Latest / Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan / August 15, 2026 - Joshua 8 & Proverbs 11:17-20

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August 15, 2026 - Joshua 8 & Proverbs 11:17-20 · Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, with God's word lighting the way.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Josiah Smith joined by Tyler Sanborn.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Today is Saturday, August 15th, 2026.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Listen intently to God's written word.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Joshua 8.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: And the Lord said to Joshua, Do not fear, and do not be dismayed.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Take all the fighting men with you, and arise, and go up to Ai.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, his city, and his land, and you shall do to Ai and its kings as you did to Jericho and its king.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Only its spoil and its livestock you shall take as plunder for yourselves.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Lay in ambush against the city behind it.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: So Joshua and all the fighting men arose to go up to Ai, and Joshua chose thirty thousand mighty men of valor, and sent them out by night.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: And he commanded them, Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city behind it.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Do not go very far from the city, but all of you remain ready.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I and all the people who are with me will approach the city, and when they come out against us just as before, we shall flee before them, and they will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: For they will say, They are fleeing from us just as before.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: So we will flee before them.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Then you shall rise up from the ambush, and seize the city from the Lord your God, will give it into your hand.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: And as soon as you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire, you shall do according to the word of the Lord.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: See, I have commanded you.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: So Joshua sent them out, and they went to the place of ambush and lay between Bethel and Ai to the west of Ai.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: But Joshua spent that night among the people.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Joshua arose early in the morning, and mustered the people and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: And all the fighting men who were with him went up and drew near before the city, and encamped on the north side of Ai, with a ravine between them and Ai.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: He took about five thousand men, and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai to the west of the city.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: So they stationed the forces, the main encampment that was north of the city, and its rear guard west of the city.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: But Joshua spent that night in the valley, and as soon as the king of Ai saw this, he and all his people, the men of the city, hurried and went out early to the appointed place toward the Arabah to meet Israel in battle.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: And Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten before them and fled in the direction of the wilderness.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: So all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and as they pursued Joshua, they were drawn away from the city.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out of Israel.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: They left the city open and pursued Israel.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: 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.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city, and the men in the ambush rose quickly out of their place, and as soon as he stretched out his hand, they ran and entered the city and captured it, and they hurried to set the city on fire.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: 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 the pursuers.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city, and that the smoke of the city went up, then they turned back and struck down the men of Ai.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: And the others came out from the city against them, so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side and some on that side.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: And Israel struck them down until there was left none that survived or escaped.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: But the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him near to Joshua.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: When Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the open wilderness where they pursued them, and all of them to the very last had fallen by the edge of the sword, all Israel returned to Ai and struck it down with the edge of the sword.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: And all who fell that day, both men and women, were twelve thousand, all the people of Ai.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: But Joshua did not draw back his hand with which he stretched out the javelin, until he had devoted all the inhabitants of Ai to destruction.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took as their plunder, according to the word of the Lord that he commanded Joshua.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: So Joshua burned Ai and made it forever a heap of ruins, as it is to this day.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening, and at sunset Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree, and threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised over it a great heap of stones, which stands there to this day.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: At that time Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal, just as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded the people of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of uncut stones upon which no man has wielded an iron tool, and they offered on it burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: And there, in the presence of the people of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: And all Israel, sojourner as well as native born, with their elders and officers and their judges, stood on opposite sides of the ark before the Levitical priest who carried the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim, and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded at the first, to bless the people of Israel.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: There was not a 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.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: Proverbs eleven verses seventeen through twenty.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: A man who is kind benefits himself, but a cruel man hurts himself.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: The wicked earns deceptive wages, but one who sows righteousness gets a sure reward.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: Whoever is steadfast in righteousness will live, but he who pursues evil will die.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: Those of crooked heart are an abomination to the Lord, but those of blameless ways are his delight.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, here we are in Joshua eight, and of course we are following the events of the sin of Achan from chapter seven, where he disobeyed.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: He stole as a thief some of the devoted things, he buried them in his tent, and ultimately caused suffering, both him individually, but his family and the nation as a whole.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: So their first run at AI uh was heartbreaking.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they they lost uh many good soldiers, many good men, they were defeated swiftly.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: And you got to think that the king of AI, because of that victory, was feeling pretty good, Tyler.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he was probably up in his city, uh, especially when he sees Joshua and what is it, the 5,000 men that he had with him that were kind of the decoy.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: He um is feeling good.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: He's feeling like here we go.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: They want more.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: We beat him last time, we'll beat him again.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Things are going well.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: There we go.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but of course, what we see here, even the title in my Bible, says the fall of a eye.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: And we see the promise of the Lord to protect and preserve his people once again on full display.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: And this city, uh, it is it comes to ruin, and uh ultimately God gives Joshua and the nation of Israel the victory, just like he said he would.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: And even that's how the chapter begins.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord said to Joshua, do not fear, don't be afraid, and do not be dismayed.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Take all the fighting men with you and arise, go up to Ai.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what's so interesting about that is he he basically talks about that as if it's already happened.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: I have given into your hand.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is such a sure thing.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, we know when when God says he's going to do something, nothing and no one can stay the hand of God.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: But he's talking to Joshua, and this has got to be a confidence booster, especially after the events of chapter seven and the sin of Achan, and uh, you know, the stoning that took place, and just even you can imagine some of the mourning that went along with that.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, so to hear these words from God, I have given into your hand the king of AI.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: The city's yours, Joshua.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: The city belongs to you, belongs to Israel.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Just listen to what I tell you and go and take it.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly what happened.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I must confess, I I had a couple of uh AI jokes that I wanted to make.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I won't.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: I won't.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: But what I will say is that even though AI may rise, it's always destined to fall.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: So uh that's my one that's my one joke for for AI here in Joshua 8.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: But we of course we do see uh the faithfulness of the Lord.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: We see um Joshua listening and the nation of Israel as a whole listening uh to the commands of God.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: They do exactly what he instructs, and the outcome that he promised is the outcome that of course happened.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then at the end of the chapter, we have another covenant renewal.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: And you're gonna kind of see this theme, uh, one again, of the mercy and the grace of the Lord, where God's people sometimes are really hard-hearted, they're stubborn.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, we saw the wilderness generation, the wandering generation that wandered for 40 years in the wilderness because of their ultimate rebellion, because of their unbelief, as even Hebrews describes it.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's this ebb and flow in the story of Israel where they they see something miraculous that God does, thinking all the way back to the Exodus event, even to here in Joshua 8 to the victory over the king of AI in the city of AI.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: They see God do something great, and then they're kind of brought back to this renewal of the covenant, this reminder of what God has promised.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, something happens, whether it's the spoils and riches of war that they are not to take that really consume their hearts and lead them to sin, or it's just the circumstances that they find themselves in, and we can we can even think of in numbers the whole situation with uh the food and the quail, and uh we want meat, and we want this and we want that, and uh the complaining and the grumbling, and there's any number of reasons why the nation of Israel walks away from their covenant or uh begins to uh you know sinfully worship other uh things or in other ways or are just disobeying the commands of God in general.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: But here at the end of chapter eight, we see uh the nation of Israel as a whole renew their covenant.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: And this is an encouraging part, and we we we even mentioned the uh blessings and the curses and the uh the valley there with the altar of uncun stones that was mentioned in uh you know the previous uh sections that we read in the uh Pentateuch.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: But here we see that again, and it's just a it's a great encouragement to see God's people, God's mercy, and ultimately God's grace uh to allow them uh to continue to renew this covenant, even though there has been violations of it already.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: They're newly in the land, they've experienced victory now twice, uh, and a loss at least once because of uh Achan's sin.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, they continue uh to move forward.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: God continues to sustain and provide, and it's uh just a wonderful display of God's sovereignty and God's um surety to keep his promises.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and PJ, I love how Joshua draws the people's attention back to uh back to the law, back to the words of God, back to his promises, and uh that points me forward to our text in Proverbs today.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um verse 19 of chapter 11 says, Whoever is steadfast in righteousness will live, but he who pursues evil will die.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, as God's people seek to pursue him, step into a life that is righteous, uh per pursuing God who is righteous and being set apart for God's glory.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's what God's people do.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: We return to what he has already said, we we reflect, we remember, and we have a choice to make.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: Do we continue on in obedience?
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: Do we continue on reflecting and remembering God's character?
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: Or are we going to sort out this life on our own terms, in our own ways, in our own knowledge and understanding?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: Or are we going to fix our heart and fix our eyes on what God has already said as he defines who we are, created in his image, and as we look to the life that we have here on earth and sowing righteousness, I have this imagery of um seeds, seeds of righteousness.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: When you go to sow a crop, you're going to cast a seed or you're going to plant a seed inside the earth with the hopes, with the with the faith that it will grow.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: It will grow into something that will produce a fruit.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: And as we look to the fruits that God produces in his people, the things that are good, the products of obedience, we see uh righteousness, we see the the things that God would um grow us in, and ultimately our righteousness is found in Christ.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: But the ways that we find uh righteous living are for our good and for God's glory.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: So as we seek to sow seeds uh of righteousness, the reward is we bring God much honor, we we bring God much glory.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: So I was encouraged by this verse, particularly today.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: We even we see that there's actually a reward that we ourselves experience as well.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we we see that here in verse 18.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: The wicked earns deceptive wages, but one who sows righteousness gets a sure reward.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: This reminds me of the Psalm of David in Psalm 19, kind of the latter half of the Psalm, where he basically talks about the law of the Lord, the statutes, the precepts, the commandments.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: And uh towards the end there, he says, in keeping them there is great reward.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so this idea of reward, uh, we see in the Psalms, we see it in the Proverbs, of course, we see it reiterated in the New Testament as well, uh, that those who live a righteous life, there's a kind of reward that you receive, uh, both in a temporal sense, where there can be uh uh your life, of course, can if it's rooted in God's wisdom that's rooted in the fear of the Lord, there is these positive things that can happen.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, it's not always a one-to-one, it's not always a guarantee.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: But generally speaking, the the Proverbs, these wisdom principles will say, hey, if you if you live God's way in God's world, uh there are good things, positive things that can happen.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: There can be a reward in that sense, but even beyond that, there's an eternal reward that you receive, which is, of course, uh being with Christ for eternity, receiving the blessing of eternal life, the blessing of the future kingdom that God uh promises and has ultimately already secured through his son.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's much reward that's baked into being righteous.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, being righteous, we as we talked about yesterday, is not something that we can do or be on our own.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's something that we need to receive from Christ himself.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so we've got the this reality that even, yeah, of course, our our pursuit of righteousness, living in the ways that God uh commands, is glorifying to him.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: It honors him.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: But there's also a sense in which we ourselves receive reward.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that's meant to be an encouragement and something uh that I think is to spur us onward to further righteousness.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible reading podcast.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass Bible SV.org.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: Keep reading, keep growing.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.