Praise the Lord!
Let me ask you, are you still on course for VICTORY!?
It is a...
NEW DAY WITH NEW DIRECTION!!!
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Now, we left off last week talking about how we tend to take life into our own hands.
-And, instead of seeking the Lord’s complete will for our lives...
-We actually do what SEEMS RIGHT IN OUR OWN EYES, which is not advisable.
When we talked about that last time, you will remember that I made a specific reference to Joshua doing that himself...doing WHAT SEEMED RIGHT IN HIS OWN EYES.
-He did that when he received the Gibeonites (after being deceived by them) as servants for Israel; when they were actually enemies running scared for their lives.
-At this point, Joshua made a MISTAKE!
How many know that when we do WHAT SEEMS RIGHT
IN OUR OWN EYES, we tend to MAKE MISTAKES???
Well, let’s read our text...Joshua 9:14-15 & Joshua 9:18b-21
Romans 8:28, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."
PRAYER
INTRODUCTION:
"The way that seems right unto man..." will at times lead to certain...
Mistakes...
Boo-boos...
Accidents...
Blunders...
Slip-ups...
Oversights...
Mis-steps...
Faux pas...
Errors...
Blooper...
Mishaps...
Flub-ups...
Church, no matter what you call them, the truth is that we are all subject to make them.
Then, we are prone to want to cover them up and not own up to them.
Why?
Because we all want to be right.
And, we want others to think that we are always right too.
ILLUSTRATION:
The intent is found in this saying I am sure we have all heard, "I thought I was wrong once, but I was mistaken."
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But, that was not the case here in Joshua...
In fact, Joshua actually...
POINT ONE: ENLISTED THE ENEMY
Israel actually made a pact with the Gibeonites.
And now, they were (what we could call) "sleeping with the enemy."
And, it doesn’t really matter just HOW they came to realize that they were duped; but the truth is that they had enlisted the enemy into their camp by making a pact with them!
-Unbelievable!
-Can anyone say, "Oops!"
Have you ever had an "oops" experience in your life?
If you have, then you have learned that it really doesn’t matter HOW it happened.
-But what matters, is that you learn something from it, and safeguard against it happening again.
Because the fact is that YOU CAN’T CHANGE IT!
It is what it is, right?
And, no matter HOW it happened (like Joshua
discovered) there was certainly a new humility now, as well as maybe some embarrassment that came with it.
-How many have been there, and done that?
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Now, something that we must do if we find ourselves in a situation like this is...
Live up to it, and own it.
And, we must give the leaders credit for being men of their word.
They did this.
Unlike most today...
When we make mistakes we immediately want to blame others for it, and try to find a way out of complete blame for the blunder.
We say things like,
-"I was mis-led!"
-"If I only knew..."
-Sound familiar?
ILLUSTRATION:
Remember Adam & Eve in the garden?
Eve took the fruit and ate it, then gave it to her husband, and he ate it. Sin had begun, and the earth is now cursed!
God comes to meet with them, as was common, and they are nowhere to be found. God asks where they were, and why have they hidden?
Genesis 3:12-13, "And the man said, ’The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.’ [13] Then the Lord God said to the woman, ’What is this you have done?’ And the woman said, ’The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’"
Can anyone say, "Blame Game?"
That is what we do, isn’t it?
When instead, we should do what Joshua and the leaders did...LIVE UP TO IT, OWN IT, & TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR IT!
-That is such a problem for people today.
-Ellaborate on the example that the students in Teen Challenge gave us in their testimonies.
Joshua owned up to his blunder, and he deserves a little credit for being a man of his word.
In fact, he upheld the name of the Lord too!
And guess what...so do you!!!! (at least, you should!)
If Joshua was God’s man, who was making decisions on the Lord’s behalf, then it was as if God were making those promises too.
-He represented the Lord!
-And, so do you. THEREFORE, we should be men and women of our word!
James 5:12, "But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but let your yes be yes, and your no, no; so that you may not fall under judgment."
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Live up to it, and own it.
Represent the Lord well.
This is the aspect of life that we often forget.
What am I getting at?
You see...Joshua made a MISTAKE, yes.
However, to violate their oath would have been to take the holy name of Jehovah in vain, and this would have brought about divine judgment. (and it did later)
ILLUSTRATION:
This did happen years later...
The Bible tells us that years later King Saul, in his zeal for Israel, violated this oath with the Gibeonites and had them all killed; and God judged the nation severely with a 3 Year Famine -2 Samuel 21.
Well, military leaders of lesser character than Joshua might have argued that "all’s fair in love and war" and forced the Gibeonites to divulge information that would help him conquer their city.
-But, instead, when the Jewish army arrived at Gibeon and the neighboring cities, they didn’t attack them.
*Because they held to the Lord by living up to their word, in spite of the consequences...
Church, in spite of our consequences for our mistakes, we must still own it, and live up to the name of the Lord by being men and women of our word!
-Why? Because we REPRESENT the Lord!!!
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So, we Live up to it, and Own it.
Represent the Lord well.
Bear the Consequences.
Most of us want to save face, so we keep things from others, and hide, and play the blame game.
And, of course, the Jewish people grumbled at what their leaders had done?
1-Because this covenant with Gibeon would cost the soldiers dearly, in plunder, that they would never get from these protected cities.
2-Furthermore, the Gibeonites, and their neighbors, might influence the Jews with their pagan practices and lead them away from the Lord.
So, a mistake, this certainly was...and a BIG one with some large consequences!
But, it’s easy to criticize, and easier so, after the fact!
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But that wasn’t the end of the story!
Joshua and his associates teach us an important lesson: If you make a mistake, admit it; and then make your mistake work for you!
So, the leaders put the Gibeonites to work hauling water and fuel for the service of the tabernacle, where both water and wood were used in abundance.
In fact, in the later years the Gibeonites were called the Nethinim ("given ones" = given to assist the priests) and labored as servants in the temple...
-1 Chronicles 9:2, Ezra 2:43, 58 & Nehemiah 3:26
So that, in Joshua 10, we shall see that God overruled Joshua’s mistake, and used it to give him a single victory over five kings at one time!!!
-All because He OWNED he mistake.
-He remembered that he REPRESENTED the Lord.
-He dealt with the CONSEQUENCES.
-And, he saw how the Lord could work out all things for His good, because he was called according to Him purposes!!!
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Church, look with me to this one verse again, we know it well!
Romans 8:28, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."
Because this is so familiar to us all, it doesn’t need a lot of explanation...
But, the truth is that life is not always easy.
And, the fact is that we sometimes make mistakes, and do some things wrong.
Or, things just simply happen to us that is no fun, and come unprompted by our actions.
Now, Paul is writing to us to tell us over-comers something special...
That we children of God must endure suffering, as good soldiers of Christ, in this life.
-And, in spite of the afflictions...trials...and persecutions, God will bring good out of them all!
-But, another way to see this is that God is working in us, through this stuff, to conform in us the image that He sees best fit in us!
*It is about THE WORK that is being accomplished IN US!
And the passage says, "In all things!"
Romans 8:28, "And we know that God causes all things to work..."
-Those "all things" include our mistakes...our negligence...our ignorances...etc.
*HEAR ME IN THIS! This is not to excuse our sins, but to know that when we blunder, God can still under-take for our benefit!!!
Praise the Lord!
Do you need that today?
Romans 8:28, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."
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To transition real quickly, into Chapter 10
I want us to see something before I close things this morning...
Because of this mistake that Joshua had made, he was no longer just "sleeping with the enemy", but he was also put into a position of...
POINT TWO: DEFENDING THE ENEMY
The truth is that when you make agreements with the enemy, you need to expect to pay a price in having to defend them in order to protect yourself.
-And that is one good reason why God’s people must remain separated from the world.
2 Corinthians 6:14-18, "Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? [15] Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? [16] Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, ’I will DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. [17] Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate, says the Lord. And do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome you. [18] And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me, says the Lord Almighty.’"
Church, I wonder whether Paul had Joshua in mind when he wrote, "No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please Him who enlisted him as a soldier." 2 Timothy 2:4
I don’t know, but that is exactly where we are at!
-We can’t be entangled!
-We can’t be like everyone else!
-We have to be separated so that we can be more effective!
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Well, in any event, here is Joshua, and Israel...mistake and all.
And, because of their agreement with Gibeon, Gibeon’s allies were now their enemies.
So now, the king of Jerusalem, heard what the Gibeonites had done and announced that these traitors had to be punished.
-And, it was important for the Canaanites to recover that key city, even if they had to take it by force.
-And, four other Canaanite kings allied with Adoni-zedek, and their combined armies encamped before Gibeon.
*The poor Gibeonites had made peace with the invaders and were now at war with their former allies!
SIDE NOTE:
Matthew 6:24, "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."
Just to let us know that we can’t think we have ever made it just right.
We are mistaken to think we can just rest in life.
As this confederation of armies and kings assembled, God in heaven must have laughed [Psalm 2:1-4], because unknown to them, He was using these events to accomplish His own purposes.
Instead of having to defeat these five city states one by one, He would help Joshua conquer them all at one time!
That is just how we must see things.
God is working out His will in the midst of this mistake! And He can!
ILLUSTRATION:
Just as God used the defeat at Ai to form a battle plan for victory over Ai.
So also He used Joshua’s mistake with the Gibeonites to protect Gibeon and accelerate the conquest of Canaan.
TRUTH:
The mistakes we make embarrass us, especially those mistakes that are caused by our running ahead of the Lord and not seeking His will.
But we need to remember that no mistake is final for the dedicated Christian!!!
God can use even our blunders to accomplish His purposes.
ILLUSTRATION:
Somebody defined success as "the art of making your mistakes when nobody’s looking."
But, a better definition would be "the art of seeing victory where other people see only defeat."
God was about to do something for Joshua and the Israelites, even Gibeon!
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Joshua calls to the Lord -Joshua 10:8-15
Three factors combined to give Joshua success in this attack.
#1 - The promise!
The Jews didn’t have to be afraid because God had already promised them victory!
-And, it didn’t go anywhere...
When we make mistakes, we tend to think that we have ruined the good things of God for us (don’t take this as a license)
-But, when we make a mistake we begin to immediately think...
-Jesus loves me, this I know...GONE!
-I know the plans that I have for you, for a future and a hope...GONE!
-But, that is not necessarily the case.
God’s promises of victory had encouraged Joshua when he became leader of the nation.
When he anticipated attacking Jericho.
And when he attacked Ai after a humiliating defeat.
Plus, we know the end of the story...it got them to the end of the challenge!
AND! God’s promises would be fulfilled because, "there has not failed one word of all His good promise" -1 Kings 8:56
So, the PROMISE doesn’t change with God!
It will take faith, and try it, but it is still there!
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#2 - The strategy!
Now, if the PROMISE is about FAITH.
Then, the STRATEGY is about ACTION.
Faith apart from works is dead...
And Joshua proved his faith by using wise strategy.
He ordered an all-night march and a surprise attack on the enemy army.
-A strategy he had used before when attacking Ai.
Now, it was a long trek from Gilgal to Gibeon, and the road was uphill; but Joshua assembled his troops and made the journey as quickly as possible.
-No doubt the men were weary when they arrived.
-But the Lord was with them and gave them victory!
What kept the soldiers going?
-They believed God’s promise and knew that the victory was assured.
Then, God assisted the weary Jewish soldiers by killing the enemy army with large hailstones.
-The timely occurrence of the storm was itself a miracle, but an even greater miracle was the fact that the stones hit only the enemy soldiers.
Listen, when God’s people are obeying God’s will, everything in the universe works for them.
-But, we said they made a mistake.
-They did, but remember that they faced it, owned it, and have moved on from there.
It is if they would have wormed out of their commitment, and if they disobeyed God’s will...everything would have worked against them.
-Jonah is a vivid illustration of this truth...
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#3 - The prayer!
Well, the miracle of the hailstorm was nothing compared to the miracle of extending the day so that Joshua could finish the battle and secure a complete victory over the enemy!
-His men were weary and the task was great; and if night came on, the enemy could escape.
-Joshua needed a special act from God to enable him to claim the victory the Lord had promised.
-This is the last miracle recorded in Joshua and certainly the greatest.
Proof positive that even after making a mistake...God STILL works on our behalf!!!
So, even though you might have to take some battles on because of your mistakes, it doesn’t mean that the Lord is not there to help you to accomplish that just the same!
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AS WE CLOSE:
I want us to note something that Joshua did...
At the end of an incredible battle, Joshua performed a public ceremony that gave encouragement and strength to his soldiers.
-Their past victories had given them control over the central part of the land, but now they faced campaigns in both the south and the north of Palestine.
-"Divide and conquer" was Joshua’s strategy, and it worked!
*And, Joshua wanted to remind his men that the Lord would give them victory throughout the land.
Then, knowing that the five kings were trapped in a cave, Joshua led his men in the "mopping up" operation.
-The next day, Joshua ordered the kings to be taken from the cave and put on the ground, their faces in the dirt.
-This humiliating posture announced that Joshua had won a total victory and their end had come.
-He called for his officers to put their feet on the necks of the kings, symbolic not only of the past victory but also of the victories the Lord would give His people in the days ahead.
-The kings were slain and the five corpses hung on five trees until sundown.
-Then their bodies were put into the cave, with a pile of stones closing up the entrance.
*This pile of stones was another monument in the land speaking of the power and victory of the Lord.
Joshua then makes this declaration...
Joshua 10:25, "Joshua then said to them, ’Do not fear or be dismayed! Be strong and courageous, for thus the Lord will do to all your enemies with whom you fight.’"
-Oh, how this repeated statement must have thrilled their souls!
Church, the enemy IS under our feet!!!!
As you review the whole episode of Joshua and the Gibeonites, you can’t help but be both warned and encouraged.
-These events warn us to be alert and prayerful lest the enemy deceive us and we start walking by sight instead of by faith.
*Then we will find ourselves making decisions that are wrong and getting into alliances that are dangerous.
-But there’s also a word of encouragement: God can take even our blunders and turn them into blessings.
*This isn’t an excuse for carelessness, but it is a great encouragement when you’ve failed the Lord and His people.
Be encouraged friends...Jesus has overcome the world!!!
Even if you have made a few bloopers...God is still there for you!!!
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Listen, you may have blundered and bloopered, but God still loves you!
Think of the Gibeonites, and how we maybe should respond to the Lord today.
In spite of their paganism, these Gibeonites are a good example for people to follow today.
When they knew they were headed for destruction, they came to Joshua ("Jehovah is Savior") and obtained from him a promise of protection.
-Oh, that sinners would realize their plight and turn to Jesus Christ by faith!
When the Gibeonites found themselves in danger, they believed Joshua’s promise and called on him for help.
-That’s what God’s people need to do when they find themselves facing the battles of life.
The Gibeonites turned the whole burden over to Joshua and trusted him to keep his word, and he did.
And God will keep His word to you friends, God doesn’t make any oops!
