Good morning, brothers.
As we were worshiping the Lord in song, a verse came to my heart. Several of the verses mentioned, or had to do with, the Lamb upon the throne. Some time ago, the Lord touched my heart with a tremendous mixing of metaphors in the Bible.
Every now and then, Paul is great at that. He loves to mix metaphors. In Galatians, I think he had himself in labor pains and the people bearing the baby, and all this kind of thing. There are these wonderful metaphors in Scripture.
There is a beautiful one in Revelation 7 about the Lamb on the throne. It talks about when we will be in heaven, and some of the questions: What will happen when we get there? What will God do? What will we do?
Listen to this mixing of metaphors: Revelation 7:17.
For the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne shall be their shepherd,
and shall guide them unto fountains of waters of life:
and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes.
Isn’t that a wonderful picture? The Lamb will be their Shepherd. If you want to really get that into your heart, take it to Psalm 23 and just put “Lamb” all the way through: “The Lamb is my Shepherd; I shall not want. The Lamb maketh me to lie down in green pastures,” and so on.
That is future truth we can look forward to, but it is also a present reality right now. This morning, the Lamb wants to be our Shepherd, and feed us and guide us to rivers of living water.
I remind you again of the indispensable principle: whether we come corporately, or whether you come by yourself, to this precious Book, the bottom line is that it is God’s Book. God is the Author and the Subject, and He is the One who must take the veil away. He has got to show us the Lord Jesus Christ.
Apart from God dawning on us, we will only become proud in our study of the Bible. Knowledge puffs up, and the more you know, the prouder you get—unless you are seeing Him, unless you are seeing the Lord and are being taught of God.
So, once again, I ask you to come with me before the Lord and express that hunger and desire that He has invited us to and challenged us to. If you come as dry ground, He will rain upon it. If you come as little children, He will open these things to you. He has hidden them from the wise and revealed them to babes. If you open your mouth wide, He will fill it.
Let us pray.
Our Father, we thank You so much for the privilege we have had this morning to worship You, to acknowledge You in song and music, and to shout our faith in our heart and our victory in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now we come again to this precious Book. We know that we have a resident Bible Teacher in our heart: the precious life of God, the Holy Spirit Himself, to lead us to rivers of living water and to wipe all the tears from our eyes.
Lamb of God, shepherd us this morning, we pray. We thank You so much that You have already met with us, and we pray that, by Your grace, You would meet us again and tie these things together and clinch these truths in our heart.
We pray that we might see Your heart and know You. We thank You for every passage in the Bible, and we know the Bible would not be complete without Joshua 7 and 8. We know our lives will not be complete without the revelation of Christ in these chapters. So we ask You to dawn on us, we pray, in a transforming way.
We wait upon You now, and we thank You. In Jesus’ matchless name, amen.
Well, how swiftly this weekend has come and gone for me. It has been such a delight, and I do praise the Lord for the privilege that I have every time I have a chance to proclaim Him. My heart is very moved.
I was so thankful to see so many young people here this weekend. What a joy that is, to see these young men and God laying foundations at a young age. It is just so awesome for me to see God save not only a soul, but a life. I just rejoice.
Psalm 72:6 says:
He will come down like rain upon the mown grass,
as showers that water the earth.
May He rule from sea to sea. Well, that is our prayer, and I pray He will rain upon us again.
We come to our final look at Joshua 3 through 8. I will ask you to open, please, to Joshua 7.
We focused on those four events: how to help others, by God’s grace, cross the Jordan; how to help others, by God’s grace, come to Gilgal; and how to help others, by God’s grace, come to Jericho.
That brings us this morning to these two rather long chapters: the defeat at Ai and the subsequent victory at Ai. Joshua 7 and 8 cover the material that I would like to meditate upon this morning.
Because these are such large chapters, we have to leave a lot out. I have studied with some of the brothers in this room in preparation for this week, and we went down so long and stayed down there and saw so much. It is not possible to give all the things that the Lord has given.
So let me make a couple of observations about the chapters as a whole, and then we will sort of focus in. As my wife prayed for me, I told you at the beginning that I would not just give everything and send a flood and destroy the crops, but that it would be a soft rain that would water the earth.
Though we will not look at everything, and though we will miss a lot, there is so much in there. Let us pray that what God has for us, we will see. I pray also that He will protect you from what is not from Him.
A couple of observations about the two chapters as a whole. The first observation is this: as the taking of Jericho was strategic in the sense that it presented the first victory in the conquest of the land, and therefore became an important chapter, so Joshua 7 is strategic in that it presents the first defeat in the land.
Therefore, it contains some precious keys and principles on how to be safeguarded against defeat in all of its subtle forms.
Notice Joshua 7:5:
And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty and six men:
and they chased them from before the gate even unto Shebarim,
and smote them at the descent:
and the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.
Thirty-six men died. This is not only the first defeat in the land, but as far as the record goes, it is the only defeat in the seven-year war.
We know that the fighting forces were enormous—hundreds of thousands of men in conflict. Yet after seven years of war, there were only thirty-six casualties on Israel’s side. When you think about it, that is an amazing thing.
Only thirty-six people died, and Joshua 12:7-24 gives a summary at the end of all the different conflicts Joshua and his men engaged in. Even though there were seven nations that they went against, the Bible tells us that there were thirty-one kings and their armies.
Every territory had its own king. Though there were seven nations, there were many territories, and each one had its own king and its own army: thirty-one kings, thirty-one armies, seven years of conflict. When it was all tallied up at the end, Israel had lost thirty-six men—in the second battle.
Joshua 7 begins with the word but. Let me read the end of Joshua 6 and tie it into Joshua 7:
So the Lord was with Joshua; and his fame was in all the land.
But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the devoted thing.
That is how the chapter begins: “But.”
According to Joshua 8:25, counting men, women, and children, Ai had a total population of about twelve thousand people. Of all the conflicts in taking central Palestine, in the campaign to the south, and in the campaign north to the waters of Merom, this was probably the smallest conflict they had.
What happened?
As Jericho was important as the first victory because it contained all the principles of victory for the whole land, so the study of Ai is important because it not only gives us the first defeat, but it gives us the only defeat in the whole seven-year conflict.
Therefore, everything you need to know about defeat and subsequent victory is contained in this one story in seed form. May God begin to give us some light and insight on this. It is a great warning chapter, and it safeguards us against all defeat.
As you know, the story revolves around a man named Achan. Look at Joshua 7:1:
But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the devoted thing:
for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah,
of the tribe of Judah,
took of the devoted thing:
and the anger of the Lord burnt against the children of Israel.
Then, in Joshua 7:17-18, he is singled out:
And he brought near the family of Judah;
and he took the family of the Zerahites:
and he brought near the family of the Zerahites man by man;
and Zabdi was taken:
and he brought near his household man by man;
and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah,
of the tribe of Judah, was taken.
Achan—that man brought a lot of trouble to Israel and to the camp. In fact, I think you are familiar with the fact that his name means trouble. That is what the word Achan means.
Look at how the chapter ends, in Joshua 7:25-26:
And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us?
the Lord shall trouble thee this day.
And all Israel stoned him 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 unto this day;
and the Lord turned from the fierceness of His anger.
Wherefore the name of that place was called, The valley of Achor, unto this day.
They named the valley after him. His name was Achan—trouble—and they named the valley the Valley of Achor, the Valley of Trouble.
Joshua 7 begins with the word but, and it ends with the Valley of Trouble. It sort of summarizes those terminal points. What is in this chapter? The camp, the nation, all the tribes, all the people, were in trouble. There was trouble in the camp.
You say, “The land of Canaan flowed with milk and honey.” Yes, but it also flowed with other things. It flowed with milk and honey, but it flowed with Canaanites as well. Yet it was not the Canaanites who caused the trouble in this chapter.
There are internal enemies as well as external enemies. Here is an amazing thing: in all the battle for Canaan, not one casualty came from a Canaanite. The casualties came from something on the inside.
There were other enemies they had to face, and God, right at the beginning, lays down the principle of all defeat. It is not the enemy out there that we need to fear. There is another enemy, and it is a very, very dangerous thing.
It is important to study the Valley of Trouble, just as it is important to study the mountain of victory. We need to study the mountain of victory, but we also need to study the Valley of Trouble.
By the grace of God, the trouble in this chapter contributed toward Israel’s ultimate victory. It is amazing how God turned things around. They did lose the battle, but they won the war.
The battle was a mighty instrument for good in the hand of God because of His sovereignty. He is able to turn the Valley of Trouble into something very, very wonderful.
Do not despise it, brothers, if God brings you into the Valley of Achor—if God brings you into the Valley of Trouble. God uses trouble in our life to crowd us to Christ, to crowd us to the Lord.
Two different prophets laid hold of that expression, “Valley of Achor,” many years later.
Isaiah was preaching, and God inspired his mind to go back. He remembered this story, and Isaiah said, “Let me tell you about the Valley of Achor.” Isaiah 65:10 says:
And Sharon shall be a pasture for flocks,
and the valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down in,
for My people that have sought Me.
Isn’t that a tremendous verse? Can you imagine the Valley of Achor being a resting place? Oh, yes indeed—for those who seek Me.
Later, Hosea the prophet was preaching, and he thought of the same thing. He went back to the story of Achan and this first defeat. Hosea 2:14-15 says:
Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak comfortably unto her.
And I will give her her vineyards from thence,
and the valley of Achor for a door of hope:
and she shall answer there, as in the days of her youth,
and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
The Valley of Achor as a door of hope. And she shall sing there.
God promises to lure His people sometime into the wilderness. When you have a wilderness in your life, do you think, “My, look where God has lured me”? You do not think that.
But God can turn the Valley of Achor into a resting place for those who seek the Lord. He can turn it into a door of hope, into a place where you sing.
I think if we went around row by row and table by table, asking, “How many of you have ever experienced where God has used the Valley of Trouble to take you forward with the Lord?” I think the rest of our time together would be spent in rich testimony of how God has turned the Valley of Trouble into a resting place.
God used that trouble and turned it into a door of hope. What I once was grieving, there I am now singing and praising God.
That is what happened in this first story. It was a terrible chapter, beginning with but and ending with the Valley of Trouble. Yet God, by His grace, turned it around, and it became a wonderful contribution to their victory.
That is the first general observation: these chapters contain the only defeat they suffered during that whole seven-year war.
A second observation has to do with focus. When you read Joshua 7 and 8, you might say, “Well, the whole theme is Achan. The whole story revolves around him—his covetousness, his stealing the spoil, his taking contraband and trying to hide it. It is about his exposure, his sin, and his judgment.”
In one sense, that is true. But for our purposes this weekend, that is not how we are going to look at it. I am not going to ignore Achan; I cannot. He is too much in these chapters. But we are looking in a different area.
We are looking at the instruments God uses so that we can help others appropriate a full Savior. I would like to look again at the leadership: Joshua, the elders, and the people as a whole as they came before the Lord.
It is our privilege as priests to help others over the Jordan. It is our privilege as elders to carry others to the great truths they learn at Gilgal. It is our privilege, as Joshua, to fall down before the Captain of the Lord’s host—the armies of heaven and earth—barefoot and on our faces before Him, surrendering all to Him so that He might lead the way.
It is our privilege now, in the day of trouble. What do we do when God’s people are defeated? What do we do when God’s people are demoralized? What do we do when their hearts begin to melt like water? What do we do when someone is harboring secret sin, has hidden something in his tent, has affected the body, and has caused the blessing of God to be withheld?
That is the focus I want to take. On the path to fullness in Christ, and in assisting others toward fullness in Christ, there will be trouble.
Do not think for a moment that the enemy of your soul and mind wants you to possess a full Christ. Do not think for a moment that the enemy of your soul and mind wants the corporate Body to possess a full Savior. There will be trouble. There will be opposition.
I want to make one more observation about these chapters as a whole, and then we will begin to walk into them.
When we studied Joshua 5 and 6, I tried to show you what I thought was the key to victory. Of course, the key to victory is the Victor. It is the Person Himself. It is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Captain of the Lord’s host.
Joshua began by seeing the Man with the sword drawn. That is the key to victory: the Lord Himself. Joshua 5:13.
Why did they have victory at Jericho? The answer is because the Victor gave it to them. He is the One who did the fighting.
Now we come to Joshua 7 and the Valley of Trouble, the only defeat in the land. As you go through the chapter, you will see many occasions of defeat, and I will try to mention several. Though there are many occasions of defeat, there is only one cause of defeat.
There is a difference between the occasion and the cause. What was the cause of victory? The answer is that it was Jesus. His sword was drawn, and He was fighting for them.
Look at Joshua 7:11-12. What is the cause of defeat?
Israel hath sinned;
yea, they have even transgressed My covenant which I commanded them:
yea, they have even taken of the devoted thing,
and have also stolen, and dissembled also;
yea, they have even put it among their own stuff.
Therefore the children of Israel cannot stand before their enemies;
they turn their backs before their enemies, because they are become accursed:
I will not be with you any more,
except ye destroy the devoted thing from among you.
Those are very, very profound words—frightening words: “I will not be with you any more.”
How would you like to hear the Lord say that to you? Oh, my. How would you like to hear the Lord say that to your fellowship? “You are on your own. I will not be with you any more.”
That is why they lost. That is the cause of defeat. That is the only cause of defeat. The only time you have victory is when He is fighting for you. The only time you have defeat is when He stops fighting for you and you are on your own.
Every time you are on your own, you lose. Every time I am on my own, I lose. Every time He fights for me, there is victory.
I told you that I thought Judges 2:1-2, when the Angel of the Lord comes from Gilgal to Bochim—the place of weeping—the Angel who began with His sword drawn has put His sword in His sheath.
That is what He did at the end of the seven-year war, and I think that is what He did in Joshua 7. Why God sheaths His sword is a question all its own, but that He sheaths His sword is the cause of defeat: we are left on our own.
In this connection, I think I have quoted this verse already, but I love it: 2 Chronicles 20:15.
The battle is not yours, but God’s.
But, oh, it is dreadful when that is turned around: “The battle is not God’s, but yours.” Oh, Valley of Trouble. When God puts His sword in His sheath, you are in trouble. The church is in trouble. The flock is in trouble. The tribe is in trouble. The fellowship is in trouble. The family is in trouble.
Let me look with you at some of the facts of this chapter in terms of Joshua, the leadership, and the elders. I know it is easy when you come to a chapter like this. Lillian gave me a hard time on this chapter when we studied it together. She said, “Oh, you are just being too critical.”
It is easy to be a Monday-morning quarterback, to call all the right plays after the game is done, after it is all finished. I do not want to be too hard on Joshua here. I do not want to be hard on the leadership here.
Usually, when trouble comes into the camp, there is plenty of blame to spread around in a lot of places and to a lot of people.
Basically, you cannot read the chapter and not see that Achan is the villain. He wears the black hat in this particular chapter. He gets credit for blowing it.
But if you read it carefully, you will see that God includes a lot more than Achan here. Notice Joshua 7:1 and Joshua 7:11.
The children of Israel committed a trespass.
And:
Israel hath sinned.
Some suggest that perhaps some of Achan’s friends were in collusion with him and knew about this. I do not think there is evidence of that in the text, but some believe that.
Was Israel in on it, or is this one of those Body truths sprinkled throughout the whole Scripture? A little leaven leavens the whole lump. Is what he did affecting the whole Body?
Many have questioned why Achan’s whole family was stoned and burned for Achan’s sin. My daughter had a hard time with some of the strong passages where God judges. I remember one time, when she was growing up, we were studying Judas. I was leaning toward giving her the idea that, according to tradition, he was lost. She started to cry and said, “Why didn’t God just punch him in the face and call him a brat?”
God is holy with sin, but He does more than punch you in the face and call you a brat.
Many have questioned why his sons and daughters were included. Look at Joshua 7:24-25. Some think perhaps his family knew about it and helped him hide that treasure. Some say that, if you look at Joshua 7:26, they raised stones over him, singular, and perhaps they did not stone the family.
You say, “Well, what are you going to do with ‘they stoned them’?” They say that was probably the animals, because it says that he took all his things and all his animals. I do not know all of those questions.
I know that Achan is the villain in this chapter, but I know he is not the only guilty one in this chapter. God clearly calls the whole Body to repentance. As you will see, in a special way, He calls the leadership to repentance.
When there is trouble in the camp, guilt is everywhere.
Clearly, the church, as you know, is one. It is a Body. Every member lives for the pleasure of the Head; we have common life. When one member is sick, sometimes the whole body has to go to bed. There might have been a lot of that in here.
Now let us move on. Let me make some observations and raise some questions—some suggestions. If I am being too picky, as Lillian said, too critical, scrap it. That is easy. I challenge you to entertain the possibility of some of this.
First question: should Joshua and the elders have discerned beforehand that there was trouble in the camp?
We hear so much about tragic school shootings and everything, and news reporters say, “There were signs. There were clues. There were indications. Why didn’t somebody have their eyes open? You should have been able to read that. You should have been able to see that. You should have been able to see that thing coming.”
Do you have to wait until Israel is beat up and running down the hill, thirty-six people are dead, everybody has to prepare funerals, their hearts are melting like water, and then all of a sudden the leadership says, “We have trouble in the camp”?
Was there any responsibility beforehand? We know, from the record, that at least one man in the camp, Achan, had a terribly low view of God. What did holiness mean to him? What did authority mean to him?
Look at Joshua 6:18:
But as for you, keep yourselves from the devoted thing,
lest when ye have devoted it, ye take of the devoted thing;
so would ye make the camp of Israel accursed, and trouble it.
That was before the fact, and Achan heard it. He did not believe it. “If you touch it, you will be cursed.” He did not believe that. “If you touch it, you are going to bring a curse on God’s people.” He did not believe that.
He had no view of God’s holiness whatsoever, and he certainly had no view of God’s omniscience.
In Joshua 7:20-21, he said, “I saw. I coveted. I took. I concealed.” Did that guy not know Psalm 139:11? No excuse—it had not been written yet. But the truth is this:
Even the darkness hideth not from Thee;
but the night shineth as the day:
the darkness and the light are both alike to Thee.
Did he really think he could take a bar of silver, five pounds in weight; a bar of gold, a pound and a half in weight; and a mantle? In the confusion of war, I can picture this guy scurrying off to his tent with ten pounds of contraband under his shirt. He goes in there, digs up a hole, buries it, and runs back to the camp just in time to sing the last verse of “To God Be the Glory”: “Great things He hath done.”
Doesn’t he know God is watching us? He had no view of God’s holiness, no view at all of God’s omniscience, and certainly no view of His sovereignty and ownership. Joshua 6:17: it belongs to the Lord. Do not touch it. The spoils go to the Victor.
Should Joshua and the elders have known? “We have a man out here with a low view of the Lord, and we had better take special precaution with him and let him know.”
It is interesting: the very sin that plagued Israel when they were going into the land—this covetousness—was the sin that plagued the New Testament church at its inception. God raised up Peter with some insight and stopped Ananias and Sapphira at the door, able to check it before the camp was cursed.
It is the same sin. I do not know. I only question whether they should have had some clue before the thing blew up—before there was defeat, before they were demoralized, and before their hearts melted like water.
Maybe there was no advance notice. I do not know. Let me ask this question: should Joshua have sent out those spies to Ai?
Joshua 7:2 says:
And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth-aven,
on the east side of Beth-el, and spake unto them, saying,
Go up and spy out the land.
And the men went up and spied out Ai.
You say, “Well, that was not wrong. That is prudence. That is wisdom. God expects us to use our heads.”
Perhaps. But there is a history of spies in the land of Israel.
You remember the first set of spies that went up. It just encouraged the people to live by sight rather than by faith; it drew them away. When Moses’ spies came back, they said, “We saw the land. We saw the cities. We saw the enemy. They are too big—too big.”
When Joshua’s spies came back, they did not say, “Too big.” They said, “Piece of cake. They are little. They are small. We can handle it. We can take it.”
Sight is sight, whether it sees something as too big or too little. I am not sure he should have sent the spies.
You say, “Well, spies are good. At least in one case, God used it to rescue, to save, to bring salvation to Rahab and her family.” Was God turning the curse to a blessing there? I am just raising the question.
I think at least there is danger that they might have been moving from faith to sight. I know this from the balance of Scripture: any time you move from faith to sight, you are looking for trouble in the camp. I know that.
Let me ask this third question. Even if I am wrong about the possibility that they should have known in advance, and even if I am wrong about the possibility that they should not have sent spies, here is the next question: should Joshua have listened to the counsel of the spies when they came back?
Joshua 7:3-4:
And they returned to Joshua, and said unto him,
Let not all the people go up;
but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai;
make not all the people to toil thither; for they are but few.
So there went up thither of the people about three thousand men:
and they fled before the men of Ai.
Did not that advice reveal the sin of self-confidence?
I do not think we can detach the story of Ai from the story of Jericho, because they are so closely united. They are connected. It appears to me that they were viewing Ai as if they had won at Jericho.
That is what it looks like to me. It looks like they went into battle after the shout, singing, “Joshua fit the battle of Jericho.” But Joshua did not fight the battle. God fought the battle. Who fought that battle? It was the Lord. It was not Joshua.
When you think about it, what was Israel’s part in the battle? They walked, and they shouted. I have toddler grandchildren who can do that. I can walk and shout, and that is all they did. God fought the battle of Jericho.
I have an idea that the Angel with the sword drawn in His hand won that first battle. It seems to me they were reasoning, “Jericho is a big problem. Ai is a little problem. Maybe we need God to handle the big problem, but we can handle Ai.”
How often, after a victory, does the Bible record defeat right after a victory? After this seven-year war, you have the book of Judges with its spiritual declensions. After the flood, Noah gets drunk. After Mount Carmel, Elijah runs from Jezebel. After Peter’s great confession, he hears, “Get thee behind Me, Satan.” Even our Lord Jesus, after His baptism and the voice from heaven, was then tempted in the wilderness.
Brothers, may God help us. Do not think, “Jericho is big; God will handle that, but I can take Ai.”
God has got to win a Jericho, and God has got to win an Ai. Self-confidence is a terrible thing. We have no more ability to handle Ai than we ever had to handle Jericho.
There is nothing big in the Christian life, and there is nothing small in the Christian life. There are only things impossible—that is all. The whole Christian life is made up of things impossible, and only God can do them.
We need as much grace to lose a dollar as we need to lose a loved one. We cannot handle anything. We are helpless.
Israel did not lose at Ai because they sent too few troops. They lost at Ai because the Angel of the Lord put His sword back in His sheath.
There is nothing, brother, small enough in your life that you can battle and win in your own strength. Nothing. Nothing.
The defeat at Ai was a great warning against self-confidence.
The advice that the spies gave—I am not sure they should have listened to that. I know it created this awful self-confidence, but it also included another thing: it was a wedge into the unity of the Body.
You say, “How so?”
The spies came back. Do not forget that at Jericho, the command was to take all the men, to take all the people. At Ai, they came back and said, “We do not need everybody. We do not need the whole Body. We can do this with just a handful. We can accomplish this with just a few.”
At Jericho, the whole army was to go, and all the people were to go.
It is a terrible thing if we ever get to the place in any of our fellowships where we think we do not need the whole Body.
One thing I appreciate so much—I do not have a lot of contact with many of the groups, but with Family Ministries God has given me more contact—is how God has worked in you brothers: the desire to see everybody involved in the work and in the possession of Christ.
We all have gifts. We all have something to give. One of the dangers here was saying, “We do not need everybody. We can just take a few, just a handful.”
We do need everybody. We need all the saints for Jericho, and we need all the saints for Ai, and we need all the saints for possessing a full Christ.
Let me ask another question: did Joshua and the elders have a responsibility of at least asking the Lord before the battle, of seeking any kind of counsel at all?
I want to read Moses’ commission of Joshua to you. When Moses, by the word of God, put his hands on him and said, “I commission you as a leader,” listen to his commission. It is in Numbers 27:18-21:
And the Lord said unto Moses, Take thee Joshua the son of Nun,
a man in whom is the spirit, and lay thy hand upon him;
and set him before Eleazar the priest,
and before all the congregation;
and give him a charge in their sight.
And thou shalt put of thine honor upon him,
that all the congregation of the children of Israel may obey.
And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest,
who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the Lord:
at his word shall they go out,
and at his word they shall come in,
both he and all the children of Israel with him,
even all the congregation.
I think the brother forgot his commission. Right at the beginning, when Moses laid hands on him, he said, “Go to the priest Eleazar and seek the Lord. God will tell you, just like the cloud: if it moves, you move; if it stops, you stop. God will use the priest to tell you whether to go or not to go.”
I do not read that he did that. I do not want to be too critical. I am just raising the questions.
Should they have known in advance? Should they have sent the spies? Should they have listened to the spies? Should they have belittled the enemy? Should they have divided the people of God? Should they have inquired of the Lord?
These are questions that come to my heart as I read this.
Why should Joshua and the elders follow that fleshly policy based on sight? Later on, in Joshua 9, Joshua gets checked again in the matter of the Gibeonites for not seeking the Lord. He did not seek counsel. He did not pray about it.
Some think, since God used the ark to lead the way through the Jordan, and since God used the ark to go around Jericho, perhaps he neglected the ark. Should the ark have gone up to Ai?
I am not blaming. I am not even saying these things are so. I told you, it is easy to spread blame around after the thing is over.
Look at Joshua 7:7-9, when Joshua prays. There is so much that makes you wonder, makes you scratch your head, and say, “Joshua, is that you? What am I hearing? What are you saying?”
Clearly, in Joshua 7:5, the hearts of the people melted. Is it possible now that this is spreading, that the leadership is beginning to fall apart and melt?
Joshua prays:
Alas, O Lord God, wherefore hast Thou at all brought this people over the Jordan,
to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to cause us to perish?
would that we had been content and dwelt beyond the Jordan!
Joshua, what are you saying? “If only we had been willing to dwell beyond Jordan.” Joshua, you do not believe that for a minute.
This is an elder. This is the leader. Is it possible, when trouble comes into the camp, that everything begins to fall apart? They do not know what to do. They have not sought the Lord. Then they get discouraged: “What are we going to do now?” They are running from the enemy, defeated, and the whole leadership is in frustration.
Then they begin to question God and express doubts: “Maybe we made a mistake. Maybe we should not have come over here. Is it right?”
Of course, when you come to the end, finally his prayer gets sane again. After Joshua 7:8—“What shall we say, after that Israel hath turned their backs before their enemies?”—in verse 9, he goes back to God’s name, God’s glory, and God’s purpose. It seems to begin coming together.
Brothers, what do we do when there is trouble in the camp? That is the question we need to answer.
Whether or not we should have been aware in advance; whether or not we should have sent up spies; whether or not we should have listened to the counsel of the spies; whether or not we should have belittled the enemy; whether or not we should have put a wedge between God’s people; whether or not we should have sought the Lord and did not seek the Lord; whether or not we should have brought the ark and did not bring the ark; whether or not we fumble in our prayers, get discouraged, say things we do not mean, and express emotions we do not mean—after all of that is done, what are we supposed to do when there is trouble in the camp?
May God help us as we look at these simple, simple truths.
Joshua 7:6 says:
Then Joshua rent his clothes,
and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord until the eventide,
he and the elders of Israel;
and they put dust upon their heads.
Brothers, the first thing in this record—what do you do when there is trouble in the camp? The whole leadership got together and just fell before the Lord.
I do not care how dumb their prayer sounded. They prayed. They poured out their hearts. They might have said something that we, with our great theology, would say, “Oh, they should not have said that. That was not a good prayer.” They prayed.
They came before God and told Him how they felt. They expressed themselves, poured it out, and lay before the ark.
Did you notice how long they lay there? Until evening. That is used in Scripture for the time of the evening sacrifice. By the time they were going to offer the lamb and the blood, they had repented.
The whole leadership came before God, fell before God, and said, “There is trouble in the camp.” Who cares about all the occasions? If we messed up, should not have listened, did listen, went there, did that—who cares? The point is, “Here we are, Lord.”
God always deals with us as and where we are, to bring us to the place where He wants us. The leadership came, put dust on their heads, tore their clothes, lay before the ark, and stayed there until the time of the evening sacrifice.
If we are going to help others, after failure, to get up and go on to victory, brothers, we have got to come and just fall before the Lord and repent. We do not spread blame. No matter whose fault it is, we come before the Lord.
There is a second thing. Joshua 7:10:
And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up;
wherefore art thou thus fallen upon thy face?
When I first read that, it puzzled me to death. I thought God was saying, “What are you doing praying? It is not a time to pray. Get up and repent.”
He is not saying it is not a time to pray. They had every right to fall before the ark. They were supposed to fall before the ark. God is not rebuking prayer in verse 10. He is answering it.
What He is saying is, “You have done right. You have fallen before Me. But it is not enough that the whole leadership falls before the Lord.”
Joshua 7:13 says:
Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow:
for thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel,
There is a devoted thing in the midst of thee, O Israel:
thou canst not stand before thine enemies,
until ye take away the devoted thing from among you.
After the whole leadership falls before the Lord, they rise up and get the whole Body to fall before the Lord. That is the idea of “consecrate yourselves.”
According to Exodus 19:14-15, that included everybody taking a bath, everybody washing their clothes, married people restraining from intimate relationships with their life partners, and everyone searching their hearts.
What a tremendous thing: “Consecrate yourselves.” The whole Body comes before the Lord. “Let us all fall before the Lord and search our hearts.”
Now you know the rest of the story. When the leadership falls before the Lord and the people fall before the Lord, then God is free to reveal the problem.
It is amazing to watch God’s tender heart as He reveals the problem. He does it in such a way that He continually calls Achan to repentance. Though he is hard, he does not repent. He is dragged out and finally admits his sin without really confessing his sin.
But the point is this: fall before the Lord. Have the people fall before the Lord.
If God then reveals the problem—and it is a miracle to reveal sin—do not go on a sin hunt. Do not go on a leaven hunt. Do not say, “God has withheld a blessing. Let us find out who is Achan. Where is he? Stand up, Achan. Stand up.”
It is not that. It is when you fall before the Lord that God will reveal it. If God reveals it, deal with it. You have got to deal with it.
Once God reveals it, it has got to be dealt with severely, thoroughly, and immediately.
Then what? This is the final thing, and we will end with this: then you have got to get up and go forward in victory. It is over. It is gone.
The story of the first defeat ends with tremendous victory—tremendous victory. After sin, restoration.
The great truth of restoration in the Bible is that we are always restored to higher usefulness. Glorious.
They had a great campaign—three campaigns in this whole war for Canaan—and two of the three campaigns were won after the sin.
Some people say, “After sin, God is going to put you on a shelf and not use you anymore.” God does not have a shelf. You find it for me. There is no shelf. He does not put you on the shelf.
He restores you, and you become humble because of your past and your sin. God uses you in a greater way—perhaps a different way, but a greater way. They went on to victory.
I want to tell you a little story, and we will end.
When Joshua was born—we are going to go back—he was born in a little log cabin. It was the worst of times; it was the best of times. When he was born, his mother did not name him Joshua. That was not his name. He was named Hoshea.
You say, “Well, where did you get the name Joshua?” Moses named him. Moses named him because of the way he trusted the Lord. He came back from battle and said, “The Lord gave the victory. The Lord gave the victory.”
Moses said, “You are not Hoshea. Because you are trusting Jehovah, you are Jehoshua.” He put the divine name in front of Hoshea, and it became Jehoshua—Joshua. That is how he got his name.
God gave him his first victory, and you remember the story in Exodus 17, the battle of Rephidim. This was when Joshua was initiated.
Joshua was in the valley fighting, and Moses was on the mountain. He had a rod, and it was pointing toward God in heaven. He had a dead stick, because that is all the rod is: a dead stick pointing toward God in heaven.
When the dead stick pointed toward God in heaven, they had victory. When the dead stick pointed away from God, they lost. That is the simple principle.
Joshua started his career with Rephidim. He learned that: hold up the stick. Joshua was down there fighting, and all of a sudden he started losing. He looked up and said, “Come on, get that stick up.” Moses put it back up, and he started winning.
Then he started losing again, and he looked up: “Come on, keep it up there.” Aaron and Hur propped him up. That is what he learned. That was the beginning.
And that is what he forgot.
Now there is trouble in the camp. The people sin. The elders and leadership have to fall before God, and the people fall before God. Now it is over. It is done. God has revealed it. We have dealt with it. Now let us move on to victory.
Joshua 8:18 says:
And the Lord said unto Joshua, Stretch out the javelin that is in thy hand toward Ai;
for I will give it into thine hand.
Joshua, you have to learn a lesson that you learned a long time ago and just forgot.
Joshua was up all night. According to Joshua 8:3, they started at night and went up. There is a lot of strategy at Ai; you can read all of that.
God would not let Joshua fight in this battle. God would not let him fight. God said, “I want you to stand there and hold the javelin.”
Brothers, look at Joshua 8:26:
For Joshua drew not back his hand, wherewith he stretched out the javelin,
until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.
God said, “Let us go back to first principles. You have got to lead these people in faith. You have got to take them forward. Joshua, you forgot something. I am not going to let you fight in this battle. You just stand there and hold your hand out.”
And so he did, all day long, until it was all over. He could not fight; God would not let him fight. He said, “You just hold it, because you have got to learn to take them forward in faith.”
From there, they went from victory to victory. They went down to the south, and God made the sun stand still. They went up to the north, and God sent hail down. More were killed by hail than by swords. God gave victory after victory, and Joshua went forth leading the people.
You want to lead the people in? Remember I said that Matthew 6:13 says:
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
In Jordan, we learned that the kingdom was God’s. At Gilgal, we learned that the power was God’s. At Jericho, we learned that the glory was God’s.
How do we continue? We know how to get them over, how to get them to Gilgal, and how to get them in. But how do we continue?
Thine is the kingdom,
and the power,
and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
That is how we continue: by faith.
We lead them by faith. We keep our dead stick pointing toward God in heaven, and we lead them from victory to victory to victory.
Restoration is instantaneous. Instantaneous confession means instantaneous restoration. At any moment in your life, you can be exactly the Christian God wants you to be, regardless of how you have lived up to this moment.
This moment, you can have the perfect will of God and go forward.
Brothers, God is calling us to help others into the land. If there ever comes a time when there is trouble in the camp, let us go back to the first principle: fall before the Lord. God will reveal it. Deal with it, and move on—move on in simple faith.
Let us pray together as we close. I am going to pray it out loud, then I am going to pray it in segments, and I am going to ask you to join me as we pray in segments.
For Thine is the kingdom,
and the power,
and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
For Thine is the kingdom.
And the power.
And the glory.
For ever and ever.
Amen.
Lord bless you.