Day Code Shadows - Part 3

           Deuteronomy ends with Moses’ “swan song,” which we shall hear again in the Bible’s last book. After Moses’ death, God assigns the task of leading the Israelites into the Promise Land to Joshua. The book that bears his name is primarily a historical account of the various campaigns by which the Israelites defeated the ungodly tribes and took the land. It was divided among the twelve tribes. The book ends with Joshua’s death.        
            One particular campaign, the Battle of Jericho, is another Day Code example of God influencing the affairs of men to reveal the set time of the end. It is God who predetermined the time element that is so significant to the story. The number of days the siege would last was set in advance of the battle. They were not determined by the ebb and flow of the battle itself. The day of victory was identified as day number seven before the battle even began.
            This seven-day pattern is obviously very significant to God, as we saw in the prophetic shadow of Jesus’ transfiguration. According to the Law, every seventh day is a day of rest. Every seventh year is a year of rest for the land. There are seven Sabbath years of such rest (totaling forty-nine years) until the highest Sabbath of all, the 50th year—the year of Jubilee. [In case you’re wondering, the number 50 in the Bible symbolizes the empowering of the Holy Spirit.]
            Is this seventh day so important simply because God worked for six days and rested on the seventh? Did the Eternal One need to rest because He was exhausted? Of course not! The seven-day pattern is prophetically significant because it speaks of completion and perfection.
            Likewise, the strategy for taking the city did not come from men but from Heaven. The battle plan was devised to ensure that the walls would not fall until the 7th day of the siege. In a way, the battle isn’t even a battle. The people march once around the city for six days, along with the Ark of the Covenant, while the priests blow seven trumpets. On the 7th day they march 7 times around the city as the priests blow the trumpets. When the 7th trumpet sounds with a long blast, the people shout, and the walls of the city crumble. And they take the city.
            The Chronos Lesson: Why didn’t the Almighty God just knock down the walls of Jericho? That’s what our human minds would prefer. Amazingly, every battle for the Promised Land had a God-given, unique strategy for taking it. Why? It’s because our relationship with God is unique and personal. It’s all about relationship. It’s all about being in intimate communion with Him in order to get fresh marching orders for what lies ahead.
            The Hebrew name for Jesus is Yahshua, from which we get the English name of Joshua. In other words, the whole Jericho campaign has Jesus written all over it. It’s as if He is standing in the eternal light of God’s Word with His shadow looming over the battle.
            If you’re tired of all the injustice in this world; if you’ve had enough of all the greed, wickedness, and violence plaguing this planet; and if you long to see God’s original plan reinstated, then just keep marching—and get ready to shout in victory—for the seventh Day is nearly here! Soon the “kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ” (Rev. 11:15, NIV).
            Oh, by the way, the number of Jubilees also foreshadow Christ’s return. He will come again at the 70th Jubilee. That is why, when Jesus quoted from Isaiah 61 in announcing His earthly ministry, He stopped short of proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord (the Jubilee). That is what we shall hear as the 7th Day dawns, when He comes again with the sound of the trumpet and the shout from Heaven (1 Thess. 4:16).