Defeat at Ai (Part B)

There is a time when God says to man, stop praying and get to work. And this is the time in Joshua's life. The first time in Scripture is not the last time. Exodus chapter 14, when the Jews are crossing the Red Sea, Yahweh said to Moses, Why do you cry to me? Tell the children of Israel, go forward.

Some people are just constantly asking God what to do. He says, I can't tell you anymore. I've already told you what to do.

You won't do that. What am I supposed to do? Okay, I'll tell you something.

Go do what I told you to do last time. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Joshua.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio. Specifically, how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Today, Pastor Rick continues his study called Defeat at Ai as he goes through Joshua chapter 7. It's sort of like in the New Testament. We don't read about all of the shortcomings of the apostles. Not like we read about the shortcomings of the prophets and kings in the book in the Old Testament. And, you know, even the great powerful prophet Elijah running for his life.

You know, just kill me. The Bible records those things. But you come to the New Testament and the only person that really kept messing up was Peter as far as the apostles go. And how many lessons come out of that? Talk about why God records this and that, why he does it the way he does it. Well, the record is there.

It's for him to know and for us to find out. He says, therefore the hearts of the people in verse 5 melted and became like water. Well, how quickly, how quickly we do crumble and poorly we handle setbacks. I mean, imagine just backing your truck up into a pole or something. Well, hitting one out in a parking lot. I mean, the first person I went to and I banged my truck bumper was God. Lord, why? Why did you let me hit that?

Well, I don't have a driver's license. You do. It's just, it was involuntary. Because, you know, the people of God were always talking to him and he's just a part of everything that goes wrong.

In some way or another. So we show our faith by the way we bear undesirable things. And you would like to see in this case that they strengthen themselves in the Lord. That would have been the ideal first response.

It just would not have been human. Even David when, of course, he was off fighting in Ziklag and the camp was raided by the Amalekites and they come back. They wept till there was no strength. They wanted to stone David.

And then David strengthened himself in the Lord. He recovered. And they're going to recover.

But again, more lessons for us for when we take hits. Usually the initial response is complete breakdown. Our hearts become melted like water and then we regroup.

Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of Yahweh until evening. He and the elders of Israel and they put dust on their heads. This is leadership's response. It is a proper response. They go to the Lord. Instead of saying what we need are more troops and let's go at it again.

We can do this boys. No, they go to God and they're very serious. They get to God and they are. Just talk about my soul follows hard after you as it says in the Psalms.

It says until evening. We're not sure of the starting point but the implication is they were there a long time. Joshua is devastated by this. Coming off the great victory, all the concerns he had about how to take Jericho, then taking Jericho, trusting his intelligence reports. We can take this place and he's all of this is going as his 36 families now without a father or brother or whatever the case may be and he's just devastated. But he's not by himself. There are others that are with Joshua and they're not saying how could you do this?

Why did you listen to them? No, they're right there with him before the Lord. This makes I guess it's so shameful when we as Christians don't behave this way.

The lessons are here. I love that these men were not turning on Joshua. That they said, okay, let's just go to the Lord together. Verse 7 and Joshua said, we'll pause there. Just like they said, anybody's against you Joshua. Remember in chapter 1 the Reubenites and two and a half tribes. Anybody that messes with you gonna mess with us.

We're going to deal with them. Well here they are living up to the promise as a people. Verse 7 and Joshua said, alas Lord Yahweh. Why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us? Oh that we had been content and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan. So this devastation that I mentioned that is evident in verse 6. It's just, it's just outpouring from this great man of God.

What did you do to us? He's not the only one. Jeremiah will do the same thing. I mean he's not the only one in the Bible that says, God what is happening here? And he's not the only one, you're not the only one in the church that has messed up things in your life from time to time. And you're going to God and say, what is going on?

What about all the promises? I just heard a sermon on how you, you know, I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil and I'm trembling here. Well, alas, exclamatory, expresses pain.

How could this be? There's a sob in that word, alas. The great regret, a lot of emotions are just all over the place by what God had allowed to happen to them. Joshua says, what do we do? He's going to find out. And he doesn't say when he finds out, as I would have said, why didn't you tell us before the fight?

Why didn't you hold that back? Joshua will not talk back to God that way. He wanted no part of the defeat. If the Lord was with him, he just couldn't, he couldn't make heads or tails out of this whole thing.

And he felt no doubt, as any leader would feel, a parent would feel responsible somehow. This is my fault. And that's not always true. Sometimes it is and sometimes it's your fault, but so what? We've got to still resolve this thing. No sense in crying over spilled chocolate milk. Alright, that's the first corny one of the night. I'm allowed one.

Pastors zero. Anyway. Oh, that we had been content and dwelt on the other side of Jordan. Again, you can't miss the hurt, the pathos in that. If I knew then what I know now, I never would have crossed this Jordan. Yes, you would have, Joshua, because you've got that kind of man with the Lord. You can tell yourself whatever you want.

You would have crossed over. You can say, I'm going to retire. I'm done with all of this.

No, you're not. You're going to do just what God tells you to do because you're that kind of man or that kind of woman in the Lord. And so, God is going to let him just let it out.

God lets Joshua just run with it. Get it out, kid. That's right. Get it out.

After you get it out, get up. That's where this is going. And he doesn't know, you know, what's going to happen. On the other side of the river, the past was certain. He knew what he had.

It's done. But on this side, he doesn't know what's coming. It's not true in either way because on the other side of the river, there would have been struggles there also. And so this extremely discouraged, just a breath away from faithlessness and not wanting to go any go forward anymore. And that's what his words are saying. We could have stayed on the other side.

A genuine case of discouragement. It's enough to blind us to God, his will, his plan, his character, his presence as our commander. God doesn't say to him, and I'm sure Joshua wasn't outside, somewhere in his head it was there, would come up eventually, but God doesn't say, no, wait a minute, don't you remember me standing with the sword out and take off the sandal on your shoe and you bowing down, don't you remember that?

Yeah, and I remember that, all right, but you were supposed to use that sword at Ai 2. Verse 8, oh Lord, what shall I say when Israel turns its back before its enemies? What a valid question. What uses faith if it can't be trusted, if it's just a philosophy? What uses it if it ends up bringing shame? We're supposed to be God's people, God's instruments of judgment, and yet we're defeated. Well, he's unaware of the unjudged sin. Verse 9, he says, for the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear it and surround us and cut off our name from the earth. Then what will you do for your great name? So is that not so true to how we can think, the what ifs, the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear it and they're going to surround us, they're going to cut off our name. But it's valid, all of it is valid, you can't say, well Joshua, where did you get a notion like that? Ai, that's where I got a notion like that.

It was only 36. Well, not to Joshua, these were precious lives, this was a big deal. Alan Redpath in this section, he suggests that there were three reasons for the defeat at Ai. Prayerlessness, self-confidence, and disobedience. Well, as much as I admire Alan Redpath and have learned a lot and still do from him, I disagree with two of the three. The prayerlessness, that was sort of encapsulated in the mission, they were in the will of God.

I don't detect that, and the disobedience, well that was there on Achan's part, and you know, it's okay to disagree with Alan Redpath, it's not okay to disagree with me, but it's okay to do it. It is, and that's, you know, Christians need to learn that. Many Christians think that the pastor and them have to agree on every single thing from what kind of dixie cup you drink out of to, you know, who's on the throne of God? Well, God, that's why it's the throne of God. But anyway, verse 10, so Yahweh said to Joshua, get up, why do you lie thus on your face? Again, this is probably why I don't hear God ask me these kind of questions, because he'd have to smack me upside my head.

Not that I would plan to be rude, but I would say something like, when he says, why do you lie on your face? Because you just let us get defeated, that's why, we just went over this, let me say it again, and that would be it for me. So, there is a time when God says to man, stop praying and get to work, and this is the time in Joshua's life.

Isn't that the first time the inscription is not the last time? Exodus chapter 14, when the Jews are crossing the Red Sea, Yahweh said to Moses, why do you cry to me? Tell the children of Israel, go forward. Some people are just constantly asking God what to do, and he says, I can't tell you anymore, I've already told you what to do, you won't do that, what am I supposed to do?

Okay, I'll tell you something, go do what I told you to do last time. Some folks have maybe an application for the children's ministry sitting on their counter for a year or two. God is saying, put the application in. Alright, that was a recruitment note, might as well throw the ushers in too, in case anybody, anyway, prayer is always good in its place, but this is not now the time for prayer. He had to say, and God abruptly ends the prayer session, he's not rude, he's just abrupt ending, he can do that, it's time to deal, and unsparingly with the judgment that has to fall in house. And so again, if you're just a prayer warrior, and that's all you are, and you can be more, something's not right.

If sometimes there are those, that's all they can be, their health is poor, and they really can't do much else, prayer is very much needed by such characters as that. Well, anyway, we've got to get up and face the music, face whatever we have to deal with, there comes a time when you've got to face it, and that's where it has come for Joshua, and why should God speak to those who refuse to stand, incidentally? He says to Joshua, stand up, get up, what if Joshua said, I'm not getting up?

He said, well that doesn't happen, well it does kind of happen, remember Jacob wrestled, I won't let you go till you bless me. I love that God does not ask us to be robots, but sometimes I wish he gave me enough strength to be like a robot. Ezekiel chapter 2, and he said to me, son of man, stand on your feet and I will speak to you, so there he does it with Ezekiel. Peter says, therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully on the grace that is brought to you through the revelation of Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul, when he was saved, so he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what do you want me to do? And then the Lord said to him, arise, or get up, and go into the city and you will be told what you must do. And then Acts 22, Paul again telling the story about his conversion, he says, God speaking to him, now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins calling on the name of the Lord. And then Psalm 25 verse 2, oh my God, I trust in you, let me not be ashamed, let not my enemies triumph over me.

Okay, God says, but you're going to have to get up and be part of this too. Verse 11, and this is, these are, we're going verse by verse, expository verse by verse, these are topical verses, these are verses you'd like to take and spend more time on them. Verse 11, Israel has sinned, God speaking to Joshua, this is news to Joshua, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. Well they have even taken some of the accursed things and have both stolen and deceived.

They have also put it among their own stuff. Well God again commanded Israel not to take any of the spoil from Jericho and so they will be allowed to loot Ai and other places but not again the first fruits belonged to God. And this hidden unconfessed, unjudged sin of course weakened them. And it will weaken us too if we have unconfessed, unjudged, undealt with sin, it will weaken us when it comes time to cross swords with the enemy, that's a profound part of this lesson. And I'm not emphasizing that too much because I'm of the mind that most of this congregation gets that, we get that, and I don't need to like clobber us with it.

Maybe in another environment you'd have to drive that point home but that's a good thing, a pastor can say that about his congregation and hopefully they can say that about him. Anyway, for they have, I'm still in verse 11, for they have both stolen and deceived. They have also put it among their own stuff. Now he's speaking plural, they, I thought it was Achan, it was his family too. Achan, his hands, they laid whole of the item that belonged to God but his family became an accomplice in the deal. Achan's going to say I buried this in my tent, well the whole family knew that and no one spoke up and God is very serious about this, reminds us of Sapphire and Ananias in the New Testament and he says among their own stuff.

Well what belongs to God does not belong amongst our stuff, not in this case, I mean he's kind enough, my office is his but he lets me put my stuff in there. But there are other places where it's just for him and this is the case, Israel has sinned and they have also transgressed my covenant, bottom of verse 11. Again sin means that you disobeyed what God said, a commandment of God, transgressed, you've crossed a God-set boundary, you're where you don't belong and the two sins committed here of name by God, stealing and deception, it's also ties into putting family before God.

That is what the accomplices were doing, we know what God said, we know what you did, this is a lot of money, we're going to be doing pretty good in the promised land after we get through with these wars. Luke chapter 14, that is a very uncomfortable, if you love your family and you hear this verse, it's a wake up call, okay you can love them a lot, just don't love them more. If you say well it was very hard, I got the baby right here in front, look how cute they are, innocent, God says I understand but you do too. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father, mother, wife, children, brothers and sisters, yes in his own life also he cannot be my disciple. Comparatively, our love for God is to be so strong compared to everything else's hatred, it's hyperbole, it's exaggeration because it makes its point. And when you read that verse, I think it's one of the verses in the Bible you never forget, that's how powerful the hyperbole is and we're not supposed to. And so how many parents have said to the Lord, this is your child as much as I love them but they are yours.

And that is very doable, I've seen it, I've seen it in hospitals and sick beds by parents and maybe you have to. Verse 12, therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies but turn their backs before their enemies because they have become doomed to destruction. Neither will I be with you anymore unless you destroy the accursed from among you.

That's pretty powerful. They were supposed to be the Jews, God's instrument of judgment on those who were judged. Well God could not reward his instruments of judgment if they themselves needed to be judged.

That's the point, I'm giving you this land. God has used other people's on other people's for judgment but not rewarding them and telling everybody I'm rewarding them. But the Jews are unique, God is saying to them the Canaanites are so bad I'm using you to drive them out and you don't be like them. And so here we have one, the seed, we have this seed planted in the nation and God says I won't stomach it, not for one moment.

I cannot justify using the disobedient to cast out the disobedient and reward them for their disobedience at the same time. That's the message, verse 13, so he says again and when he repeats himself it's very serious and doesn't mean it's terrifying, it's just no nonsense. Get up, sanctify the people, verse 13, and say sanctify yourself for tomorrow because thus says Yahweh God of Israel, there is an accursed thing in your midst, O Israel, you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you. There's nothing about that verse that is confusing, there's nothing in that verse that sends me to the Hebrew.

I can get it all right out of the English. Get up and set yourself apart. There is an accursed thing in your midst and you're not dealing with it and you have to deal with it or you can't stand before the adversary. For us, adversary, Satan. And how he uses the world in the flesh against us, we will not be able to stand.

So he says don't lie there. The sanctify, ready your heart, he's saying to Joshua, get your heart ready, get it ready and right. And this is probably one of the things, I don't know how you can't fix this, you say you go to a service and you have a pastor speak and it's an anointed message and everybody can feel it and then five minutes later everybody's out in the parking lot and everything's forgotten, often. Fortunately, God knows how to retrieve the moment and he gives us flashbacks. And so as we're doing something during the week, the Holy Spirit brings something back our way.

Those are the things that are building blocks. That's what contributes to us being stronger and better at being Christians. And it is often a fight because we have other passions. You know, one of the rookie mistakes I didn't get to is you can't serve two masters. You can't have two passions and expect to passionately serve either one of them. You'll love the one you'll hate, there's going to be a conflict of interest, of devotion, of energy, of time.

You can't do it. And God demands that we the only God, the only God that we have is him. And you have no other gods before me. Unlike Rehoboam, who did not prepare his heart and we know his life, one of the dumbest men in the Bible is Rehoboam. Second Chronicles 12, 14.

And he did evil because he did not prepare his heart to seek Yahweh. And so we are blessed at this time. We have music and a company of music on a Sunday morning and we try to reduce the noise around the environment and folks come into the sanctuary and it seems to me that they are preparing their heart. Now that does not mean everybody who's not in there is not preparing their heart. It just makes the point that this is something we still do.

It is good. It is some of, I still can remember being in the lobby years ago and seeing a couple pull up and they were going at it. I mean they weren't swinging at each other yet. And then she gets up and it's like, oh man, it just hurts you to see that. That's not how you go to church or go from church. We are always trying to be perfect in the midst of imperfect circumstances, events and all the other junk that our flesh can throw at us. And yet God just keeps saying, get up.

There's work to be done. He says, and sanctify yourselves for tomorrow because thus says Yahweh God of Israel. Verse 14, in the morning therefore you shall be brought according to your tribes and it shall be that the tribe which Yahweh takes shall come according to families and the family which Yahweh takes shall come by household and the household which Yahweh takes shall come man by man.

That's the process involved. Verse 15, then it shall be that he who is taken with the accursed things shall be burned with fire. He and all that he has because he has transgressed the covenant of Yahweh because he has done a disgraceful thing in Israel. His judgment is very severe. It seems like the way it's written in this whole chapter is painful for Joshua to write it.

He leaves out details. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Joshua. Cross Reference is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. If you're interested in more information about this ministry, please visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com.

You'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick available there. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. By doing so, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. Just search for Cross Reference Radio in iTunes, Google Play Music, or your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Joshua right here on Cross Reference Radio.