Getting Back on Track

--- Well, today's Valentine's Day, and we're covering Joshua 7 and 8, which is the least perky Valentine's message that you'll ever receive, but it is where we're at. And so to kind of balance it a little bit, I want us to bask in Joshua chapter 6 for just a moment and remember all the good things about Joshua chapter 6. Joshua met with the commander of the Lord, he had that private visit, and then he took off his shoes because the place that he was standing was holy ground. It was, God had prepared that place for his purpose, and all of Israel decided to trust in the Lord with all their heart and not lean on their own understanding. They obeyed the Lord, and the walls came a-tumbling down, that ancient Jericho that needed to come down, and then Rahab alone, along with her family, was spared from the destruction, and remember her identity was changed from Rahab the prostitute to Rahab saved by Joshua. Perfection. Great chapter. And it ended this way, Joshua 6, 27, the Lord was with Joshua and his fame was in all the land, and we go right into chapter 7, but the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things, shoot. It's always a sad day when we have to begin a Bible study with but. So I gave it the title, this week's lesson is titled Getting Back on Track, and that's how we're going to end it. So I'm going to redeem it at the end. Getting back on track. We have to do that often in life. This happens a lot in our lives. And so it is a great lesson to go through. Let's start in verse 1. But the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things. For Achan, the son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things in the anger of the Lord, burned against the people of Israel. Now what I want to do for chapter 7 is I'm pretty much going to go through this whole chapter in what does it say mode. Once we're all done, then we'll come back in what does it mean mode. And I'm kind of editing a few of the verses. I'm condensing some of the verses. So I'm sure you'll be able to keep up. I'll try and give you cues where we're at. But before we even start, I want us to go back. I'll put it up on the slide, the instructions from Jericho. In the last chapter, verses 17 and 18, let's remember what God had said about this. The city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction. Keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it. So I want us to remind there was a clear command given about Jericho. Well, verse 1 told us that Achan, whose name means trouble, transgressed that command and did exactly the opposite of what the Lord had said. Now, Joshua doesn't know about this yet. Israel doesn't know about this. So they're planning the next conquest in the city of Ai. So verse 2, Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai saying, go up and spy out the land. And the men went up and they spied out Ai. And they returned it to Joshua and said, don't have all the people go up. Just let about two or three thousand of the men go and attack Ai. And do not make the whole people toil up there for their few. So about three thousand men went up from there, from the people, and they fled before the men of Ai. And the men of Ai killed about thirty-six of the men. And the hearts of the people melted and became as water. So Ai was nothing like Jericho. And now the emotion of the camp is one of disappointment and probably perplexity. Like what? What just happened here? Okay, look at verse 6, Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until evening. And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all to give us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? Would that we had been content to dwell beyond the Jordan. Isn't that what we always say when bad things happen? We should have never done this. We should have never gone on that trip. I wish we would have never. That's just common. And he goes on to say, O Lord, what can I say when Israel has turned their backs before their enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it and will surround us and cut off our name from the earth. And what will you do for your great name? And God starts speaking to Joshua. And just like every good mama with an overly dramatic preschooler, he says, Get up! Right? God never uses that tone of voice. Only I use that tone of voice. But he does say, Get up! Why have you fallen on your face? Israel has sinned. They've transgressed my covenant that I commanded them. Two important words, sinned and transgressed. We'll come back to those. They've taken some of the devoted things. They have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings. Therefore, the people of Israel cannot stand before their enemies. I will be with you no more unless you destroy the devoted things from among you. All right, let's pause for a minute. You might take issue with the fact that the Lord says Israel has sinned because you might think to yourself, I pretty much think it was Achan that sinned. This is a little unfair to say Israel has sinned. But one thing that we have to remember in these narratives is that the Lord is giving us a picture and he is using the nation of Israel as if they were one man. As if they were one person with many members. One body with many members. What does that sound like to us? That's familiar to New Testament Christians, isn't it? And that's how we're looking at this. Those are the glasses that we want to put on to view Israel. And so in that context, Israel has sinned. So the offense here was both a sin and a transgression. Sin means to miss the mark, making an error. A transgression is going against a command. Don't go into that kitchen and you walk right into the kitchen. A person can sin without transgressing the law. But if you transgress the law, you've done both. And so that's why God said they have sinned and transgressed. So now God told Joshua how to remedy this sin. Look at verse 13, consecrate yourselves for tomorrow. There are devoted things in your midst. You cannot stand before your enemies unless you take away the devoted things from among you. So the next day, drop down to verse 16, Joshua rose early in the morning. He brought Israel near, tribe by tribe. And the tribe of Judah was taken. And then the clan of the Zerahites was taken. And Zabdai was taken. And finally, Achan was taken. And then Joshua said to Achan, my son, tell me now what you've done. Do not hide it from me. And Achan answered, well, truly, I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel. And this is what I did. When I saw among the spoil a beautiful cloak from Shinar and 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels, then I coveted them and took them and see they're hidden in the earth inside my tent. So Joshua sent messengers and they ran to the tent and behold, it was hidden in his tent with the silver underneath. And the chapter ends from verse 24 on saying, and then they brought him to the valley of Achor, which by the way, also means trouble. Both Achan and Achor mean trouble. And Joshua said, why did you bring trouble on us? The Lord brings trouble on you today. And all Israel stoned him with stones. They burned them with fire and they raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. There you have it. Worst Valentine's Day message ever in the history of women of the word. But we remember God is actually for us. God wants us to move forward in his promises. And so he graciously shows us the things that lie in our path, the things that are in the way, the barriers and the battles that we will face on the path of promise. So now I want to get to this chapter and say, what does it mean? And I think before we start saying, what does it mean? Sometimes it's easy, easier, or it helps clear the path a little bit to say, what does it not mean? So I want to go through a couple. things that this doesn't mean. This does not mean that God is watching your life like a hawk and waiting for you to make one wrong move so that he can come in and just cut you off. That is not what this is teaching, okay? And this is not a good lesson and a good illustration to teach your little children about what's gonna happen if they take a piece of gum from the grocery store and hide it under their bed, okay? Do not use this passage for that. Yesterday in my regular Bible reading, I was in Galatians and listen to this balance here. Paul told the Galatians chapter six, verse one, if anyone is caught in a transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. But watch yourselves closely, lest you too be tempted. All right, so that's a good balance for us. So it's not teaching that, you know, one wrong move and we're done for. It's also not teaching that when bad things happen to us or illness or accident or whatever, that we need to go back and say, what's the sin in my life? Or worse yet, what's the sin in your life? Because something bad has happened to you, okay? They were defeated at AI, but this isn't, we can't isolate this and say, so if you're ill, if you got fired from your job, if something bad happened to you, it is because of sin in your life. We can't say that, okay? In this world, we will have trouble. We could lead a completely sinless life. We can't, but if we could, we would still experience trouble. Jesus told us in this world, you will have trouble. So not all trouble is because of hidden sin, okay? So what does it mean? Now let's get to what we can, what it does mean. And there's different aspects we could look at. We could look at the seemingly self-confidence or overconfidence of Israel as they approach this, just send a couple thousand, it's not gonna, it's easy. Look what just happened. We could look at that. We could also look at the fact that no one seemed to get instructions from the Lord. There didn't seem to be a prayer put into this or any of the instructions that they had for Jericho. But what I want us to settle on is the transgression itself because that seems like that's what the chapter is all about, is the transgression. So the elephant in the room then is why the harsh treatment for one seemingly small offense by one person, maybe one out of a million, why such harsh treatment? And my answer is, I don't know. But in our study guide, we looked at some things that maybe give us a few hints, okay? And what we looked at is we noticed a repetitive response of the Lord every time there seemed to be a new great movement in the story of redemption. And we went to Leviticus chapter 10, and we looked at Nadab and Abihu when they offered unauthorized fire and were cut off when God was establishing the priesthood. And we went to Acts chapter five when Ananias and Sapphira died from their lying when God was establishing the early church. And we have this event here, this judgment on Achan when God was establishing his people in the place that he intended for them to be to fulfill his promise. So we do see some repetitive responses. And so then we ask, well, what about us? What about now? So if we're not in a great movement of the story of redemption, does that mean we can just chill and sin isn't gonna be a big deal because God's not responding? I haven't noticed God respond this way to anyone in my life recently, okay? So no, actually God is establishing his kingdom in our hearts, every one of us. He is establishing something. His kingdom is being established in our hearts. And so his commands are still important. His commands are to be followed. Sin still hinders us from victory in our Christian life. And God goes to great lengths to uncover hidden sin in our lives so that we can get back on track. That is the point. He wants us to get back on track. So then the next thing we should ask is, what does this mean to me? How do I apply this to my life? I think one of the most important takeaways for me in this story, as we think about one man, one out of a million doing something wrong, is the fact that God treats my entire life as a whole. Everything about my life is integrated into my life, okay? And so I can't compartmentalize my life and say, well, that part is over there. That part doesn't really matter. This part is insignificant, okay? We have a relational life. We have a financial life. We have a sexual life. We have a thought life. All of those parts of our life make up the whole. And God is interested in all of the parts. We can't allow hidden transgressions in some aspect of our life and say, eh, I'm still 75% compliant. I think that's pretty good. I have passed classes with a mark of 75% before, and so I'm pretty sure I'll still move on. That's not the attitude God wants us to have. He wants us to look at this and say, even the small things need to be rooted out. Hidden sin will create a hindrance in our forward progress, carrying out our purpose for which we've been created. Okay, so I thought what I'd do at this point is I created four steps to getting back on track, and I'll throw them up on the slide for you. Since transgression and sin is our topic today, I wanna go through these steps to get back on track. The first one is to believe that I am vulnerable. And you know, I might say these are steps not only to get back on track, but to stay on track, okay? Believe that I am vulnerable. Before this sin was acted upon, the eyes looked upon. Verse 21 in this chapter told us, when I saw a beautiful cloak from Shinar and 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold, there had to have been a vulnerability in this man's life that when he saw that, there was a desire, there was an attachment. You know, the King James calls that a goodly Babylonian-ish garment. I thought that was really interesting. You know, here it just says a robe, but a goodly Babylonian-ish garment. You know, from Egypt through the Amorites all the way to Babylon, who were they worshiping? All the demonic gods. And so here's this Babylonian-ish garment that caught his attention. But anyway, we have vulnerabilities. I have vulnerabilities, you have them. We need to believe that we have vulnerabilities, protect them, guard them, guard ourselves in those areas. There are things that we are vulnerable to that we don't talk about much. We are vulnerable, we can be vulnerable to things like the attention of men, desiring the attention of men. We can be vulnerable to a misuse of alcohol or other substances. We can be vulnerable to theft. We can be vulnerable to offenses. I mean, I could go on and on and on, but we all have different vulnerabilities. Do you believe that you are vulnerable? Have you identified it? And do you protect yourself in those areas? I think of that little song from Sunday school, oh, be careful, little eyes, what you see. But I love how it says, for the father up above is looking down in love. Now, that's what you should tell your kids about stealing the pack of gum. So that's the good story there. Okay, number two, getting back on track. Practice a guilt-free no. You're writing down the words and saying, I have no idea what she means by that. Practice a guilt-free no. What I mean is know the difference between a temptation and a transgression. And don't let temptation cause you so much guilt that you think you've already sinned, okay? We are all tempted all the time. I asked in the study guide, at what point could Aiken have said no? There's a point of temptation, and then there comes a point of transgression. The text tells. I saw, then I coveted, and took. But the first point was a point of temptation. And so we should say to ourselves, I have not yet sinned. I can say no right now, guilt free. But I think what happens sometimes is we already feel like we're guilty, and then we just dive in. It's like, I feel guilty already. I might as well enjoy this. And, you know, and we go in. So just remember that a temptation should not generate guilt in you. You see a temptation, you hear it, you think it, and you just say, no, right there. It is not a transgression. It is not a sin. It is not missing the mark, okay? Third thing, then we get to the hard one. Uncover my sin. Uncover my sin and confess it. In this story, verse 22, the messengers ran to the tent, and they took these items out of the tent, brought them to Joshua, and they laid them down before the Lord. That is a sentence to remember. They laid them down before the Lord. We must practice bringing out the hidden transgression and laying it down before the Lord. Sometimes we are, we don't believe that God knows. We think we're hiding. Our pride does not want us to uncover and to reveal it, but it is essential that we bring it out into the open and that we deal with it. Now, Jesus did carry this forward in the Sermon on the Mount, in the New Testament. He said, if your eye causes you to sin, what? Gouge it out. Hyperbole for deal with whatever causes sin. Deal harshly with it, just like Achan was dealt harshly with in this story. But also, because of Jesus, we are able to confess our sins, and God is faithful and just, and he will forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Best feeling ever. Have you experienced that ever or recently? When you finally uncover and lay it before the Lord and say, look how I transgressed, would you forgive me? I did this, would you forgive me? And he does. We have that release. Oh, praise the Lord, I love it. His goal is to restore us to the path of victory, and that's what happens in Joshua 8. Let's get started. And the Lord said to Joshua, do not fear, do not be dismayed. Take all the fighting men with you. The whole nation has been restored now. And arise, go up to Ai. See, I've given you into the hand of the king. I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land. And you shall do to Ai as you did to Jericho, only its spoil and its livestock you shall take as plunder for yourselves. And then Joshua commanded the men. He goes, okay, guys, here's the plan. This is what we're gonna do. You lie in ambush against the city behind it. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you remain ready. And I and all the people who are with me will approach the city, and when they come out against us, like last time, we'll flee before them. They will come out after us until we've drawn them away from the city, for they will say, ha, they're fleeing from us just as before. And then you rise up from the ambush and seize the city, for the Lord your God will give it into your hand. And it pretty much happened that way. Let's go down to verse 17. Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel. They left the city open and pursued Israel. And then the Lord said to Joshua, stretch out your javelin that's in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand. And Joshua stretched out the javelin, and the men in the ambush rose quickly. They ran and entered the city and captured it, and they hurried to set the city on fire. So when the men of Ai looked back, behold, the smoke of the city went up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that, for the people who fled to the wilderness turned back against them. Verse 26, Joshua did not draw back his hand or javelin until he had devoted all the inhabitants of Ai to destruction. Only the livestock and the spoil of the city Israel took as their plunder, according to the word of the Lord that he commanded Joshua. They got to keep it this time. And then it goes on to tell about how they dealt with the king, and then they heaped another mound of stones here. So again this week, we have two mounds of stones. The first pile of stones is a memorial to the defeat or a memorial to the transgression and how it needs to be dealt with. And the second pile of stones is a memorial to a comeback, to what happens when we get back on track with the Lord and the victory that we have. So it's a good reminder that God's not only for us. He organizes comebacks after our entanglement with sin. That is our legacy. That is our promise, girls. Even after an entanglement with sin, God organizes a comeback for us once we get back on track with the Lord. I wanted to save a few minutes for these last five verses. Beautiful dedication to God's word at Shechem. And you went and investigated the importance of this place of Shechem to first Abraham, and then the importance to Jacob, and now the importance to all of Israel. All of Israel is gathered at this place that held significance for the patriarchs. And so, excuse me, in verse 30, at that time Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal, just as Moses had commanded the people of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses. And what we were referring to was Deuteronomy chapter 27. I don't know if you got a chance to go back there and read it, the instructions of what they were to do once they got to this place. I'll just read you one verse, verse 8, and you shall write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly. God always strives to make his word go out very plainly. That is an awesome thing. Verse 32, and there in the presence of the people of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, and all Israel stood opposite sides of the ark before the Levitical priests who carried the ark, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal. And we finish by saying, and 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. There was not one word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel and the women and the little ones and the sojourners who lived among them. And so I love that this ends with a celebration of God's word, a celebration of his word. It said not a word was held back. It was all important. Every word needed to be stored up in them so that they would not sin against God. And that's why we have the memory verse that we have for this week. We could have chosen lots of memory verses about God's word, God's commands, obedience, but it was Psalm 119, 10 and 11 that won the day.

Makes a lot of sense in the context of this passage, doesn't it? The importance. So you might have noticed I said there was four steps to getting back on track. We're going to give you the fourth one right now. Here it is. Store up God's word. This is how we stay on track. This is also how we get back on track to celebrate God's word, to honor it, to give it a prominent place in our life. We hide God's word. Maybe you know this like I do. You know that second verse from the NIV. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. And so I was almost like fighting with myself a little bit. It's like, ah, store up. Why do we have to change things? I like hidden. But you know what? I do like store up now better after I think about hiding the sin from God. I like the word store up. But we do. We want to hide his word so we don't hide our transgressions. Hide God's word rather than hiding the transgressions. All right. I just want to leave us with the reminder that this passage is teaching us that every part of my life is an important part of the whole. Every part of my life. And so maybe as you are going through this or maybe even right now, the Holy Spirit is just sifting. Just let him sift. Let him sift through your life. It's a good thing. Because why do we need this? We got more battles. Isn't it fascinating that we've entered into the land of promise and so far. All the battles are within, you know, there are things that we have to deal with, but pretty soon we're going to have things come against us. We need to be in good shape for that. We need to be built up for that. And so this is very gracious of the Lord to remind us the hindrance that hidden sin causes us in our life and give us the path of recovery. Path of recovery is clear and simple. Oh, it's simple, but it's not easy. The reason it's not easy is pride is in the way, but it is simple. The path of recovery is very simple. Lord, help us to walk on that path of recovery. Lord, help us to not close you out from any area of our life, Lord, and to love you and obey you with all of our being. Lord, help us to open our whole heart to store up your word so that we do not transgress what you have given us, Lord. You're so good. You are so gracious, and we just hold on to that and know that you deal tenderly with us. Lord, help us not take advantage of that. Help us to just walk in it. In Jesus' name, amen. ---