Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / March 31, 2021 | Chronological Bible Study with Patty Diliberto - Session 10: The Conquest

Transcript

March 31, 2021 | Chronological Bible Study with Patty Diliberto - Session 10: The Conquest · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Hi, welcome to Crono this morning.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: We have some really interesting things to see today.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: So let's start with prayer.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: Join me.
0:08
SPEAKER_00: Father God, thank you for what we are going to see.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the ways that you act on behalf of your people.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: And God, just give us ears to hear and eyes to see your intent.
0:21
SPEAKER_00: And we pray these things in Jesus' name.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
0:25
SPEAKER_00: Today we are looking at the conquest.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: The people of Israel are about to enter the promised land.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: After 40 years of waiting and wandering, and we might add whining, they are excited and they are afraid.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: They're terrified.
0:43
SPEAKER_00: They are yearning for more adventure, and yet it's kind of hard to let go of what has become familiar to them.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: And we saw that same thing happen when they left Egypt.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: They wanted to go back.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: We'll see that today, too.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: In the opening two verses of Deuteronomy, we get a brief geography lesson.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: Deuteronomy 1, 2 says, it takes 11 days to go from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by the Mount Seir Road.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: Now this information might seem random, but it's there for a definite reason.
1:18
SPEAKER_00: The writer, Moses, wants us to know that the trip from Mount Sinai, which is also known as Mount Horeb, up to the edge of the Promised Land normally takes only 11 days.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: 11 days.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: It took Israel 40 years to cover 150 mile distance.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: A trip that usually took a week and a half, took Israel 40 years to complete.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: A whole generation of people wasted their lives in the desert and lost opportunity to enter God's promised land because they stubbornly refused to trust God and to do what he said.
2:01
SPEAKER_00: The lesson here: don't make the mistake.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: Don't spend 40 years of your life on an 11-day lesson.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, the Israelites needed this extra time on the road because more was going on with this journey than was apparent.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: They were learning to trust, to obey, to love, and to worship God.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: Remember, we saw that last week.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: God was teaching and training them to do all of these things in an appropriate way.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: There's always more going on behind the scenes than meets the eye, especially where God is concerned.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: One leader is finishing and another leader is beginning.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: Joshua 1, 2, God says, Moses, my servant, is dead.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: And with those words, we begin the book of Joshua.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: One era is coming to an end, and another one has begun, and that era is the conquest.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: So far in our study, we have seen the era the creation era, the patriarchal era, the law era, and now we come to the conquest era.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: So put yourself in Joshua's sandals for a minute.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: He has seen Moses at his best and at his worst.
3:27
SPEAKER_00: He has seen the miracles that God did through Moses.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: To Joshua, the man Moses and the God of Moses were so interconnected that they almost seemed inseparable.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: These are really big sandals to fill.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: But with these reassuring words from God, Joshua is ready to take the lead.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: As I was with Moses, so I will be with you.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: I will never leave you or forsake you.
3:55
SPEAKER_00: The comforting thing was that nothing of God died when Moses died.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: This is all part of his plan.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: God knew what a huge job this would be.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: So he blesses Joshua with these words.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: Be strong and very courageous.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: Be careful to obey all my law, all the law my servant Moses gave you.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: Do not turn to it from the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: Keep this book of the law always on your lips, meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything that is written in it.
4:42
SPEAKER_00: Then you will be will be prosperous and successful.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: Have I not commanded you?
4:48
SPEAKER_00: Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid, and do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: We see Joshua's marching orders here as a leader.
5:01
SPEAKER_00: Obey the law.
5:02
SPEAKER_00: Do not turn from the law to the right or to the left.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: Keep the law on your lips, meditate on the law day and night.
5:08
SPEAKER_00: Do everything written in the law.
5:09
SPEAKER_00: And then you will be prosperous because the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: And again, this is where we see human responsibility meeting divine sovereignty and divine enablement.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: Joshua has been tutored by Moses.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: So he has skills and he has ability, but these are huge nations that they are going into the land to possess and to destroy.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: It would be slightly or very terrifying thing to do this.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: We see God's comforting principles here.
5:49
SPEAKER_00: God does not call the equipped, he equips the called.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: Or another way of saying it is when God calls, he equips.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: God not only calls and equips Joshua, but he has beautifully been preparing Joshua for this assignment for a very, very long time.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: Joshua was on the mountain when Moses received the Ten Commandments, the law.
6:10
SPEAKER_00: He was one of the 12 spies that Moses sent to investigate Canaan.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: He and Caleb returned with a faith-filled report and said, We can do this.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: And 40 years later, only he and Caleb were allowed to enter the promised land from that entire generation.
6:29
SPEAKER_00: Joshua was a military leader.
6:31
SPEAKER_00: He was a political leader and a spiritual leader.
6:35
SPEAKER_00: He was quiet and unassuming, but he was not intimidated with his responsibilities or the task that was before him.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: Moses had mentored him really well.
6:48
SPEAKER_00: Remember why Jacob and his sons had gone down to Egypt in the first place?
6:53
SPEAKER_00: There was a famine in the land, and so Jacob and the 12, the 11 sons of Israel go down to Egypt.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: There were 70 Israelites that went down to Egypt.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: 400 years later, there are over 600 trained men for war, 20 years or over, not including the women and the children.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: Now coming out of Egypt, there are around 2 million, more or less.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: We don't know for absolutely sure, but that is a huge number of people.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: In the entire state of Kansas, there's approximately 2.9 million people.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: God was already ready to fulfill his promise that he had made to the patriarchs back in Genesis chapter 12.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: He would give the portions of the land to the tribes of Israel, and they were to take possession of what God had already given them.
7:49
SPEAKER_00: Now listen to this.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: To the west of that area was desert.
8:30
SPEAKER_00: And so, in order to have those wars, they would meet right there in Canaan.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: This land was also a crossroads for trade and finances as caravans would move through this entire fertile crescent.
8:49
SPEAKER_00: This land, specifically around Mount Hermon, was also where the giants lived.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: These were fallen quasi-divine gods, and this was their land that they had taken possession of.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: Financially, militarily, this little piece of land has become the center of the known world at this time.
9:41
SPEAKER_00: This is important.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: Spiritually, this land has been needs to be delivered from the evil grip that has held it.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: And because this land was so strategic, whatever happened in this land was known far and wide.
9:59
SPEAKER_00: Everyone would know what was happening here.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: So everyone would hear what had happened in Egypt and know what God had done for the people of Israel.
10:08
SPEAKER_00: It's no coincidence that God has these people placed and positioned right there.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: It's also no coincidence that Jesus comes on the scene right there.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: Being a good leader, Joshua plans a reconnaissance mission.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: He tells the people that in three days they will cross the river Jordan to take possession of the land.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: In preparation for that, he sends in two spies on a reconnaissance mission to see what the lay of the land is and what the people are saying.
10:41
SPEAKER_00: The two spies go in and they go in secretly because Joshua doesn't want all the Israelites chiming in like they did last time when just he and Caleb and ten others went in.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: He had learned a valuable lesson that first time around.
10:56
SPEAKER_00: So this time their mission was to check out Jericho.
10:59
SPEAKER_00: And remember, they go to Rahab's house, and she tells them that the fear of God has fallen on all the peoples that occupy the promised land.
11:07
SPEAKER_00: All of them were terrified.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: They had heard about what God had done down in Egypt and in the Red Sea.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: God's reputation has gone before him, right?
11:18
SPEAKER_00: The spies come back and basically basically say, Yeah, let's go.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: They are primed for defeat.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: And poor Joshua is thinking, yeah, that's what I've been thinking for the last 40 years.
11:30
SPEAKER_00: God told them in Exodus 23, 27, I will send my terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter.
11:41
SPEAKER_00: I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: The irony is that the nations in Canaan realize that, when even Israel itself did not realize what God was really doing and what he was really about here.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: Forty years after their parents had refused to enter the land, by faith, a new generation stands on the banks of the Jordan, ready to step into their inheritance.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: Joshua moves the people to the Jordan and he camps there for three days.
12:17
SPEAKER_00: He tells the people to consecrate themselves, get ready, and in preparation for what the Lord is going to do.
12:25
SPEAKER_00: Normally, the Jordan River was not difficult to cross because it's not a very big river.
12:33
SPEAKER_00: I was pretty underwhelmed in the times that I've seen it personally.
12:37
SPEAKER_00: In many places, the Jordan is only six, three to six feet deep.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: But during the flood season, it's a different story.
12:45
SPEAKER_00: The waters would surge from the heights of Mount Hermon and overflow the normal riverbed.
12:52
SPEAKER_00: The rushing waters would fill a second larger area called the Zoar.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: This expanded riverbed was about 150 feet wide and 10 to 20 feet deep.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: At flood stage, this gorge, this zoar, would fill all the way up.
13:09
SPEAKER_00: Now the Jordan was at flood stage all during harvest, yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water's edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing.
13:23
SPEAKER_00: It piled up in a heap a great distance away, while the water flowing to the south to the Arabah was completely cut off.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: So the people crossed over the over opposite Jericho.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: What a relief that would have been for the press, the priests.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: Put yourself in their place.
13:42
SPEAKER_00: They know that they have to step first and they're carrying the heavy Ark of the Covenant.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: You don't drop the Ark of the Covenant.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: And so they had to be praying like crazy that when their foot touched that water, that God would work a miracle.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: And he does.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: And he does.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: And with this miracle, God was showing Israel that he was with Joshua as much as he had been with Moses.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: That was the point he was making.
14:13
SPEAKER_00: Now you know that the king of Jericho had to have soldiers who were watching Israel's every move to see what they would do next.
14:22
SPEAKER_00: And their eyes have to be bulging out of their heads, realizing that the water had just dried up in this raging, flooded river, and that the people had crossed on dry ground.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: Joshua 4, 14.
14:49
SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord said to Joshua, Command the priest carrying the Ark of the Covenant of the law to come up out of the Jordan.
14:55
SPEAKER_00: So Joshua commanded the priests, Come on up out of the Jordan.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: And as soon as they came out of the river, the waters ran, returned back to their place and ran at flood stage again.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: Forty years to the day.
15:12
SPEAKER_00: From when God told the is told Israel to get ready to leave Egypt, he is now getting them ready to enter the promised land.
15:21
SPEAKER_00: Coincidence?
15:22
SPEAKER_00: I think not.
15:24
SPEAKER_00: Once the nation has crossed the Jordan, it would seem that the next natural step would be to go in and to start the conquest.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: But God surprises Joshua and all the people, especially the men, by calling them to take a different approach to their first few days in the Promised Land.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: He says that all the men of Israel should be circumcised.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: Ouch.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: Teaching the heart of the Old Testament says apparently during the desert wanderings they had not upheld the Abrahamic sign of the covenant.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: This generation had never been circumcised.
16:00
SPEAKER_00: So think about this for a moment.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: The nations are watching in fear of what Israel is going to do, and it's a good thing that they feared them because they were keeping their distance.
16:10
SPEAKER_00: But they know that this huge group of people and its military force of 600,000 plus men is lurking on their border.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: And now they've crossed over.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: They are a clear and present danger.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: And the people of the land are on high alert because of this.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: What kind of military strategy are we seeing here?
16:36
SPEAKER_00: It's a risky move at best, and it's a highly dangerous one at worst because all the men of Israel, every able-bodied man is going to be flat on their backs in pain, a lot of pain, for a number of days.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: It seems obvious that Joshua's announcement for all the men to be circumcised is not a real morale booster.
17:03
SPEAKER_00: But in this call for circumcision, we see God reinstating his covenant with his people.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: And he needed to understand they were in covenant still with him.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: And it was an act of obedience.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: They had to obey him and do this.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: Now that God's about to take them into the land, he wants them to be set apart.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: Remember from seeing that last week that that holy means set apart.
17:34
SPEAKER_00: They are circumcised, and when they are healed, they are ready to head into Jericho.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: So on the eve of the 14th day of the month, while camped at Gilgal on the plains of Jericho, the Israelites celebrated the Passover.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: The day after the Passover, that very day, they ate some of the produce of the land, unleavened bread and roasted grain.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: The manna stopped the day after they ate this food from the land.
18:07
SPEAKER_00: There was no longer any manna for the Israelites, but that year they ate produce the produce of Canaan.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: Now that they have the produce of the land, manna is no longer needed.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: At that moment, God stops providing for them.
18:25
SPEAKER_00: He was showing them that they could trust him in a new and unique way.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: No more manna was needed because they were had entered the land flowing with milk and honey.
18:43
SPEAKER_00: He has just fulfilled the promise that he made to Abraham.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: What do we learn about God from these verses?
18:52
SPEAKER_00: We learn that he has the plan, that he works the plan, and that he has the power.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: He has the power to fulfill the plan.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: All of those things are true about our God.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: He chooses certain people to work through to accomplish his will.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: He mercifully demonstrates his power for the benefit of other unbelievers.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: Now that last thing is important for us to understand.
19:20
SPEAKER_00: God wants the unbelievers in the land to believe in him.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: That's what he wants.
19:26
SPEAKER_00: That's one of the reasons he's doing what he's doing.
19:28
SPEAKER_00: That's one of the reasons his reputation is going ahead of him, to get their attention so that they might turn to him the way Rahab had, even if it's out of fear.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: He's okay with that.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: After the people have rested and recuperated and celebrated, they are finally ready to leave.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: How gracious of our God to direct their every step.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: Joshua 6, 1 through 5.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord said to Joshua, See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and fighting men.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: March around the city once with all the armed men.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: Do this for six days.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: Have seven priests carrying trumpets or of rams' horns in front of the ark.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: On the seventh day, march around the city seven times with the priests blowing the trumpets.
20:28
SPEAKER_00: Now remember, there's 600,000 fighting men.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: If you were a soldier, don't you think you might feel a little goofy marching around the city?
20:37
SPEAKER_00: Okay, we did one lap and we go back and we rest.
20:41
SPEAKER_00: This wasn't what you had pictured the warfare to look like.
20:47
SPEAKER_00: This is not your typical battle plan.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: Then God says, when you hear them, them sound a long blast on the trumpets.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: Have the whole army give a loud shout, then the walls of the city will collapse, and the army can go up, everyone straight in.
21:05
SPEAKER_00: God makes it clear that they have to take this approach.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: He will be the one giving them the first city in the land.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: Their victory in their new home is from the hand of Yahweh, and it represents their obedience to do what he told them to do.
21:26
SPEAKER_00: God saying, Will you trust me to do something, even if it feels or might look foolish?
21:33
SPEAKER_00: Even when you can, even when you could do it in your own strength and look impressive and strong doing it, will you trust me?
21:43
SPEAKER_00: Will you take the risk and will you do it my way?
21:47
SPEAKER_00: That's the question.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: And they pass the test.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: God's power gets released when somebody trusts him enough to obey.
21:57
SPEAKER_00: God demonstrates his power.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: In the fall of Jericho, not because of Israel's Israel defeats it, but because God exerts his mighty power.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: That was what he wanted the people of Jericho and the people of Israel to know that it wasn't by human might or power, but by his spirit and strength.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't them, it was him.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: The final shout after the trumpet blast was a shout of victory and joy that the Lord had given them Jericho.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: And did you notice the number seven?
22:39
SPEAKER_00: Seven days, seven times, seven priests blowing seven horns would signify that the victory was a complete work of God.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: The number seven is the number of completion.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: Joshua 6, 17, God says the city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: That word devoted is a very important word for us to understand.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: It is a Hebrew term that refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: The irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord often by totally destroying them.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: We see this concept often in the conquest, and it's a difficult concept to wrap our minds around.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: The Israelites were to burn the cities and to kill all its inhabitants.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: The Israelites completely destroyed only three Canaanite cities west of the Jordan: Jericho, Ai, and Hazor.
23:51
SPEAKER_00: Remember, the book of Joshua is a book of war.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: Israel was at war with the Canaanites.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: These people had worshipped other gods and were demonic in nature.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: Remember what Rahab had told the spies in Joshua 2, 9 through 10.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out out of Egypt and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed.
24:24
SPEAKER_00: Og is also referred to as the king of Bashan.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: The location of Bashan, to borrow a New Testament term, was pretty much the gates of hell or the gateway to the underworld.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: Mount Hermon in this region is in this region, and Mount Hermon was the place where the sons of God descended when they came to earth to cohabitate with human women.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: And you read about that in Genesis chapter 6.
24:53
SPEAKER_00: They probably did that also after the flood, before the flood and after the flood.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: That encounter produced the Nephilim, and which which are also sometimes referred to as the Rephaim, the Rephayim.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: Joshua 12, 4 through 5 says, Og, king of Bashan, one of the remnants of the Rephaim, who lived at Ashtarath, that's important, and at Edri and ruled over Mount Hermon.
25:25
SPEAKER_00: Mount Hermon was the high hill that these demonic hosts took possession of.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: These are fallen evil gods who had control of the people who inhabited the land.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: God was on a mission to wipe them, the Rephaim, out.
25:48
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's wanting to do.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: He would use Israel to do this and to take back possession of the land that was his.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: The people could have fled from before the Israelites, right?
26:00
SPEAKER_00: They could have taken off.
26:02
SPEAKER_00: They didn't have to stay there.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: They could have become refugees and moved on to a different location.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: But they stayed and they fought.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: They fought the Israelites.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: The Israelites would not leave Jericho thinking they had done anything wonderful, but knowing that God had acted supernaturally on their behalf because this was a supernatural war.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: They still had to obey him by taking the city and killing all the inhabitants and burning it to the ground.
26:33
SPEAKER_00: And by doing this, they were acting in obedience to Yahweh.
26:38
SPEAKER_00: God made sure that the people had heard about the plagues and how they had walked through the Red Sea on dry ground.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: And Rahab said, Our hearts have melted within us.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: But instead of turning to God, the God of Israel, Yahweh, they still clung to their pagan gods, all except Rahab.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: They destroy everything except Rahab and her family.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells us that Rahab lived with them after that time.
27:10
SPEAKER_00: And what do we know about Rahab after that?
27:13
SPEAKER_00: She is in the lineage of Messiah, Christ.
27:17
SPEAKER_00: Rahab is referred to a prostitute every time, as a prostitute, every time in Scripture, until you get to Matthew's genealogy of Jesus Christ.
27:41
SPEAKER_00: King David.
27:43
SPEAKER_00: What Rahab had heard about God was enough to convince her that she no longer wanted to believe in the pagan gods that had been part of her culture, her heritage, her beliefs, her actions.
28:02
SPEAKER_00: She wanted out of what she had known.
28:07
SPEAKER_00: Harlot, prostitute, no longer defined Rahab because now she was in the very lineage of Christ.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: She was grafted in.
28:21
SPEAKER_00: Praise God, we too get to embrace that truth.
28:26
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter what your background is.
28:30
SPEAKER_00: If you are in Christ, you are a new creature.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: The New Testament says you are a new creation.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: Old things are passed away, and behold, all things have become new.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: That's really great news for women who are prostituted today and for all of us who have a past.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
28:52
SPEAKER_00: As they were fighting the people of Jericho, this happens.
28:57
SPEAKER_00: Joshua 7, 1 through 1 through 5.
29:01
SPEAKER_00: The Israelites were unfaithful in regard to the devoted things.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: Achan of the tribe of Judah took some of them, so the Lord's anger burned against Israel.
29:10
SPEAKER_00: Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-Aven in the east of Bethel, and told them, Go up and spy out the region.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: So the men went up and spied out Ai.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: When they returned to Joshua, they said, Not all of the army will have to go up against Ai.
29:28
SPEAKER_00: Send two or three thousand men to take it, and do not weary the whole army, for only a few people live there.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: So about three thousand went up, but they were routed by the men of Ai, who killed about thirty-six of them.
29:41
SPEAKER_00: They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes.
29:48
SPEAKER_00: That at this the hearts of the people melted in fear because and became like water.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: What had Israel done wrong here?
29:58
SPEAKER_00: They didn't inquire of the Lord.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: They disregarded the need for God's help, and they minimized the task.
30:05
SPEAKER_00: They thought it was so easy they didn't even need to take all the people up there.
30:09
SPEAKER_00: So Joshua and all of the elders fall down on their faces before the Lord.
30:15
SPEAKER_00: And Joshua said, Alas, sovereign Lord, why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us?
30:26
SPEAKER_00: If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan.
30:35
SPEAKER_00: On his face before God, he blames God.
30:38
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly what he's doing.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: Why did you?
30:41
SPEAKER_00: He sounds just like the people of Israel after they've come out of Egypt.
30:44
SPEAKER_00: Were there no graves in Egypt?
30:46
SPEAKER_00: And so you brought us out here to die?
30:49
SPEAKER_00: It's so easy to fall into this trap, isn't it?
30:53
SPEAKER_00: Joshua sounds just like them, but I'm glad that God includes that little bit in there so that we can realize that he was just like we are.
31:05
SPEAKER_00: And then the hammer falls.
31:07
SPEAKER_00: The Lord said to Joshua, Stand up, what are you doing on your face?
31:12
SPEAKER_00: Israel has sinned.
31:13
SPEAKER_00: They have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep.
31:16
SPEAKER_00: They have taken some of the devoted things.
31:19
SPEAKER_00: They have stolen, they have lied, they put them in with their in their own possessions.
31:25
SPEAKER_00: This is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies.
31:29
SPEAKER_00: They turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction.
31:35
SPEAKER_00: I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: God responds by putting the blame where it really belongs.
31:48
SPEAKER_00: The consequences of Achan's sin is very serious.
31:51
SPEAKER_00: His sin was high-handed defiance against God.
31:55
SPEAKER_00: He knew what God had said.
31:57
SPEAKER_00: Achan replied, It is true, I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel.
32:01
SPEAKER_00: This is what I have done.
32:02
SPEAKER_00: When I saw the plunder in the plunder, a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them.
32:12
SPEAKER_00: They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, the silver with the silver underneath.
32:19
SPEAKER_00: Achan saw, he coveted, he took, and he hid.
32:23
SPEAKER_00: Where have we heard that before?
32:26
SPEAKER_00: Right?
32:27
SPEAKER_00: In the garden.
32:29
SPEAKER_00: Adam, Eve saw, she coveted, she took, and then they hid.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: So what did the leaders do?
32:36
SPEAKER_00: They had to completely destroy Achan and his entire family.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: The two main causes for defeat at Ai were the self-consciousness or self-confidence and covetousness.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: At Jericho, Israel learned God's strength, but at Ai, Israel understood their weaknesses.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: And then look at what God tells Joshua.
32:59
SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord said to Joshua, Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged.
33:05
SPEAKER_00: Take the whole army with you and go up and attack Ai, for I have delivered into your hands the king of Assyria, his people, his city, and his land.
33:14
SPEAKER_00: Even though God was angry with the people, and most likely with Joshua, he is still for them.
33:20
SPEAKER_00: And he gives Joshua the words of encouragement that he needed to hear.
33:26
SPEAKER_00: And then we see God's judgment on evil.
33:30
SPEAKER_00: God leads and he often fights Israel's battles for them, wiping out the kings and the tribal leaders in every village in the promised land except for Gibeon.
33:41
SPEAKER_00: There are several disturbing verses, several, quite a few, throughout Joshua.
33:47
SPEAKER_00: Two of them are in Joshua 11, 18 through 20.
33:51
SPEAKER_00: Joshua waged war against all these kings for a long time, except for the Hivites living in Gibeon.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: Not one city made a treaty of peace with the Israelites, who took them all in battle.
34:04
SPEAKER_00: For it was the Lord himself who hardened the hearts, their hearts, to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy, as the Lord command had commanded Moses.
34:21
SPEAKER_00: This is a difficult passage for us to comprehend and understand.
34:26
SPEAKER_00: And there are no easy answers to passages like this.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: However, there are things that we really can and should get our minds around.
34:36
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure that we can totally understand how abhorrent the idol worship of this time truly was and what they were engaged in.
34:47
SPEAKER_00: They did horrific things, but we might possibly be able to compare it and what they were doing to what is happening around the world right now with human trafficking.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: The pagan religions did some of the some very detestable things.
35:08
SPEAKER_00: Child sacrifice was was prolific.
35:11
SPEAKER_00: These Canaanites with their idol worship were as bad, if not worse, than what we see happening in other countries and in our own, of the treatment of women and children, and with their hatred toward God's people and toward the land.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: They too wanted to destroy Israel.
35:38
SPEAKER_00: Clearly, Satan wanted to destroy them.
35:42
SPEAKER_00: We have to remember several things here.
35:45
SPEAKER_00: God had put the fear of himself on these people.
35:48
SPEAKER_00: He told Moses in Deuteronomy that he would send his fear ahead of the people in Canaan, that the people would tremble before you.
35:56
SPEAKER_00: Also remember that Canaan threatened the survival of the Abrahamic promise.
36:01
SPEAKER_00: They had to take the promised land because that was part of the promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which leads us to realize that the salvation of mankind is at stake here because of Messiah Jesus.
36:18
SPEAKER_00: We eventually have to come to the point where we realize that God did ordain and order this destruction.
36:26
SPEAKER_00: He did.
36:40
SPEAKER_00: We don't.
36:42
SPEAKER_00: This annihilation removed the temptations to follow other gods.
36:48
SPEAKER_00: There would be no temptation to take to make political alliances through covenants or political marriages between royal families, even though Solomon does that later on.
36:59
SPEAKER_00: But to protect Israel and give them the advantage against the major sin of idolatry, God commanded Israel not to show any mercy to these enemies.
37:09
SPEAKER_00: To keep them from showing mercy, God hardened the enemies to fight Israel rather than to beg for mercy or peace.
37:20
SPEAKER_00: I don't completely understand this.
37:22
SPEAKER_00: And even if we could give adequate answers, we would probably still struggle with these difficult questions and situations.
37:31
SPEAKER_00: And this would still, but we have to understand that this was very copacetic with how these people groups reacted with one another in this time period.
37:45
SPEAKER_00: This is what they did.
37:47
SPEAKER_00: We are looking at it from a very different perspective than they would have had.
37:52
SPEAKER_00: But Israel and the other nations would have understood this because this is what they did.
37:57
SPEAKER_00: And just because we cannot understand this completely, we must not let our inability to comprehend this lead us to judge God.
38:07
SPEAKER_00: Because it is always too soon to judge God.
38:11
SPEAKER_00: God had made a promise, and he was keeping that promise to one nation, and it was necessary to wipe out another.
38:44
SPEAKER_00: For the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.
38:50
SPEAKER_00: God is saying, in effect, in Abraham's time, the Amorit culture was defiled.
38:57
SPEAKER_00: It was wicked and it was evil, but it hadn't passed that point of no return.
39:04
SPEAKER_00: God used the people, this wait, this is important to understand.
39:09
SPEAKER_00: During those 400 years, God was going to give them more time.
39:31
SPEAKER_00: And that sin finally reaches its full measure.
39:37
SPEAKER_00: God used the people of Israel to bring judgment on a nation that had become so perverse that their sin had reached its full measure.
39:48
SPEAKER_00: The cup of rebellion and wickedness had become so full that it was overflowing, and God was ready to put a stop to it.
40:00
SPEAKER_00: This is such a hard concept.
40:03
SPEAKER_00: But we also have to keep in mind that what Israel was doing at God's command was really no different than how these nations treated other nations when they conquered them.
40:16
SPEAKER_00: These other nations did the same thing.
40:20
SPEAKER_00: These were very common strategies.
40:23
SPEAKER_00: One more thing we need to realize here in wrapping up, and that is that God's son Christ takes upon himself the sin of the world and becomes the victim of the holy war that God wages with sin.
40:41
SPEAKER_00: The earthly army, the Church of Jesus Christ, now leads and is also engaged in a holy war.
40:52
SPEAKER_00: A holy spiritual war against principalities and powers of sin and evil.
41:03
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't think we're in a war of epic proportions, then you need to open your eyes.
41:12
SPEAKER_00: This war will also require the total annihilation of the enemy.
41:21
SPEAKER_00: And we are advancing in the power and the authority of Almighty God.
41:30
SPEAKER_00: The same demonic gods that messed with the Canaanites and the Egyptians are still messing with our world.
41:37
SPEAKER_00: It hasn't changed.
41:40
SPEAKER_00: They still have people held in their grip because now more than ever, the church is alive.
41:49
SPEAKER_00: The church is on to them.
41:52
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is the church's most powerful spiritual weapon.
41:58
SPEAKER_00: And we need to be using it forcefully against the dark forces of evil.
42:06
SPEAKER_00: At every opportunity, as powerfully as you can, use that weapon of prayer.
42:18
SPEAKER_00: When God tells us in Ephesians about the spiritual armor that he wants us to put on, the last piece is the sword of truth, which is the word of God.
42:30
SPEAKER_00: The word is power.
42:32
SPEAKER_00: When we yield the word, wield the word in power in prayer, we are using our most effective spiritual weapon against the forces of evil.
42:46
SPEAKER_00: We are joining God in that epic battle.
42:52
SPEAKER_00: These are hard passages to end on today, but I challenge you to reserve judgment to God.
43:06
SPEAKER_00: And he will win.
43:09
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
43:11
SPEAKER_00: Father God, we thank you for that truth.
43:14
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for the equipping of your word and prayer.
43:19
SPEAKER_00: We thank you that we join you, Father God, and that Jesus intercedes, that the Holy Spirit intercedes whenever we pray in this way.
43:30
SPEAKER_00: We join you.
43:32
SPEAKER_00: And God, we don't know what mighty things are taking place in the heavenlies, but we have the assurance that they are happening just as they happened with Israel.
43:42
SPEAKER_00: You are in the process of tearing down and building up.
43:48
SPEAKER_00: You've equipped us, God.
43:50
SPEAKER_00: So let us join in the battle so that your enemies may flee.
43:58
SPEAKER_00: Rise up, O God, and let your enemies be scattered.
44:04
SPEAKER_00: In your mighty name we pray.
44:06
SPEAKER_00: Amen and amen.
44:09
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
44:11
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you joined me today, and I will see you next time.