May 4, 2018

The Battle of Jericho: The 7 Trumpets – Part 2

The Battle of JerichoThe Battle of Jericho in the book of Joshua is, (among other things) a prophetic precursor to the 7 Trumpets of Revelation 8 and 9.

One of the joys and benefits of reading Revelation is the knowledge that every symbolic and prophetic mystery is interpreted elsewhere in the bible! It becomes a bit of a treasure hunt (one that I’m still on) to see where each Revelation event is referenced or modeled in previous scripture.

God Doesn’t Keep Secrets

Amos 3:7 clearly states that God will not do anything unless he first reveals it to his prophets (and by proxy, to the people who read the prophetic writings), and the 7 Trumpets are no different.

Careful reading will show that a pretty clear prophetic model of the so-called “Trumpet Judgements” can be seen in the conquest of the Promised Land in the book of Joshua. Specifically the Battle of Jericho. Let’s look at the Jericho narrative and do a comparison.

In Genesis 12, God promised Abraham that the land he would send him to would be an eternal inheritance to his family. God also said that this family would fall under the unjust dominion of a demonically powered government for 400 years. After which, they would claim the land promised to them.

As prophesied, the Children of Israel were enslaved in Egypt until the events of Exodus freed them. After a few decades of adventure and drama, the Israelites finally arrived at the border of the Promised Land, but there was a stronghold that had to be destroyed before they could enter the land.

That stronghold was the walled and heavily fortified city of Jericho. The walls were impenetrable, and as long as they stood, the city could not be taken.

Joshua sent in two spies to gather intel about the city, but if you read the passage, the only thing they accomplished was to get the harlot Rahab out of the city before the destruction. Not incidentally, Rahab was the great, great, grandmother of King David. Which means she is in the direct genealogy of Jesus.

God then commanded the Israelite army to do a series of strange acts. He told them to march around the city once per day in total silence for six days. On the 7th day, they were to march around the wall seven times, then give a great shout, while the priests blow 7 Trumpets(!). At which point the walls fell and the city was taken.

So how do these events parallel the 7 Trumpets of the Tribulation in Revelation?

Two Sets of Squatters

The Battle of Jericho – The land that rightfully and lawfully belonged to Israel was under siege by evil usurpers who occupied the land for centuries.

The Tribulation – The world that rightfully and legally belongs to Jesus is under siege by evil usurpers who have rules the earth for millennia.

 

The Salvation of Two Gentile “Brides”

The Battle of Jericho – Before the destruction and sacking of Jericho, two “witnesses” help Rahab escape. Since she was not a Jew but in the Messianic line, it would be fair to see her as a model of a Royal “Gentile Bride”.

The Tribulation – Before the Tribulation, the Church, who is the Gentile Bride of the Messiah escapes via the Pre-trib Rapture. And before the 7 Trumpets are blown, the remaining believers escape via the Mid-Trib Rapture along with the Two Witnesses.

The Battle is Led by Two Guys Named “Jesus”

The leader of the Israelite campaign against Jericho is Joshua. “Joshua” is the English translation of the Hebrew “Yehoshua”. In Greek, Yehoshua is “Yeshua”. In English, Yeshua is “Jesus”!

Two Strongholds Need to Come Down

The Battle of Jericho – The walled city was the stronghold that stood in the way of the conquest of Israel

The Tribulation – Satan has erected spiritual strongholds that must come down before Jesus can reclaim the earth (we’ll talk about what those spiritual strongholds are in the next post).

Two Silences

The Battle of Jericho – The Israelite army was commanded to march around the walls in silence before the trumpets were to be blown.

The Tribulation – There was silence in Heaven for half an hour before the 7 Trumpets are blown (a certain Bible teacher once said that half an hour of silence proves that there are no women in Heaven. Remeber, these are NOT my words. It’s from another Bible teacher…)

Trumpet Blasts Bring Down Both Walls

After the Priests blow their 7 trumpets, the walls of Jericho fell, and the city was taken. And after the 7 Trumpets of Revelation are blown, Satan’s stronghold over the world will be destroyed (again, I’ll talk about what the spiritual stronghold is in the next post)

In Both Cases, there are Nephilim in the Land

Jericho – In addition to the Canaanite armies, Satan also filled the Promised Land with Nephalim (human/angelic hybrids). In fact, in a recent FBR Podcast, I spoke about the reason that God ordered the armies of Israel to kill every man, woman, and child of certain villages. Its because the inhabitants were not human! There were Nephilim, and had to be exterminated, just like the pre-Flood world.

Tribulation – The world will also be filled with Nephilim. They are referred to as “Beasts of the Earth” in Revelation 6. They will be a part of Satan’s final army.

What’s The Point?

So why did God engineer these parallels, and why did He have the Israelites perform those strange rituals? Couldn’t God have just brought the walls of Jericho down immediately?

Of course He could! But the marching, the silences, and the trumpets were not for God’s benefit, they were for ours!

The Seven-day procedure served as a prophetic mirror and model for the expanded campaign of conquest in Revelation. But instead of just conquering the Land of Israel, Jesus will spearhead the reclamation of the entire Earth!

How Does it Happen, and What are those “Spiritual Walls”?

Spiritually speaking, walls – or more accurately, strongholds, are sets of destructive beliefs we harbor that allow Satan to occupy and lay claim to, and assault our hearts and minds. When it comes to his illegitimate Tribulation government, the spiritual strongholds are the beliefs that the world has about Satan that allows him to rule.

The 7 Trumpets destroy those strongholds by shattering the beliefs that hold Satan’s kingdom together. We’ll explore how that happens in the next post.

Comments

4 thoughts on “The Battle of Jericho: The 7 Trumpets – Part 2
  1. Scott Taube

    Hey Ed I’m always happy to see a reading post. I’m caught up on your podcasts as well. Great work.

    You have a typo I wanted to point out. Or was that a test and I just passed?

    (a certain Bible teacher once said that half an hour of silence proves that there are no women in Heaven. Remeber, these are my words. It’s from another Bible teacher…)

    I assume you meant, these are not my words.

     
    Reply
  2. Todd

    I don’t see a PreTrib rapture anywhere in the typology. You say “The Tribulation – Before the Tribulation, the Church, who is the Gentile Bride of the Messiah escapes via the Pre-trib Rapture. And before the 7 Trumpets are blown, the remaining believers escape via the Mid-Trib Rapture along with the Two Witnesses.” If the pattern is repeated in Revelation, then the rescue of the Bride happens after the Trumpet judgments. When Jericho falls, Rahab is rescued and Israel takes the city. In Revelation, the kingdoms of the world become the Kingdom of our Lord and Christ, after the blowing of the seventh trumpet. Rahab is rewarded, and Achan is cursed for loving the things of Babylon. Rahab is the Church who is rescued AFTER the City is taken.
    If you look at the typology, you can see the pattern.
    The nation of Israel is ready to enter and conquer the promised land. This does not symbolize entering into heaven. There are many nations to be taken after Jericho. Joshua tells them that within three days, they will cross over.
    Joshua sends two spies to spies out Jericho, the City of Palms. The word spies in the Hebrew is “ragal” which means “a fuller, one who washes garments by treading on them. There is a connection here with Jesus sending sending two men to untie a donkey that He may ride through Jerusalem, treading on the garments multitudes who hold palm branches.
    In Revelation two witnesses are sent into the great City in order to set her free, and then we see a altitude who have washed their robes and are waving palm branches. The spies are taken to the roof, a type of threshing floor, where they are symbolically martyred, being hidden in flax, out of which white linen is made. Their living sacrifice is a witness to Rahab. Like the the midwives who tie a scarlet cord around the foot of Zerah, they are midwives who tie a scarlet cord to Rahab’s window. The threshold of doors and windows are places of death and of birth. And so, when the city is taken, Rahab is birthed out of the city. Achan, who descended from Zerah, is cursed, while Rahab becomes is given the scarlet cord of the firstborn. The two spies hide in the mountain for three days, and then return to Joshua who has prepared Israel to cross over.
    The priests who carry the ark correspond to the 144,000 first fruits who stand in the Jordan as the rest of the nation crosses over. The nation crosses over 2000 cubits behind the first bruits. In other words, the crossing takes 2000 years. Stones are taken out of the Jordan from where the priests had stood. These stones correspond to the 144,000. Stones symbolize witness or testimony. Under the Old Testament, God witness was on tablets of stone. Now they are on the tablets of the heart of those who carry the ark and according to John’s epistle, all who believe carry the testimony that God has given about His Son. The Old and New Testament are two witnesses, the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus as the True and Faithful Witness, the Cornerstone upon which the City is built. And so the witness of the 144,000 becomes the foundation of the holy city, the New Jerusalem. This is Mount Zion, the church of the Firstborn, Jerusalem above. The rest of the nation are living stones built on the foundation of the City. The stones are witness to future generations who ask, “What do these stones mean.” It would seem that those stones still stood in the time of John the Baptist. Out of those stone God would raise up children for Abraham. And so, Israel has celebrated Passover and Unleavened Bread through the crossing of the Jordan. And they have celebrated Pentecost through the laying down of the Firstfruits through baptism in the Jordan. Now they are ready to celebrate Trumpets. And it is after the blowing of seven trumpets that the Harlot is rescued, as the old city falls, and the new descends from heaven. And so at the seventh trumpet comes the celebration of the Day of Atonement, where Achan is cursed and destroyed, while Rahab is blessed and lives..
    So, according to the typology, the two spies return after three days to cross over the Jordan with Joshua, the priests and the rest of the nation. Then they all march around the city proclaiming judgment on the nations. Then the city fall after which Rahab is rescued and grafted into the nation. Jericho is a type of the world, and no one is taken out of the City prior to its destruction. The problem is that many believe that the crossing of the Jordan is a picture of going to heaven. It is not. It is only the beginning of the conquest of the promised land, a type of a battle that is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and power, and against the flesh, against sin, against the world and against the devil. All of the subsequent battles that Israel faces are pictures of the tribulation and testing that we go through in our conquest of the Land, or rather Jesus’ conquest of us. Remember that the old generation died in the wilderness, but this generation that crosses over is a new chosen generation called the Church, whose foundation and gates are Israel and whose walls are precious stones which symbolize the testimony that believer carry. The Bride is a City symbolically called Sarah, and we are her children, all who enter into the city. There is no Gentile Bride. The Bride is a City with a foundation built of the testimony of the apostles and prophets and gates which symbolize the tribe of Israel, and all the nations brings their glory into the City. In the City there is no Jew nor Gentile. In Revelation, the Temple in which God lives by His Spirit, becomes a spotless Bride after the outer court is trampled. We are made perfect through suffering, persecution, trials and temptations, and will not be removed until God has perfected us. God loves us and will do anything to make us His own. Just ask Job, who said, “Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him.” The flesh counts for nothing. Unfortunately, there are those who somehow think that God will spare their flesh. But God hands us over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that our should may be saved. Is a Christian who dies in a holocaust, and nuclear blast suffering the wrath of God? No, of course not! It is merely the body that is destroyed, while the soul still belongs to God. And in the end, the resurrection.
    If this story contains a pretrib rapture, where is it? Where is the tribulation experienced by Israel? Where does Jesus come and rescue them? For PreTribbers, I believe the flesh has become an idol which they believe they must be saved and preserved.

     
    Reply
    1. E.M.

      Hello Todd. Thank you for your comment, but the purpose and focus of this post is NOT the Rapture, but rather the 7 Trumpets and how they mirror the conquest of Jericho in several ways. Yes, I briefly mention the Rapture in order to frame similarities to the end times from a “big picture” perspective, but I’ve never used Jericho or the Trumpets as a primary doctrinal proof point for the Rapture. Have you read my series on the Rapture? If you want to get an accurate idea of my views on the subject, that series is where you should go. Once you read it, you will see that I am not a “pre-tribber”. In fact, I believe that anyone who holds to a “single-rapture” position in regards to the church is making the same mistake as the Pharisees – a mistake which led them to seek the murder of their Messiah (holding on to the Bible passages that support their favorite theory, while ignoring or disparaging Bible passages that present alternatives). The Bible clearly speaks of SEVEN raptures. The first four (Enoch, Elijah, Jesus, and Philip) are well accepted, but most Christians adhere to only ONE of the last 3 – as if God has some kind of “five-Rapture-limit”.

      If you are a contrastive (humble) thinker, please feel free to click on the Rapture category and read it. If you are NOT willing/capable of being contrastive, then please don’t read it. Reading it with the wrong mindset will make you angry and possibly destructive

       
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