Joshua 7

CHAPTER 7THEME: Defeat at AiThe worst enemy that you have is yourself. He occupies the same skin that you occupy. He uses the same brain that you use in thinking his destructive thoughts. He uses the same hands that you use to perform his own deeds. This enemy can do you more harm than anyone else. He is the greatest handicap that you have in your daily Christian life. There are two factors that make dealing with this enemy doubly difficult. In the first place, we are reluctant to recognize and identify him. We are loath to label him as an enemy. The fact of the matter is most of us rather like him. The second problem is that he is on the inside of us. If he would only come out and fight like a man, it would be different, but he will not. It is not because he is a coward, but because he can fight better from his position within. Nations, cities, churches, and individuals have been destroyed by the enemy within. Russia fell to the Communists, not because of the German pressure on the outside, but because of this doctrine fomenting on the inside. There comes out of ancient history an authentic narrative, long held in the category of mythology, that the city of Troy held off the Greeks for ten long, weary years. Finally the Greeks sailed away leaving a wooden horse. The Trojans took that wooden horse within their gates, and that was the undoing and destruction of Troy. In a similar way churches are wrecked from within, not from forces without. The Lord Jesus Christ, in letters to the seven churches in Asia Minor, gave them certain warnings; yet not one of these churches received warning as to the enemy on the outside. He said: “…Thou hast there some that hold the teaching of Balaam…. So hast thou also some that hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans in like manner” (Rev_2:14-15 ASV). Also He warned: “But I have this against thee, that thou sufferest the woman Jezebel, who calleth herself a prophetess; and she teacheth and seduceth my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols” (Rev_2:20 ASV). Christ said to these churches (in effect), “You have something within that is bringing about your own destruction.” Disloyalty and unfaithfulness in the church today is hurting God’s cause more than any enemy that is on the outside. The devil can only hurt our churches from the inside, not from the outside. Also, my friend, an individual can be destroyed from the inside. Alexander the Great was probably the greatest military genius who has moved armies across the pages of history. There has been no one like him. Before the age of thirty-five he had conquered the world, but he died a drunkard. He had conquered the world, but he could not conquer Alexander the Great. There was an enemy within that destroyed him. The only battle that the children of Israel lost in taking the Promised Land was a battle in which the defeat came, not from without, but from within. When the children of Israel entered the Promised Land, not many enemies, but three conspicuous and outstanding ones stood in their way. They were Jericho, Ai, and the Gibeonites. These three enemies of Israel prevented Israel’s enjoyment and possession of the Promised Land. The land was there. God had told them that it was theirs. God had given them the title deed in His promise to Abraham. To Joshua He had said, “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, to you have I given it, as I spake unto Moses” (Jos_1:3 ASV). God was saying to them, “It is yours, go in, possess, and enjoy that which you take.” What a lesson that is for us today. These people were given a land that was made up of three hundred thousand square miles, and even in their best days they occupied only thirty thousand square miles. Christians have been given all spiritual blessings. But how many of them, Christian, are you enjoying today? How many of them are really yours? You have the title to them, but have you claimed them and are you enjoying them as He intended?

Think of the many Christians who are blessed with all spiritual blessings and yet are living as if they are spiritual paupers. God has made them available to us but, if we are to get them, there are battles to be fought and victories to be won. In fact, the Epistle to the Ephesians closes with the clanking of armor and the sound of battle, with the call to put on the whole armor of God. In Joshua 7 and 8, defeat and victory at Ai represent the flesh in the believer. The sin of Achan was sin in the camp. Steps in sins of flesh are: I sawphysical; I covetedmental; I tookvolitional. There will be no deliverance until sin is dealt with in the life of a believer. Now let us look at the text.

Joshua 7:1

This verse tells us that the children of Israel committed a trespass, but it was one man, Achan, who committed the sin. The whole nation had to suffer because of what Achan did. This is interesting because many people stand on the outside and criticize the church. They talk about the failure of the church and its apostasy. I do some of this myself. But, my friend, talking about the church as a member is one thing, and standing on the outside doing nothing is quite another. If the church is failing and is in a state of apostasy (and it is), then you and I are implicated in it as members of the church. If one member suffers, then all members suffer. “And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it” (1Co_12:26).

Joshua 7:2

Jericho represented the world; Ai represents the flesh. Some saints are marching around Jericho, blowing trumpets as they talk about being separated Christians. But they are as negative as anyone could be as they declare, “We don’t do this, and we don’t do that.” In fact, they do a spiritual strip-teasethey put off everything that seems to them to be worldly. They have overcome the world. But what about the flesh, friends? Some of the most dangerous people in the church are the super-duper saints who talk about having overcome the world, but they are defeated at Ai.

Some of them have the meanest tongues imaginable. I was a pastor for forty years, and I could tell you story after story about the antics of the super-duper saints. The flesh has many people in tow. They think they are living the Christian life. In fact, they talk about living the victorious life, yet they do not even know what it is. The victorious life is His life.

He is the One who gets the victory and not us. The children of Israel were in the flush of victory. They had overcome Jericho. Although it was God’s victory, in a short time Israel thought of it as their victory. Joshua sent some of his men to look at Ai. After looking the city over carefully, they said, “Ai is nothing compared to Jericho.” When I was in that land, I looked at it through binocularswe didn’t even go up to it. It is a little old place and doesn’t amount to much.

Joshua 7:4

Israel was defeated by the men of Ai. You and I are defeated by the flesh. We cannot use the same tactics to overcome the flesh as we use to overcome the world. The Israelites did not recognize their weakness. The apostle Paul recognized his weakness when he said, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not” (Rom_7:18). Have you found out, my Christian friend, that you have no strength or power within yourself?

You cannot live the Christian life, and God never asks you to. God wants to live the Christian life through you. In Romans 7 Paul discovered that there was no good thing in his old nature. He also found out that there was no power in his new nature. The new nature wants to live for God but does not have the power to do it. In Romans 8 we are introduced to the Holy Spirit of God.

It is only when we are filled with the Holy Spirit of God that we can live the Christian life.

Joshua 7:6

We have heard this song before. Joshua is singing the blues. He learned the lyrics in the wilderness with the children of Israel. Joshua did not sing this song in the wilderness, but he is singing now. He cannot understand why he lost the battle. So he tears his clothes and cries out:

Joshua 7:8

Listen to what the Lord said. It is getting right down to the nitty-gritty.

Joshua 7:10

He says to Joshua, “Get up off your face, and cut out all this whining in sackcloth and ashes.” There are Christians who spend their prayer time whining before the Lord. It won’t do any good, friend. We need to get at the root of the problem.

Joshua 7:11

Joshua did not know that Israel had sinned. He did not have the spiritual discernment that was in the early church. When Ananias and Sapphira lied about their property in Acts 5, the Holy Spirit brought it out immediately. The early church was sensitive to sin. God told Joshua that sin was in the camp and he would have to deal with it.

Joshua 7:14

The tribe of Judah and the family of the Zarhites were found to be guilty.

Joshua 7:18

Israel had to go through this long procedure in order to find the guilty party. It was difficult for them to distinguish evil in the camp. For us, also, it seems to be difficult to distinguish evil in the church. Church members seem to be the most blind to evil in their own communities. They can see evil in a night club downtown or in a liquor store or in some politician, but they cannot see sin in their family or church. How tragic that is.

Joshua 7:19

Notice the steps of Achan’s sin. He saw, he coveted, he took. These are the steps of the sin of the flesh. Gossip, criticism, envy, and jealousy are all sins of the flesh. They cause strife and trouble. For instance, criticism builds up your ego. It calls attention to yourself. It makes you look better than the person you are criticizing. The old sin of the flesh sees, covets, and then takes. Now what does Achan do when he is confronted? He confesses. He lays it right out. For believers today, how are we going to overcome the flesh? We have to deal with sin in our lives. You remember that the way we overcome the world is by faith. But that isn’t the way we overcome the flesh. We want to have fellowship with God; we want to be filled by the Holy Spirit that we might serve Him. Now how are we going to have fellowship with Him? How are we going to have power in our lives? John’s first epistle makes it clear the way we can’t do it: “…God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth” (1Jn_1:5-6). If you say you are having fellowship with Him and are living in sin, you are not kidding anybody. You certainly are not having fellowship with Him, and you know it. Now suppose we say we have no sin. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1Jn_1:8). But what are we to do? “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1Jn_1:9). You see, you cannot bring God down to your level.

And friend, you cannot bring yourself up to God’s level. The thing to do is to keep the communication open between you and God. And the only way you can do it is by confessing your sin. John adds, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1Jn_1:10). That is strong language, friend. God says if we say we have no sin we are lying.

And I believe He is accurate. But what do we do about it? We are to confess our sins. How are we to do that? True confession does not deal in generalities. Spell it out as Achan did: “I saw them; I coveted them; I took them.” Tell God everything that is in your heartjust open it up to Him. You might as well tell Him because He already knows all about it. Mel Trotter told about a man on the board of his Pacific Garden Mission, a doctor, who, when he prayed would say, “Lord, if I have sinned, forgive my sins.” Mel Trotter got tired of listening to that. Finally he went to the doctor and said to him, “Listen, Doc, you say, ‘If I have sinned.’ Don’t you know whether or not you have sinned?” The doctor said, “Well, I guess I do.” “Don’t you know what your sin is?” “No,” the doctor said, “I don’t know what it is.” Mel Trotter said, “If you don’t know, then guess at it!” The next time the doctor prayed, Mel said, he guessed it the first time! It is amazing, friends, the way we beat around the bush even in our praying. Just go to God and tell Him exactly what your sin is. That is confession. There can be no joy in your life; there can be no power in your life; there can be no victory in your life until there is confession of sin.

Joshua 7:25

This is a serious situation, and it is emphasized for believers in the New Testament. “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Rom_8:13). There are many Christians who are not living. Dwight L. Moody put it in this quaint way, “People have just enough religion to make them miserable.” There are miserable saints because they do not deal with the sin in their lives. The apostle Paul said, “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world” (1Co_11:31-32).

If we don’t judge ourselves, God has to step in and judge us, and His judgment is sometimes pretty serious. I can tell you from experience what the judgment of God is in my own life. And it will do no good to complain and whine like Joshua did. The thing to do is to go to God and get the miserable thing straightened out. When we confess our sin to Him and turn from it, then we experience the joy of the Lord.