Jericho Syndrome

The Church worldwide, and for some time, has been suffering an affliction I identify as Jericho Syndrome. The cure of such being a significant measure of Ai.
...Examine Joshua 6. Upon taking up Moses' mantle of leadership over the Israelites, Joshua was preparing to unleash the campaign into Canaan (ca. BC 1405) when he was met suddenly by the Commander of the army of the Lord (perhaps a pre-incarnate Christ, or the Person of the Holy Spirit; Joshua 5:13-15). After forty years of wilderness and the cursed generation dying off, the "Joshua generation" experienced renewed fervor and an accelerated longing to forge an identity promised to them by God Himself. If only Israel would trust Him, they would receive their Land and thus their identity. It is certain that Joshua emanated such fervor and longing more than any other, enabling Israel to rally behind his leadership as well as his God-fearing ethos.
...Emboldened and secure following the appearance of the heavenly Commander, Israel
obeyed the voice of the Lord and Jericho was the first Canaanite city to fall. The victory at Jericho brought glory to God, renown for Israel, and solid proof that God would bless His people. However, for Israel, the victory at Jericho also brought hubris...
...Examine Joshua 7. Even victory has a price. God had warned Israel to avoid the "accursed things" upon the taking of Jericho (6:18-19), such being precious metals that would be consecrated to the Lord and stored in the Tabernacle treasury. This command was violated by Achan, who "took of the accursed things" (stealing from God), thus drawing the Lord's anger to burn against Israel (7:1). Unaware of Achan's sin, Joshua pressed on with the campaign and bent his will upon the next Canaanite city in line to fall, Ai. He sent men from Jericho to Ai purposing to reconnoiter the city and region. Upon their return Joshua was persuaded to send only a few thousand soldiers rather than the entire army, for the city appeared weak in number. But... they fled before the men of Ai, suffering a loss of both manpower and courage. Why? Joshua, too, desired to know. Clearly distraught, he tore his clothes, put dust on his head, prostrated himself before the Ark of the Covenant, and questioned God. The elders of Israel did likewise.
...Note the reversed context of Joshua's action. Prior to the victory at Jericho he had prostrated himself before the Lord and inquired, "What does my Lord say to His servant?" The Lord responded with a proclamation of assured triumph. Following the defeat at Ai, however, Joshua prostrated himself before the Lord and inquired as to why victory had been denied. Consider the fallacy: Joshua heeded his men's counsel, not the Lord's. In fact, he did not even seek the Lord's counsel before attacking Ai, thus usurping Divine wisdom and assuming his own to be of equal import, i.e. hubris. Hard learned are the lessons that humiliate, yet such lessons do not easily fade.
...As Joshua repented and sought the Lord's favor, the truth was revealed to him concerning the sin of Achan. God commanded Joshua to sanctify His people by
removing the accursed from among them, which was accomplished by the stoning and burning of Achan, his sons, his daughters, his livestock, his tent (dwelling), and all his possessions including what he had stolen (7:24-26). Why such harsh judgment? It resonates. And all of Israel was witness to it (7:24). Thus, the lesson having been learned, the second attempt to take Ai ended with a victorious Israel and a reestablished covenant with Almighty God (cha. 8).
...The lesson to be learned by the Church from this example will be readily apparent to most, yet the
learning of said lesson remains to be seen. After tremendous and numerous victories gained from Pentecost through the first few centuries of Church history, the Body of Christ has struggled to recover from a great blow dealt to it by the spiritual dark age birthed by Roman unorthodoxy and outright apostasy. The Reformation's protest against such heresy brought a welcome shift back to Christ's original intent, thereby replacing church politics with Biblical policy. But swiftly the Protestant movement began to fracture into multi-denominationalism as Biblical policy was again replaced with church politics due to the hubris of human reason.
...Matthew 28:19-20 reveals that Jesus' command was to make
disciples, not churches, of all nations. His command was to baptize, not sprinkle, said disciples in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. His command was to teach what He has said, not what man-devised denominational interpretation assumes He may have meant. I will here clarify that I do not advocate an end to Christian churches in the world; what I do advocate is that said churches are in fact Christian, being Christ-centric and not a regurgitation of paganistic, agnostic, and/or so-called "emerging" philosophical ideals of science and reason.
...True and effective disciples are sold out to Jesus Christ, not their church; they are members of the Body of Christ and the Kingdom of Heaven, not their church. True and effective disciples understand that where there is no vision, the people perish (Proverbs 29:18), and that when there
is a vision of any merit, it is given by Christ. The true and effective disciple also understands that a true vision does not entail a mere facade (new service, new order of worship, etc) but is of supernatural origin and transforms lives, not just a church.
...As the Jericho pandemic intensifies, perhaps the Church awaits the appearance of the vetted Commander to cast a
new vision through a unifying Word of Truth. I ask, "What is wrong with the original vision?" Moreover, the Commander has already appeared with His battle plan and has assured us of Victory; one need only reexamine the Cross and the events thereof. The Church has taken its eyes off of Christ and is looking at itself for inspiration and is relying on itself for ascendancy. The result? Defeat (Ai). This, then, should inspire newfound motivation to "ask counsel of the Lord" before all else. Indeed there are some in the Church who have awakened from the stupor of pride and complacency and are casting the original Vision and being rewarded with battles won. Yet there are many who remain asleep, thus neglecting the power of the Spirit to do even greater works than Christ (John 14:12-14). The Biblical Canon may be closed but the book of Acts is still the context of our day.
...
What, then, is to be done? We are to remove the accursed from among us. How is this to be done? "The accursed" must be identified, such being ill and/or irrelevant practices (religion), false teaching, doctrinal error, supplanting God's will with man's, etc. And "the accursed" often includes individuals that must be removed from the Church as they refuse to repent, which contaminates further the Body to which they are attached. Far too many churches adhere to a philosophy that encourages the false equation of "Higher Attendance = Higher Calling," leading toward a failure to excommunicate out of fear that diminished numbers (especially from leadership) would diminish a ministry's effectiveness.
...Despite the Roman Catholic abuse of
excommunication during the aforementioned spiritual dark age (effectively stigmatizing the word), it is no less Scriptural and is entirely plausible within the parameters of Biblical policy. The next entry will examine this.

3 comments:

Kainos said...

What in the world!? Yes! - "Hard learned are the lessons that humiliate, yet such lessons do not easily fade." I'd like to read the next blog...NOW!

Jon Scott Birch said...

I appreciate your support. And to all who await the next entry, I plan to post it within a few weeks rather than a few months... Everyone feel free to hold me to that proclamation, particularly those I encounter on a weekly basis.

Anonymous said...

Well said JB. You hit the nail on the head. I do hope that your next post will not go the way of another, shall we say...Joshua story. I'd like my grandchild to be able to read it. wink wink