Many of us can read the exact same words in the Bible, and draw completely different understandings from it. Some of you, when you hear me say this, think I'm talking about how Christians argue over meaning and interpretation. But I'm actually talking about tone.
Let's open to Joshua 8, and just begin by quietly reading the first two verses. As you read, try to answer the question, "How does God sound here?"
8 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.”
My guess is that when some of you read the Bible, you feel like you never get anything out of it. You never see anything new-- anything that moves you. If you feel this way, part of the problem might be that you only read quietly. If you read the Bible out loud, you will hear new things, and you're forced to make a decision about how things sound.
So when you read these words, how do you think God sounds? Is he angry? Is he bossy? Is he impatient? Is he rude? Or does he sound kind and loving?
At this point, you may shrug your shoulders and say, "How could we know?" Usually, I think when we read God's words, how we think God sounds is largely based on how we view God.
It used to be, even a hundred years ago, that Christians regularly read scary passages in the Bible like we had last week, and they used to regularly hear scary sermons, because pastors used to faithfully teach on scary passages.
If you grew up under a preacher who preached fire and brimstone week after week, you might think that God moves among us with a ruler, ready and itchy to rap us on our knuckles--or worse-- if and when we stumble. If this was your church and your experience, it would be understandable if you viewed God as basically stern and harsh. It would be understandable, if you tended to read God as sounding angry.
But church today looks nothing like it does even a hundred years ago. The percent of Christians who tend to view God as harsh or stern has to be in the single digits.
Today, if you tend to view God has harsh or stern, and you hear his words in the Bible that way, it's most likely because you are living wickedly. You know you're living in ways that can't make God happy, but you don't want to repent. You never give money to his church, because things are always tight. You live as friends with the world, trying to keep one foot in the world, and the other in God's kingdom. You watch TV shows with gore, crude humor, and immorality, and you feel guilty. But you tell yourself, it's no big deal. You tell yourself, the next episode will be cleaner. You tell yourself, the next episode will only have clothed people in it.
You work desperately to convince yourself you're living ok, but you go to bed each night, and you're a little scared. How does God really think about you? Is he sad? Is he angry? When you read his words in the Bible, you read him as being angry, because you have this sense he's angry with you.
And maybe He is. If this describes you this morning, please, repent. God will be happy to have you come back to him. Look at your life, and realize you're walking in darkness, doing things that aren't good for you. Repent.
If you're not willing to repent, the next best thing you could do would be to ignore everything else I say this morning. Joshua 8 is an encouraging passage. It can lift your hearts, and bring you to trust and praise God. But this is a passage for people who have repented. It's not for you.
My main focus this morning is a different group of people. A few of of you this morning, hopefully, are living for God. You've repented of your sins. You've given your allegiance to King Jesus. You are trying to walk in step with the Holy Spirit. You want very badly to please God. But you do all this, and you find yourselves afraid of God. You think God is harsh, and severe, and when you read his words, you hear them as being angry. You come before his throne, and part of you does so reluctantly, and with fear and trembling. If this is you--if you hear yourself in this-- consider this sermon especially for you.
When we turn back to Joshua 8:1-2, how we think God sounds here isn't just a matter of theology. First of all, we just read in Joshua 7:26 that God is no longer angry with Israel. So that's a good clue-- we shouldn't read this with even a hint of anger, or frustration, or anything nasty. Second, the Hebrew gives us another clue. If you read my translation, verse 1 sounds very different:
(1) And Yahweh said to Joshua,
"May you not fear,
and may you not be shattered.
There are two verbs in verse 1. Neither one is a normal command. They are called jussives. Jussives usually work more like (1) requests (2 Sam. 19:37; Deut. 9:26); (2) proposals (Josh 7:3; 2 Sam. 13:24), or (3) expression of wishes (1 Sam. 10:24). (following van der Merwe's Biblical Hebrew Reference Grammar).
It's probably easier to show these verbs sound and work, than explain what a jussive is. Last chapter, when the spies came to Joshua after going to Ai, we read this, in 7:3:
"May not all the people go up.
About two or three thousand men should go up,
and may they strike Ai.
May you not make weary there all the people,
because few are they."
The spies are not giving Joshua commands. They're not ordering Joshua to do anything. They coming to him respectfully, with advice (or a proposal) for him, in deference to his position as leader of Israel.
In Joshua 8:1, Yahweh comes to Joshua, and he begins his speech to Joshua with jussives. God's not criticizing Joshua here. He's not harsh, or impatient. God is coming to Joshua meekly, to encourage him, to speak kindly to him, to reassure him. It's true that in verse 2, Yahweh starts giving Joshua commands. But putting the jussives first changes the tone for the entire section.
Yahweh knows that Joshua is scared and shattered. He knows Joshua is in no shape to lead. Joshua failed. Israel failed. And if I'm Joshua, I'm going to have a very hard time moving forward. Way back in chapter 1, the trans-Jordan tribes had promised to follow Joshua, but that promise had a condition. "Only, may Yahweh be with you, just as he was with Moses." Will the tribes still follow, if Yahweh isn't with Joshua?
And more basic than this, is that Joshua has to make a decision, and that decision is this: Will he still trust Yahweh? You can try to look at what happened objectively at Ai, and understand that the failure at Ai was the result of sin. But I know I would struggle to trust Yahweh after that. What if something else is wrong with the people that I don't know about? What if I will send even more men to their death? What if I'll have to stone someone else to death for disobedience?
Sometimes in life, you will feel like God failed you very badly. You prayed for something with tears. You prayed in faith, desperately, claiming every promise you could think of. You begged God. You appealed to God's character, and his reputation. You fasted. You stayed up all night praying. You did everything you could do. And God did nothing. Your sick child died. You lost your farm.
Or maybe, there was a point in your life when you were living in unrepentant sin. You backslid terribly. And God disciplined you-- you felt his hand pressing heavy against you, making life horrible for you. The easiest task became impossible. Eventually, you looked at your life, and what it had come to, and you came crawling back to God in humility (Luke 15:18). But maybe after all that, you still fear God.
Or maybe, someone committed an absolutely terrible sin against you. Someone abused you. Or they destroyed your reputation. They wronged you. And it didn't feel like God was there for you. You felt abandoned (Psalm 22:1).
Whatever the reason, there are times in your life when it's hard to step out in faith again, and trust God. To get back in the saddle, and do the job he wants you to do (Ephesians 4:7, 12). I think this is exactly where Joshua is at. He's fearful. He's shattered. And Yahweh knows this, and he comes to him by first giving him gentle encouragement. God is good. God is loving. He is slow to anger, rich in mercy-- and Joshua knows, objectively, that Yahweh is no longer angry.
So this is what Yahweh says to Joshua:
(1) And Yahweh said to Joshua,
"May you not fear,
and may you not be shattered.
Take with you all the people of war!,
and rise!
Go up to Ai!
See!
I have given into your hand the king of Ai, with his people, with his city, with his land,
(2) and you shall do to Ai and its king
just as you did to Jericho and its king.
Only, her war spoil and her beasts/animals you shall plunder for yourselves.
Make for yourself an ambush against Ai from behind it,"
Yahweh promises Joshua here that there will be no nasty surprises for Israel. Yahweh is completely, totally, giving Ai into his hand: (1) The king of Ai; (2) his people; (3) his city; (4) his land.
There is one huge surprise in these verses. Yahweh places a qualification on this command to commit Ai and its king to the kherem in verse 2:
"Only, her war spoil and her beasts/animals you shall plunder for yourselves."
I'm not even sure how to begin to talk about this. God knows we are weak. He knows we like nice things. He knows we struggle to choose him over earthly treasure. And so here, Yahweh gives his blessing to Israel to keep the nice things. "Where there is no law, there is no sin." Yahweh gives this qualification to them out of kindness, and to remove a possible stumbling block. Because his main focus is that the people of Ai be completely killed. That's far more important to God. He needs all the people of Ai killed. He needs the king killed. They all need to be kheremed.
Yahweh then concludes his initial speech by saying this:
Make for yourself an ambush for/against Ai from behind it."
An ambush! Interesting. We find ourselves sitting up, intrigued. Yahweh almost certainly gave Joshua more detailed instructions about the ambush. But AJ is a gifted storyteller, and he knows that if he tells us everything all at once, we be less motivated to keep reading. What we need to know, AJ makes sure we know. And we need to know that the ambush in this story is Yahweh's idea. At the risk of spoiling the story, the ambush is going to work. And when it works, we are supposed to remember that the whole thing was Yahweh's idea.
The rest of Joshua 8 is straightforward, and I'm not sure how much I could add to it without breaking up the story too much. So I'm going to do this differently-- I'm just going to read it (but out loud, with tone! :)
.
(3) and Joshua rose, with all the people of war, to go up to Ai,
and Joshua chose thirty thousand men--warriors of strength--
and he sent them at night,
(4) and he commanded them, saying,
"See!
You are lying in ambush against the city from behind the city.
May you not be very far from the city,
and (then) all of you shall be ready,
(5) while I and all the people who are with me shall draw near to the city,
and then, when they come out to meet us, just as at the first time, we will flee from before them,
(6) and they will come out after us until we draw them from the city,
because they will say,
"Fleeing from before us
just as at the first time,"
and we will flee from before them,
(7) while you shall rise up from the ambush,
and you shall take possession of the city,
and Yahweh your God shall give into your hand,
(8) and then, as soon as you have taken control of the city, you shall set the city on fire.
According to the word of Yahweh, you shall do.
See! I have commanded you,
(9) And Joshua sent them,
and they went to the ambush,
and they dwelled between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai,
[And Joshua spent that night in the midst of the people.]
(10) and Joshua rose early in the morning,
and he mustered the people,
and he went up, with the elders of Israel, before the people of Ai,
(11) while all the people of war who were with him went up,
and they drew near,
and they went in front of the city,
and they camped on the north side of Ai,
with a ravine between him and Ai,
(12) and he took about five thousand men,
and he placed them ambushing between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city,
(13) and the people positioned all the camp, that [was] from the north of the city, with its rear guard west of Ai,
[and Joshua went on that night into the middle of the valley.],
(14) and then, as soon as the king of Ai saw, they hurried,
and they rose early in the morning,
and the men of the city went out to meet them [Israel] to battle--he and all his people-- to the meeting place in front of the Jordan Valley,
while he didn't know that an ambush [was] against him from behind the city,
(15) and Joshua and all Israel were driven back from before them,
and they fled on the road of the wilderness,
(16) and all the people cried out
who were in the city to pursue after them,
and they pursued after Joshua,
and they were drawn away from the city,
and there wasn't a man who remained in Ai and Bethel
who didn't go out after Israel,
and they left the city open,
and they pursued after Israel,
(18) and Yahweh said to Joshua,
"Stretch out the short sword
that is in your hand toward Ai,
because into your hand I will give it,"
and Joshua stretched out with the short sword that was in his hand toward the city,
(19) while the ones who were ambushing rose quickly from their place,
and they ran as soon as he stretched out his hand,
and they entered the city,
and they took it,
and they hurried,
and they set the city on fire,
(20) and the men of Ai turned behind them,
and they looked,
and LOOK!, the smoke of the city had gone up to the heavens,
and it wasn't in their hands/power to flee anywhere,
while all the people fleeing to the wilderness turned back to the ones pursuing,
(21) while Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city
and that the smoke of the city had gone up,
and they turned back,
and they struck the men of Ai,
(22) while they went out from the city to meet them,
and they were against Israel in the middle, some on one side and some on the other side,
and they struck them until no one remained to them-- a survivor or escaper,
while the king of Ai they captured alive,
and they brought him near to Joshua,
(24) And then, as soon as Israel finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field on the slope
who were pursuing them, and all of them fell before the sword until they finished them,
all Israel returned to Ai,
and they struck it with the mouth/edge of the sword,
(25) and all the fallen on that day, from man up to woman, 12,000-- all the people of Ai,
(26) while Joshua didn't draw back his hand that he stretched out with his short sword until he kheremed all the inhabitants of Ai.
(27) Only, the beasts/animals and the plunder of that city Israel plundered for themselves, according to the word of Yahweh that he commanded Joshua,
(28) and Joshua burned Ai,
and he put/placed a mound forever-- a desolation up to this day,
(29) while the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until evening,
and as soon as the sun set, Joshua commanded,
and they took down his corpse from the tree,
and they threw it toward the entrance of the gate of Ai,
and they raised over it a permanent heap of stones up to this day.
What do we see in Joshua 8? The main thing we see, is Yahweh, our God. God is loving, and kind. He's encouraging. He's rich in mercy. He doesn't hold a grudge. When he forgives your sins, he genuinely forgives. We see a God who doesn't stay angry long.
When we read chapter 8, we don't understand why Yahweh is so determined to wipe out all the people of Ai, and why Ai's king is hung on a tree as a sign of God's curse on him, and buried at the gate. We don't understand why Ai isn't given to the Israelites to live in. Why is Ai made a desolation forever, just like Jericho? There are questions we still have. We still need to figure out kherem.
But what should we know? God is good to his people. Only, He expects obedience. He expects you to mirror the allegiance He gives to you. If you stumble, and sin, repent. God is slow to anger; he is patient; he will forgive you.
How about those of you who are living rightly toward God? A few of you, maybe tend to view God as harsh, and angry, and scary, and demanding. You've put so much focus on what God wants from you, and you're so hard on yourself, that you don't let yourself see God, for who He really is. If this is you, consider this chapter an encouragement. What God actually wants to do for you, is encourage you, and strengthen you, and fight with you and for you.
So don't be scared of God. Don't be afraid to think that God actually loves you.
The other thing I want to say, is that there may be a time in life when something terrible happens to you-- when you will lose something, or someone, really important to you.
In that moment, you will probably feel like Joshua at the start of this chapter. Shattered. Broken. Afraid to trust God.
You may always have questions. You may never know why something happened, or what God's role was in that-- if any.
But don't let what happened to you keep you from trusting God. And don't let it keep you from doing the job Jesus gave you to do (Eph. 4:7, 12). There's work to be done. So, Rise! Get up! Go do it, trusting in the God who loves you and gave his son for you.
