figure of this world. For in the Gospel too, that which is said, that "a man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers," was without doubt an image of that Adam who was thrust from paradise into the exile of this world. And the "blind men" too, who were in Jericho, to whom Jesus came to make them see, bore the figure of those who in this world were pressed down by the blindness of ignorance, to whom the Son of God came. This Jericho, then — that is, this world — is to fall; for the consummation of the age has long since been made widely known in the sacred volumes. How, then, will its consummation be given? By what instruments? "By the voices," it says, "of the trumpets." Of which "trumpets"? Let Paul disclose to you the secret of this mystery; listen to what he himself says: "the trumpet shall sound," he says, "and the dead who are in Christ shall rise incorruptible," and: "the Lord himself, at the command, at the voice of the archangel, and at the trumpet of God, shall descend from heaven." Then, therefore, Jesus our Lord, with the trumpets, conquers Jericho and lays it low, so that from it the harlot alone is saved, and all her house.

The consummation of the world will not happen in stages, but suddenly. With this ought to be compared, I think, what was written in Joshua, when by a single sound of a trumpet the crumbling city of Jericho suddenly perished; and like this example Babylon also in the consummation of the age will fall and suddenly be obliterated.

Human salvation is useless, and my strength lends me no strength if I lack the strength of God. What good was the boundless vigor of giants? Or the kings of Egypt? Or mighty Jericho? Their own inflated glory was the cause of death for all of them, and God's power broke them not by the strength of heroes but by that of the weak. The famed giant died like a dog, felled by a shepherd boy's sling. The din of trumpets shook down the famous city. The renowned and haughty king lay dead on the sand of the shore, and the riches of the kingdom were equated with his naked corpse. So wherever Christ is with us, a web is a wall; for the person without Christ, a wall will become a web.

And why should I speak concerning the prophets [only] in the case of a nation in the whole of which—together with women and children—faith showed forth such mighty triumphs as these? For faith, as it had been commanded, cried out, and the walls [of Jericho] were not able to stand against its voice. In every place faith manifested such triumphs as these, and it worked marvellous things in all the Holy Books. He that hath perceived the power of faith, and hath had experience thereof in very deed, knoweth that it wrought these things, and he believeth also that it doeth [still] such things as these.

Let us prepare ourselves for the sacrifice of the lamb.… Nor let us be under the impression that this yearling lamb can be eaten anywhere. The precept bids us to partake of it in one house only, lest we think that the lamb may be immolated outside the church. From this, it is evident that the Jews and heretics, and all assemblies of perverted doctrine, because they do not eat the lamb in the church, do not eat the flesh of the lamb but the flesh of the dragon, which, as the psalmist tells us, was given as food to the Ethiopians. Just as in the flood no one was saved who was not in the ark of Noah, and in the fall of Jericho, only the house of the harlot Rahab—which signifies the faithful church of the Gentiles—was spared, so is it true that in the sacrifice of the lamb, the lamb is slain only when it is sacrificed in the one house.

But let us now see the things that follow. Jericho having been overturned, Rahab the harlot alone is saved. For thus it is written of her: "and Rahab the harlot and all the house of her father, Jesus made alive; and she was joined to Israel unto this present day." I would like to inquire of the Jews, and of those who are indeed called Christians but still keep a Jewish sense in the Scriptures, how they explain that "Rahab the harlot was joined to the house of Israel unto this present day." How is Rahab said to be "joined unto this present day"? For it is the custom of holy Scripture to say this of those things which remain unto the end either of life or of the age. For example, as it says: "this is the father of the Moabites unto this present day," which signifies unto the end of the age. And again in the Gospel it is said that "this saying was spread abroad among the Jews unto this present day," that is, as long as the age stands. But how is Rahab, a woman, said to be "joined to the house of Israel unto this present day"? Is a succession of posterity ascribed to a mother, so that she may seem to be preserved in the renewal of offspring? Or is it rather to be understood that she "has been joined" and made a companion to the true Israel "unto this present day"? And if you wish to see more plainly how "Rahab is joined to Israel," look at how "the branch of the wild olive is grafted into the root of the good olive tree," and you will understand how those who have been grafted into the faith of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob are rightly said to be "set beside" and "joined to Israel unto this present day," because in their "root" we, "the branches of the wild olive" taken from among the nations — we who once played the harlot, worshiping "wood and stone" in place of the true God — "have been set beside them unto this present day," and, on account of faith in Christ, we have been made "above," while that people which has remained unbelieving has been made "below," according to the prophecy of Deuteronomy. If anyone, then, has within himself Christ, who is "the head of all," this one is made "into the head"; for they denied Christ Jesus and were made into the tail, and those who were "first" have been made "last."

"The Lord" our Jesus "shall come," then, "and shall come at the voice of the trumpets." But even now let us pray that he may come and destroy this "world," which "is set in wickedness," and "all the things that are in the world," because "everything that is in the world is the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes." May he destroy those things, may he now, this very moment, dissolve them, but may he save this one alone, who received his spies, who received his Apostles in faith and obedience and set them in the upper rooms, and may he join and unite this harlot with the house of Israel. But let us now not bring up again nor reckon against her the old fault. Once she was a harlot, but now she is joined as "a chaste virgin to one husband, Christ." Hear the Apostle saying of her: "for I have determined this very thing, to present you as a chaste virgin to one husband, Christ." From her too was that very one who said: "for we also were once foolish, unbelieving, going astray, serving desires and various pleasures." Do you wish to learn yet more fully how the harlot is now no longer a harlot? Hear Paul saying further: "and such indeed you were; but you have been washed, but you have been sanctified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God." For that she might be able to escape, lest she perish with Jericho, she received from the spies a most powerful "sign" of salvation, the "scarlet cord." For through the blood of Christ this whole Church is saved, in Christ himself our Lord, "to whom is glory and dominion unto ages of ages. Amen!"

It is said of the time when Ahab reigned, "In his days Hiel of Bethel built Jericho; he laid its foundations in Abiram, his firstborn; and he set up its gates in Segub, his youngest son." The apparent sense is that when the above-mentioned city's builder began to lay its foundations, his firstborn, named Abiram, died; and that after the city had been built, when he tried to fortify its gates, he lost his youngest son, named Segub. Joshua predicted that this would happen when, after Jericho's destruction he made it anathema by cursing it, saying, "Cursed be the man before the Lord that shall raise up and build the city of Jericho, and in his firstborn may he lay its foundation, and in the last of his children set up its gates." Because Hiel is translated as "living for God" and Bethel as "house of God," Hiel of Bethel restores Jericho's walls (which Joshua had destroyed and cursed) whenever any who have taken up the religious life in the church resume doing the evil deeds for which the Lord Jesus forgave them on the day of [their] baptism and whenever they who have renounced the devil's pomp return to it by wanton living or prefer false doctrines or Gentile fables to the church's truth in which they were instructed.