On one Sabbath Day, Jesus healed a very sick man at the pool of Bethesda. Then he left the man and disappeared into the crowd. Later, Jesus found the healed man at the Temple and told him something that would be of great concern to us all. He said, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” (John 5:1-13).
Apparently, that man’s infirmity was due to his sins. And Jesus warned him that worse things would happen to this healed person if he were to return to committing sins again. In my pastoral ministry, I have witnessed many believers who continued to suffer stress-based diseases and infirmities because of sins, especially, those of unforgiveness, hatred and bitterness in their lives. In spite of being counseled by their pastors and elders, they continued in their vengeful pursuits. Their “Jericho” of sins had been destroyed by the blood of Jesus but because of unrepentant hearts, they quickly “rebuilt their Jericho” and suffered the consequences of their disobedience.
In the biblical narrative, the day that Jericho was destroyed, the Lord, through His servant, Joshua, put a curse upon anyone who dared to rebuild Jericho.
“May the curse of the Lord fall on anyone
who tries to rebuild the town of Jericho.
At the cost of his firstborn son,
he will lay its foundation.
At the cost of his youngest son,
he will set up its gates.”
Everything in Jericho, that is to say the people and everything they owned within this evil culture, had to be totally annihilated. Jericho was a too great a symbol of antagonism to be allowed any rebuilding. If Jericho was to be restored to its previous glory, then all the evil deeds and God-defying attitude would automatically return. The worship of the Canaanite idols would be reestablished and the people would turn away from God,
That curse was a very serious one. For 500 years, no one dared to rebuild Jericho until the reign of King Ahab. A man from Bethel named Hiel rebuilt Jericho and most probably with the permission of the king. When he laid its foundations, it cost him the life of his oldest son, Abiram. And when he completed it and set up its gates, it cost him the life of his youngest son, Segub. As you can see, all these happened according to the prophetic message from the Lord concerning Jericho spoken by Joshua. (1 Kings 16:34).
Hiel was a blatant example of what an evil spiritual condition could produce – people who openly defied God. Such dark climate was brought on by an unholy union – King Ahab had married Jezebel, an idol-worshipping Phoenician princess from Sidon. This evil queen championed an anti-Yahweh movement and started to kill the prophets of God. Everybody in Israel was encouraged to worship Baal and Asherah until God raised up Elijah to correct the situation.
To prove his total disregard and the willingness to spit God on His face, Hiel belligerently rebuilt Jericho, only to realize that God meant business. He promptly lost two of his sons. This narrative serves as a warning for all of us not to take the words of God casually with a proud spirit of indifference. Like Hiel and later, Edom, some believers are just plain defiant. They believe that since God is the God of love, grace and mercy, He would never punish His believers. That is true if you are a genuine believer. Remember the couple known as Ananias and Sapphira? The judicial wrath of God came upon this couple when they tried to deceive the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:1-11). Elymas, the sorcerer was struck blind for a period of time because he defied the work of the Lord (Acts 13:11).
The disobedient spirit will try to find ways to out-think and outdo God. But the end-result is still the same – failure. Though Edom says, “We have been beaten down, but we will return and build up the ruins”; thus says the LORD of hosts, “They may build, but I will tear down; and men will call them the wicked territory, and the people toward whom the LORD is indignant forever.” (Malachi 1:4).
The Bible says in Proverbs 26:1 that a person is considered a fool if he were to return to his sins – “As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly”. Jesus our Lord clearly said to the man who was healed at the pool, “Now you are well; so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you.” (John 5:1-13). There is a consequence if we rebuild our Jericho. Paul states in Galatians 6:7 – “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”
Check this message about why we should not rebuild our Jericho!
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