Joshua 6:26-27

The curse on the person tempted to rebuild Jericho (Joshua 6:26) would have discouraged anyone from fortifying again this city that was a symbol of military power. God wanted His people to trust in Him for their security and not to rely on physical defenses primarily (cf. Joshua 11:6). We could interpret building the city as building the fortifications of the city rather than as building houses on the site. The Israelites may have rebuilt and inhabited Jericho again during the period of the judges (Joshua 18:21; Judges 1:16; Judges 3:13; 2 Samuel 10:5), but they may not have fortified it until much later. God executed Joshua’s curse on Hiel when he rebuilt Jericho’s fortifications during the reign of King Ahab of Israel (1 Kings 16:34). Another explanation may be that Canaanites rebuilt Jericho but Hiel was the first Israelite to do so.

The miraculous victory over Jericho brought great honor to Joshua as Israel’s leader (Joshua 6:27).

"Nothing can more raise a man’s reputation, nor make him appear more truly great, than to have the evidences of God’s presence with him." [Note: Matthew Henry, An Exposition of the Old and New Testament, p. 34.]

Keil and Delitzsch explained the reason for the miraculous defeat of Jericho as follows.

". . . Jericho was not only the first, but the strongest town of Canaan, and as such was the key to the conquest of the whole land, the possession of which would open the way to the whole, and give the whole, as it were, into their hands. The Lord would give His people the first and strongest town of Canaan, as the first-fruits of the land, without any effort on their part, as a sign that He was about to give them the whole land for a possession, according to His promise; in order that they might not regard the conquest of it as their own work, or the fruit of their own exertions, and look upon the land as a well-merited possession which they could do as they pleased with, but that they might ever use it as a gracious gift from the Lord, which he had merely conferred upon them as a trust, and which He could take away again, whenever they might fall from Him, and render themselves unworthy of His grace. This design on the part of God would of necessity become very obvious in the case of so strongly fortified a town as Jericho, whose walls would appear impregnable to a people that had grown up in the desert and was so utterly without experience in the art of besieging or storming fortified places, and in fact would necessarily remain impregnable, at all events for a long time, without the interposition of God." [Note: Keil and Delitzsch, p. 68.]

All the aspects of the battle at Jericho strengthened Israel’s faith in Yahweh. God’s people learned His strength and ability to overcome all their obstacles by personal experience here. They acted in faith, obeying His Word and trusting in the outcome He had promised. This day Israel reached a high water mark in her spiritual history. We should learn the same things from this record, as well as from the supernatural victories God has given each of us. Israel also became a nation among nations in the ancient Near East with this victory. [Note: See Eugene H. Merrill, "The Late Bronze/Early Iron Age Transition and the Emergence of Israel," Bibliotheca Sacra 152:606 (April-June 1995):145-62.]