The sermon 'Trouble in Paradise' by Jason Dohm explores the narrative of Joshua 6-7, focusing on the Israelites' unexpected defeat at Ai after their victory at Jericho. Initially, the Israelites experience triumph as they follow God's commands, but Achan's disobedience by taking accursed items leads to God's anger and their subsequent defeat. The sermon emphasizes that the defeat was not due to military inadequacy but a breach of divine command, highlighting the importance of obedience and the communal impact of individual sin. Dohm underscores the need to trust in God's plans, even when they are not immediately clear, and encourages believers to turn to God in times of confusion and distress, drawing parallels between corporate sin and individual responsibility. The sermon concludes by reminding the congregation of the ultimate victory that comes through faithfulness to God's commands.

I'll be reading Joshua 6-15 all the way through verse 9 of chapter 7. Follow along. But it came to pass on the seventh day that they rose early about the dawning of the day and marched around the city seven times in the same manner. On that day, only they marched around the city seven times. And the seventh time it happened, when the priest blew the trumpets, that Joshua said to the people, Shout for the Lord has given you the city, and now the city shall be doomed by the Lord to destruction.

It and all who are in it, only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all who were with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. And you, by all means abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things and make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it. But all the silver and the gold and the vessels of bronze and iron are consecrated to the Lord, they shall come into the treasury of the Lord.' And so the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets, and it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout that the wall fell down flat. And then the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city, and they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep, and donkey with the edge of the sword. But Joshua had said to the two men who had spied out the country, go into the harlot's house and from there bring out the woman and all that she has as you swore to her and the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab her father or mother her brothers and all that she had so they brought out all her relatives and left them outside the camp of Israel.

But they burned the city and all that was in it with fire. Only the silver and the gold and the vessels of bronze and iron they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. And Joshua spared Rahab the harlot, her father's household, and all that she had. So she dwells in Israel to this day because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. And then Joshua charged them at that time saying, cursed be the man before the Lord, who rises up and builds the city Jericho.

He shall lay its foundation with his firstborn, and with his youngest, he shall set up its gates. And so the Lord was with Joshua and his fame spread throughout all the country. But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things. For Achan, the son of Carmy, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed things. So the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel.

Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth-Avon, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them, saying, Go up and spy out the country. And so the men went up and spied out Ai, and they returned to Joshua and said to him, Do not let all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack AI. Do not weary all the people there, for the people of AI are few." And so about three thousand men went up from there, from the people, but they fled before the men of Ai. And the men of Ai struck down about 36 men, for they chased them from before the gate as far as Shabarim and struck them down on the descent. Therefore the hearts of the people melted and became like water.

Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until evening, he and the elders of Israel. And they put dust on their heads. And Joshua said, Alas, Lord God, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? Oh, that we had been content and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan. Oh, Lord, what shall I say when Israel turns its back before its enemies?

For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear it and surround us and cut off our name from the earth. Then what will you do for your great name? Amen. You can be seated. The title of the sermon this morning is trouble in paradise.

It's a phrase you know. It's a phrase we use when things have been going great, then all of a sudden out of nowhere things take a disastrous turn that you didn't see coming, you have trouble in paradise. That's what happens in our text. Things have been going great. People have been obeying.

God has been fighting for them. He brought them across the Jordan on dry ground. He leveled the walls of Jericho. And now things take a disastrous turn. It was all glory and victory.

It was a picture at Jericho that the gates of hell will not prevail against God's people. Jericho is really for us to let us know that God's people batter down the gates of hell. They cannot prevail against us. So we're coming from this place of glory and victory. And then we get to chapter 7 and the first word of chapter 7 is but.

It just signals this shift that things have been going great, but they're taking a disastrous turn now. So we come to our text, let's ask for the Lord's help. God, we know by experience that nothing on earth is paradise, that paradise is paradise, it's coming, it's something future, and that when things are going very well for us, and we're thinking of it as paradise, that sooner or later we're going to encounter trouble in paradise. And those are times that we need to look to you and cry out to you. Thank you for this text.

It teaches us things that we wouldn't know if you didn't tell us. And that help us cause us to think rightly. So I pray that you would set these truths in technicolor in our minds. Very vivid. Make them very vivid to us.

In Jesus name, Amen. I'm going to begin just with verse 1. So I want to reread verse 1 and then talk about it. So hopefully your Bible is still open to Joshua chapter 7. Follow along as I re-read 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." In this verse we have the problem statement. If you're taking notes on the handout, problem fills in the blank. We have the problem statement.

But, the verse starts. Walls of Jericho fell, but. This is what We call the interpretive key. Verse 1 is the interpretive key. It's the key that unlocks the whole text.

If you have this key, you interpret it right. If you don't have this key, you interpret it wrong. So, God is kind to give it to us in verse 1. You can know what all this is about. Can you do things without consulting the Lord and get in big trouble?

Absolutely. Can a victory make you overconfident and lead to a downfall? Of course it can. Can having an overwhelming numerical advantage make you overlook a battle in anticipation of larger battles down the road so you lose? Yes.

Can you take the faithfulness and goodness of God for granted so that He humbles you with an unexpected defeat? No doubt. But none of those things are fundamental to what happens in our text. Don't you dare draw those conclusions from this text. Those things can be taught from other texts, but They're not the point of this text.

Verse 1 is the interpretive key. It unlocks the rest of the passage. If you use this key, you interpret it right. If you don't use this key, you draw these other conclusions that preach good but belong to another text. Verse 1 tells us the why of the what.

What is the what? It's the circumstances. It is the death of soldiers, the defeat of Israel in this battle. Why does it happen? Verse 1 tells us why it happens.

It's because Achan took of the accursed things. Sin in the camp was the cause of this defeat. Amen. What was the sin? It was disobeying the specific commands found in chapter 6 verses 17 through 19.

Michael just read it, but let me read it again. Chapter 6 verses 17 through 19. Joshua tells the people, now the city shall be doomed by the Lord to destruction. It and all who are in it, Only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. And you by all means abstain from the accursed things.

Lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things and make the camp of Israel accursed and trouble it. But all the silver and gold and vessels of bronze and iron are consecrated to the Lord. They shall come into the treasury of the LORD." God told them exactly what not to do, and He told them exactly what He would do if He did it, and that's what plays out in our text. That's what's happening in Joshua chapter 7. A specific command, it was not obeyed.

Whose sin was it? Depends on who you ask. You ask me, it was Achan. The criminal is named right here in verse 1. And so that the crime is pinned on the right man and not the wrong man with the same name, we get his father, his grandfather, his great grandfather, and his tribe.

It would be like saying Jason Dome, 101 Patterson Drive, Youngsville, North Carolina, so that the reproach I had brought on myself and my family didn't get pinned on Jason Dome, senior director Novartis. There is such a one. Go on LinkedIn and look at him. He doesn't want to be blamed for my crimes. Family lines matter in Israel.

The crime is pinned on this man, in his family line, and none other. But if you ask God, He says the children of Israel. Look again at verse 1. But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed thing. For Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerub, the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed things So the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel.

So God names it a corporate sin And the target of his anger is the corporate body. Israel, you are the people who bear my name, you sinned. And I'm angry with you, not you singular, You plural. And the text doesn't just say they sinned. Look at the phrase, committed a trespass.

If we knew Hebrew, here's what we'd see. Two consecutive words with an identical root. Words with an identical root. The first word being a verb, meaning to act unfaithfully, and The second word being the noun, the unfaithful act. So you would get acted unfaithfully in the unfaithful act.

It's really to explode out those two Hebrew words. You get that. The verb form and another form. They acted unfaithfully in the unfaithful act. You have the repetition of the unfaithfulness because that is the crux of the matter.

That Hebrew root is sometimes used in the Old Testament for adultery. We actually use it the same way. We say, he was unfaithful. It meant He cheated. He broke his wedding vows.

He wasn't faithful to the promises that he made at the altar. He was unfaithful. We use that synonymously with adultery. Hebrew too. So this explains what follows and gives the context.

The anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel. Think of the anger of a jealous husband who has been cheated on. It's the act of unfaithfulness in the unfaithful act. Think of how Out of step this is with everything we've seen so far. The people have been obeying and God has been helping.

God has been fighting for them. And now this. You have the jealous anger of a husband who's been betrayed burning. Next section, 2-5. Follow along as I reread 2-5.

Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth-Aven on the side of Bethel, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them saying, Go up and spy out the country So the men went up and spied out AI and they returned to Joshua and said to him Do not let all the people go up, let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. Do not weary all the people there, for the people of Ai are few. So about three thousand men went up from there, went up there from the people, but they fled before the men of Ai. And the men of Ai struck down about thirty-six men, for they chased them from before the gate as far as Shebarim, and struck them down on the descent. Therefore the hearts of the people melted and became like water." In this section we have a deadly surprise.

If you're taking notes on the handout, filling in blanks, deadly fills in the blanks. A deadly surprise. They did not expect this. It's useful to compare and contrast chapter 2 with our chapter, chapter 7. Chapter 2 was about the spying out of Jericho, the report that came back.

So there are some things that are very similar and some things that are very different. Rahab is actually a mirror image of Achan. We'll get more into that last week, but she was a gentile unbeliever who repented and was brought into the people of God. Achan is a professing member of the people of God born into the people of God who then is unfaithful and is put out. So they're sort of the mirror image of one another.

And what we're going to learn from that is it's not family line, it's if you'll repent. It's what matters. One thing between these two chapters that's the same is that Joshua sends out spies. He did that in Jericho. They came back with a report.

He does that with Ai. They come back with a report. The report is this at the end of verse 3, the people of Ai are few. Nothing near the whole fighting force of Israel will be needed to conquer Ai. It would weary the people to involve everyone.

About two or three thousand soldiers should be sufficient. If you accept the spies analysis, Joshua does what amounts to playing it safe. Why do I say that? Well, it's the high number. The spies came back and said two or three thousand should do it.

Joshua sends three thousand. Joshua plays it safe or So we think he sends the high number to conquer AI. Remember, Jericho is a greater city with incomparably stronger defenses. And God gave Jericho into their hands in fulfillment of his promise. So They could be overconfident, but their confidence has been in God fulfilling His promises.

They've been standing on the promises. They're going into the promised land. So they are not expecting anything but victory. So what happens Next is a complete surprise. The men of this little town of Ai put the Israelites to flight, killing 36 men in the process.

The defeated warriors return, the people hear what happened, and verse 5 says the hearts of the people melted and became like water. Melted to liquid. Friends, this is a total reversal. It is the people of the land who have been filled with fear up to this point and has made the people of the land very vulnerable. We saw it with Jericho.

Rahab said it. In battle, terrified equals vulnerable. Terrified equals defeat. When you lose your heart to fight, it's over. This has been true of the people of Canaan up to this point and now it's true of the people of Israel.

Total reversal. Verses 6 through 9. Joshua 7, 6 through 9. Then Joshua tore his clothes, fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the LORD until evening. He and the elders of Israel.

And they put dust on their heads. Joshua said, Alas Lord God, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all? To deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? Oh, that we have been content and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan. O Lord, what shall I say when Israel turns its back before its enemies?

For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear it and surround us and cut off our name from the earth. Then what will you do for your great name? In this section, Joshua and the elders give voice to a wrong conclusion. If you're filling in blanks, voice and wrong fill in the blanks. Joshua and the elders give voice to a wrong conclusion.

I'd like to make two points here. The text has been understated to this point, and It seems at first blush like this is a massive overreaction. What do I mean by saying that the text has been understated to this point? The text didn't pause at all on the 36 dead men. It just reported and moved on from.

These are real people. Each one of these men have friends and family. Now they're dead. Some of them probably have a wife and children. So there are 36 grieving families.

There are 36 sets of friends who are grieving. The text didn't say a word about that. It's been understated in that way. In a very short period of time, the Israelites go from being given a great victory with virtually no military effort to grieving over dead brethren. This probably happened in a period of days.

Don't miss that because of the matter of fact approach taken in the text. If you were the widow of a dead man, or the child of a dead man, or the mother of a dead man, or the father of a dead man, or the brother or the sister of a dead man, or the dear friend of a dead man, It would not be a matter of fact. What do I mean by, it seems at first blush to be an overreaction. That seems to be saying the opposite of what I just said. Now While what I just said is true, militarily the death of 36 men is not unexpected and it's not a big number.

Thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions die in war. Yet we have this very dramatic reaction. Joshua tears his clothes and he prostrates himself on the ground. For a period of time, it says, until evening. We don't know how long that was, but I read into that until evening to give us that there's a period of time.

It's passing with him prostrated on the ground. He and the elders, and they put dust on their heads. These are all well-known signs of grief, demonstrations of grief in the Old Testament. And yet, according to the numbers of fighting men that are given to us in Numbers 26, this is 0.006 of their fighting force. 0.006 percent.

0.006 percent of their fighting force. Let me just put that in perspective. If the losses had been a thousand times greater. So not 36, but 36, 000 they would still have 94% of their fighting force. Not they lost So they still have 94% of their fighting force.

No. If the losses had been a thousand times greater than they were, they would still have 94%. So This can't be about perceived military ability, and it isn't about perceived military ability. Oh no, we've lost the ability to fight because we lost 36 men out of 602, 000 fighters. What is happening?

Joshua was drawing conclusions. We always draw conclusions. He has been drawing conclusions. God spoke to him. So he's drawing the conclusion from that.

God is with me. God had told him, I'll be with you. Be strong and courageous. I'll be with you as I was with Moses. Wherever your feet go, I'll give to you." God dried up the Jordan.

Joshua concluded, God's fulfilling his promises. God brought down the walls of Jericho. Everything's on plan. Now God abandoned us in the fight against small town Amorites. He's drawing conclusions from that.

Friends, their only hope has ever been that God would fight for them. Their only hope, these people who have been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, not building up their arms, Their only hope has ever been that God would fight for them. And the signs have been all along, God's fighting for us, God's fighting for us, God doesn't fight for us. Remember, Joshua has never read the book of Joshua. It's not because he's a bad Bible student, it's because it doesn't exist.

The events that the book of Joshua is capturing are happening in real time. He's never read verse 1. He doesn't have the interpretive key. You have the interpretive key. He doesn't.

Now this is key. What does Joshua do? He goes to God. The Ark of the Lord is the physical representation of God in the midst of His people. God is omnipresent.

He is everywhere at once. But this was the place of His special presence. It was the physical representation that God is here. He is right here in the middle of us, in our midst. We go with this God.

This God goes with us. Joshua goes to that spot, the physical representation of the presence of God in the midst of his people and he prostrates himself there and he pours out his heart there. This Ark of the Lord will eventually be housed in the Holy of Holies. One man, the high priest, will go in and be before it one day of the year. No one else will ever see it.

This is where Joshua goes. So he brings his fears and his grief to God. Listen to what the commentator Dale Davis says. These are words of despair not unbelief. Joshua complains to God in prayer.

Complaining to God is not the same as complaining about God, Israel's wilderness practice. So he's pointing out here a temptation. The temptation is to see the words that Joshua says before the Ark of the Lord to the grumbling of the people of Israel in their Wilderness wanderings from time to time and say these are the same thing. Dale Davis said, don't take the bait, they're not the same thing. Pouring out your heart to God is not the same as complaining against God to Moses, which is what the people of God were doing in the wilderness.

Verse 7, Joshua says, Alas Lord God! You have two words here, two words for God. Adonai Yahweh. Lord God, the NIV renders it alas sovereign Lord. You know I'm not a big fan of the NIV, but I think they won the translation war here.

When you look at it. It's not a war. Translation is hard work. Translation is hard work. I'd rather criticize them after the fact from the pulpit than actually be charged with the task of it.

Alas, Sovereign Lord Adonai means Lord. That's a good translation, but what is a Lord? It's the King. It's the sovereign. So Joshua hasn't lost sight that God is king.

He addresses him as he's pouring his heart out, Alas sovereign Lord, alas sovereign God. You are king. You are God. Joshua doesn't understand what God is doing So he's drawing the wrong conclusions and he's afraid because he hasn't read verse one This all gets cleared up next week So he goes to God and he pours out his heart That's what he should do You should go to God and pour out His heart. Plead with God.

Wrestle with God even. You know that's allowed. You know that's legal. Pleading with God, wrestling with God is legal. It's not the wrong thing to do.

It's the right thing to do when you don't understand what God is doing, but you trust Him and you need help bringing those things together. What I see doesn't match what I know about you and your promises, you go to God and you wrestle with Him. He speaks to God about His own survival and the survival of His people and about the honor of God's name. We know how we feel about the saving of our own skin. That comes naturally.

Joshua goes beyond that. Here's what Matthew Henry says. He feared it would reflect on God, His wisdom and power, His goodness and faithfulness. Nothing is more grievous to a gracious soul than dishonor done to God's name. Nothing is more grievous to a gracious soul, a soul that has received the grace of God, than dishonor done to God's name.

You can stand almost anything else. But that this great God would come into reproach. Let's apply. I give you five. By the way, I don't like the subdivision that we've done.

It leaves us hanging right in the middle of the story. I don't know how I would have done it differently. So I just want to say I don't like it and I don't have a better way forward other than come back next Sunday. We'll finish the story next Sunday. It's a cliffhanger, all part of James and I's marketing plan to secure your attendance next week.

All right, application number one. We all have this immediate impulse, that's not fair! You have it. Think about the wives of these men Who are real men who are really dead and really leaving them widows Because somebody else they probably never met. Do you think Joshua knows Achan?

There's two million people. Do you think these 36 men who died even have laid eyes on Aiken? That would be like me having seen an individual in Blandtire. There's two million people in Blandtire. I've probably laid eyes on a couple thousand of them and met a hundred.

Hold that thought. So just acknowledging, if you don't have that impulse, you haven't thought about this text very much yet. If you Just stop, read it carefully, think about it. You will have the impulse, that's not fair. And I just want to say, hold that thought.

A lot of next week is going to be about this impulse. That's not fair. But I want to preface next week by saying that the last thing fallen humans should want is fair. When you demand fair, you have no idea what you're talking about. You're demanding your own destruction.

So acknowledge, I have the impulse to, that's not fair, be careful. Number two, we really are members of one another. We studied that in Ephesians 4, we stood up and cheered, We're members of one another. Okay, that means more than just one thing. That is both theology and reality.

What we have in our text is completely un-American. We are the land of rugged individualism. God isn't applying for citizenship. God isn't interested in being American. We adjust to Him.

He's not adjusting to you. He's not adjusting to me. And nor should He. He is wise. We have no idea what we're doing.

I cannot isolate the results of my sin from Janet, from my children, from you. If you want that world, it doesn't exist. Dale Davis, the commentator says, don't complain, fear God. The right response to being brought face to face with reality as God has designed it and created it and made it. The best response is to complain about what God decided to do in His perfect wisdom, but to fear God about your own sins and the potential impact on people that you never intended it to impact.

You don't get to choose that. Friends, we will sooner defy gravity than escape this reality. You will sooner be able to suspend gravity than you will escape this reality. This is the universe as God and His wisdom has made it. We really are members of one another and that means some really good helpful things for us, but it means some terrifying things for us too.

All that's true. By the way, another preview for next week. It opens the door for you to be saved. It opens the door for you to be saved. It opens the door for you to be saved.

That you don't just stand or fall according to your own conduct opens the door for sinners to be saved. Number three. Don't ever imagine that your plans are safe from God. Nothing is safe from God. Don't imagine that the plans themselves are safe from God.

Don't imagine that the results are safe from God. None of it is safe from God. In chapter 8 verse 25 we will learn that there were 12, 000 people in AI. If that's true, and it is, then 3, 000 soldiers is not an overwhelming force guaranteeing the outcome of the battle. But Understand, they didn't lose the battle because they got bad intelligence.

They got bad intelligence because God was intent on defeating their plans. Just understand, if we just had good intelligence, we would have won the battle. They had 0% chance of getting good intelligence because God decided you are losing today. Listen to 2 Samuel 17 verse 14. So in 2 Samuel 17, Absalom has betrayed his father David and he's made himself king.

And he's coming with an army into Jerusalem to kill his father and displace his father and David knows it so he flees just in the nick of time. Absalom calls for counsel. What's the best way to track down and kill my father. Two men give him counsel, Hushai and Ahithophel. They have both given their counsel and then we read this in 2 Samuel 7, 14.

So, Absalom and all the men of Israel said, the advice of Hushai the Archite is better than the advice of Ahithophel. Now listen to this, here's the punchline. For the Lord had purpose to defeat the good advice of Ahithophel to the intent that the Lord might bring disaster on Absalom." He got good advice, but God moved their hearts and He inclined them to the bad advice. Because He had purpose to defeat the good advice to the intent that the Lord might bring disaster on Absalom. My plans aren't safe.

So plan but don't trust your plans. Trust God. That's what we learn here. We don't learn that you shouldn't get intelligence. We don't learn that you shouldn't plan.

We learn that you can't trust those things. Your trust has to be in God while you're gathering intelligence and making plans. Without Him we can do nothing, John 15. Without him, we can do nothing. Number four.

Be careful with conclusions. You get the facts, and we draw conclusions. Be careful. That's hard business. Dangerous business.

When it seems to you like God isn't keeping his promises and you don't understand what's happening, just figure you haven't read verse 1. There's an interpretive key that I don't even have the book. Joshua drew the wrong conclusions because he hadn't read verse 1. Suspend, always suspend the conclusion that God isn't keeping his promises. It can't be that!

It's impossible! Whatever it is, it isn't that! Isn't that? Number five. Go to God.

Go to God. Don't complain about God. Bring your fears and your grief to God. Wrestle with Him. Be afraid of that.

He's not afraid of that. He's not afraid of anything. The presence of God is just the place to be when you don't understand what's happening. That's where you should be. That's the last place you want to be.

And that's the place where you most need to be. Joshua was a man who had learned, I have no idea what's happening. I'm going to the Ark of the Lord. That's the one place I stand a chance of finding out what's happening. And He does.

In next week's text, God reveals Himself and what He's been doing. God, thank you for the wisdom of scripture. It confronts us, convicts us, and brings such comfort to us. We're so much better off than have we not been confronted or convicted when we're brought face to face with reality and then we can just throw ourselves upon you in your mercy, your goodness, Trust you even when we don't see what's happening, don't know what's happening. Make us a people like that, God.

Please, help us. In Jesus' name, Amen.