Joshua Series #11
The Amazing Race to Rest & Reward
“Failure: the Backdoor to Victory”
We have been following the trail of the new generation of Israelites all under 40 except for two old guys, Joshua and Caleb. All the rest died in the 40 year wandering in the wilderness because they failed to believe God’s promises to give them a land of their own. Only Joshua and Caleb entered the land because they filed the faith filled minority report. It just so happened that their report was the right one. We rejoiced at the miraculous dry land crossing of the Jordan River overflowing its banks. We marveled at the destruction of one of the major cities currently occupying the Land. Jericho was supernaturally destroyed because Joshua of listened, trusted and obeyed God. That is the key to every victory in the purging process.
When they waited on God and trusted Him – God blessed with victory. When they failed to wait for God’s instructions and trusted in themselves – they fell to defeat. Because Jericho was the first of many fights, God demanded all of the spoil to go to Him. The first fruits offering served to remind them that technically all the spoils belong to Him. Unfortunately one of the soldiers got greedy and took some of the spoils for himself and his family. God considered the act as robbing Him of what rightfully belonged to Him. His actions brought defeat for the whole community. They were routed by Ai and lost 36 soldiers in what should have been an easy victory. They had become self-sufficient and proud after the Jericho victory. They did not wait for God’s instructions and His characteristic promise to defeat the enemy.
Now they are demoralized and disheartened. Joshua, their leader, is also knocked off track as he blames God for their defeat and assumes God has abandoned them to destruction. The issue was disobedience in the form of robbing God. We made certain applications to us today.
One person’s disobedience can affect the whole church. A primary application to us today has to do with first fruits. Failing to offer the first fruits of our financial resources is robbery. I want to make it clear that nowhere in the New Testament are we commanded to give ten percent of our income. The reality is that in the period of grace God may ask for more. The principle of New Testament giving is proportionate, sacrificial and as one purposes in their heart.
There are great blessings promised by God for regular giving.
Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones. Honor the LORD from your wealth And from the first of all your produce; So your barns will be filled with plenty And your vats will overflow with new wine. Proverbs 3:7-10
There are also corresponding consequences for not giving regularly. Money is not the only thing that belongs to God that we need to be careful to offer. Time, worship, our bodies, our family, credit, glory. There are consequences anytime we take for ourselves what rightfully belongs to God. We are only stewards of God’s resources. Faithful steward invest those resources in kingdom purposes rather than personal pleasure. How would you feel if your investment broker cashed in your retirement funds to buy a boat? What if we haven’t been faithful? The first step is to confess our sin to God. James is clear about the procedure if things are not going well because of our failure.
Is anyone among you weak? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. James 5:14-16
The word for “weak” means to be without strength it applies to physical weakness, spiritual weakness, emotional weakness, weak in faith and demonic influence. These are obviously because of failure because we are called to confess our sin. Everyone has experienced failure.
Many carry the scars of failure to make the right choices all of their lives. Many have an abundance of graphic exhibits on display in their hall of shame. Satan is insistent that we live there. God urges a periodic visit to remember how much we need him but advises us not to live there. He had the Israelites construct a monument not just to remember the victories but also the failures.
Is there life after failure?
Henry Ford would have agreed with Robertson, because Ford defined a mistake as “an opportunity to begin again, more intelligently.”
What happens if really blew it? Does God put us on the shelf? Does God disqualify us for any kind of kingdom service? Can we ever find rest after failure? Sometimes we feel like humpty dumpty. That after a great fall, not even all the king’s horses or all the king’s men can put us back together again. Success seems to elude us. We expend all our energy climbing the ladder of success only to find it is leaning against the wrong wall. We are pursuing all the wrong things. If you have ever failed, this message from the Spirit of God is for you today. I know I was hard on us last week. Scripture is hard on us.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17
I. Purge the Land 1-12
A. God Prepared Joshua for leadership 1
B. Joshua prepared the people to possess the land 2
C. Israel Purged the Canaanites 2-11
1. Central Campaign
a. Israel defeated Jericho 6
b. Ai defeated Israel 7
c. Israel defeats Ai 8
Once sin is acknowledged and addressed, we are again in a position to hear from God.
Joshua cowered in fear because of the sin and defeat and failure.
Acknowledge and address our Failure
Once that sin was addressed, God reassured Joshua of His presence and power.
And the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not fear and do not be dismayed.
We need trust in God’s promises to realize victory over Satan’s pummeling. Without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God. By faith we conquer and overcome obstacles. By faith we endure hardships. Fear is the opposite of faith. Failures intensify fear. Failures reinforce doubt. Failures hinder our relationship with God.
Attack our failure with God’s direction
God encouraged Joshua with a new task. He called him to confront his previous failure. He must face the same foe that defeated them previously. This time he fights with the promise, presence and power of God.
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. 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.” Joshua 8:1-2
This time Joshua is back in the lead. This time everybody joins in the fight. This time they are promised the plunder. Your see, if Achan had only waited, he could have celebrated the plunder of Ai. When we give God the first fruits, God promises to bless. God renews the emphasis on obedience to the word of God. This is a long chapter so I am going to retell the story for sake of time because I want to get right to the application of the principle we see illustrated here.
The Lord instructed this time for Joshua to take all the fighting men with him. He promised to give the city into Joshua’s hand. He promised that it would be victory just like they experienced at Jericho. He even gave them the strategy to pull it off. He would send 30,000 by night to hide out behind the city. Joshua spent the night with the people. In the morning he took about 5,000 men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. So they stationed the forces, the main encampment that was north of the city and its rear guard west of the city. When the king of Ai noticed that the Israelites were giving it another shot, he ordered his army to attack. As they attacked, Joshua had his men turn and run like they did before. This emboldened Ai’s army so that this time they were bent on finishing the job they didn’t finish the last time. They called out every last fighting man to pursue the Israelites. Then the LORD told Joshua to stretch out his javelin toward the city to signal the army lying in ambush to attack the city. It was an easy capture and they set the city on fire.
Ai’s army caught sight of the smoke and realized they were in trouble and had no place to go as the flee army turned back on them and killed all 12,000 of them except the king who they saved for Joshua to hang on a tree. This is not a slaughter of the innocent but a divine judgment on the immoral. The next morning Joshua cut him down and buried with another pile of stones. This time, they constructed a monument to victory rather than defeat. I find it interesting that the strategy to defeat this mountain city of Ai was based on a previous failure.
Disobedience brings failure and consequences
but failure can be the springboard for obedience and new victories.
A biblical statement is that God works all things for good to those who love God and are the called according to His purpose. (Rom 8:28) That is the principle I want to illustrate in the time we have left.
God has to used failure because EVERYONE fails; some more than others. God has to use flawed people because that is all He has to work with. All have sinned and come short of God’s standard. God actually delights in using the weak things of this world to confound the so called wise.
For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, "LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD." 1 Corinthians 1:26-31
The Bible records countless failures rose above their failures to count for the Lord. Samson failed miserably all this life yet that failure got him into the place where he was able to kill more of the enemy as the failure than the rest of his life put together as the “superman”.
David failed miserably but became the writer of the bulk of the Psalm and the father of Solomon born to Bathsheba ancestor of Messiah.
Jepthah was an illegitimate baby with a “chip” who God used to free Israel.
The consequences of the flood from some of the most majestic scenery we have.
Jonah’s failure to follow God’s directions and ran a different direction only to end up where God wanted him and brought a whole nation to repentance. I can imagine that his fish story probably got him a hearing with a hostile people.
God is a master at working all things together for God. Those “all things” include failure.
He uses our failures, our scars, and our past shame to bring glory to his grace.
What about Paul who murdered Christian after Christian? That experience made that chief of sinners the chief spokesman for God’s grace. His infirmity that felt like a failure kept him humble and dependent on the power of God.
What about the woman at the well who lived a morally deficient life? It was that reputation and the transformation of the gospel that brought a whole town to Jesus.
What about Moses? He stared our gung ho to single-handedly deliver his people. He failed miserably. It was that failure and subsequent time in the desert that got him familiar with the path of the exodus and the God of the exodus. He went from a proud and ambitious man to the humblest man.
What about Peter? Proud, ambitions, impetuous
His failure enabled him to encourage the disciples and he became a chief foundation stone of God’s glorious church.
The Bible is full of failures and stories of their restoration to the glory of God.
Disobedience brings failure and consequences
but failure can be the springboard for obedience and new victories.
There may be discipline but not punishment. Healing comes from confession. David testified to the devastation of trying to cover up his failure.
When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away Through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Selah. Psalm 32:3-4
Yet when he acknowledged his sin, everything changed.
I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD"; And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah. Psalm 32:5
Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check, Otherwise they will not come near to you. Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but he who trusts in the LORD, lovingkindness shall surround him. Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones; and shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart. Psalm 32:9-11
We must learn from the past but not be controlled by it. It is those who refuse to acknowledge the failure of the past that are controlled by it.
The scriptures have been recorded to inform us about God and His path.
The scriptures are designed to reproof us – tell us when we have strayed from the path.
The Scriptures are designed to correct us – show us how to get back on the path.
The Scriptures are designed to train us – tell us how to say on the path so that we can become mature followers of Jesus; equipped for every good work.
David sang about a good shepherd who touched every need, nourished and restored his soul and lead him in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Jesus commissioned His Holy Spirit to be a resident guide. He is like a GPS in our life. He has the map. He informs us how to get where we need to be. He tells us when we have strayed from the path. He recalculates a route to get us back on the path. With His help he will guide us to our destination.
Don’t’ be like most men and not acknowledge you are lost and refuse to ask for directions.
We need to all admit we are lost. We need to admit we have failed to make right choices that have resulted in consequences for ourselves, our families and our community.
Today is a day of healing. Is any among you weak, without strength in any area of their life?
It is time to address that hall of shame and receive not only forgiveness but healing. You can be free from the guilt for your failure. You can be free from the torment of living in a hall of shame. I don’t know what you have done anything about your failures. I do know that even though disobedience brings failure and consequences, that same failure can be the springboard for obedience and new victories. Today is the day to erect a monument to victory.
Today is when God can turn your “valley of trouble” into a “valley of hope.”
