Disclaimer: Please forgive any typographical, grammatical, and/or content errors in the following notes. They are not meant to be an exact transcription, but rather a helpful guide for those who appreciate the written word along with the spoken word. If you have any questions on what was taught, feel free to reach out on our ‘Contact Us’ page.
Anyone a baseball fan here? The World Series starts this coming Friday. One of the greatest baseball players of all time, (even if you’re not a baseball fan you have probably heard of), the Great Bambino, the Sultan of Swat, “Baby Ruth” (Sandlot anyone?)—Babe Ruth. Babe Ruth was famous for many different things and he set perhaps one of the most cherished records in all of sport in 1923 (almost 100 years ago!) he set one of the most difficult records to set in all of sports. Do you know what it was? The most strike-outs in one year. Wait?! That’s not what Babe Ruth did! Babe Ruth hit home runs! It was the most strike-outs in one year—Babe Ruth in 1923. In fact, in Babe Ruth’s career, he set the record for the most career strikeouts. That record stood for three decades until this other no-name Yankee called Mickey Mantle came along and broke the record for the most strike-outs in a career.
We fail a lot don’t we? If we are not careful and if we listen to the voice of the enemy after those failures whispering lies it is so easy to spiral downwards into a place of ongoing defeat and failure. Joshua chapter 8 we see how the people of Israel respond to failure—failure of the nation as a whole, failure of Achan as a man, and how they turned to God. So today in our text we’re going to go through a three point outline:
- God is a God of second chances.
- God is a God of strategy.
- God is a God of bringing success from failure.
- God is a God of second chances.
Joshua 8:1-2 says, “And the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not fear and do not be dismayed. Take all the fighting men with you, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, his city, and his land. 2 And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king. Only its spoil and its livestock you shall take as plunder for yourselves. Lay an ambush against the city, behind it.”
Now, on the heels of the failure of Israel and Achan where he was killed for taking the spoil for himself that was supposed to be devoted to the Lord. After Joshua really kind of failed in leading well, sending a detachment of troops, 3,000 men, to go and take Ai without even consulting the Lord—taking matters into his own hands. He was feeling a little confident after the walls of Jericho fell down. Israel suffers its first defeat in the promised land and if you think about it, it was the first combat in which they entered. They didn’t even fight in Jericho, they just marched for seven days. They got a little exercise in, a little silent meditation, and they yelled, and the walls fell. It wasn’t a battle. They didn;t even have anyone they were engaging with. The Lord did everything from beginning to end. So now, the Israelites may have been thinking, look at all these fighting men we have. We have these mighty men of Valor. Look at that little, ol’ city Ai, up in the mountains there. We’ll just send 3,000 men and we’ll take them out and it’ll be easy, right? They lose. First time they actually enter into combat and they lose.
We don’t like to lose do we? Fear of failure is always one of the top 5 in the fear polls they do for people. Really what the fear of failure is, is the fear of what other people are going to think of you when you fail. How am I going to be perceived? What’s my reputation going to be? Will people ever trust me again? Better not to even try. Can’t fail if I don’t try. That’s one way people could go with it. Of course, there are lots of different iterations of that. The point is, fear of failure is a very common thing.
So what’s the first thing God says to Joshua? Do not fear. Do not be dismayed. The same command he gave in the beginning to Joshua in Joshua 1:9 when he commissioned Joshua to take over for Moses. So God immediately addressed the heart of fear in the face of failure (step 1) and then immediately after that (step 2) he reassured him: don’t fear, don’t be dismayed. Why? Because I have given the victory! The Lord talks in past tense. It’s already won. He’s already taken care of it. The only responsibility that the people of Israel has is to now go and obediently do the task to which they are called. As we’ve studied many times: the result is the Lord’s. The fruit is the Lord’s. The success or failure? The success, in particular, is the Lord’s.
Then the Lord gives very specific instructions on how to go about taking Ai. I’m sure Joshua is thinking, “Why didn’t I just go to the Lord the first time?” Well, that right there, is an opening for the enemy to come in and start whispering, “Yeah, ya dope, why didn’t you just go to the Lord like last time? Right? Would’ve Could’ve, Should’ve. Water under the bridge. One of the critical things to learn as we mature and grow is that, yes, we will mess up. Hopefully that will become less as we mature. But, like the baseball player getting another at bat, there’s a lot of work to do and I cannot get caught in my head fearing another failure; nor can I get caught in my head with the consequences of my failure. People died in Israel as a result of that sin. Joshua could’ve fixated on the loss and consequence. The Lord says I’ve already dealt with it. I’ve already had justice done and it’s not for you to dwell on the consequences. It’s for you to dwell on the work, the task. What is set before you? Are you going to be faithfully obedient? Because I have given you the city and here is how you’re going to do it and this time you get to keep the spoils.
Isn’t it funny? If Achan would’ve just waited a week, then he would’ve been able to take what his heart coveted. You see, how many of you know that in everything we do, we are called to give the firstfruits to the Lord. That’s Deuteronomy 26—it takes an entire chapter in the law to explain this expectation of the firstfruits being given to the Lord and that’s what Jericho was about. Jericho, the strongest, fortified city in the promised land by most estimates, with big walls, that the people had to do nothing but walk around, was to be devoted entirely to the Lord. Firstfruits of the promised land were to be given to the Lord. But Achan wanted it for himself and herein is a critical reminder—God loves to give good gifts to his children. We hear multiple reminders in the gospels. Matthew 7:11 says, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” Luke 11:13 says, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” The Lord delights in giving those good gifts and when we rush ahead and seek to take them for ourselves (and we went over that last week—I saw, I wanted it, I took it, and I hid it.) When we do that, that’s where there’s going to be consequences. Praise God that He gives us a second chance and lets us take another at bat. Praise God He doesn’t just have us start cutting away. He has a strategy. He’ll say you missed that curve ball last time. You didn’t quite see it coming in. Just sit on it a little bit longer and then take a cut. He has a strategy for us the next time He sends us up to bat.
- God is a God of strategy.
Here’s a second city. This time you’re going to do it differently. This time you’re going to lay an ambush and we’re going to take this city through some shrewd cunning. When Jesus sends out his disciples in Matthew 10 you all remember how he sends them out into the midst of these wolves and you are going to be shrewd as a serpent, cunning, wise; and gentle as a dove. This example of shrewd cunning. We see that strategy play out in this next section. Proverbs talks a lot about this. Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.” Proverbs 21:5 says, “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.” Have a plan. Have a strategy.
Now, we have the flipside of this in James where it says, “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit” (4:13). You don’t know! So there’s a balance. Our plans, of course, need to be flexible. But when our plans are the Lord’s plans, that’s the best. It’s when I’m seeking to execute as he clarifies that for me step-by-step along that journey. So, Jericho was roughly 10 miles from Ai. Jericho, you recall, is on the eastern portion of Israel. The people are encamped at Gilgal. Which, quite candidly they don’t quite know where that was. Then the Lord says, time to go to Ai. The 10 miles (for those of us local) is like taking a hike down Rt. 191 to Nazareth. This however, as you can see, is very rocky, mountainous terrain. The Jordan River is flat terrain and it runs down to the dead sea which is way below sea level. As soon as you start getting past the plains of Jericho, which by the way is all desert, except for the wet season which is a little better, you get into the mountainous hills and running through these hills is a word that says ‘Wadi.’ A wadi is an oasis, a low place when in the wet season it fills with water. It’s a dry bed usually in some sort of ravine. This is how the people of Israel came upon the people of Ai. They used the wadis to get up to Ai.
Map from: http://godswarplan.com/battle-of-ai-joshua-8-achan-sin-stealing-the-plunder-tithing
Israel had already taken an attempt to take Ai from the front. The wadis would be dry at this time of year so they would have been easy to travel through. Joshua does everything the Lord instructs to the letter. He brings the main force up and he puts an ambush force behind the city and then he moves the main force in the exact same way as last time with a frontal assault and the city of Ai sees that they’re trying again, but this time with many more people. No big deal, we got this. They ran like wimps last time, let’s go out to meet them. This is exactly what the Lord said. So then the Israelites retreat and Joshua raises his javelin signal and the people turn and attack as the ambush is set. The other group in Ai lights the signal fire to send up smoke. Note they did not burn the city in its entirety when they took it because they wanted the spoil. They waited until the end in verse 29. So the city is not ablaze; there are smoke signals. The Israelites and Aians engage where the full force of the Israelites obliterate Ai. Meanwhile, if the folks from Bethel who were allied with Ai had tried to intervene, they could not because forces were camped there to block that reinforcement. The Lord did it and they absolutely obliterated Ai.
Map from: http://godswarplan.com/battle-of-ai-joshua-8-achan-sin-stealing-the-plunder-tithing
I love how the Lord’s plan is not really rooted in the strength of the mighty men of Valor in Israel. It’s rooted in the cunning and teamwork of the whole community of his people working together. Isn’t that so true in the strategies of the Lord. It’s not about making you super strong to take on this temptation all by yourself. The Lord says I’ll help you get through this when you rely on her and her and they’re going to be your core that will help you through this. They’ll be your truth-speakers, your encouragers, they’ll bend down and sit in the dirt with you and then lift you up as My Spirit empowers them and moves through them. So I’ll do this, but through the people I put in your life. That’s how the Lord works so often. When we fail to operate in community as a team, each doing our part, that’s when things often break down. That’s why the enemy tries to isolate so much, isn’t it? In verse 9 and 13 the text is very intentional to let us know that Joshua was with his soldiers and with his people. There is no one person who is above anyone else. It is about the community operating together. Each one doing their part, playing their role. No special privileges. We sleep in the dirt together. We have victory together. That’s what we do.
We know that the ground is level at the foot of the cross and so it is critical that we have that mindset because it is so easy for the enemy as soon as you start having success to puff up that pride and you start thinking you’re something. Immediately our pride wants to elevate those around us. That’s how it works. Church, we cannot do that by God’s grace. We see that strategy of the enemy, that scheme of the devil, and we stay with people. We ask the Lord to keep us humble and stay with the people He has put us with. His people, but our team, our community, our family. I love this example from Joshua. As the Lord has unpacked this strategy and has told them exactly what to do.
- God is a God of bringing success from failure.
The Isrealites obey and the Lord brings success from failure. That’s what He does. Our God is the master of the sneak attack. BOOM. Didn’t see that one coming. The one who He sneak attacks all the time is who? Satan. Satan thinks he’s won all the time. Then the Lord gives His mercy, grace, Holy Spirit conviction, and repentance. God is a God who is the master of bringing beauty from ashes. Amen? He is the master like Joseph says in Genesis 50, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” Why? “To bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” Did you know that if you are humble enough to repent of your sin and bring it before the Lord, that the Lord will use your sin to save other people. That’s what He does. Now you have become a testimony of God’s saving power. Now you have the ability to speak life into someone else who may be struggling with the same thing that you failed with and you can encourage them to victory where you failed. Now you can be an instrument in the Lord’s hands for victory. Sneak attack. Boom! Got it. It’s what the Lord does. He is a masterful ambusher and He takes what the enemy means for evil and He brings it to good. Over and over and over again. When the enemy thinks that he’s got us down; His grace and His mercy come pouring through and we have the opportunity to receive it in faith and walk in forgiveness. To walk in the newness of life and walk in the life He has for us because point 1 He’s a God of second chances. Amen?
The trick, of course, is most all of us know this stuff. Most of us know this stuff and we get it, it’s a good encouragement. And even what I’m about to say is nothing new, but our flesh, our pride, our selfishness constantly wants to get us to forget the fact that the only way that we accomplish any of this is through the power of the Lord at work in us. It’s so easy to hear a teaching like this and think, “I’ve got to do better. I’ve just gotta receive the Lord’s mercy. I just gotta take another at bat. That’s what I have to do. I’m just gonna go up there and sit on that curve ball and take a swing.” And Satan’s just sitting back chuckling at how we keep trying to persist in our prideful toughness. The enemy loves prideful tough guys. The Lord wants to make us into humble tough guys. The tough part is a good thing. Perseverance, endurance, hard work, and pressing on, scripture is replete with examples of that, but it’s the heart behind that. When it’s out of your own strength that you are doomed. Even if you have success in the world’s eyes, you are doomed because your pride will lead to your destruction.
This is why the Lord has the example that He does here. The people of Israel have victory as long as Joshua holds up the javelin, which is what the Lord told him to do. This sounds a lot like Joshua’s mentor, Moses, who had to do much like the same thing in the battle of the Amalekites. Joshua led that battle, but Moses held up the staff with Aaron and Hur on either side keeping their hands raised. That time it was the staff of Aaron, this time it was the javelin of Joshua. It’s interesting to see some of the transition here that the Lord has done. As the hand of Joshua is raised acknowledging and exulting the Lord in worship. That’s what a raised hand always means, that’s why I love when I see the Lord’s people so taken in with a moment of worship when we can just raise our hands and praise our King. Hard for some of us to do just because it’s out of our comfort zone, but it’s a beautiful thing to raise our hand to the Lord. It’s a recognition that you aren’t in control. It’s surrender.
Except Joshua surrendered with the Lord’s javelin in his hand; Moses with the staff of a shepherd. John tells us that Jesus is the Good Shepherd. And if we look at Revelation 19, we learn that the Lord is Jehovah Sabaoth, the Lord of angel armies, coming with a sword for judgment and we kind of see that juxtaposition between Moses and Jshua—a foreshadowing, if you will, of how the Lord will engage.
The key thing here is that the battle is the Lord’s and church, rather than buckling down and thinking to ourselves that we need to just try harder and do better. That is the wrong answer. What we, by God’s grace, need to do is to press into Him more fully, to seek His truth, encouragement, His people. Build relationship with Him and His church and that is how we overcome the enemy. Learn His word more deeply, that it would be hidden in our hearts, that when the enemy does come against us with those thoughts or temptation, like Christ, we can wield the truth like a sword and parry and strike. That is what our hearts should be driven to. So often sermons can be preached that unintentionally reinforce the prideful try-hard within us. Again, we want humble toughness, humble perseverance, trusting and relying on the Lord as He gives us the strength to get back up and take another at back, to keep going. That is how our king operates. As we do battle against our flesh we have to recognize that it is by the Spirit that we will have victory over the flesh. Romans 8:13 says, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” No equivocation there. It’s pretty straight forward. Black and white. Now what does it mean to not live according to the flesh. It means to rely on the Lord, abide in Him, press into Him.
As we do battle against the enemy, as we see with Joshua, there’s no room for sin in our life. The Lord told the people to completely wipe out the Aians, just like He did with Jericho. I would encourage you to go back and listen to Mark’s sermon on Joshua 6 where it was explained how the lord brought justice upon the Canaanites for all their wicked and vile practices. So lest we think this was over the top for the Lord; no, these were wicked, evil people who had justice brought to them.
Joshua 8:22 says, “And the others came out from the city against them, so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side. And Israel struck them down, until there was left none that survived or escaped.” Church, we should have zero tolerance for sin. Once the Lord makes clear an area of our life that Satan has a foothold, a beachhead, we need to come against that by God’s grace to come against that to eliminate it completely. That is what scripture shows us. Let’s again go back to Romans 8. It’s not about taking captive the flesh. We’re not going to put it in the POW camp and give it some scraps every now and then and try to keep you alive in case I need you later. Those sinful areas of our life need to be put to death by the wisdom of the Lord and scripture repeats that call throughout, said in different ways, but it’s about walking in the Spirit and not walking in the flesh – Galatians 5. If we don’t eliminate sin’s presence there’s always the chance that the enemy can use it again.
Here’s the reality guys, this is why throughout our lives as we grow and mature, there will be increasing measures of victory, but there will always be those areas in which we struggle. You know what I’m talking about. So the effort is to completely eliminate the sin. Sin is not really like an army or force that we can wipe out and we have victory. Sin is more like cancer. I aggressively go against it, cut it out, take whatever medicine and I hope by God’s grace that it’s in remission; but it has a way of weaseling it’s way back at times. We shouldn’t be discouraged by a failure. We go after it again, by God’s grace. We gather in community, we stay rooted in the Word, we praise our King as we do battle against that thing that comes against us, to send it into remission, to cut it out, to get rid of it, to eliminate it as far as we can until to Lord shows us another area where it has a beachhead and by God’s grace we do battle there.
That’s how the life of a Christian works, it’s how scripture refers to us as soldiers. We often think about this in terms of going out into the world and fighting and it is in part, but the primary role of you being a soldier is fighting the enemy and fighting the enemy right where you stand. Not necessarily about going out, but wielding the armor of God as he comes against you because it is a fight and he is trying to strike you down where you stand. We know that the enemy prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. We don’t need to do any seeking. He’s going to come right to our doorsteps.
Now, praise God, that there are times and we’re in a place where he gives us an opportunity to be on the offensive, those are fun because we can see actual fruit in someone else’s life for a change, which is very encouraging isn’t it. One of the mistakes in the Christian walk is to think that my life needs to always be about fruit in other people’s lives because if we are always going out having a spiritual/emotional high about this things I see over here, we leave ourselves open to all the attacks the enemy brings against you right where you stand because you’re not prepared for that fight. So have wisdom in what it means as we go through this battle, this warfare, and when we see something happening in our lives, we meet it, we stand against it, we put it to death, no quarter.
We cannot be like the church in Thyatira in Revelation. Some of you remember, where Jesus said you do some things really well, but I have this against you. You tolerate sin in your midst – that woman Jezebel – which is kind of symbolic of sexual sin, immorality. The Lord brought justice to Thyatira and the people had the opportunity to repent just like the Lord gives us opportunity, but we cannot tolerate sin when we see it, especially in our hearts, there is no quarter. In someone else’s lives we need to be wise as serpent’s, gentle as doves, right? We quote this verse a lot because it’s so instructive, Galatians 6:1 says, “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently.” There is a tactful gentility with which we approach our brothers and sisters. Unless the Lord says it’s time to be a Nathan and proverbially slap someone upside the head. Then you have to do that too. Even then Natahan was wise and tactful in how he confronted sin.
Joshua 8:28-29 says, “So Joshua burned Ai and made it forever a heap of ruins, as it is to this day. 29 And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. And at sunset Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city and raised over it a great heap of stones, which stands there to this day.” That is until the day of the writing of the text, not to this day. People of Israel followed exactly what the Lord said to do and they followed the law in Deuteronomy 21:22-23 says, “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, 23 his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.” We put sin to death in our lives and we don’t put it on display. That gives an opportunity for pride to sneak in. Get that off the tree! Don’t allow the victory that the Lord has given you to be turned around and used by the enemy to puff you up. Leave it between you and the Lord and the little cohort of fighters who helped you overcome that together as you praise God in private.
Cursed is the one who hangs on a tree…which should automatically make us think of whom? Ultimately this text points us to Christ. Galatians 3 says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— 14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” By faith we overcome the enemy and do not taste the curse of death because Jesus took it for us. If you want to you can look at this entire text as a metaphor of the battle of our flesh. Ai represents our flesh and how the Lord leads us against that. I would encourage you to go back and read it through that lens. The Lord will give us the victory and allow us to put it to death and remind us that Christ is the one who is ultimately the victor. Amen?
So as the text ends it gives us this image of this heap of stones at the city gate. So now we have two heaps of stones. Remember there were no chapter and verse breakdowns when this was originally written. So you would have just read about Achan and how they heaped stones over him and now you read the heap of stones over the king of Ai. One is a reminder of how easy it is to fail when we walk in our own strength seeking our own stomach as scripture calls it, our own fleshly desires. And one is a reminder of the success we will have as we rely on the strength of the Lord. Both of these heaps are reminders of what our choices will bring. Follow the Lord and worship Him or follow my own way, my own desires, the way of the fool, the way of death. The way of ruin. Which is what Ai means, “heap of ruins,” you’d think they would have come up with another name for their city.
The first mention of Ai is back in Genesis with Abraham, who was Abrham at the time, when he is looking for a place to settle down. And you can read it in Genesis 12:8 as well as 13:3. He decides to settle right between Ai and Bethel. He wasn’t like his nephew Lot who unwisely went to Sodom and Gomorrah. But Abrham pitched his tent between the cities of Bethel “house of God” and Ai “heap of ruins” and so often, church, that’s where we find ourselves, in this struggle, being in His presence and power and stumbling into that heap of ruins and garbage dump. Praise God that He gives us wisdom as we go through life.
The pattern of the believer (and I share this to encourage us) and of growth, maturity, and refinement is one of failure! That’s okay. It’s a humble heart that can acknowledge that. And I’ll say it again. The mature believer experiences less failure, but that doesn’t mean it’s eliminated. There will always be temptation. So the pattern of growth is repentance. It always starts with that, followed by obedience, followed by victory over the enemy, and it comes hand in hand with blessing, and then it is almost always come against with temptation. One of the important marks is gratefulness and thanksgiving and not taking that blessing and turning it into something we’re prideful about.
This pattern is not a surprise to God. Before he sends the people into the promised land in Deuteronomy 31:20, He tells Moses and Joshua, “For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to give to their fathers, and they have eaten and are full and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, and despise me and break my covenant…For I know what they are inclined to do even today, before I have brought them into the land that I swore to give.” Isn’t that incredible?! That our holy and righteous God knows we are going to mess up! Yet He still blesses us and loves us enough to allow us to fail so that we can grow and therein the cycle continues if we are in tune with the Spirit of God and we are humbly being tough guys. Then that disobedience, as it’s followed by defeat, will be followed by judgment; there will be consequences, not eternal, praise God, because Jesus took our curse on the tree when we submitted to him. Herein lies the key, at that place of consequence, the place of failure, the place where our sin is brought into the light and we are dealing with the pain of that failure of that strikeout, God will say, “Repent, turn to me, I will help you, I will give you victory, I will refine you. The refiner’s fire is hot, painful, pruning, hard, but it’s to produce much fruit (Jn 15). Then there is repentance and obedience and the cycle continues with hopefully longer stretches of obedience.
By God’s grace, we need to be a people who learn from our mistakes, who aren’t afraid to fail, don’t want to fail; but when we do fail we turn to the Lord relying on His power, His Spirit, His people, His truth. All Him, none of us. That He would pick us up; that we would get another at bat and hit a home run which brings us back to Babe Ruth. 1923—set the strikeout record. 1923—set the home run record, 60 dingers in a season. He also that year set the batting average record, which we all forget about. So he not only hit a lot of homeruns, but he was on base all the time. That man swung hard and he missed a lot, but he also had great success. Church we don’t want to strike out, but if we do, it’s okay. God will meet you there. He’ll coach you, he’ll train you, and he’ll equip you to get out there and take another swing to have victory for Him.