Joshua 8:1-35 | "A Great Heap of Stones" [Live Stream Edition]

I. Reading of Scripture

Joshua 8:28–29 ESV

28 So Joshua burned Ai and made it forever a heap of ruins, as it is to this day. 29 And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. And at sunset Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city and raised over it a great heap of stones, which stands there to this day.

This is God’s Word, Amen!

Pray

II. Introduction

A. Introduction to Theme

A Great Heap of Stones is now raised over the gate (entrance) of the burning embers that were once the city of Ai. Beneath that heap of stones lies the body of Ai’s slain king.

This Great Heap of Stones forms a permanent memorial to victory — a victory for Israel, brought about by Israel’s God.

But it was a costly victory. This was a second-take. A repeat.

This Great Heap of Stones serves as a vivid contrast to the scene recorded just one chapter earlier, when Israel was raising a great heap of stones over one of their own: Achan, the son of Zerah, who took some of the devoted things, and the anger of the LORD burned against the people of Israel (7:1).

The second heap of stones at Ai was not possible without the first heap of stones in the Valley of Achor.

The second heap of stones at Ai was not possible without the repentance of Israel for disobeying the Word of God.

Victory is not possible without defeat. If you are looking for victory in your life, you will not experience it unless you first witness the defeat of sin in your life. This is true of temporary victories and eternal victory!

Unless Israel had removed the things devoted from destruction among them from within their own camp, they WOULD not and COULD not stand before their enemies any longer.

And so it is, unless God’s people deal with SIN, from within the Church as one body, and from within our own lives individually, we WILL not and CAN not represent the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the world, because the Gospel message is this:

1 Corinthians 15:55–57 ESV

55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Brothers and sisters, God gives us victory in Jesus Christ alone!

In Jesus Christ we have victory over sin. In Jesus Christ the Church has victory — the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Mt 16:18).

But the lessons of Achan and Ai still apply today in that God’s people must live God’s way. And living God’s way requires OBEDIENCE to God’s Word, in faith, both individually and collectively.

B. Introduction to Text

After Israel raised a Great Heap of Stones over Achan in the Valley of Achor (Trouble), purging sin from the camp, the LORD turned from his burning anger.

God does not stay angry forever. When His people confess their sin and repent, God forgives them. God does not hold grudges.

God then gives His People victory at Ai by giving them instructions on how to do it.

Joshua Chapter 8 begins with words noticeably absent at the beginning of Chapter 7: “And the LORD said to Joshua.”

God is now revealed as SPEAKING again to His People who are seeking His guidance.

Israel went about attacking Ai the first time without seeking the Lord. They went about it their own way. Assuming they were right with God.

But they were not right with God, and they did not know that because they did not talk with Him. They did not seek Him. They were not obeying Him. And they found out the hard way, through defeat, that there was a problem.

Did you know, that many of the consequences of sin can be avoided if we would acknowledge and confess our sins before allowing sin to run its course?

Sin grows, and if we confess it early as the Gospel frees us to do, we may be spared from greater harm.

James 1:13–15 ESV

13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

But once God revealed where the sin was, Israel took care of the sin as God had instructed them, with fire and stones, returning to God what belonged to God in the devoted things, and destroyed the Achan and his sons and daughters and his oxen and donkeys and sheep and his tent and all that he had, removing the faithless troubler from their community.

Israel then went on to win victory over Ai — one man, and one family short. The bulk of Chapter 8 tells how this came about.

But in this we learn a principle:

It is better to be less in number as the faithful, than to be greater in number with even one who is faithless.

And this applies to within the Church too!

It is better for us as a body to be fewer in number and faithful, than to be many in number with even one who is faithless.

God is able to take what is few in faith, and do exponentially more than what we can think or imagine. What did Jesus do with five loaves and two fish? He fed multitudes! Such is the story of our faith.

The Scriptures teach that God is the one who judges outsiders. But we have a responsibility in the Church to remove evil from within.

1 Corinthians 5:13 ESV

13 God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

Purging removes. It makes smaller. It is one family less.

But it is better to be less in number as the faithful, than to be greater in number with even one who is faithless.

And this is essential for victory! Faith is essential for victory!

1 John 5:4 ESV

4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

In Chapter 7, the people act, THEN the LORD speaks.

In Chapter 8, the LORD speaks THEN the people act.

Order matters.

In Chapter 7 the people try to take Ai THEIR WAY and lose the battle. Faithless.

In Chapter 8, the people take Ai GOD’S WAY and win the battle. Faithful.

Order matters. Faith must come first.

In Chapter 7, Achan acts on what he sees. Taking what belongs to God for himself.

Likewise, the people act in sending only a few warriors to Ai because of what they see — “Ai is few in number.”

Both result in DEFEAT when they live by what they see.

But Chapter 8 teaches us that victory is won when the people live not by what they see, but by what they HEAR — when they live by the word of God with faith in the God of the word.

This is why the text of Joshua moves from two great heaps of stones very quickly to an altar of stone.

The lesson of the two heaps led the people to an altar to be reminded of God’s Word and God’s Ways.

I want to draw your attention three things Joshua did at the end of Chapter 8:

Joshua built, Joshua wrote, and Joshua read.

Each of these have an important significance for the people in remembering the important lesson they had learned, before MOVING ON as they are MOVING IN!

May we learn the same message, as Christ’s Church, as we move on in faith, as we are moving IN to God’s future!

III. Exposition of Joshua 8:30-35

Joshua 8:30–31 ESV

30 At that time Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal, 31 just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the people of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, “an altar of uncut stones, upon which no man has wielded an iron tool.” And they offered on it burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings.

I. Joshua built

What did Joshua build?

He built an altar to the LORD, and he built it at a specific time. “At that time.”

The timing is significant.

It was “Then” — after the events of Ai that span two chapters: the defeat, the purging of sin, and the victory in God that moves Joshua to build an altar.

This timing, this moment moves Joshua to worship. An altar was a place of worship.

And worship is a response to what God has done. And Israel will worship God for what God has done in this moment.

God has done more than to give Israel victory over their enemies from WITHOUT, but God has also given Israel victory from WITHIN.

God has delivered His people from the barrier that prevented their relationship and worship with Him by delivering them from their SIN.

So Joshua leads the people in worship by building an altar on Mount Ebal.

The location is significant.

Moses had instructed that when the people cross the Jordan, certain tribes should stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, and certain tribes to stand on Mount Ebal to read the curses — the covenant with God came with blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience.

By building this altar on Mount Ebal, Joshua was sending a clear message that the people have been reminded of the consequences for transgressing the covenant (KM). They were disobedient, and should they continue in disobedience they will be cursed.

But there on the mountain of the curses, an altar is built. Because God has intervened on behalf of His people.

The time and place of our worship is significant.

Because of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, we are free to worship God wherever and whenever we are! We are not bound by time or place in worship, because we worship the Lord in spirit and in truth because of Christ who is in us!

Churches call a place of worship a “Worship Center” and I think that’s wrong. Because Jesus is the center of our worship, not any building. And that language matters!

Whenever we worship, we bring attention to what God has done IN CHRIST!

Joshua’s altar itself is raised from uncut stones, undefiled, according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses.

And the people there offer burnt offerings to the LORD and sacrificed peace offerings.

The burnt offerings were offerings of atonement for sin.

The peace offerings (fellowship offerings) were offerings of thanksgiving, not to make peace with God, but to celebrate that they were at peace with God and were in communion with him! It was a meal shared with God and His people.

These offerings represent the REASON the people have to worship!

What is that reason? Their sins are atoned for and they are at peace with God.

What is your reason for worshiping God?

Is your worship motivated by what you have to gain, or is your worship motivated by what God HAS GIVEN?

Is your worship motivated by your own fleshly desires, or is your worship a response to what God has done and is continuing to do?

God made a provision for sin to be atoned for, and God reconciled His people to Himself! — At the foundation of it all, THAT is our reason for worship!

We worship God because HE made worship possible, in Jesus Christ — who on the cross atoned for our sin, and through his burial, resurrection and ascension makes us a people at peace with God!

He bore the wrath and burning anger of God so we might be saved and reconciled to God, and brought to peace with one another.

This is the “heart of worship” that we sing about.

“I’m coming back to the heart of worship, and it’s all about you, it’s all about you Jesus. I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it, when it’s all about you, it’s all about you Jesus.”

Joshua built…and Joshua wrote.

Joshua 8:32–33 ESV

32 And there, in the presence of the people of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written. 33 And all Israel, sojourner as well as native born, with their elders and officers and their judges, stood on opposite sides of the ark before the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded at the first, to bless the people of Israel.

II. Joshua wrote

Joshua wrote a copy of the law of Moses on stones.

On what stones?

The stones of the altar.

Picture this image in your mind. On this altar, on which the sacrifice of atonement and the peace offerings were made, a copy of the law of Moses was written.

This is God’s Word on the altar.

The worship of God is made on the basis of God’s Word.

What a powerful picture to help us see what worship is all about...What makes worship possible!

The worship of God is based on an eternal constant — the unchanging Word of God — the written Word, and the Living Word who is Jesus Christ.

Who participated in this worship?

v.33: All Israel. And this included the sojourner and the native born. The sojourner was an immigrant who is a permanent resident (KM). God granted sojourners certain privileges and obligations like citizens (KM).

God’s covenant was inclusive of newcomers who join Israel on the basis of God’s Word and God’s Covenant. Think of Rahab - not native-born. Yet she could worship too not by birth, but by her new-birth so to speak, being brought under God’s Word.

Present here in Chapter 8 is the ark of God again representing God’s presence - his provision, his power, his word and his mercy.

Joshua 8:34–35 ESV

34 And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law. 35 There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who lived among them.

Joshua built, Joshua wrote, and then —

III. Joshua read

The people had to know God’s word in order to obey God’s word, and to obey God’s word mean the people had to HEAR God’s word. The people HEAR God’s Word as it is READ to them.

What good is it if you come to “church” and you don’t hear God’s word? How else will you know how to live God’s way? What will you know to obey?

There is nothing more important, Nothing more essential, nothing more foundational than the Living Word who is Jesus Christ known through the proclamation of the Gospel in the preaching of the written, preserved and revealed Word of God.

I’ve had multiple people in our congregation in recent days to point me to Southside’s history. I’m not singling anyone out - it’s been multiple, that’s why I’m speaking to this now.

They tell me that the REASON people came to Southside Baptist Church over the years is because of the music and the music program. The REASON people give to Southside is because of the music.

And if that’s true, what ends up happening if the music program changes?

Nowhere in God’s Word is it said that the musicians are eternal.

LOOK AT THE BOOK OF PSALMS!

The book of Psalms is a collection of MUSIC accompanied by choirs and instruments of all kinds. Yet what is preserved? What remains?

It’s not the sounds, the rhythms, or the melodies. The Masoretic text of the Psalms did not preserve musical notation.

What WAS preserved in the music of the Psalms are the words. The words that point us to JESUS.

And I think God preserved only the Words of Scripture’s hymnbook so that we might carry those words forward to every generation with a variety of melodies and tunes that span all cultures and times. From the year AD 20, to 1920, to 2020!

If it’s true that Southside is built on music, then Southside will die when the music fades. The same can be said about any other area of what we call “church” if church for you is about other things..

But I’m here to tell you that the music will not fade!

We will continue to sing, we will continue to make melody in our heart to God! With psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs (Eph 5). Because God’s Word has not changed, and as long as I am Pastor Southside’s music will be based upon and flow from God’s Word!

I dream of the day, when people come to Southside Baptist Church because of the Word.

Because God is present in the worship of His people because the worship of God’s people is based on His Word.

HIS WORD is preached. HIS WORD is proclaimed. HIS WORD is believed. HIS WORD is obeyed. HIS WORD is sent from this place! HIS WORD is visible in the lives of our people, living by faith and obedience in the world to God’s Word!

And may God instill within us all a hunger for His Word. As seasons come, and seasons go, we remember that God is constant in it all! God HIMSELF is our reason and OBJECT and basis of our worship!

I was told in Divinity School when it comes to preaching — don’t give your people “sermonic snacks.” Give them the filet minion, give them the well balanced full diet of God’s Word.

Too many in the congregation are eating the same thing, and the wrong thing.

It’s like my children — all they want is bread! We give them vegetables, nutrition, protein, healthy balance, and all they want is to eat the roll!

If we let our children eat only bread, they will die from malnutrition!

And God says the same thing!

Jesus SAID:

Matthew 4:4 ESV

4 But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”

I’ve never heard a person of faith leaving a church over the Word. I’ve heard of a person leaving over almost everything else. But no one in faith leaves and says “I just didn’t like the Word.”

Because the Word is unchanging. The Word changes us! The Word is life giving. The Word POINTS US TO JESUS, our Joshua, our SAVIOR!

And the Word then gives life to every limb and branch of the Church and produces fruit for eternity!

I need to speak clearly and plainly and directly to you so that you know what God’s Word says.

Joshua built an altar, Joshua wrote the word on the altar, and Joshua read that word of the law which was the Word of God.

Joshua 8:35 ESV

35 There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who lived among them.

IV. Conclusion

The word “assembly” in the Hebrew is

קָהָל

In the Greek it is the word: ἐκκλησία

It is the word translated in English “the called-out ones, the assembly, church.”

And so it carries forward, that the Church is a people that ASSEMBLES around the worship of God based upon the Word.

There was not a word… Joshua did not read before all the assembly.

A. Gospel Proclamation

The Gospel tells us this —

John 1:1–5 ESV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Jesus is the Living Word!

And Jesus was selflessly, humbly, obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross (Phil 2). Jesus yielded His will to God’s will!

The Living Word experienced Death on our behalf because of sin - in our place. The Living Word became for us the sacrifice of atonement and peace.

Jesus died, was buried, and on the third day was raised in power!

If we confess Jesus as Lord, and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, God’s promise is that we will be SAVED!

The Living Word experienced Death so that He might become our Living Hope!

And what can we say in response?

“Hallelujah, praise the One who set me free

Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me

You have broken every chain

There's salvation in Your name

Jesus Christ, my living hope” (PW)

There is salvation in a name — it’s not the name of Joshua, but the name of JESUS! And this is what the book of Joshua points us to!

I will see you next week, our last Sunday in this gathering online only.

I want you to stay online for the next 3 minutes, and listen to these Gospel WORDS . . . and praise God for what He has done in Jesus Christ, the Living Word and our Living Hope!

Amen!