“BREAKTHROUGH TWENTY-TEN:
THE SOUND OF JUBILEE”
Joshua 5:13-15; 6:1-5,15-17,20
When Shannon and Aaron were little children, we use to build walls with the cardboard blocks we had which are like the ones we have up in our nursery here at
Even as we grow older, we don’t seem to shake the fascination with seeing walls come tumbling down. In fact, through synchronized explosions now, people have made quite an art out of bringing down the walls of huge buildings and stadiums with carefully timed charges of dynamite….much to the fascination of thousands.
So what must have it been like when the mighty walls of the city of Jericho came tumbling down somewhere around 1300 to 1400 years before the birth of the Son of God who brought down the walls of sin and death through His crucifixion and resurrection?
It must have been a mighty sound.
In fact, on this Sunday of our Annual Congregational Celebration and as we continue our study of breaking through walls and barriers to greater peace, blessing, and godliness in Twenty-Ten, I want to show you that the sound of walls coming down is the Sound of Jubilee. It is the sound of jubilation. It is the sound of celebration.
You see, as we gather here today as the one, united, 170-year-old and still going strong St. John’s United Church of Christ, we have much to celebrate because God is doing much in us, through us, and for us. Here in worship is the Sound of Jubilee. When women prepare funeral dinners for grieving families, as choirs practice and small groups meet, as youth and children come together on Wednesday night, as Haitians receive our donations, shut-ins are visited, the sick prayed for, as Christian radio is heard high in the Andes in November, as the gospel is shared, there arises the Sound of Jubilee.
In Twenty-Ten, I believe that God’s will for us to enjoy more jubilee and increase the volume of this Sound of Jubilee as we continue to break down, breakthrough, and break open into greener pastures, stiller waters, and a land of promise and blessing.
I believe that God wants to make more noise here in Twenty-Ten – Jubilee Noise.
Joshua 5:13-15
The “sound of jubilee” and celebration is the wound of wings united for breakthrough.
If we are going to make more noise and increase the volume of the Sound of Jubilee here in this house and around the world in Twenty-Ten, then we must understand that the Sound of Jubilee depends upon the sound of wings….angel wings.
The Sound of Jubilee and celebration is the sound of angel wings, united for battle in the spiritual realms as we battle in the physical realms. While we fight in the natural to breakthrough, they assist us in the supernatural to breakthrough what we cannot see.
The groundwork for the battle of breakthrough at
Now, I don’t know exactly what this angel looked like, but I don’t believe it was a whimpy angel that Joshua met. Commanders of the Lord’s army aren’t whimps.
For you see, there can be no breakthrough in the natural world without a breakthrough in the supernatural world. Walls do not come tumbling down in the physical world if they are not being brought down in the spiritual world. It takes the united efforts of angels, with swords drawn, to defeat powers of darkness in the heavenly realms so that the invisible walls of bitterness, unforgiveness, divisiveness, and hostility can come down between us and God and between us and other people.
Listen, if Joshua and the people could have brought down the walls by their own efforts, this commander would not have had to show up. He came for a reason. He came to show Joshua that the physical walls they had to break down and break through at
The Sound of Jubilee is the sound of wings, united in the heavenly realms to break down and breakthrough the spiritual, unseen walls that separate us from where we are and where God wants us to be. The more we come under their wings, the more we will break through to victory in Twenty-Ten and the more noise we will make for our Lord.
Joshua 6:3-4,15
The “sound of jubilee” and celebration is the sound of feet united for breakthrough.
Last fall, I planned to visit someone who lived out on 67 West. I had never been there before but was given their 911-house number so I could find it easier. I must have been on automatic pilot as I drove through town because I kept going…on 309 West. I was past the Alger/McGuffey turn-off, looking for the house number that just wasn’t showing
up, before I realized I was on the wrong road.
In other words, my feet were headed in the wrong direction. I could have driven on 309 West for the next five days and would have never made it to my original destination.
If your feet are headed in the wrong direction, you will never get your breakthrough.
For walls to come tumbling down and for the people of God to breakthrough to their own “promised land,” feet must be pointed in the right direction and they must be united.
This is really all about obedience, is it not?
The Lord gave to Joshua, what is called in the military, his “marching orders.” God told Joshua to unite the people as one body and to march - in a certain direction, for a certain period of time, for a certain number of days,….no more and no less.
From heaven came the marching orders that would give them the victory, and when you and I point our feet together in the direction God tells us to march, then victory is ours. But when God is telling us to live and march in one direction and when one, two, or several decide to march in another direction, there will be the sound of chaos, division, disharmony, and dischord instead of the Sound of Jubilee.
Ever watch a high school band at half-time and see one of the marches turn in the wrong direction at the wrong time? Get my point?
The Sound of Jubilee is the sound of feet united and marching in obedience to the word of God. As we march thusly in Twenty-Ten, we’ll make more noise for the Lord.
Joshua 6:4-5;16, 20
The “sound of jubilee” and celebration is the sound of trumpets united for break-through.
There is a very, very interesting Hebrew word, yobel. It comes from the root Hebrew word, yabal, which means “to flow,” “to bring forth,” or “to lead forth.”
The Israelites chose the derivative of yabal, i.e., yobel, for “ram’s horn.”
For it was the long, flowing sound of the ram’s horn that was blown to bring the people of God forth and to lead them forth into battle, into worship, into ceremonies, and, in the End Times, it will bring forth the Second Coming of Christ.
The Israelites had another name assigned to the ram’s horn which was commonly translated as “trumpet,” and that’s the one most of us are familiar with, the shofar.
Now, if you looked up the word jubilee in a Bible Concordance, you would find that it is the word yabal, the ram’s horn. For it was the ram’s horn that was blown to announce the Year of Jubilee every fiftieth year. As it says in Leviticus 25:10, the jobel was blown in the Year of Jubilee to “proclaim liberty throughout all the land.” This is the same inscription, if you’ll remember from last summer, that is on the Liberty Bell.
The Sound of Jubilee is the sound of the trumpet, the long, flowing, united sound emitted from the seven trumpeters who circled around the walls of Jericho. The blast from their yabel’s helped to bring down the walls of Jericho so that the people of God could break through and receive the land promised to them by the Almighty.
Did you know that we have here at St. John’s, seven, “first-chair” trumpeters who break down walls so that we can break through to worship the Lord and receive His blessing each Sunday? Who are these seven, first-chair trumpeters?
They are our worship leaders: Randy Rogers, Teresa Seacord, Dave Beazley, Kristy Gillfillan, Jane Baker, Hope Cauley, and Linda Zeigler. We have others who I’d just like to call “second chair” trumpeters, but these are our seven lead trumpters who lead us each Sunday with the blast of the ram’s horn into worship, into battle, and into jubilee. Why do you think we call the “Introit” the “Introit?” It leads us in. Why do we have opening praise at the first service? Because it is the blast from the ram’s horn the brings God’s people forth into praise, worship, and war.
Even more interesting, for our purposes, is the fact that according to the Interpreter’s Bible Dictionary, the ram’s horn could produce just two harmonic overtones.
And we have two here at St. John’s, two harmonic overtones. But we don’t call them “overtones.” We call them our 8:30 and our 10:30 worship services.
Listen, please. The Sound of Jubilee is the sound of our trumpets, one blowing one harmonic note at 8:30 and one blowing the other harmonic note at 10:30 - in unity, for one purpose – to lead the rest of us forth and to bring us forth into jubilee, into battle, and into worship…just as they did in the days of Joshua. You seven, first-chair trumpeters, united together, supportive of each other, playing alongside each other as two harmonic notes but one sound, lead us forth in worship and in battle so that we can breakthrough. The walls of Jericho came down because the trumpeters blew on their yobel’s, at the same time, for the same length of time, under the Lord’s command given to Joshua…and the walls came tumbling down.
You are the yobel-seven. As you stay united in Twenty-Ten, we will make more noise for the Lord, we’ll see more walls come down, we’ll experience more breakthroughs, and you’ll help to make the last Sound of Jubilee possible.
Joshua 6:5,16-17,20
The “Sound of Jubilee” and celebration is the sound of voices united for breakthrough.
The Israelites marched in unison around the walls of Jericho for six days, one time. On the seventh day, they marched in unison around the walls seven times. Then, the seven trumpeters blew their yabel’s, and all the people were instructed to shout with one, united voice.
Now, who were these Isrealites?
They were individuals in families, and families organized into clans. Clans combined to form tribes, 12 of them. Those 12 tribes made up one nation – God’s people. It was not one family, clan, or tribe giving that shout that brought down the walls of Jericho. It was every voice from every person in every family of every clan and tribe.
Listen please! The Sound of Jubilee will be louder, more walls will come down, we will experience more breakthroughs and make more noise in Twenty-Ten if we let go of the mindset that we are two congregations here because we have two services. We have two “families” - the 8:30 family and the 10:30 family. Our two “families” make up one “clan” – the clan of St. John’s UCC of Kenton, Ohio. Our clan is a part of a larger “tribe” called the United Church of Christ “denomination.” And all the denominations, all these “tribes,” combine to raise one voice to one Savior who has one name – JESUS.
The Sound of Jubilee is the sound of a united voice rising from a united people, led by united trumpeters, marching with feet united in the direction of God’s ordering, under the supportive wings of a united army of angels, bringing down walls so that the people of God can break through to take the land that God has ordained to give them.
Have we arrived? Are any of us where God ultimately wants us to be in our walk with Him and with each other? Have we no other walls to bring down, barriers to breakthrough, and righteousness to live and godliness to model? Have the angels winged their way back to heaven because we no more marches to make, trumpet blasts to make or shouts to raise because we’ve conquered and broken through every sin, habit, and barrier created by unforgiveness, disobedience, bitterness, and so forth?
Until we hear that final trumpet blast, we have our marching orders, we have Jericho’s to lay siege against, and we have walls that need to come down. And they will come down to the sound…the Sound of Jubilee…the sound of wings, feet, trumpets, and voices united.
