How Failing to Resist and Repent from Sin Reignites Fear...

This week, we have been looking at the response of the Jewish people as they struggled to restart their lives after an unexpected defeat. And as we enter back into this story of struggle, we see that not only does a failure to resist and repent from selfishness and sin have devastating consequences when it comes to restarting our lives. We see a second impact that a failure to resist and repent from sin can have when it comes to restarting our lives as the story continues in Joshua 8:1:

Now the LORD said to Joshua, "Do not fear or 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. "You shall do to Ai and its king just as you did to Jericho and its king; you shall take only its spoil and its cattle as plunder for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it."

Now,why do you think God needed to command Joshua not to fear or be dismayed? As we saw in Joshua chapter one, the phrase “do not fear or be dismayed” literally means “do not fear or be filled with terror so as to fall to pieces”. Imagine yourself as Joshua. You spent forty years wandering in a desert filled with hurt, pain, disappointment, and failure because of the selfish rebellion and disobedience of others.

Now, here you are again, facing the possibility of failing to be able to restart your life again because of the selfish disobedience of others. What would you be thinking? Uh oh, here we go again. How would you be feeling? If you are like most of us, you would be feeling fear. The fear of failure. The fear of repeating past mistakes. The same fears that we can face when we fail at restarting our life. Whether it is our failure to resist and repent from sin, or the failure of others to resist and repent from sin, we can experience fear when we try to move forward and restart our lives.

And just as we saw in Joshua chapter one, God responds to Joshua’s fear with the promise of His presence and activity. Once again, the question before Joshua and the Jewish people was not whether or not God had would keep the promise that He had made; the only question was whether or not the Jewish people were going to live their lives in a way that would enable them to receive those promises. And to receive the promises, the Jewish people were going to have to follow God’s plan and commands. We see Joshua’s response to God’s commands and plan, beginning in Joshua 8:3:

So Joshua rose with all the people of war to go up to Ai; and Joshua chose 30,000 men, valiant warriors, and sent them out at night. He commanded them, saying, "See, you are going to ambush the city from behind it. 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 when they come out to meet us as at the first, we will flee before them. "They will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will say, 'They are fleeing before us as at the first.' So we will flee before them. "And you shall rise from your ambush and take possession of the city, for the LORD your God will deliver it into your hand. "Then it will be when you have seized the city, that you shall set the city on fire. You shall do it according to the word of the LORD. See, I have commanded you."

In these verses we see God give Joshua and the Jewish people another opportunity to restart their lives and take possession of the Promised Land. Here we see God extend grace to the Jewish people and the opportunity to repent from their selfishness and sin. God provides the Jewish people another opportunity to faithfully follow His word.

And in the rest of chapter 8, we see the Jewish people attempt to implement God’s battle plan when it came to capturing the city of Ai. Joshua sent 30,000 men to the west side of the city to hide in the nearby hills. Joshua also dispatched an additional 5,000 troops to protect from a possible counterattack from other neighboring towns. The rest of the Jewish army marched before Ai as they had in their previous attack. And just like their previous attack, Joshua and the Jewish army began to flee toward the east as the army of Ai attacked.

This time, however, this retreat was a decoy to draw the army of Ai away from the city. And at just the right time, at God’s command to Joshua, Joshua signaled the 30,000 soldiers to attack the city that was now left defenseless. The army of Ai found itself surrounded and outnumbered, with no escape or shelter. We see the results of this surprise attack in Joshua 2:26-28:

For Joshua did not withdraw his hand with which he stretched out the javelin until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. Israel took only the cattle and the spoil of that city as plunder 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 until this day.

The Jewish people faithfully followed God’s word and leveled Ai to the place that it was a wasteland and remained a wasteland that the readers of this letter could go visit to see the evidence of the obedience of the Jewish people to God’s word. The Jewish people’s evidence of obedience affirmed that had repented from their selfishness and sin and were back on the journey to restart their lives.

After the defeat of the city of Ai, we see Joshua lead the Jewish people in another act that demonstrated their desire to resist and repent from sin as chapter 8 concludes:

Then Joshua built an altar to the LORD, the God of Israel, in Mount Ebal, just as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of uncut stones on which no man had wielded an iron tool; and they offered burnt offerings on it to the LORD, and sacrificed peace offerings. He wrote there on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written, in the presence of the sons of Israel. All Israel with their elders and officers and their judges were standing on both sides of the ark before the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, the stranger as well as the native. Half of them stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses the servant of the LORD had given command at first to bless the people of Israel. Then afterward he read all the words of the law, 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 had commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel with the women and the little ones and the strangers who were living among them.

After the victory at Ai, Joshua responded by faithfully leading the Jewish people to follow a command that was given by Moses and recorded for us in another letter in our Bibles, called the Book of Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy 27, Moses commanded the Jewish people to worship the Lord for bringing them into the Promised Land. As part of their worship of the Lord, the Jewish people were to recite all of God’s word that had been given to Moses, their previous leader, which Joshua wrote on a large pillar next to the altar that was used in worship.

In addition, the Jewish nation was to divide by tribes into two groups that were to recite the blessings of obedience, along with the curses for disobedience that would come upon the Jewish nation as they continued the journey to restart their lives as individuals and as a nation.

God, even prior to the Jewish nation entering into the Promised Land, was fully aware of the danger and temptation that sin presented to the people. And because of that reality, God had the Jewish people pause to recite and remember His word. God had the Jewish people pause to recite and remember the blessings that come from faithfully following God’s word and living in the relationship with Him that they were created for. And God had the Jewish people pause to recite and remember the curses that come when we fail to resist and repent from sin. Because the reality is that to restart requires resisting and repenting from sin.

So where are you experiencing the temptation to pass by God’s words to selfishly do what you want to do instead of what God wants you to do? Where do you need to change the trajectory of your life that is moving away from God back toward God? Is there selfish rebellion and sin that you need to repent from?

How Failing to Resist and Repent from Sin Impacts Others...

Yesterday, we looked at the response of the Jewish people as they struggled to restart their lives. After an unexpected defeat, a man named Joshua prayed to God in despair and disappointment. We saw that we often respond the same way when restarting our life does not go as easily as we planned. We often pray like Joshua prayed: “God, why isn’t this working out? Why is this so hard? I am trying to change; I am trying to restart my life? It sure would be a lot easier to not change. Maybe I should just give up and just live like I always have. God what are you going to do now? God, where are you and what are you going to do to fix this?”

Have you been there? Maybe you find yourself connecting with Joshua’s prayer because it is the prayer that you find yourself uttering over and over again. We see God respond to Joshua’s prayer in a most unexpected way in Joshua 2:10:

So the LORD said to Joshua, "Rise up! Why is it that you have fallen on your face?

In other words, God tells Joshua “get up. Get off your knees and stand up! Why are you praying to me? You shouldn’t be praying right now”. Now you might be thinking “well that’s kind of harsh. I thought we were supposed to pray. Why is God telling Joshua not to pray?” As the story continues, we see God answer this question and provide for us another timeless principle when it comes to restarting our life:

"Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. And they have even taken some of the things under the ban and have both stolen and deceived. Moreover, they have also put them among their own things. "Therefore the sons of Israel cannot stand before their enemies; they turn their backs before their enemies, for they have become accursed. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy the things under the ban from your midst.

God explains to Joshua that he needs to stop praying because Israel has sinned. You see, Joshua did not need to pray because this was not an issue with God; this was an issue with the Jewish nation. Now imagine yourself as Joshua. You did not sin; your leadership team did not sin, so why is the nation being punished?

Here we see the timeless principle that there is no such sin as personal and private sin. Our selfishness and sin affects and impacts all who are in our sphere of influence. And Achan, as a part of the Jewish army responsible for taking possession of the Promised Land, his selfish rebellion and disobedience to God’s commands affected the entire Jewish nation in their attempts to restart their lives.

You see, instead of following God’s command’s on how they were to restart their lives, Achan decided to pass by God’s commands to do what he desired. And since Achan was more devoted to the things he found in Jericho than he was to following God, he ended up placing the Jewish people in the position of being accursed, which means to be devoted to destruction, along with Jericho. Achan’s selfishness and sin caused the entire nation to be identified with the items that he had taken and were to be devoted to destruction.

And it is here that we see another timeless principle revealed for us when it comes to restarting our life. And that timeless principle is that to restart requires resisting and repenting from sin. The Jewish nation was able to restart their lives because they were faithfully following God’s word and doing the right thing, which created the space for God presence and activity to do what only He could do. And unless the Jewish people repented from this sin and destroyed that which was to be destroyed, God’s presence and power would no longer be with them to enable them to restart their lives.

And this is exactly what happens when we attempt to restart our lives and yet choose to selfishly rebel against God. The hard truth to hear is that God will not do what only He can do to empower us to restart our lives when we choose to live a life that is involved is willful and selfish disobedience and sin. God will not empower us to restart our lives financially while we continue to cheat on our taxes. God will not empower us to restart our marriages while we continue to watch internet pornography. God will not bring us to a place where we can live in the relationship with God that we were created and called to be as long as we continue to live in a way that the trajectory of our lives are moving away from following God’s word. To restart our lives requires repenting of selfishness and sin.

Now when the Bible uses the word repent, this word literally means to feel remorse that results in a change of one’s mind and heart. To repent means more than simply feeling sorry for something you did; to repent means that you feel sorry for what you did and the sorrow that you feel drives you to change something in your life. To repent means to change the trajectory of their lives back toward God and how you live your life in relationship with God and others.

To restart our lives also requires that we resist the sinful desires and temptations that we experience as we live life here on earth. The timeless reality is that God will not be present and active to empower us to restart our lives if we continue to live a life that contradicts the principles of His word. We see how the Jewish people were to demonstrate their repentance as the story continues:

"Rise up! Consecrate the people and say, 'Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, for thus the LORD, the God of Israel, has said, "There are things under the ban in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you have removed the things under the ban from your midst." 'In the morning then you shall come near by your tribes. And it shall be that the tribe which the LORD takes by lot shall come near by families, and the family which the LORD takes shall come near by households, and the household which the LORD takes shall come near man by man. 'It shall be that the one who is taken with the things under the ban shall be burned with fire, he and all that belongs to him, because he has transgressed the covenant of the LORD, and because he has committed a disgraceful thing in Israel.'"

God commands Joshua to stop praying and to start dealing with the sin. The Jewish people were to set themselves apart and come before the Lord at the tabernacle, where the Lord would reveal and expose who the guilty party was. And once the guilty party was revealed they would suffer the consequences for their selfish disobedience and sin.

And for the rest of Joshua chapter 7, we see Joshua and the Jewish people follow God’s command. Tribe by tribe marched before the Lord at the tabernacle and Achan remained silent and did not repent. Even when Achan’s tribe was chosen, Achan remained silent and refused to repent. Even when Achan’s family tree was chosen, he refused to repent. Even when Achan’s household was chosen, he refused to repent. Only after God revealed that Achan was the guilty party did Achan admit his selfish disobedience and sin.

And since Achan decided to pass by God’s commands to do what he desired, he and those around him would have to suffer the consequences of that decision. Achan’s entire family, who assisted in hiding the banned items under his tent, along with all of His possessions were destroyed. And the timeless reality is that our selfish rebellion and sin causes damage and destruction to all of those who are in our sphere of influence. Our failure to resist sin and our failure to repent from sin and change the trajectory of our lives back toward God has devastating and destructive consequences for all that are around us.

But not only does a failure to resist and repent from selfishness and sin have devastating consequences when it comes to restarting our lives. Tomorrow, we will see another aspect of the impact that a failure to resist and repent from sin can have when it comes to restarting our lives.

How have you seen the failure to resist and repent from sin derail an attempt to change or restart? How have you seen the failure to resist and repent from sin impact others?

The Blame Game...

Last week, we looked at one of the most famous stories in the Bible, called the battle of Jericho. And in this story, we saw that Joshua and the Jewish people’s faithful obedience to God’s commands resulted in all of the inhabitants of the Promised Land recognizing that God was present and active with Joshua and the Jewish people and that Joshua’s reputation as a leader was greatly enhanced. Yet, as the story continued, we discover that all is not well with he Jewish people, as we see in Joshua 7:1:

But the sons of Israel acted unfaithfully in regard to the things under the ban, for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, took some of the things under the ban, therefore the anger of the LORD burned against the sons of Israel.

This story begins with some background information that helps provide context for what will unfold. And the background information begins with a word that sets an ominous tone- “But”. Last week, we saw God explain to the Jewish people that the city of Jericho and everything in it was to be devoted to God for destruction. With the exception of Rahab and her family, Jericho was to be raised to the ground and all life destroyed.

In addition, the soldiers were commanded to keep themselves from taking anything from Jericho. Everything except the precious metals, which were to go into funding God’s mission to give the Jewish people that land that had been promised to them, were to be destroyed.

However, instead of following God’s command, a man named Achan took some things that were to be devoted to and given to God. And as a result of Achan’s selfish rebellion and sin, God’s righteous anger was kindled and burned against the Jewish nation. God was fired up at the Jewish people for this act of selfish rebellion that was committed by this Jewish soldier. Now, with this important background information in mind, the stage is now set for what unfolds next:

Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-aven, east of Bethel, and said to them, "Go up and spy out the land." So the men went up and spied out Ai. They returned to Joshua and said to him, "Do not let all the people go up; only about two or three thousand men need go up to Ai; do not make all the people toil up there, for they are few."

Unaware of the selfish rebellion that is in their midst, Joshua sends two spies on another reconnaissance mission to the next city that the Jewish people would encounter, which was named Ai, so that they could prepare for battle. The spies, upon returning from their reconnaissance mission, explained to Joshua that Ai was relatively small and seemed to be far less fortified than Jericho. As a matter of fact, the spies were so confident in their ability to destroy Ai that they recommended that only two to three thousand men would be necessary to achieve victory. The spies explain "there is no sense in wearing everyone out, just send a few soldiers and let everyone else relax".

Joshua responds to their suggestion by sending the maximum number of troops that the spies had suggested. The spies, however, vastly underestimated the defenses of the city and were vastly overconfident in their ability and strategy, which we see as the story continues:

So about three thousand men from the people went up there, but they fled from the men of Ai. The men of Ai struck down about thirty-six of their men, and pursued them from the gate as far as Shebarim and struck them down on the descent, so the hearts of the people melted and became as water.

The men of Ai responded to the Jewish nation’s assault on their city by launching a successful counterattack. And in the midst of this unexpected counterattack; in the midst of their overconfidence; in the midst of underestimating their enemy, the Jewish army began to flee in order to escape the men of Ai. And in their escape, thirty six Jewish soldiers were cut down in defeat.

And as the Jewish soldiers returned to their camp battered and beaten, the hearts of the Jewish people melted and became as water. In other words, the Jewish nation’s resolve and will to take possession of the land that God had promised them dissolved. The Jewish nation was like water that would provide no resistance to any opposition it would face. And in the midst of the hurt, pain and disappointment that came with a dissolving resolve, we see Joshua approach God:

Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the LORD until the evening, both he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads. Joshua said, "Alas, O Lord GOD, why did You ever bring this people over the Jordan, only to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? If only we had been willing to dwell beyond the Jordan! "O Lord, what can I say since Israel has turned their back before their enemies? "For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it, and they will surround us and cut off our name from the earth. And what will You do for Your great name?"

Now to tear one’s clothes and to put dust on one’s head was a sign of profound grief and sadness that accompanied mourning. This behavior is still seen today in many cultures around the world during a funeral procession. Joshua and his leadership team respond to their unexpected defeat by falling on their face in prayer before the Ark of the Covenant, which was the place that signified where the presence of God dwelt among the Jewish people.

If Joshua were to pray this prayer in the language that we use in today’s culture, his prayer would have sounded something like this: “God, why did this happen? Why did you bring us across the Jordan if you were just going to kill us once we got here? Why didn’t you just let us stay on the other side of the Jordan? If only we would have stayed there instead of crossing here. Because now all the nations will hear about how we fled from battle and will come and attack and destroy us. Then, after we are destroyed, what are you going to do then God, to make your name great? So, God what are you going to do now"?

Isn’t this often how we respond when restarting our life does not go as easily as we planned? “God, why isn’t this working out? Why is this so hard? I am trying to change; I am trying to restart my life? It sure would be a lot easier to not change. Maybe I should just give up and just live like I always have. God what are you going to do now? God, where are you and what are you going to do to fix this?” Have you been there? Maybe you can relate to Joshua's prayer because Joshua’s prayer is the prayer that you find yourself uttering over and over again.

However, God responds to Joshua's prayer in a most unexpected way. We will look at God's unexpected response tomorrow.

When things do not go as well as you expect, where do you go? Where do you turn? What, or who, do you blame?

To Restart Requires Faithfully Following God's Word...

This week, we have been looking at one of the most famous stories that is recorded for us in the Bible. Yesterday, we saw discussed how the Jewish people must have been feeling after spending six days silently marching around the city of Jericho.

Then, on the seventh day, they did not march around the city one time; instead they marched around the city six times. And as the soldiers and priests begin lap seven around the city, the silence is finally broken:

At the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, "Shout! For the LORD has given you the city. "The city shall be under the ban, it and all that is in it belongs to the LORD; only Rahab the harlot and all who are with her in the house shall live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent. "But as for you, only keep yourselves from the things under the ban, so that you do not covet them and take some of the things under the ban, and make the camp of Israel accursed and bring trouble on it. "But all the silver and gold and articles of bronze and iron are holy to the LORD; they shall go into the treasury of the LORD."

Here we see Joshua break the silence by commanding the soldiers to do three things. First, and most obviously, the soldiers were commanded to shout. Second, the soldiers were commanded that the city shall be under the ban. This phrase, under the ban, literally means to be devoted to God and His purposes. In this case, Jericho was devoted to God for destruction. With the exception of Rahab and her family, Jericho was to be raised to the ground and all life destroyed.

After 400 years of extending grace and the opportunity to change, God chose to use the Jewish people as an instrument to exercise His justice and judgment on the people of the Promised Land, who had refused to change and were left with no excuse or defense for their wickedness. As we talked about a few weeks ago, in another section of the Bible God made it clear to the Jewish people that they were not receiving the Promised Land because they were especially good; they were receiving the Promised Land because the inhabitants of that land, including Jericho, were exceptionally evil. In fact, most historians and scholars believe that the society of the inhabitants of the Promised Land was the most evil society that ever existed.

Third, the soldiers were commanded to keep themselves from taking anything from Jericho. What is interesting is here is that the word covet, in the language that this was originally written in, literally means to be devoted to. So in essence, Joshua uses a play on words here in his third command to the Jewish people. Do not become devoted to the things in Jericho that have been devoted to God for destruction; because if you become devoted to that which has been devoted for destruction by God, you will end up placing the Jewish people in the position of being devoted to destruction, along with Jericho.

Everything except the precious metals were to be destroyed, while the precious metals were to go into funding God’s mission to give the Jewish people that land that had been promised to them. We see the soldiers respond to this command in Joshua 6:20-25:

So the people shouted, and priests blew the trumpets; and when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, the people shouted with a great shout and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight ahead, and they took the city. They utterly destroyed everything in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword. Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, "Go into the harlot's house and bring the woman and all she has out of there, as you have sworn to her." So the young men who were spies went in and brought out Rahab and her father and her mother and her brothers and all she had; they also brought out all her relatives and placed them outside the camp of Israel. They burned the city with fire, and all that was in it. Only the silver and gold, and articles of bronze and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD. However, Rahab the harlot and her father's household and all she had, Joshua spared; and she has lived in the midst of Israel to this day, for she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

The Jewish people responded to Joshua’s command and the priests trumpet blast by shouting with a great shout. And at the sound of the shout, the wall of Jericho fell down flat. In other words it did not fall down forward; it did not fall down backward; instead it collapsed on itself.

So, who knocked the wall down? It was the armies of the Lord, led by the Lord Himself who collapsed the wall straight down. The shout of the Jewish nation was the signal for the army of the Lord to spring into action. The Jewish people simply shouted and watched the seemingly impenetrable defenses collapse.

The Jewish army then followed the command of Joshua and made a straight line assault of the city, shoulder to shoulder over the collapsed wall and killed everything that crossed their path. Everything that is, except for Rahab and her family, who remained in her house which was located on the only part of the wall that was not destroyed by the army of the Lord. As per Joshua’s command, everything was destroyed in Jericho except for the precious metals, which were placed as part of the treasury of the Lord and Rahab and her family, who received a new label and identity as part of the family of God.

And in this story, we see that for the Jewish people to restart their life, they needed to demonstrate faithful obedience to God’s word. The Jewish people faithfully followed God’s commands in spite of what their obedience looked like to others. The Jewish people faithfully followed God’s commands even when their obedience did not seem to be leading them in a direction that they wanted to go. The Jewish people faithfully followed God’s commands even when their obedience was not what others would have done in the same situation.

And in the same way today, the timeless reality when it comes to restart our lives is that to restart requires faithfully following God’s word. Restarting our lives requires faithfully following God’s word regardless of what those around us think about the decisions we make when it comes to living our lives. Restarting our lives requires faithfully following God’s word even when we feel like following God’s word is not leading us in the direction that we want to go. Restarting our lives requires faithfully following God’s word regardless of what those around us would do in the same situation.

And when we restart our lives by faithfully following God’s word an doing the right thing even when it is not the easy thing or popular thing to do, we create space for God to do what only He can do. Just like the army of the Lord, when we faithfully follow God’s word, we create space for God to enter into and transform our lives so that we can overcome the obstacles that stand in the way of restarting our lives. We see the results of the Jewish people’s faithful obedience to God’s command in the verses that follow:

Then Joshua made them take an oath at that time, saying, "Cursed before the LORD is the man who rises up and builds this city Jericho; with the loss of his firstborn he shall lay its foundation, and with the loss of his youngest son he shall set up its gates." So the LORD was with Joshua, and his fame was in all the land.

As a result of the city of Jericho being devoted to the Lord for destruction, Joshua makes the Jewish nation take an oath to never rebuild the city as a military fortress again. And in case someone did not want to keep this oath, Joshua explains that the curse for disobedience would be devastating and the destruction would be complete for anyone who attempted to rebuild this city.

In addition, as a result of Joshua’s faithful obedience to God’s commands, it was apparent to all of the inhabitants of the Promised Land that God was present and active with Joshua, and his reputation as a leader was evident in the land. And in the same way today, faithfully following God’s word and doing the right thing even when it is not easy or popular results in a life of integrity that can be respected, even by those who do not share your beliefs or convictions.

So how are you doing when it comes to faithfully following God’s word? Where do you need to restart your life when it comes to faithfully following God’s word? Are you faithfully following God’s word regardless of what those around us think about the decisions you make when it comes to living our lives? Are you faithfully following God’s word even when it seems like following God’s word is not leading you in the direction that you want to go? Are you faithfully following God’s word regardless of what those around you would do in the same situation?

The Waiting Game...

Yesterday, we began to look at one of the most famous stories recorded for us in the Bible. And in this story, we saw an amazing and mysterious man, who was an old testament appearance of Jesus Christ, give Joshua what seemed to be a strange battle plan to attack the fortress city of Jericho. And as we enter back into the story, we see how Joshua responds to God’s seemingly strange battle plan as the story continues:

So Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, "Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests carry seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the LORD." Then he said to the people, "Go forward, and march around the city, and let the armed men go on before the ark of the LORD." And it was so, that when Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams' horns before the LORD went forward and blew the trumpets; and the ark of the covenant of the LORD followed them. The armed men went before the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard came after the ark, while they continued to blow the trumpets. But Joshua commanded the people, saying, "You shall not shout nor let your voice be heard nor let a word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I tell you, 'Shout!' Then you shall shout!" So he had the ark of the LORD taken around the city, circling it once; then they came into the camp and spent the night in the camp.

Now imagine yourself as Joshua as you relay God’s battle plan to the Jewish people, who have been anxiously awaiting their opportunity to restart their lives by taking possession of the land that God had promised them. Can you imagine the looks that would have been on the soldiers and the priests as they heard the plan? Can you imagine the questions that they would have had for Joshua? They were probably very similar to the questions that were running through Joshua’s mind during His encounter with God.

“So let me get this straight. You want us to march around the city leading the priests and the ark while they blow a horn. You don’t want us to fire a shot." "Nope." "You don’t want us to do any reconnaissance." "Right." "You don’t want us to fire back if we are fired upon." "Nope." "You don’t even want us to speak." "Exactly." "So we are going to march around the city once and then return to camp." "Yup."

Now what would you think of the plan if you were a Jewish soldier or priest? I imagine that for some of them, they were probably thinking “Oh, I bet we are going to get them to feel overconfident, we are going to lull them into a false sense of security; Joshua probably is just gathering some final information for our assault tomorrow”.

So the Jewish nation follows Joshua’s orders, marches around the city, and returns to camp, anticipating that tomorrow would be the day that they begin the assault of the city. They were probably thinking “surely we will get the order to shout and go to battle tomorrow”. We see what happens the following morning as the story continues:

Now Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the LORD. The seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the LORD went on continually, and blew the trumpets; and the armed men went before them and the rear guard came after the ark of the LORD, while they continued to blow the trumpets. Thus the second day they marched around the city once and returned to the camp;

So, the following morning, the priests and the soldiers marched around the city awaiting the command to shout and assault the city. Instead, they silently marched around the city only to return to camp that evening. Can you imagine the conversations that were occurring amongst the soldiers and the priests in camp that second night? "I mean surely we will get the order to attack tomorrow." Look how verse 14 ends:

they did so for six days.

So every morning the priests and the soldiers would wake up awaiting their orders. And every morning, the priests and soldiers received the same orders from Joshua: March around the city in complete silence until you hear the priests blow the long blast from the trumpet, and then you will receive the command from me to shout.

Now imagine yourself as a soldier in the Jewish army. How would you feel after the third day? The fourth? How about after the fifth day? The sixth? Can you imagine what the soldiers and their silent marching looked like to the residents of Jericho? They were probably thinking “what are those idiots doing?”

Finally after six days faithfully following the commands of your leader Joshua, the man you have placed your life and the life of you family in; you awake the seventh day to experience the following, which is recorded for us in Joshua 6:15:

Then on the seventh day they rose early at the dawning of the day and marched around the city in the same manner seven times; only on that day they marched around the city seven times.

Now you are one of these soldiers. You have silently walked around the city once a day for six days. Six days of waking up to hear the exact same orders. Can you even imagine what you would be thinking and feeling after the first lap around the city?

And then, instead of going back to camp, you see those in front of you keep on marching. So you continue for lap two. Then lap three. Lap four. Lap five. Oh and by the way you are not allowed to speak! Lap six. Would you not be ready to explode? Or at least raise your hand. "Question over here. What are we doing?" And as the soldiers and priests begin lap seven around the city, we see the silence finally broken. We will look at what happened next tomorrow.

So how do you handle the tension that comes from remaining faithful to God in the midst of waiting for direction from God?

An Amazing Man with a Strange Plan...

As a church, we are involved in a sermon series entitled restart. And in this series we just looked at one of the most famous stories in the Bible that reveals for us another timeless principle that enables us to restart our lives so that we would be living in the relationship with God and one another in a way that we were created and called to be. This story begins in Joshua 5:13:

Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, "Are you for us or for our adversaries?"

This story begins with Joshua, after spending three weeks taking the time to worship God, encountering a man who approaches him with a drawn sword. And like most people, Joshua responds to this encounter with a question “are you for us or for our adversaries?” In other words whose side are you on?

But this morning, have you ever thought as to why Joshua would ask this question? I mean Joshua knew who was on his side and what they looked like. And as one who had spied out the Promised Land, Joshua also knew who the enemy was and what they looked like. This man, however, looked different. There was something mysterious and ambiguous about this man. We quickly find out where this man’s allegiances lie in his response:

He said, "No; rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the LORD."

In other words, “I am on God’s side”. This mysterious man identifies himself as the leader of the army of the Lord. And in case you were wondering who leads the army of the Lord, as you might imagine, it is the Lord. This is an Old Testament appearance of Jesus Christ Himself, which is referred to in the Bible as the angel of the Lord. And we can feel pretty confident that this is the case by Joshua’s response:

And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, "What has my lord to say to his servant?" The captain of the LORD'S host said to Joshua, "Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so.

Joshua responds to this encounter with the Lord by falling on his face in worship. Joshua responds to God’s presence with an act of worship and an expression of obedience-“What has my lord to say to His servant”. And notice the response he receives: Remove your sandals from your feet because you are on sacred ground. Joshua was on sacred ground because God was there. Just like Moses with the burning bush, Joshua was face to face with the holy and sacred Creator of the universe. We then see the Lord’s answer to Joshua’s question as the story continues in Joshua 6:1-5:

Now Jericho was tightly shut because of the sons of Israel; no one went out and no one came in. The LORD said to Joshua, "See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and the valiant warriors. "You shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once. You shall do so for six days. "Also seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark; then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. "It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people will go up every man straight ahead."

Now this morning, to fully understand the significance of this conversation, we first need to understand some things about the city of Jericho. When we read that Jericho was tightly shut, that means that the city was impenetrable; no one went in or out of the city. The city of Jericho was approximately three football fields long by 1 football field wide or roughly 9 acres.

In addition, the city was surrounded by walls that most archaeologists and scholars believe were around 30 feet high. The city, while relatively small, was a fortress. The residents of Jericho knew the Jewish people were coming and were prepared for a potential attack.

Second, consider the Jewish army that would attack Jericho. They did not have siege works or other major military machinery at their disposal. Remember, they had just crossed the Jordan a month ago after wandering in a desert for 40 years. And how much military experience did they have when it came to attacking such a fortress?

Now imagine yourself as Joshua. You are face to face with the Lord waiting for instructions on how to capture this fortress community. And here is what you hear: You are to lead the over 600,000 man Jewish army as they march around the walls of the city one time a day for six days while blowing a horn and carrying the Ark of the Covenant. Then, on the seventh day, you are to march around seven times and then shout after you hear a long blast of the horn.

So you are Joshua. You are the leader of the army. You are going to give the commands to the people. What are you thinking right about now? What questions would you have for God at this point? “Uh, God, don’t you want us to fire some arrows to kill their sharpshooters that are on the wall"? "No". "Don’t you want us to build some ladders to climb the wall?" "No". "Don’t you want us to build a Trojan horse or tunnel under the wall?" "No?" "Well, what do you want us to do?" "Just walk around the wall and carry the ark, while occasionally blowing a horn". "That’s it?" "That’s it.”

How would you respond to that battle plan and command if you were Joshua? Tomorrow, we will see how Joshua responds to God’s battle plan as this famous story continues.

In the meantime, what are some of the strange plans and commands in the Bible that have caused you to question or wonder about?

To Restart Requires Taking the Time to Worship...

Yesterday, we continued to look at a story in the Bible where the Jewish people seemed to hit pause in order to worship God through the outward act or circumcision, which was an act of worship that publicly identified their covenant relationship with Him. Instead of pressing the advantage that the Jewish people had over their enemies; instead of being focused on what they needed to do in order to restart their lives; the entire Jewish nation was left vulnerable and incapacitated.

And as the men recovered from the circumcision they had received, we see the Jewish people follow a second command from God as the story continues in Joshua 5:10:

While the sons of Israel camped at Gilgal they observed the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month on the desert plains of Jericho.

Instead of preparing to attack the nations that inhabited the Promised Land; instead of preparing to defend themselves from a counter attack; the Jewish nation prepared and observed the Passover. Imagine yourself as a member of the Jewish nation. You have waited your whole life to enter into the Promised Land. And now once you are here, you are not taking care of what you should be doing; you are not taking possession of the land. Instead you are celebrating Passover. What would you be thinking: "What are we doing? Why are we wasting time? Why are we not focused on what we should be doing?"

To understand what was happening in this story, we first need to understand Passover and its significance to the Jewish people. The Passover feast commemorated God’s deliverance from slavery in the land of Egypt. During Passover, every Jewish family took an unblemished lamb and killed it at twilight. They would then take the blood of the lamb and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel, which was the piece of wood that formed the top of the door frame. That first Passover, the Lord went through the land of Egypt and struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, but He passed over all of the Jewish homes who had marked their doors with the blood of the lamb.

Celebrating Passover was an act of worship that responded to what God had done to deliver the Jewish people. Just as circumcision was an act of worship that celebrated who God was and the identity that the Jewish people had with Him, by celebrating Passover the Jewish nation was responding in worship to what God had done.

Now imagine yourself in this story. Instead of focusing on moving forward to restart your life in the Promised Land, you have paused so that the nation could identify themselves in covenant relationship with God for at least a week. And then, instead of focusing on moving forward to restart your life in the Promised Land, you hit pause again in order to respond in worship to what God had done in the past to deliver your people. Surely now you are going to begin to focus forward to get things going and to restart your life, right. Not exactly, as we see as the story continues:

On the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. The manna ceased on the day after they had eaten some of the produce of the land, so that the sons of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate some of the yield of the land of Canaan during that year.

After spending up to two weeks pausing to worship God, guess what the Jewish people did? No, they did not begin to attack; instead we read that they ate some of the produce of the land. Now in reading that, we could simply assume that they took time to have a picnic before they moved forward. But actually, the Jewish people were doings something far more significant.

You see, the Jewish people were not having a picnic; the Jewish people were celebrating the festival of first fruits. For seven days, beginning the day after Passover, the Jewish nation was to respond in worship to what God had done as their provider. So, in essence, the Jewish people spent three weeks after entering the Promised Land worshipping God. The act of circumcision was a response of worship that demonstrated their identification with God as His people. The act of Passover was a response of worship that demonstrated their identification with God as their deliverer. The act of the feast of unleavened bread was a response of worship that demonstrated their identification with God as their provider.

And it is in this story that we see God reveal to us another timeless principle that is necessary when it comes to restarting our lives. And that timeless principle is that to restart requires taking the time to worship. Just as it was during the book of Joshua, it is in our efforts to restart our lives that we can find ourselves focused so intensely on what we should be doing to move forwards that we forget to spend time focused on who God is and what God has done to bring us forward.

Worship, simply put, is a response. Worship is a response that is focused on who God is, what God has done, and what God has promised to do. Worship is not simply singing, although it can involve singing. Worship is not simply reading your Bible and prayer, although it can involve prayer and Bible reading. Worship is a lifestyle; worship is a life that is lived in a way that is focused on and that responds to God’s character and activity in the world.

What can tend to happen, however, is that we can lose our focus from God and onto our circumstances or activities when it comes to restarting our lives. And when we do that, we can end up stumbling and falling in our attempts to restart our life. We stumble and fall because we tend to follow what we are focused on. So when we become too focused on what we should be doing to move forward that we forget to spend time focused on who God is and what God has done to bring us forward, we can end up off track and in the desert of hurt, pain, disappointment and frustration that comes from failing to restart.

Just as with the Jewish nation, restarting requires that we regularly take time to respond to who God, his activity in our lives, and His desires for our lives to make sure we have the right focus and the right perspective.

So do you regularly and consistently take time to respond to God in worship? Do you regularly take the time to pause to remember who God is, what He has done, and what He has promised to do, so that you can respond with a life that is focused on God? Or do you get so focused on what needs to be done, what you need to do to restart your life that you forget to focus your life on the one who enables you to restart your life?