How do we restore God s favor? Joshua 8:1-35 May 25, 2014 (All scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible) The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is one of the greatest artistic triumphs in history. From 1508 to 1512, the artist Michelangelo lay on his back and painted the Fall of Creation and the Flood. But Michelangelo's magnificent art started to fade almost immediately. Within a century of completing his work, no one remembered what his original frescoes had really looked like. In 1981 a scaffold was erected to clean the frescoes that adorn the chapel. With a special solution, Fabrizio Mancinelli and Gianluigi Colalucci gently washed a small corner of the painting. The result was stunning. No one had imagined that beneath centuries of grime lay such vibrant colors. Their success prompted the restoration of the entire ceiling. The task was completed on December 31, 1989. The result was breathtaking. For the first time in nearly 500 years, people viewed this masterpiece the way it was intended, in all of its color and beauty. Maybe your relationship with God is a bit like Michelangelo s painting. You ve lost your freshness with God. This principle has application for us individually, but also for as us a nation. As a nation, we have been blessed by God. But like the painting by Michelangelo, our nation has lost some of its luster because we have walked away from God. Two men spent eight years with a cleaning solution to restore Michelangelo s work, what do we have to do to restore God s favor? If you have a Bible, I invite you to open to Joshua chapter 8. We will look at this chapter and answer the question, How do we restore God s favor? This weekend, we rightly remember those men and women who have given their lives to preserve our freedom. They paid the ultimate price that we can live in freedom. My hope and prayer is that we will continue to be a nation worthy of their sacrifice. Millions of people around the world have lost their lives for their country. But when I look at the condition of many of those countries, either in anarchy or in the control of a dictator, I fear those sacrifices weren t worth it. As a nation, we ll be worth the sacrifice of our fallen soldiers if we continue in the Lord s favor. Before going any farther, I d like to define God s favor. In this morning s passage, God s favor means taking possession of a fertile land. In the New Testament, when we talk of God s favor, we are talking about intimacy with God and the fruit of that intimacy: love, joy, peace and other similar godly qualities. God s favor doesn t mean material gain, good health, status or prestige in this life, but rather intimacy with God. Let s set the stage a little bit before we get into chapter 8. In Joshua 1, God guaranteed Israel the Promised Land if they obeyed Him. In Joshua 3, God miraculously brought the nation through the Jordan River and in Joshua 6, God worked supernaturally, that Israel might conquer the city of Jericho. Up to this point, Israel had experienced the favor of God. However, after the victory at Jericho, one member of the nation disobeyed God by keeping some of the spoils of victory for himself. As a result, in Joshua 7, Israel was defeated in their attempt to conquer the city of Ai. And this brings us to our passage Joshua chapter 8. Our passage starts with Joshua stopping and waiting in order to hear 1
from God. Now this seems like a pretty obvious step in restoring God s blessing. But, when things don t go right for me, I often get frustrated and just charge ahead. I want to fix things, now. I don t have time for God. We will see in our passage that Israel s army has a huge numbers advantage over the army of Ai. In the anger and sting of defeat, Joshua might have taken control and organized an assault on Ai. But he doesn t do that. He takes time to hear from God. When we are looking to restore God s favor, first, we need to hear from God. In verse 1, God assures Joshua that He is no longer angry. 1 Now the LORD said to Joshua, Do not fear or be dismayed. Take all the people of war with you and arise, go up to Ai; see, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land. God promises Joshua victory. This is God s battle. Verse 2 gives us God s strategy. 2 You shall do to Ai and its king just as you did to Jericho and its king; you shall take only its spoil and its cattle as plunder for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it. That seems simple enough, doesn t it? Joshua has God s assurance of victory. Joshua, just do it! But, we have the advantage of knowing the outcome. For Joshua, it wasn t that simple. This is war and in war people die. Maybe this ambush idea seemed risky to Joshua. Any fears Joshua might have had he set aside, for in verse 3, he sends out 30,000 valiant men to be part of the ambush. In verses 4-8, he gives them the specifics of the plan. 4 He commanded them, saying, See, you are going to ambush the city from behind it. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready. 5 Then I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. And when they come out to meet us as at the first, we will flee before them. 6 They will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will say, They are fleeing before us as at the first. So we will flee before them. 7 And you shall rise from your ambush and take possession of the city, for the LORD your God will deliver it into your hand. 8 Then it will be when you have seized the city, that you shall set the city on fire. Take note of Joshua s instruction at the end of verse 8. You shall do it according to the word of the LORD. See, I have commanded you. Follow the Lord explicitly and completely. Perhaps Joshua has the recent defeat at Ai in mind. They lost before, they could lose again. Joshua leaves nothing to chance. He 2
is insistent that these soldiers follow the Lord. So in verse 9, Joshua sends the soldiers on their way. In verses 10-13, Joshua sets the bait, though in verse 12, we see him putting another 5000 soldiers into the ambush west of the city. In verses 14-17 the King of Ai takes the bait. We see in verse 17, that there is not a man left in Ai. 17 So not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who had not gone out after Israel, and they left the city unguarded and pursued Israel. As the king of Ai marshals his forces, I wonder if Joshua doesn t question himself, Did I really hear from God on this ambush idea? Or was it all a product of my imagination? What if somebody in Ai gets word of the ambush, and we are being set up? It sure would be nice to have those 35,000 soldiers with me now. In the moment of crisis we can rationalize or doubt God s direction for our life. Even though lives were in danger, Joshua stayed the course. He put God s commands in action. Following God takes faith and involves risk. Following God means risking the things of this world like time, money, prestige, comfort, convenience, etc. What are the risks of obedience that you are facing right now? What are you afraid of losing, if you fully obey God? Let s identify those risks or costs. Then we can evaluate: Is what I could lose really worth losing God s favor? Are these things really worth forfeiting intimacy with God and the fruit of that intimacy? As a nation we ll have to ask similar questions. Will we value the things God values like practicing justice, caring for the vulnerable and living with integrity? Or will we sacrifice those things on the altars of convenience, affluence and pleasure? In verses 18 through 29, Joshua puts God s plan into action. This battle is under the Lord s direction. Look at verse 18. 18 Then the LORD said to Joshua, Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand. So Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city. For the second time, the Lord says, I will give Ai into your hand. So, in verse 19, the soldiers respond to the Lord s direction given through Joshua. 19 The men in ambush rose quickly from their place, and when he had stretched out his hand, they ran and entered the city and captured it, and they quickly set the city on fire. In verses 20-23, we see that only the king survived Israel s counter attack. In verses 24-25, the soldiers of Israel put the people of the city to the sword. In verse 26 we find Joshua still carrying out the Lord s command. 26 For Joshua did not withdraw his hand with which he stretched out the javelin until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. 3
In verse 2, the Lord declared that Israel could take the cattle and spoil of the city for themselves. In verse 27, we see them carrying out that command. 27 Israel took only the cattle and the spoil of that city as plunder for themselves, according to the word of the LORD which He had commanded Joshua. Previously, in chapter 7, they had been beaten soundly by this same army. What was the difference this time? There was one simple difference. In the first case Israel didn t fully obey God and in the second case they did fully obey God. Remember our question? How do we restore God s favor? This story from the nation of Israel gives us our answer. We restore God s favor by fully obeying God. We restore God s favor by fully obeying God. Again, we need to keep our earlier definition of God s favor in mind. God s favor equals intimacy with God and the fruit of that intimacy. The answer to the question is straight forward, applying that answer is impossible in our own strength. Throughout the Old Testament, the people of Israel affirmed their commitment to follow God. And they always failed to keep that commitment. In the New Testament, Paul wrote to the Galatians about the curse of the law. The curse of the law is that we can t keep the law, despite our intentions. In Galatians 3:13, Paul writes that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. Why did Christ do this? Paul says so that we who believe in Christ, both Jews and Gentiles, might inherit the blessings God promised to Abraham. We have the opportunity to draw on the power of his Spirit to see Jesus obedience reproduced in our lives. If you ve never trusted Christ, I implore you to do that right now. For those who follow Christ, let s remember that living out the fullness of God s favor depends on fully depending on Christ. Without the work of Christ in our lives on a moment by moment basis, we ll be no different than the people of Israel. Thus, I d like to amend our answer a bit. We can t pull off obedience to God on our own. We need Jesus reproduced in our lives. How do we restore God s favor? We restore God s favor by drawing on Jesus to reproduce His obedience in us. We restore God s favor by drawing on Jesus to reproduce His obedience in us. We celebrate our nation s history and heritage this Memorial Day weekend. The sacrifice of our soldiers is one of the reasons we have flourished for 200 years. However our continued flourishing is not guaranteed. Look how quickly Israel went from victory to defeat. Like Israel, we ll flourish as we have the Lord s favor. Ultimately our standing as a nation doesn t ride on our politicians or our military or our economy, our standing rides on our living in dependence on Jesus. Within verses 18-29, we see that under God s command, Israel slew everyone in the city. This morning, it is not my purpose to talk at length about the judgment of God. However, these verses remind us that God will judge sin. God is good and longsuffering. But He is also holy and righteous. Two thousand years ago, God poured out His judgment on Jesus at the cross. In our day, the Father waits patiently that people might escape His judgment by repenting and believing in Jesus. However, His patience won t last forever. There will be a day when He will judge sin once and for all, just as He does here in Joshua chapter 8. 4
At this point, we d think the story is over. Israel won. What else could be of concern? What is of interest is how Israel handles the victory. How does Israel handle God s blessing? Earlier in Joshua, they showed they weren t very good at handling God s blessing. Verses 30 through 35 depict a very interesting victory party. There is no parade, no celebration. Instead, in verses 30 and 31, we have the people offering sacrifices to God. In verses 34 and 35, we have a reading of God s law. 34 Then afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law. 35 There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel with the women and the little ones and the strangers who were living among them. What is going on? Maybe, just maybe, at least in the short term, Israel is learning that if they want to maintain God s blessing, they need to continue doing that which restored that blessing in the first place. They need to continue obeying God. Too often, experiencing God s favor in our life can cause us to live independently of Christ. If you are experiencing God s favor, I encourage you to keep seeking Christ so that He can reproduce His obedience in you. Imagine receiving a gift card for dinner at Wilderness Ridge. Normally, Wilderness Ridge is out of your price range, but since someone else is paying, you and your companion order an expensive dinner and then just because there is money left on the card you order dessert. What an evening. You enjoy the atmosphere, the food and the camaraderie. The friend who gave you the gift card did you a favor. You get the bill and you realize why you never have this kind of evening. You could never afford this kind of evening. But, no worries, you have the gift card. The only problem is when you open your wallet or purse you can t find the gift card. You panic. You ve lost the expression of your friend s favor and all of a sudden this evening turns miserable. God has given us a gift card: Christ's obedience and the power to obey that comes to us because of our union with Him. Joshua and Israel remind us that we can t live in God s favor without a moment by moment experience of Christ in our life. How do we restore God s favor? We restore God s favor by allowing Jesus to reproduce His obedience in us. We restore God s favor by allowing Jesus to reproduce His obedience in us. 5