And the children of Israel committed unfaithfulness in that which had been devoted to destruction: 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 was kindled against the children of Israel.
And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth-aven, on the east side of Bethel, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and spy out the land. And the men went up and spied out Ai.
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. 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.
And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord until the evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust upon their heads.
And Joshua said, 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!
O Lord, what shall I say, after that Israel hath turned their backs before their enemies! For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall compass us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt Thou do for Thy great name?
And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore art thou thus fallen upon thy face? 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; and 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.
We will begin from Joshua 7:19.
And Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and make confession unto Him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me.
And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Of a truth I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done: when I saw among the spoil a goodly Babylonish mantle, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels’ weight, then I coveted them and took them; and behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.
So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran unto the tent; and behold, it was hid in his tent, and the silver under it. And they took them out of the midst of the tent, and brought them unto Joshua and unto all the children of Israel; and they laid them down before the Lord.
And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the mantle, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them up unto the valley of Achor.
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, and 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.
And the Lord said unto Joshua, Fear not, neither be thou dismayed: take all the people of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land.
And thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didst unto Jericho and her king: only the spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves. Set thee an ambush for the city behind it.
We will read one more place, Joshua 8:26.
And Joshua drew not back his hand, wherewith he stretched out the javelin, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. Only the cattle and the spoil of that city Israel took for a prey unto themselves, according unto the word of the Lord which He commanded Joshua.
After the children of Israel crossed the River Jordan, they were in the promised land. They were to possess their possession. But they discovered that the land was inhabited by seven tribes of Canaan.
These seven tribes of Canaan were not only wicked—very wicked—but they were strong. They had cities, walled cities. So immediately after the children of Israel entered into the promised land, before they could possess their possession, they were confronted with battle. There were enemies to be dispossessed before they could possess their possession.
But the battle was the Lord’s. It was not their battle. The Lord Himself presented Himself to them as the Captain of the army of the Lord. The Lord Himself laid the plan, the strategy, of the battle.
Jericho was a great city, with its doors and gates shut, its king and mighty men guarding the walls. But the ark surrounded that wall, and the wall fell flat.
Now, brothers and sisters, we mentioned last time how this applies to us today. After we come to know our identification with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection, we have crossed the Jordan.
After we have known our co-death, co-burial, and co-resurrection with Christ, we come into the possessing-our-possession part. That is to say, we begin to know the riches that are in Christ.
But at the same time, we are faced immediately with spiritual conflict. Our warfare is not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and authorities, powers of darkness, and evil spirits in the air.
Unless we can dispossess our enemies, we will not experientially enter into the riches that are in Christ. But there is nothing to be afraid of, because the battle is the Lord’s.
The Lord does not leave us alone to battle it out. He comes to us as the Captain of the army of the Lord. Not only is He to lead us into the fight, but He has already overcome the enemy.
On Calvary’s cross, He gave His enemy a decisive defeat. He routed the enemy. He made a public show of His enemy. His victory was decisive.
What is left for us to do is to round up the defeated foe. In other words, He is leading us in His triumph. As the Bible says, in all these things we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus.
It is the ark that makes the wall fall. It is the Lord Himself who destroys all the strongholds of the enemy. All we need to do is follow the ark.
All we need to do is take in all that the ark means to us, all that Christ means to us. As faith is built up within us, then comes the shout of faith, and the wall shall fall.
All the strongholds, the reasonings, and the high things that lift themselves up against the knowledge of God shall go. Every thought shall be led into captivity unto the obedience of Christ.
Now, this was the first battle. Jericho was completely destroyed. All the things—not only the people, but the things in Jericho—were devoted to destruction, to be destroyed by fire.
Those things that could go through fire—gold, silver, iron, and brass—would go into the treasury of the Lord. And that was how it was. It was a great victory.
But, you know, oftentimes after a great victory, it becomes a very dangerous time. A victory is a time of celebration, but it is also a time for watchfulness.
After a great victory, we can become careless. We tend to think that we have done it. We tend to forget that it is the Lord. And unknowingly, we fall into temptation.
That is what happened in the second battle in the promised land. As a matter of fact, the battle over Jericho and the battle over Ai were the first two battles in the promised land.
These two battles form a phase of the war. After these two battles were fought, Israel rested for a while. Later on, you will find that it came to the end of one phase of the war.
In these two battles, you can find all the principles in spiritual warfare which were followed afterward. So these two battles are very important battles, and we should learn much from them.
The Bible says that the children of Israel committed unfaithfulness in that which had been devoted to destruction. In the very victory, the seed of defeat was sown.
By all outward appearances, it was a complete victory. The enemy was completely destroyed. But how subtle was the enemy! He was able to sow a seed of defeat at the time of great victory.
Why? Because when the children of Israel entered into the city, among six hundred thousand soldiers there was one by the name of Achan.
When he entered Jericho to destroy the city, he saw a beautiful mantle of Shinar, two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold of fifty shekels’ weight. He coveted them.
He knew that these things were devoted to destruction, to be burned. He knew that the gold and silver, after they were refined by fire, should go to the treasury of the Lord. But he coveted these things for himself. He stole them and hid them under his tent. His family was his accomplice; they agreed with him.
The city of Jericho represents the stronghold which the enemy builds in us—in our soul and in our mind. The city of Ai speaks to us of temptation.
Sometimes the enemy hides himself behind strongholds. He will not come out to fight; he hides behind a stronghold to block our way to possessing Christ. But at other times, he will come out to tempt us. This is what the city of Ai represents.
It is strange, you know. Jericho was a big city, and yet they hid themselves behind the walls. Ai was a small city, and yet they came out to fight. You never can tell what the enemy is going to do. You have to be watchful at all times.
Achan saw this beautiful mantle of Shinar. Now, Shinar is the name of the place, the land; the name of the country is Babylon. So it was a beautiful garment made in Babylon, and he coveted it.
Why did he want this beautiful mantle of Shinar? He wanted to beautify himself. Why did he want the silver and gold? He wanted to enrich himself.
He robbed God of God’s rights. He robbed God of what was due to God in order to enrich himself. And he disobeyed God in not destroying this beautiful garment, in order to beautify himself.
So this beautiful garment, and the silver and gold, in this instance represent the temptation that comes from the world.
In 1 John 2, we are told, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” What are the things in the world? The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.
Now, dear brothers and sisters, God has delivered us out of the world. The children of Israel came out of Egypt; they came out of the world. Now they were in the promised land.
They had left the world behind them, but they discovered that even in the promised land there was still the world there. There was still the possibility of loving the world.
Thank God, He has delivered us out of this world. We are not of the world. So far as we are concerned, the world is crucified; so far as the world is concerned, we are crucified.
Paul said, “I boast of the cross of Jesus Christ.” Why? Because it divides me from the world. It separates me from the world, and there is no crossing over. That is our position.
But, dear brothers and sisters, who can guarantee that you will never love the world again? You may have left the world for forty years already, but who can guarantee that, after forty years, when you see a beautiful mantle of Shinar, suddenly you will not covet it?
What temptation that is! No one is beyond temptation. We do not need to fall into temptation, because the Lord said that He will not allow us to be tempted above that which we are able to bear.
If we are tempted, the Lord knows that we are able to overcome it. Or, to put it another way, what He has already wrought in us is sufficient to overcome the temptation that He allows to come upon us.
Certainly, in the time of temptation, He will make a way of escape, because He is faithful. But, dear brothers and sisters, no one is beyond temptation.
That is the reason why the Lord says, “Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.” The thing of Achan is the love of the world. This is a temptation that is always there, and we need to be careful of it.
The children of Israel had a great victory over Jericho. Oh, they were so elated! Joshua sent spies to spy out Ai, and these spies came back and said, “Well, that is a small city. The people are few. Do not bother all the soldiers. Just send two or three thousand and finish it.”
Easy to do! So Joshua sent three thousand. The people of Ai came out and smote them, and they were routed.
When this happened, Joshua fell before the ark of the Lord, rent his clothes, put dust upon his head, and the elders did likewise. They waited before the ark until evening.
Joshua prayed, “O Lord, why didst Thou bring us over the River Jordan? Why should we not have been contented on the other side? It would have been much better if we had remained there.”
“But now we are here, and the enemy will hear about it. They will come and wipe us out completely. And what will happen to Thy name?”
The Lord said, “Rise up. Why dost thou lie upon thy face? Israel hath sinned.”
As a matter of fact, Achan had sinned. Achan was only one among more than six hundred thousand soldiers, among more than two million people. Yet God said, “Israel hath sinned.”
What does that mean? Does it mean that all the six hundred thousand soldiers who entered the city of Jericho had that covetousness within them, only they did not have the chance? Achan was the only one who had the chance to do it?
No. Achan probably was the only one who coveted; the rest might not have coveted at all. They were not tempted, or they overcame the temptation. Achan was the only one who fell into temptation, and yet the Lord said, “Israel hath sinned.” Why?
Because God considered Israel as one people. When one member sinned, the whole body suffered.
If this is true with Israel, how much more true it is with us today. Israel was but the earthly people of God. God bound the twelve tribes together to make them one nation.
The closeness of the nation was such that, when one among two million had sinned, God said, “Israel hath sinned.” How about us?
The church today is the body of Christ, and this body of Christ is made up of many members. The relationship of the members to each other in the body is so much closer than the relationship of the twelve tribes in the nation of Israel.
If it is true with Israel, how much truer it must be with us today. Probably we do not realize it. We do not really know how closely knit God’s people are.
We do not really know what a relationship we have with one another. Oftentimes we think, “Well, we are just one. It does not matter. Nobody will notice.”
In spiritual reality, God notices. Satan notices. Nothing can escape. There is a spiritual reality before us. In spiritual conflict, nothing can be hidden.
In the spiritual realm, everything is utterly naked. Everything is real—one hundred percent real. Because of the reality of it, when one member sinned, God said, “Israel hath sinned.”
Because Israel had sinned, unless the thing was dealt with, Ai could not be taken.
It would have been very easy for God to tell Joshua, “Achan has sinned.” That would have saved a great deal of trouble. But God did not do that. God said, “Israel hath sinned.”
How were they to find out? The whole nation was mobilized. The next morning, the whole nation was gathered together, and they cast lots.
Of the twelve tribes, one tribe was taken—the tribe of Judah. After the tribe was taken, all the families in that tribe passed by, and one family was taken. Then all the households of that family passed by, and one household was taken. Finally, all the members of that household passed by until one member was taken.
Oh, such an elaborate, such a tiring process! Why did God not make it easier and say, “Achan has sinned. Get rid of him, and that is it”? Why did God want the children of Israel all involved in this painful process?
You remember the instance in the New Testament. Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers. There was a man in the church at Corinth who had done such a thing as was not even heard of among the Gentiles.
But the rest of the church did not care. They normally did not care about it. They even boasted themselves: “We did not do that. It was just a brother who did it.”
Paul wrote and said, “You need to be exercised as a church. All of you should be exercised before the Lord to put away the wicked man.”
Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out the old leaven.
The whole church in Corinth had to repent. The whole church in Corinth had to be grieved. The whole church in Corinth had to be exercised. Their consciences had to be exercised before the Lord.
After their consciences were awakened and exercised, and they began to deal with this thing, it brought in restoration. So in 2 Corinthians, Paul said, “Receive that brother back.”
This is the principle of the church. Even though only Achan had sinned, God wanted the whole nation to be exercised. It was only after the whole nation had exercised themselves before the Lord that the sin was discovered and dealt with.
So, dear brothers and sisters, remember that in the body of Christ, if one member suffers, the whole body suffers. If one member sins, the whole body suffers, for the whole body is involved.
How we need to be exercised together. Do not take a superior attitude and say, “So-and-so has sinned. We have no part in it. Oh, how much holier we are!”
God says, “No. You are responsible for that too. You need to be exercised.” The whole church must be humbled before the Lord and exercised before the Lord until that sin is dealt with and the one who sinned is restored.
When Achan was taken, Joshua said, “My son, give glory to God. Confess what you have done.” Achan said, “I have sinned.”
But, of course, when he said, “I have sinned,” it was not a sign of repentance. It was just a forced confession. “Yes, I have sinned. I saw this beautiful mantle of Shinar. I saw two hundred shekels of silver. I saw a gold bar of fifty shekels’ weight, and I took them. I hid them in my tent.”
Joshua sent messengers to gather these things, and they brought them before the Lord. Joshua said, “My son, thou hast troubled us, and the Lord shall trouble thee.”
So they brought Achan and his whole family, and all that he had, to the valley. They stoned them to death, burned them, and raised a heap of stones over them. That place was called the Valley of Achor, the Valley of Trouble.
In spiritual conflict, everything is so real. Nothing can be hidden. That is the reason why every sin has to be dealt with. After it has been dealt with, God is well able to deliver the city of Ai into the hands of the children of Israel.
But, you know, the Valley of Achor is a very low place. It is a valley. When you enter into a valley, and it is a valley of trouble, we may think that is the end of it. But thank God, the Valley of Achor is not the end.
Why? Because if you read the prophet Hosea, you will find in Hosea 2:14-15:
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.
Humanly speaking, the Valley of Achor is the end. But from the standpoint of God, He is able to change the Valley of Achor into a door of hope.
Spiritually speaking, if we have not entered into the Valley of Achor, we have no door of hope. After we have entered into the Valley of Achor—that is, after our thing has been dealt with—then there is hope.
Anything that is robbing the Lord, anything that is robbing God’s people, anything that is robbing us, anything that needs to be dealt with: when it is dealt with, it is under the blood of the Lord Jesus. This is the door of hope.
It leads to hope. That is the mercy of God. God restores their youth and their joy, as when He brought them out of Egypt.
Only Isaiah 65:10:
And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down in, for My people that have sought Me.
When God’s people really seek the face of the Lord, He is able to make the Valley of Achor a resting place for the herds. In other words, the cattle graze in the field until they are satisfied, and then they lie down and ruminate.
That is the picture. The Valley of Achor becomes such a place where you are fully satisfied and simply meditate upon the goodness of the Lord.
Thank God for that. He is the only One who is able to do such a thing, and He always does.
After the Valley of Achor, God assured Joshua, “Fear not, neither be thou dismayed. Take with thee all the people of war, and arise, go up to Ai. I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land.”
Now, why was Israel defeated? There were several reasons. The first reason we have already mentioned: Israel had sinned.
There was sin in Israel, and God could not condone that sin. God could not be there, and that is why Israel was defeated.
The second reason was that, after they had a great victory over Jericho, they failed to return to Gilgal.
If you read the Book of Joshua, you find that the base of their operation was Gilgal. After each campaign, after each battle, they went back to Gilgal. Then they came out from Gilgal again. That was the base of operation.
But because the victory was so wonderful, they thought they could just go on from victory to victory. They did not need to go back to their base.
What is Gilgal? Gilgal was the place where they were circumcised. In other words, it speaks of the cross.
Brothers and sisters, the only way to assure victory is to go back to the cross. It is the cross that gives us victory. After victory is given, do not forget the cross.
Go back to the cross. Let the heart be circumcised. Only if we begin from the base of spiritual operation—that is, the cross—will He assure us of further victory.
The third reason was that they despised their enemy. In warfare, you should not overestimate the strength of your enemy, for if you do, you become discouraged. But neither should you underestimate your enemy, because you will despise him and become careless.
We should not overestimate our enemies as if they are invincible. No, our enemy is a defeated enemy. Thank God for that. But neither can we despise our enemy.
They said, “The city of Ai is a walled city with altogether only twelve thousand people. They cannot have more than three thousand soldiers. Just send two or three thousand and finish it.” They despised the enemy, and that is why they were defeated.
Brothers and sisters, often in our spiritual life, in big trials we seem able to get through, but we often fall in small testings.
If you drive a car, it is often at the safest place that accidents happen. In a very difficult place, you are so careful in your driving that you do not have an accident.
In spiritual conflict it is the same. Often in big things, how we go to the Lord! How we tell the Lord that we depend on Him, that we cannot do it by ourselves. Because we trust Him, we find that He is trustworthy, and we overcome. Thank God for that.
But in small things, we say, “Oh, we can do it.” We despise our enemies, and in small things we often fail.
The Lord said, “If you are faithful in small things, then I will commit to you greater things.” They despised their enemies.
What was the Lord’s strategy over the city of Ai? If the Lord gives you victory one time, what is our temptation? Our temptation is to use the same method the second time.
But you find the Lord is living. In the city of Jericho, it was the ark that brought the walls down. But in the city of Ai, God’s strategy was very different—very different.
Number one: God said, “Take with thee all the people of war, and arise, go up to Ai.”
They had despised their enemy. They thought that sending two or three thousand would be enough, and the rest of the people could rest. But in spiritual warfare, it is body warfare.
The warrior in Ephesians 6 is not an individual believer. The warrior in Ephesians 6 is the church. The church is that warrior which takes up the whole armour of God.
The church is the warrior that stands, withstands, and stands. The church is the warrior that brings the purpose of God into fulfillment—not an individual, but the church.
So in spiritual warfare, everybody is involved. Do not think, “Well, let my brothers and sisters fight. I will retire.” All the people must go. We must go together.
Even though it may be a small city, over six hundred thousand soldiers all went out to fight. We have to go together. That is number one.
Number two: God said, “Set an ambush.”
Joshua sent thirty thousand men to be an ambush on the west side of the city of Ai. But he was not satisfied with that; he sent another five thousand to reinforce the ambush.
After the ambush was set, he led the people to the north side of the city. He said, “We will pretend to run. When we draw the people away from the city, then you who are in ambush will rise up, enter into the city, and begin burning it.”
That was how the city was taken. Joshua went before the people of Ai. The gates were opened, and they thought Israel was going to do as before.
After they drew the men of Ai farther away, those in the ambush went into the city and burned it. When the smoke rose up, Joshua turned back with all his army and stretched out his javelin over the city. He did not withdraw his arm until that city was completely destroyed.
Now, what is an ambush? An ambush is a surprise. The enemy is not conscious of it, and so the enemy is taken by surprise.
What is it that can surprise our enemy? Dear brothers and sisters, Satan can imitate almost anything. He can transform himself into an angel of light.
But there is one thing the enemy cannot counterfeit: that is life. Life is something he cannot counterfeit.
An ambush means that hidden life which God has wrought in your life. When we are faced with temptation, what will overcome the temptation? It is the accumulated, reserved grace of God in us.
You may see two Christians, and they may seem to be the same. But when temptation comes, there is a difference. One has reserve, as it were, in his life. He has an ambush to surprise the enemy.
Those who do not have reserve are not able to withstand the temptation. So the ambush here speaks of that reserved grace, that hidden life with the Lord. This is something the enemy cannot understand.
He can compute everything, but this is something beyond him. It is surprising to him. How important it is that we have that reserve grace with us, that accumulated and hidden life with the Lord.
It may not be manifested in ordinary days. All the time you spend with the Lord, the meetings you have with the Lord—nobody knows about them. They do not appear in ordinary days.
But those who have such life will be of great effectiveness when the time of temptation comes. That is the ambush.
What brings in the victory? The javelin in the hands of Joshua. With the city of Jericho, it was the ark; but over the city of Ai, it was the javelin.
The ark represents the finished work of Christ. That is always the basis of victory over the enemy. But the javelin in Joshua’s hands represents the energy of the Holy Spirit.
It is the energy of the Holy Spirit that activates the life which is hidden up, that brings all the finished work of Christ into operation.
In the case of Ai, you find it is the javelin of Joshua, the energy of the Holy Spirit. So these two things are the basis for spiritual conflict: the finished work of Christ and the energy of the Holy Spirit in bringing out the reserved strength of life.
But have you ever noticed that there is a great difference here? After the city was destroyed, in the case of Jericho, you find that the children of Israel were to take nothing.
When they tried to get something, they sinned. So they took nothing. They got nothing out of the battle. Even though the things were burned and destroyed, or went into the treasury of the Lord, the children of Israel got nothing.
In other words, in the battle of Jericho, God got something, but the children of Israel got nothing. Are we willing to go into such spiritual conflict and get nothing out of it?
There is a lesson for us to learn: in spiritual conflict, the spoil primarily belongs to God. It does not belong to us.
Do not think, “I have fought so fiercely and so bravely. I have sweated and done everything, so I should get something out of it.” No. All glory belongs to God. You are to get nothing—nothing at all.
But in the case of the city of Ai, God said, “You can have the spoil.”
Only the spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves.
You have to put these two together, because these two battles form the basis of spiritual conflict. In spiritual conflict, what comes out of it—the spoil—first belongs to God.
Only after God has His due will there be spoil for us. It does not mean that you will get nothing. You will, because you will be enriched through the battle.
But unless you have the priority right, you sin. If you have the priority right, then you are enriched. That is the difference. When you combine these together, you see the whole picture.
After the battle over Ai was over, what did the children of Israel do? You find that Joshua built an altar unto the Lord, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the children of Israel.
This was the first phase of the war. After these two battles, the first phase of war was over. Joshua built an altar at Mount Ebal according to what Moses had commanded.
No iron was to come upon the stones. So they built a stone altar and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings upon it. Then they wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses.
After they did that, they acted according to what Moses had commanded in Deuteronomy. The people divided into two parts, and they proclaimed the curses and the blessings from Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim.
They read the book of the law to the whole congregation of Israel—the women, the children, and even the strangers who lived among them.
After spiritual battle, what is the natural consequence? The consequence of spiritual conflict is that the people become a worshiping people. They come to worship the Lord.
Oftentimes, in our worship, we find there is a lack of substance. Sometimes when we come together to worship the Lord, we do not know what to bring. We do not have anything to bring.
We do not know what to say. Even when we know what to say, they are merely words—words. Oftentimes after a time of worship, you feel that there is no substance. There is a lack of substance; there is a lack of depth in worship.
Do you know why? Because there has been no victory. There is no spoil—no spoil.
If in our life there are victories, there will be spoils for the Lord. Not only spoils for the Lord, but David even set apart his own spoil for the Lord. There will be substance in our worship.
Worship must not be in words only; there should be substance. When there is substance, you know that it satisfies God’s heart. Otherwise, it is floating—just floating—beautiful words, but God is not satisfied.
So spiritual conflict has much to do with worship. If we are not willing to go through spiritual conflict, our worship will be very superficial and sentimental, with no depth and no substance.
But people who go through conflict, see the victory of the Lord, and bring spoils for the Lord—you find their worship is full of substance and it is weighty.
It is not heavy in the sense of heaviness, but heavy in the sense of weight. There is weight there. There is worth there. It does satisfy the Lord’s heart.
That is one thing. The second thing is that the children of Israel wrote the Ten Commandments on the stones as a testimony—a public testimony.
It was not only for them to read, but for the people of the land to know that they belonged to God. So, dear brothers and sisters, what comes out of spiritual conflict, on the one hand, is worship; on the other hand, it is testimony.
The whole world will see the Lord. That is the result of spiritual conflict.
When you come to the end of Joshua 8, you come to one phase of spiritual conflict. But again, let us remind ourselves that spiritual conflict is a process; it is a means. It is not the end.
The end is possessing Christ. So we should be more occupied with possessing Christ than with conflict. That will be a healthy mentality.
O heavenly Father, how we praise Thee, because Thou hast shown us through Thy Word the spiritual principles involved in our daily life, in our conflicts, and in possessing Christ.
We do pray that by Thy Holy Spirit these principles may become very real, living, and effective, that truly Thy people may fully possess Christ as they are possessed by Christ.
And to Thee be all the praise and glory, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.