Study 11
Chapter 8
Introduction
The nineteenth century preacher and writer Alexander Whyte once wrote – “the victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings.”
I would imagine that like me, you, as Christian, know what it is like to experience defeat in your Christian life. Like me you have experienced the bitterness of defeat when you have given in to some temptation and committed some sin that you thought you had mastered or that you never for one minute thought you would commit.
Peter found himself in such a position you remember. He was fully convinced that he would never, under any circumstances deny Jesus. And yet within a few hours of him affirming his devotion to his Lord in those moving words – though all men be offended because of thee yet will not I. Though I should die with thee yet will I not deny thee – within a few hours Peter had denied Jesus three times with oaths and curses.
Perhaps like me you have experienced that awful sensation of defeat and failure when having perhaps determined that we would once and for all deal with and conquer some enemy stronghold in our life, some area of our heart, our mind, our affections, our behaviour where the devil as it were has a strong fortified presence that has not yet been overthrown, and we have found to our humiliation, shame and discouragement that our efforts to do battle with that enemy stronghold proved to be feeble and we failed Like the Children of Israel after their initial defeat at the hands of the inhabitants of Ai we know what it feels like to fail to overthrow the enemy.
What should we do in such circumstances? Should we give up? Should we allow our sense of failure and weakness and shame and despondency to so debilitate us that we simply accept defeat and allow that enemy stronghold to remain intact? Well if we want to enter into and truly experience and enjoy the fullness of the blessings of the Christian life, if we want to take possession of all that is ours in Christ, we cant simply ignore those enemy strongholds and allow them to remain untroubled. Rather we must renew our efforts to attack and conquer them.
You are all familiar with the old adage –“if at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again.” Someone once said that no matter how many mistakes we make in the Christian life, the worst mistake of all is not to try again. Henry Ford the former U.S. President once defined a mistake as “an opportunity to begin again more intelligently.”
In a sermon preached in Brighton in 1849, F.W.Robertson commented – “Life, like war, is a series of mistakes, and he is not the best Christian or the best general who makes the fewest mistakes…but he is the best who wins the most splendid victories by the retrieval of mistakes. Forget mistakes; organise victories out of mistakes.”
In Joshua chapter 8 we see God’s people beginning again more intellignetly. We see Joshua having learned from the defeat he had experienced, putting that defeat behind him and going on from that defeat to victory.
Despite the fact that Israel had sinned, God did not totally forsake them. Yes, His blessing had been withheld from them because of their sin, but his covenant relationship with them had not been annulled. And because Joshua and the people, in the wake of their humiliating defeat had listened to God, had identified the root cause of the problem which caused their defeat and dealt with the problem in the way in which God Himself had prescribed, the way was now open for the blessing of God to be restored once again, for miserable failure to be turned into marvellous victory and for this enemy stronghold of Ai to be conquered.
Lets consider this chapter together. I want you to notice with me first of all
1) God’s Word To Obedient Joshua:
As I have already intimated, Israel’s victory over Ai as recorded in this chapter was inseparably connected with and indeed conditional upon their dealing with the sin that had been in their midst. In relation to this Joshua had been faithful and obedient to God. Once the source of the problem had been identified and the divine will revealed as to how this problem should be dealt with, Joshua faithfully and obediently carried out the steps that were necessary to punish the sinner and purge this sin from Israel. And it was against this backdrop, the backdrop of Joshua’s obedience that God comes to speak to Joshua again. Notice the link word which connects the first verse of chapter 8 with the events recorded at the end of chapter seven. It is the word “then” Not “and” as KJV. And this is important – “Then” , that is after Joshua had been obedient, after the sin had been dealt with and after, as a result of the purging of that sin the anger of God had been turned away from the people, THEN God came and spoke to Joshua once again.
And the message, the word that God brings to Joshua is as we see from the opening verses of this chapter a most gracious word.
God begins with
(i) A Word of Comfort:
“Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged…”
Why do you think God began his address to Joshua in such a way? Well most probably because after the defeat that he had experienced, after the discovery of such sin in the midst of the people of God, Joshua was feeling both fearful and discouraged. Fearful perhaps that because of Achan’s sin, God would no longer be with them and no longer bless them. Fearful perhaps for his own life and for the lives of the people in this hostile foreign land, where without the presence and power of God they would be easy prey for their enemies. Discouraged no doubt by the fact that at such an early stage in the Campaign sin had raised its ugly head in the midst of the people of God. Undoubtedly discouraged by the defeat he had just experienced. This wasn’t how he had envisaged things, he hadn’t been expecting defeats.
Joshua was feeling what most of us have felt at times when we have failed in some major area of our life – discouragement as a result of past mistakes and fear in relation to future prospects in the wake of our failure. At such times everything looks bleak and we feel really down.
And it is to this fearful, discouraged, disheartened leader that God comes and speaks words of comfort and encouragement – “Joshua – do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” The very fact that God came and spoke to Joshua again assured him that God had not forsaken him. And the fact that when He did speak his first words were tender, comforting and encouraging words must have been a real tonic for Joshua’s soul. It was as if God was coming alongside Joshua and putting his arm around this despondent servant and saying to him, O.K. Joshua you failed and you know why you failed. But the matter has been dealt with and I am still here. I am still with you. You have no cause to worry or fear for the future. – do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. This was just what Joshua needed to hear at this time a Word of Comfort from God.
You know God delights to come alongside and comfort and encourage his people when they are feeling down and discouraged as a result of their sinful failures. But he only comes along and brings that word of comfort and encouragement when sin has been properly dealt with. For us that will involve the free and humble confession of our sin, repentance from it, and the seeking of forgiveness of it by and through the blood of Christ. Has there not been times in your own Christian experience when in the wake of some sin that you have committed, in the wake of some spiritual defeat and failure that you have experienced, you have come to God, perhaps with tears in your eyes and opening up your heart to god you have confessed your sin, acknowledged your failure, and sincerely sought forgiveness by claiming the merits of Christ’s blood, and in those moments after you have poured out your heart to God in repentance, you have felt that wonderful comfort and inner peace flooding into your soul as God by His Spirit assures you that your sin has been forgiven, that he has not forsaken you. That he is still with you.
God loves to comfort and encourage his people, but we cannot have God’s comforting word and our sin. We have to repent of the latter if we are to enjoy the former.
I referred earlier to the sin Peter committed, that of denying his saviour. In the wake of that sin Peter shed bitter tears of repentance. And what happened a few days later, after Jesus had risen, he told the women who had seen him in the garden to go and tell the disciples what they had witnessed; but in instructing them to do so Jesus tells them particularly to tell PETER. Why? Well such a message would serve as a means to comfort him and encourage him. Jesus was still deeply interested in Him. Jesus still dearly loved him despite his denial from which he had truly repented. And then of course later on the shores of the sea of Galilee Jesus ministered further comfort and encouragement to Peter by assuring him that his past failure did not mean that the master would no longer use him. There was still important work for Peter to do – “Feed my Sheep, peter. Feed my Lambs.”
So God comes to Joshua, first of all, with a Word of Comfort.
But as well as coming with a word of Comfort God also came with a
(ii) A Word of Assurance:
look again at v1,2 “I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land. You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king…”
What a wonderful word of assurance this was for Joshua. He knew that if he and the people were to make any further progress into the land of promise, if they were ever to enjoy all the blessings associated with living in that land, then Ai had to be conquered. But he also knew that their efforts at trying to conquer this enemy stronghold had failed miserably and having suffered such a humiliating defeat he probably wasn’t confident about nor I am sure too keen to launch another attack upon the city. That was of course until he received this wonderful word from God. A Word that assured him of victory. And note just how emphatic a word of assurance this was. God doesn’t say ‘I will give you the king and the city and the people and the land’, he says “I HAVE GIVEN….” He speaks here of it as something that has already been accomplished, so certain is the fulfilment of this promise. Of course Joshua had to believe the promise and he had to act upon it if he were to see it being fulfilled. He had to lay hold of the promise by faith. It is one thing to have a promise it is another thing to act upon that promise in faith.
But then as well as bringing to Joshua a Word of Comfort and a Word of Assurance, God also gave Joshua
(ii) A Word of Instruction
v1 “take the whole army with you and go up and attack Ai…set an ambush (v2) behind the city…”
The victory over Ai was assured but in order for it to be realised Joshua and the people had to once again engage in battle with the enemy. And so God calls Joshua to battle and gives him specific instructions with regards to the tactics he is to use with a view to defeating the enemy. He is to take the WHOLE ARMY and he is TO SET AN AMBUSH. And in all likelihood God gave Joshua the details with regards to the ambush strategy and it is the outworking of those details that we read about in vs 3ff. In other words in engaging the enemy Joshua wasn’t using his own plans and ideas, he was following God’s specific instructions.
Now there are one or two things that I think God was saying here to Joshua in calling him not only to attack Ai again but also in telling him how to attack it.
In the first place in telling them how to attack Ai, I believe God was saying to Joshua and the people
(a) Don’t make the same mistake twice: God says “take the whole army up and attack Ai…” The first time they attacked they took only about 3,000 men and it seems didn’t consult God about the matter. And whilst as we have seen the primary cause of the defeat they suffered was undoubtedly Achan’s sin, it also seems that a secondary cause was carnal presumption on the part of the people. They thought that taking Ai would be no problem. This would be wee buns. This wasn’t much of a city, at least not when compared with Jericho and look how easy Jericho fell. And so it seems that in their first attack on Ai they were depending upon their own strength, their own resources, their own fighting ability and so on. And God comes to Joshua and says – see this time Joshua take the WHOLE ARMY with you. Now had God so chosen he could have said to Joshua, take 10 men with you and I will give you the victory. It was well within God’s power to overthrow Ai with 10 or with five or with none for that matter if he so chose. In making Joshua use the whole army it was a bit like taking out a sledgehammer to kill a wood-lice. In a way it was a somewhat humiliating experience for this great military commander to employ a strategy that involved him using his entire army which outnumbered the inhabitants of Ai by about 50/1. But God had good reason for making Joshua use this strategy. He was in effect saying, don’t make the same mistake twice. Don’t presume upon your own supposed military strength as you did in the first battle. And even the fact that God made them use ambush tactics underscores this point. Ambush tactics!! This was the tactics of deceit. Instead of an outright frontal attack they were to employ tactics that were more readily associated with a weaker force coming against a stronger force, the tactics of stealth and craftiness. The tactics seemed, from a military perspective, foolish. But they were used for a purpose. God was saying don’t make the same mistake twice. Don’t depend upon your own strength. Don’t be presumptuous when you come against the enemy.
But then too in calling them To attack Ai again God was saying to Joshua and the people
(b) Turn the place of defeat into victory – They are called to go back to the place where they experienced defeat. To engage the very same enemy once again. To refight the battle they had lost, and this time to come out victorious.
Brethren God’s word of instruction to Joshua then is a word of instruction to us today. God wants our spiritual defeats to be turned into spiritual victories. He doesn’t want us to run away with our tails between our legs so to speak when we experience a set back or a defeat. He wants us to take up the fight once again. We are not to live with defeat and accept it as the norm in the Christian life. God doesn’t want that Ai of sin in your life to remain unchallenged simply because the last time you tried to deal with it you were not successful. He doesn’t want you to cease from trying to witness to that unbeliever simply because the last time you endeavoured to do so you failed. He doesn’t want us to avoid difficult problems simply because we were not able to overcome them in the past. He doesn’t want his Churches to withdraw from proactively evangelising their community simply because they didn’t make any major inroads as a result of earlier campaigns. He wants us to go back to the place of defeat in order to fight again until we get the victory.
But in seeking to turn our defeats into victories we are not to seek to do so in our own strength and depending upon our own efforts. We are to look to the Lord, follow his instructions and depend upon him to lead us and help us to victory.
So God comes to Joshua with a word of Comfort; Assurance and Instruction. But he comes too you will notice with a
A Word of Beneficence
Look at those words in the middle of verse 2 – “you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves.”
At Jericho they were not allowed to take any of the booty from the battle. God had claimed that for himself. Not because he was a miserly, tight-fisted, stingy God who didn’t want his people to enjoy any of the material benefits associated with victory over their enemies. Not at all. His sole reason for claiming the spoils of Jericho for Himself was to maintain a principle with which Israel were already familiar and which they needed to remember as the began this new era of their history, the principle of the firstfruits. That is the principle of putting God first and honouring him with their substance. The principle of the first-fruits having been asserted, God now demonstrates his beneficence, his generosity, his willingness to open his hand and give freely to his people, by telling them that the spoils of the battle of Ai were theirs for the taking.
How ironic. Achan’s dissatisfaction, unsuppressed by patience and trust in the Lord for his needs, actually caused him to miss precisely what he longed for. As one commentator has put it “If only Achan had suppressed his greedy and selfish desires and obeyed God’s word at Jericho, he would later have had all his hearts desired and God’s blessing too. How easy it is for us to take matters into our own hands and go ahead of the Lord.”
One thinks of the Christian who is keen to find a partner in life and settle down and have a family. They meet someone who is an unbeliever. They are attracted to them. They get on well with them. They see this as the ticket to marital and family happiness, yet they know that God has forbidden such a union. However their desire is such that they ignore God’s command and pursue their own chosen course. All is well for a while perhaps but then the relationship runs into difficulties. Those difficulties escalate and are a source of much sorrow and trouble for the believer. Eventually the relationship breaks down completely. Who knows what might have been if only that believer had obeyed God and waited and refused to take that which god had forbidden them to take. Perhaps God in time would have given them their hearts desire by bringing them into contact with and causing them to fall in love with and marry another believer with whom they would have found true marital and familial happiness.
Oh the folly of running ahead of and disobeying a God who time and time again has shown himself to be so beneficent, so open-handedly generous and kind to those who obey him.
God’s word to Obedient Joshua – It was a Word of COMFORT; ASSURANCE; INSTRUCTION & BENEFICENCE
Notice secondly
2) Joshua’s Obedience to God’s Word
Having received both encouragement and instructions from God, how did Joshua react? Did he say, ‘Look Lord there is no way I am going to lead another attack on that city.’? Did he say ‘Look Lord I am not saying no, but I don’t want to rush into this. Let me think about this for a few days.’? Did he say ‘OK lord I will attack again but your tactics are too complicated. Yes we do need more men than we used the last time. If I take about 25,000 up we will outnumber them 2/1 and we will be sure to overpower them.’? No- Joshua did exactly as God told him.
His response was one of prompt and complete obedience. The promptness of his obedience comes out in v10 “early the next morning Joshua mustered his men and he and the leaders of Israel marched before them to Ai.” It seems that as soon as God had finished speaking to him Joshua then conveyed the plan to the people and the operation was immediately put into effect with the ambush troops moving out that very night under the cover of darkness (3). Then the very next morning he led the main contingent of the army against the city. Prompt Obedience. The Completeness of his obedience is easily discernible as you read the narrative. He did exactly as God had told him. He worked according to God’s plan and to God’s revealed will.
Joshua went back to the place where he had experienced defeat. He employed the means God had told him to use. And in so doing he gained a tremendous victory where once he had experienced a terrible defeat.
Brethren we have all experienced defeat in our Christian lives and no doubt, because we are not yet perfect, we will yet experience other defeats. But defeats can be turned into victories. Failures can be turned into successes. In order for that to happen we need to face up again to that which defeated us and depending upon God’s strength and following God’s instructions, promptly and completely, we need to do battle once again until we prevail.
he is not the best Christian or the best general who makes the fewest mistakes…but he is the best who wins the most splendid victories by the retrieval of mistakes. Forget mistakes; organise victories out of mistakes.”
