The Book of Joshua

Defeat in the Land of Victory Intro. Moses described the Promised Land as “a land of hills and valleys” (Deut. 11:11). That statement, I believe, is much more than a description of the contrast between the hilly landscape of Canaan and the flat monotonous topography of Egypt. It’s also a description of the geography of the life of faith that is pictured by Israel’s experiences in Canaan. As by faith we claim our inheritance in Christ, we experience peaks of victory and valleys of discouragement. Discouragement isn’t inevitable in the Christian life, but we must remember that we can’t have mountains without valleys. The ominous word but that introduces Joshua 7 is a signal that things are going to change; for Joshua is about to descend from the mountaintop of victory at Jericho to the valley of defeat at Ai. Joshua was a gifted and experienced leader, but he was still human and therefore liable to error. In this experience, he teaches us what causes defeat and how we must handle the discouragements of life. 1. A disobedient soldier (Josh. 7:1, 20–21) a. The sinner (Josh. 7:1). 1. His name was Achan, or Achar, which means “trouble”; and he was from the tribe of Judah (v. 16). (See 1 Chron. 2:7; note in v. 26 that “Achor” also means “trouble.”) 2. He is known in Bible history as the man who troubled Israel (Josh. 7:25). 3. Because of Achan’s disobedience, Israel was defeated at Ai, and the enemy killed thirty-six Jewish soldiers. It was Israel’s first and only military defeat in Canaan, a defeat that is forever associated with Achan’s name. 4. Never underestimate the amount of damage one person can do outside the will of God. a. Abraham’s disobedience in Egypt almost cost him his wife (Gen. 12:10–20); b. David’s disobedience in taking an unauthorized census led to the death of 70,000 people (2 Sam. 24); c. Jonah’s refusal to obey God almost sank a ship (Jonah 1). d. The church today must look diligently “lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble” (Heb. 12:15, NKJV). e. That’s why Paul admonished the Corinthian believers to discipline the disobedient man in their fellowship, because his sin was defiling the whole church (1 Cor. 5). 5. God made it clear that it was Israel that had sinned and not just Achan alone (Josh. 7:1, 11). a. Why would God blame the whole nation for the disobedience of only one soldier? b. Because Israel was one people in the Lord and not just an assorted collection of tribes, clans, families, and individuals. c. God dwelt in the midst of their camp, and this made the Jews the Lord’s special people (Ex. 19:5–6). d. Jehovah God walked about in their camp, and therefore the camp was to be kept holy (Deut. 23:14). e. Anyone who disobeyed God defiled the camp, and this defilement affected their relationship to the Lord and to one another. 6. God’s people today are one body in Christ. Consequently, we belong to each other, we need each other, and we affect each other (1 Cor. 12:12ff). a. Any weakness or infection in one part of the human body contributes to weakness and infection in the other parts. b. So it also is with the body of Christ. “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it” (1 Cor. 12:26, NIV). c. “One sinner destroys much good” (Ecc. 9:18, NKJV). b. The sin (Josh. 7:20–21). 1. Achan heard his commander give the order that all the spoils in Jericho were to be devoted to the Lord and were to go into His treasury (6:17–21, 24). a. Since Jericho was Israel’s first victory in Canaan, the firstfruits of the spoils belonged to the Lord (Prov. 3:9). b. But Achan disobeyed and took the hazardous steps that lead to sin and death (James 1:13–15): c. “I saw . . . I coveted . . . [I] took” (Josh. 7:21). d. Eve did the same thing when she listened to the devil (Gen. 3:5), and so did David when he yielded to the flesh (2 Sam. 11:1–4). e. Since Achan also coveted the things of the world, he brought defeat to Israel and death to himself and his family. 2. Achan’s first mistake was to look at these spoils a second time. a. He probably couldn’t help seeing them the first time, but he should never have looked again and considered taking them. b. A man’s first glance at a woman may say to him, “She’s attractive!” But it’s that second glance that gets the imagination working and leads to sin (Matt. 6:27–30). c. If we keep God’s Word before our eyes, we won’t start looking in the wrong direction and doing the wrong things (Prov. 4:20–25). 3. His second mistake was to reclassify those treasures and call them “the spoils” (Josh. 7:21). a. They were not “the spoils”; they were a part of the Lord’s treasury and wholly dedicated to Him. b. They didn’t belong to Achan, or even to Israel; they belonged to God. c. When God identifies something in a special way, we have no right to change it. d. In our world today, including the religious world, people are rewriting God’s dictionary! “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isa. 5:20, KJV) e. If God says something is wrong, then it’s wrong; and that’s the end of the debate. 4. Achan’s third mistake was to covet. a. “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed” (James 1:14, NKJV). b. Instead of singing praises in his heart for the great victory God had given, Achan was imagining in his heart what it would be like to own all that treasure. c. The imagination is the “womb” in which desire is conceived and from which sin and death are eventually born. 5. His fourth mistake was to think that he could get away with his sin by hiding the loot. a. Adam and Eve tried to cover their sin and run away and hide, but the Lord discovered them (Gen. 3:7ff). b. “Be sure your sin will find you out” was originally said to the people of God, not to the lost (Num. 32:23); and so was “The Lord shall judge His people” (Deut. 32:36; Heb. 10:30). c. How foolish of Achan to think that God couldn’t see what he was doing, when “all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account” (Heb. 4:13, NKJV). 6. Achan’s sin becomes even more odious when you stop to realize all that God had done for him. a. God had cared for him and his family in the wilderness. b. He had brought them safely across the Jordan and given the army victory at Jericho. c. The Lord had accepted Achan as a son of the covenant at Gilgal. d. Yet in spite of all these wonderful experiences, Achan disobeyed God just to possess some wealth that he couldn’t even enjoy. Had he waited just a day or two, he could have gathered all the spoils he wanted from the victory at Ai! e. “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matt. 6:33, NKJV). 2. A defeated army (Josh. 7:2–5) a. Like every good commander, Joshua surveyed the situation before he planned his strategy (Num. 21:32; Prov. 20:18; 24:6). 1. His mistake wasn’t in sending out the spies but in assuming that the Lord was pleased with His people and would give them victory over Ai. 2. He and his officers were walking by sight and not by faith. Spiritual leaders must constantly seek the Lord’s face and determine what His will is for each new challenge. 3. Had Joshua called a prayer meeting, the Lord would have informed him that there was sin in the camp; and Joshua could have dealt with it. 4. This would have saved the lives of thirty-six soldiers and spared Israel a humiliating defeat. b. It’s impossible for us to enter into Joshua’s mind and fully understand his thinking. 1. No doubt the impressive victory at Jericho had given Joshua and his army a great deal of self-confidence; and self-confidence can lead to presumption. 2. Since Ai was a smaller city than Jericho, victory seemed inevitable from the human point of view. 3. But instead of seeking the mind of the Lord, Joshua accepted the counsel of his spies; and this led to defeat. 4. He would later repeat this mistake in his dealings with the Gibeonites (Josh. 9). 5. The spies said nothing about the Lord; their whole report focused on the army and their confidence that Israel would have victory. You don’t hear these men saying, “If the Lord will” (James 4:13–17). They were sure that the whole army wasn’t needed for the assault, but that wasn’t God’s strategy when He gave the orders for the second attack on Ai (Josh. 8:1). 6. Since God’s thoughts are not our thoughts (Isa. 55:8–9), we’d better take time to seek His direction. “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Prov. 16:18, NKJV). What Israel needed was God-confidence, not self-confidence. 7. Ai was in the hill country, about fifteen miles from Jericho; and one went up to Ai because it was situated 1,700 feet above sea level. The Jewish army marched confidently up the hill but soon came down again, fleeing for their lives and leaving thirty-six dead comrades behind them. 8. Moses had warned Israel that they couldn’t defeat their enemies unless the nation was obedient to the Lord. 9. If they were following the Lord by faith, 1 Jewish soldier would chase 1,000, and 2 would put 10,000 to flight! (Deut. 32:30) Three Jewish soldiers could have defeated the whole city, if the nation had been pleasing to the Lord (Josh. 8:25). 10. “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear” (Isa. 59:2). 3. A discouraged leader (Josh. 7:6–15) The leader who had been magnified (6:27) was now mortified. If some of your best plans have ever been dashed to pieces, then you can identify with Joshua and his officers. a. Remorse (Josh. 7:6). 1. The hearts of the Canaanites had melted when they had heard about the conquests of Israel (2:11). But now the tables were turned, and it was the Jews whose hearts were melted as water! 2. The general who had not known defeat spent the rest of the day prostrate before the ark at Gilgal and his leaders with him. They tore their garments, put dust on their heads, lay on the ground, and cried, “Alas! Alas!” This is the way Jewish people behaved whenever they experienced great distress, such as a military defeat (1 Sam. 4:12) or personal violence and shame (2 Sam. 13:19). 3. It was the prescribed course of action whenever the Jews turned to God in times of great danger or national sin (Neh. 9:1; Es. 4:1). Had Joshua humbled himself before the battle, the situation would have been different after the battle. 4. The ark of the covenant was a reminder of the presence of God with His people. The ark had gone before Israel when they had crossed the river (Josh. 3:11ff), and the ark had been with them when they had marched around Jericho (6:6–8). 5. God hadn’t told them to carry the ark to Ai, but God’s presence would have gone with them if there had not been sin in the camp. Without God’s presence, the ark was simply a piece of wooden furniture; and there was no guarantee of victory just because of the presence of the ark (1 Sam. 4). b. Reproach (Josh. 7:7–9). 1. In his prayer Joshua sounded like the unbelieving Jews whenever they found themselves in a tough situation that demanded faith: “Oh, that we had stayed where we were!” They said this at the Red Sea (Ex. 14:11), when they were hungry and thirsty in the wilderness (16:3; 17:3), and when they were disciplined at Kadesh Barnea (Num. 14:1–3). The Jews had frequently wanted to go back to Egypt, but Joshua would have been willing to cross the Jordan and settle down on the other side. 2. “But read his prayer, and you will catch a strange note in it,” wrote George H. Morrison; “Joshua reproaches God.”1 He seems to be blaming God for Israel’s presence in Canaan and for the humiliating defeat they had just experienced. 3. When you walk by faith, you will claim all that God has for you; but unbelief is always content to settle for something less than God’s best. 4. This is why the Epistle to the Hebrews is in the Bible, to urge God’s people to “go on” and enter into the fullness of their inheritance in Christ (Heb. 6:1). 5. God sometimes permits us to experience humiliating defeats in order to test our faith and reveal to us what’s really going on in our hearts. What life does to us depends on what life finds in us, and we don’t always know the condition of our own hearts (Jer. 17:9). c. Repentance (Josh. 7:8–9). 1. Now Joshua gets to the heart of the matter: Israel’s defeat had robbed God of glory, and for this they had to repent. 2. If the people of the land lost their fear of Israel’s God (2:8–11), this would make it difficult for Joshua to conquer the land. 3. But the important thing was not Joshua’s fame or Israel’s conquests, but the glory of the God of Israel. 4. Joshua’s concern was not for his own reputation but for the “great name” of Jehovah. 5. Joshua had learned this lesson from Moses (Ex. 32:11–13; Num. 14:13–16), and it’s a lesson the church needs to learn today. d. Rebuke (Josh. 7:10–15). 1. The Lord allowed Joshua and his leaders to stay on their faces until the time for the evening sacrifice. He gave them time to come to the end of themselves so that they would obey His directions, and then He spoke to Joshua. There is a time to pray and a time to act, and the time had now come to act. 2. Since Israel had sinned, Israel had to deal with its sin. God told Joshua that the nation had stolen that which belonged to Him and had hidden it among their own possessions as if it were theirs. 3. Note the repetition of the word “accursed,” which is used six times in this paragraph. The nation had been sanctified in preparation for crossing the Jordan (3:5), but now they had to be sanctified to discover an enemy in the camp. They had to present themselves to God so He could expose the guilty man. 4. What the Lord said to Joshua helps us see Achan’s sin (and Israel’s sin) from the divine point of view. What they did was sin (7:11), a word that means “to miss the mark.” God wants His people to be holy and obedient, but they missed the mark and fell short of God’s standard. 5. It was also transgression (v. 11), which means “to cross over.” God had drawn a line and told them not to cross it, but they had violated His covenant and crossed the line. 6. This sin involved stealing from God and then lying about it (v. 11). Achan had taken the forbidden wealth but pretended that he had obeyed the Lord. Achan had done a foolish thing (v. 15) in thinking he could rob God and get away with it. Israel couldn’t face any of her enemies until their sin had been put away. 7. The tribes could never claim their inheritance as long as one man clung to his forbidden treasures. Everything God had done for His people up to this point was to no avail as long as they couldn’t go forward in victory. What a lesson for the church today! 8. That evening Joshua sent word throughout the camp that the people were to sanctify themselves and prepare for an assembly to be held the next morning. You wonder whether Achan and his family got any sleep that night, or did they think they were secure? 4. A discovered sinner (Josh. 7:16–26) a. The investigation (Josh. 7:16–18). 1. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” asked the prophet (Jer. 17:9); and he answered the question in the next verse: “I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” 2. Nobody can hide from God. “Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him?” (23:24) Whether sinners run to the top of the mountains or dive to the bottom of the seas, God will find them and judge them (Amos 9:3). “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil” (Ecc. 12:14). 3. God’s approach was methodical. a. First He singled out the tribe of Judah, then the family of the Zerahites, then the household of Zabdi, and finally the culprit Achan. b. Perhaps the high priest used the ephod to determine God’s direction (1 Sam. 23:6, 9; 30:7–8), or Joshua and the high priest may have cast lots. c. It must have been frightening for Achan and his immediate family to watch the accusing finger of God point closer and closer. d. “My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from Me, nor is their sin concealed from My eyes” (Jer. 16:17, NIV). Read Psalm 10, especially verses 6, 11, 13 to see what may have been going on in Achan’s mind and heart during this tense time of scrutiny. e. When Joshua singled out Achan as the offender, the people watching must have asked themselves, “What evil thing did he do that the Lord was so displeased with us?” Perhaps the relatives of the thirty-six slain soldiers were angry as they looked at the man whose disobedience caused the death of their loved ones. b. The confession (Josh. 7:19–23). 1. The phrase “Give glory to God” was a form of official oath in Israel (John 9:24, NIV). 2. Achan had not only sinned against his own people, but also he had grievously sinned against the Lord; and he had to confess his sin to Him. 3. When he said “I have sinned,” he joined the ranks of seven other men in Scripture who made the same confession, some more than once, and some without sincerity: Pharaoh (Ex. 9:27; 10:16), Balaam (Num. 22:34), King Saul (1 Sam. 15:24, 30; 26:21), David (2 Sam. 12:13; 24:10, 17; Ps. 51:4), Shimei (2 Sam. 19:20), Judas (Matt. 27:4), and the prodigal son (Luke 15:18, 21). 4. Before he could execute the Lord’s judgment, Joshua had to present the evidence that substantiated Achan’s confession. The messengers dug under Achan’s tent and found “the accursed thing” that had brought defeat to Israel. The stolen goods were spread out before the Lord so He could see that all Israel was renouncing their hold on this evil treasure. The confession and the evidence were enough to convict the accused man. c. The judgment (Josh. 7:24–26). 1. Since a law in Israel prohibited innocent family members from being punished for the sins of their relatives (Deut. 24:16), Achan’s family must have been guilty of assisting him in his sin. 2. His household was judged the same way Israel would deal with a Jewish city that had turned to idols (Josh. 13:12–18). 3. Achan and his family had turned from the true and living God and had given their hearts to that which God had said was accursed—silver, gold, and an expensive garment. It wasn’t worth it! 4. At the beginning of a new period in Bible history, God sometimes revealed His wrath against sin in some dramatic way. a. After the tabernacle had been set up, Nadab and Abihu invaded its holy precincts contrary to God’s law; and God killed them. This was a warning to the priests not to treat God’s sanctuary carelessly (Lev. 10). b. When David sought to restore the ark to its place of honor, and Uzzah touched the ark to steady it, God killed Uzzah (2 Sam. 6:1–11); another warning from God not to treat sacred things carelessly. c. At the beginning of the Church Age, when Ananias and Sapphira lied to God and God’s people, the Lord killed them (Acts 5:1–11). 5. The death of Achan and his family was certainly a dramatic warning to the nation not to take the Word of God lightly. a. The people and the animals were stoned, and their bodies burned along with all that the family possessed. b. The troubler of Israel was completely removed from the scene, the people were sanctified, and now God could march with His people and give them victory. c. The name Achor means “trouble.” The Valley of Achor is mentioned in Isaiah 65:10 and Hosea 2:15 as a place where the Jews will one day have a new beginning and no longer be associated with shame and defeat. The Valley of Achor will become for them “a door of hope” when they return to their land and share in the blessings of the messianic kingdom. How wonderful the Lord is to take Achor, a place of sorrow and defeat, and make it into a place of hope and joy. d. The heap of stones in the valley would be a reminder that God expects His people to obey His Word, and if they don’t, He must judge them. e. The heap of stones at Gilgal (Josh. 4:1–8) reminded them that God keeps His Word and leads His obedient people to the place of blessing. f. Both memorials are needed in the walk of faith. God is love (1 John 4:8, 16) and longs to bless His people; but God is also light (1 John 1:5) and must judge His people’s sins. 6. It had been a trying two days for Joshua and his leaders, but the situation was about to change. God would take charge of the army and lead His people to victory. When you surrender to the Lord, no defeat is permanent and no mistake is beyond remedy. Even the “Valley of Trouble” can become a “door of hope.”