Northwest Gospel Church - Westside

While Israel lived like He had commanded, God took the Israelites' meager force, listened to Joshua and the Israelites, and worked a mighty victory with them. God likes to work with us, even though he does not need us. He holds victory in his hands, but, like a good father, he likes to act with his children. The Lord of the sun and all of creation even bends nature’s laws that he put into place at the beginning of the universe’s natural processes. He is not limited by the time set for a day, but he can, if he wishes, lengthen or shorten them. The Lord lengthened the day to punish the kings of Canaan’s evils, but he shortened the time of the sun’s shining when he punished his son in our place. Adoni-Zedek and his coalition could be defeated by spears and hail, but human sin needed a more personal touch to plunge sin’s darkness into the sea of Christ’s light.

One thing to keep in mind as we read through Joshua is that the Lord is carrying out his judgment on the people in the land. Sometimes God uses man as his sword, but he is more than capable of carrying out his offensives without us. The focus of this passage is not on the martial might of Israel calling in the heavenly artillery by summoning a deity to fight for them. The Lord himself throws hailstones down on the Amorites, and most of the fallen were from his hand, not Israel’s. Whatever the Amorites did, it must have been pretty bad for God to make fresh stones just for their stoning. His ways are higher, and his knowledge is greater than ours. We must trust His righteousness in that time, also the text itself says that “there has been no day like it before or since, when the Lord heeded the voice of a man, for the Lord fought for Israel.” This makes it clear that ascribing something this clear-cut of God’s “smiting” of a people is something that we can’t do in our modern context.

In Joshua 9 the Nation of Israel continues its conquest of the land of Canaan. They are fresh off victories in Jericho and Ai so the Canaanites know that they have a target on their backs. Therefore they decide to band together as one to fight Joshua and Israel. Enter the Gibeonites (the Hivites). Gibeon was a town about 6 miles northwest of Jerusalem, in modern-day El-Jib. The Gibeonites knew that the Israelites had defeated Jericho and Ai and decided to act cunningly to see if they could get Israel to make a peace treaty (covenant) with them. The Gibeonites became actors in their own play and pretended to come from a foreign land. They had all the right props…moldy bread, worn-out wineskins, patched sandals, and tattered clothing.

God often uses our setbacks and failures to teach us to rely on Him more completely. In this chapter, we see Joshua grow as a leader as he learns to walk in deeper dependence upon the LORD. We see God take the very means of their earlier defeat at Ai and turn it into a brilliant strategy for victory. God’s plan to deliver his people is back on track. Joshua’s position as a leader is strengthened, and Joshua gains a new understanding of God’s steadfast mercy and sovereign will.

As Israel approaches their next adversary, Ai (not to be confused with artificial intelligence), all indications are that this should be a cake walk. Picture a sense of pridefulness and a bit of arrogance here. The recommendation is to only send a small squad, maybe the JV team (don’t bother the whole group with such a small town.) Then, something goes horribly wrong. What happened, why did it all go south? What can we learn from this defeat? What can we learn from Joshua’s response? What can we learn from the consequences of sin? Let’s explore Joshua 7 together and course correct where we see areas in our own life that might need transformation.

This week we have a familiar story of Joshua leading the Israelites against the fortified city of Jericho. They had just miraculously crossed over the Jordan River, set themselves apart by circumcising all the men, and now Joshua experiences a conversation with God. At this point Joshua is clearly set apart for the task of leading Israel against the city of Jericho. This is an impossible task done in an improbable way. God gave Joshua instructions to take the city, however not by force, but through obedience.

It's the perfect time for the people of Israel to recommit themselves to the Lord. And what better way to do that than for all the men who had been born in the wilderness, who had never been circumcised to be circumcised. Circumcision is the outward sign for the people of Israel that they are God’s and God’s alone. For whatever reason, in the wilderness, the practice had stopped, but now is the time for this next generation to commit themselves to the Lord, outwardly and inwardly. So, all the men get the snip with new flint knives. Then the people rest, recover and celebrate the first Passover in their new land.

Do you have something that brings up memories or starts conversations with others? Maybe a tattoo, a scar, or something hanging up in the house that stands out from what you’d normally see in someone’s house? We tend to put things out on display for ourselves but usually it catches the eyes of others and sometimes leads to discussions. For the Israelites, God had instructed twelve men, one from each tribe, to take up a stone from the riverbed of the Jordan and place it where they were to camp that night. Having witnessed a miraculous display of God’s complete control over nature, God instructed Joshua to display a monument to be seen and cause people to ask, “What do those stones mean to you?” These stones were just stones, yet, when the children and later generations would see them, they would ask what they mean. “What do these represent?”

Years of wandering are about to end. It is hard to imagine what’s on the minds and the hearts of the people. You might remember Joshua had been to the Promised Land forty years earlier. As a spy he came back to Moses with a positive report and encouragement to go in and possess the land, only to be shouted down. The crowd won the day, with their fearful disobedience earning them exile in the desert until that generation’s death. Joshua was a young man and now he is old. He is the new leader of God’s chosen people. There would be many battles ahead. Strong leadership would be required. God would again remind Joshua that he was not alone. It was time to cross the Jordan.

Joshua 2 introduces us to someone, who is quite honestly, unexpected as someone God would use. Her name is Rahab. She is mentioned alongside towering figures of the faith such as Abraham, Moses, Noah, Gideon, and King David in Hebrews Chapter 11. How is this possible? Why is it so shocking and unexpected? It’s surprising because Rahab is a prostitute. And almost every time her name is mentioned in the Bible she is known as Rahab the prostitute. Not a religious giant as you would expect but a person most people would be ashamed to be associated with. But God saw things differently. God saw a heart of faith and someone who believed in Him wholeheartedly.