Joshua 7:1-26 – Here Comes Trouble
Today we continue our journey through Joshua. The whole book is about taking new territory. As Christians, God leads us on a journey, a walk into new places. Some people never get out and stretch their spiritual legs. They are still the same people as they were ages ago, and they still do all the same stuff. They never try to increase their prayer life. They never try to increase their Bible reading intake. They never read a new book about spiritual things. They are still very much the same. They have stagnated.
Last week we saw how Joshua and the Israelites conquered the massive city of Jericho. But there was a problem. God told the Israelites to keep the valuables, putting them in the Lord’s treasury, and to destroy everything else. Well, one man disobeyed, and the consequences were pretty severe. Let me say: sin will cost you spiritual victory. Let’s read 7:1-26.
Joshua thought that they had been doing quite well. The river was crossed, the city of Jericho was taken, and no casualties yet. He thought he was doing quite well in this leadership thing. He thought he knew what to do, and he thought he was doing it well. You can almost see a swelling head growing on top of his shoulders. Kind of like when we think we’ve got a situation under control.
But then, something happened. He said, “Let’s take a small army and do this thing!” But the Israelites got routed. The men of Ai defeated them soundly, to the point that the hearts of the Israelites melted like water. Here was Jericho, bigger than Ai, beaten easily. But then, here was Ai, beating them.
Well, this drove Joshua to his knees. He went off into the desert to spend time with His commander-in-chief in prayer. And what God revealed to him that day, he likely never forgot again. It was a turning point for the children of Israel, and it would be a turning point for us in our faith journeys. Let’s look to see what God did that day.
Well, before that, what Joshua did was pretty important too. He realized that there had been a loss. We need to realize it, too, when we lose. When we fail and drop. When we miss out and mess up. When we don’t have what we used to have. What Joshua did is what we need to do too. When we suffer a loss in our spiritual lives, we need to go to God in prayer. But, as we shall see, that is certainly not the end of it.
So Joshua prayed. But he listened too. He laid out his complaint before the Lord. He said, “What on earth were You thinking when You brought us out here?” He questioned God’s wisdom in bringing the Israelites to Canaan in the first place. He was brutally honest with God.
Before I go any further in the story, I must say, losing 36 out of 3000 isn’t a huge number. If you were in a war, and you lost 36, about 1% of your troops, you would not be devastated. The cost of war is high. But the loss crushed them because they knew they could do better.
And you know, picking up the pieces after a failure is often harder than the failure itself. The thoughts of, “Why, oh why, did I do that? I know better.” The thoughts of, “I thought this issue was taken care of.” The thoughts of, “How do I pick up the pieces and move on from here?” The self-inflicted guilt is worse than conviction. Conviction comes from the Lord, and wants us to come back. Guilt comes from Satan, and wants to keep us from praying and seeking forgiveness.
So Joshua was having a hard time with his emotions on this, and was letting God know it. Now, I have to say, without being disrespectful, it’s OK to yell at God. I didn’t say curse Him. I didn’t say cover up your feelings, either. I really think it’s OK to be honest with Him. Tell Him how you feel. Let Him know that things don’t look too good from where you’re sitting. Pour out your heart. Don’t be too afraid if what you’re saying sounds like bad theology. Just spill it out. He’s certainly big enough to handle it.
But what makes Joshua different from atheists, say, turned off from God because they don’t like what He does, Joshua stuck around long enough to listen for an answer. I’m not saying that God will always give you an answer. He won’t solve all the issues in life, like, “Why did he/she have to die?” But if there’s something He wants you to do about it, He’ll let you know. And that’s what He did for Joshua.
God listened, and then God spoke. Joshua talked, and then Joshua shut up. Part of your prayer life is knowing when to shut up and let God speak back to you. Don’t neglect this. God told Joshua the reason for his loss.
Basically, God showed 4 reasons for the loss. 1) They underestimated the strength of the enemy. The thought they could handle the men from Ai by themselves. We often underestimate what our enemy is capable of, too. 2) They overestimated the strength of their own army. They thought they could handle whatever came at them. As good as they were, they couldn’t do it. And neither can we. We all need God’s help.
The 3rd reason God gave for their loss was that 3) they presumed on the Lord—they took Him for granted. They were so busy figuring out how to beat them that they didn’t take time to find out if they should. We do that. We rush into things that we think are good and useful. But it doesn’t work. We fail miserably. And we blame God for letting it happen to us, and we stop trying to do good things.
Well, the 4th reason was the one that God wanted the most to deal with. 4) One of their own had sinned. God withheld victory from the whole group because one, Achan, a name which means “trouble”, had sinned. Now, I don’t know how far this principle goes in modern days. I don’t know if a board member’s sin would automatically affect only a casual attender’s walk with the Lord, or if an usher’s sin would affect a board member, or if a Sunday school teacher’s sin would automatically affect regular church attenders. I don’t know if there is always a direct connection.
But I do know that one person’s sin does affect others. If I fell into sexual sin, how would that affect this church? If an usher left his wife for another woman, that would affect us all. Even if the results aren’t as dramatic as what Achan cost the Israelites, one believer’s sin affects the rest of us too.
And the Lord wanted Joshua to deal with it. So Joshua had talked, Joshua had listened, and now it was time for Joshua to get up and do something. Listen: when disobedience is the problem, what you need is less prayer and more obedience. When you already know what you need to do, prayer as a means of stalling is not going to cut it. You need to act in obedience.
And Joshua did. He followed the Lord’s instructions. He found out who was the culprit, the thief. It was Achan. Look at how Achan described his actions: v21 – he saw, he wanted, he took, he hid. It all sounds pretty innocent. Look at what God thought of it. V1 says He was angry. V11 says Israel violated the covenant. They took, stole, lied and hid. V15 says they did a disgraceful thing. So, what was fairly innocent in one man’s eyes was horrible in God’s.
And God must deal with us and the sin in our lives. He deals with us as a loving Father and, as John 15 points out, as the Vine Dresser, but He nevertheless deals with us. He prunes us and shapes us, and sometimes this is a painful process. Nonetheless, He works to get the sin out of our lives.
Kay Arthur, a Christian author, put it this way: If you tolerate sin in your life, that sin will not only take you farther than you wanted to go, it will keep you longer than you wanted to stay and it will cost you more than you thought you’d pay. And that’s why God wants to deal with it.
Sin will steal your spiritual victory right from underneath your nose. Sin will often slip in right after a victory. In fact, I could say that a believer is never in greater danger of a fall than after a victory. We’re so prone to drop our guard and begin to trust in ourselves or in our past victories rather than the Lord. 1 Corinthians 10:12 says, “If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!”
It happened to Peter in Matthew 16. In one breath he declared Jesus to be the Son of God, and in the next breath he said that Jesus shouldn’t die. In one moment he spoke the words from God, and in the next the words from Satan. It happened to Elijah. What a victory on Mt. Carmel over the false prophets. But then, he turned and ran because the queen threatened his life. And here in Joshua. A victory at Jericho led to a defeat at Ai. Listen: just when you think things are OK – you’re on a high after camp or a good service or something – Satan can come in and rob you of that.
When you underestimate the strength of the enemy, and think Satan can’t touch you, you will fall. When you overestimate your own strength, and think you can do anything you want, you will fall. When you presume on the Lord, and take Him for granted, and believe that your previous accomplishments are good enough, you will fall. And when you allow stealing and lusting and wanting what you cannot have and hiding and lying into your life, you will fall. You will lose your victory.
And you can’t just pray it all better either. Pray, yes. But listen too. And when God tells you what to do, you’d better do it. You will not get away with it for long.
I read this story. It shows that you just can’t escape from consequences. Because of a minor infraction, a shipmate of mine aboard the USS Reeves, bound for Japan, was busted one rank, fined and given extra duty for three weeks.
Looking forward to celebrating his 21st birthday on July 22, he consoled himself every night during his extra duty by reciting, "They can bust me, they can fine me -- but they can’t take away my birthday."
As July 22 approached, his excitement increased. When he went to bed on July 21, he happily repeated, "They can bust me, they can fine me -- but they can’t take away my birthday."
The next morning, he found out that the ship had crossed the international date line -- and it was July 23.
