The Battle of Ai

Okay, if I ever get that pedal where I want it, there we go. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I want to welcome all of you who are joining us online also. Would you stand with me?

Join me in prayer. Father, we thank you for this opportunity this evening to come and worship in song and study your word. Father, we lift up all the activities going on here at the fellowship, Lord. The nursery and the children's church, the youth group, just bless each ministry that's taking place. And as we worship, may we sing as unto you and bless Ryan as he comes to teach.

We thank you, Lord. You are our hope. You are our everything, Lord. Without you, we're nothing. And we know that. You are just God.

Give us pure heart. Service as we study your word, Lord. As we see how you worked with Joshua as he led and the reaping and sowing, Lord, that took place in their lives. Sowing and reaping, I should say. That's the way it goes. Which also takes place in our lives. But we also thank you for the restoration, for the, when we reap things that we have sown that we shouldn't, you are always faithful to restore us.

And as we reap things that we've sown that are good, of course, we experience the blessing. But in all of it, the Lord bless you all.

Good evening. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Joshua, chapter 7. Joshua, chapter 7.

Things have been going great for Joshua, haven't they? Children of Israel, things have just been awesome. Right? Like all of the encouragement that came in chapter 1 when God commissioned Joshua, be strong and courageous. Don't let this book of the law depart from your mouth. I've given you the land. Everywhere the sole of your foot touches is going to be yours.

Right? And then they crossed the Jordan. What a beautiful thing. Just amazing time of watching God's miraculous work in the crossing of the Jordan. And then when they come across there, they're ready. They're ready to go. Right? But there's some spiritual preparation that had to take place. The people had to be ready. The Passover, things like that. And then the battle of Jericho.

That was amazing. Right? Like the walls fall down without anybody doing anything except shouting to the Lord. And God brought the walls down. And of course, Rahab was saved. And everything has just been going great until tonight. Now, luckily, God is a God of restoration, as was just mentioned. But unfortunately, as we come to Joshua chapter 7 and 8, we see the battle of Ai.

And the battle of Ai is going to take on really two forms. We're going to cover chapter 7 and 8 tonight. Because chapter 7, I've labeled defeat. And chapter 8, I've labeled victory. So let's first of all get to defeat. So chapter 7 starts off like this. But the sons of Israel acted unfaithfully. In regard to the things under the ban. For Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah,

took some of the things under the ban. Therefore, the anger of the Lord burned against the sons of Israel. Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-Avon, east of Bethel. And said to them, Go up and spy out the land. So the men went. They went up and spied out Ai. They returned to Joshua and said to him, Do not let all the people go up. Only about two or three thousand men need to go.

Do not make all the people toil up there, for they are few. So about three thousand men from the people went up from there. But they fled from the men of Ai. The men of Ai struck down about thirty-six of their men. And pursued them from the gates as far as Shebarim. And struck them down on the descent, so the hearts of the people melted and became as water.

Now the first thing that we see is that they were defeated in battle. Now there's kind of an interesting pattern to follow here. The first thing that we see is we see the sin of Achan, right? Remember, Joshua had told the people, because this was God's command, he had told the people, don't touch anything in the city of Jericho. Everything of Jericho belongs to the Lord.

All of the gold and the silver will go into the treasury of the Lord. But everything else will be destroyed because all of Jericho is devoted to the Lord. We said that was probably for two reasons. One, because there must have been something about Jericho that was particularly sinful. We're not really sure what. That's one of the thoughts. But then, of course, the other reason is that Jericho would be the first fruits of the land given to the Lord.

And so, the defeat happens, but we're given this little commentary. In chapter 7, verse 1, But. Oh man, everything's great until... But. But the sons of Israel acted unfaithfully. Now it's kind of interesting to point out that Achan was the only guy that sinned, but who did God say acted unfaithfully? The sons of Israel, right? All of them acted unfaithfully.

It's kind of interesting, isn't it? The sin of one always affects everybody. We call those unintended consequences. They acted unfaithfully in the things that were under the ban. For Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, and they go through his whole lineage there all the way back to the tribe of Judah, took some of the things that were under the ban. It's interesting to take note of what Achan's name means.

Achan's name literally means, if you look it up in the Hebrew dictionary, it literally means trouble. Isn't that kind of interesting? I guess if you name your kid Trouble, you're probably going to run into trouble. You're probably going to run into some trouble. My wife and I did Sunday school a few times when we lived in Johnson County. I think it was before we even got married.

There was a kid in the Sunday school class whose name was Cain, and we were like, hmm. Named him after the first murderer, huh? Not sure what to do with that one. Anyway, so Achan commits this sin. Now, we're kind of given the, like, if this was the TV show, we would pan to Achan taking these things, hiding them. Because nobody could find them. And nobody else knew, really.

Maybe his family knew what he did. Joshua certainly didn't know what he did. But now it's time for the next battle. And the next battle, as you work your way to the west, past Jericho, is a city called Ai. Now, I don't know why this struck me. This literally has nothing to do with anything. But isn't it fascinating that the city is called Ai? I tried to look it up to see if there was any meaning to Ai whatsoever.

I couldn't find anything. I couldn't find anything. Now, I didn't go down too long of a rabbit trail when it comes to this. But I did kind of find it interesting that it was called Ai. Anyway, so Joshua does what he's done before. He sent men to go spy out the land. Now, I think this is an interesting thing for us to pay attention to as well. Not only is there sin in the land,

but Joshua's doing the exact same thing he did with Jericho. And you know what I bet? I bet he was expecting God to act exactly the same way. Because I want you to take note of something. Nowhere so far have we seen that God has spoken to Joshua at all. God didn't tell Joshua to send spies. And God has not given him any command as far as where to go next. Seemingly, this is all Joshua's idea.

So Joshua sends spies into the land. And the spies come back and they say, Josh, listen, here's the thing, man. It's not a real big area. There are not very many guys there. Don't send the whole army to 3,000 tops. Right? That's all we got. This one shouldn't be a problem at all. All right. Hey, so far, just like last time, we've received another really good report.

I'll send 2,000 or 3,000 men. And so he does. And you can imagine everybody waiting for them to come back and tell about the great victory that they've had. Only, what happened? So about 3,000 men from the people went up there, verse 4, but they fled from the men of Ai. And the men of Ai struck down, 36 of their men. Uh-oh. Defeat. They were defeated by an enemy

that they felt like was inferior to them. What has happened? You see, the city of Jericho was a much bigger city. It had much more fortified walls. It was much more of a formidable foe. One that they had no idea how they were going to defeat. And God worked out the details with no problem. So what went wrong? This time, well, I want to tell you before we get into what God tells them,

that there were actually three problems that the children of Israel faced in coming against the battle of Ai. The first problem that they faced, and we'll deal with this more as we move on, is that there was sin in the camp. That's the big thing that we'll face throughout chapter 7, is that there was sin in the camp of the nation of Israel. There was sin. Therefore,

God could not bless them because of what was taking place. That's always the big glaring thing from chapter 7. But you see, I think, and I'm not the only one that thinks this, I think there were actually two other problems that Joshua and the children of Israel had in their defeat from the people of Ai. Because the second thing is that they did not seek God.

They did not seek God. If you will, they got ahead of God, right? Because if they would have sought God, what would God have said? Don't go yet. It's not time. You got issues you got to deal with. You better clean your house up first before you can go. God would have revealed that to him. If they would have waited and said, no, we're not moving until God gives us the command.

We're not moving until God lays out the battle plan. We're not moving until God shows us what the next step is. And right now, God hasn't shown us the next step. So until God shows us the next step, we will wait. But they didn't do that. Because at no point in time did Joshua seek God. The third problem that they had is that they were overly self-confident.

They were overly self-confident. You see, a little bit of victory is sometimes one of the most dangerous places we can be. Usually, we have victory and we think, great, I'm going to keep moving in victory now. I tell you, your greatest victory could come right before your greatest defeat. Because oftentimes, when we experience the greatest victory, hacks of the enemy come the strongest.

You know why? Because you're dealing with pride at this point in time. The potential for pride coming in is very high. Because we said, look at what happened last time. I think we've got it taken care of this time. And so they were overly self-confident because they didn't think that they needed all of their army even to go face these people. And so with these three issues at stake,

we have to understand, defeat was almost inevitable. When you look at the fact, that there was sin in the land, they didn't seek God and they were overly self-confident. It's kind of fascinating because Israel could never be defeated by the enemies of the Canaanites. The only one that could defeat them was themselves. Which is kind of interesting because when was the last time

that we saw Israel defeated? The last time that we saw Israel was defeated was during the Balaam incident. And that was when God had to judge the nation because Balaam said, I can't curse them because God can't curse them. God's not cursing them. But you know what? They can curse themselves. Let me tell you how to do it. You see, we are our own worst enemy.

And we will always be our own worst enemy. Because I will always be the thing that stands in between me and victory. It's not the temptations that lay out there. It's not the people that are out there. It's not the difficulties that are out there. It's me, right? Well, T. Swift said it best when she said, it's me. Hi, I'm the problem, it's me, right? I mean, that's, sorry, Kelsey T. Swift.

Seems to go right now with everything that's in my newsfeed. And so we're always going to be our biggest problem. And so they have these issues facing them and now they're going to have to deal with them. And so Joshua does what he should have done to begin with. And Joshua seeks the Lord. Notice what it says in verse 6. Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth.

On his face before the ark of the Lord until the evening. Both he and the elders of Israel and they put dust on their head. And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God, why did you ever bring this people over the Jordan only to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us? If only we had been willing to dwell beyond the Jordan. O Lord, what can I say since Israel has turned their back

before their enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear it and they will surround us and cut off our name from the earth. And what will you do for your great name? Now, while Joshua does what he was supposed to do, he maybe doesn't do it in the right way. Who does he sound a little bit more like in this prayer than not? Sounds a little bit more like

the complainers in the wilderness. Why did you ever bring us across this Jordan River if defeat is the thing that you were going to hand to us? Why did you ever bring us across this Jordan River Why did you bring us over the Jordan River if all we were going to do was get beaten? Lord, you need to do something because it's your name at stake. I want you to notice

at no point in time does God say, oh gosh, you're right. People are going to think bad of me, aren't they? No, because God's not the problem. God's not the one that did anything wrong. It was the people because I want you to notice what God says to Joshua. So the Lord said to Joshua, rise up. I love that. Get up, okay? Because you've got business to handle.

There's a time to pray and there's a time to act. And right now, it's time to act. So he says, rise up. Why is it that you've fallen on your face? Israel has sinned and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. And they have even taken some of the things under the ban and have both stolen and deceived. Moreover, they have also put them

among their own things. Therefore, the sons of Israel cannot stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies for they have become accursed. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy the things under the ban from your midst. Rise up, consecrate the people and say, consecrate yourselves for tomorrow. For thus the Lord, the God of Israel,

has said, there are things under the ban in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you have removed the things under the ban from your midst. So God deals with Joshua now. He says, listen, it's time for you to get up and get with it. Because what you don't understand is that there is sin in the camp. There is sin amongst you. And you will not be able to move on

until you deal with the sin. And can I say, we can't move on in our lives until we deal with the sin. Will there be times when we stumble? Absolutely. We wear flesh. Flesh is always prone to sin. But as long as we harbor the sin and don't deal with it, we cannot move on. And he tells them there will be no victory. They will always run until you deal with this sin.

He says, tell the people tomorrow we deal with it. So, in the morning, verse 14, you shall come near by your tribes and it shall be that the tribe which the Lord your God takes by lot shall come near by families and the family which the Lord takes shall come near by households and the household which the Lord takes shall come near man by man and it shall be the one who is taken with the things under the man shall be burned with fire he and all that belongs to him because he has transgressed the covenant of the Lord and because he has committed a disgraceful thing in Israel. So Joshua arose early in the morning and brought Israel near by tribes and the taken. Now, before we get into the rest of this because it's kind of a fascinating process,

God lays out for Joshua what he's supposed to do. And what he's supposed to do is to identify the one that sinned, feed it in, that one's on me. What if that was my fault? I don't think he did. However, when Joshua told the people there's sin in the camp, and tomorrow we're going to call out who it is because God's going to show us who it is and we're going to deal with it.

Now, I've been the person who's done the thing wrong in the classroom as a kid, right? When the teacher says, we're going to get to the bottom of who did this. And I've had that feeling wash over me of like, oh, crap. It's me. Wonder how long it's going to take me to figure it out. Isn't it better just to go ahead and be like, it was me, I did it. I wondered, I can't prove this.

But a couple of commentators mentioned it, which means that I'm not the only one that's thought it. Had Achan immediately stood up and said, we don't need to do all that. It was me. All alone, my sin. I wonder if he would have spared his life. I wonder if God would have shown mercy. What I do know about God is that God's default is always mercy. And so I just wonder,

had he owned up to it ahead of time, would God have shown him mercy? But he doesn't. And you can imagine how this would be. The entire nation of Israel is brought together. Now, I don't know how they figured this out. I don't know if God was like, Judah. And so they called forth Judah. I don't know how this whole process worked. But somehow they identified and started bringing this down.

So, verse 16. So Joshua rose early in the morning and brought Israel near by tribes. And the tribe of Judah, Judah was taken. And Achan went, uh-oh. And he brought the family of Judah near. And he called the family of the Zarahites. Uh-oh. He brought the Zarahites near, man by man. And then Zabdi was taken. Whoa, we're getting a little too close for home here, right?

And he brought his household near, man by man. And Achan, son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, was taken. Joshua said to Achan, my son, I implore you, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel. And give praise to Him. And tell me now what you've done. Don't hide it from me. So Achan answered Joshua and said, truly I have sinned against the Lord,

the God of Israel. And this is what I did. When I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar, 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold 50 shekels in weight then I coveted them and I took them and behold they are concealed in the earth inside my tent with silver underneath it so Joshua sent messengers and they ran to the tent behold it was concealed in his tent with the silver underneath of it they took from the inside the tent brought them to Joshua and all the sons of Israel they poured them out before the Lord and before we get to the rest I want to point out three words that are really important to pay attention to in verse 21 because those three words are what happened to everybody that fall into sin I saw it I coveted it and I took it

you name the sin those three steps are involved those three steps were involved with Eve those three steps were involved with Cain those three steps were involved with David those are always the three steps we take because it started here and then it went here and it came out here we have to be careful to take all of our thoughts captive before the Lord because if we don't take them captive then what we see will lead to what we take but if we stop it in the beginning if we cut it off at the thought and take the thought captive and it's amazing how God is able to bring victory this is what happened so he sent people sure enough that's what what took place and then Joshua and all Israel with him took Achan the son

of Zerah the silver the mantle the bar of gold his sons his daughters his oxen his donkeys his sheep his tent and all that belonged to them and they brought them home and they brought them home to up to the valley of Achor. And Joshua said, why have you troubled us? Which is an interesting play on words because of what his name means. Why have you troubled us? The Lord will trouble you

this day. And all Israel stoned them with stones. And they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones. And they raised over him a great heap of stones that stands to this day. And the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger. Therefore, the name of that place has been called the valley of Achor or trouble to this day. Now, there had to be consequences for that

sin. Can I just go ahead and tell you, I'm super glad I don't live back then because I don't know that I would have survived. I don't know that I would have survived the law that says if your son's rebellious, bring him to the elders and they'll put him to death, right? Like I may not be here today if I was living at that point in time, right? Don't ask my dad later.

But can you imagine this? This is such, can you imagine the intensity of what you just saw before you? And it was an example to everyone. An example to everyone that sin will not be allowed in the camp. Now, what is there for us to learn? Because I don't think that we should necessarily start finding everybody that sinned and start stoning them. That seems like the wrong thing for us to do.

But it does tell me that we should start paying attention to some things. It tells me that we should start paying attention to our lives. Because brothers and sisters, sin has a ripple effect. Notice what happened. Notice all of the unintended consequences of the sin of Achan. The sin of Achan caused 36 deaths of the warriors of Israel. The sin of Achan caused the entire nation of Israel to begin to doubt God. The sin of Achan

caused his own death. And the sin of Achan caused the death of all of his families. The ripple effect. The ripple effect of sin. And so what do we do? Well, I think one of the greatest things that we can do is make sure that we are constantly allowing the Holy Spirit to examine our lives. We must always be willing to identify the sin in our lives. Do you notice how God was able to do

that in the life of the nation of Israel? He called out from a couple of million people down to one guy individually. Don't you think that God's able to point out all the little areas of sin that you have in your life? If he could do that in the midst of two million people to bring it down to one guy, don't you think that the Holy Spirit can search your heart and show you the small areas of sin that you have in your life?

I tell you this because sin has become so excused in our culture that we have forgotten that it's deadly. We have forgotten that it has unintended consequences and we must allow the Holy Spirit to identify sin in our lives. But the second thing that we must do is we must put the sin to death. Jesus gave us the perfect example of what to do, right? He says, if your right eye causes you to sin,

you should pluck it out because it's better to enter into eternity maimed than into hell with your body in full tact. If your right hand causes you to sin, you should cut it off because it's better to enter into eternity maimed than to enter into hell with all of your members. Brothers and sisters, we have to take sin seriously. Whether it's sin within the body or sin within the body, we need to take it seriously and it needs to be dealt with.

And it needs to be dealt with harshly in our lives. Unfortunately, we give our sin too much mercy. We give our sin too many chances. And we say, it's really not that big of a deal. Because I guarantee what Achan said when he took those things and he hid them in his tent, the thing he said, was, I bet it's not that big of a deal.

But I bet that's not what he said in those last moments of his life. And so the sin had to be dealt with. The sin had to be put to death. But now that the sin is dealt with, chapter 8, it's time for victory. I want you to notice how it starts out. Now the Lord said to Joshua, chapter 8, verse 1, Do not fear or be dismayed. Take all the people of war with you and arise.

Go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land. I love how God responds. All of the sin is dealt with now. It's been put to death. And so what does God tell Joshua? He says, don't be afraid. Why would Joshua and the people have been afraid at that point in time? Because a lot had just taken place. They'd seen the consequences of sin.

They'd seen the consequences of sin. They'd seen the consequences of sin. They'd seen the consequences of sin. They'd seen the consequences of sin. And they had now found themselves questioning whether or not God was really going to be with them in the land. Whether or not God would still be victorious over the nations that were around them. And so God starts off in the way

that he always starts off after we deal with the sin in our lives. He says, don't be afraid. Because God is a God of mercy. The nation found themselves falling into sin. But once the sin is dealt with, God says, now let's get up and fight. Let's move on from here. And he says, take all the people of war and arise and go to Ai. See, I have given into your hand

the king of Ai. And so what is the next thing God does? He reminds them of his promise. The promise that I have given the nations into your hands. Now, you move forward. And it reminds me of something. Because here's what happens to us when we fall into sin, right? We fall into sin in our lives, which, brothers and sisters, I feel like is almost inevitable.

There's going to be a point in time where we fail. Because we live in these fallen bodies. We live in this fallen world and we have a tendency towards sin. And so at some point in time, we fail in some way, shape, or form. Maybe big, maybe small. But no matter what, we fail. We identify the sin. We confess the sin. We put the sin to death. But you know what happens to us?

We still go, but you don't understand. I sinned. You don't understand. I don't know that God can still fight for me. He may have forgiven me, but he's not really with me. He's not really for me. Because I've sinned. And God wants us to know that when we've sinned, and it's been dealt with, it's been confessed, it's been put to death, and it's been covered, don't be afraid.

Because God still fights for you. You see, brothers and sisters, one of the greatest things that we can do is what Paul told us to do. This one thing that I do. Forgetting what's behind, I press on towards what's ahead. I press on towards knowing Jesus. We can't do anything about what we've done wrong yesterday. We can't do anything about what we did wrong for maybe 10 years

in our walk with Jesus Christ. But what I can do is I can confess it, I can put it to death, and I can put it behind me. I know more people that cannot move on with their lives, that cannot move on with what God has for them, that cannot move on in victory because they cannot let go of yesterday. And one of the greatest lessons that God has taught me in my walk is that I have to forget about the things that I can't control any longer.

I cannot control anything that I've done up to this point in time in my life. All I can do is confess it, put it to death, and move on. Because if I live constantly in my past, if I live constantly in what happened before, then I will live constantly in defeat. Because one of the greatest things, if Satan can't get us to fall into sin, he will get us to fall into guilt.

And living in that. But the nation of Israel now needed to go on and take the rest of the promised land. And so he told them, don't be afraid, I've given AI into your hands, it's time to move forward. And so, as a nation they move forward, but this time they do it right. Because this time, this time they're seeking God, this time they're not overconfident, this time they're going to hear

everything that God has to say. Because now that it's been dealt with, they're ready to say, you know what, why don't you take the lead? How had they started off? How did they cross the Jordan River? With the ark of God in front of them. With the presence of God with them. How had they defeated Jericho? With the presence of God going before them. With the presence of God being with them.

How will they continue to win every battle in the land of Israel? In the land that was promised to them? With God going before them. With the presence of God with them. How will we live our lives in victory? With the presence of God going before us. The presence of God being with us. So, he says, verse 2, you shall do to AI and its king as you did to Jericho and its king.

You shall take only its spoil and its cattle as plunder for yourself. Set an ambush for the city behind it. So Joshua rose with all the people of war to get up and go to AI. And Joshua chose 30,000 men. That's a little bit more than he took last time. 30,000 men, valiant warriors, and he sent them out at night. He commanded them saying, see, you're going to ambush the city from behind.

Do not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready. Then I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. And when they come out to meet us as at first, we will flee. We will flee before them. They will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city. For they will say they're fleeing like before. So we will flee before them.

And you shall rise from your ambush and take possession of the city. For the Lord your God will deliver it into your hand. Then it will be when you have seized the city that you shall set the city on fire. You shall do to it according to the word of the Lord. See, I have commanded you. Would you notice that difference between the beginning of the city of chapter 7

and the beginning of chapter 8? In chapter 7, you don't see the Lord's name mentioned. In chapter 7, you see no battle plan that came from the Lord. In chapter 7, you saw no command of the Lord. In chapter 7, you saw no obedience to the Lord. In chapter 8, the exact opposite. Tells me they're going to win. And so, they're supposed to go out to battle. Only this time,

they're supposed to set an ambush. Did you notice that? They were to set an ambush. Only this time, they could also keep the spoil of the land. Did you notice that? Did you notice that? Did you notice that? Now, there's a couple of things I want to point out to you about that. Number one, is that this battle plan looked different than Jericho. Oh, sure, they would do the same thing

to the people that they'd done to Jericho. But the way they would do it would be different. You know why? Because God never wants to be put into a box. God never wants to be formularized. And you know what we love to do to God, especially in the 21st century Western culture? We love to formularize God. And we put Him into this formularized Let me say, this is the way that God always acts.

As a matter of fact, I have this brand new church growth program that if you do these 10 steps, you will automatically have a thriving church. I think God looks at that, rolls His eyes, and laughs. And the angels are like, can we strike Him down, God? He's like, no, not yet. Because God doesn't want to be put into a box. God loves to do brand new things. God loves to do things completely different

than He did last time because He can. He can. I love that. Jesus never healed people the same way. He always did it a little bit different. You can imagine it, right? People show up to Jesus, they're like, hey, check this out. He made this mud, and He put it on my eyes, and He healed me. So let's go, and He'll make the mud, and He'll put it on your eyes. So somebody else goes to Jesus to be healed,

and this time Jesus spits in their eyes. He's like, He didn't make the mud, He spit in my eyes. But I can still see. Right? Because God does things differently all the time. And we have to remember that as Christians. Because what do we do with each other's walks? Well, mine's not like His. Well, why does God have me doing something different than He does? Well, why didn't God move in my heart

in the way that He moved in His? Why didn't God move in the worship service for me like He did for Him? Why didn't God do this for Him like He did for me? Because God does things different all the time. He delights in it. Because God is a creative God. And so the plan is completely different. Second thing that I want to point out to you is this. If Achan had just waited.

If Achan had just waited. He could have kept all the spoil he wanted to. But he wouldn't wait on God. He chose God's second best. Which meant in this particular instance, he chose God's judgment. And we have to remember, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. Mount up with wings like eagles. They'll run and not be weary. They'll walk and not faint.

Right? Now, if you're thinking of that old Calvary song we used to sing, you're thinking of the last part too. Teach me, Lord. Teach me, Lord, to wait. Right? I think that's the best part of that song that we can add to it. Because we're not good at that. If Achan would have just waited, he could have had all the spoil he wanted to. So, the battle plan is laid out.

Now, Joshua, verse 10, rose early in the morning and he mustered the people and he went up with the elders of Israel before the people to Ai. Then all the people of Ur who were with him went up and drew up their swords. They went up and drew up their swords. They went up and drew up their swords. They drew near and arrived in front of the city and camped on the north side of Ai.

Now, there was a valley between him and Ai and he took about 5,000 men and he set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai on the west side of the city. So, they stationed the people, all the army that was on the north side of the city and its rear guard on the west side of the city and Joshua spent that night in the midst of the valley. It came about when the king of Ai saw it that the men of the city hurried and rose up early and went out to meet Israel in battle. He and all his people at the appointed place before the desert plain.

But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city. Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten before them and fled by the way of the wilderness. Bookmark. I wonder how good actors they were. Were they like, oh no, they're beating us again. I don't know. Anyway, okay. So, Joshua and all Israel, verse 15, pretended to be beaten before them

and fled away by the way of the wilderness. And all the people who were in the city, were called together to pursue them and they pursued Joshua, were drawn away from the city. So not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who had not gone out after Israel. They left the city unguarded and pursued Israel. The Lord said to Joshua, stretch out the javelin that's in your hand toward Ai,

for I will give it into your hand. So Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city. The men in ambush rose quickly from their place. When he had stretched out his hand, they ran and entered the city and captured the city. They ran and entered the city and captured the city. They ran and entered the city and captured it. And they quickly set the city on fire.

When the men of Ai turned back and looked, behold, the smoke of the city ascended to the sky. And they had no place to flee this way or that for the people who had been fleeing to the wilderness turned against the pursuers. When Joshua and all Israel saw that the men in ambush had captured the city and that the smoke of the city had ascended, they turned back and slew the men of Ai. The others came out from the city to encounter them so that they were trapped in the midst of Israel.

Some on this side, some on that side. And they slew them until no one was left of those who survived or escaped. But they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua. Now when Joshua had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field in the wilderness where they pursued them and all of them were fallen by the edge of the sword until they were destroyed, then all Israel returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword.

All who fell that day, both men and women, were 12,000, all the people of Ai. For Joshua did not withdraw his hand with which he had stretched out the javelin until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants. Israel took only the cattle and the spoil of the city as plunder for themselves according to the word of the Lord which he had commanded Joshua. So Joshua burned Ai and made it a heap forever, a desolation until this day.

He hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. And at sunset, Joshua gave command and he took his body down from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the city gate and raised over it a great heap of stones. It stands to this day. Now I think that Joshua made sure that there was no part of them that was going to disobey the Lord in anything that they did.

He was pretty overkill with the army that he brought, 30,000 men compared to 12,000. But Joshua wasn't taking any chances this time. He wasn't going to be overly confident. He was going to make sure he obeyed everything that the Lord had to say because there's just something about when you face defeat because of your sin that makes you want to make sure you do everything.

Everything God has told you to do. And so they defeated him. The plan worked. Shockingly, God's plan worked. Isn't it amazing that when we follow God's plan, it always worked. And so they defeated Ai. And so if you were looking at a map of Israel, I'll try to bring a map. I'll try to put a map up on here next time. But if you have a map in the back of your Bible,

you might look at it later. They basically came in almost in the exact center of the nation of Israel. That's where Jericho was. If you were looking at current nation of Israel, it's right there in the middle. And so they had basically formed a wedge between the north and the south of all of the inhabitants of the land. Now, just north of Ai, there were two mountains.

One was Mount Ebal. One was Mount Gerizim. Now, in Deuteronomy, and you might write this down. I had to put it up on there. We won't turn there, but you might write it in the margin of your Bible because that's what this correlates with. In Deuteronomy chapters 27 and 28, Moses had given a command to the people. He said, And when you come into the promised land,

you shall come to Mount Ebal. When you get to Mount Ebal, you shall build an altar there, and you shall whitewash some stones, and you shall write the law of God on the stones. And then you will put men on Mount Ebal, and you will put men on Mount Gerizim, and you will declare the blessings and the cursings. The blessings for obeying the law, the cursings for disobeying the law.

And the rest of chapter 27 of Deuteronomy and all of 28 declare the blessings and the cursings. Well, they hadn't had access to Mount Ebal or Mount Gerizim just yet. But now that they've defeated Jericho, and they've moved further west, and they've defeated Ai, they now have access to those mountains, which are just north of Ai, which brings us to the last portion of chapter 8. Notice what it says.

Then Joshua, verse 30, built an altar, an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, and Mount Ebal, just as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of uncut stones on which no man wielded an iron tool. And they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings. And he wrote there on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written, and the prophets, in the presence of the sons of Israel. All Israel, with their elders and officers and judges, were standing on both sides of the ark before the Levitical priests, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, the stranger as well as the native.

Half of them stood on Mount Gerizim, and half of them stood on Mount Ebal, just as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded at first to bless the people of Israel. Then afterward, he read all the words of the law, the blessing, and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded, which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, with the women and the little ones and the strangers who were living among them. Now, I don't know about you, but to me this seems like the most perfect place for them to do exactly what they did.

Now, obviously, they had to take this amount of time because you can't just take a nation of two million people past two strongholds to get to a mountain and be like, excuse us, we're just going to go up in these mountains real quick, build an altar, and declare the blessings and cursings of the law. We'll be there to beat you guys later, okay? You just can't do that, right? You had to clear the way.

But isn't it interesting that God's timing is so perfect that right after the nation had failed, God brought victory, but after he brought the victory, what does the nation do? You can imagine Joshua going, I can't think of a better time to reestablish the covenant, to reestablish the covenant that God had made, to obey the law, but also to remind ourselves of what obedience looks like. And my friends, I want us to know something. When we fail in our walks with the Lord, we identify the sin and put it to death, and then God shows us what victory looks like, but oftentimes one of the best things that we can do when we start to experience that victory after we've put it to death, is to remind ourselves of what God's word has to say,

to get back into God's word and to reestablish the covenant. I believe it's Psalm 27. It says, The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The commandments of the Lord are right, making wise the simple. More to be desired are they than gold, even more than much fine gold, sweeter than honey, and the joy of the Lord. And the law of the Lord is perfect,

even more than much fine gold, sweeter than honey, and the joy of the Lord. And the law of the Lord is perfect, and the drippings of the honeycomb. You know why? Because God's word is so pleasant to our souls. I don't know where everybody sits in here tonight with where you are in your walk with the Lord. Maybe you're someone, maybe watching online, that you found yourself falling into some sin in your life.

Matter of fact, you can wholeheartedly identify, you know what? I'm aching right now. I'm causing myself trouble, I'm causing my family trouble, and I'm causing the people around me trouble, because I'm walking in sin in my life, and it's causing a whole lot of trouble. It's causing a lot of trouble for me. Maybe it's time to identify it, and put it to death.

Maybe you're someone who has come out of that sin, and you've put it to death, but you can't walk past it now. You can't seem to get past the guilt of it. You can't seem to get past that feeling that that's always going to be who you are. May I tell you, God wants you to know, don't be afraid. It's time to move forward. It's time to leave the past in the past,

and move on in victory. Or maybe you're in a place where you're not alone. Where it's time for you to reestablish the covenant, to reestablish the relationship, to reestablish your time in the word, and to start finding your delight in God's word again, like we talked about in Psalm 1. Delighting in what God's law has to say, and just meditate in it. Allow it to wash you,

because I think that there's a lot of people that can stand to have God's word just wash them. Just make it clean. Change the way that you think. Bring the healing that only God's word can heal. I want you to go with me one place in scripture. I want you to go over Psalm 107. I hadn't planned on sharing this, but I shared this with some high school kids the other morning.

I thought it was really good.

Because it kind of talks about some of these things. Psalm 107 really talks a lot about the wilderness wanderings. And I want you to look at...

Hold on, I didn't write it down, so I have to think about this for a minute. And I read it in a different translation. It's where it says, he sent his word, and he healed them. Thank you very much. All right. So I want you to start up in verse 17. It says, Psalm 107, 17, Oh, but I love verse 19. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distress.

And he sent his word, and he healed them, and he delivered them from their destructions.

Let him give thanks to the Lord for his loving kindness, and for his wonders to the sons. Amen. Father, we come to you. And Lord, I thank you that, that your word is full of examples. Some of the amazing things that you can do, some of the boneheaded things that we can do. But Lord, in it all, you're still God, and you still use it for your glory. Lord, I thank you for the promise of your word,

that when we cry out to you, you deliver us from our distresses, and you send your word, and you heal us. And so Lord, may we cry out to you today, today, today, today, today, today, today, today, today. May we cry out to you in the distress that we may feel. And Lord, may we allow your word to heal us, to bring the healing that only it can bring. Because the law of the Lord is perfect,

converting the soul. Lord, we thank you and we praise you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.