Introduction. Exposition

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Phyllis Norton
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1 3 ELEVEN THE COST OF VICTORY Conviction Moves Us to Rededication and Restoration. Joshua 7:10-8:1 Introduction God s Way Requires Discipline and Demands Integrity. However, Disobedience Leads to Defeat and Ends with Critical Failure. What are we to do when we find ourselves discouraged and defeated by in sin? Today, God ministers in the heart of Joshua and the people. What we begin to understand is that Conviction Moves Us to Rededication and Restoration. Exposition I. Conviction (10-12) As we left Joshua, he was defeated. He was discouraged. He was paralyzed and prone before the Lord. Many of us might be tempted to applaud Joshua for crying out to God. However, those who would be quick to defend him should spend a few moments studying the content of Joshua s prayer. He wasn t coming to God for answers.

2 Instead, he was approaching God to point fingers when he should have been seeking to right the ship. Too many times, God s people are content in prayer when action is demanded. Dr. James E Smith rightly wrote, Prayer must never be a substitute for action! 1 Prayer is not and cannot be a substitute for actively obeying the will of God. Often, the purpose of prayer is to seek out God s will. Once that will has been determined, the time to pray has finished and the time to act has come. There are many things that God has already declared are His will. In this particular instance, the will of God is that the Israelites would obtain the Promised Land. We know that God has declared certain objectives in our lives as well. We are commanded to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth in all four gospels and the book of Acts. We are told in Ephesians 5: 17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 1 James E. Smith, The Books of History, Old Testament Survey Series (Joplin, MO: College Press, 1995), Jos 7:10 15.

3 5 21 submitting to one another in the fear of God. (Ephesians 5:17-21, NKJV) There are others: give thanks (1 Thessalonians 5:18), avoid fornication (1 Thessalonians 4:3), etc. These are not things that we should have to pray about as to if they are God s will. It is never God s will for you to hate, to fall into adultery, to be led by the flesh instead of His Holy Spirit, or if you should share the gospel. These are ALWAYS the will of God. You may need to prayer about how to accomplish them, but notice, that is a prayer that leads to you being able to act. For far too long churches have prayed about the lost in their communities instead of taking action about the lostness in their communities. We pray about the plight of the hungry instead of actively obeying God to care for others. There comes a point when prayer can be a form of accusing or avoiding God rather than a tool for actively following God. Joshua has crossed that line. In Joshua 6:18 he declared to the people, And you, by all means abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. (Joshua 6:18, NKJV) He knew the promise. He knew what would happen if there was sin in the camp, yet instead of dealing with the sin, he is frozen by it.

4 6 This is why God s first words are Get up! Joshua isn t really interested in dealing with the sin or God. He just wants to wallow in defeat. But God has a plan, and therefore, uses the power of conviction to motivate Joshua to move forward. This convicting word from God addresses two necessary facets of Joshua s life: his attitude and his actions. II. Moves Us to Rededication (13-26) In verses 13-15, God outlines the method of rectifying the situation. Again, it begins with the stern words, Get up. What must be done cannot be accomplished in failure. He needs get up and lead the people back into a right relationship with God. Israel needs to rededicate themselves to following God. They must prepare themselves for His work in their midst. After a day of consecration, God began to reveal the guilt of Achan. As it is revealed that Achan is guilty, Joshua pleads with him for confession. Given the nature of Achan s sin, he cannot escape punishment now. His only redeeming action now was to give glory to God by confirming His holy and righteous revelation. In all this time, Achan had the opportunity to confess. However, his heart was hardened until it was too late. It was only

5 7 when God had pointed him out that Achan confessed, I saw. I coveted. I took. I concealed. Many pastors have invested entire messages on the issue of Achan s fall from a victorious military campaign to defeat at the hands of the alluring nature of sin. Now, in this moment, the people of Israel, whose sin had been that of complacency, pride, and omission, now must actively confront the sin of commission in their midst. God could have simply struck Achan dead, but He wanted the people to experience not only the cost of failure, but also the cost of victory. To successfully achieve the will of God, we must intentionally walk in the way of God. Successfully following God doesn t happen on accident. As we previously saw, God s way requires discipline and demands integrity. Idle complacency is as actively sinful as stealing from the offering of God. In order to get back on the right path, the people had to deal with the consequences of their lax attitude toward God, His divine will, and enormity of their quest. Remember, the Promised Land is about more than a place for the Israelites to live. It was to be a place where God would be worshipped. It was to be a place where God worked to bring about His plan of redemption. The people that occupied this land were pagans

6 8 who did not follow God. Therefore, God called the Israelites to act as His instrument of judgment on them. The Israelites were too casual with the killing of the residents of Ai. They callously went up to kill men and women without the guidance of God. Now, they were called upon to be the instruments of judgment on sin in their midst. It had caused their downfall. It had required consecration. It had required attentively following God s guidance. Now, it required their active participation in executing His just wrath. As such, the Israelites raise yet another memorial in stone. In Joshua 4 the monument had been to remind their children of the strength of God s ability to save. This monument would remind them of the strength of God s repulsion to sin. Further, it would serve as a reminder of the cost of failure and the cost of victory. Achan and his children are stoned to death, burned as an offering, and then buried under this monument. Many commentators allude to the fact that Achan s children were stoned as proof of their involvement. Regardless of their complicity in the sin, Achan saw, coveted, took, and concealed. He brought this guilt on his family either way. Father, mother, there is a cost to your failure. Are you dragging your family into guilt with you?

7 9 Perhaps right now you feel the sting of conviction. Maybe in this moment the Holy Spirit is echoing the words of Joshua, calling for you to bring glory to God by affirming that you have sinned and need to cry out for forgiveness. In this moment, it is not too late. You can dedicate or rededicate your life to God and His way. Roger Ellsworth wrote, Any time we let our own desires and happiness crowd out obedience to God, we have donned Achan s Babylonian garment and pocketed his Canaanite shekels. 2 When we actively disobey God, we are just as guilty as Achan. However, our sin has been nailed to a cross instead of crushed under stone. Friend, restoration is possible. III. And Restoration (8:1-2) After dealing with the sin of Achan and Israel, the people are restored to a right relationship with God. Notice the first words that God gives Joshua. God doesn t scold or say, I told you so. No. God immediately encourages Joshua. God is love, and He desire to encourage and build up. However, we often stand in His way by refusing to address the sin in our lives. 2 Roger Ellsworth, Opening up Joshua, Opening Up Commentary (Leominster: Day One Publications, 2008), 76.

8 10 Further, this time will be different. They are consecrated. They have dealt with the sin in their camp. They are listening to and obeying God. Because they have been restored to a right relationship, God will now restore their success in battle. He will guide them to victory. I wonder how man bloody battlefields I ve been defeated on that could have been victory if only I had looked to God first? Instead of jumping headlong into defeat, this time God would instruct them on what to do and when to do it. God would develop their strategy for success. This time, all the people would be involved in God s way to His will. They would not take lightly their task. As God concludes this discussion with the newly restored Joshua, He gives a promise, See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land. And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king. (Joshua 8:1b- 2a, NKJV) God has promised victory to the people, if they will follow Him. Just as our defeat is often determined before the battle, so too is our victory. Conclusion Keeping with our Thomas Edison theme from last week, there is a story about Edison and the invention of the light bulb. His team had

9 11 worked diligently on the prototype, finally completing it after an exhausting 24- hour effort. As the story goes, the team was incredibly tired, so Edison entrusted the priceless invention to an apprentice. The boy was carefully carrying the piece when, at the top of a set of stairs, he accidently dropped it. It shattered. Undaunted, the team got back to work. Another 24- hours, another bulb. Finally finished, the story goes, Edison found the same young boy and entrusted him with the same task, only this time, the outcome was different. 3 Joshua and the Israelites had charged up the hill and been turned in defeat. They could either wallow in failure, or answer God s call to a second chance. Conviction Moved Them to Rededication and Restoration. It can do the same for us today. Why accept your defeat when God freely offers victory? 3 See James Newton, Uncommon Friends: Life with Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, Alexis Carrel and Charles Lindbergh, (NA:NA, 1989), pg. 22, (Accessed June 9, 2011),

MOVE BEYOND FAILURE SESSION 4. The Point Leaders learn from their failures and move on.

MOVE BEYOND FAILURE SESSION 4. The Point Leaders learn from their failures and move on. SESSION 4 MOVE BEYOND FAILURE The Point Leaders learn from their failures and move on. The Bible Meets Life The man often lauded as the best basketball player of all time didn t make the varsity team when