The sermon titled 'Back On Track' discusses the events in Joshua 8:1-29, where God instructs Joshua not to fear and to prepare an ambush against the city of Ai. Joshua follows God's detailed plan, setting an ambush that results in the capture and destruction of Ai. The sermon highlights the importance of dealing with sin, as seen in the earlier defeat at Ai due to Achan's disobedience. Once the sin is addressed, God restores His blessing and guidance to the Israelites, leading them to victory. The narrative emphasizes God's sovereignty, the need for obedience, and the consequences of sin, while also drawing parallels to other biblical events and offering insights into God's character and intentions for His people.

All right, the sermon text for today will be Joshua chapter 8 verses 1 through 29. Now the Lord said to Joshua, do not be afraid nor be dismayed. Take all the people of war with you and arise, go up to Ai. See I have given into your hand the king of Ai his people his city and his land and you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king only its spoil and its cattle you shall take as booty for yourselves lay an ambush for the city behind it. So Joshua rose and all the people of war to go up against Ai, and Joshua chose the 30, 000 mighty men of Valor and sent them away by night.

And he commanded them saying, Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready. Then I and all the people who are with me will approach the city, and it will come about, when they come out against us as at the first that we shall flee before them. For they will come out after us till we have drawn them from the city. For they will say, They are fleeing before us as at the first.

Therefore we will flee before them. Then you shall rise from the ambush and seize the city, for the Lord your God will deliver it into your hand. And it will be when you have taken the city that you shall set the city on fire. According to the commandment of the Lord, you shall do. See, I have commanded you.

Joshua therefore sent them out, and they went to lie in ambush, and stayed behind Bethel and Ai on the west side of Ai. But Joshua lodged that night among the people. Then Joshua rose up early in the morning and mustered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai. And all the people of war who were with him went up and drew near, and they came before the city and camped on the north side of Ai. Now a valley lay between them and Ai.

So he took about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai on the west side of the city. And when they had set the people, all the army that was on north of the city and its rear guard on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley. Now it happened when the king of Ai saw it that the men of the city hurried and rose early and went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people at an appointed place before the plain, but he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city. And Joshua and all Israel made as if as if they were beaten before them and fled by the way of the wilderness. So all the people who were in who were in Ai were called together to pursue them.

And they pursued Joshua and were drawn away from the city. There was not a man left in A.I. Or Bethel who did not go out after Israel. So they let the city open and pursued Israel. Then the Lord said to Joshua, Stretch out the spear that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.

And Joshua stretched out the spear that was in his hand toward the city. So those in ambush arose quickly as out of their place. They ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand, and they entered the city and took it, and hurried to set the city on fire. And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and behold, the smoke of the city ascended to heaven. So they had no power to flee this way or that way, and the people who had fled to the wilderness turned back on the pursuers.

Now when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that the smoke of the city ascended, they turned back and struck down the men of Ai. Then the others came out of the city against them, so they were caught in the midst of Israel, some on this side and some on that side, and they struck them down so that they let none of them remain or escape. But the king of Ai, they took alive and brought him to Joshua. And it came to pass when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness where they pursued them, and when they all had fallen by the edge of the sword until they were consumed, that all the Israelites returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword. So it was that all who fell that day, both men and women, were 12, 000, all the people of Ai.

For Joshua did not draw back his hand with which he stretched out the spear until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took his booty for themselves, according to the word of the Lord which he had commanded Joshua. So Joshua burned Ai and made it a heap forever, a desolation to this day. In the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until evening, and as soon as the sun went down, Joshua commanded that they should take his corpse down from the tree, cast it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raise over it a great heap of stones that remains to this day. Let's pray.

Almost Holy, Gracious, and Heavenly Father, we do just thank you and praise you for bringing us together, Lord God, for another Lord's Day, to worship you in song and prayer and recitation. And now in this time, Lord God, of the public reading and the preaching of your holy word. Pray that it would go forth that these narratives that we read in Joshua we will glean much from them. Give Jason wisdom as he preaches give him words to speak Help him to preach faithfully. Help us that are hearing, Lord God, those that know you.

Help us to learn more about you, To see more of your glory, to see more of our sin, Lord God, and to repent of whatever sin you show us. And those that don't know you, Lord God, I just pray that this would be a day of salvation for them if it be your will. Lord God, they can look at Joshua 8 and point to that and remember the day that you saved them, that you pulled out that heart of stone and gave them a heart of flesh. We know that you can use any part of your word, Lord God, and we pray that if it be your will that some would be even saved today. Bless this time, bless the rest of our service, and In your son's most holy and precious name we pray these things.

Amen. The title of the sermon this morning is back on track. Chapters 1 through 6, Sort of like paradise in a sense. Many depressing Old Testament texts of hard-heartedness and disobedience, chapter 1 through 6, nothing like that. God is leading His people in victory.

They're obeying and God is causing them to walk across the Jordan on dry ground. He's causing the walls of their enemies to fall to the ground and just handing them a great military victory. But if chapters 1 through 6 are paradise and chapter 7 is trouble in paradise, things take a dramatic change for the worst with sin entering in and God's anger against that sin with Achan touching the accursed things, the things that they were not supposed to take for themselves, and then God charging all the people with that sin. Now in chapter 8 we find that they are back on track. They have obeyed God, God identified the sin, they dealt with the sin according to God's commands.

And now God puts them back on track to give them the promised land. I'd like to walk you through just a couple of verses that take us down that track. Starting with chapter 7 verse 1, But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things. For Achan the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed things. So the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel So that's how chapter 7 starts with the anger of the Lord burning against not just one man who did the sin, but against all the people of Israel because he is viewing them as a unified body.

They are the people of God. Then in chapter 7 verse 12, the end of that verse, God says, neither will I be with you anymore unless you destroy the accursed from among you. So God insists that they destroy this accursed man, this man who has become accursed by taking from the accursed things. God says, I won't be with you anymore unless you destroy this man. Then the last verse of chapter 7, verse 26, then they raised over him, over Achan, a great heap of stones, still there to this day.

So the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger. Therefore, the name of that place has been called the Valley of Acre, or the Valley of Trouble to this day. So there you have the bookends. The first end is verse 1, where the anger of the Lord is burning against the people of Israel. And then you have the final verse of the chapter, where God declares that the fierceness of His anger has been turned away because they dealt with sin in their midst.

Now we have chapter 8 verse 1, now the Lord said to Joshua, so with all that in the background, now God speaks to Joshua again and he says, do not be afraid nor be dismayed. And then he gives them their instructions. And so they had been derailed by Achan and his sin, which was their sin, and They dealt with the sin in their midst and now they're back on track. So as we come to the better part of chapter 8, let's ask the Lord to help us. God, I pray that we would come away from this substantial text, this long text, committed to dealing with sin so that our fellowship with you would be sweet and unbroken.

It would be different and better. I pray that you would use this coming here to Joshua chapter 8 to Identify things that have us at a distance from us and maybe we don't even sense it anymore. Oh, let us deal with sin so that we can draw near to you and enjoy the sweetness of fellowship with you that you always intended. Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Well I'm going to begin by speaking about what happened. So you can see, if you have your hand out in front of you, I'm going down sort of three different limbs. What happened, then what it means. Taking the things that happened and say these are the truths that we draw out of that and then what should we do with it. So we have these truths.

How do we apply them to daily life? So let's start with what happened. In verses 1-29 our text we get an extended historical narrative. It is a history account. These are real events that happened.

They were recorded. They've been given to us. And this is the most extensive battle account in the book of Joshua. You won't find anywhere near an extended account of the battle accounts really. Going forward, it will really be overwhelming victories that don't take much time to tell God acts so mightily on behalf of his people.

But we are just coming out of the one defeat in the book of Joshua. There will not be more defeats in the book of Joshua. So we have the one defeat so God saw fit to give us an extended account of the victory that came once they had dealt with sin in their midst. We're brought to a place geographically that already has a rich Bible history. So we're brought to Ai and Bethel, these two towns in the land of Canaan.

Listen to Genesis 12 verse 8. And he, Abraham, moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. This is the exact geographical spot where Abraham came to between Bethel and Ai and he pitched a tent there and he built an altar and sacrificed to the Lord there. This is an account that the people of Israel would have had.

They would have been familiar that this was a place with a rich scripture history. Then in Genesis 28, Jacob is fleeing from Esau because he had tricked him out of his father's blessing. He's fleeing his brother and he comes to this place. Jacob comes to Bethel and this is where he has the dream with the ladder between heaven and earth and there are angels ascending and descending. Maybe you've sung the song, we are climbing Jacob's ladder.

It's about this place and the dream that Jacob had there of the ladder and the angels. So this is a really significant geographical place and God brings them there. And like other places in the book of Joshua that we've already come to, it is not ordered as a rigid timeline. If you work through it as a rigid, unbreakable timeline that only moves forward you got a mess. It's really hard to understand.

You have to understand that the narrator as in other places talks about events that happen and it is moving along a timeline and then he'll go back in time and layer in other details that he wants you to know at that point. And then he'll move forward a little bit and then he'll come back and he'll layer in some more details. So it is not ordered as a rigid timeline. It's just not ordered that way. God has it ordered around themes and not a rigid timeline.

In verses 1 and 2, God speaks to Joshua. And He tells him not to be afraid or dismayed. And this is just like chapter 1. You can look back to chapter 1 verse 9. You know the book of Joshua, chapter 1 starts out with God speaking to Joshua.

Here's what we have in Joshua 1 verse 9. God says, Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid nor dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." So in chapter 8 here, God speaks to Joshua again and God says, don't be afraid and don't be dismayed. He should hear ringing in his ears the exact words that he heard God say in chapter 1.

This is significant. It signals to Joshua, we're back on track. The sin has been dealt with, The anger of God against that sin has been quenched. And God is with him. He has no need or reason to be afraid or to be dismayed, to be disquieted about the things that lie before him.

Remember, chapter 7 saw Joshua prostrated before the ark, having torn his clothes and put dust on his head. He was both afraid and dismayed in chapter 7. Now God comes to him and speaks to him, And he uses the words that he had already used in chapter 1 to signal, I'm blessing you, I'm keeping my promises to you. Don't be afraid, don't be dismayed or disquieted about the circumstances before you. God tells Joshua that he has given AI into their hand.

These are the exact words that God had used in chapter 6 verse 2 of Jericho. He told them explicitly, I have given Jericho into your hand. Now he's using the same words of AI, I have given AI and its king and its people into your hand. This is significant and it signals we're back on track. You are back In my presence, under my blessing, I'm keeping my promises." God tells Joshua that this time they can keep the spoils of war, including the livestock.

With Jericho they were commanded to destroy everything except for the precious metals and the precious metals would be brought into the treasury of the Lord. With AI it's different. They're allowed to keep the spoils of war. Both The things, the livestock, and the precious metals are not commanded to be brought into the treasury of the Lord. It is the people's spoils.

The spoils of war go to the people of Israel. Finally, God tells Joshua to set an ambush behind the city. God gives them the battle plan. He tells them how they're going to win the victory. It should be noted that God didn't tell Joshua anything like any of this before the first battle of Ai.

There's nothing recorded that Joshua said to them at all. Now you could draw the conclusion from that, oh Joshua should have sought God, and maybe he should have sought God, but that's really not the point. God is initiating. It never says in chapter 8 that Joshua sought God, It says that God spoke to Joshua. God continues to be the one who is initiating.

The silence of God before the first battle of Ai was a sign of the judgment of God. His displeasure with sin. It wasn't explained in the text that Joshua didn't seek God, so shame on him. If he'd have sought Him, God would have spoken to him. No, God has been initiating all along in the book.

And God was quiet because his anger was burning against the people of Israel because of the sin of Achan. And he wasn't going to speak again until he spoke to tell them what to do about that sin. In verses 3-13, Joshua gives commands consistent with God's commands and in preparation for the battle. So God has spoken to Joshua and now out of those instructions that came from God to him, He gives instructions to the people to make them ready for the battle. Last time in the first battle of Ai, the spies had said, don't weary all the people, we don't need all the people.

So they sent 3, 000. This time all the people of war go to AI. So this is very different. The text says that there are 30, 000 select men. The text calls them mighty men of valley.

They're the best of the best. The best fighters are identified, separated out, and deployed by night to go under cover of darkness to conceal themselves in preparation for an ambush of the city. There when the time comes, they're to take the city and they're to burn the city to the ground. And so they position themselves between Bethel and Ai and they conceal themselves. Now, verse 12 mentions 5, 000 men who are also deployed to ambush the city.

How do they relate to the 30, 000 men? Earlier in the chapter there are these 30, 000 mighty men of valor. They're sent by night. And now in verse 12 there are 5, 000 men also deployed to ambush. The text doesn't give us the inner relationship between these two groups.

Some commentators say 30, 000 is the total, 5, 000 are really the ones who ambush, and then 25, 000 are the main group of soldiers. The text doesn't say anything that would particularly lead you to that conclusion. Some commentators say, this is probably a scribal error. It's meant to be the same number in both places, and the number is probably 5, 000, because that's the number that makes sense for an ambush of a population this size. But again, there's nothing in the text.

The only reason you would attribute it to a scribal error, a scribe copied it wrong way back when. The only reason you would say that is it solves a problem in the text. This is something we wonder about, and that is a way to address the thing that we wonder about. Dale Davis, one of the commentators I'm reading, says that it's to deal, this second group of 5, 000 is to deal with any men from Bethel who come to the aid of the men of Ai. That's possible, it makes sense, because Bethel is referenced here.

People come out of Bethel to join in the pursuit. So that makes sense, but there's nothing in the text specifically that would tip you off. I would say this, it doesn't matter. It doesn't change the outcome. I think there probably are two groups, one of 30, 000, one of 5, 000.

They're both set to ambush, maybe in different places, maybe with slightly different purposes, but it doesn't change the outcome, your view of that, so don't be disquieted by that. It's not an unsolvable problem and which way you solve it really doesn't change the outcome. The king of Ai sees what's happening or he thinks he sees what's happening. A group approaches Ai and He sends defenders out just like he did in the first battle of Ai. He sends defenders out against Israel's forces.

And he doesn't know that an ambush is planned and that those forces haven't been detected. So the battle unfolds just as it has been planned. God told Joshua exactly what to do. Joshua did it. The forces were undetected and so the battle unfolds just as it has been planned.

God told Joshua exactly what to do. Joshua did it. The forces were undetected and so the battle unfolds just as it has been planned. Which is that a force will approach the city and when they come out and fight the Israelites are going to act like they're fleeing before the defenders of the city in order to draw them out and then Those who have been set to ambush will be able to take the city and set it on fire, and then they'll have the defenders trapped with no way of retreat, no way to get back into the city because those who have been sent to ambush will be occupying the city. Consider what Matthew Henry says.

I think this is very helpful. Matthew Henry says, See how the prosperity of fools destroys them and hardens them to their ruin. God had made use of the men of Ai as a scourge to chastise His people for meddling with the accursed thing. And this had puffed them up with a conceit. God had made use of them only for rebuking Israel with a purpose, and when the correction was over to throw the rod itself into the fire.

What's he saying? He's saying the only reason they won the first battle of Ai was because God was using them as a tool of judgment for His people. They drew the wrong conclusion from that. We're mightier than they. We're better fighters than they.

We're the victors and they're the losers because of our might, because of our plans. The king of Ai thought that he had whipped Israel fair and square, but he was simply being used as an instrument in the hand of God to bring judgment on the people of Israel to deal with their sin. The soldiers who remained in Ai come out to pursue and verse 17 says, there was not a man left in AI or Bethel who did not go out after Israel so they're going for a decisive and final victory Everyone comes out to join in the pursuit because when you have them on the run is the time to strike so everyone comes out For the purpose of a decisive and final victory The soldiers from Bethel aren't mentioned before this they're not mentioned after this, but they get one mention here. But the king of Bethel is one of the kings listed as a conquered king by Israel in chapter 12 verse 16. In other words, in Joshua chapter 12 we're going to come to a section of the chapter which lists all the kings that have been conquered by Israel as God has given them the promised land.

And the king of Bethel is actually going to be listed among the conquered kings even though there's no other account of a battle with Bethel. So it is safe to assume that in this one battle, Bethel is also conquered and destroyed. Because their king will show up in the list in Joshua chapter 12. At that moment as all the men from Bethel and Ai are in pursuit thinking they have them on the run, the Lord tells Joshua, stretch out the spear in your hand toward Ai. Joshua does it and he keeps it extended until the battle is finished.

How long is that? We don't know how long it is, but it has to be some meaningful period of time and Joshua keeps it extended towards Ai the whole time until the battle is finished and all the people have been put to the sword. It is a little unclear whether this was a predetermined signal which initiates the ambush. It sort of reads like that, that it was a predetermined signal because at the same time he extends the spear toward Ai, the ambushers come out and take the city and set it on fire. So it reads like a predetermined symbol, signal, but it could also be a symbolic, a symbol of God waging war on behalf of his people and giving them the victory, or it could be both.

I think it's both, but it's not perfectly clear in the text. It is practically identical to Exodus 17. What happens in Exodus 17? The Amalekites come out to attack Israel. This is very shortly after them coming out of their bondage in Egypt.

The Amalekites come out and actually attack their weak, their weak, kind of the people at the back of the people as they're coming. Moses deploys Joshua, General Joshua, at the head of his people to go out and fight with the Amalekites. And Moses has the rod of God in his hand and when he keeps the rod of God above his head, Israel is winning and When it's too much to keep up and he drops it down, then the Amalekites begin to win. So Aaron and Hur seat Moses on a rock so that he can be seated, and they each uphold an arm so that the rod of God stays above his head and Joshua leads the people to victory over the Amalekites. This reads very, very much like that.

It is at least symbolic of God waging war on behalf of his people and giving them the victory. Only now Joshua is in the place of Moses. Now Joshua is the one who is extending his spear until the battle is finished. All of the inhabitants, all 12, 000 are put to death except the king of Ai who they take captive and bring to Moses. Listen to Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 1 and 2.

Deuteronomy 7 is right after the Ten Commandments, which is in Deuteronomy chapter 5. Then in Deuteronomy chapter 7, verses 1 and 2, God gives them instructions for warfare in the promised land. He says this, Moses says this for God, when the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess and has cast out many nations before you the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you. And when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them." So we might read Joshua chapter 8 and say, they didn't show mercy to any of them.

They were under command by God not to show mercy to these people. These people, these are people who would just be a snare to them in the promised land and lead them into idolatry. And that's actually historically what happens to the people that they don't conquer and destroy in the promised land. They are to utterly destroy them. They are not to show any mercy to them according to Deuteronomy chapter 7 verses 1 and 2.

God has pronounced a guilty verdict on these people after 500 years of a rising tide of sin, and the people of Israel are carrying out the sentence that God has pronounced. Joshua hangs the king on a tree. Don't think about our hanging. This is almost certainly not the king being hung by the neck until dead, as we would think of hanging. It's most likely that he was impaled on the tree.

That his body was impaled, run through on the tree. And then Joshua has him taken down when evening comes, according to the law. So this isn't happenstance that when evening came, they took the body down. This is actually required by the law. Listen to Deuteronomy 21 verses 22 and 23.

Deuteronomy 21 verses 22 and 23. If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. For he who is hanged is accursed of God." When you carry out capital punishment, the death penalty, and the body is hung on a tree. It is a sign of God's curse. The body isn't cursed because he's hung on the tree.

He's hung on the tree because he's cursed by God. He is cursed by God and is hanging on the tree. It is the symbol of God's anger against his sin which required death. So the law of God in the Old Testament made provision for the death penalty, but not as an indefinite public display. People were to be put to death for certain crimes, And it was to be public, but it was not to be an indefinite public display where the body would hang there day after day and rot away in the sight of the people.

Deuteronomy chapter 21 actually says that would defile the land to do that. God does want people to see and to take warning and to fear God, but He does not want it to be an indefinite public display. They cast the king's body at the entrance of the city gate, and they raise a great heap of stones over him. And that was there to the day of the writing of this account. It's the same as with Achan.

The last chapter ended that way as well. Achan was stoned along with his family and his livestock, his tent, and then all of it burned. And then a heap of stones was over him as well. So both rebels within and without Israel have been treated this way in the last couple of chapters. So that is what happened.

That's a summary of the historical account that God gives us in Joshua chapter 8. What it means. What's the significance? What are the truths that we can draw out of this extended historical account? I want to give you five things that this account means.

One, God is willing to stop everything to identify and deal with sin. He'll bring everything to a screeching halt. You'll not go one step further until the sin is dealt with. God is willing to do that. But His disposition is towards reconciliation and moving forward.

Let me read that again. God is willing to stop everything, to identify and deal with sin. But his disposition is towards reconciliation and moving forward. There's what he's willing to do and there's what he wants to do. He's willing to bring it all to a screeching halt and not allow you to make one millimeter more of progress until he has put his finger on the sin and you have dealt with it, you have repented of it, you have turned away from it.

He's willing to do that, but what he wants to do is to be reconciled so that you can go forward. In our Bible time last night reading Ezekiel 33, And the appeal of God in Ezekiel 33 is, why would you die sinner? Repent and live. God's disposition is that we would repent and live, repent and be reconciled, and make progress and go forward. He's willing to bring it all to a standstill for as long as it takes to identify and for you to turn away from the sin.

But what he wants is for you to be reconciled to Him, to be in fellowship with Him, and to go forward with Him. Number two. Isn't that good to know? Back to number one. Isn't that good to know that both things are good to know.

That God won't just let you keep going, But He's willing to bring it all to a grinding halt to force you to part with that sin. Because it is for your good and His glory for you to part with that sin. It's as much for your good as it is for His glory for you to part with that sin. So that's gracious that he'd be willing to bring it all to a grinding halt, but to know that what his heart wants is to be reconciled and for you to be going forward with him. Alright, number two.

God is sovereign over the giving of his good gifts. And cheating to change the timing is a recipe for disaster. That's what Achan did. It wasn't that God didn't want them to have the garments of the Canaanites, them to have the gold of the Canaanites, them to have the gold of the Canaanites, them to have the silver of the Canaanites, but we're entering a period of time where they'll get all of that city after city after city after city, they'll plunder king after king after king after king and God will let them keep it all. Achan cheated.

God wanted to be honored first. Jericho was the first fruits. God was keeping the first fruits for himself to have the honor of it because he was giving the victories. And then he was going to lavish it on the people. Achan cheated and tried to pull the timetable forward and it was a recipe for disaster.

Listen to James 1.17. James 1.17. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. If there's something that's really a good gift, It has to come from God. It has to be...the what has to be His and the when has to be His.

You want a perfect gift, there's only one place to get it from. Listen, James says that every good gift And every perfect gift is from above. If you didn't get it from heaven, it's not good or perfect. That's what that has to mean. There's this unchanging God in heaven.

Look to Him for good things. And look to him for good things in his timing. Did you know that some things which are medicines in certain circumstances and in certain doses are poisons in other circumstances and other doses. Did you know that? You better be dealing with someone who knows about the right circumstances and the right doses, or you might think, I'm going for the medicine, that's the balm for my soul, And you get a poison.

Well, guess what? God knows when to meet it out and what to meet out. And in what amounts to meet it out so that it will be a good gift and a perfect gift. That's what comes from heaven. You're craving it.

So you reach for it, thinking you're getting a medicine, but in that circumstance or in that dose, it's a poison. And you're not smart enough to know it, but he is. Number three. God's instruments often misunderstand and make fatal assumptions about their involvement. I'll Just listen to that again.

God's instruments, people that God uses for his own purposes, God's instruments often misunderstand and make fatal assumptions about their involvement. I think the king of AI does that in our text. We can beat them. You know why you beat them? Because God was using you to judge His people and after He's done dealing with their sin, then He's going to deal with you.

Where we're going to come to the Gibeonites, they're the only ones that survive a battle against the people of God. They don't battle against the people of God. They come looking for peace. Turn if you'd like to Isaiah chapter 10. I want to show you that this isn't isolated.

That God's instruments often misunderstand and make fatal assumptions about their involvement. Isaiah chapter 10 talks about the Assyrians. The Assyrians were used by God to come against the ten northern tribes and to slaughter them and to take the survivors into captivity. And they did that. And there's no record of those ten tribes ever coming back.

There is a record of the southern tribes, Judah, coming back. But there's no record of the northern tribes coming back. So God used the Assyrians to do that. And they misunderstood it. And they made fatal assumptions about it as we read in Isaiah chapter 10 verses 12 through 15.

Isaiah 10, 12 through 15. Therefore it shall come to pass when the Lord has performed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem that he will say, I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the glory of his haughty looks. For he says, this is the king of Assyria, For he says, By the strength of my hand I have done it, And by my wisdom, for I am prudent. Also, I have removed the boundaries of the people and have robbed their treasuries. So I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man.

My hand has found like a nest the riches of the people, and as one gathers eggs that are left, I have gathered all the earth. And there was No one who moved his wing nor opened his mouth with even a peep." Look at verse 15. Shall the axe boast itself against him who chops with it? Or shall the saw exalt itself against him who saws with it? As if a rod could wield itself against those who lift it up, or as if a staff could lift up as if it were not wood.

God's instruments often misunderstand so they draw conclusions that aren't right and leads them into ruin. Number four. It wasn't the math, It was God. It wasn't the math. It was God.

What do I mean by that? The first time they sent three thousand, but it wasn't enough, so they lost. Next time they came back with everyone and they gained the victory. It was the math. Wrong.

Wrong. It wasn't the math. In Judges chapter 6 through 8 God raises up Gideon to deliver Israel from the oppression of the Midianites. The beginning of Judges chapter 7, Gideon is at the head of 32, 000 soldiers. Here's what God says in Judges chapter 7 verse 2.

The Lord said to Gideon, The people who are with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into your hands. Lest Israel claim glory for itself against me, saying, My own hand has saved me. So the Midianites have an army that's like the sand of the sea. That's how the text describes the Midianites. You can't count their army.

The Israelites have 32, 000, God says that's too many. Tell anyone who's afraid to go home. 22, 000 people are afraid they go home. Still have 10, 000. God says, too many.

Take them down to the stream. If they drink this way, send them home. If they drink that way, keep them. 300 drink that way. So, they take an army of 32, 000, and God wants to whittle it down to 300, so they won't take credit as if the math were the reason they won.

And misattribute the credit for the victory. Misattribute? Misattribute. Give the credit to the wrong reason. Dale Davis says this, with the power of God the great Jericho could be taken chapter 6.

Without his power not even the smallest post could be overrun. How utterly dependent God's people are upon God's power for any success. This is what the text preaches to us, to that I say, a hearty amen. We shouldn't think, oh the math didn't work the first time, but now the math works. No, what is being told is, if you go against the mighty Jericho With God, you take Jericho.

If you go against little AI without God, you can't even overrun this little outpost. That is what the text preaches to us. It isn't the math, it's God. God could have overrun Ai with those 300 that he used with Gideon. It wasn't the numbers.

Number five. Rebels against God are under his curse and deserve a humiliating death. This proud king of Ai, this wicked king of Ai, gets treated like he deserves. He's impaled on a tree and left for a day, then taken down as the sun goes down and put under a heap of rocks. As a type of monument.

The king of AI is emblematic. What does emblematic means? It means serving as a symbol of a particular concept. To put it less elegantly, he's the poster boy. He's the one you put on the poster for what rebels get.

He's on the death to rebels poster. He's emblematic. He is a symbol of a particular concept that the wages of sin is death. That rebels deserve to die humiliating death and to be posted, to be seen as a warning against not fearing God, not obeying God, not serving God, not loving God, not worshiping God. He's the poster boy for it.

Rebels against God are under his curse, under God's curse, and deserve a humiliating death. That was what our text means, those five things, and I'm sure more. Alright, what should we do with it? We've had the historical account, tried to extract truths out of it. What do we do with those truths?

I'll just map this right to the five meanings. Just apply those so you'll be able to go one to one, two to two, three to three. Number one, ask yourself, does God have me at a standstill to deal with sin? I just can't make progress. Maybe God's been willing to bring it all to a grinding halt until you repent and you'll not move another millimeter until you turn from that sin.

Know this, He's willing to do that to you. His heart is towards reconciliation and that you would go forward with him. Maybe you've become so insensitive to that sin because You've so bludgeoned your conscience into submission and so doled it through repetition that God has had to just bring you to a stop. And in His mercy, He will not let you take one more step forward until you repent. And then you'll find Him willing, desiring to reconcile, and for you to go forward with Him then.

Number two, Rest in God regarding the things you want. Realize the foolishness of grasping. If you don't learn anything from Achan, realize the foolishness of grasping. He could have had the things from AI in the next city, in the next city, in the next city. They were going to plunder all these kings and it would all be theirs.

He just wanted the first fruit for himself. He wanted to, God wanted to receive the honor first, and then He was going to lavish abundance, houses that they didn't build, wells that they didn't dig, vineyards that they didn't plant. Rest in God regarding the things you want. Don't grasp. Stop grasping.

Matthew Henry says this, no man shall lose by his self-denial. Let God have His dues first and then All will be clean to us and sure. Amen! Let God have the first fruits and then everything that He gives to you will be clean and sure. Number three.

You are God's instrument in various ways. And I hope God is doing something in and through you. Surely He is doing something in and through you. If He is, then you are God's instrument. Don't misunderstand and make fatal assumptions about your involvement.

Be thankful and give God the praise. When there's a victory in your life, you can be sure God gave you the victory you should be thankful and give him the praise. Number four. Be aware of the math in a wise way, a prudent way, in the way Proverbs would have us be aware of the math, but trust God. And when you know what you're supposed to do, forget the math and do it.

Number five. Take the bait, then look at the cross, then act appropriately. I'll say it again, then I'll unpack it. Take the bait, then look at the cross, then act appropriately. What's the bait?

The bait is to look at the king of AI and say, take that you wicked rebel. It's just dangling. There's a hook in there. Be careful. Take that.

You're the product of a rising tide of 500 year rising tide of sin. The culmination of it. And it's good that God would impale you on that tree as a warning to the world. Fear God, obey God, worship God, or you'll get this. There's the bait.

Stand up and cheer. Look at him getting what he deserves. I'm saying take the bait. Say it. Say, take that you wicked rebel.

Stand up and cheer that He is getting what He deserves. It is good that God is just and He makes everything right eventually. But understand what that means. And now look to the cross and see one impaled on a tree who is dying for not his own sins. He has not one of his own sins to die for.

He's being made sin So that God doesn't have to treat you like the king of AI. And make you a warning to the world. Because you didn't fear God like you should have, because you didn't obey God like you should have, because you didn't worship God, and he was worthy of it, infinitely worthy of it. Then act appropriately. So you see him, the king of AI, hanging on the tree.

He's emblematic. He's symbolic of this concept. He's the poster boy of death to rebels. Then you look to the cross and see there's one who will take that upon himself. Take the curse of God upon himself in the place of sinners.

Now act appropriately. I just loved in Lydia's testimony she used to be able to drive off the evangelist by saying, why aren't you a Christian? Because I don't love Jesus. And most evangelists would run away. They didn't know what to do with that, but not Mr.

Abdullah. Don't love Jesus. He bled and died for sinners. What's not the love about Jesus? Why wouldn't you love Jesus?

What defense will you make when you hold that kind of a savior at arm's length? Why would you hold him at arm's length? A savior who would bleed and die for you? A king who would die for his own subjects? Why would you hold him off?

What will your defense be when you stand, having rejected for a lifetime a Savior, a king who would die for his subjects, how will you defend yourself? Act appropriately. Run to the cross for mercy, or as you've already done it, glory in it. Glory in it. God, thank you.

Thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. It would be impossible to come to see this king hanging on a tree, getting his just deserts, getting what he deserved. And to not consider your perfect holiness and your commandments that we haven't even approached obeying in a thousand different ways. And to see our Savior in our minds eye hanging on that tree, hanging on the cross, dying for sinners. Oh, make us love Him.

For our hearts are unwilling to love Him because of how deeply the warping is in our nature, the twisting, the corruption of our nature. Then Overwhelm that and make us willing. Make someone, make people here who have been unwilling all their lives up to this point, make them willing now. Overwhelm their unwillingness. Show them your beauty, your goodness.

Make them want you. Thank you for the text, all the things that we're learning in Joshua. Thank you for the wisdom of your word. Conform our thoughts to it. We pray in Jesus name.

Amen.