Did Joshua Fit The Battle?
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Though not part of the Hymnals known to most of us, there are few who have not heard the old spiritual titled "Joshua Fit The Battle of Jericho." Though severely lacking in theological detail, the song recounts the taking of the fortified city which was to be the firstfruits of Israel's conquest of Canaan, the Promised Land. In the song, the word "Fit" is meant as a past-tense form of the word "fought," thus "Joshua Fought The Battle." However, a recent question from a reader asked how, in the modern sense, the company of the Israelites could have "fit" both the time and distance demands of the thirteen marches around the perimeter of the city. In the process of answering that question, however, it came to light, though not surprisingly, that Scripture's entire Jericho account had for a century been dismissed by most archeologists and historians -- and even by some professed Christians -- as fiction.

The Biblical account (Joshua Chapters 2 through 6) is clear and quite detailed -- commentator Matthew Henry notes that "The inspired historian seems to be so well pleased with his subject here that he is loth to quit it." We read of the spies sent by Joshua to ""Go, view the land, especially Jericho" (Joshua 2:1) and God's protection of them by Rahab. We read their report to Joshua -- so different from that of the ten faithless spies of a generation before! The miraculous crossing of the Jordan is recounted, including the note (Joshua 4:13) that "About forty thousand prepared for war crossed over before the Lord for battle, to the plains of Jericho." Careful, patient, and faithful preparations, not for war but for worship, are made, and for the first time Passover is celebrated in the land. And then, in the 27 verses of Chapter 6, the spiritual battle is won and the military conquest of Canaan begun. For six days the army, along with seven priests bearing ram's horn trumpets and four who bore the Ark silently (except for the trumpets) circled the city once and returned to camp. On the seventh -- some say the Sabbath but this is unknown -- the company circled the city seven times, and then, with a shout of triumph, saw the wall of the city, except for a portion where Rahab lived, fall flat (Joshua 6:20). Except for metal objects, we read, and of course Rahab and her family, everything in the city was then destroyed by fire.

Commentators differ on actual the number of Israelites who made those thirteen marches around Jericho. A census taken not much earlier (Numbers 1:45-46) gave a total of over 600,000 "able to go to war in Israel." The 40,000 figure of Joshua 4:13 may refer specifically to the three tribes mentioned in the previous verse (Joshua 4:12) but Calvin notes this would account for only a portion of even those tribes' potential soldiers. Despite the area's appearance today, in Joshua's time Jericho was called "the city of palms," and was surrounded, some accounts say, by a seven-mile forest of palm trees. There can be little doubt the city was surrounded as well by farms, and archeologists have found the inner wall itself protected an area of at least nine acres. Further, the walled city was built atop a hill, so the marchers would at the very minimum have had to circle an area significantly larger than the wall itself enclosed, probably at least the base of the hill but possibly the farms as well. In the end, all we really have to guide us is Scripture, and on both the size of the city and the number of marchers, Scripture is silent. We may be sure the events occurred as described, but not precisely how.

From the beginnings of modern archeology, Jericho has been considered a particularly interesting study. Sadly, most of the interest was not in verifying the Bible, but in disproving it, and for many years Archeologists confidently asserted that the undeniable destruction of the city could not have occurred at the time of Israel's entry into Canaan. Even some Christian books adopted the chronology of those who denied Scripture. And then, primarily within the past thirty years, the unbiblical assumptions were overturned. Many -- though not all -- Archeologists today can point with confidence to the once-buried ruins of a Jericho which fits both the time and descriptions given in Scripture. The walls of this city did indeed "fall flat" in a manner which can only be called catastrophic and sudden -- except for a portion of the North wall, the side facing the Judean wilderness where Joshua's spies hid for a time after leaving Rahab, which somehow escaped the calamity. Within the walls, everything is in readiness for an extended seige, with large, unused stores of grain and evidence of other valuable items, all left behind by the attackers and burned (Joshua 6:24). Yet in all the excavated ruins, after carefully sifting through a meter of ash, no significant metal could be found (Joshua 6:19). In every verifiable detail, Scripture has once again been proved historically accurate.

"We believe that this Holy Scripture contains the will of God completely and that everything one must believe to be saved is sufficiently taught in it." (Belgic Confession, Art. 7)

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Gary Fisher

12 March 2008

How A Ten-Year-Old Kid Discovered Radio

You may have heard that Guglielmo Marconi, or perhaps Heinrich Hertz or Nikola Tesla, discovered radio. Each of them was important, to be sure, in developing and harnessing the technology, but I'd like to tell you about a ten year old kid whose discovery of radio thrilled and altered the world, at least for him.

The discovery began simply, as a Merit Badge project for a boy who had already learned how to tie knots and build a fire. Following instructions from a book, gathering the wire, metal, and all-important "cat's whisker" and galena crystal from various sources, the parts were assembled on a scrap of pine lumber. Carefully leading the antenna strand out of the bedroom window and attaching the ground cable to a radiator pipe, he unwound the earphone wires and connected them to the apparatus. After a brief hesitation -- perhaps a preteen boy's short prayer -- he lifted the earphones to his head, listened carefully ... and heard nothing. His first disappointed instinct was frustration, but listening harder he thought he heard a noise of some sort, and remembered the instructions. Gently nudging the cat's whisker made a difference, and suddenly, startlingly, he heard a voice. For the next several hours it was as if the walls of the room had dissolved, as though the entire world was within reach -- he had discovered Radio.

Marconi, Hertz and a handful of others share in discovering the science of radio, and because of them each of us discovers the phenomenon of Radio in our own way. Soldiers in the foxholes of World War II found they could assemble razor blades and scraps of wire to discover familiar music broadcast from friendly radio stations nearer to home. Refugees, missionaries and adventurers discover the encouragement which radio can carry from far away. And every day, millions discover new products, services, ideas and entertainment brought to them through their radios. Radio has carried voices from the Moon, faint messages from spacecraft far beyond Jupiter, and news of a traffic problem a mile ahead. It affects each of us differently, but it affects us all.

That ten year old who built a crystal set in his attic bedroom never lost his fascination with radio. In college he joined the student radio station, and as that station grew from a small carrier-current facility serving the dormitories to a fully licensed broadcast station, he grew with it. When the college won a license for an educational television station, he accepted a full-time position as its first technical employee while studying for his Broadcast Engineering license, later becoming Chief Recording Engineer for what was by then a University, while still serving as an adviser and occasional copywriter and DJ for the student radio station. Eventually he became a partner in a consumer electronics business, and successfully managed that company for twenty-five years.

But on a clear winter night, he can still feel the thrill of excitement on hearing some distant broadcast as he continues to discover Radio.

Gary Fisher
13 March, 2008

As A Child

A television network recently presented a show in which the host attempted to persuade people in all walks of life to repeat, on camera, a number of absurd assertions. While the sight of randomly chosen people agreeing to some of these notions was amusing, the implications became somewhat darker when university professors and highly placed members of government demonstrated the same willingness to affirm, in some cases strongly, the host's ridiculous statements. One elected official agreed to congratulate a large country, on camera, for supposedly moving from a 20 hour day to the "more conventional" 24 hour clock, while professors at some of North America's most respected ivy-league universities repeated, again with full knowledge they were on camera, statements condemning bear hunting on the public streets of one of the world's leading cities.

Television shows are almost always assembled from a large number of 'clips,' with errors -- and anything which does not advance the position taken by the show -- simply left out. However, as is common with some works of entertainment today, a few of these 'outtakes' were presented at the end of the show, and it was one of these outtakes which caught the eye of many viewers. In that segment, rejected from the main presentation, the host is seen working to persuade a woman to agree to a statement about the 'states' in Canada. While the woman considers the host's words, a youth standing next to her, presumably her son, visibly struggles to keep quiet. Finally the young man can stand it no longer. "Hold on," he says to the host. "Canada doesn't have states, it has provinces!"

Our Lord frequently related believers to children, particularly in regard to faith. In Matthew 18:3, He says "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." In Mark 10:15, in an incident also reported in Matthew 19 and Luke 18, Jesus says "whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it."

The army of Israel was trained and practiced when it faced the Philistines at the Valley of Elah (1 Samuel 17). Saul's soldiers were filled with the human wisdom of experience and common sense, and confronted by the superior forces of the opposing armies and their champion, refused to face what their training told them would be sure defeat. Then onto the battlefield strode a mere youth, untrained as a soldier, unarmed except for something little more than a child's toy - and an unshakable confidence. Saul, perhaps amused, tried to talk the boy out of his foolishness: "You are not able to go against this Philistine and fight with him; for you are a youth, and he is a man of war from his youth!" But the youngster would not change his mind; we can almost imagine him saying to the persuasive king, "Hold on!" Like a child he recounted earlier perils, stories which may have sounded to Saul like a child's exaggerations, and concluded by stating "The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine!"

The rest of the story is familiar to us; David, by the grace of God, did indeed defeat Goliath, and went on in time to lead Israel as both its greatest and its most godly king. Yet throughout his life, with only a few exceptions, David continued to demonstrate that childlike faith which assured him that, regardless of circumstances, no matter what the evidence to the contrary, God's promises were sure.

Our Catechism summarizes this childlike faith, especially in Q&A 21, where true faith is described first of all as "a knowledge and conviction that everything God reveals in His Word is true." How unsophisticated that must sound to those who have worked so hard to gain the 'wisdom' of the world! But, building on that foundation, the Catechism goes on to add that true faith "is also a deep-rooted assurance, created in me by the Holy Spirit through the gospel that, out of sheer grace earned for us by Christ, not only others, but I too, have had my sins forgiven, have been made forever right with God, and have been granted salvation."

With faith like that we should feel as safe as children in our father's arms. In fact, that's exactly what we are.



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Gary Fisher

Sorrow, Regret and Repentance
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"We regret to inform you," began the letter, which went on to briefly describe an error made by a company and which they assured customers of a desire to avoid in the future. Ironically, it was a problem they'd promised to address long before.

It's become an everyday occurrance; criminals "regret" their actions and receive a more lenient sentence, or conversely they "weren't sorry enough" and are the more severely punished, in the press if not by the justice system. A schoolyard argument ends in a teacher demanding the participants "say you're sorry." Millions are spent each year on cards, flowers and sweets meant to convey the same message between adults; the very concept of "sorrow" has been cheapened until today it means almost nothing in everyday affairs.

Regret may be the weakest form of the idea of sorrow. The dictionary defines regret as "sadness associated with some wrong done or some disappointment." In many cases, an expression of regret is a formality; as in the letter quoted above, it acknowledges a failing without promising a resolution. "Regrettable" is an even weaker expression, recognizing that regret might be appropriate without actually offering it or even indicating who should do the regretting. "A regrettable error" is usually an unaddressed error. Proper regret includes a sense of remorse and contrition, but seldom does either appear in public expressions of regret. All too often, public "regret" means only "I wish I hadn't been caught."

"Sorrow" has likewise become a meaningless term to many. Having been told so often to "say you're sorry," many no longer go beyond the mere saying. But sorrow goes much deeper than regret. To regret a past deed is to wish it hadn't happened, but to feel sorrow for that deed is to experience a sense of pain because of it. Worldly sorrow is misplaced and unresolved, ultimately leading to despair, but there is a true godly sorrow which brings about genuine spiritual struggle and, as Scripture tells us, "... produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death." [2 Cor 7:10] This sort of sorrow, the godly sort, is precisely opposite to worldly despair, for genuine godly sorrow is an expression not of hopeless fear but of hope and confidence in God. The Corinthians, Paul says, "... sorrowed in a godly manner." And how was this sorrow expressed? "What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication!" [2 Cor. 7:11]

But since "godly sorrow produces repentance," we must finally consider what is meant by that term. Turning back to our dictionary, we find the world defines repentance as "remorse for past conduct," as another form of sorrow or regret, as an emotion. But God does not abandon us to our emotions; rather, He gives us control over them. When we are command to "love one another," it is meant not as a "feeling," as the world would have it, but as an action. Likewise, to repent is not merely to "feel sorry" but to DO something about our failing; Scripture views repentance as a decision, an attitude, and ultimately as a direction toward rather than away from God. There is no quantity of tears, no degree of remorse, which expresses true repentance as well as quiet, humble obedience.

Yet what joy springs from this simple change of heart! Paul speaks of "vehement desire," of zeal, and finally, and so comfortingly, of vindication as God is glorified even in our weakness.

"I came to Jesus as I was, Weary and worn and sad; I found in Him a resting place, And He has made me glad." [Psalter Hymnal No. 413]

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Gary Fisher