November 2, 2020 Sermon

Introduction

Last week we saw the consequences of sin. Achan made what appeared to be a small mistake that cost the lives of his entire family. Next God leads them from judging them for sin to leading them to the next step He has for them.

Joshua 8:1–2 ESV

1 And the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not fear and do not be dismayed. Take all the fighting men with you, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, his city, and his land. 2 And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king. Only its spoil and its livestock you shall take as plunder for yourselves. Lay an ambush against the city, behind it.”

God knows that we are not perfect and we are not sin-free. And so what He wants is to strengthen us and not defeat us. We all sin.

What God wants is for us to

1: Confess our sins when God reveals them to us. (To confess means to agree with God that you sinned.)

2: Refocus your life on loving God, fix the problem and move on.

God wants this cycle of sin, repentance, and forgiveness to make us stronger. He wants us to follow Him into the future with strength and peace.

What Satan wants is a downward cycle.

1: Disagree with God over the severity of your sins (It really wasn’t that bad).

2: React with guilt or anxiety over the sin or at least how bad you feel about the situation.

3: Allows the guilt you feel to drive you to escape that guilty feeling back into the sin you really didn’t think was that bad in the first place.

Confess, Receive Forgiveness, Grow in Strength and Love!

Ok, back to Joshua,

I love how God starts with encouragement for Joshua. Certainly Joshua had a right to be discouraged or at the least nervous about the task ahead given the failure they just faced.

God encourages Joshua and then gets specific about what he wants Joshua to lead the people to do. But before God sends Joshua and the people off he promises them the city.

This city as opposed to Jericho is a city they can take plunder from. This city is one God has committed to them.

This is also a very important city. Ai serves as a sort of buffer fortress before the larger and more important city of Bethel. Israel had to defeat Ai in order to take the land.

Let’s read the story.

Joshua 8:3–29 ESV

3 So Joshua and all the fighting men arose to go up to Ai. And Joshua chose 30,000 mighty men of valor and sent them out by night. 4 And he commanded them, “Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind it. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you remain ready. 5 And I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. And when they come out against us just as before, we shall flee before them. 6 And they will come out after us, until we have drawn them away from the city. For they will say, ‘They are fleeing from us, just as before.’ So we will flee before them. 7 Then you shall rise up from the ambush and seize the city, for the Lord your God will give it into your hand. 8 And as soon as you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire. You shall do according to the word of the Lord. See, I have commanded you.” 9 So Joshua sent them out. And they went to the place of ambush and lay between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai, but Joshua spent that night among the people. 10 Joshua arose early in the morning and mustered the people and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai. 11 And all the fighting men who were with him went up and drew near before the city and encamped on the north side of Ai, with a ravine between them and Ai. 12 He took about 5,000 men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. 13 So they stationed the forces, the main encampment that was north of the city and its rear guard west of the city. But Joshua spent that night in the valley. 14 And as soon as the king of Ai saw this, he and all his people, the men of the city, hurried and went out early to the appointed place toward the Arabah to meet Israel in battle. But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city. 15 And Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten before them and fled in the direction of the wilderness. 16 So all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and as they pursued Joshua they were drawn away from the city. 17 Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel. They left the city open and pursued Israel. 18 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.” And Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city. 19 And the men in the ambush rose quickly out of their place, and as soon as he had stretched out his hand, they ran and entered the city and captured it. And they hurried to set the city on fire. 20 So when the men of Ai looked back, behold, the smoke of the city went up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that, for the people who fled to the wilderness turned back against the pursuers. 21 And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city, and that the smoke of the city went up, then they turned back and struck down the men of Ai. 22 And the others came out from the city against them, so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side. And Israel struck them down, until there was left none that survived or escaped. 23 But the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him near to Joshua. 24 When Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the open wilderness where they pursued them, and all of them to the very last had fallen by the edge of the sword, all Israel returned to Ai and struck it down with the edge of the sword. 25 And all who fell that day, both men and women, were 12,000, all the people of Ai. 26 But Joshua did not draw back his hand with which he stretched out the javelin until he had devoted all the inhabitants of Ai to destruction. 27 Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took as their plunder, according to the word of the Lord that he commanded Joshua. 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.

Wow, yesterday’s sin became today’s victory! When sin was dealt with in the country God provided in a massive way!

After experiencing this amazing victory Joshua immediately turns and takes time to remind everyone of what is truly important.

Joshua 8:30–35 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. 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. 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.

This was most likely the 10 commandments that they read through. They reminded themselves of God’s commands so they would learn to obey them.

Lessons learned from Ai

Your life is a movie, not a photo

One of the worst things about social media is all the pictures you see of people living their best lives now. What you don’t see is all the behind the scenes struggles that everyone faces.

You know when you watch a good movie the characters go on adventures or conquer problems. Sometimes they make bad choices and sometimes they make good ones. But the fact is, in a movie or a tv show a person is not made or broken by a single choice (most of the time). A single failure rarely is the end of the story.

It might have been tempting for the Israelites to believe their failure was the last straw for God. But it wasn’t.

Perhaps the worst lie the devil tries to sell us is that we have no way to come back from failure. God will never use us again.

But God would have us believe otherwise. Sin is serious but God’s forgiveness is great.

Remember, King David failed greatly many times and God still forgave and worked through him.

Simon Peter failed Jesus denying He knew him 3 times in a row and God still used him.

I challenge you, next time you feel discouraged about failure, find someone older and wiser than you who is a believer. Ask them to share about God’s faithfulness through their failures.

We shouldn’t put God in a box.

God knocked down the walls of Jericho like a toddler with Jenga blocks.

God planned worked through a sneaky strategy to give victory in Ai.

We need to be careful we don’t put God in a box where we expect Him to function the same way every time.

Remember,

Jesus healed one blind man by putting mud in His eyes.

John 9:6 ESV

6 Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud

Jesus healed another blind man in a totally different way

Mark 8:23 ESV

23 And he took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village, and when he had spit on his eyes and laid his hands on him, he asked him, “Do you see anything?”

The message of God’s forgiveness never changes for the church. Even in 2020. But how God has us share His love constantly changes.

God’s love for you and commitment to you never changes. But how He works in you may look different every year.

God’s word is the key to spiritual renewal

When the Israelites wanted to experience spiritual renewal they reread the Word of God. If we want to grow spiritually or be renewed spiritually we must give God’s word first place in our lives.

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

Do you take time to spend in God’s word?

I’ve learned that I need to stop using the Bible app on my phone and return to my physical Bible for my morning devotions. That’s the only way I can truly focus on and listen to God’s word. I’ve started doing the same for Bible Studies and more. I am just more mentally present.

Do you guard time that you spend in God’s Word?

Are you studying God’s word with others? Sunday morning doesn’t count. Are you taking time in community to talk about God’s word and apply it to your lives?

If we want to experience God’s blessing and peace in the days ahead, we must pursue spiritual renewal through God’s Word.

Conclusion

Failure isn’t final, God loves to renew and give hope.

Don’t put God in a box, He’s constantly working in new ways.

Spend time reading, studying, and talking about God’s Word.