Joshua Chapter 8 Verses 1 – 2

• What is the time period between Chapter 7 verse 26 and Chapter 8 verse 1? I would submit to you zero. The sin is confessed, the consequence of the sin is absorbed, repentance has arrived and for the nation of Israel this is real repentance because the agent of sin is literally eliminated, and now it’s time to sulk…NO! It’s time to get back up! Restored and revived by the holiness of God and the grace of God!
• That is what real repentance will do man. Not false repentance. Oh man I feel so horrible about what I’ve down. Boy that was wrong. I’m sorry…repentance is not sorrow alone…it is expulsion! Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 7:10, “Godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.” Aka more sin! That’s what death is!
• But not this. And not for us. Not for me and not for you. When we sin, with sorrowful strength, we confess it, we remove it, and we go to the Lord in the name and precious blood of His Son, Jesus Christ, for mercy, grace and re-commission. And I believe a sure sign of false repentance…is decommission. When you stay down. No. God’s restoration is available to you immediately when you are ready to repent!
• How even this must have took faith. Joshua and the nation Israel are not accustomed to defeat are they? And yet now they are 36 souls and one family lost. However, the sin has been removed and so God calls them past their emotions…fear and dismay…and He says, “Arise! Time to get back to what you’re used to. This time, My way…”
• And notice! How foolish Achan’s sin seems now! He kept a little tiny morsel of the spoil of Jericho sinfully when just around the corner God had planned an entire nation of pirates’ treasure! (Booty! Arrrrrr! HA!) If he had only waited on the Lord. But no, he had to take it for himself…buy now, pay later…well he did.

Joshua Chapter 8 Verses 3 – 4

• God’s way! Victory is assured man!

Joshua Chapter 8 Verses 5 – 8

• Again we see Joshua building upon the foundation of God’s commandment. God told Joshua, lay an ambush…and now Joshua is exercising his knowledge, experience, sanctified common sense…and check this…even his failure to lay out the specific battle plan…
• He mentions that the warriors of AI would think that they are fleeing as before…brilliant!!

Joshua Chapter 8 Verse 9

• Why? Why would Joshua mention that? Because above the battle, above the project, above the increase, above the expansion, above the progress, above all except for the Lord, Joshua’s heart was for the people! He stayed to comfort them. Beyond a good friend who might be in the mess with them, Joshua was a good leader, a father to the nation as Moses was a father to the nation in that he wasn’t in the mess with them, it was his mess. He took responsibility beyond the day but for their very lives man!

Joshua Chapter 8 Verses 10 - 17

• Notice the king of Ai kept to the exact same strategy as before. Why? Because it worked! Generally, Satan will stick with a strategy against us until it doesn’t work anymore. Did you know that!? James 4:7 says, “Resist the devil, fight back, defeat his current strategy, and he will flee.” Yes you can get through this thing you’re fighting! Try it God’s way and watch the enemy run!

Joshua Chapter 8 Verse 18

• See who’s calling the shots now? Very different than before, right?

Joshua Chapter 8 Verses 18 – 29

• Wow! The entire nation of Ai was only 12,000. They seemed so big didn’t they when they were kicking Israel’s tail? That is just like sin, man. The Bible says that we will look upon, well its Isaiah 14, where we read of Satan and the people of God looking upon him in the last day saying, “Is this the one who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble, the one who made the world a wilderness?” The implication is, “I thought he’d be bigger. I thought he’d be vicious looking? This is it?”

• Sin always seems so powerful and the pull of temptation so strong until you allow God to call the shots. Until you choose God Almighty as your Commander rather than yourself. As you step off of the throne in your heart, (it’s too big for you anyway, it’s eternity sized and you are man-sized)…and you invite God to take His rightful place as Lord of your life…then, sin is so very outnumbered…and the One that is greater is unleashed all up on it!! (Is 37, 185k Assyrians killed by one angel!)
• And so the victory is secured. Can you imagine the heart of the foolish king as he looked back on his city…women and children only…and sees the smoke rise? Man. I wonder if we are leaving our cities, our home-bases without our men…projects, pursuits, profession, pleasure, more important to you dad, to you husband…and the home is left uncovered…this king probably begged for death…

Joshua Chapter 8 Verses 30 – 32

• Now this is a literal fulfillment of what Moses had commanded for them to do once they came to Mount Ebal all the way back in Deuteronomy 27. However I find it interesting that it’s Mount Ebal.
• Turn over to Deuteronomy Chapter 11and look at verses 26 – 29. Notice, Mount Ebal is the mount of cursing. Isn’t that interesting. It struck me. Here is the mount, or the earth of cursing…and yet the people of God, because they have heeded God’s Word, stand upon it victorious and worshipful. Ebal pronounced eye-ball in the Hebrew…even God’s eyes upon them…I think that’s cool. No matter the curse of the circumstance, victory is ours, worship is ours, in following the Word of God and doing it, whatever it is, His way…
• Oh how convenient for Joshua. The victory in Ai and he goes over to Mount Ebal to obey God’s Word…nope. This would have been highly inconvenient and costly. We’re talking a 25 mile walk! But do you want to worship and celebrate victory with God’s gaze upon you here in this cursed place? March! It’s never a good idea to worship convenience man! Worship God!

Joshua Chapter 8 Verses 33 - 35

• I love this. The Word of God, the blessings pronounced, right at the spot of what earlier was a place of cursing. Man, God’s Word, His grace and His victory are good medicine for past failures. However that medicine is delivered through faith. And what does faith look like? Obedience. An obedient walk is a glimpse at a faithful heart. A heart that knows God and trusts Him above convenience and circumstance. And then the cursings…in a moment…or maybe a 25 mile walk…turn to victory!