THROUGH THE BIBLE - Joshua 8..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Joshua chapter 8, 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. 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. So Joshua and all the fighting men arose to go up to Ai. And Joshua chose 30,000 mighty men of valor and sent them out by night.

And he commanded them, behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city behind it. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you remain steady. And I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. And when they come out against us just as before, we shall flee before them. And they will come out after us as we have drawn them away from the city.

For they will say, they are fleeing from us just as before. So we will flee before them. Then you shall rise up from the ambush and seize the city. For the Lord your God will give it into your hand. And as soon as you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire.

You shall do according to the word of the Lord. See, I have commanded you. So Joshua sent them out and they went to the place of ambush and lay between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai. But Joshua spent that night among the people. Joshua rose 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 fighting men who were with him went up and drew near before the city and encamped on the north side of Ai, with a ravine between them and Ai. He took about 5,000 men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. So they stationed the forces, the main encampment that was to the north of the city and its rear guard west of the city. But Joshua spent that night in the valley. And as soon as the king of Ai saw this, he and all his people, the men of the city, hurried and went out early to the appointed place towards the Arabah to meet Israel in battle.

But he did not know that there was an ambush against them behind the city. And Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten before them and fled in the direction of the wilderness. So all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them. And as they pursued Joshua, they were drawn away from the city. Not a man was left in Aiol, Bethel, who did not go out after Israel.

They left the city open and pursued Israel. Then the Lord said to Joshua, stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand. And Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city. And the men in the ambush rose quickly out of their place. And as soon as he had stretched out his hand, they ran and entered the city and captured it.

And they hurried to set the city on fire. So when the men of Ai looked back, behold, the smoke of the city went up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that. For the people who fled the wilderness turned back against the pursuers. And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city and that the smoke of the city went up, then they turned back and struck the men of Ai. 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. But the king of Ai they took alive and brought him near Joshua. When Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the open wilderness where they pursued them, and all of them to the very last had fallen by the edge of the sword, all Israel returned to Ai and struck it down with the edge of the sword. And all who fell that day, both men and women, were 12,000, all the people of Ai.

But Joshua did not draw back his hand with which he stretched out the javelin until he had devoted all the inhabitants of Ai to destruction. Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took as their plunder according to the word of the Lord that he commanded Joshua. But Joshua burned Ai and made it forever a heap of ruins as it is to this day. And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. Now 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 heap of stones which stands there to this day.

At that time Joshua built an altar to the Lord. The God of Israel on Mount Ebal, just as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded the people of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of uncut stones upon which no man has yielded an iron tool. And they offered on it burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed feast offerings. And there in the presence of the people of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses which he had written. And all Israel, sojourners as well as native-born, with their elders and officers and their judges, stood on the opposite side of the Ark before the Levitical priests who carried the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded at the first to bless the people of Israel.

And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings, or the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel and the women and the little ones and the sojourners who lived among them. Amen. Well, brothers and sisters, we are in the 8th chapter of this book, this book of Joshua. And it comes on the back end of the contents, obviously, of the 7th chapter, the 2, 7 and 8 really are a collective.

If you remember back in chapter 7, The people of Israel, the fighting men in particular of the people of Israel, had suffered a humiliation at the hands of the people, of the soldiers of Ai. What was meant to be an easy overthrow of that city, what was meant to be a walkover, was actually a humiliating defeat that cost them 36 of their own fighting men. At this point in time we know that the people were bewildered. Joshua was. We looked at the details of chapter 7 last week where he fell in space and went to the Lord and said, basically, why is this happening to us?

Assuming the absolute worst, and if that was this great man of faith, Joshua's heart, then how was the heart of the people of Israel at that moment? When their men had suffered defeat, we're told, the description of what they were experiencing in their heart was they melted like water. They were gripped with terror at that point in time. Why? Why?

The Lord is gracious. Because the Lord gives them the reason why. And He also gives them the remedy. The reasons found in the previous chapter in verses 11 and 12. Israel has sinned, He says to Joshua.

They have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them. They have taken some of the devoted things. They have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings. Therefore, people of Israel cannot stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies because they have become devoted for destruction.

You see, it wasn't that the people of Ai or the soldiers of Ai were so strong and mighty in battle. that their generals had devised such a good strategy to take on the people of Israel. It wasn't that at all. It was simply that God was angry with His people. God was angry with the people of Israel because the people of Israel, the covenant people of Israel, had broken faith with God.

They'd broken the covenant of the Lord by taking of the devoted things to destruction that the Lord said you are to destroy. And of the gold and the silver and the bronze and the shadows of iron were supposed to be taken back to the treasury of the Lord. And we know that Achan broke God's word. There was disobedience, there was willful disobedience within the camp. And God was angry with them.

And the defeat they experienced, the absolute humiliation they experienced at the hand of the army of the Aeons, if that makes sense, the people of Ai, was because the Lord God, the only true God, had withdrawn His special presence from among His people, and now He was burning with fury against them. Because they'd broken faith, because they'd been disobedient to So in other words, the people of Israel, the soldiers who've gone out to battle against this city, thinking it was going to be a cinch, they went out on their own strength. They went out in their own might, in their own power. And no matter how small the enemy is, you go without the Lord and you're going to suffer defeat. The Lord says, not only what their fault was, but also he gives them the remedy.

He says, I will be with you no more unless you destroy the devoted things from among you. You've sinned against me. You've broken faith, you've broken my covenant. There's sin in your ranks. Unless you deal with that sin, unless you deal with a heavy hand in that sin among you, in the camp, among my people, you will not know my special presence.

That's what He says. He says, I will be with you no more unless you destroy the devoted things from among you. Beloved, you have to remember the old covenant was a covenant rooted and established between the God of the universe and this people called Israel and was rooted upon if works. It was very much rooted in their works, in their performance. If you obey, if you keep my statutes, if you obey my commands, all my commands, then I will be your God and you'll be my people.

Those who bless you, I will curse. And those who curse you, I will curse. I'm sorry. Those who bless you, I will bless. And those who curse you, I will curse.

If the people were obedient, then the Lord will bless. But if the people were disobedient, if these covenant people were disobedient to the Lord, then they forfeit the blessings of the covenant. Now we could quite easily, if we wanted to, go through the Scripture and have a look at the blessings of being part of this covenant people, of the perks and the benefits of being part of the covenant people of the Lord. but it'd be far much better and more fruitful. I think what this passage is pointing to is rather than the focus on the benefits or the blessings, rather than that is to focus on the origin of from where the blessings come.

Because we can think about the blessings of the God that has been promised upon the covenant people, the blessings of peace and the blessing of overpowering their enemies, the blessing of joy and guidance and life and light and so on. Where are all those blessings rooted? What good are all those blessings in and of themselves? What good are the blessings if God is not with these people? In fact, all those blessings, all the blessings that are attached to the covenant God made with the people of Israel are rooted in Him.

You have Him, you have them all. You don't have Him, you have none. What made these people a unique people was not simply that they walked over the Jordan River on dry land. It wasn't that 40 years earlier they were arrested from the land of Egypt, and the Red Sea was part, and they walked over. It wasn't that that made them special, not even that the Lord sustained them by giving them manna from heaven.

for 40 years, or water from a rock, all glorious blessings, wonderful blessings, wonderful benefits. But what made these people unique, peculiar, special was that the God of all the earth said, I will be your God and you'll be my people. What made them unique and gave them value was God and God alone. And apart from God and God alone, His presence and His favor upon them They are no different to the nations around them. They are no different to the heathen that is around them.

How do I say that? If you pay attention, you might have realized that when I was reading back in chapter 7 verse 12, we were told that they themselves, because they'd broken faith and violated the covenant of God, God says to Joshua, now the people of Israel are devoted to destruction. That the people of Israel are devoted to destruction. What happened to the favor of God upon them? They broke covenant.

And therefore, he withdrew his special presence from among them. And they become no different to the nation. God was sending them into the nations, into the land of Canaan, to destroy and to devote the people and all their possessions to destruction. And now God says, because you've broken covenant with me, now you're devoted to destruction. Scary words, aren't they?

But in His grace, He gives them the remedy. He tells them that sin must be dealt with. The Lord God is pure, is holy, is the thrice holy God. He is righteous. He lives in unapproachable light.

He cannot look upon sin. He cannot accept sin. And this is a lesson that the people of Israel were not only being taught now, but throughout their history. The last 40 years in the wilderness, the Lord was teaching them as a community of people living in a camp. You remember the purity laws that they were not allowed to remain in the camp if they were impure, if they were unclean, if they were unwhole.

They were to stay outside the camp. Why? Because the tabernacle is in the camp, and in the tabernacle there's a Holy of Holies, and in the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant. The very manifestation of the presence of the Triune God was among them, and nothing unclean was to be seen before His eyes. These people were being taught this lesson all along.

And now he says, if you have broken faith, you have willfully sinned, and you've taken off the devoted things, you must, you must, you must deal with that sin. For I restore my presence from you. And so we read the details last week. I'm not going to go back into them this week. And the Lord reveals it's Achan, and Achan is taken out from among the people, him and his sons and daughters, and his cattle and his tent and everything that was owned by anything that had his name upon it, and he was completely destroyed.

The people stoned and then lit on fire and completely destroyed. Fire, of course, and I said this last week, is a symbol of the wrath of God, the righteous fury of God on unrighteousness. Fire. One thing, to agree. One thing to agree that God is righteous and holiness and purity must remain among the people of God, it's another to partake in these things.

It's another to carry one of the stones and say, I'm going to cast it at Achan and his family. It's another completely to see him or to light that match and watch everything, the people and the possessions all go up in flames. I suspect the only way one could contribute in that way is if one is completely sold out to the idea that if Yahweh is not with us, everything is meaningless. No matter the price. No matter the price.

We must be willing to pay it because if Yahweh, if the Lord God Almighty is not with us, then everything we do, all our existence is absolutely meaningless because what gives us value is not ourselves. We're no different dimensions. I've chosen you not because you are more righteous or more abundant than the rest. He chose you because He chose you simply. He decided to put His name on you and flood His grace upon you and pour His favor upon you.

That's it. Apart from the Lord God, we are meaningless. And if it means that we need to destroy Achan and his family, we will do it. If this is righteous before the Lord, and this will guarantee your presence before us. Moses knew and understood that reality.

You might remember in the incident back in Exodus chapter 33, the incident that you and I know as the golden calf incident. that the Lord threatened to depart and remove his special presence from these people. And Moses, the mediator, mediates on behalf of the people and the Lord. And he says, if you don't go with us, you might as well keep us here. Paraphrasing, let us die here at the foot of the mountain.

If you're not coming with us, nothing we do is worth it. It's all minimalist. Moses knew it. No doubt in my mind that these people will pass through the stones. No doubt the Lord had given them understanding to see it as well, because all the benefits that you can name of being Christian.

All the benefits that you can name are being part of the covenant people of God, even for these people here. Put them all together. If you remove God in His presence and His goodness, then they are meaningless. Beloved, that's why today in our lives as Christians, if you hear a gospel that tells you that you can benefit from this world, all the things of this world, but they seem to keep out the greatest of all benefits, The greatest of all glory, that is, to know God and to be known by Him, to have an intimate relationship with the God of the universe through His Son, Jesus Christ, then that's not the gospel. How can we emphasize the things of this world and neglect the greatest glory of knowing God through His Son?

That's all. Just remain with us. The people dealt righteously with that sin. They stoned Achan, his sons and his daughters. They burnt everything up in a heap.

We're told in verse 26 of a previous chapter, then the Lord turned from his burning anger. Let me ask you, where was his burning anger directed? at the people of Israel. He burned with anger, but he turned. So whatever the people of Israel did in obedience, through faith, trusting the Lord, and obey, trust and obey, the Lord turned from his burning anger.

And then verse 12 tells us, unless I will, he says I will, verse 12 of the priesthood, he says, I will be with you no more unless you destroy the devoted things for among you. That is to say, And now, if he's turned his anger away from the people, it's because they have destroyed the devoted things that he said for them to destroy. And what he said earlier, I will no longer be among you, means now he is back with them. So his special presence, his favour is back upon his people. Now God was appeased when they dealt with their sin.

So why have I spent so long going over the details of the last chapter, which we spent some time last week meditating upon? Well, beloved, unless we fully understand the contents of Chapter 7, I would be afraid that we may mistake Chapter 8 and misapply Chapter 8. We need to know them. We need to understand that the greatest blessing for these people is God himself. We need to understand that victory comes because God is with them and with them alone.

Because it's very easy for us to read through chapter eight and start to think somehow because of the clever strategy and the ambush and the shrewdness of this people, this change in strategy, that that is the reason why they defeated the people of Ai. And I want us to be very clear from the beginning, it is not the reason. The reason is that God is with them. They don't have to lift a single sword if it is the will of the Lord. Like in Jericho, they can speak or they can blow the trumpets and the walls will come tumbling down.

The way the Lord tells his people to defeat the enemy in this case is his prerogative. But the fact of the matter is, or the common denominator is, that God is with his people and if he's with his people they will see victory. They will see it. It's a point he makes clearly in verse 1 of our text. And the Lord said to Joshua, do not fear and do not be dismayed Take all the fighting men with you and arise and go up to Ai.

See, what's the next word? I. I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, the city and the land. Same city. It's only been a few days.

Same city, same opposition, same terrain to get there. Geographically hasn't changed. The difference is now the Lord is with them. They don't go by their own power. They go in the power and in the might of the Lord.

I have given you the king. I have given you the people. I have given you the city. I've given you everything and its land. The difference is that Yahweh is with them and I don't want you to not recognize how this begins.

When he begins to speak to Joshua, he says these words, Do not fear and do not be dismayed. Before a single strategy was formulated, the God of all the earth tells Joshua, tell the people, fear not. Why? Because now I'm with you. I'm now with you.

having now experienced the humiliation that they experienced only days earlier and those emotions running through their heart and in their minds. The fear and the trepidation of having hearts melting like water. And thinking, can that happen again? We lost 36 the first time around. What's changing?

What's going to stop us from losing 72? Or 100, or 300, or 500? What's stopping them from coming and destroying us completely? They beat us once. Why wouldn't they beat us again?

God is saying, yes, they beat you once because you went on your own. But now you go with me. And I go before you. And the victory is won. And he's a God who makes promises.

And he's a God who keeps promises. The rest is history. I'm not going to go into the detail of how the victory was won. Beautiful detail. We read it this evening and I hope it sticks in our minds somehow.

Joshua holds up the javelin and they ambush, turn around and take on the city. They burn the city. It's just a beautiful story. But we're not going to go into that detail. But we know that they defeated the city.

And what God said would happen, did happen indeed. having now experienced in a matter of days both the consequences of the anger and the displeasure of Yahweh, which was resulting in humiliation and defeat on the one hand, And also now, a few days later, experiencing the favor and the special presence of Yahweh, and now experiencing the victory over the people of Ai, I think the chapter ends really beautifully, the last five or six verses. Spend a few moments here. There's two very important mountains mentioned for us in the last six verses from verse 30 onwards. Mount Ebor is one, and Mount Gerizim is the other.

The whole of the people of Israel were commanded to make the journey to go to these mountains. How far that journey was to the mountains, I'm not sure. Estimates vary, so I'm not going to throw those out. But it's fairly clear from my reading, I've never been there, but from my reading it's clear that from the peak of one of the mountains to the peak of the other is about two kilometers. And there's a valley in between.

And the whole of the people of Israel were to go and stand in between. Now when I say Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it should ring a bell. I hope it does. Because those mountains were mentioned not that long ago. Do you remember when?

It was during our corporate reading in the book of Deuteronomy. And those mountains were mentioned in Deuteronomy chapter 27 and the contents of what took place spilled over into Deuteronomy chapter 28. Now it should be, as Christians, when we hear those words, Deuteronomy 27, 28, it would be quite okay for you to feel a bit of a chill going down your spine because those chapters are ones that declare to the people of Israel, God through Moses, his mediator, his prophet, because remember, we're still now on the eastern side of the Jordan River, Deuteronomy. He declares to the people of Israel the blessings for obedience. and those chilly curses in the event of disobedience.

I was going to read a portion, but for the sake of time, I'm not going to. But you may remember some of that content. I don't know about you, but every time I read, it is a fearful experience to fall in the hands of a holy God. Graphical warnings of what to expect if they obey, and graphical warnings of what they should expect if they disobey. Two mountains, and each mountain represents one evil, represents the curses.

Mount Gerizim represents the blessings. So fitting, don't you think? If you're paying attention as we were reading, you'll remember that the altar that was built for the Lord by Joshua with the stones that were uncut, whole stones, uncut by any device at all, were actually built on Mount Ebal. The sacrifices that were sacrificed, the blood sacrifices and the burned sacrifices were burned and offered to Yahweh on Mount Evil. That's the mount of the curses.

The mount of the nikkah, the mount that is the result Representation of the result of the breaking of the covenant of the people of God. The disobedience of the covenant of the people of God. You disobey God, you're under His judgment, and you require an atonement. It requires the wrath of God to be demonstrated upon all unrighteousness. The sacrifices and the burnt offerings were offered on that mountain.

Kidding, I think. What a lesson it is for the people. That as they were there and the sacrifices were offered and the burnt offerings offered, we're told that Joshua wrote the law, everything that Moses had commanded, he wrote the law on those stones. And he also read every single word of the law of God or the law that the Lord had given to Moses. And he read it to everyone present.

And they were all present, we're told, women, children, everyone was there before Joshua. All the word of God was read that day before the whole assembly of the people of God. What a fitting lesson the last few days they've experienced. Looking at Mount Ebal, they've experienced the curse of God when God withdraws His special presence and His favor from among His people. They experience what it is to go into battle on their own.

And it is a fearful thing to go into battle in this world on your own without the living God on your side. And then also, as they looked to Mount Gerizim, they knew and were able to experience the last few days, the obedience of the Lord had revealed their sin. And they were willing to go and deal with their sin in a righteous way before the Lord, so that the Lord will turn His burning anger. His righteous indignation was turned from among His people. And His favor and His special presence returned among His people.

And then they go into battle, same city. Same city, and yet this time they defeat and slaughter and burn the whole place down to a crisp. What's the difference? God. Is God with us?

Or is God against us? You might be thinking at this stage, thank God for grace. Amen. Thank God for grace. And if it's true, the law came through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

And sometimes when we speak about these words, they're a little uncomfortable because you're probably waiting for clarification from my part. How can God remove his favor from his people? How can God remove his special presence from his people? It's a little uncomfortable when God says, I'm not going with you. You're under my judgment now.

You're devoted to destruction over Israel, the very people that I rescued from the land of Egypt. That's uncomfortable to us. We don't want to hear that. That's scary. That is uncomfortable.

And so we go to grace and say, praise God for grace. Because the favor and the presence of God can never be removed from me because of the grace of God in Christ Jesus. Although that is true, let's not go there immediately before we understand what grace is and how that grace is being poured out upon us through Jesus Christ our Lord. Because one thing we need to understand, brothers and sisters, is this. God has not changed.

The righteousness of God is the same. He's perfect in all His way. He's faultless. You cannot add to perfection and you cannot take away from perfection and still remain perfect. God is God.

He's eternally good and He's eternally righteous. He's eternally just. He now looks upon sin with the same indignation as he did in the passage that is before us. He has not changed. Somehow we can come to think that because of the grace that has come through Jesus Christ, that somehow God looks upon sin in another way.

He doesn't. He hates it. and his fury burns against sin. And let me tell you something, one breaking the covenant of God, one being disobedient to God, will indeed remove the special presence and the favor of God upon them. And that includes you and I, but for Christ.

And that means that Christ is much more beautiful and glorious in our eyes because of this. You see, it's not that God looks upon sin in a different way, as though He's lowering His standards somehow. He still requires the same perfection, the same righteousness, the same holiness from you and I as He did before. Even Jesus said, be perfect as your heavenly Father in heaven is perfect. To these people, he said, be holy as your God is holy.

And those words apply to you and me. The difference is this, and this is grace. Not that God has changed. Rather, what was typified in the old has now been made evident and revealed in the new, and that is this, although God requires the same righteousness, the same perfection, the same faultlessness, He has now shown us that His plan of redemption always was that one would be the vicarious holder of those things. that he will allow for a substitute.

In other words, one to hold, to be the righteous one, one to be the perfect one, one to be the one who's perfect in obedience, and his obedience will be accounted to his people. Our brother said it earlier. That's the glorious truth of the gospel. And beloved, we need to see this, that when God is ended with sin, His fury is against him to the point where he turns against his people and devotes them to Christ. Until sin is dealt with, sin undealt with, no matter who you are, no matter who I am, we are no better than the heathen, than the nations.

No better. He's the beauty. But his son is it. He suddenly lived the perfect life of the believers. Perfect, perfect.

And then when he laid down his life upon that cross and shed his blood, not only is his blood providing the atonement for his people who now embrace him by faith. Remember, sinners deserve judgment, judgment from God, punishment, recompense from a good and holy God. His sin covers and His sin provides the remission of sin that is required by God. So that God's judgment upon sinners is now appeased because He was poured out upon another. Praise be to God.

But there is another element when you believe in Jesus Christ. Not only are your sins atoned for, not only does He provide the remission for sin, but the glory is that He also provides us with people. There's an imputation of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Because remember, not only God says that any sin must be recompensed, but He also demands positive righteousness. In the garden, Adam was not to sin, but he was also to obey.

Do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The people of Israel were covenanted with God. Not only were they not to sin, but they were also to walk in positive righteousness, obeying all the statutes, the commands of the Lord. And it's the same for us. But how can we?

The beauty is Christ has. And God now hasn't lowered the bar of what he expects, but rather he sent forth his son. The bar remains where it is his son accomplishes and everyone who comes and trusts in Jesus Christ. embraces him by faith. The life of Christ, the atonement of Christ, the righteousness of Jesus is accounted as our righteousness.

So you might say, when I sin, do I lose favor with God? When I sin, does he withdraw his special presence from me like he did in the people of Israel? No, the people's experience in the Old Testament is not your experience and mine. Because although you and I are fickle and we're sinners and we fall and stumble, repent and come back, And we do that over and over again. When the Lord looks upon us, He sees the constant supply of righteousness that has been accomplished by Jesus Christ.

A continued righteousness of Jesus Christ. Not a righteousness of man. It is a divine righteousness in perfect obedience to all that the Father has ever done. And when He looks upon you, if you have indeed trusted in Jesus Christ, you don't fall in and out of the favor of God. You are always under the favor of God because of Jesus Christ.

For as by the one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. What type of obedience? What type of righteousness are we talking about? Philippians 2.8.

And being found in human form, that's Jesus of course, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death. upon the cross. His obedience to the Father was absolutely perfect and unbroken all the way to the cross. And beloved brothers and sisters, when Jesus hung on that cross and cried out, it is finished, it is finished for those who believe.