Pastor Mike Impact Ministries Michael L Grooms

In Joshua 8 after the defeat at Ai, Joshua needs and
receives a word of encouragement from the Lord. I am so thankful that we have a
Bible that is full of promises of God that should encourage us even after we
feel that we have failed. I’m thinking of Elijah after the great victory on Mt.
Carmel where he prayed down fire from heaven and had the prophets of Baal put
to death, and the wicked queen Jezebel said she was going to kill him, and he
flees to the mountain and becomes so discourage that he wanted to die. How God
met with him and assured him of His presence with the “still small voice”. (1
Kings 18-19). 

 

Not only did the Lord give Joshua a word of encouragement
but He gave him a word of instruction (Josh. 8:1b-2). God always has a plan for
His people to follow, and the only way for us to have victory is to obey God's
instructions. In his first attack on Ai Joshua followed the advice of his spies
and used only part of the army; but God told him to take "all the
people of war"(v. 1).

 

The Lord also told Joshua to use an ambush and take
advantage of Ai's self-confidence stemming from Israel's first defeat (7:1-5).
Finally, God gave the soldiers the right to claim the spoils, but they were to burn
the city. Had Achan waited only a few days, he could have picked up all the
wealth that he wanted. God always gives His best to those who leave the choice
with Him. When we run ahead of the Lord, we usually rob ourselves and hurt
others.

 

The Lord also gave Joshua a word of promise (Josh.
8:1c).  "I have given"
was God's promise and Joshua's guarantee of victory as long as he obeyed the
instructions of the Lord. "God never made a promise that was too good to
be true," said evangelist D.L. Moody; but every promise must be claimed by
faith. Unless the promises of God are "mixed with faith" (Heb. 4:2),
they accomplish nothing. Because Israel acted presumptuously in their first
attack against Ai, they failed miserably. The promises of God make the
difference between faith and presumption.

 

You can never exaggerate the importance of the Christian
soldier spending time daily in the Word of God. Unless daily we take the sword
of the Spirit by faith (Eph. 6:17), we go into the battle unarmed and therefore
unprepared. Spiritually minded believers are victorious because they allow the
Word of God to "saturate" their minds and hearts. The Spirit using
the Word controls their desires and decisions and this is the secret of
victory.

 

Years later after the conquest of the land of Canaan,
Joshua in his last words to the people just before he died in Joshua 23:14 was:
“And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your
hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good
things that the LORD your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass
for you; not one of them has failed.”

 

My friend, you can always trust in the promises of God in
His Word!

 

God bless!

In Joshua 8 Israel has the opportunity for a new beginning
after a humiliating defeat at Ai. But even after sin has been confessed and
dealt with, we still might feel defeated in our spirit because of our failure.
Joshua personally must have felt like, as a leader, the defeat was his fault,
and the voice of failure was loud in his ears. He might have sensed the glares
and stares of the people, and maybe heard them whispering about him and
questioning his wisdom.

 

For us it might be when we lost our job, flunked the exam,
or dropped out of school. It could be that your marriage went south, or your
business went broke. We even begin to question ourselves and feel disqualified.
Our self-worth drops to zero. But that is when we need to listen to the voice
of truth from the Word of God. That is when Jehovah spoke to Joshua with a word
of encouragement! (v. 1). “Don’t be afraid or dismayed. Don’t stay in the
cesspool of self-pity but trust me.”

 

Over the past several years one of my favorite verses has
become Psalm 9:10; “And those who know Your name will put their trust in
You; For You, LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You.” Joshua must have
remembered his meeting with the Commander of the LORD’s army outside the wall
of Jericho (Johsua 5:14). Maybe he also recalled the altar Moses built after
they defeated Amalek in Exodus 17:15; “And Moses built an altar and called
its name, Jehovah-Nissi. (The-LORD-Is-My-Banner).

 

We need to remember 1 John 1:9; “If we confess our sins,
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.” And in the following chapter, 1 John 2:1-2; “My little
children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone
sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He
Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for
the whole world.”

 

We might also recall 1 John 4:4; “You are of God, little
children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he
who is in the world.”

 

Yes, my friend, the voice of Truth can become louder than
the voice of failure if we will remember the great Name of our Jehovah and seek
Him with our whole heart. There are so many verses that come to mind but let me
share this passage from Romans 8:31-39; “What then shall we say to these
things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own
Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely
give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who
justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is
also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession
for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is
written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as
sheep for the slaughter." Yet in all these things we are more than
conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor
life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things
to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

 

Today, what voice will you listen to?

 

God bless!

In Joshua 6, Israel had experienced a great victory over
the city of Jericho. But in Joshua 7, they suffered a humiliating defeat in
their battle with the little city of Ai because of unconfessed sin in their camp.
They made the mistake of becoming proud and thinking they could enjoy victory
in the battles of life without praying or seeking the Lord’s instructions
first. Paul said it this way; “Let a man who thinks he stands take heed lest
he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12).

 

We are also warned in Galatians 6:1-3, “Brethren, if a
man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a
spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one
another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks
himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” We can’t
afford to be careless in our daily spiritual walk, especially after
experiencing a spiritual victory of lifting a brother or sister out of a sinful
situation.

 

But we must also realize that we are still human, and life
is a series of mistakes! If you don’t want to make any mistakes, don’t do
anything or go anywhere! It was Henry Ford who defined a mistake as "an
opportunity to begin again, more intelligently." Joshua would also have
agreed, because he is about to "begin again, more intelligently" and
organize a victory out of his mistakes. Today we should be encouraged knowing
that “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Romans 5:20).

 

In Joshua 8, God gave Joshua and the people of Israel an
opportunity for a new beginning. Once the nation of Israel had judged the sin
that had defiled their camp, God was free to speak to them in mercy and direct
them in their conquest of the land. "The steps of a good man are
ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not
be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with His hand" (Ps.
37:23-24). No matter what mistakes we may make, the worst mistake of all is not
to try again; for "the victorious Christian life is a series of new
beginnings" (Alexander Whyte).

 

I’ll never forget a message I heard in my earlier years
entitled, “Failure plus failure, plus failure, plus failure, plus failure,
equals success!” Proverbs 24:16 reminds us that “Though a righteous man
falls seven times, he will rise again.”  I
love how the Living Bible translates 2 Corinthians 4:8-9; “We are pressed on
every side by troubles, but not crushed and broken. We are perplexed because we
don’t know why things happen as they do, but we don’t give up and quit. We are
hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we get up
again and keep going.”

 

In Joshua 8:1 we find that a new beginning always starts with
the Word of God. It was a word of encouragement. Today we don't hear God's
audible voice as people often did in Bible times, but we have the Word of God
before us and the Spirit of God within us; and God will direct us if we wait
patiently before Him. Discouragement over the past and fear of the future are
the two reactions that often accompany failure. We look back and remember the
mistakes that we made, and then we look ahead and wonder whether there's any
future for people who fail so foolishly.

 

The answer to our discouragement and fear is in hearing and
believing God's Word: "Fear not, neither be thou dismayed" (v.
1). Take time to study the "fear not" statements of the Bible. Note
that God spoke these words to different kinds of people in various
circumstances, and His Word always met the need. God never discourages His
people from making progress. As long as we obey His commandments, we have the
privilege of claiming His promises.

 

Remember that today is the first day of the rest of your
life! Arise and fix your eyes on Jesus!

 

God bless!

We live in a day and in a culture that appears to think,
“Good God, good devil, good everybody”. Everyone is a victim and deserves a
pass. There is no accountability or consequences for our selfish and criminal
behavior. We have forgotten that God is not only a God of mercy and grace, but
that He is also a Holy God of justice and must execute punishment on sin. These
last few verses of Joshua 7 are a good reminder that one day it will be too
late!

 

Achan had violated God’s instructions concerning all the
treasure of Jericho that was to be given to the Lord, and he secretly had taken
some for himself. After the humiliating defeat at Ai, where 36 soldiers were
killed and God revealed to Joshua that a sin had been committed that needed to
be dealt with, Achan had ample time to run to his tent, take the goods and
bring them to Joshua and repent and confess his sin. But he didn’t! And when he
finally confessed, it was too late. He was one day too late.

 

Joshua 7:22-26 reveals God’s judgment on Achan’s sin. Since
a law in Israel prohibited innocent family members from being punished for the
sins of their relatives (Deut. 24:16), Achan's family must have been guilty of
assisting him in his sin. His household was judged the same way Israel would
deal with a Jewish city that had turned to idols (Josh. 13:12-18). Achan and
his family had turned from the true and living God and had given their hearts
to that which God had said was accursed—silver, gold, and an expensive garment.
It wasn't worth it!

 

At the beginning of a new period in Bible history, God
sometimes revealed His wrath against sin in some dramatic way. After the
tabernacle had been set up, Nadab and Abihu invaded its holy precincts contrary
to God's law; and God killed them. This was a warning to the priests not to
treat God's sanctuary carelessly (Lev. 10). When David sought to restore the
Ark to its place of honor, and Uzzah touched the Ark to steady it, God killed
Uzzah (2 Sam. 6:1-11); another warning from God not to treat sacred things
carelessly. At the beginning of the Church Age, when Ananias and Sapphira lied
to God and God's people, the Lord killed them (Acts 5:1-11).

 

The death of Achan and his family was certainly a dramatic
warning to the nation not to take the Word of God lightly. The people and the
animals were stoned, and their bodies burned along with all that the family
possessed. The troubler of Israel was completely removed from the scene, the
people were sanctified, and now God could march with His people and give them
victory. The name Achor means "trouble." The Valley of Achor is
mentioned in Isaiah 65:10 and Hosea 2:15 as a place where the Jews will one day
have a new beginning and no longer be associated with shame and defeat. The
Valley of Achor will become for them "a door of hope" when they
return to their land and share in the blessings of the messianic kingdom. How
wonderful the Lord is to take Achor, a place of sorrow and defeat, and make it
into a place of hope and joy.

 

The heap of stones in the valley would be a reminder that
God expects His people to obey His Word, and if they don't, He must judge them.
The heap of stones at Gilgal (Josh. 4:1-8) reminded them that God keeps His
Word and leads His obedient people to the place of blessing. Both memorials are
needed in the walk of faith. God is love (1 John 4:8, 16) and longs to bless
His people; but God is also light (1 John 1:5) and must judge His people's
sins.

 

It had been a trying two days for Joshua and his leaders,
but the situation was about to change. God would take charge of the army and
lead His people to victory. When you surrender to the Lord, no defeat is permanent,
and no mistake is beyond remedy. Even the "Valley of Trouble" can
become a "door of hope."

 

Don’t wait till it is too late to repent! One day it will
be too late! (Revelation 20:11-15)

 

God bless!

Yesterday we discussed how the underlying cause of the
humiliating defeat and failure of Israel at Ai was pride. Pride which led to
carelessness, that led to prayerlessness, that led to presumptuousness. Israel
thought they could defeat little Ai without getting specific instructions from
the Lord! It seems we can conquer the mountains, but we stumble over the
molehills! We can’t afford to take a spiritual vacation from our time with the
Lord each morning, seeking His face and Word for our strength and wisdom for
the day, any more than our hearts can take a vacation from beating and pumping
blood through our veins, or our lungs can take a vacation from breathing!

 

Carelessness was the national sin of Israel, but what about
the personal sin of Achan, what was the cause of his sin? It was not looking,
it was coveting! Achan confessed this in Joshua 7:21; why did he covet these things? What is covetousness? Covetousness is an
inordinate desire for things that are not rightfully ours, things that we have
no right to. God wants to supply and give to us everything that we need and
everything that we have a right to, but the tenth commandment in Exodus 20:17
says, "Thou shalt not covet...".

 

Covetousness is like an octopus that just wraps itself
around the human soul and cannot be satisfied and cannot be shaken off apart
from the Lord our God. Another word for covetousness is worldliness. Achan was in
love with the world. He coveted the “beautiful Babylonian garment” so he
could look like the world. He coveted the silver and the gold so he could live
like the world. We need to remember what the Bible says in 1 John 2:15 in the
New Living Translation; “Do not love this world nor the things it offers
you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in
you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for
everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not
from the Father, but are from this world.”

 

But, Achan's real problem wasn't the love of the world, his
real, deeper problem was that "... the love of the Father is not in
him" (1 John 2:15). Now, you see, the love of the world is symptomatic
of the fact that the love of the Father is not in you. It wasn't that he loved
the world too much. He didn't love God enough. Think about that! It wasn't that
he loved the world enough. He didn't love God enough.
John 2:15). The love of the world is a symptom that the love of God is not in
you.

 

Suppose you're driving your automobile down the road and
the red light comes on the dashboard, which means there's no oil in the
crankcase. Well, now, would you take a hammer and break that light and say,
"Well, I've fixed that"? You haven't really fixed it. The red light
on the dashboard is simply a warning, an indicator, a symptom there's no oil in
the crankcase. "... If any man love the world, the love of the Father
is not in him", the love of the world is the red light that tells us
that the love of the Father is not in us (1 John 2:15).

 

The way to handle the covetousness and the lack of
satisfaction, and happiness and the worldliness and sin in our life is to get
the love of God in our hearts. If you're sinning, if there's secret sin in your
life and covetousness that is warping, and ruining your life, rather than
trying to fight that sin, why don't you just load up on Jesus Christ? Why don't
you just let the love of God flow in your heart, and fill your heart, and soul
until you're satisfied with Jesus?

 

Remember when Jesus was restoring Peter in John 21:15-17,
He asked him three times, “Peter, do you love me.” Jesus says to all of
us in John 14:21; “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who
loves Me…”. Our real issue is our love relationship with Jesus!

 

Today, like the old hymn says, “Turn your eyes upon
Jesus, look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow
strangely dim in the light

The people had experienced a great victory by faith over Jericho. It was a
victory that really only God could be given credit for. Joshua sought the LORD,
and the LORD gave him the instructions, and as strange as they were, Joshua and
the people obeyed them. God miraculously made the great walls fall flat and all
the people had to do was claim what God had promised as they marched forward
into the city.

How often we might experience a great spiritual victory in
our lives and churches only to be overtaken with a great defeat shortly
afterwards! It is so easy for pride to sneak into our hearts, and we take
credit for the victory. What was Israel's sin? The sin of Israel was the sin of
carelessness, marked first of all by pride (v. 3).  They thought they could defeat little Ai,
because they had defeated Jericho. You see, they forgot that Jericho wasn't
their victory, Jericho was God's victory, God's victory. But somehow in their
mind they had the idea that they had done it.

 

Pride is the mother of all sins. Pride gives birth to every
sin in our lives, and in the human race for that matter.

Pride leads us to become careless. Carelessness leads to
prayerlessness! You know why we don’t pray? Because we don’t think we need to
pray! We can do it ourselves without the Lord’s help! Maybe if Joshua had
prayed before he sent the spies out, God would have told him then about the
“sin in the camp”. Pride always leads to presumption and that is we think we
can do it without God’s help.

 

We first should be encouraged to know that there is no
stronghold of Satan, there is no power of sin that the child of God cannot
overcome in the strength of the Holy Spirit. Isn't that wonderful? No power of
Satan is so great that can stand against you. There is no Jericho of sin that
can withstand you when you are filled with the Holy Spirit. That's
encouragement. There is no power or sin so great you cannot overcome it. (1
Corinthians 10:13). But, there is no power of Satan so small that you can
overcome it in the strength of your flesh. And, that's exactly where God has
put you. Nothing can stand before you in the power of the Holy Spirit, but
there's nothing that you can overcome in the strength of your flesh. Israel
overcame Jericho in the power of the Lord, but they failed at little Ai in the
strength of their flesh. They presumed that God would be with them.

 

It's not the Jericho’s that defeat the average Christian,
it's the Ai’s. It's not the big things, it's the little foxes that spoil the
vine. It's the things we think, "We can handle that, to take care of Ai,
we can handle that. Oh, don't send everybody up to take care of Ai, after all,
aren't we known as the great military warriors and victors?"

The sin of pride, and the child of pride is presumption,
and the grandchild of pride is prayerlessness because once we presume we can do
it then we don't pray any more. Pride, presumption, prayerlessness, Joshua
wasn't praying.

 

Do you know what we do? We wait until we make a mess of
things and then we come to God in prayer. Prayer needs to be our first thought,
not our last resort. We need to wake up in the morning and put on the whole
armor of God through prayer. All of our failures are really prayer failures
that root in our presumption that roots in our pride. We can’t afford to get
careless in our prayer life and our Bible study, or any spiritual discipline.

 

Today we should not forget these verses in Proverbs
16:18-20, “Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a
fall. Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, Than to divide the spoil
with the proud. He who heeds the word wisely will find good, And whoever trusts
in the LORD, happy is he.”

 

God bless!