Sermon Title: Freeing God in our Lives

Sermon Series: Joshua: Finding Courage through the Challenges of Life

Sermon Text: Joshua 8

April 13, 2008

Review from last week:

Last week in Joshua chapter 7 we explored one of the greatest upsets in the Old Testament. God had charged Joshua and the Israeli army to conquer the land that he had promised their forefathers to give them. God miraculously piled up the flood waters of the Jordan River to enable them to cross. He gave them a very unconventional but highly effective battle plan for Jericho which they faithfully followed and as a result, they experienced complete victory. And immediately following that exuberant victory at Jericho, they faced a tragic upset by a much lesser foe at the city of Ai. Last week we learned why this tragic upset occurred?

In reviewing the game films, God tells them why the upset happened. Joshua 7:11-12 says, “Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. 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 the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.”

Basically, they sinned and tried to hide it. Our key takeaway last week was: Unacknowledged sin chokes out God’s presence and power making us vulnerable to defeat and upset.

When there is sin in our lives and we try to hide it or cover it up we stifle God’s power and our rebellion swells and works to squeeze out God’s presence in our lives.

I want you to see something very important - Our story last week in Chapter 7, begins and ends with an editor’s statement about God’s anger. At the front end of the story we’re basically told that God’s righteous anger was stirred because Achan took the Jericho junk and hid it in his tent. Then, at the end of the story, notice it tells us that the Lord turned from his fierce, righteous anger. What changed? What appeased God’s anger?

Here’s what we learned: The sin which had been committed against God had been discovered, finally confessed to by Achan and then dealt with. And the life lesson for us is that once sin has been properly dealt with, it no longer hinders God’s power and presence.

I used to play a ton of racquetball. In racquetball, if your opponent’s body position doesn’t allow you the freedom to make the shot you need to make, you yell out “Hinder.” That means their position hindered you from doing what you need to do to make the shot. In life, when your heart posture has offended God with unacknowledged sin, you hinder God’s ability to make the shots in your life he desires to make. Achan’s sin which he tried to hide from God hindered God’s power from accomplishing all it desired to accomplish. Achan and those around her got totally short changed.

The thing we all cringe over at this point in the story is the fact that Achan’s entire family is executed for Achan’s sin. From our perspective this seems entirely unjust. How can we understand this piece of the story?

A few Biblical historians suggest that to make sense of the punishment of the wife and children, we must fall back on that custom of the time which gave the husband and father the sole power and responsibility of the household, which meant that he also involved his wife and children in his judgment if at any time he should expose himself to punishment. In Joshua’s day, neither the wife nor the children had any rights beyond the husband and father. As his will was the rule and law, so any retribution he received was the common inheritance of all. With him they were held to sin, and with him they suffered. It may seem to us very harsh but that was the cultural norm. (Blaike, William Garden, The Expositor’s Bible Vol. 1, The Book of Joshua, P. 679)

However, most Old Testament scholars understand the punishment of the whole family to obviously infer that the whole family was involved in the sin in some way.

They argue this understanding largely on a clear statement of the Levitical Law which said, “Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin.” - Deuteronomy 24:16 (Ironside, H. A., Joshua, p. 81-82) Because of this law, there was no way that Achan’s wife and Children would have been condemned to die even though innocent.

What’s more, they argue that there is no way that Achan could have taken the Babylonian robe...and that much gold and silver...and hidden it in his family’s tent without anyone in the family knowing about it. In that way, they were all accomplices. They all had the opportunity to fess up to the sin as God was going through the elimination process but they didn’t. And so in this way, they were all guilty of the sin of keeping for themselves the items that were devoted to God. (K& D, Commentary on the Old Testament, Vol. 2, p. 83)

For Israel to remove the hindrance and get back on track with God, the sin in the camp had to be dealt with. As long as that sin remained unacknowledged and hidden, it absolutely squelched out God’s presence and power making them vulnerable to defeat. But, once the sin was acknowledged and dealt with, and they resumed walking in obedience; God was again freed to accomplish all he desired for them.

This is such an important principle for us...Let me review again what this looks like for you and I now that Jesus the Messiah has lived, died and been raised. How do we keep sin from making us vulnerable to defeat and discouragement in our lives?

Ask God to help you recognize sin when it’s present in your life.

The prayer of David in Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

When sin is identified, acknowledge and confess it. Don’t hide it or try to cover it up. Achan had amble opportunity to come forward and fess up. But, he tried to hide it until he was caught, then he confessed. When sin is identified, own it and speak it because God already knows it.

Once you admit that you have sinned, realize you have a choice. You can serve the death penalty yourself, or you can trust that Jesus’ death on the cross paid it for you.

Trust in Christ’s death as your atonement for sin.

Atonement is a qualified price/payment to cover or remove an offense. A Holy and loving God cannot simply overlook sin without violating his holiness. Sin must be atoned for. And there is only two ways for you to do it. Atone for it yourself and become a rock pile as in the case of Achan. Or, trust in the atonement Jesus offered for you by laying his life down on the cross as a substitute for you.

Romans 3:21-25, “For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood....”

So, the question each of us is faced with is: Do I want to atone for my own sin for eternity or do I want to trust Jesus as my atonement for sin once for all? Having the chance to trust Jesus as my atonement is the absolute profound soul freeing truth of the Gospel! It sounds too good to be true doesn’t it? But, this is the whole point of the Bible.

Now, having admitted your sin to yourself and to God and having trusted Jesus to be your atonement for your sin...here’s how you walk in this...

Yield to the Holy Spirit, repent and walk in obedience.

When you place your faith in Jesus as your atonement, your covering for sin, God places his seal of ownership in you by giving you his Spirit. The Holy Spirit then goes to work inside you helping you identify sin, helping you understand and apply the Bible to your life. In short, the Holy Spirit goes to work empowering you for holy living and for service to God. But, he won’t strong arm you are force you into obedience. You must learn to yield to him and make choices that cooperate with his transformational efforts in you.

Here’s how this all fits together:

As you acknowledge sin when it is present, confess it and trust Jesus forgiveness of it, then yield to the Holy Spirit who empowers you to walk in obedience, the power and presence of God will be freed in your life to accomplish all God desires for you.

Our story today in Chapter 8 of Joshua is a classic illustration of how this works. Once sin had been dealt with, the power and presence of God was refreshed in their lives and God was free to set them on that path of victory once again.

Having dealt with the sin of his people, God directs them to re-engage in the effort to secure the promise land (1-9). He gives them clear instructions to go attack Ai by setting an ambush and luring them out of the city and flanking them. Upon victory in this battle, instead of placing all the plunder in the Lord’s treasury, they are instructed to take the plunder for themselves.

There are amazing stewardship lessons in all this. The first fruits of the first battle to secure the Promised Land at Jericho were to go to God’s treasury. Now, from this battle, they were free to keep the plunder for their own use. Proverbs 3:9 says, “Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops...” That proverb is certainly being taught in the real life conquest of the promise land.

Once again, by fully relying on God’s battle plan, victory results (10-23). And as with Jericho, Ai is completely destroyed and Israel carried off the plunder as the Lord had instructed (24-29).

Now, I want to take a time out here: I realize that you can’t read through these promise land conquest narratives in the book of Joshua without questioning God’s tactic of killing every person who lived in these cities that were being conquered. Many wonder why it is necessary to obliterate all of them. How can a loving God be so merciless? How is this conquest of Israel, any different than the jihad - holy war of Islamic Fundamentalism? Obviously, I am not a scholar or even remotely an expert in apologetics on these subjects, but let me offer a few thoughts that might be helpful as we come to a close today.

Part of the issue is the difference between our civilization today and how we understand war and how war was viewed in the civilization in Joshua’s time. It’s worthy to recognize that the violence exacted on the pagan nations or the judgments rendered on the nation of Israel are never interpreted by the Bible itself as immoral or unjust or sinful. This is significant. It tells us that from God’s perfect perspective there is no injustice being done. Remember, ultimately God is the giver of life and can take it back whenever he deems it appropriate. And in all his perfections as God, he would never abuse his power. (Creach, Jerome F. D. Interpretation; A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, John Knox Press: Louisville, 1989, 15).

A second thing we have to keep in mind is that the Bible teaches us that every living thing was put to death in these towns for two primary reasons:
They were considered sacrificial offerings to God –Items were destroyed and often burned as a whole burnt offering to God in recognition that they were devoted things, rightfully given to God to acknowledge that the Lord acted on Israel’s behalf.

Justice was served – The Bible acknowledges several different places that Canaanite clans were put to death entirely because of their heinous wickedness and repeated refusal to turn from evil ways. God knew that these nations who practiced such heinous evil would surely poison the nation of Israel. God understood that they were like a cancer that would only bring death if left to survive. We know from archaeological artifacts and from their own epic literature that their “worship” was polytheistic and included child sacrifice, idolatry, religious prostitution and cultic practices (Deut. 7:2-6) (Creach, Jerome F. D. Interpretation; A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, John Knox Press: Louisville, 1989, p. 7-8). Walter Kaiser, of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School said, “When a nation starts burning children as a gift to the gods (Lev. 18:21) and practices sodomy, bestiality and all sorts of loathsome vices (Lev. 18:25, 27-30), the day of God’s grace and mercy has begun to run out.” (Kaiser, Walter, C. Jr., Hard Sayings of the Old Testament, Intervarsity Press: Downers Grove 1988, p. 108)

It’s important to realize in this, that our God is not arbitrary and he never exacts judgment unjustly. The judgment he brings is always preceded by merciful patience, loving forbearance and adequate warning with chances to change. For example, the story of God’s willingness to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if there were even 10 righteous people living there shows us that God never arbitrarily or unjustly takes the life of a righteous person.

Genesis 15 records God’s covenant with Abraham which outlines the prophecy that in God’s perfect timing, Abraham’s ancestors will return to the promised land and bring judgment on all the rebellious nations of that land and specifically mentioned is the evil of the Amorites. “As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13 Then the LORD said to him, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. {THIS IS THE EGYPT CHAPTER} 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure."

You see, by the time of Joshua, the Lord had his fill of the sin and wickedness of the nations in the land of Canaan. Their opportunity for repentance and salvation had run out. The same type of thing happened at the time of Noah and the flood and it will occur at the second coming of Christ. Matthew 24:37 says, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” God gave the Amorites more than 400 years to repent. They would have had amble opportunity to recognize him as supreme and agree with his conditions of salvation just as Rahab had done.

We know this because Romans 1 says, 18”The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.”

What’s more, it seems that in the process of this whole conquest, there were opportunities for peace. Joshua 11 says, “There was not a town that made peace with the Israelites, except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon; all were taken in battle.”

The reality is; judgment is just not palatable in our culture...we like to hear God is love but not that he is a consuming fire. We have to understand that the wrath of God is one of Gods perfections. God’s wrath is perfectly noble and perfectly just. With God we deal with perfections of divine justice, holiness and righteousness....and at the same time perfections of divine love, mercy and grace. All these are in perfect balance. I may not understand it but I understand something about God...that he is loving, longsuffering, kind, compassionate...but also just and holy. Bottom line, God is perfect love and perfect justice, and my imperfect understanding can always trust in His goodness behind His perfect will.

And this is the big difference between Islam and Christianity. In the Quran God is described as many things, but love is not one of them.

To be sure, these narratives of conquest in Joshua appear excessively violent and all too similar to the Jihad-holy war obsessions of the Islamic Fundamentalists of our day...those who follow Ben Ladin’s life mission, “"I was ordered to fight the people until they say there is no god but Allah, and his prophet Muhammad."

However, there are clear differences between these chapters of Israel’s history and the violence contained in the Quran. As I mentioned a moment ago, the Bible makes it clear that the Canaanite society brought destruction on themselves, as it was thoroughly polluted by their wretchedly evil practices, including the horror of child sacrifice. (Deuteronomy 9:1-6, 12:29-31, 18:9-14; 1 Kings 14:24; 2 Chronicles 33:1-9; Ezra 9:11) Thus God used the Israelites to administer specific justice, just as he later used other societies to administer justice against the Israelites (book of Jeremiah).

The other thing to keep in mind is that instances such as these conquest narratives in the Bible are each a particular limited circumstance in time, for a particular purpose established by God. But in the Quran, we encounter general commands to kill and destroy the enemies of Islam that are applicable for all times and places and people groups.

While there is indeed violence in the Bible, one thing is certain—Jesus had a non-violent message. While some people have betrayed the peaceful message of Jesus in history, the teachings of Jesus have a consistent tone of peace, service, love, and humility. Jesus is the Prince of Peace. He never told us to kill anyone, and he disdained violence. (http://www.faithfacts.org/world-religions-and-theology/contrasting-christianity-and-islam#tone)

Our call is to be a people that act like, walk like, talk like Jesus...staying in step with the Holy Spirit an allowing God to do all he desires in us.