Summary
We each have promised land that we’re called to conquer, just as Israel had promised land that they were called to conquer.
On the plains of Jericho, Joshua encountered the Commander of the Lord’s army. He is not on one side or the other, but He does tell Joshua how to conquer. At the 7th trumpet, 7th time around, on the 7th day, before the Ark of the Testimony, the people shout and the walls come tumbling down.
The City and all that is within it are to be “devoted to the Lord”:
The gold goes into the Lord’s treasury.
Rahab the harlot is married to Salmon the Israelite.
And the rest are slaughtered as human sacrifices offered to God—they are “cherem.”
We might think that God despises the devoted things, but they are “most holy to the Lord.” They are His “herem“: Rahab is the grandmother of Jesus, the Commander of the Lord’s army.
Every slaughtered Canaanite is treasure in the treasury of the Lord.
The Commander of the Lord’s army doesn’t hate the devoted things—but he does hate the walls they build, which keep them from communion with God, one another, and an entire New Creation.
Not only Jericho is devoted. Israel is also devoted. Jerusalem is devoted, along with all humanity and even the Commander of the Lord’s army. And yet, He devotes Himself . . . on a tree just outside the walls of Jerusalem. There, He gives all of us the will to devote ourselves as He has devoted Himself.
Devotion is not only how we enter the Promised Land; it is the Promised Land.
It is presenting yourself a living sacrifice. It is Love. And Love is Life.
Life is a communion with no sides, wherein each and all bleed one for the other.
Devote yourself in the hope that you would be devoted like the disciples were devoted in Jerusalem on Pentecost.
Rest. Confess. Contemplate. Commune. Worship. And welcome the Fire.