Next: Accomplished & Applied (Joshua 7:1-11)

Introduction

What starts out as a defeat ends in glorious victory if offered up to Christ. David Jackman reminds us that sudden reversal is a common element of our human experience. A soccer team is cruising complacently, a goal up on its opponents, only to be eclipsed by two quick goals in the last five minutes! Or a tennis champion climbs back from being two sets down to an opponent and eventually win in five. And if I’m watching the match, simply understanding the scoring is a victory. Have you ever heard of someone who snatched defeat from the jaws of victory? That’s what happens here. The previous chapter of Joshua ends on a high note with Jericho’s city walls reduced to piles of rubble. Joshua and the Israelites are enjoying an uninterrupted set of easy victories as they enter the Promised Land. But here in chapter 7, tragedy strikes. The real question is, how do we respond in defeat?

Today is the next part in our series on the book of Joshua, which is simply titled, Next. This is a book of triumph and transition. It’s a story of moving forward as God’s People move into what is next for them. As we look at what God has next for the Israelites and for Joshua, we look at what God has next for us. Last week we learned that Christ wins, every time. On the other hand, today we learn that Christ redeems our greatest defeats. As he does, he is gloried and we are grown. But how does God redeem the defeat? As Joshua and the Israelites are confronted with defeat, God gives us three steps for dealing with the defeats that we face.

Humble our self before the Lord.

Spies tell Joshua that he doesn’t need to send in the entire Israelite army to attack Ai. Instead, just send 2000-3000 to finish them off. Verse 5 gives us the results of the battle. It says, “the men of Ai killed about thirty-six of their men and chased them before the gate as far as Shebarim and struck them at the descent. And the hearts of the people melted and became as water.” Up to this point in the story, Joshua and the Israelites have had victory after victory. Now they hit defeat. And do they respond? Well, how do we respond when we hit defeat? When we hit setbacks? Verse 6 says, “then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until the evening, he and the elders of Israel. And they put dust on their heads.” When Israel was defeated, Joshua grieved before the Lord. Nowadays, the leader of a nation would probably respond more along the lines of, “it was just a flesh wound.” (for Monty Python fans) Or it was a temporary setback. Or it actually wasn’t a defeat, it was planned that way. Joshua doesn’t sugar coat the defeat. He doesn’t make light of it or pretend to have a larger plan. Instead, he accepts the truth, and he takes the truth to God.

Renowned author and Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, writes, “It was good that (we) went through the storm: it was the only way to learn a truth that was otherwise inaccessible.” Storms in life reveal our blind spots and our sin. They open us to transformation in areas we otherwise wouldn’t be open to. That doesn’t mean though that it automatically happens. Storms can either lead to transformation or simply to preservation. To growing closer to Christ or simply drifting through the days attempting to survive. The key to responding well to a storm is what Joshua does here. The key to responding well to a storm is humility.

A college pastor of mine named Kevin once gave a talk on pride. He taught about the importance of humility in light of our pride. Now you see, each night after our college ministry, we would all play a game of ultimate frisbee, and Kevin was one of the best players out there. He had been an athlete throughout his school years, and years of practice meant that he had one of the best frisbee throws. Except the night that he taught on pride and humility. That night, he bombed. He choked. You fill in the word you want to use. Afterwards, he went home and told his wife, “I’m never teaching on pride again.” They say, be careful what you pray for, with him it was more like, be careful what you teach on.

Defeat is a crucible, not just for change and growth, but for redemption. At the Cross, Christ accomplished the victory. Therefore, Christ will redeem our defeats and turn them into victories, if we humbly surrender them to him. The first step that this passage gives for dealing with defeat is to humble our self before the Lord.

Lament as we await learning God’s purpose

Joshua’s mourning before the Lord is just beginning. In verse seven, he moves from mourning to lamenting. Lamenting is taking the current mess to the Lord, offering it to him, and accepting that the Lord is at work within the mess, even when we don’t understand his purpose for the mess. Oftentimes, such as we see here with Israel, it’s a mess of our own doing. Joshua laments in verses 7-9 saying, “Alas, O Lord God, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all, to give us into the hands of the Amorites, to destroy us? Would that we had been content to dwell beyond the Jordan! O Lord, what can I say, when Israel has turned their backs before their enemies! For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it and will surround us and cut off our name from the earth. And what will you do for your great name?” Lamenting is asking why. Lament is looking for answers and looking for God’s work within the mess, even when we might never get answers.

In the book of Job, God allows a righteous man to be tested by the devil losing his wealth, his family, and his health. Across 40 chapters we see his response to the test, we see his friends response to it, and we see his faithfulness to God despite everything he has lost. At the end of the book, God gives back to him what was taken. But there’s one key piece he never gets. The reason for his suffering. He is never told about the deal between God and the devil that led to his ordeal. Similarly, we may never get answers to what we go through. Nonetheless, the Bible tells us to take the mess to God, surrender it to him, and acknowledge that he is at work in it even when we don’t understand his purpose behind it. Sometimes we will never be told the purpose. If you are interested in this topic, in the future we’re going to spend a few weeks in Psalm 13, where we see a pattern, a biblical example, and a teaching on how to lament the mess. Thomas Merton says, “God will take care of me, for in my confusion and helplessness I nevertheless feel His closeness and strength.”

Craig Groeschel has a great quote where he says that, “you are either going into a storm, coming out of a storm, or going to go through a storm.” That’s optimistic, isn’t it? Well, whether you are in the storm, about to be in the storm, or at last coming out of the storm, you can be confident that God will receive what’s on your heart, even if the language is a little flowery. God will also respond, which is where we go next. The second step for dealing with defeat is to pour out our heart to the Lord in lament as our await God revealing to us the purpose behind it.

Follow God’s tangible steps for redemption

But what about tangible steps for moving forward? After all, so far all we’re getting is an internal response for coping with what comes our way. The passages takes a turn in verses 10-11. The Lord says to Joshua, “Get up! Why have you fallen on your face? Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them; they have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings.” The reason for the defeat comes from disobedience by a man named Achan. We talked last week about how God protected his people from sin by telling them to completely destroy everything of the Canaanites. Instead, Achan kept some valuables from their previous victory. Because of one man’s action, the entire group suffered defeat. God tells Joshua why the defeat happened, and Joshua is told to get up. Go address the problem so that next time there will be victory. This is key. This is the point of moving forward. We’ve mourned the defeat. We’ve lamented it. Now, we address the problem in order to move forward into what God has next. God is calling Joshua to redeem this defeat by addressing problem. God is telling Joshua to turn defeat into redemption.

Tom carried his new boat to the edge of the river. He carefully placed it in the water and slowly let out the string. How smoothly the boat sailed! Tom sat in the warm sunshine, admiring the little boat that he had built. Suddenly a strong current caught the boat. Tom tried to pull it back to shore, but the string broke. The little boat raced downstream.Tom ran along the sandy shore as fast as he could. But his little boat soon slipped out of sight. All afternoon he searched for the boat. Finally, when it was too dark to look any longer, Tom sadly went home. A few days later, on the way home from school, Tom spotted a boat just like his in a store window. When he got closer, he could see—sure enough—it was his! Tom hurried to the store manager: “Sir, that’s my boat in your window! I made it!” “Sorry, son, but someone else brought it in this morning. If you want it, you’ll have to buy it for one dollar.” Tom ran home and counted all his money. Exactly one dollar! When he reached the store, he rushed to the counter. “Here’s the money for my boat.” As he left the store, Tom hugged his boat and said, “Now you’re twice mine. First, I made you and now I bought you.” There’s a parallel here with our own lives. In one sense, there’s the simple parallel of God creating then, then buying our redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ at the Cross. But there’s also a second application. When we make our profession of faith, we become a child of God. We start the path of belief. Then we hit spiritual defeat. We get tempted. We trip and stumble. Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls this the, “cost of discipleship.” First we become children of God, then the Holy Spirit helps us to grow. God gives us tangible steps for transformation, and the turmoil of defeat become the fresh soil for growth.

As David Jackman writes, “The redeemed community of sinners, who have been redeemed by the blood of God’s appointed sacrifice, are concerned, they are to be set apart as the Lord’s own special possession, to live as reflections of his perfect holiness among “a crooked and twisted generation” (Philippians 2:15). That is our calling too, as Paul is making clear, as the new covenant community.” As a part of the covenant community, God calls us into a communal life that perseveres and preserves the faith passed down through the ages. A life set apart for God and for sharing the light of Christ to a fallen world. We are called into a life where the defeats and difficulties of this life doesn’t destroy us. Instead, they grow us as God gives us tangible steps to for redeeming our story. The final step for dealing with defeat is allowing God to redeem our story. Redemption occurs through positioning ourselves for the work of God.

Conclusion

So to wrap up, God gives us three steps for dealing with defeat. The first step that this passage gives for dealing with defeat is to humble our self before the Lord. The second step for dealing with defeat is to pour out our heart to the Lord in lament. The final step for dealing with defeat is allowing God to redeem our story. Redemption occurs through positioning ourselves for the work of God.

H.H. Hobbs shares a story from several years ago during the unrest of the Civil Rights Movement. Many church buildings of blacks were burned. The Mississippi Baptist Convention had a white staff member assigned to work with black churches. One morning, he sat in his car looking at the smoking ruins of another destroyed black church building.

With tear-filled eyes, he recalled the words from Isaiah 61:3, “Give unto them beauty for ashes”. He vowed that with God’s help he would do just that for these people. Under his leadership the state convention launched an assistance program. As word spread, other denominations asked to help. Money poured in from other parts of the country. Through the program, burned church buildings in the black communities were rebuilt. People gave them “beauty for ashes”—“garlands” of victory for “ashes” of defeat.

This beauty for ashes is what Joshua and Israelites experienced as they bounced back from their defeat at the hands of Ai, and it is what we also can experience in our own lives. For we serve a redeeming God who works through our defeats for his glory and for our growth.