Defeat in the Land of Victory

Introduction

As we begin our time together this evening I would like to begin by drawing some parallels between the text before us and the text that we looked at this morning.

In we see the people of God stand boldly before their enemies.

We see God working in great power and we see great grace as the enemies are destroyed, God’s people are saved, we see the salvation of Rahab and her family.

There is great power and great grace.

In we see the obedience of God’s people to His commands.

This reminds us of Acts as well doesn’t it.

God had been working powerfully among the people of Israel.

Acts 4:33 ESV

And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.

The outside threat is faced boldly by the people of God and the church of Jesus Christ is advancing even in the face of opposition.

Even the structure is amazing in both

victory

boldness

rejoicing

BUT

In both Acts and in Joshua here there is a sudden pause in the story because there is sin in the camp that must be dealt with.

Notice in Joshua that when there is sin in the camp that is not being dealt with then God’s people are powerless before the enemy.

God’s people are wide open to the enemy and to his attacks and to destruction because the enemy has made his way within the camp and has weakened it.

Just as begins with the word but so does

Three things that we see in the text. Warren Wiersbe uses this outline and i could not improve upon it

A disobedient soldier (v.1, 20-21)

In v.1 we see the sinner.

Achan, he has done exactly what the Lord had forbidden the people of Israel from doing.

Achan is know as the man who troubled Israel.

It was because of his disobedience that Israel was defeated at Ai.

Brothers and sisters let us never underestimate the damage that can through disobedience, through sin.

Just one person and all of Israel is effected.

Just one person in unrepentant sin effected everyone else because God dwelt with them as a group of people and anyone who disobeyed God defiled the camp.

Brothers and sisters we are reminded through this evenings text and this mornings text of the weightiness of sin, sin is something that is taken lightly in our culture and even in the the so called church culture.

But we must not take it lightly.

For your own good but also for the good of brothers and sisters in Christ.

Brothers and sisters we are one body in Christ.

The reality behind that is that we need one another and we can be a blessing to one another.

The reality is that sin in our lives can effect one another as well.

v.20-21 we see the sin

Achan knew what Joshua had said and yet he ignored it.

This was Achan’s mistake,

He believed that the beautiful cloak from Shinar, the 200 shekels of silver, and the bar of gold weighing 50 shekels would bring him more joy than obedience to God and the presence of God.

But let’s stop here and camp out,

Just imagine

Achan sees the cloak, the silver, and the gold and what happens?

Satan whispers in his ear and tells him that he needs that, that he deserves it, that it is no big deal if he takes it. Satan whispers in his ear and tells him that if he can just get those things then he will be happy,

Have you ever heard that before

If you just do this or that, if you just get this or that then it will make you happy.

And of course Achan does not have a friend in his flesh because his flesh is in agreement with satan and before long Achan has convinced himself

he needs it

he deserves it

it is not big deal if he takes it, that no one will ever know

that it will make him happy if he takes it

satan and sin always promise you more than they can deliver don’t they?

But let’s also think about the selfishness of this sin

Achan knew he wasn’t suppose to get these things, that is why he hid them. He was fully aware of all that is said in chapter 6

Listen to what is said in chapter 6

Joshua 6:18 ESV

But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it.

Joshua 6.

If you do this then the camp of Israel will be a thing of destruction and you will bring trouble upon it.

Achan had been warned that his sin would effect other people and yet he continues on in it.

Oh how selfish we are when we sin, sin turns us inward so that we are not thinking about anyone but ourselves.

Brothers and sisters let this be a warning, be a reminder to us that our sin has an effect on those around us.

Oh may we live selfless lives for the glory of God and for the good of those around us

may God give me the grace to put sin to death in my life for His glory and the for the good of those around me, may that be our prayer

A defeated army (v.2-5)

One might say that Joshua’s mistake here was in assumption, assuming that all was okay, assuming that the Lord was with them and that the Lord was going to bless them again.

Warren Wiersbe says that Joshua was walking by sight and not by faith here.

Had Joshua gone before the Lord and sought the Lord before the battle at Ai then he would have known that all was not right.

Or one might say that Joshua, with the victory over Jericho, had become self confident and was sure that they would be able to handle Ai, that it would not be a problem since it was a small town compared to Jericho.

This reminds me of

Proverbs 16:18 ESV

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Prov. 16,

Either way we are reminded that when there is sin amongst God’s people that is not dealt with then God’s blessing will not be among His people.

.

.

Brothers and sisters, when the Lord is against you, you can have the best programs, you can have the biggest army, you can have the smartest people but it is all nothing.

A discouraged leader (v.6-15)

Joshua is discouraged, he is broken before the Lord.

We see grief and despair in the text before us. Mourning!

A discouraged leader (v.6-15)

This is the appropriate action when you realize that God has left you to yourself, when you realize that something has come between you and God.

Surely if God would have still been with Israel this would not have happened, so the obvious conclusion is that something has separated God from this people.

God is no longer fighting for them, but is against them.

Notice in v. 7 Joshua sounds more like the unbelieving Jews

a sounds more like the unbelieving Jews

Exodus 14:11 ESV

They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?

This is the voice of unbelief.

There is despair in Joshua’s voice because he knows that if God does not fight for them then they will be cut off from all the earth.

Do you feel that for the church of Jesus Christ? Lord if you leave us to ourselves then we will come to nothing.

Oh for the church that feels like they have it figured out, that they have learned to do church and gather a crowd without a desperate dependence upon the Spirit of God and without a complete devotion to being faithful to the whole counsel of the Word of God.

Brothers and sisters as I read and meditated on this text, I thought Lord help us to be more broken that we are not advancing your kingdom.

Have we learned to be content with defeat in the church? Have we learned to expect defeat in the church?

Oh brother and sisters, may we not be content with being ineffective for the advancement of the Kingdom of God!!!

Oh brothers and sisters, may we learn to grieve, to cry, and to wrestle with God; pleading with Him for the glory of His great name through the church of Jesus Christ.

But notice on in the text, v.10-15

It is not enough to cry out to the Lord, but we must hear from Him and act in obedience.

Notice v.10-15

If we could summarize these verses we would say, the Lord’s blessing was not on His people because of disobedience, because of sin amongst the people.

Brothers and sisters I go back to this mornings text, I think what we see in and 5 is that the Lord is teaching us that if sin is not dealt with then the Lord’s blessing would not be on the church.

Read .

I can not imagine continuing on in that way if the sin had not been dealt with.

At the very least we learn from Acts and from Joshua that if the Lord is going to bless His people, if the God will abide with His people and there will be great power and great grace then sin and disobedience must be taken seriously, it must be dealt with.

Implication: If there is a church that is unwilling to deal with sin in it’s midst and just sweeps it under the rug, does not practice church discipline but seems to be doing great things and is growing can we say that all that is going on there is the blessing of the Lord? Or could it be that everything that is happening there could be merely explained by the use of human abilities and human powers.

A discovered sinner (v.16-26)

Again this passage makes us as uncomfortable as the passage from this morning.

The death of Achan and his family is clearly a warning to the people of God.

It was a warning to Israel, brothers and sisters it is a warning to us.

The sin is dealt with and the Lord’s blessing is back on His people.

Israel would not have been able to anything of any value without the Lord’s blessing, they would have been impotent if they had not dealt with the sin.

Oh how is it that so many churches think that they will be able to do great things for the Lord when they are not willing to take sin seriously, when they tolerate sin, when they excuse sin, when they ignore sin.

So what does all of this mean for us?

I don’t know what the Lord will do with His word, but at the very least brothers and sisters, we should make sure that we are not harboring sin in our lives.

Let us be quick to confess our sin, to turn from our sin and to turn back to Christ

Knowing that our own personal sin can effect a lot of people. That in itself is sobering,

Oh Lord, my prayer is that sin in my life would not effect this church. That should be true for all of us.

Oh may our time in the word today make us hate, despise, and fight against sin all the more, even more than we ever have; not only because of a love for our Lord but also because of our love for the church of Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters, Lord forbid, but when there is unrepentant sin in the church, when there is a brother or sister caught in sin and we know about it, we should plead with the Lord on their behalf and we should plead with them to repentant of their sin.

And when someone is unwilling to repent of sin then the Bible is clear that it must be dealt with through church discipline.

May God help us to be a faithful church