Joshua 6

Jos. 6:26 and 1 Kings 16:34. "And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before the Lord that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho: he shall lay the foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it." Jericho herein was a remarkable type of the church of the elect. Jericho was a devoted cursed city, it was devoted to perfect and to eternal destruction. To perfect destruction, in that every man, woman, and child, ox, sheep, and ass, were destroyed by God's command, and it was forbidden ever to be built again. So the elect are naturally under the curse of the law, which devotes those that have broke it to perfect and eternal destruction. However, this city was one very capable of being redeemed from that curse; but that was only by the curse being transferred upon him that built it. So the church of the elect could have the curse removed no other way but by its being laid upon Christ, who undertook to restore it. So Hiel the Bethelite represented Christ, who is from the true Bethel, or house of God, even heaven. He was to lay the foundation of it in his first-born, and in his youngest son to set up the gates of it. So his eldest son represented Christ who is the first-born of every creature, and is our elder brother. The foundation of the redeemed and restored church is laid in the blood of the first and only-begotten Son of God. The gates of it were to be set up in his youngest son; so after the church is redeemed by Christ, the gates of it are to be set up in the blood of the martyrs. It is in that way the church is to be erected and finished, and brought to its determined glory and prosperity in the world, even through the sufferings and persecutions of believers. Jericho, though once an accursed city of the Canaanites; yet, after it was thus redeemed from the curse, became a school of the prophets. 2 Kin. 2 and 4:38; 6:1, 2.