Joshua 8:1-2 – Move in tandem with and not ahead of the Lord

Joshua 7 records for us the only setback Israel suffered in their conquest of Canaan. Ai was such a tiny city yet they were defeated in their first attempt to possess it. From all outward appearances, it was easy meat, yet that city proved to be no pushover. Israel suffered her first and only humiliating defeat at the hand of Ai. The 3,000 men sent by Joshua to capture the city were routed and forced to flee. It was recorded that 36 of their fighting men were killed. Why were they made to suffer this setback?

Here are a few reasons: firstly, it was because they had allowed pride to creep in. They did not consult with the Lord before they embarked on the attack. Israel had just experienced the greatest victory in their conquest of Jericho. In all probability, they must have forgotten that it was God who had helped them to take down that well-fortified formidable city. It was with the strange and unusual plan of God which they obeyed diligently that victory was experienced. That success underlines for us the necessity to seek and obey the Lord diligently if we are to find good success. Victory is ensured when we obey the Lord and do what He says, even when His instruction may seem like a ridiculous strategy. Having experienced victory at Jericho, they took matters into their own hand and supposed that the smaller city of Ai could be taken without the Lord’s help. But alas, it was not to be. It will do us well not to be presumptuous but to always seek the Lord whether a matter is big or small. When we are walking in step with the Lord, even the biggest obstacle will be easy meat. But if we are not, even the smallest task will be insurmountable.  

Secondly, they suffered the setback in their first attempt to conquer Ai was because there was sin among them. They were instructed to dedicate the gold, silver, bronze or iron articles of Jericho to the Lord. They must be deemed the Lord’s property and no one was to covet any of it. But Achan disobeyed and succumbed to temptation and broke trust with the Lord. He took what was rightly the Lord’s, and the whole camp was made to suffer because of one person’s selfishness. Remember we are a family. One person’s wrong has the potential to affect the rest of the fellowship. It accentuates the necessity to be circumspect in our personal relationship and walk with God so that what we do will not affect the whole body.  

Their first defeat at Ai was a lesson that allowed the Lord to teach them what it meant to live a sanctified and holy life. They were given a lesson on the danger of pride. Most of all they must have learned that without the presence and power of God, there would be no victory. Like the children of Israel, we have very formidable enemies that we need to deal with daily. We need to constantly battle the world, the devil and even our own fallen nature. Learning to deal with pride, living a set apart life, and relying on the presence and power of God are also the lessons we must adopt if we expect to find victory in our spiritual journey.  

In Genesis 12:8, we are told that Abraham pitched his tent between Bethel, meaning the house of God, and Ai, meaning a heap of ruin. Ai is symbolically our carnal and fallen nature. Like Abraham in his early days, many of us have pitched our tent between the house of God and the heap of ruins. Where we pitch the tent of our life is critical. Because it will determine our success or defeat. We can either experience the blessing of Bethel or the ruins of Ai.  

After Joshua had dealt with the root cause of their first defeat at Ai, God told him to go and confront Ai. This time He promised that everything would be different. God assured Joshua that he and his people would experience victory. There are times that the Lord will bring us back to the place of defeat so that we can do it all over again and find our victory to move on. In life, progress is built one upon another. We start from the earlier ones before we can move on to the more complex ones. We scale the height step by step. If we have not overcome the simple tasks, we will find it harder to conquer the more complex ones. That’s why we learn line upon line, precept upon precept. We move from faith to faith and glory to glory. God doesn’t take us to completion all at once. We need to progress moment by moment. He intends to build the discipline we need so that we can advance with Him.

God’s assurance to Joshua of the impending victory is an assurance to us too. Regardless of whatever defeat we may have experienced, the truth is that God wants us to experience being an overcomer like Joshua. We don’t have to live in defeat. He has saved us so that we can live a life of liberty, not a life of slavery to sin. In verse 2, God revealed to them what they would experience in Ai. He promised that they would plunder Ai as they did to Jericho. And they were given the rights to take the spoil of that city. If only Achan had waited for a few more days, he would have all he wanted without violating the ban and caused all the miseries. It underscores for us that we should never run ahead of God’s plan. We must learn to wait upon Him. The lesson of Ai reminds us not to go for instant gratification. We must learn to wait on the Lord. His plans are best accomplished in His time. Don’t try to run ahead of Him. Let us discern the Lord’s season, and move in tandem and walk in step with Him. He will lead and guide!       

Joshua 7:22-26 – Render to the Lord what belongs to Him

Realizing that he could no longer hide his misdeed, Achan admitted to Joshua. His was a confession wrung out of him. The words of his admission were captured in Joshua 7:21. He said, “When I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar and two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold fifty shekels in weight, then I coveted them and took them; and behold, they are concealed in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath it.” Sin is a very insidious thing. James 1:14-15 said, “Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.” Hence, we got to be careful what our eyes see, our ears hear, and our minds dwell upon all the time. It will do us well to guard what we see, what we hear and what our mind entertains. They are all possible avenues for the entrance of sin.

On hearing Achan’s admission, Joshua sent messengers and they ran to the tent and retrieve the items he stole from the Lord. Finding the articles in Achan’s tent, they brought them out before the eyes of the people and the Lord, to show conclusively that he was the culprit. The articles were to be destroyed and the whole nation took part in the judgment by stoning Achan and his family, after which they were burnt. Such a drastic judgment was required to make a public example of how serious it was to offend the Lord. The severe punishment serves as a reminder that our God is a holy God and He is the all-consuming fire when His anger is provoked. The sin of Achan was not just a simple misdeed, it was a sacrilege. He had the audacity to claim for himself what rightly belonged to the Lord. Never should we claim any glory of the Lord for ourselves. What we see in this account will help us to see that all the hidden things done in darkness are never occluded from the eye of our God.      

The place, where Achan and family were judged and punished, came to be named Achor or trouble. Just as a heap of stones was built at Gilgal to remind the people of God’s faithfulness, a heap of stone now stands in Achor to remind the people how offensive a sacrilegious act could be to the Lord. Spiritually speaking, the valley of Achor is a “place” we should avoid. Remember that there is no secret sin that will not ultimately be revealed. For God is not mocked, what a man sows he shall also reap. As Galatians 6:8 so aptly reminds us, “For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” Let us sow to the Spirit and not our flesh. Remember the promise of our Lord Jesus. He said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” If we refuse to entertain sin in life, there is no telling of the measure of His presence that will be wonderfully experienced in life.  

Joshua 7:16-21 – Making sure our heart is in the right place

Joshua was a diligent man, who took his God-given assignments seriously. He was an early riser as evident by the number of times this book tells us that he “rose early in the morning.”  We first encounter this phrase in Joshua 3:1 while they were camped in Shittim waiting to cross the Jordan. Then again in Joshua 6:12 as he garnered the people to march around the city of Jericho. Here in Joshua 7:14, this phrase popped up again as he rose early to deal with Achan, who caused them this needless defeat at Ai. We will see the phrase again in Joshua 8:10 where he led the people into battle against Ai after he had dealt with the root cause of their defeat. We may not think much of such a phrase but it underscores the fact that Joshua was deeply entrenched in the task he was assigned to do. This tells us that he had a deep desire when it came to honoring the Lord in all his undertakings. He was a man whose one deep passion was to see the Lord’s name vindicated and the nation restored to honor God. From him, we learn that our eagerness in a task is an indication of the urgency and importance we attach to our God-given assignment.   

Notice that up to this point, Achan remained very quiet. How much easier it would have been had he admitted to the guilt immediately after their defeat at Ai. But he did not. This passage accentuates the truth that with the Lord there is no way a sin can be concealed forever. There is no hidden sin that can remain hidden forever. Again, we heed the warning of Numbers 32:23 that says: “Be sure your sin will find you out.”  Why did Achan not admit to the guilt earlier? Why did he allow the whole camp to go through so much just to identify him? We can only postulate the reasons for his nonchalance. His conscience was seared. His unconscionable act was a sheer case of unbelief. It was a reflection of a heart that was totally devoid of the fear of the Lord. He didn’t believe that God meant what He said when He pronounced the ban. Similarly, every time we commit a sin, we are in effect showing that we have no regard for God. It is one thing to unknowingly commit a wrong, but it is quite another to blatantly disobey God’s specific instruction. We must learn to be quick to repent of our sin. Covering sin is like trying to wrap fire with paper. It’s an impossibility. So, we must not wait until a sin grows into an unmanageable proportion before we will act and repent. Our Lord Himself had warned us in Luke 12:2 that “There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.”

Joshua 7:17-18 tell us that nothing is hidden from the eye of God. So, Achan was identified as the culprit. The way Joshua went about extracting a confession from him shows us that owning up to one’s fault and honestly confessing it can be a God-honoring thing. We discredit God when we refuse to confess to our wrong. Confession of a wrong is a way of acknowledging God’s sovereignty over our lives and that He has the right to our life, and we are willing to live in subjection to His reign. Hence, we see every godly man in the Bible was quick to confess and acknowledge their flaws. God will always reciprocate an honest and sincere repentance. He will help such a person back to the path He has charted for him. That is God’s promise to us in the New Covenant. Our sin He will remember no more. Our guilt and condemnation took place at Calvary. So, John assures us that “If we confess our sin, God is faithful and just and will forgive our sin and cleanse us from our unrighteousness.”  Then why was Achan dealt with so severely? Bear in mind that his confession was wrung out of him. True confession is always accompanied by a broken heart that sincerely acknowledges one’s flaw. That person realizes how much he had hurt God and turn in contrition. This was not seen in Achan’s situation. In all probability, his was more a remorse than a repentance. Hence, he was dealt with severely.      

From the account of the sin of Achan, we are given a warning concerning greed and what it can do to a person. Greed has a way that causes us to break faith with God. We must all be wary of greed. It may be enticing, but we should learn not to focus on it. If we do, we will become attracted to it. Just remember the proverb that tells us “all that glitters is not gold.” In other words, there is always a catch to it. By giving in to any enticement we will entertain that thought that God has short-changed us and that we cannot enjoy the simple thing He has already provided for us. We must be careful with the sin of covetousness. The moment we covet and unlawfully go for things that God has not intended for us, we entertain sin that will bring with it all its anxiety. We must keep our heart rightly placed. For where our heart is there will our treasure be.

Joshua 7:10-15 – Sin must be swiftly dealt with

When a ship is sinking, it is usually not caused by the water outside of it but the water within it. Similarly, Israel’s defeat at Ai was not caused by something outside of them but something within them. God now revealed to them the cause of their sinking ship. Someone had violated the ban God had placed on the spoils of the war. God specifically told them not to keep any gold or silver or articles of bronze or iron. Everything they would gather from Ai belonged to the Lord. However, Joshua 7:1 tells us that “…Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, took some of the things under the ban, therefore the anger of the Lord burned against the sons of Israel.”

Joshua and the people tried to figure out what went wrong with them. It was something that God knew exactly. It is He who had formed men and He knew the heart of men all along. Nothing we do or will ever do escapes His sight. So, he revealed to Joshua that there was sin in the camp. Sin, when present always brings about a negative effect on life. It always brings defeat and must be dealt with swiftly and definitively. Like yeast, a little of it will cause a whole lump of dole to rise and puff up. These verses show us what sin is like. And it will do us well to take note of them so that we will not allow it to do us in.  

Verse 11 tells us that God knows all about sin. Achan must have thought the thing he had secretly taken from the spoil gathered from the conquest of Jericho was unknown to anyone. He overlooked the fact that nothing is hidden from the eye of God. Hebrews 4:13 tells us that, “…there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” God knows and sees everything. This verse also strongly suggests that God hates sins because it breaks trust with Him. The Lord wants to help us to be rid of sin just as he wanted to help Israel rid of sin. Yet they chose to embrace it. We cannot love the world and love God at the same time. Jesus said that we can never serve two masters. Between obeying God wholeheartedly or embracing sin passionately, we can only choose one. There is no way we can have both and yet remain neutral.    

Verses 11-12 show us that the sin was not confined to the one who violated the instruction of God. Sin is not only invasive it is also pervasive. It affected the whole camp of Israel. Sin must not be trifled with. One hidden sin by a member always affects the whole family. As a spiritual family, we do not live in isolation. A sin within the church left undealt with has the potential to drastically lower the spiritual temperature of the whole church. Every responsible member of the church must know the severity of harboring sin. Besides, we also need to know that sin always hinders our corporate progress in God. It does not just affect the individual who commits it but also affects the rest of the family. Verse 13 strongly suggests that all sin must be dealt with. We either grit our teeth and deal with it or God will have to painfully take care of it. Sin is offensive and it hurts the heart of God. We either deal with it or be done in by it.

Keeping oneself accountable before God is a responsibility each one of us in the spiritual family has to take seriously. We must know that we are not our own, we belong to the body of Christ. In sinning, a person has unwittingly assisted the devil in his scheme to devastate the fellowship of God.  We do well to take heed to Paul’s timely advice, recorded in his first letter to the Corinthians. He said, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands, take heed that he does not fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12).

Joshua 7:6-9 – What to do when things go wrong

There was probably no one who could feel the depth of Joshua’s pain. He came this far, was obedient to the command of God yet suffered such a tragedy. Never had he felt so humiliated. It was a painful moment for him, more so than anyone in Israel. He must have felt let down. Here we see Joshua before the Lord shattered and torn. Both he and the elders of Israel went into mourning putting dust over their heads. He uttered to the Lord out of a broken heart. To some extent, he was angry with the Lord and brought an accusation against Him.

 

Joshua was soon to learn that seeking and praying to God was the step in the right direction. It could certainly open the way to discover the fault line of their tragedy. He must have wondered what went wrong. Why were they so powerless even in battling so small a village?  It was pointless to blame God yet Joshua did. We must learn from his mistake and not engage in the blame game when things go wrong for us. We should seek the Lord by all means. But be aware that no amount of prayer would help if we do not identify the root cause of the problem and rectify it. When things go wrong, or when a tragedy strikes, the best cause of action is to seek the Lord, analyze where we have stumbled, repent and seek to make the necessary alignment. It will do us well to conduct a self-examination and identify the root of the problem and make the needful correction. That was precisely what Joshua did in Joshua 7:6-9.

 

The things we read in this account did show us what is the one definite thing that we must do, as well as one thing we must not do, when we encounter a tragedy in life. Like Joshua, we must turn humbly to God and repent and plead with Him to show us where we have gone wrong. This was what Joshua did. He rent his clothes and fell upon his face before the Ark. This was an act of humility before the presence of God. In his failure to seek the Lord before the attack of Ai, and his heeding the advice of the spies to send only 3,000 men to battle it, he had shown a degree of pride. And that must be dealt with.  

 

And what we must not do is this: never blame the Lord for any difficult time we encounter in life. Verse 7 tells us that he blamed God saying, “Alas, O Lord God, why did You ever bring these people over the Jordan, only to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? If only we had been willing to dwell beyond the Jordan!” Like Joshua, we can develop the tendency to blame God for our personal failure too. People do have unwholesome thought concerning the intention of God when a thing goes wrong. We must avoid such thoughts because God is never the author of evil. Let us heed the warning of James1:13-15. We are told that when facing a temptation, we are not to say, “’I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death”. Succumbing to temptation is a result of one acting in the flesh. So never, never blame God.

 

Perhaps the one redeeming act of Joshua here was that he was still concerned for the name of God. He did not want God’s name to be dragged through the mud because of their failure. This teaches us to always seek to preserve the honor of God. And the best way to do that is to think before we act. Remember, if we will not take the time to do it right the first time, we will always need to find the time to do it again. That will slow our progress. So, let us seek to do it right all the time, every time. 

Joshua 7:1-5 – Don’t take victory for granted

The conquest of Jericho was certainly wonderful. Joshua, we discovered, was not only a great leader but also a military strategist. He had shown great eagerness to press on to conquer the rest of Canaan. His strategy was to dissect the land in the middle, separating it into two halves – the north and the south. His first campaign was then to move up north, conquer it, before moving south to take it. However, he was soon to discover that not all the enemies he had to face would be hiding and cowering behind walled cities. He soon realized that the road to complete victory was also paved with hindrances and setbacks. Like him, we who wish to advance in the journey of life must also know that the road to complete victory is not automatic. Living an overcoming life demands that we take positive steps to cope with hindrances and setbacks aimed at retarding our walk and hinder our progress.

At this point, the whole of Israel was still at Jericho. We see no indication that Joshua made any inquiry of the Lord concerning what his next step should be. He sent spies to reconnaissance Ai, a little insignificant village which they had underestimated. The spies returned with the suggestion that they need not send an entire army for so small a place. Their estimate was that two to three thousand men would be sufficient to take Ai.  Taking up their suggestion, Joshua only sent 3,000 men to claim that village but they were routed. This was their first defeat in Canaan. Thirty-six of the children of Israel were struck down. The whole camp became discouraged and their heart melted.  

There are two lessons we can learn from Israel’s first defeat in the promised land. Firstly, we learn that there is a necessity to seek the mind of God in our spiritual expedition. We see no indication that Joshua consulted the Lord on what he should do before he sent the 3,000 men to confront Ai. Seeking the direction of God in any undertaking is needful if we desire success. Secondly, we must know that success in life takes a series of overcoming. Winning one battle should not be equated to winning the whole war. They could have allowed their recent victory over Jericho to undermine their necessity to show care in the future undertaking. Giving thanks for every success is needful but careful planning for every endeavor is just as needful. We must not take for granted that success will be automatic because of one victory. From Joshua’s first defeat in Canaan, we must learn not to take things for granted. We must not rest on the laurel of our past success. Every endeavor in life has to be approached with proper estimation and appreciation of the situation. Let us not be blindsided by an overconfidence till we are left overlooking the potential dangers that may be looming. Seeking the Lord’s direction is paramount in every step that we take.     

Joshua 6:26-7:1 – Sin is invasive

The success at Jericho was supposed to have started a string of victories. At least this was what the children of Israel thought since God had promised to be with them. Even such a formidable city like Jericho, which was so well fortified could not withstand against Israel. Immediately after the victory, Joshua was quick to make them pledge that they would not try to refortify the city. Anyone who violates the oath would suffer the loss of both his first and last born. A person attempting to rebuild the city would have to do so against the will of God. And just as the Lord had promised that He would be with Joshua, He did. Soon Joshua was well acknowledged by everyone as the leader and his fame went before him far and wide.

However, not everything was well as thought. The first word "but" in Joshua 7:1 tells us that something was brewing underneath the surface. This connective “but” shows a contrasting situation. They should have grown from strength to strength and no one would be able to stand against them just as the Lord had promised. But unknown to them, there was a man by the name of Achan who had secretly violated the commandment of the Lord. Little did they know that this renegade had disobeyed and kept something from the ban for himself. Remember in Joshua 6:17-18, they were specifically told that the city would be under a ban and they were not to take anything or preserve anyone except for Rahab and her family. They were told not to covet the silver nor the gold, not even the articles of bronze or iron. Everything was placed under a ban and should belong to God. No one should attempt to keep anything for himself. So, Joshua 6:21 says the people utterly destroyed “…everything in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword.”  But Joshua 7:1 tells us something was wrong. God was upset with the people. What they didn’t know was that someone in the midst had put the entire nation in jeopardy.  

This record of the sin of Achan underscores a divine principle as a warning to the church. As a family, the consequence of our wrong is never a private matter. Because we are connected to each other. Like it or not, the whole family will be implicated by one member’s sin. The person who sins becomes that weak link in the fellowship and opens the whole family to the attack of the enemy. First Corinthians 12:26 tells us that the flaw of one member of the body affects the entire family. It behooves us as a responsible member of the family to be considerate because what we do affects the whole spiritual family. All of us should keep a short account with the Lord. The sin we commit may seem well covered, but it has a way to be exposed.    

We need to be aware that the consequence of sin is not just confined to the person who sins. It will impact the lives of the people around him or her as well. No matter how much we refuse to admit, all of us are guilty of the sin of Achan at some point in life. We need to know that there is no way we can totally hide or cover our sin. We must deal with it or risk affecting the whole body. Remember what Moses said in Numbers 32:23: “Be sure your sin will find you out.” So, please keep short accounts with God!