One man’s greed leads to a shattering setback at Ai and the needless slaughter of thirty six Israelite soldiers. When at last the sin is discovered and dealt with decisively, God fights for His people in the rematch with Ai. Once the territory surrounding Mount Ebal is secured, Joshua pauses to offer sacrifices to God and to read again for the people all the words of God’s law. God’s will can only be accomplished I your life by complete obedience to His Word. Understanding can wait, obedience cannot!
Whatever became of sin? Perhaps it is called: significant other, little white lie, made a mistake, bad decision, poor judgment, foolish, independent, no role model, lifestyle, new morality, humorous, an illness. Sometimes it is even upheld and celebrated as a liberating way of life. Society in general refuses to acknowledge its existence, much less its seriousness.
The sinful soldier,
Achan, had the fruits of his deceit/theft BURIED…could not even enjoy…what a futile
endeavor…AND THEN LEFT WITH THE EMOTIONAL FRUIT OF GUILT!
God judges
sin. He holds us accountable for our
sins and expects us to accept responsibility for them. The only Tue and Lasting Solution to our sin
problem is the Remedy God has provided in His Son, Jesus Christ. We need to dare to examine whether we are
harboring any sins in our lives, to accept responsibility for those sins, and
to seek God’s Remedy.
The topic of
war has always been controversial among Christians and in society in
general. Joshua’s style of war generates
especially passionate debate. It is
based on the claim that God asked the soldiers of His covenant people to put
every non-Israelite in Canaan to death.
Why did God ask the solders to kill civilians as well as warriors? Because of the incredible threat sin poses
for humanity, especially when it has gained control of an entire
civilization. The Canaanites had built a
society whose values and practices were so sinful—so capable of infecting other
societies—that the only way to deal with it was to eliminate it. This type of warfare was how the task was
carried out. Even in such circumstances,
the Lord delivered Rahab and her family because of her faith (Heb. 11:31).
Keep a
proper perspective on Israel’s war against the Canaanites: 1.
God’s amazing patience. The Lord
gave the Canaanite cultures some 700 years – Abraham until the time of Joshua –
to change their ways before ordering their destruction. (Gen 15:16)
2. God’s desire to create a holy
people who would bless the entire world. The Lord had been working to create a
people group that would share His blessings with the world since Abraham. The Canaanite culture, centered around a
polytheistic religion that encouraged idolatry, human sacrifice, drunkenness,
and prostitution, threatened to derail all that God had been working to
create. Removing the corrupting cultural
influences from their new homeland was a preventive measure to not follow them
and abandon God’s plan of blessing in the process.Is it fair that only a little bit of sin would cause ALL to be disciplined? Chapter 7…Israelis defeated in what should have been an easy victory…Joshua begins to cry out and question the Lord: v. 10-11…Get off your face! Israel has sinned and disobeyed my commandment and has taken loot when I said it was not to be taken…lied about it, hidden it. I will not stay with you any longer unless you completely rid yourselves of this sin. … you cannot defeat your enemies until you deal with this sin. … the ONE who has stolen that which belongs to the Lord shall be burned with fire…everything he has…v.20 I have sinned … beautiful robe, silver, gold…I wanted them so much that I took them and they are hidden in the ground…brought all to the valley of Achor…stoned, burned their bodies…and the anger of the Lord ended.
Chapter 8: Different tactics of warfare…ambush – to kill everyone but could keep the loot and the cattle…followed carefully the instructions of the Lord and at the end of the battle, King Ai hung on a tree and then laid beneath many stones…Joshua carved each of the 10 commandments…Joshua then read to them all the statements of blessing and curses that Moses had written in the book of God’s laws. “Stretch out your javelin toward AI – I will give it…” WHAT has the Lord told you was yours lately? Have you claimed it?
Chapter 9: By attacking the land of Canaan in the center, Joshua has now isolated the 2 halves of the country, making it impossible for the remaining armies to link up and form a united front against the advancing Israelite troops. The Gibeonites, hearing the sad fate of Jericho and wishing to escape a similar end, sent emissaries to trick Joshua into signing a peace treaty. The strategy works when Joshua fails to inquire of the Lord, with the result that Israel ends up defending rather than destroying her enemy.
Surrounding area kings combined their armies to fight. But Gibeon resorted to trickery to save themselves. Ambassadors came in deception…patched shoes, weatherworn saddlebags, old patched wine-skins and dry moldy bread…We have come from a distant land to ask for a peace treaty … v.14-15 Joshua looked at the circumstances and did NOT talk with the Lord about this situation! THREE days later, the truth came to light…they were close neighbors. People angry with their leaders because of the peace treaty…”we made an oath…cannot change. The men became their servants…Joshua demanded to know why the deception. They knew what Jehovah had said about conquering their entire land and destroying the people living there…
Chapter 10: The king of Jerusalem, Adoni-zedek
became very frightened when he heard of all that had taken place. He appealed to other kings to come and help
them attack Gibeon. Messengers came to
Joshua and he and the army left Gilgal and went to rescue Gibeon. “Don’t be afraid of them, the Lord said to
Joshua, for they are already defeated…I have given them to you to destroy…not a
single one of them will be able to stand up to you.” JUST AS OUR ENEMIES
ARE DEFEATED TODAY, BUT WE MUST CLAIM THE VICTORY BY STEPPING OUT IN FAITH IN
WHAT THE LORD HAS SPOKEN!
The Lord had
a very evident part in the battle victory…caused panic and confusion…brought
down hail – “more men died from the hail than by the swords”. Joshua cried out “sun and moon stand
still…and they did not move until the Israeli army had finished the destruction
of its enemies! ALL BECAUSE OF THE
PRAYER OF ONE MAN! “The prayers of a
righteous man availeth much!” The
Israelis did not lose one single man in the defeat. After that no one dared to attack
Israel. Five kings ran to hide and were sealed into the cave - brought out and killed…captains of his army put their feet on the kings’ necks. Joshua spoke, “Don’t’ ever be afraid or discouraged, be strong, and courageous for the Lord is going to do this to all of your enemies!” AND HE WILL DO THE SAME FOR OUR ENEMIES TODAY! We must place IN FAITH our feet on the neck of the enemy!
The battles continued with victory on every hand. “So Joshua (v.40 of Ch.10) and his army conquered the whole country…the nations and kings of the hill country…destroyed everyone in the land, Just as the Lord God of Israel hand commanded. …the Lord God of Israel was fighting for His people. Then they returned to Gilgal.
In Chapter 11, King Jabin of Hazor heard
what happened and he mobilized many armies…united them to defeat Israel. BUT the Lord said, “Don’t be afraid of them,
for by this time tomorrow they will all be dead!” AND ALL the people were killed “For so the
Lord had commanded his disciple Moses; and Moses had passed the commandment on
to Joshua, who did as he had been told; he carefully obeyed all the Lord’s
instructions to Moses.” WHAT ABOUT THE TRUTHS THAT HAVE BEEN FAITHFULLY PASSED DOWN
TO US? HAVE WE BEEN CAREFUL TO OBEY THEM
DOWN TO THE NITTY GRITTY DETAILS?
“So Joshua
took the entire land just as the Lord had instructed Moses; and he gave it to the
people of Israel as their inheritance, dividing the land among the tribes. So the land finally rested from its
war.”
Joshua 12:7-24 lists 31 General
Joshua’s victories – each achieved in the strength of the Lord, and each
representing a stepping stone toward Joshua’s ultimate goal of conquering
Canaan.
See if you can think of one God-given
“break through” in each of the following areas:
*the use of your tongue
*the use of your money
*your relationship to your spouse or
relatives
*your relationship to your neighbor
*your leisure-time activities
*your involvement in the church
*sharing Christ with others
*controlling your temper
“There is a special place for people without problems—it is called a
cemetery.”
You and I face the same old OLD
problems today…sin—doing MY thing rather than yielding to His will and
ways. As a born again, our battles are
different than when we were sinners/lost men and women. The “old man”, the sin nature, the Adamic
nature is dead; yet the sin principle lives in the body of dust. When temptation comes, we can and must send
the LORD to the threshold and allow Him to handle the temptation in us and
through us. We who live in the flesh can
still sin and if we send flesh to the door, we will. ONLY the Lord lived the sinless life…He wants
to continue to live a sinless life today as I, as you, yield rather to His life
in us!!!
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