The Jubilee & The Fall Of Jericho – Part 1

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This will be an indepth study of the fall of Jericho. You will understand that Jericho foreshadows something very important by the time we are finished. There are many prophecies that go with the fall of Jericho which will help us understand some upcoming situations in our future.

Joshua 5:13  When Joshua was by Jericho…

Joshua was out doing his own scouting. He was looking at the city and the lay of the land, thinking of a battle plan – how to start the invasion, how to get inside the city and so forth. He had to get Rahab and her household out. So there was that rescue mission to think about. In fact, he might have been trying to find the scarlet cord Rahab had hung outside her house on the wall so he would know which house to go to. He had a lot on his mind, but notice the scripture does not say he was praying. It just says he was by Jericho but he wasn’t there for no reason. He was planning.

But then, “… he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man stood in front of him with his sword drawn in his hand. Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our enemies?”

Joshua was no sissy. He went right up to this unknown armed warrior. Joshua was probably pretty good with a sword, too, but this man wasn’t being aggressive toward Joshua in any way. So Joshua simply wanted to know which side this man was on.

Joshua 5:14  He said, “No; but I have come now as commander of Yahweh’s army.”

This commander is none other than YHVH manifesting in the physical who would be named Yeshua in another 1500 years. This is YHVH of Hosts, or LORD of Hosts in some Bible versions.

This is no vision. This is an actual face to face, in-person meeting between Joshua and YHVH. Moses had face to face meetings with YHVH and now Joshua will have this one.

…“Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and worshiped, and asked him, “What does my lord say to his servant?”

How we know this is YHVH manifesting in the physical is because this commander receives Joshua’s worship and only YHVH receives worship in the scripture. Mere angelic beings do not. When men fall on their faces to worship angels, the angels always say “don’t’ do that”.

Another way we know this is God Himself, YHVH, showing up in the flesh is because Joshua used the term “adon” for “lord” (Strong’s H113).

Adon means “to rule; sovereign, controller (human or divine): master…”

Only our “Adon”, YHVH, is sovereign. For the naysayers that say Yeshua is not God and is not YHVH, pay attention. Because here He is! He is our commander, our King and He is also our Messiah (the restorer of Israel), savior, deliverer, and redeemer. The government of Israel and the world rests on His, on Adon’s shoulders, and this entity is both Adon and YHVH, and He will become Yeshua when having a body to die for Israel’s sins is required 1500 years in the future.

Joshua 5:15  The prince of Yahweh’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your shoes; for the place on which you stand is holy.” Joshua did so.

In the ancient near east, removing the shoes was a sign of submission, humility and respect to one’s God! Egyptian priests did not wear shoes while serving their gods. YHVH’s priests do not wear shoes when they serve YHVH Elohim, either. Moses had been asked to remove his shoes at the burning bush because the One within the burning bush was YHVH, God and King. YHVH’s priests do not wear shoes when serving YHVH. Joshua is showing us right here that this is our YHVH Elohim. In the presence of a god or a king, people removed their shoes. This is God, YHVH, appearing in the physical. He would, in 1500 years’ time, appear in the physical as a fully human entity. Same God, then and now.

By being told to remove his shoes, Joshua now knows who he faces. He now knows whose strategies will lead the way to Israel’s victories, and those strategies will be his. Joshua will be led through his entire life by YHVH of Hosts. In fact, it will be known that YHVH of Hosts was with Joshua all of his life.

YHVH of Hosts now has removed all the burdens from Joshua. All he has to do is pass the orders from YHVH of Hosts, the commander, to Israel’s army. The chain of command has been established! YHVH of Hosts is in charge! Joshua, you don’t have to contemplate or plan the battles. You just have to follow orders! What a relief! Chain of command is designed to relieve us of burdens which are too heavy for us to carry.

The obedient and submissive are relieved to know someone else is doing the heavy lifting. They also know the glory will go to the Commander and they are fine with that.

The rebellious don’t like the idea of being commanded by anyone, including God Himself! This is because they want to get the glory for the successes. However, they are usually not willing to bear the shame of defeats.

Joshua 6:1  Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the children of Israel. No one went out, and no one came in.

The account does not tell us whether Joshua offered peace terms to Jericho as required in Deuteronomy 20:10.

Deuteronomy 20:10  When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace to it.
Deuteronomy 20:11  It shall be, if it makes you answer of peace, and opens to you, then it shall be, that all the people who are found therein shall become forced laborers to you, and shall serve you.

It makes sense that Joshua would have followed the Law of YHVH in this matter. Verse 11 indicates that the city will have opened up to Israel. But we find Jericho closed up. In other words, rather than repent and accept the condition of being servants to the Israelites, the people of Jericho want to die in their sin. So Jericho has now put itself under siege, a deliberate choice, even before any action has been taken against it. So Jericho’s action is consistent with having received an offer of peace which was rejected because Jericho is shut up against the Israelites from fear of Israel.

Remember, scripture tells us Truth but does not always give us all the details. We must understand the context of what is being written. The scribe who wrote this would have understood and would expect everyone else to understand.

Joshua 6:2  Yahweh said to Joshua, “Behold, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and the mighty men of valor.
Joshua 6:3  All of your men of war shall march around the city, going around the city once. You shall do this six days.
Joshua 6:4  Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. On the seventh day, you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets.

On each of the 6 days, the warriors and priests were to march around the city 1 time. They would have done so at a distance far enough away to avoid Jericho’s arrows. On the 7^th day, they will march around the city 7 times.

There is great significance in this! What is 7 times 7? Forty nine. What year was this when Israel entered Canaan? No, it was not the Shimitta year. It was the fiftieth year. This is the Jubilee year. I will tell you why.

Why is this not the 49^th year, the final Shmittah? Why is this the Jubilee, the 50^th year? First, Joshua 5:12 says the Israelites ate from the land in their first year. This is in accord with the instructions for the Jubilee given in Leviticus 25.

Lev 25:8  “‘You shall count off seven Sabbaths of years, seven times seven years; and there shall be to you the days of seven Sabbaths of years, even forty-nine years.
Lev 25:9  Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land.
Lev 25:10  You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee to you; and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family.
Lev 25:11  That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee to you. In it you shall not sow, neither reap that which grows of itself, nor gather from the undressed vines.
Lev 25:12  For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat of its increase out of the field.

That is exactly what the Israelites did. They were eating from the increase of the land!

Also, Josephus wrote about this invasion saying it had to do with Israel’s liberty. He said the Israelites didn’t officially consider themselves “freed from the miseries which they had undergone from the Egyptians” until they entered the Promised Land.

In Antiquities of the Jews – Book 5, Josephus wrote: “Now the place where Joshua pitched his camp was called Gilgal: which denotes liberty. For since now they had passed over Jordan, they looked on themselves as freed from the miseries which they had undergone from the Egyptians, and in the wilderness.”

The name ‘Gilgal’ means “liberty”, according to Josephus. People have given other possible name translations for “Gilgal” but Josephus says the word means “liberty”. Liberty happens in the Jubilee year. Mr. Strong says Gilgal (Strong’s H1537) means “wheel”. That also makes sense in that all things return to their original standing at the Jubilee as if the wheel of 50 years had turned.

It is no accident that Israel camped at Gilgal. It is first mentioned in Deuteronomy 11:30.

Deuteronomy 11:30  Aren’t they [mounts Ebal and Gerizim] beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah, near Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh?

Joshua knew where to set up camp. YHVH and Josephus both said it was at Gilgal, at their liberty time and where they were circumcised and prepared to enter into YHVH’s Kingdom, that the reproach of Egypt was removed from them (Joshua 5:9). Thus, their liberty, their Jubilee. YHVH’s people will have a future Jubilee of liberty coming out of Egypt and Babylon.

With the blowing of the trumpets 7 x 7, the 7 Shmittahs have now ended and Israel’s Jubilee has commenced. It commenced with a shout from the people and the blast of the shofars.

But it isn’t only the people who get a Jubilee. Leviticus 25:2-12 calls for the land to rest. The fall of Jericho also means the liberty of the land, too, not just the people’s liberty!

These are some of the reasons why Israel entered the Promised Land in a Jubilee year. Furthermore, this is a prophecy for the return of Yeshua in a Jubilee year. I will have more reason on Israel entering the Promised Land in a Jubilee year in a little bit.

Joshua 6:5  It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn…

This long blast is the Great Shofar blast of the Jubilee.

…and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the city wall shall fall down flat, and the people shall go up, every man straight in front of him.”

The shout of the people is ‘teruah’, Strong’s H8643. A “clamor, acclamation of joy or a battle cry”, the “clangor of trumpets, as an alarm. It also means the sound of “jubilee” and “rejoicing”.

Joshua 6:6  Joshua the son of Nun called the priests, and said to them, “Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before Yahweh’s ark.”

Notice how Joshua is explaining to the priests the instructions he was given by YHVH. This is exactly what Moses also did.

Joshua 6:7  They said to the people, “Advance! March around the city, and let the armed men pass on before Yahweh’s ark.”
Joshua 6:8  It was so, that when Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns [shofars] before Yahweh advanced and blew the trumpets [shofars], and the ark of Yahweh’s covenant followed them.
Joshua 6:9  The armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets [shofars], and the ark went after them. The trumpets [shofars] sounded as they went.
Joshua 6:10  Joshua commanded the people, saying, “You shall not shout, nor let your voice be heard, neither shall any word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I tell you to shout. Then you shall shout.”
Joshua 6:11  So he caused Yahweh’s ark to go around the city, circling it once. Then they came into the camp, and stayed in the camp.
Joshua 6:12  Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up Yahweh’s ark.
Joshua 6:13  The seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams’ horns [shofars] in front of Yahweh’s ark went on continually, and blew the trumpets [shofars]. The armed men went in front of them. The rear guard came after Yahweh’s ark. The trumpets [shofars] sounded as they went.
Joshua 6:14  The second day they marched around the city once, and returned into the camp. They did this six days.
Joshua 6:15  On the seventh day, they rose early at the dawning of the day, and marched around the city in the same way seven times. Only on this day they marched around the city seven times.

Some commentators claim this 7^th day was likely the Sabbath. The upcoming Millennium will be the 7-thousandth day, the Millennial Sabbath. The Tribulation and its wars will occur during the start of this day since wickedness and war are the ultimate darkness, and there is darkness that comes at the end of the Tribulation, as well. It is possible the Israelites were at war with Jericho on the Sabbath, though there may be reasonable objections to this understanding.

Joshua 6:16  At the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout, for Yahweh has given you the city!

Now, the people of Israel – everyone, not just the warriors, will participate in this battle on the last day, the 7^th day. There is a distinction made between the armed men and the people in this account in verse 9 and 10.

The men of war marched around the city with the ark and 7 priests for 6 days. But on the 7^th day, they marched around the city 7 times with the entire congregation present – older men, women, little girls and little boys. Everyone. All Israelites had to participate because the Promised Land is for everyone, and also because Israel could not retreat back across the Jordan river and the could not move forward until Jericho fell. This war was the for everyone. Not so with subsequent wars.

In Israel’s future victory day, we will all follow after the 144,000 who will be following the actual ark of the covenant, our LORD and savior, Yeshua Moshiach, as we enter the Promised Land. This is because Jericho falling is a type and shadow of the fall of the world beast empire which will fall in a Jubilee year just like ancient Jericho did. And the fall of the final beast empire will also have shofars blowing and people shouting.

The shofars replacing the silver trumpets is significant for which year Israel entered the Promised land 3500 years and for the prophecies yet to be fulfilled in our future. Not one time did the priests blow the silver trumpets proclaiming war. Every time a wind instrument was blown at Jericho, it was a shofar. The final sounds Jericho heard was the long blast of the Great Shofar and the people shouting. There were 7 shofars sounding the Great Shofar blast.

The Great Shofar blast was commanded to be blown in the 50^th year, the year of Jubilee, and there is a Great Shofar blast yet to be had for us!

Mat 24:29  But immediately after the oppression of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken;
Mat 24:30  and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. Then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.
Mat 24:31  He will send out his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together his chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.

The Great Shofar will blast at the end of the 7^th year of Tribulation, and just like Jericho fell, so will the current world order. That is why there are 7 trumpets in the Book of Revelation. Seven x 7 is 49 and then, when the Great shofar sounds, it will be announcing our Jubilee of liberty!

Isa_27:13  And it shall come to pass in that day…

…The end times last day…

…that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship YHVH in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

Isaiah 27, the entire chapter, has not yet been fulfilled because it prophesies are of the very end of days when YHVH redeems Israel again by putting “his hard and great and strong sword [to] punish leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and leviathan the twisted serpent; and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea” (Isaiah 27:1).

This fleeing serpent, Leviathan, represents Satan who is in the midst of the sea which appears in Revelation 13:1, a Biblical idiom for the population of the earth.

Rev 13:1  Then I stood on the sand of the sea. I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads. On his horns were ten crowns, and on his heads, blasphemous names.

It is so exciting when the whole Bible speaks the same language. Isaiah saw the rise of the final beast empire coming up out of the people, the sea!

There not only is a final Great Shofar prophesied in our future but also a shout, a war cry, just like the pre-war victory shout made by the Israelites at Jericho. Paul tells us:

1 Thessalonians 4:16  For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with God’s trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first,
1 Thessalonians 4:17  then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. So we will be with the Lord forever.

The “shout” made by Yeshua is Strong’s G2752, keleuma, which means a cry of incitement. This is the teruah, the same shout that the people gave at Jericho! This is a cry of incitement. Incitement to what? War! Yeshua will be here with His 144,000 in tow to make war, and we will be with them! This will happen when our liberty has arrived!

But wait! There’s more because 1 Thessalonians 4:16 says God’s trumpet will blow. God’s trumpet is ‘salpinx’, Strong’s G4536. Let’s explore this Greek word, salpinx, for a minute. God’s trumpet translates from ‘salpinx’ to several Hebrew words.

H2689 chatsotserah – These are the silver trumpets that call the assembly to YHVH’s gates at His Tabernacle or Temple, for the Feast of trumpets, for the calling of the congregation, and for the journeying of the camps, for war, also in the day of your gladness, and in your set feasts, and in the beginnings of your months, you shall blow the [silver] trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings. and this also has to connotation of calling His people to the gathering place.

But these were not the trumpets which were blown at Jericho and these are not the trumpets which will be blown in our coming Jubilee year, either.

Salpinx equates to H3104 yovel, the Jubilee – This is the Great Trumpet of announcing the Jubilee.

Salpinx is also H7161 qeren – This is the horns of YHVH’s altar.

H7782 shophar – This is the kind of instrument used to announce the Jubilee, the Great Shofar, which is blown at Yom Kippur.

Interestingly, there is nothing about the Great Shofar having been blown in the previous Yom Kippur. But since this generation did not go to the Tabernacle because of their uncircumcision, it is possible the priests did blow the Great Shofar without it being recorded. The crossing over the Jordan river happened at the following Passover season.

H8619 taqoa – Appears 1 time only in Ezekiel 7:14. It means a strong blast or wind. Ezekiel wrote this from Babylon. He had been among the first prisoners taken away, those whom Jeremiah heard from YHVH were the good figs that would not be destroyed. From Babylon, he is now saying the time has come for Jerusalem to be destroyed. Revelation 18’s destruction of Mystery Babylon relates to this chapter, too.

Eze 7:14  They have blown the trumpet, and have made all ready; but no one goes to the battle; for my wrath is on all its multitude.

So this is a special sound made only by YHVH.

H8643 teruah – A clamor or acclamation of joy or a battle cry; especially as an alarm. This is the word of the people shouting at the walls of Jericho.

Two sounds were made at Jericho. The first was the blast of 7 shofars sounding the Great Shofar blast and the second was the shout of the people. Both of these are in our future with the shofar blast that comes from Heaven and our own shouts of joy that will collapse the beast system of this earth!

The pattern from the Book of Joshua with the fall of Jericho, along with other prophecies, is why we know Jericho fell in a Jubilee year and it is that Yeshua will bring His Kingdom in a Jubilee year.

Look up! You redemption draws near!