... he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" (Luke 21:28)

The town of Jericho was already 8,000 years old by the time Jesus and John the Baptist walked its streets. Think of it! Here in America, we were all excited a few years ago about our nation's bicentennial, our two hundredth birthday. Jericho was already 8,000 years old by the time of Jesus Christ. It remains today the oldest continually-inhabited city in the world.

Jericho was built by the Canaanites as a fortified city, but in 1250 B.C., Joshua came and captured it for Israel. If you remember the story (and the words of the old Negro spiritual), Joshus's men blew their trumpets "and the walls came tumbling down." Then the Israelites looted the city and burned it to the ground (Joshua 6) - their first conq…