In the book of Joshua, God commands Joshua to march around the walls of Jericho, promising to deliver to him the city:
Now Jericho was shut up from within and from without because of the people of Israel; none went out, and none came in. And the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given into your hand Jericho, with its king and mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days. And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark; and on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, the priests blowing the trumpets.”
Joshua 6:1-4
Apocalyptic symbolism
As with any part of the Bible, the story can be viewed from a variety of angles, including a spiritual reading that looks to the end of the world.
The Christian writer Origen detailed his thoughts in a homily that was included in the Church’s official Office of Readings:
In the Scriptures Jericho is often represented as an image of the world. There can be no doubt that the man whom the Gospel describes as going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and falling into the hands of brigands is an image of Adam being driven out of paradise into the exile of this world. Likewise the blind men in Jericho, to whom Jesus came to give sight, signified the people in this world who were blinded by ignorance, to whom the Son of God came.
Origen then sees in this story of the fall of Jericho, the fall of this world:
Jericho will fall, then; this world will perish. Indeed in the sacred books the end of the world was proclaimed long ago. How will the world be brought to an end, and by what means will it be destroyed? The answer of Scripture is: By the sound of trumpets. If you ask what trumpets, then let Paul reveal the secret. Listen to what he says: The trumpet will sound, and the dead who are in Christ will rise incorruptible. The voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God will give the signal, and the Lord himself will come down from heaven.Then the Lord Jesus will conquer Jericho with trumpets and destroy it, saving only the harlot and her household.
He explains that the “harlot” who is saved is symbolically the followers of Christ at the end of the world:
Jesus our Lord will come, says Paul, and he will come with the sound of trumpets. He will save only the woman who received his spies, that is, his apostles, in faith and obedience, and hid them on the roof of her house; and he will join this harlot to the house of Israel. But let us not bring up her past sins again or impute them to her. She was a harlot once, but now she is joined to Christ, chaste virgin to one chaste husband.
The good news is that we too can be saved from destruction, just as the harlot was saved:
To assure her escape when Jericho was destroyed, the harlot was given that most effective symbol for salvation, the scarlet cord. For it is by the blood of Christ that the entire Church is saved, in the same Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom belongs glory and dominion for ever. Amen.
The fall of Jericho then is a warning to us all to keep watch and prepare ourselves for the coming of Jesus into our lives.
And today we celebrate...