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Bible Lesson: “Matter”   

Focus: Joshua and the walls of Jericho (found in Section 2 of this week’s Bible Lesson from the Christian Science Quarterly).  

Article from The Christian Science Journal: Strength and Freedom” by M. Bettie Bell. To access, click the article’s title. Also, JSH-Online subscribers can view the article through the following link:

https://journal.christianscience.com/issues/1894/3/11-12/strength-and-freedom?

Excerpt: “The walls of Jericho were encompassed seven times before a belief in the strength of matter yielded to the strength of Spirit; then the shout of Joshua and his soldiers of victory and freedom, was long and loud. We have but to storm the bulwarks and towers of evil with the trumpet notes of Truth, and the walls of belief will give way to the strong forces of understanding.” (CSJ, March 1894)

Article from The Christian Science Journal:The Walls of Jericho,” by Mary I. Mesechre. To access, click the article’s title. Also, JSH-Online subscribers can view the article through the following link:

https://journal.christianscience.com/issues/1911/6/29-3/the-walls-of-jericho?

Excerpt: “When the children of Israel had compassed the walls of Jericho for the seventh time on the seventh day, they saw no change. The walls still stood. Their seven days’ marching seemed all to no purpose. Not until was heard their united shout of praise to God because He had given them the city, did unmistakable evidence of victory appear . . . It was the spirit of obedience which entered into all their doings, and which stimulated this sustained note of praise and thanksgiving that effected the overthrow of Jericho. All else would have availed nothing, lacking this!” (CSJ, June 1911)

Article from The Christian Science Journal:Within the Wall of Jericho” by Amy C. Fariss. To access, click the article’s title. Also, JSH-Online subscribers can view the article through the following link:

https://journal.christianscience.com/issues/1916/11/34-8/within-the-wall-of-jericho?_

Excerpt: “What can Christian Science do against the wall of material belief which the centuries have reared between humanity and man’s freedom as a son of God? To mortal sense the foundations of this wall are mighty obstacles, . . . . Serene, gracious, and all conquering, Christian Science goes forward, encompassing every walled-in foe, destroying to the last every enemy.” (CSJ, November 1916)

Questions:

  1. What is the significance of Joshua’s vision in chapter 5?
  2. Why are the people of Jericho and their king closed in behind the walls (v. 1)?
  3. What is God’s promise to Joshua (v. 2)?
  4. Why does God instruct Israel to compass the city once for 6 days (v. 3)?
  5. Why was it important to have seven priests and seven horns (v. 4)?
  6. Why does God instruct the people to make no noise with their voices (v. 10)?
  7. What might the people of Jericho be thinking about the Israelites silently encompassing their city each day?
  8. Why is the seventh day different from the other six, and what is the result (vv. 15, 16)?
  9. How does the account of Joshua and the walls of Jericho relate to this week’s Bible Lesson, “Matter”?

Painting: The Angel Appearing to Joshua, by Edwin Dalton, 1890 

 

Map: Ancient Jericho

Bible Lesson Verses: Joshua 5:13, 14 (to .), 15 and Joshua 6:1-4, 8, 10, 11, 14-16, 20   

(Note: citations in green are from this week’s Lesson; citations in red are not from this week’s Lesson but added for further context. Words that are italicized in the King James Version are also italicized below; italicized words in Scripture are not from the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts but were included by the King James translators to add clarification for readers)

“Joshua was Moses’ immediate successor and a great military hero. He was connected with the period of the conquest of Canaan and with the division of the territory among the tribes of Israel. . . . Moses chose him as one of the twelve tribal representatives sent from Kadesh-barnea to search out the land of Canaan. . . . The spies found Canaan a good land, but ten of them reported that its cities were walled, its inhabitants were giants, warlike and strong, and the whole was surrounded by hostile tribes. The people wept and determined to return to Egypt. The other two, Joshua and Caleb, urged them to be courageous and take possession of their inheritance . . . . The people still feared to go forward and would have stoned them, but the appearance of the Shekinah glory in the Tabernacle and the divine displeasure stayed their hand. For their disobedience and lack of faith Israel was condemned to wander in the wilderness forty years, a year for each day of the forty-day search. The spies who brought back the negative report died by plague, but the lives of Joshua and Caleb were preserved; and of all the Israelites over twenty years of age numbered by Moses at Sinai these two alone were permitted to enter the Promised Land because they ‘wholly followed the Lord’ (Num. 26:63–65; 32:12). Toward the close of the Wandering Moses appointed Joshua his successor in solemn ceremony, putting some of his own ‘honour’ upon him (Num. 27:20).” (Shotwell, p. 109)

Joshua 5:

13  And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?

14  And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?

“Joshua’s whole conquest of Canaan was under divine direction. Before him lay the stronghold of Jericho, which barred their passage into the land. As Joshua pondered how best to besiege its massive walls, an angel, ‘the captain of the Lord’s host,’ appeared to him and imparted the plan by which he should take the city.” (Shotwell, p. 109)

“Rather, he humbly asked, ‘What message does my [lord] have for his servant?’ In this response, Joshua displayed three attitudes: (1) a humble, expectant, obedient attitude, indicated by the question itself; (2) a recognition of the man’s superior (and God-sent) position, indicated by the term ‘my lord’; and (3) a recognition of his own inferior position and a readiness to serve, indicated by his use of the term ‘his servant’ to refer to himself.” (NAC, p. 177)

 

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