Joshua 7:1-9

Well, hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning, we take kind of a sad turn, Judah. A little sad turn in the story of the book of Joshua. We're at Joshua chapter 7, verses 1 through 9. We're going to talk about the Israelites' defeat at Ai.
And so, let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's Word. All right, Judah is breaking in two teeth at the same time. So he's chewing away and slobbering like crazy and he might try to grab my coffee. So let's have some coffee and we'll pray. All right, let's pray, Judah.
Lord, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word, and we thank you for your spirit. Lord, we pray that you would please teach us this morning. Instruct us in your ways, in Jesus' name, amen. All right, we're at Joshua chapter seven, verses one through nine. I gotta put my glasses on, okay, Judah? Yeah, I'm gonna get my glasses on, here we go.
But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things. For Achan, the son of Kamri, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed things, so the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel.
Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth-Avon, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them, saying, Go up and spy out the country. So the men went up and spied out Ai. And they returned to Joshua and said to him, Do not let all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. Do not weary all the people there. For the people of Ai are few. So about three thousand men went up there from the people. But they fled before the men of Ai. And the men of Ai struck down about thirty-six men. For they chased them from before the gates as far as Sherebim, and struck them down on the descent. Therefore the hearts of the people melted and became like water. Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell onto the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until evening.
He and the elders of Israel, and they put dust on their heads. And Joshua said, Alas, Lord God, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us? Oh, that we had been content and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan. Oh Lord, what shall I say when Israel turns its back before its enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear it and surround us and cut off our name from the earth. Then what will you do for your great name? Well, we need to ask ourselves our three questions, Judah, A, B, C. A, what is this passage about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what's God calling us to do?
So, in this passage, By the way, there's different pronunciations for it. I call it I. Other people call it AI. It's an aleph yod. In Hebrew, an aleph is what is sometimes referred to as something like a silent guttural. So the way I try to... How do you understand this in English would be like if you have an aisle in a church. You don't actually pronounce it. It's a diphthong with an AI in English, and so it's a I, right? So I'll, and that's probably, I think, the closest phonetically way to do it.
Anyway, so they go up, there's just up on the hill a new city. They've conquered Jericho, and now they're gonna go, and there's I, and they go, and hey, look, there's, there's the city up there, But the inhabitant, there are few, the spies say, we got this, don't worry everyone. Joshua, we got this, it's gonna be okay, just send a couple. We don't need to send the whole army up there. After Jericho, we saw how much the Lord was on our side there. Yeah. Yeah, it seems almost impossible to fail.
Well, the issue is this verse one, but the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed thing. See, we're going to find out in verses 10 through the end of the chapter what that sin was, but they find out about it by the effects of the sin, where they go to fight. Man, you really want to talk this. They find out about it because they go for the battle and they lose. God had told them that one would chase away a hundred. But here they find that they're the ones getting outrun. They're the ones having to hightail it with their tail between their legs, Judah. Yeah, they lost. And Joshua doesn't know what to think about it. Yeah, he's worried. It's almost as if he lacks some faith here. But notice what he said, Judah, in verse 9. For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear it. That it means that they were defeated. Everybody would hear about their defeat.
And they would surround us and cut off the name from the earth. Then what will you do for your great name? They would cut off their names. So what would God do for his name? People would hear about it and they would mock God. Yeah, it was a sad day. Yeah, I think that's actually the best verse to summarize this, is verses six through nine, but specifically the end of verse nine is what I have underlined in my Bible. They're defeated at I. And there's a concern, is God going to turn back from his promises? Is he going to forget the great name that he had promised to Abraham? What would he do about his own glory, his own name? Joshua didn't have the answer.
Well, let's go ahead and quickly, while we got ay-ya, ay-ya-ya-ya-ya-ya going on here, what are we called to do? What are we called to do? Well, I think sometimes when there are disasters in life, it's right for us to stop and ask. Don't go to Job's friends, right?
It's not always because of sin, but sometimes things are going wrong in life because we're not following after the ways of the Lord. Even as children, sometimes the Lord chastises. As a father teaches his children, So also our Heavenly Father teaches us sometimes by chastisement. And sometimes it's because the Lord's punishing evil, even in this life. And so I think it's, I know it's not a popular thing to think about or say, but I think we should stop and ask ourselves, when things are going horribly wrong, do I have a part in this? But not always. Not always is that what the Lord's doing. Sometimes he's just teaching us that his grace is sufficient for us.
Oh, he dropped it. Hold on. There we go. Sometimes the Lord's just teaching us that we need to learn contentment. I don't think Paul was suffering for evil, necessarily, when he had a thorn in his side. And yet the Lord said, my grace is sufficient for you. God was making a point for centuries to come with the life of Job. And so in our lives, sometimes he's just teaching us things. So we need to reflect and ask, what might the Lord be doing? Okay. Well, why don't we have some, why don't we just go ahead and pray? I think Judah's done.
Lord, we do thank you for the joy of your salvation. We thank you, Lord, that you did remember your great name. and that you have glorified your name and your son, Jesus Christ. Father, we pray that you would teach us to walk in your ways and trust in you. And when things are going wrong, Lord, we pray that we would be attentive to your chastisement. Teach us the way of holiness. But thank you so much for Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen. May the Lord bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ, and I'll see you next time. Bye.