The Jericho Method

The Jericho Method

    “Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain.” Psalms 127:1-2 (NKJV)

    “According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”  1 Cor 3:10-11 (NKJV)

    "Some books [or situations] cannot be taken by direct assault; they must be taken like Jericho." — Ortega
    “The city of Jericho fell to the Israelites after they marched all around the city many times over 7 days. Some things take time and patience.”

    “On the seventh day the Israelites got up at dawn and marched around the town as they had done before. But this time they went around the town seven times. The seventh time around, as the priests sounded the long blast on their horns, Joshua commanded the people, “Shout! For the Lord has given you the town! Jericho and everything in it must be completely destroyed as an offering to the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute and the others in her house will be spared, for she protected our spies.”  Joshua 6:17-18 (NLT)

    “The men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father, mother, brothers, and all the other relatives who were with her. They moved her whole family to a safe place near the camp of Israel.”  Joshua 6:23

    “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days. By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace.”  Heb 11:30-31

    1. How Jesus dealt with things.

    “One of the amusing parts of the Gospels is how Jesus responds to the questions of his opponents with another question. His enemies tried to put him in a box. He refused to cooperate. 
Recently, I had the same experience when a friend presented me with this very simple offer of choices: how can you believe in a good, all-powerful God in a world of suffering? Either a good, all-powerful God and no suffering. Or suffering without a good, all-powerful God.
    My response was to politely disagree with the framing of the issue. The mystery of evil in the world is not solvable by a simple binary, multiple-choice trap that is both simplistic and, frankly, crude.  The mystery of evil in the world is an issue that we can only approach through the Jericho Method. In other words, it is an issue that we must patiently circle around, hoping upon each circular pass to acquire some greater bit of insight and sensitivity that can shed some light on this mystery.
    Ultimately, the Christian response is this: the virtually naked Man hanging on the wooden instrument of torture used by the Romans on the lowest of the low in their social scale testifies that Christians--especially those who display crucifixes--do not at all skirt the issue of the suffering of the innocent. The Christian response to such suffering is to point out that God became Man in the form of a slave and voluntarily exposed Himself to unimaginable torture. So, to the mystery of evil, we must add the mystery of God becoming a victim. To that mystery, we must add other dimensions--the dimension of free will, which leads to bad choices; the dimension of the growth, maturity, and wisdom that suffering teaches; the dimension of the promise that God will ultimately set all things right.” [Pencil]

    2. Job charged not God foolishly.

    “Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. And he said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord."  In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.”  Job 1:20-22

    Disasters strike the righteous as well as the unrighteous, generally.  But in Job's case he was the main objective.  God was not trying to destroy Job.  He was testing and perfecting him. 

    Peter wrote about God’s testing.  “So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.” 1 Peter 1:6-7 (NLT)

    As Christians we can only reach our eternal home by passing through many afflictions and sorrows.  Christ IS Coming Again!  The dead WILL be Raised to Life!