Study 8
Joshua Chapter 7 – A Spanner in the Works
Introduction
You are all familiar with the saying ‘someone has put a spanner in the works’. Whether it arose out of an actual incident when someone literally dropped a spanner into the machine at which they had been working causing the machine to grind to a halt or not I don’t honestly know but it has become a sort of proverbial saying that indicates that an up until now smoothly running project has suddenly come to a halt. Something unexpected has happened which brings the project to a sudden standstill.
Another equally familiar saying is that of their being ‘a fly in the ointment’. The presence of the fly, no matter how small a fly, ruins the effectiveness of the ointment.
Something that every bride dreads is getting a stain on her wedding dress on the day of her wedding. There must be nothing as bad for a bride as arriving at the Church and getting out of the bridal car only to discover that somehow her dress has been stained, and that on some part of the garment which is visible for all to see. The stain may be relatively small but its presence not only ruins the overall appearance of the dress but also is a source of grief to the bride.
We come this evening in our studies of Joshua to consider the events that are recorded for us in chapter 7 – namely the failure of Israel to conquer the city of Ai, the reasons for their failure and what steps were taken by Joshua to address the source of the problem they had discovered. The reason for their failure, as we are going to see, was because there was a proverbial spanner in the works. Up until now everything had been going according to plan. Everything had been running smoothly but the well oiled, efficient Israelite machine was about to grind to a halt, albeit a temporary halt, because of the sinful actions of a man called Achan. He was the fly in the ointment; the dark stain upon the otherwise spotless garment.
We are going to look in more detail next week at the actual sin that Achan committed, but this evening I want us to focus our thoughts upon the failure of Israel to capture Ai, the effect that defeat had upon Joshua, the cause of their defeat and what was done to deal with the problem.
Now with that in view I want you to notice with me first of all this evening that in this passage we find
1) A Defeated Army; or The Defeat Of Israel’s Army
The last chapter (chapter 6) recorded Israel’s tremendous victory at Jericho as a result of their faithful obedience to God’s plan and total reliance upon God’s power. As chapter six comes to a close everything is bright and encouraging. Jericho was conquered, Israel was victorious. However the opening word of chapter 7 (and don’t forget there were no chapter divisions in the original scriptures) the opening word of chapter 7 “but” immediately alerts us the reader to the fact that all is not as it seems. Something is wrong in the camp of Israel. If we read the last verse of chapter six and then go on and immediately read the first verse of chapter 7 the contrast stands out very clearly. “So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land. BUT the Israelites acted unfaithfully in regard to the devoted things. Achan…took some of them. So the Lord’s anger burned against Israel.” We will come back to this later in our sermon, suffice for the moment to note that some form of crisis, some form of set-back is evidently looming and that this is the writers way of preparing us for it. Something is going to go wrong and the root of the problem and reason for the set-back is to be found in this summary statement of verse 1, a summary statement which is going to be developed and unfolded later in the narrative.
Having overthrown Jericho, the Israelites knew that the next target of attack was to be Ai. This was a much smaller town than Jericho, situated about 1,700 feet above sea level and located in a strategic position, in that once they conquered Ai they would have control of the entire hill country from which they could then expand their controlling influence over the rest of the land. In keeping with the policy he had adopted prior to attacking Jericho, Joshua, before planning his strategy and ordering an attack upon Ai, first of all surveyed the situation before him. He sent out a number of spies who having examined the town brought back a report which in essence amounted to this – “compared to Jericho, Ai is much smaller, they don’t have a huge army, the city isn’t as well fortified, this is going to be a doddle. In our opinion there is no point in sending everybody up to Ai. Send a small battalion of about 3,000 men and in no time the town will be ours.”
Now obviously after the great victory they had experienced at Jericho the Israelite army were on a Psychological high. They had overthrown one of the most strongly fortified cities in the region and had done so with great ease and without any major losses, if in fact any at all. They were evidently full of self-confidence and wanted to ride the crest of the conquering wave that they found themselves on. And so the suggestion was made, just send up about 3,00 of our men, we can take this town no problem. We cannot tell for sure whether the suggestion to send only 3,000 men was rooted in an attitude of faith – ‘Our God can overthrow this town with only a small group of us’ – or alternatively whether it ws rooted in an attitude of pride – “Look what WE DID to Jericho, this wee town will be no problem FOR US”
It seems from what happened that there was most likely an element of pride, self-confidence and even presumption on the part of the spies who made this suggestion.
And, no doubt strongly influenced by both the report of the town that these spies had brought and the suggestion they had made, and no doubt influenced too by the victory he and the people had just experienced, Joshua took on board their suggestion and handed the responsibility of conquering Ai over to a small battalion of 3,000 soldiers.
One doesn’t want to read too much into the situation but it’s interesting that there is no record here of Joshua seeking God’s face for guidance in respect of this matter. We don’t read that Joshua brought this matter before God with a view to discerning God’s will in this situation. Was it a hasty decision? Would he, had he sought God’s face before issuing the orders for the 3,000 to attack, have discovered there was a major problem in the camp that needed to be addressed before going any further? We don’t know.
What is certain is that what ensued was totally unexpected. Joshua and the people who waited in the valley were expecting in due course to hear the shout of triumph, what they heard was the screams of terror and cries of defeat coming not from the people inside the city but from the army outside. ‘They were routed by the men of Ai (v4ff) who killed about 36 of them. They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes. At this the hearts of the people melted and became like water.”
What a set back this was. The crest of the wave of victory which they had just begun to ride and were riding so confidently came crashing down on top of them. This wasn’t meant to happen. They hadn’t expected to experience defeat. But, in this battle at least, defeat was what they experienced.
And haven’t there been times when we in our Christian lives have experienced unexpected defeats. Unexpected defeats in our personal lives, in our family life in our life as a congregation. And isn’t it also true that those defeats often come in the wake of some time of singular spiritual blessing or victory we have experiecned; a spiritual blessing that perhaps has not only really encouraged us in our christian lives but which has also boosted our spiritual confidence, but which we have allowed to develop into self-confidence and perhaps even pride.
Perhaps we had gained a notable victory over some temptation, or maybe by God’s help we attacked and conquered some darling sin, some one of those sins that so easily entangles us and to which we have proven to be particularly prone, some area or aspect of our life in which for years there had been an enemy stronghold that we had allowed to remain unconfronted but which now, by the grace and power of God, lay in ruins and which we were resolved would never be built again. And in the wake of that blessing in the wake of that victory we have thought ourselves well able to cope with the Ai’s in our life, those smaller sins which in our spiritual pride and presumptuous self-confidence we never imagined would get the victory over us. I’ll not commit that sin. That temptation is relatively easy to cope with. I can handle that. And lo and behold that little Ai in our life has been a place of defeat. That very sin got the better of us when we thought it so easy to get the better of it.
Or take a congregation that has been singularly blessed by God In some aspect of their life, work and witness. Maybe God in his grace causes them to experience tremendous growth. Unchurches people from the local community are being reached and coming in. Sinners are being saved. Other believers are leaving the dead, liberal Churches in the area in which they had been members, Churches which have departed from their evangelical moorings and which for whatever reason are no longer exercising a consistent Biblical ministry are joining that congregation. It is for that congregation a most wonderful time. But because they have been growing so noticeably, because things are being seen to be going so well, the Church both in its leadership and among its membership begins to think it is a great Church, ‘what a great Church we are’. And spiritual pride begins to grow, and self-confidence and self-sufficiency begin to reign supreme and soon a major spiritual defeat occurs in the life of that congregation.
Or take the young man who after several years of studying has been brought to the place of singular spiritual blessing by God where he has finished his training at theological college, has been licensed to preach the gospel and has received offers from a number of Churches to be their minister. All the while he was at college he so felt his need of and had such a sense of dependance upon God that he never for one minute thought he would fall foul of the sin of pride or find within himself a spirit of self-confidence when it came to the work of the ministry. But having received so many calls and having heard people speak so highly of him he approaches the battle of the ministry in a spirit of self confidence and pride, although he would never admit to that, only to discover in the wake of unexpected set backs that such a spirit is not the spirit in which to engage the enemy forces and seek to conquer enemy strongholds
A.W.Pink in his commentary on Joshua writes “…the people of God are never in greater danger of giving place to pride and presumption than when God has signally blessed and prospered them. Never does a believer need to act more warily and in full dependence upon the Lord than when his graces are in lively exercise and his heart is in exhilarated frame. Unless he does so, self confidence will creep in and more reliance will be placed upon inherent grace than upon the one from whose fullness we need to be continually receiving ‘grace for grace…only as we maintain the place of conscious weakness are we really strong.”
I wholeheartedly concur with Pink. And I do so not only because it is something that is clearly taught in the word of God, but also something which I know from personal and pastoral experience. How true I have found those words of Solomon in Prov 16v18 to be “pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
Paul writes ‘Let him that thinks he standeth take heed lest he fall.”
You remember Peter – ‘Lord though all men should forsake you yet will not I, Lord I am ready to go with you to prison and to death’ It was as if peter had said Lord you might think I will deny you but I am made of stronger stuff than you think. Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.
But this narrative not only sets before us
1) A Despondent Leader: The Despondancy of Israel’s Leader
Verses 6-9 record for us Joshua’s reaction to this major set-back. READ
It is evident from these verses that Joshua in the wake of this defeat was utterly despondent. So despondent in fact that, for a time at least, his faith in the promises of God seems to desert him and he begins to reason and speak in a way which one could never have imagined of him prior to this set back. Where now was the faith he demonstrated so clearly when he stood before the flood plains of the Jordan. Where was the faith that moved him to walk around Jericho those thirteen times? ‘Lord why did you ever bring us across the Jordan, to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan…the Canaanites and the other people of the country will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth” Listen to what Joshua’s saying here. ‘Lord I am so discouraged, so confused by what has happened that I wish I wasn’t here. It would have been better if we had stayed where we were. This is a terrible situation we are in.”
Here is a godly man, a man of tremendous faith, who in the midst of a major set-back, a major discouragement in the course of his God appointed work, is thoroughly dejected, thoroughly despondent. He is reasoning and speaking in a way that are totally out of character for him. He even goes so far as to almost as it were blame God for what has happened and to question God’s goodness and love. “Lord is this why you brought us here to give us into the hands of our enemies.” Its foolish talk of course, but it shows us does it not brethren just how powerful and how potentially destructive unexpected major disappointments and set-backs in the work of the Lord can be, especially to those who are in the role of leadership. Everything had been going so well, then suddenly out of the blue this happened.
Joshua’s despondency, as we shall see was short lived. It was an initial reaction. A reaction which didn’t become a settled prevailing condition. He felt discouraged. His faith wavered, but at least he did the one thing that was essential in the situation that now faced him, he went to God with the problem. In the midst of his emotional turmoil he said things he shouldn’t have said but at least he was talking to the right person about the matter. And as we are going to see, God after letting him say his piece, was going to reveal to him the reason for the defeat and the way in which to deal with it.
You know, one of the things I love about the Bible is that it paint these great saints of God warts and all. Joshua wasn’t some sort of spiritual superman he was just an ordinary human being like you and me. He got discouraged. He said stupid things in the heat of a real life situation that he found himself facing and which he found emotionally and Psychologicaly distressing. His faith wavered at times. And if this is true of a man such as Joshua don’t be surprised if at times you find yourself feeling as he did. Thinking as he thought. Saying what he said. Someone once said the best of men are men at best. What the apostle James said of Elijah is also true of Joshua, “he was a man just like us” – JUST LIKE US. Elijah thought stupid, faithless thoughts and said foolish things – “I’ve had enough, I am the only faithful person left in the world, I want to die.” He was discouraged by the set-back he experienced. He thought there was going to be a mighty revival of true religion in Israel after Carmel, but it didn’t happen and Elijah was discouraged and then he became depressed about the situation. Joshua thought Ai would fall in no time. He wasn’t expecting a defeat. And when they were defeated he became discouraged.
We all get discouraged at times in our Christian lives, particularly after some experience of defeat, or some unexpected set-back in our lives or in the case of Xn leaders in the wake of some unexpected set-back in the Lord’s work. Well at such times remember that even a man like Joshua, and a man like Elijah got discouraged. And when you are discouraged do what Joshua did and take the matter to God in prayer.
That leads me to the third thing that I want us to notice from this passage this evening and that is
1) A Divine Explanation: The Disclosure Of Israel’s Problem:
In vs 10-12 we see God revealing to Joshua the reason for Israel’s defeat and failure to conquer Ai. “Israel has sinned…they have taken some of the devoted things, they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. That is why Israel cannot stand against their enemies…I will not be with you any more, unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.”
God here points to the source of the problem and the problem is that there is sin among the people of God. The booty, for want of a better term, from the overthrow of Jericho, had to be completely devoted to the Lord. The Israelites were not allowed to take anything for themselves. It all had to be given over to the Lord as the sort of first-fruits of the victory of Canaan. We are going to look at the matter in greater detail next week, suffice to say here that one of the Israelites, Achan, went against God’s command and deliberately disobeyed his instructions, and took some of the booty for himself – a wedge of gold, 200 shekels of silver and a beautiful Babylonian garment, and hid them in his tent. And although he and he alone was guilty of this sin, the whole company of the people of God suffered as a result of his transgression. Thirty six men were dead and the Israelite army had suffered a humiliating defeat that had caused both their leader and the people to become very discouraged and afraid. And by punishing the people as a whole God was underscoring their oneness as a covenant community. He was stressing the fact that God’s people are not just a bunch of unrelated individuals whose personal actions have only implications for them but rather have ramifications for the entire community of which they form a part. The safety and well-being of the whole community depended upon the obedience of each individual member. There is an organic unity among the Lord’s people and sin by one member will affect the whole body. Just as a weakness or infection in the human body affects the body as a whole and not just the one isolated part, so too any weakness, any sin in an individual member of God’s people will affect the people as a whole in some way or another.
In this case the sin of Achan was a source of great trouble to Israel. Indeed the name Achan means ‘trouble’. There was sin in the camp and as long as that sin remained undetected and undisciplined the blessing of God would be witheld. “I will not be with you any more unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.” V12
Friends never underestimate the amount of damage one wilful sinner among the people of God can do. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. That wedge of gold was more lethal to Israel’s future well-being than all the swords and spears of their enemies. Sin among the people of God is a barrier to blessing. Oh how much blessing may be being withheld from our churches because of the Achan’s in the camp. Those who deliberately choose to disobey clear injunctions, clear commands, of God. We cannot break God’s commands with impunity and expect not to suffer some consequences and one of the consequences might well be that because of our sin the blessing of God may be withheld from our Church. I believe that God’s blessing will most certainly be withheld from those churches where known sin among the members is tolerated and no steps of discipline are taken to deal with that sin. God not only revealed the cause of Israel’s defeat, the reason why blessing was being withheld, He also made it clear that swift action had to be taken to rid Israel of that sin, for the sinner to be disciplined. Then and only then would God’s presence and power return among His people and blessing be experienced once again. This of course is one of the greatest failings of the church in these days. There are Church members who are sinning with impunity, living together outside the bonds of marriage and committing fornication, married people leaving their spouse and living in the sin of adultery with some other person, Church members who are known to be fond of the drink to the extent that they have a reputation as a drunkard, others who gamble, whether its in the bookies, buying scratch cards, doing the lottery or whatever, still others who deny fundamental doctrines of the christian faith such as the virgin birth, the resurrection of Christ, the eternal damnation of the unsaved and so on, and yet such Achan’s even though their sin is clear for all to see are not disciplined and are allowed to not only continue in their sin but also to remain in the camp of the people of God. Is it any wonder there is so little blessing in our Churches in these days. Oh how many Churches I wonder has God come along to and said “I will not be with you any longer” Oh yes the Church is still there but over it the word ICHABOD can be written – the glory of the Lord has departed.
Brethren beware lest you be guilty of being an Achan in the camp of God’s people.
That brings me to my fourth and final point this evening and that is
4) A Displeasure Removed The Diversion of God’s Displeasure
As I say we will be looking in more detail at Achan’s sin next week, but in closing this evening I want you to notice that in the wake of the sin having been revealed, admitted and dealt with and removed, the displeasure of God against the people on account of that sin was turned away. Look at verse 26 ‘over Achan they heaped a large pile of rocks, which remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from his fierce anger.’ Notice that God wasn’t just slightly annoyed on account of this sin among his people, he was fiercely angry. But notice that AFTER the sin had been satisfactorily dealt with, then, and only then, did the Lord’s anger against His people cease.
Could it be that the fierce anger of the Lord is burning against some of his people this evening, some of us perhaps? Could it be that the fierce anger of the Lord is burning against some of our families. Could it be that the fierce anger of the Lord is burning against some of our congregations? If it is it is because there is sin our life, sin in our family, sin in our congregations, that has not been dealt with properly and the only way to divert that anger, the only way to have that anger removed is to deal with the sin. In some cases the course of action that is needed is that of humble confession and genuine heartfelt repentance, this is what achan should have done and had plenty of opportunity to do, before his sin was discovered. Brethren if there is some sin in your life, don’t do what Achan did, don’t hide it, don’t act as if you haven’t done anything wrong. Rather go to the tent of your heart and bring that sin out from beneath that canvas as it were under which you have buried it in the hope that no-one will ever discover it and lay it out before God in confession and repentance seeking forgiveness. In other cases the course of action to be taken may well be that of the implementation and exercise of Church discipline against an impenitent sinner. One thing is for sure, the fierce anger of the Lord will only be turned away and the smile of God and the blessing that accompanies it will only return when sin is taken seriously and when it is dealt with.
May God write these lesson on our heart Amen.
