REPENTANCE BRINGS THE VICTORY
By Pastor Jim May
In the last message titled “The Accursed Thing”, we left Israel licking it’s wounds after having been soundly defeated by the army of Ai. Because Achan had taken the “accursed thing” into the camp of Israel, God’s judgment feel upon all the people. Then Achan and his family paid the price for Achan’s sin and they were all executed by God’s command.
So much for those who say that capital punishment isn’t necessary. If Almighty God, the Giver of Life, says that a man should die for his sin, who are we to argue with God? I believe that capital punishment, the death penalty, is the only justice that some people deserve because their sin and crime against humanity is so great.
As soon as the sin was confessed and God’s justice had been obeyed, there was an immediate reversal of the judgments of God that had come against Israel. Now the Children of Israel could walk forward into the Promised Land once again with the blessings of God leading the way. It had been a hard lesson learned and this time they would hear what God was telling them to do.
Joshua 8:1, "And the LORD said unto Joshua, Fear not, neither be thou dismayed: take all the people of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai: see, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land:"
What a difference confession and repentance makes! What a difference it makes when we enter into battle with the devil with the Lord leading the way!
The result of this battle was already determined. Israel was going to win, if they would just follow directions this time. Victory is what happens when we allow the Lord to fight our battles. God’s battle plan is flawless and the enemy cannot overcome it. I’m so very glad that I’m a part of the Lord’s army, aren’t you?
Some of you have driven out the sin in your life and now you are almost looking forward to the next battle because you know that the Lord is with you in a way that He has never been before. You can sense His presence and you know that the Holy Ghost is leading the way.
It is amazing to me that God will use an enemy to teach us a lesson and shake us into reality and then turn around and use us to defeat that same enemy.
Ai was still there. It was still a small city with a fairly small army, but the people of Ai had grown self-confident. After all, they had withstood and defeated the army of Israel when a much larger city, Jericho, had fallen. I can just imagine the celebration that broke out when Achan’s band had been ran from the battlefield in defeat.
Let me tell you how confident the enemy gets sometimes when he knows he has already won the first round.
3500 years ago, about the time of Joshua’s invasion of Canaan, all of the cities were walled as a defense against attack. Those who lived in the city would be able to survive for long periods of time because they had stored up weapons, food and water, while the enemy outside the city often had to survive on what they could carry. If they could outlast the enemy who had laid siege to the city, the battle would be won without firing a single arrow.
Ai had its walls and its army. They couldn’t have won even if they had stayed behind the walls, because God could bring the wall down as He had done at Jericho. But in the battle to come, the men of Ai were so confident that they could defeat Israel again that they came out of the city and left the gates to the city wide open.
Joshua 8:14-17, "And it came to pass, when the king of Ai saw it, that they hasted and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at a time appointed, before the plain; but he wist not that there were liers in ambush against him behind the city. And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness. And all the people that were in Ai were called together to pursue after them: and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city. And there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel, that went not out after Israel: and they left the city open, and pursued after Israel."
Here was God’s battle plan. Joshua sent 5,000 men to hide in the hills on the west side of Ai. Then he sent 30,000 more to hide in the hills beyond the city. Then Joshua came against the city with a smaller army from the front. God was setting up the King of Ai in an ambush. It wouldn’t be long until the trap was sprung.
Aren’t you glad that God sets your battle in array and then plans for the defeat of the devil? Just when the devil thought that he has you where he wants you, my Father in Heaven springs the trap on him.
Isaiah 55:6, "Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:"
Isaiah 55:12, "For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands."
It is quite likely that the King of Ai thought this was Israel’s whole army. After all, the army that Joshua led that stood on the other side of the valley in plain view of the King, was about the same size as the one that had been defeated already. It is no surprise then that he would just march out of the city and attack Israel. I can imagine that he rode out of the city gates at the head of his army with flags waving; trumpets blaring and a proud look on his face. He was going to whip this bunch of rag-tag Jews who had come from the wilderness for the last time. The King of Ai could just picture his name written down in history, as the king who destroyed the people that even the mighty Pharaoh of Egypt couldn’t conquer just 50 years before.
When the battle began, Ai marched forward to attack. Israel, under Joshua’s leadership, pretended to put up a fight and then, when the signal was given, they began to retreat and run away for safety. The men of Ai thought they had won another battle and so they chased Joshua’s band away from the city.
Then God sprung the trap. Joshua raised his spear and that was the signal for those who were waiting on the west and backside of the city to attack and conquer Ai. The Israelite’s, now a mighty army of 35,000 men, rose up from their hiding places and overran the city of Ai, almost unopposed, and immediately began to set fire to it. The fires of God’s wrath were now kindled against Ai and not Israel.
When the King of Ai realized that he had been tricked, and he saw the smoke rising from the city, it was all over.
Joshua 8:24-29, "And it came to pass, when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness wherein they chased them, and when they were all fallen on the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all the Israelites returned unto Ai, and smote it with the edge of the sword. And so it was, that all that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai. For Joshua drew not his hand back, wherewith he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. Only the cattle and the spoil of that city Israel took for a prey unto themselves, according unto the word of the LORD which he commanded Joshua. And Joshua burnt Ai, and made it an heap for ever, even a desolation unto this day. And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until eventide: and as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his carcass down from the tree, and cast it at the entering of the gate of the city, and raise thereon a great heap of stones, that remaineth unto this day."
The ashes weren’t on the head of Israel anymore. It was their enemy that lay in ashes now. Instead of piling stones of judgment upon Achan they piled stones on the king of the wicked city.
I believe that the message God wants us to get out of this tonight is that, while He had to send the fires of judgment against Israel for sin, he also has Israel’s victory already planned.
Yes the church has its battles. We have our struggles, but in the end God already has our victory planned. Just when the devil thinks he has us defeated, the Lord God of Heaven, commander of the mighty hosts of Glory, will rise with healing in his wings.
Some of you have lost some pretty hard battles. You feel as though you have been run over by the devil. Don’t lose faith! Just look unto the hills from whence cometh your help. God is on your side and he already has the battle won for you. If we will only rise from our ashes of defeat, and call upon the name of the Lord to save us, repenting of our sin, then we will experience the shouts of victory!
Some of you have confessed and repented of the accursed thing in your life. You have given yourself wholly unto the Lord. Now God is going to give you a mighty victory over those sins that beset you. He is going to drive out the enemy before you.
Satan thought that he had you defeated. You faced him before, but you faced him in your own power. You couldn’t overcome him then, not in the flesh. You will face the same battle again, but this time it will be different. This time God will be with you and he will set the battle in order. The devil may think that he can still bring those same temptations against you, and he might think that you are already a defeated foe, but he doesn’t know that God is with you now and that you have all of the angels of Heaven fighting on your side. God is about to spring an ambush on the devil for you and this time you will walk away shouting the victory and you will not have to fight that battle again.
Once you have won the battle, remember that there is more to be done. Don’t stop there and just rest on what has been. Keep moving forward and claim all that is yours under God’s direction.
Joshua built an altar. The first step in serving the Lord is building your altar. By that I mean that we should find a place where we can be alone with God and in a continual frame of mind where we are meditating and calling upon Jesus, continually building a better relationship with our Lord. If we stay by the altar we won’t easily be drawn away from the Lord anymore.
After building the altar, Joshua wrote the Law of God on stones once again so that all Israel could see that God’s Law does not change. God had given Israel a promise, and He has given us a promise as well. If we will obey his commandments and live by his statutes, surrendering our will to God’s will, then God’s blessings will be with us.
What did Joshua write? It is not likely that Joshua stayed at Ai long enough to write every one of the Laws and statutes of the Pentateuch, which is the first five books of the Old Testament. There was much more work to be done. But I’m certain that Joshua did write much of the original Law that God had given to show Israel that the law was still the same.
Thank God, that the law is fulfilled in Jesus Christ so that today I can believe in Jesus, surrender my life to Jesus, and live for Jesus and I don’t have to worry about every jot and tittle of the Law.
I’m sure that these words were written down by Joshua from the Book of Deuteronomy 5:6-21, "I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Thou shalt have none other gods before me. Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain: for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee. Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day. Honour thy father and thy mother, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill. Neither shalt thou commit adultery. Neither shalt thou steal. Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbour. Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour’s wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour’s house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour’s.”
The Law has not changed. The commandments of the Lord have not changed. If Israel would keep that Law, they would never again have to experience another defeat like the first battle of Ai. Every battle would be a great victory like the second battle of Ai.
For us the promise is the same. Jesus fulfilled that Law and today we can obey those laws by simply serving the Lord with all our heart.
If we will serve the Lord then the Lord’s blessings will be upon us and He will give us the land as our inheritance and the church shall go forth in power as the Holy Spirit leads us. Let us praise him for his great mercy and grace, live according to the Word of God and then go forth in great victory.
