Sunday, November 6, 2011

Joshua 7

(1) *BUT **Israel violated the instructions about the things set apart for the Lord. A man named Achan had stolen
some of these dedicated things, so the Lord was very angry with the Israelites. Achan was the son of Carmi, a descendant of Zimri son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah.

  • *BUT:
    • Chapter 7 opens with a small but ominous word, and it is the word “but,” which contrasts this chapter with the preceding one.
    • Suddenly, we are presented with a series of failures that stand in striking contrast to the victories of the past six chapters. The thrill of victory was so quickly replaced with the agony of defeat.
    • Joshua 6:18-19: Do not take any of the things set apart for destruction, or you yourselves will be completely destroyed, and you will bring trouble on the camp of Israel. Everything made from silver, gold, bronze, or iron is sacred to the Lord and must be brought into his treasury.
  • **Israel violated:
    • Means “to act under cover” or “trust-breaking.” Although one soldier only did this, it was seen as an unfaithful act on behalf of all the people. This illustrates the Hebrew concept of corporality. As Adam sinned, all mankind sinned; as one animal dies,
      humans are forgiven; as Jesus gave Himself to die, all mankind is potentially saved (cf. Isaiah 53; Romans 5:17-19). The one affects the whole, either negatively or positively!
    • Notice that the entire nation was blamed for 1 man's sin. One evil man can bring disaster to an entire nation
      - look at Hitler      .
    • 1 Corinthians 5:6: Your boasting about this is terrible. Don’t you realize that this sin is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough?
    • Israel had in the person of Achan broken the covenant; God therefore would no longer drive out the Canaanites before them.
  • It was at Ai that God taught them that their success at Jericho was not due to their own strength or strategy. Achan’s act
    of taking for himself some of the spoils from Jericho had been a denial that it was God’s victory. Victory depended on God and He required
    obedience before He would act on behalf of His people. He demonstrated this fact by allowing the Israelites to be unexpectedly routed by the defenders of Ai, a disaster that shocked and humbled Joshua and the people.
  • Four deadly errors were made by Israel:
    1. They remained ignorant of the sin of Achan,
    2. They underestimated the strength of the enemy,
    3. They overestimated the strength of their own army, and
    4. They presumed on the Lord—they took Him for granted.

(2) Joshua sent some of his men from Jericho to spy out the town of *Ai, east of **Bethel, near ***Beth-aven.

  • In verses 2 through 5, that there is no reference to the Lord. 2 Corinthians 5:7 ...live by believing and not by seeing. Some of the biggest mistakes you will ever make in your Christian life will be those "no-brainer" decisions that you make. Those times when you look at everything, weigh things logically and make a decision - all without seeking the Lord in prayer. If Joshua had prayed about it, the Lord would have told him, "don't go up to Ai, you've got sin in the camp, and I won't give you the victory." But the spies formed their opinion by sight. Joshua made his decision by sight. And the results were disastrous.
  • *Ai
    • Archaeologists pronounce it like the letter I. Although contested by some, the biblical evidence all points to the pictured site known as Et-tel.
    • The name Ai is always found in the Hebrew text with the definite article, ha’ay, meaning "the ruin."
    • Ai is referred to as lying east of Bethel (Genesis 12:8), adjacent to Beth-aven (Joshua 7:2), and north of Michmash (Isaiah 10:28).
    • NIV Study Bible: "From Jericho to Ai [is] an uphill march of some 15 miles through a ravine to the top of the central Palestinian ridge. Strategically, an advance from Gilgal to Ai would bring Israel beyond the Jordan valley and provide them a foothold in the central highlands."
    • Ai had quite possibly been deliberately set up and inhabited as a semi-permanent township, and as an established forward post for Bethel.
      It possibly contained specially trained fighting men/farmers, with their families. But, its importance for Israel lay in the fact that it stood between the Israelite army and the final ascent to Bethel and the hill country.
    • Ai was about 1700 feet ABOVE sea level. Jericho was about 1300 feet below sea level!
    • Genesis 12:8, 13:3: After that, Abram traveled south and set up camp in the hill country, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built another altar and dedicated it to the Lord, and he worshiped the Lord. ... From the Negev, they continued traveling by stages toward Bethel, and they pitched their tents between Bethel and Ai, where they had camped before.
    • It is evident that for Abram, the place between Bethel and Ai had unique spiritual significance. It was there that he had met God in those early days of entering the "land of promise."
    • Notice, they had not returned to Gilgal after the defeat of Jericho. If they had taken time to go back to Gilgal, the Lord would likely have revealed to them that sin was in the camp. But we do not even read that Joshua inquired of God as to attacking Ai. He had before depended fully on the Lord in reference to Jericho, but we too easily fall into the snare of being flushed with a great victory and thinking therefore that we can easily win a lesser victory. Are we any more capable of a small thing than a large thing? No! If God is not in it, the small as well as the large will defeat us.
  • **Bethel means “house of God”. The exact relationship between Bethel and Ai is uncertain. Some have said that it was a military camp or some type of outpost.
  • **Beth-aven means “house of vanity".

(3) When they returned, they told Joshua, “There’s no need for all of us to *go up there; it won’t take more than two or three thousand men to attack Ai. Since there are so **few of them, don’t make all our people struggle to go up there.”

  • Joshua took this advice from men without asking God's counsel, and the result was that the men of Ai came out and soundly defeated Israel, killing 36 men.
  • *go up: From the place of encampment at Gilgal the land rose over 3,000 feet in the space of sixteen miles to this small city
    of Ai.
  • **few: According to 8:25, there were approximately 12,000 people in this city.

(4) So approximately 3,000 warriors were sent, but they were soundly
defeated. The men of Ai

  • Did Joshua seek God's advice or just listen to his confident spies? He was just relying on the strength of his army to defeat Ai - he was walking by sight and not by faith. The success at Jericho made him overconfident in his ability rather than making him realize that, without God's supervision, they would have been defeated at Jericho. Had he consulted God first, God would have warned him of the problem ahead of time. He makes the same mistake with the Gibeonites (Joshua 9).
  • The defeat at Ai reveals that what matters most in battle is not the strength of the opponent, or the strength of the army of Israel, but the constant need of God’s guidance, help and strength. Without God’s help, all would be lost. Vain are human resources in times of battle and temptation.
  • The children of Israel hadn’t realized that the greatest danger that they faced was actually their own success, for their incredible
    victory at Jericho had caused them to become overconfident and self-reliant.
  • At the battle of Jericho, the “Ark of the Covenant” went with the people in their very midst, and thus the presence of the Lord went with them, However, at Ai, they left the “Ark of the Covenant” in their camp.
  • J. Vernon McGee: "The only battle that the children of Israel lost in taking the Promised Land was a battle in which the defeat came, not from without, but from within. When the children of Israel entered the Promised Land, not many enemies, but three conspicuous and outstanding ones stood in their way. They were Jericho, Ai, and the Gibeonites. These three enemies of Israel prevented Israel’s enjoyment and possession of the Promised Land. The land was there. God had told them that it was theirs. God had given them the title deed in His promise to Abraham. To Joshua He had said, “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, to you have I given it, as I spake unto Moses” (Joshua 1:3, ASV). God was saying to them, “It is yours, go in, possess, and enjoy that which you take.” These people were given a land that was made up of three hundred thousand square miles, and even in their best days they only occupied thirty thousand square miles.

(5) chased the Israelites from the town gate as far as the quarries, and they killed about thirty-six who were retreating down the slope. The Israelites were paralyzed with fear at this turn of events, and their courage melted away.

  • Now, it's the Israelites who are afraid.
  • This is the only defeat that the children of Israel encountered in the book of Joshua and in their conquering of the land of Canaan

(6) Joshua and the elders of Israel tore their clothing in dismay, threw dust on their heads, and bowed face down to the ground before the Ark of the Lord until evening.

(7) Then Joshua cried out, “Oh, *Sovereign Lord, why did you bring us across the Jordan River if you are going to let the Amorites kill us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side!

  • *Sovereign Lord: This is Adonai YHWH. With one breath he cries out “Ah, Adonai Yahweh,” which acknowledges God’s sovereign authority and lordship over their lives, but with the very next breath he seems to question God’s purposes and promises as the Sovereign Lord.
  • Have you ever reached this point in your walk? Joshua sounds like the Israelites complaining to Moses and wanting to return
    to Egypt.
  • Joshua falls into the common trap of blaming God for their defeat and failure rather than self-examination. Wasn’t this what Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden? They indirectly blamed God for their sin. Isn’t this so common amongst us as well?

(8) Lord, what can I say now that Israel has fled from its enemies?

(9) For when the Canaanites and all the other people living in the land hear about it, they will surround us and *wipe our name off the face of the earth. And then what will happen to the honor of your great name?”

  • *wipe our name: This is a Hebraic idiom of the death of all of a family line. No descendant remained alive! This has always been Satan's goal (and Hitler's and Ahmadinejad's).

(10) But the Lord said to Joshua, “*Get up! Why are you lying on your face like this?

  • *Get up: There is a time to pray, but there is also a time to act. Sometimes, Christians claim to be "waiting on the Lord" when actually they're simply avoiding "getting up" and "doing".
  • God tells Joshua to stop the pity party. The reason for the defeat is sin in the camp.

(11) *Israel has sinned and broken my covenant! They have stolen some of the things that I commanded must be set apart for me. And they have not only stolen them but have lied about it and hidden the things among their own belongings.

  • *Israel has sinned: The entire nation is judged because of on man's sin. Later we see there YHWH provided a procedure by which Israel could be restored.

(12) That is why the Israelites are running from their enemies in defeat. For now Israel itself has been set apart for destruction. I will not remain with you any longer unless you destroy the things among you that were set apart for destruction.

  • Our position before God is secure in Jesus; but our fellowship with Him is hindered by our own sin.  This fellowship with God is our wellspring of power to live in the Spirit.
    • 1 John 1:6: So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not
      practicing the truth.

(13) “Get up! Command the people to purify themselves in preparation for tomorrow. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Hidden among you, O Israel, are things set apart for the Lord. You will never defeat your enemies until you remove these things from among you.

  • If Achan had regretted his sin, this would have been his opportunity to confess and tear his own garment pleading with the Lord and with the people for forgiveness. It is the type of attitude called for in these last days, typified by the Day of Atonement humility.

(14) “In the morning you must present yourselves by tribes, and the *Lord will point out the tribe to which the guilty man belongs. out the guilty clan. That clan will then come forward, and the Lord will point out the guilty family. Finally, each member of the guilty family must come forward one by one.

  • *Lord will point out: Probably by the use of the Urim and Thummin (cf. Numbers 27:21). This method of knowing God’s will is also found in 1 Samuel 10:20 and will be the means by which the Promised Land will be divided among the tribes.
  • Certainly the Lord could have exposed Achan as the offender immediately, but in His great wisdom He made all the tribes come as though all were under suspicion. This would call for serious heart searching among all, so that there would be no mere resentment aroused against Achan, but that all would be humbled by the evil. The process would gradually narrow down to the individual whom the Lord had already judged must be burned with fire. This also gave Achan time to suddenly call out, "I am the man" and seek forgiveness, but he does not.

(15) The one who has stolen what was set apart for destruction will himself be burned with fire, along with everything he has, for he has broken the covenant of the Lord and has done a horrible thing in Israel.”

(16) *Early the next morning Joshua brought the tribes of Israel **before the Lord, and the tribe of Judah was singled out.

  • *Early: Four times we read in Joshua that he rose early in the morning to take care of important business. Joshua was not a
    procrastinator.
  • *before the Lord: that is, before the tabernacle.

(17) Then the clans of Judah came forward, and the clan of Zerah was singled out. Then the families of Zerah came forward, and the family of Zimri was singled out.

(18) Every member of Zimri’s family was brought forward personby person, and Achan was singled out.

  • Achan had been given plenty of time to confess his guilt, but evidently he was hoping right to the end that he might not be exposed. How foolish is the unbelief of greed!
  • Though the identity of the sinning family was unknown to Joshua, it was known to God. Secret sin on earth is an open scandal before God. Therefore, we should live our lives with “one set of books,” with one kind of life that can be seen by anybody, anywhere.
  • Numbers 32:23 "...your sin will find you out."

(19) Then Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, by telling the truth. Make your confession and tell me what you have done. Don’t hide it from me.”

(20) Achan replied, “It is true! I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel.

  • The process to Achan’s sin was a familiar one. He saw, he coveted and he took. It was the same with Eve (Genesis 3:6) and with David (2 Samuel 11:2-4) and it is the same with us. Joshua’s approach was tender, yet firm. He hated the sin, but loved the sinner. Achan’s confession while honest, was too late and the product of discovery. It was not an act of repentance or godly sorrow that leads to repentance.

(21) Among the *plunder **I saw a beautiful ***robe from Babylon, 200 silver coins, and a bar of gold weighing more than a pound. I wanted them so much that I took them. They are ****hidden in the ground beneath my tent, with the silver buried deeper than the rest.”

  • *plunder: Here's the beginning of the sin. He considers it "plunder" belonging soldiers, not as first fruits belonging to God.
  • **I saw:
    • Notice the progression into sin:
      1. I saw.
      2. I wanted.
      3. I took.
      4. I hid.
    • James 1:14-15: Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.
    • This man had followed his natural inclinations, he had begun where we all begin, where the first man began. "I saw." She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her" is said in Genesis 3:6. The process to Achan’s sin was a familiar one. He saw, he coveted, and he took. It was the same with Eve (Genesis 3:6) and with David (2 Samuel 11:2-4) and it is the same with us. Joshua’s approach was tender, yet firm. He hated the sin, but loved the sinner. Achan’s confession, while honest, was too late and the product of discovery. It was not an act of repentance or godly sorrow that leads to repentance (2 Corinthians 7:8-11). The eventual adultery and murder committed by King David began when he "saw a woman washing herself."
  • ***robe: It was a long robe such as was worn by kings on state occasions.
  • ****hidden: It is probable, because he hid it among his family’s possessions, that his children knew of his theft. They did not tell anyone. They will be killed also!
  • 1 Timothy 6:10: For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

(22) So Joshua sent some men to make a search. They *ran to the tent and found the stolen goods hidden there, just as Achanad said, with the silver buried beneath the rest.

  • *ran: Apparently eager to remove the source of God's disapproval.

(23) They took the things from the tent and brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites. Then they laid them on the ground in the presence of the Lord.

(24) Then Joshua and all the Israelites took Achan, the silver, the robe, the bar of gold, his sons, daughters, cattle, donkeys, sheep, goats, tent, and everything he had, and they brought them to the valley of Achor.

  • Interesting - nothing about a wife, just his children! Were his children adults and knew what he'd done but hadn't reported it?
  • The fact that his sons and daughters were included in this judgment indicates that they knew of his crime and did not report it, for in Israel no children were to be put to death for their father's sins:
    • Deuteronomy 24:16: “Parents must not be put to death for the sins of their children, nor children for the sins of their parents. Those deserving to die must be put to death for their own crimes.

(25) Then Joshua said to Achan, “Why have you brought trouble on us? The Lord will now bring *trouble on you.” And all the Israelites **stoned Achan and ***his family and burned their bodies.

  • *trouble:
    • The rabbis say that because of the phrase “the LORD will now bring trouble on you,” Achan did not lose his eternity with God, but was condemned to death for his acts.
    • Both C H Spurgeon and Dr John Gill, nineteenth century Calvinistic Baptists, believed that Achan was a believer. That’s altogether possible. He was certainly a professing believer. He was a member of the covenant people of God.
  • **stoned: Notice that there are two methods of judgment in this account of Achan. First of all he will be stoned and then all that he has will be burned. Achan’s family and animals were destroyed with him.
  • ***his family: Achan brings destruction not only to the nation, but especially to his family! Contrast him with the husband and father in Psalm 128:
    • How joyful are those who fear the Lord - all who follow his ways! You will enjoy the fruit of your labor. How joyful and prosperous you will be! Your wife will be like a fruitful grapevine, flourishing within your home. Your children will be like vigorous young olive trees as they sit around your table. That is the Lord’s blessing for those who fear him. May the Lord continually bless you from Zion. May you see Jerusalem prosper as long as you live. May you live to enjoy your grandchildren. May Israel have peace!
  • One man's sin brought defeat and the death of 36 Israelite soldiers. God considered it not just a sin of one man, but a sin of the entire people. Today, it's called "corporate punishment". Money is a root of all evil! Achan thought God wouldn't know about his sin. In effect, Achan stole from God. Sin can ruin a man, a family, a nation.
  • God says that Israel had sinned, not only one man. The whole nation was found guilty and thirty-six men were dead, all for the sin of one man.
  • The NIV Study Bible: "[This is] the tragic story of Achan, which stands in sharp contrast to the story of Rahab. In the earlier event, a Canaanite prostitute, because of her courageous allegiance to Israel and her acknowledgment of the Lord, was spared and received into Israel. She abandoned Canaan and its gods on account of the Lord and Israel, and so received Canaan back. In the present event, an Israelite (of the tribe of Judah, no less), because of his disloyalty to the Lord and Israel, is executed as the Canaanites were. He stole the riches of Canaan from the Lord, and so lost his inheritance in the promised land."

(26) They piled a great heap of *stones over Achan, which **remains to this day. That is why the place has been called the ***Valley of Trouble ever since. So the Lord was no longer angry.

  • *stones:
    • Imagine walking by the pile of stones that were put in the Valley of Achor to remind God’s people about Achan.
      Remember the 12 stones placed by the Jordan?
  • **remains to this day: This heap of stones serves as a reminder to avoid sin just as the heap of stones in Gilgal serves as a reminder of what God can and did do.
  • ***Valley of Trouble:
    • Hebrew, valley of Achor.
    • This refers to the fact that one man’s sin brought failure, reproach and condemnation to the entire nation. However, this same valley is mentioned in Isaiah 65:10 and Hosea 2:15 as a source of hope.
    • Hosea 2:15: I will return her vineyards to her and transform the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope. She will give herself to me there, as she did long ago when she was young, when I freed her from her captivity in Egypt.
  • Numbers 32:23: But if you fail to keep your word, then you will have sinned against the Lord, and you may be sure that your sin will find you out.
  • Hebrews 4:13: Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.
  • Jeremiah 16:17: I am watching them closely, and I see every sin. They cannot hope to hide from me.
  • Psalm 10:11: The wicked think, “God isn’t watching us! He has closed his eyes and won’t even see what we do!”
  • After dealing publicly with Achan’s sin, God directed the strategy by which Joshua was able to conquer Ai. The citizens were killed, their king was executed, and their city was rendered a "heap," (Hebrew tel). The way was now open for Joshua to advance, penetrating the heart of the land westward and southward.
  • There is a very interesting parallel in the New Testament to this passage. In the book of Acts, there is a very similar story, the story of Annanias and Saphira. Annanias and Saphira knowingly and secretly kept a portion of the offering that they had dedicated to the Lord to themselves. The actual Greek word in that passage is a direct translation of the Hebrew word (Septuagint) for what Achan did in keeping part of the booty to himself. And if you remember the story from Acts 5, you remember that the Lord judged both of them with death for their secret action. There is a simple reason - would this new community that the Lord established be characterized by generosity and integrity, a holiness with the very character of God, or would the church take the shape of compromise with the world, of allegiance with the principalities and powers? - which is where most of the visible "church" has arrived.
Application to us:
  • How often are we like Joshua here in chapter 7? Because of a workaholic mentality or an activity-oriented bent or a desire to get things done and to be successful, there is the tendency to rush off without taking time to draw near to the Lord, draw on His resources and to put on the full armor of God. Such is not only unwise, but it often causes us to be insensitive to serious failures in our own lives and ministries which grieve and quench the Spirit and leave us defenseless against the enemy because we are operating in our own strength and wisdom. Ultimately, then, these failures stand in the way of our progress and ability to handle the various challenges in life.
  • Here is the story of life and one we must learn to deal with in our daily walk because this passage is so typical of most of us. One minute we can be living in victory - the next in defeat. The distance between a great victory and a great defeat is only one step, and often only a short one at that. One sad truth of reality in a fallen world is that we can be riding high on the cloud of some great spiritual success and the very next moment find ourselves in a valley of spiritual failure and despair. One moment we can be like Elijah standing victoriously on Mount Carmel and the next shriveled up under a juniper tree or hiding in a cave in deep despair complaining to God: “… I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too” (1 Kings 19:10).
  • We may also make a small application to our own lives from this. At the point that sin enters into life, we are no longer functioning as a tool for God. When bitterness flairs up, when we become angry, when we backbite or gossip, we are immediately out of fellowship with God and we cannot fulfill any sort of divine purpose. This is where Israel found herself. Israel had become infected with sin and God viewed her as a whole and God would not work through her. Hence, the defeat at Ai, hence our own spiritual defeat when we are out of fellowship. However, once we are back in fellowship, via I John 1:9, we again can accomplish our divine purpose and regain our momentum. The same was true of Israel - once the evil was removed, Israel would go into Ai and conquer it.
  • Christians have been given all spiritual blessing, but how many of them are you enjoying today? How many of them are really yours? You have the title to them, but have you claimed them and are you enjoying them as He intended? Think of the many Christians who are blessed with all spiritual blessings and yet are living as if they are spiritual paupers. God has made them available to us, but, if we are to get them, there are battles to be fought and victories to be won. In fact, the Epistle to the Ephesians closes with the clanking of armor and the sound of battle, with the call to put on the whole armor of God.
  • Achan’s story is one of the saddest in the Bible. A good man overcome by the evil desires of his heart. It’s a story that’s been repeated over and over throughout history. Good men, godly men, men intent on doing God’s will, men blessed with success because of their godliness, but in one moment are brought low by succumbing to the temptation of Satan.
  • Before we pick up stones of disapproval and criticism of Joshua here, how many times have you failed to pray before engaging in important decisions or in moments of trial or temptation? How many times have we forgotten lessons that God has tried to teach us in the past?
  • There is a warfare taking place here, in which Satan is doing his utmost to undo all evidence of God’s work in the lives of his people. Then we should consider 1 Corinthians 10:11-13:
    • These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age. If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.
  • We are so quick to become depressed, discouraged, and disoriented. We look in every direction for a reason for defeat - except to ourselves. We blame, we make excuses, we hide and hurl, but we so often fail to honestly examine our own lives. We assume the problem could not possibly be us … could it?
  • Failure is unique to none of us … and it is not the end. In fact, it can be the beginning depending on how we respond. Of course, it is always better to make a few new mistakes and learn from them than to repeat old ones. When we keep making the same mistakes, our defeats have no life-changing value.
  • Failure is unique to no one. Failure, like all testings, are common to all men (1 Corinthians 10:13) and thus, the manner in which a leader handles failure, his own and others, will have a powerful impact on his growth and future leadership.
  • A study of Bible characters reveals that most of those who made history were men who failed at some point, and some of them drastically, but who refused to continue lying in the dust. Their very failure and repentance secured for them a more ample conception of the grace of God. They learned to know Him as the God of the second chance to His children who had failed Him - and the third chance, too.
  • The successful leader is a man who has learned that no failure need to be final and acts on that belief, whether the failure is his own or that of another. He must learn to be realistic and prepared to realize that he cannot be right all the time. There is no such thing as a perfect or infallible leader.
  • The primary purpose of confession is not to get out of trouble or to keep us out of God’s woodshed. The purpose of confession is to reestablish fellowship and turn our lives over to God because we want to walk with Him under His control, going in His direction.
  • Some of the biggest mistakes you will ever make in your Christian life will be those "no-brainer" decisions that you make. Those times when you look at everything, weigh things logically and make a decision - all without seeking the Lord in prayer. You see, if Joshua had prayed about it, the Lord would have told him, "don't go up to Ai, you've got sin in the camp, and I won't give you the victory." But the spies formed their opinion by sight. Joshua made his decision by sight. And the results were disastrous. John 15:5 "....Apart from Me you can do nothing." It is not our strength, it is not our ability, it is not our intellect, it is not our education, it is not our insight, it is not our logic, it is not our brilliance that gets us the victory - it is only Jesus Christ.
  • We must never rely upon self-confidence or carnal wisdom as our weapons to fight our battles as Christians, but trust in the Lord, the power of His might, and the full armor of God to equip us.
  • We should not take defeat as final. Joshua seems to have felt there was no remedy for Israel's shameful position. He looked for defeat to increase to the complete destruction of Israel and of the honor of God. Doesn't Satan overcome many of us this way - by getting us to feel all is lost, no use to try any longer? God has a remedy. We should not ask why God allows defeat to happen, but ask why we failed. Ask how we may get rid of the wrong and bring victory again. We should never accept spiritual defeat as final.

NOTE: Unless otherwise noted, the scripture version used is the New Living Translation.

NOTE: Sources and References are on line at: http://joshua-biblestudy.blogspot.com/2011/07/joshua-references-and-sources.html

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