Sermon: Spiritual Strongholds (Part One): Obedience
#1659
Martin G. Collins
Given 25-Jun-22; 73 minutes
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transcript:
As a society, when we think of war, we often think of heroes, extraordinary feats of bravery, and great military leaders. We glorify these warriors in books and movies, we admire their loyalty, their fortitude, and their perseverance. Many people love to hear war stories of people who exhibit such commendable qualities.
But the reality of war is that it brings death and destruction, shattered lives, and suffering children. And when we consider the misery and the sorrow caused by war, we cannot help but long for the return of Jesus Christ to set up God's government of peace on earth. Micah 4:3 says, "He [that is, the Lord] shall judge between many peoples, and rebuke strong nations afar off; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore."
However, throughout the Bible, God appears as a powerful soldier who asserts His power against the evil world. God's sovereignty over Israel's history is witnessed in victory or defeat in warfare between Israel and the Gentile nations. The Lord inspired Solomon to express that everything, every purpose, has its proper time.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.
Ecclesiastes 3:8 A time to love, a time they hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
So, in God's plan of salvation for mankind, God has made allowances for all these things that they work according to His plan.
The book of Joshua was relevant to ancient Israel from its earliest arrival in Canaan and to every subsequent generation of God's people to this present day. The book of Joshua recounts from a historical and a spiritual perspective, the events surrounding Israel's capture and settlement of the land of Canaan. It emphasizes God's faithfulness in fulfilling His promise to the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Lord promised Abraham and his descendants that they would be blessed and become a blessing, and that they would grow and become a great nation. And these blessings were to be to be enjoyed in the context of a close covenant relationship with God.
Now the book of Joshua is intriguing regarding several topics. It is amazing how many topics it does cover, but it covers land and leadership, the book of the law, covenant, God's war, judgment, and mercy, divine sovereignty, and human responsibility. At the end of the fifth chapter of Joshua, we see the Lord is the divine Warrior who brings His people into the Land of Promise.
Joshua 5:13-15 And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, "Are you for us or for our adversaries?" [strange question] So he said, "No, but as Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come." And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, "What does my Lord say to His servant?" Then the Commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, "Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy." And Joshua did so.
So the story of the crossing of the Jordan River and the consecration of the people and army proceeded with grand planning spread out over most of the three earlier chapters before Joshua 5. And then we arrive at these an unexpected verses, telling of Joshua's encounter with the Leader of God's army. And then suddenly, just when we are ready for an account of the assault on Jericho, we find three verses that tell how Joshua, walking near Jericho, suddenly came upon a figure who turned out to be a divine Commander. Joshua did not recognize Him at first. He is described only as a Man with a drawn sword in His hand, but when He identified Himself as the Commander of the Lord's army, Joshua immediately fell on his face and worshipped Him. Is there any doubt who this individual is? It is the Lord Jesus Christ.
The story suggests this conclusion, because the unannounced Visitor would have instantly repelled Joshua's worship if He had been a mere man. Just as Paul and Barnabas rejected with horror in Acts 14, when the men and women of Lystra wanted to worship them as Zeus and Hermes. But it is not only because of this story in Acts that we are prepared to identify the unannounced Commander with God. We have been prepared for it by similar stories in the Old Testament.
The first such story is in Genesis 3 in God's appearance to Adam and Eve after their initial sin. We are told how God appeared to them and we are told in verse 8 merely that the "man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day." Verse 8 seems to suggest that God appeared to Adam and Eve in a form capable of walking and talking with Him in person.
A similar story involves the appearance of the three heavenly visitors to Abraham by the trees of Mamre. In view of the way the story is told, it seemed that two of the three were only angels and the third was the Lord appearing in a form like He had appeared to Adam and Eve. We are alerted to this at the beginning of the story.
Genesis 18:1 Then the Lord appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day.
Genesis 18:10 And He said, "I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son."
Genesis 18:13 And the Lord said to Abraham . . .
Further on in the story as Abraham walks with the men for a distance to see them on their way,
Genesis 18:17 And the Lord said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing . . .?"
These and several other references suggest that Jesus anticipated His incarnation and was found in the fashion of a man even before His later birth in Bethlehem.
Another similar story is of the man who wrestled with Jacob at the River Jabbok the night before Jacob's reunion with Esau in Genesis 32. Verse 24 calls this figure a Man. Now Hosea 12:4 is a later inspired commentary on the story, calling him the Angel. But even this does not say all that needs to be said unless we recognize that this is the Angel of the Lord, and that that is the special divine figure who was already revealed on those other occasions that I mentioned.
Now this figure wrestled with Jacob to bring him to the point of submission and then renamed him. Before, he had been Jacob, which means supplanter or more formally, cheater. Now using the divine privilege to remake and rename His creation, the Angel "called him Israel, which means conquered by God." Presumably this is the same figure who appeared to Joshua to take command of His forces before the assault on Jericho. The divine figure came to take command of Israel's armies. And when Joshua asked what message the Lord has for him, this figure gave instructions for the ordering of the battle of Jericho, instructions that appeared to be carried out in chapter 6. And this figure assumed command of the armies of Israel from that moment forward and throughout the entire seven-year campaign in Canaan.
Yet the army or host of the Lord often means something quite different in Scripture. It refers to armies of angels and therefore this figure is the Commander of this great spirit army which is standing behind Israel and assisting in her battles.
First, in Genesis 32:1-2, we are told that the angels of God met Jacob and that he named the place where he saw them, Mahanaim, which means two camps. So what were the two camps? Two camps refers to Jacob's earthly camp and the spiritual camp of the armies of angels.
The second example comes later in Israel's history in a story involving Elisha the prophet. Ben Hadad, the king of Syria, had been fighting the king of Israel. But every time he made plans to attack Israel, God revealed the plans to Elisha, then Elisha told the king of Israel and the Israelite armies escaped the trap laid for them.
II Kings 6:15-17 And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, "Alas, my master, what shall we do?" So he answered, "Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." And Elijah prayed, and said, "Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see." Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
These were God's angelic armies. These were powerful forces and in this engagement they struck the armies of the king of Syria with blindness so that Elijah was able to lead them into the fortified city of Samaria and capture them.
The psalmists speaks of the Lord of hosts, that is, the God as Lord of these spirit legions many times. One example is in Psalm 34.
Psalm 34:7 The Angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and He delivers them.
Encampment means that they are there permanently, so to speak, always there to take care of those who fear God and obey Him, and they are ready to deliver them, which is us, members of God's church, from any harm that may come to us. And if God allows harm to come to us, then He gives us the strength to bear up under it. It is a win-win situation every time with God and the angels having our back.
In the New Testament, Jesus Christ spoke of these hosts to Peter.
Matthew 26:52-53 But Jesus said to him, "Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?"
This is what the Commander's description of Himself refers to, which must have been a great comfort and encouragement to Joshua at the time. Joshua must have been wondering how he was to proceed against Jericho and it was too important a stronghold to bypass and leave at his rear as they conquered Canaan. It was so well-fortified that he could hardly afford a long siege while his inexperienced forces became progressively discouraged and the armies of the Canaanites gathered strength for battle. So if you turn with me back to Joshua 5, we will pick up the story.
To have the Lord appear as the Commander of the heavenly allegiance must have tremendously lifted his mental state and assured him that the necessary force would be available when the assault on Jericho was finally made. And it was the host of the Lord rather than the armies of Israel that demolished the walls of Jericho and permitted its overthrow. The exchange between Joshua and the Commander is interesting. Joshua asks, "Are you for us or for our enemies?" If he was standing there talking to Jesus Christ, why would he ask such a question? The answer is very enlightening to us and very interesting, of course, at the same time.
Joshua 5:13 [I am going to read this because I mentioned that last sentence in it.] And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, "Are you for us or for our adversaries?"
Was that not a strange question? Here is Jesus Christ, who has come with the armies of heaven to defend Joshua and secure the conquest of Jericho. Then why did not Jesus Christ reply, "I am for you and Israel."? Instead, although we know He was for Joshua and certainly did assist in the battle against Jericho, the Commander replied with what sounded like a lack of commitment. We know it was not but that is what it sounded like, or would have, possibly, to Joshua. To this question, the Commander of the armies of the Lord answers, "No." That is, neither. "I am neither for you nor for your enemies. I am here to command the Lord's armies." So, in one sense, He had sinners on both sides and He was not there to take sides with sinners, but He was there as the Lord's army to carry out God's plan of salvation—physical as well as spiritual—of mankind.
The point of the exchange seems to be that it was not for Joshua to claim the allegiance of God for his cause, however right it was, but rather for God to claim Joshua. And I think sometimes we may do that, try to claim God for our causes rather than letting God claim us. The two would fight together but Joshua would be following the Commander of the armies of the Lord in His cause and battles rather than it being the other way around.
This is a very important principle. Christians tend to marshal God for their programs rather than simply follow Him wherever He leads. Some people view God's will as a projection of their own concerns. It has to be the opposite. We have to adjust and adapt to God's will. The God in our minds is always smaller than the true living God because our minds, even though expanded in understanding by Scripture, are too inadequate to completely conceive of or comprehend Him. As long as we have any element of human spirit, we will be limited in how much we can actually understand of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and our Father, God. We are always being amazed and awed by God if we are in a personal, reverencing relationship with Him and not merely going through the motions of appearing to live God's way of life.
So in times of stress, the sincere believer asks God, are You for us or for our enemies? And Jesus replies neither, but as Commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come. And He is not suggesting that He is not here there to support His people Israel or His church. The Lord emphasizes His commitment by assembling His host on Israel's behalf and on the church's behalf.
Now, the scene ends with Joshua bowing before this Commander.
Joshua 5:14-15 So He said, "No, but as the Commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come." And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to Him, "What does my Lord say to His servant." Then the Commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, "Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy." And Joshua did so.
This is an indication that as Moses' successor, Joshua held the same status over Israel. Joshua received the same instructions Moses did at the burning bush. God emphasizes that the place where he is standing is holy because of the very normality, so to speak, of the location and that helps make the point that it is holy ground, not because of any special properties of the place, but only because of God's presence. God is holy and He is the one who makes or declares places and people to be holy, and each is properly understood or treated as holy only in its relationship to God.
Now, throughout the book of Joshua, we see God's faithfulness and the peoples' response. And even though God tells Joshua and Israel that the land where they have entered is a gift, this does not lessen the importance of God's people living by His commands. Joshua and Israel on occasion fail in their faithfulness to God and there are many examples of this in the Old Testament, as you well know.
Jericho is one of the oldest known fortified cities in the ancient Near East, as well as one of the geographically lowest. It is only about 750 feet (or 229 meters) below sea level. Well supplied with spring water it is an oasis and was sometimes referred to as the City of Palms. Generally speaking it sounds like a nice place except for the people, which is similar to today, of course.
Joshua 6:1 Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel; none went out, and none came in.
So before the country could be divided by the Israelites, a wedge had to be driven from the Jordan River valley to the mountains and the first obstacle at this point was Jericho. Jericho was a military fortress built to defend the eastern approach of the high country. It could not be bypassed, which would mean leaving a large armed military force at one's rear. But, on the other hand, conquering Jericho was a very troubling challenge. Jericho's walls were high and its position advantageous. What was Joshua to do with an obstacle of this magnitude?
If Joshua had held a council of war, it is not hard to imagine the advice he would have been given. One adviser might have argued that the way to take fortified cities is by siege ramps, an approach to the top of the walls must be constructed and this was the way that Romans took cities more than 1,000 years later. So it worked over a period of a long time to do it that way when it was just man against man. Another adviser might have argued for starving Jericho's defenders into submission.
The story shows that Joshua adopted none of these councils. In fact, he did not even seek them. He was already in touch with the true Strategist and Commander of the Lord's host. The true Commander had a unique plan for this battle.
Joshua 6:2-5 And the Lord said to Joshua: "See, I have given Jericho into your hand, its king and the mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city, all you men of war; and you shall go all around the city once. This you shall do six days. And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. It shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout; then the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people shall go up every man straight before him."
So from a human point of view, nothing could have been more useless despite the obvious necessity of attacking this outpost. High walls do not fall down with the noise of trampling feet and cities are not won by trumpets. What were the people thinking? Because God revealed this to Joshua, but it appears that he did not reveal it to the people at this time, the whole thing, just Joshua. So he had the plan. Yet, this is precisely what happened. The story tells how the people followed the commands of the Lord and each day for six days they walked in silence around the watching city, and on the seventh day they repeated this apparently futile exercise seven times, but no one spoke. The only noise was the sound of the ram's horns blown by the priests.
Joshua 6:16 And the seventh time it happened, when the priests blew the trumpets, that Joshua said to the people, "Shout, for the Lord has given you the city!"
And Jericho was destroyed in accordance with God's command to Joshua. It was the first city to be taken in Canaan and therefore was to be entirely dedicated to God. There was a difference about the conquering of this city than the cities that followed. The Israelites were not to take any spoils of war and they were to annihilate all survivors except Rahab and her family, who were spared because of her faith in having saved the two spies.
Joshua 6:17-18 "Now the city shall be doomed by the Lord to destruction, and it and all who are in it. Only Rahab the harlot shall live, she and all who are with her in her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent. And you, by all means abstain from the accursed things [this is Joshua speaking directly to the soldiers, to the people of Israel], lest you become accursed when you take take of the accursed things, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it."
According to the ESV Study Bible regarding Joshua 6:17 has an interesting summary of it here.
Though such total destruction may be offensive to modern sensibilities, the Bible insists that the total destruction of Jericho was commanded by the Lord Himself in Deuteronomy 20:16-17, and it gives evidence of God's judgment on the terrible sin of the Canaanites. This order to destroy every living thing was not a license to kill indiscriminately in other warfare because cities outside the Land of Promise were to be treated differently, according to Deuteronomy 20:10-15.
Rather, it was intended to punish the Canaanites whose iniquity had become complete. We find that mentioned in Genesis 15:16, and to protect the Israelites from falling into idolatry and apostasy as Deuteronomy 7:1-6 states. The extermination of the Canaanites was a special case of divine judgment. It provides no pattern for general warfare, ancient or modern, but anticipates the final judgment that will befall all who persist in rebellion against God's gracious overtures.
So, in considering the account of the Israelites' conquest of Jericho, clearly there had been preparation before the shout of victory. Some of that preparation had started forty years earlier in the preparation of Joshua and Caleb and the soldiers that had been trained in the wilderness. Sometimes we pray and ask God to intervene on our behalf and we do not hear anything for years or seemingly do not see any results for years because God is preparing our lives and the lives of others. When that happens, maybe the preparation only needs to be for just an instant or the preparation may need to be for years. Whatever it is, we have to remain faithful in waiting for God's intervention.
More preparation had taken place after the Jordan River had been crossed and there was a restitution of the covenantal rite of circumcision and a new observance of the Passover. The hearts of the people had to be right before there could be a full outpouring of God's blessing. But the preparation did not stop there. In fact, it continued right up to the moment of the shout. Everything before that moment was preparation of the hearts of the people.
Now the story emphasizes three steps. The first step in the preparation of the people for this climactic week was the command to keep silent. Be quiet was the first command that they gave to them. They were to be absolutely quiet as they encircled the doomed city and their lips were not to speak a word.
Joshua 6:10 Now Joshua had commanded the people, saying, "You shall not shout or make any noise with your voice, nor shall a word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I say to you, 'Shout!' Then you shall shout."
That was quite clear, no doubt left in that whether to speak or not. This must have been a difficult thing for the people to do. For one thing, there was several million people and it is hard to imagine any large group of people moving anywhere without an increasingly noisy hum, then roared voices. So, they did not speak for all that time. There were soldiers to get in line, children to keep track of, and a route to be pointed out and taken. How could this be accomplished in silence? That might have been a miracle in itself. God must have helped them to have the right mind to do that. But this is what the people did. Also, the people would have had difficulty ignoring the taunts of the encircled citizens of Jericho.
On the first day, the Canaanites would probably have been quiet too, watching to see what the encircling armies would do. It would have been bizarre. A silent attacking, watched by silent defenders, but silence would hardly have lasted beyond the second day. By then the defenders would have begun to mock the Israelite soldiers. Under such circumstances it would have been difficult for the Israelites to have kept silent or not make some under-the-breath remark back. So at this point, the Israelites must have been thinking that it was impossible to conquer Jericho unless God delivered it to them. All of it was a process. God preparing them, preparing their minds. If there was to be a victory, it would have to be given to them by God.
Silence before God, and this is a lesson we all need to learn. If we are not speaking verbally, then there are a thousand mental voices inside our thoughts, each vying for the last word. How else can God get a word in edgewise, if we will not be quiet? I know you have had the same experience I have had at times, where I have been praying and that voice interrupts. As far as you know, we think of them as thoughts, but it is a thought as a voice, a silent voice, and it disrupts what we are thinking. It interrupts our train of thought and we end up being frustrated in our prayers sometimes because of the distractions of the world that come into our thoughts and things like that.
This passage seems to be saying, "Quiet. Don't talk so much. Be silent before the Lord. After you have poured out your hearts to Him, let God speak."
Lamentations 3:25-26 The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
Hope and wait quietly in verse 26 means hope and wait in silence. That word quietly includes the word silence in its meaning, in a posture of prayer and expectation. So hope and wait in silence in a posture of prayer and expectation. They had to wait in silence for God's will to be carried out for their deliverance, not by their own will.
The second step in the preparation of the people for the conquest of Jericho was obedience. These seem like such simple but not important words, but they carry a tremendous amount of principle and power behind them. Obedience is an essential part of true faith, which is why the actions of the people are cited in Hebrews as a demonstration of faith. By faith they obeyed and overcame tremendous obstacles.
Joshua 6:20-25 So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets. And it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat. Then the people went into the city, every man straight before him, and took the city. They utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword.
But Joshua had said to the two men who had spied out the country, "Go into the harlot's house, and from there bring out the woman and all that she has, as you swore to her." The young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father, her mother, her brothers, and all that she had. So they brought out all her relatives and left them outside of the camp of Israel. But they burned the city and all that was in it with fire. Only the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. And Joshua spared Rehab the harlot, her father's household, and all that she had. So she dwells in Israel to this day [the day of this writing], because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.
So, the Israelites and Rahab believed the promise and their faith is commended in Hebrews because they showed their faith by obedience to the instructions.
Hebrews 11:30-31 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days. By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace.
What is it that most honors God, in which God most delights to honor? Is it eloquent profession of faith? No, it is not that. Many have called Jesus "Lord, Lord," but have later fallen and ceased to serve Him.
Matthew 7:21-23 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will [obeys] of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesized in Your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I declared to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness [or you who are disobedient]!'"
Is it the exercise of great natural abilities or talents? Know there are many who have many great abilities but have squandered them on worthless objectives like the prodigal son who squandered his father's money. Is it an attractive appearance or personality? No. Saul stood head and shoulders above his countrymen and was impressive in other ways, but he finished his course badly.
The true answer to the question is found in Samuel's words to Saul after he had sinned by failing to destroy the Amalekites completely, which God had told him to do. Saul pleaded that he had almost entirely destroyed them and that he had spared what he had spared only to make sacrifices with. But that is not what God told him to do.
I Samuel 15:22 So Samuel said: "Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams."
That is the answer. The thing that honors God and that God delights to honor is obedience, doing His will. Even Jesus was honored and given a name above every name because He was obedient.
Philippians 2:8 And being found in the appearance of a man, He humbled himself, and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
Now, the third step in the preparation of the Israelites for victory was obedience to the very end. (I am adding "to the very end" there.) We can be given an instruction or read something in the Bible that tells us to do something like keep the Sabbath and we can be obedient, but are we obedient to the very end? This is involved in the previous point, of course, because obedience that is not total is not real obedience. It is disobedience, as the story of Saul's failure to destroy the Amalekites shows. It is only necessary to highlight this as a separate point because of our frequent failure to continue to obey.
The conquest of Jericho emphasizes this achievement by the Israelite invaders. Careful reading of this story shows that Joshua did not tell the people how many times they were going to be required to circle the city or precisely what was going to happen at the end of their seven days marching. The people were given their instructions one day at a time and at the end of their assignment for that day, having encircled the walls, they were directed back to their camp and nothing happened. They had obeyed Joshua, who had been obeying God, and they had encircled the walls. But when they returned to camp, the walls were still standing each day. No one had surrendered and the Israelite army seemed to be no closer to the final conquest of Canaan than they had been the day before. So it was after the second day, and after the third day, and after the fourth day, and after the fifth day, and after the sixth day. So it was, after six tours around the walls on Day Seven.
The situation reminds us of what must have happened after the Syrian General Naaman had been told by Elisha that he would be cured of his leprosy if he bathed in the Jordan River seven times. And we know he did not like the idea because he protested about the inferiority of the Jordan River compared to the rivers of his country.
II Kings 5:11-14 But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, "Indeed, I said to myself, 'He will surely come out to me [speaking of Elisha], and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy' [he wanted something where he was the center of attention, where he received glory, about how great he was to receive the help of the Israelite God]. Are not the Abnah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage. And his servants came near and spoke to him, and said, "My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more than when he says to you, 'Wash and be clean'?" So he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
It must have been a great trial to this proud general to wash in the Jordan's muddy river seven times. It seems that his servants had more spiritual sense than he did. Or maybe it was that God revealed to them what he needed to do. Considering his attitude, it is possible that each time Naaman bathed—once, twice, and on to the sixth time—he had protested that it was not working. You can just imagine that, standing there, and nothing happened each time he dipped, and his servants may have had to encourage him to continue each time. We do not know that. But knowing the attitude he had, he probably had to be prodded to do it.
We need to learn the lesson the Israelite armies learned before Jericho and Naaman the Syrian learned in the muddy Jordan River. Not only is there no substitute for obedience to God, but there is no substitute for obedience in all details—to the very end. One detail that comes to mind that is not in all the churches of God being kept properly is we are told to eat unleavened bread every day. But they say, "Oh, no, you just eat it whenever you feel like it." That is not following every word of God in what we should be doing.
And when God does not act as quickly as we think He should, or in precisely the way we are convinced He should act, we are still not justified in pulling back or adopting an alternative procedure. It was only when the people who had obeyed God faithfully that victory came and the walls tumbled.
Joshua's God-inspired military strategy was miraculous. It began with a sudden strike into the heart of the enemy's territory, thus dividing his forces, then campaigns to the south and north. He described techniques of psychological warfare, the elements of speed, surprise, and terror.
Joshua 6:27 So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout all the country.
There have been military leaders that have mentioned in their memoirs how they thought that this conquering by Joshua made him one of the greatest military strategists of all time. It is interesting that they do not give God the credit. It is God who is the greatest strategist of all time. And Joshua was able to receive notice that he was obedient to God by obeying God; and also sharing in that glory, so to speak, of the greatest military strategist of all time.
As Christians we are soldiers in God's army. We are engaged in a spiritual war where many enemy strongholds need to be conquered. We see them everywhere—in our land, in the church, and must admit especially in ourselves at times. And what are we to do against such spiritual enemy forces? We must attack them in the way God has told us to, wage war by prayer, by the Word of God, faith, and by our witness and living God's way of life.
We need to listen to God and obey faithfully to the very end. And when we do, then in God's own time, the walls of Satan's strongholds will tumble. The apostle Paul explains what we are up against here.
II Corinthians 10:3-6 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
That will be passing judgment on the world when we have become spirit beings of the firstfruits in God's Kingdom. By the power of the Spirit of God, the strongholds of wrong thinking and behavior that are reflected in the lives of those who resist His authority are torn down.
What a short step there is between a great victory and a great defeat! One moment we are riding high on the cloud of some great spiritual success. The next moment we are plunged into the dark valley of some grim spiritual failure. One moment we are Elijah standing on Mount Carmel, calling down fire on God's altar. The next moment we are Elijah at Horeb complaining God as recorded in
I Kings 19:10 So he [that is, Elijah] said, "I have been very zealous for the Lord of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life."
(I think we heard this in the sermonette as well. So God feels this is important to be repeated twice.)
It is that way in the book of Joshua. When people think of Joshua, most think of the victory of the armies of Israel at Jericho, that great walled city that stood at the entrance of the Promised Land. The victory of the Israelites of Jericho was a great victory, carried out in strict obedience to the battle plan of God and accomplished by His power in throwing down the city's towering stone ramparts. But that is in chapter 6 of Joshua. Please turn over now to Joshua 7.
Chapter 7 recounts how Joshua launches an attack on the city of Ai, but it makes no mention either of a divine mandate to do so or of any inquiry inquiry made to the Lord as to how Israel should proceed. Was Joshua too confident of his abilities or was Ai seemingly just such a easy target? Whatever it was, it seems that God was left out of it and sin was committed by one man, which was ascribed to the whole congregation of Israel. One man's sin. Joshua 7, verses 1-9 tells of the army's terrible defeat at Ai, a much smaller city.
Joshua 7:1 But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things, for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed things; so the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel.
So while Achan is the actual perpetrator, Israel, as a covenant community, is held responsible for the presence of sin in its midst. The same holds true for the church of God. If one person flagrantly sins, it affects the whole membership.
Joshua 7:2-6 Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth Aven, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them, saying, "Go up and spy out the country." So the men went up and spied out Ai. And they returned to Joshua and said to him, "Do not let all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. Do not weary all the people there, for the people of Ai are few. So about three thousand men went up there from the people, but they fled before the men of Ai. And the men of Ai struck down about thirty-six men, for they chased them from before the gate as far as Shebarim, and struck them down on the descent; therefore the hearts of the people melted and became like water. Then Joshua tore his clothes, and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until evening, and he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads.
This is the only defeat the invading armies recorded in Joshua and it contains the only report of Israelites slain in combat. What caused such a change? How could a defeat like this follow so closely after a great victory? God's explanation was that there was sin in Israel's camp. After the defeat and the obvious dismay of Joshua, who prostrated himself before the Lord, Joshua inquired of Him in verse 7.
Joshua 7:7-12 And Joshua said, "Alas, Lord God, why have You brought this people over the Jordan at all—to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? Oh, that we had been content and dwelt on the other side of the Jordan! O Lord, what shall I say when Israel turns its back before its enemies? For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear it, and surround us, and cut off our name from the earth. Then what will you do for Your great name?
So the Lord said to Joshua: "Get up! Why do you lie thus on your face? Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. For they have even taken some of the accursed things, and have both stolen and deceived; and they have also put it among their own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel should not stand before their enemies, but turn their backs before the enemies, because they have become doomed to destruction. Neither will I be with you anymore, unless you destroy the accursed from among you."
I cannot imagine how Joshua felt at that moment, whether the hair was raised on the back of his neck or he was probably prostrate facedown in the dust, but he was probably terrified at that point. We must learn from this that God takes sin seriously, even if we do not, and that sin is the real cause of defeat for God's people. What happened to Achan is recorded for our edification to show us how sin starts and progresses, if it is not confessed early and forsaken. Confessed generally means to acknowledge something, and forsaken generally means to discontinue performing a specific action. That is very general definitions of those words, but it is sufficient.
Achan was one Israel's soldiers in the battle of Jericho. He was on the right side in the conflict, but he was not obedient. One of God's commands was that the entire city of Jericho be destroyed. All metal articles, gold, silver, bronze, iron were to be taken to the treasury of the Lord as the firstfruits of the conquest, but everything else was to be consumed by fire. The people of Jericho were to be killed. Achan heard those commands along with everyone else, but when he entered the city and saw some of the forbidden spoil, he coveted what he saw and took it, as he later confessed before Joshua.
Joshua 7:20-21 And Achan answer Joshua and said, "Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I have done: When I saw among the spoils a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. And there they are, hidden in the earth in the midst of my tent, with the silver under it."
So the fact that Achan hid the plunder shows that he knew he was doing what was wrong. It was for this willful sin that the judgment of God came down upon the whole people in the next military encounter. Thirty-six men were killed needlessly because of this man's sin. What led Achan to the sinful act of disobedience? Here is the process that led to his action.
Number one: Achan was dissatisfied. That is, he was dissatisfied with the way the Lord had ordered the affairs of his life. It is true that God was in the process of leading Achan, along with the other members of the nation, into a new land of great wealth and opportunity. It was a new country in which each family was to possess its own land and its own home and sit beneath its own vines and fig tree. But Achan's mind was not on the blessings that lay ahead. It was on what he saw with his eyes at the moment.
Achan's dissatisfaction, which was itself a sin, gave birth to disobedience. This is usually the case. When Satan sinned by rebelling against God, it was dissatisfaction with his position in God's world that led him to do it. He was the creature, God was the Creator, and but he wanted to be like God.
Isaiah 14:13-14 "For you [that is, Lucifer] have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.'"
That sends shivers up your spine at the arrogance and the pride and whatever other evil you can think of that was going through the mind of Satan. Pride was the root of Satan's sin, which expressed itself in dissatisfaction. And it was through his rebellion against God, who made him what he was, that sin entered the universe. It was the same in the case of Adam and Eve when sin first entered the human family, so to speak. God made Adam and Eve perfect in all respects, humanly. But when Satan called Eve's attention to the fact that she and her husband were not like God knowing good and evil, he sowed the seed of dissatisfaction.
It is not that any follower of Christ should be satisfied with an inadequate course of spiritual training. But we should seek a proper form of spiritual motivation. Even the apostle Paul said,
Philippians 3:13-14 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
But in the same letter in which he said this, he also said,
Philippians 4:11-12 Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned that in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
The key to not becoming dissatisfied, to being thankful to God, and understanding the state that God has placed you in or allowed you to be put in, is we are to be thankful for everything in our lives, the good and the bad. Did not Job say to his wife when she said "Curse God and die," he said, "Am I not to accept the good and the bad from God?" (Paraphrasing it.)
Paul's secret was to strive for Christ's glory rather than his own and to be willing to achieve that end through whatever means God proposed for him.
Number two: Achan coveted what was not his. Under the rules of war, a conqueror can seize the possessions of the one he defeats. Achan may have been part of the invading army and may have wielded his sword effectively, but he was not the conqueror of Jericho, nor were the other Israelite soldiers conquerors. They were not the conquerors. God was the conqueror. Everything was God's in that city by, we will call it, Old Testament war law. God was giving the city of Jericho to Israel's armies and it was He, not Joshua or any other generals, who had demanded that spoil from the battle go into the Temple treasury and that everything else would be destroyed. That is why God explained the defeat to Joshua by saying,
Joshua 7:11 "Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. For they have even taken some of the accursed things, and have both stolen and deceived; and they have also put it among their own stuff."
So it is not difficult to apply the principles involved here to our own lives, as we live in the most worldly, materialistic, covetous society in human history. And these are two of our own age's most apparent sins. We must root out covetousness from our own lives. "You shall not covet" is the tenth commandment of the Ten Commandments. It is the root sin behind each of the other violations. Nothing will so quickly destroy a Christian's life as dissatisfaction with God's arrangements for us, which leads to lust for what God has not yet given and has given to someone else.
Number three: Achan stole the items. That is, Achan's dissatisfaction and covetousness, which are internal, invisible failings, led to sinful actions. Achan stole, He misled, and he lied. We may sin in our thoughts, and then by the grace of God be led to admit and repudiate the sin before we reap sin's consequences. But if we do not repent of hidden sin, it will inevitably break out into the open. The apostle James warned,
James 1:13-15 Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted of God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when the desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
This dreadful working out of sin should make us guard against even the most innocent dissatisfactions.
Let us turn back over to Joshua 7. The Bible tells us that one day the secret sins of life are going to be brought to light at a future judgment, but it does not always take that long for sin to be exposed. The story of Achan's sin continues with a frightening scene.
Joshua 7:22-23 So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and there it was, hidden in his [that is, Achan's] tent, with the silver under it. And they took them from the midst of the tent, brought them to Joshua and to all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the Lord.
Remember these items are physical representations of the sin that Achan committed. And what happened to them? The stolen objects were displayed before the people. But the most frightening part of the story is that they were spread out before the Lord. They were spread before the eyes of the holy God. The story ends with the death of Achan as the people of Israel stoned him (and apparently his entire family) as punishment for the sin that brought defeat on the Israelite army and dishonored the name of God. After this, the blessing of God returned to Israel and Ai was destroyed.
We find here a great continuity in the Old Testament books and especially in Joshua. Joshua is a bridge between the years of wandering and the years of settlement, between preparation and possession. The inspired written Word of God is evidence of the unchanging power of God and the presence of the supernatural leader. There is also the continuity of the covenant. And here in the book of Joshua, there is a continuity of judgment. When Achan sinned the blessing of God stopped for the people corporately. And when judgment was applied, blessing returned and victory followed.
So what does God consider bad enough sin within the church to affect the entire church? Well, all sins affect everyone. They separate us from God and they affect our fellow brethren. What sin would God, in each of our lives, if we think about it, might God punish the entire church for if just any one of us is committing it? It is that serious. I do not mean to depress anyone. We are all sinning, we are all thinking, "what sin?" But we must consider this. And the only way we can overcome these things is with the help of God through the power of His Holy Spirit. I do not know of any. I am not thinking of any one person or any specific sin. I am just asking the question: Is there one or more?
This simple pattern reveals the spiritual process God uses throughout the Old Testament in carrying out His plan of salvation for humanity. It explains the period of the judges, the period of kings, the captivity of Assyria and Babylon, the Israelites return from Babylon, and the Jews dispersion in AD 70 under Titus. It explains Romans 9—11, which speaks of the Israelites turning away from God, and yet at the future day coming back to God, and once more as a nation, being the people of God. First comes blessing, then sin enters, then comes judgment. If the people of God return to Him after judgment, blessing begins again and continues.
This pattern and process is universal continuity and it is the principle of God's judgment of His people. It is unchanging throughout Scripture because God really is there. God is a holy God. God loves His people. God deals with His people consistently. And this continuity extends to our own time.
Also, in the New Testament, we see the principle of the story of Ananias and Saphira who were judged by God for their sin of lying to the leaders of the early church about the sale of their land, and the gift of a portion of that to God's work. In our time we see it in the defeated and discouraged lives of many who have sinned, but who have not brought their sin to God for cleansing. If the story of Achan and the defeat of the Israelite armies at Ai means anything to us, it must mean that sin cannot be tolerated in the life of a true Christian.
But although this is a story of judgment, it is also a proclamation of hope for the blessing that will come again when sin is repudiated and overcome. The place of Achan's death was called Achor. Achan and Achor have similar spellings which are a pun on his name in Hebrew. Because Achor means trouble or disaster, which is what Achan brought upon Israel and received back on his own head.
Now notice what Joshua says at the time of Achan's stoning.
Joshua 7:25-26 And Joshua said, "Why have you troubled [that word there is achored] us? The Lord will trouble [that is in Hebrew, achor] you this day." So all Israel stoned him with stones, and they burned him with fire after they had stoned him with stones. Then they raised over him a great heap of stones, still there to this day [as of this writing]. So the Lord turned from the fierceness of His anger. Therefore the name of that place has been called the Valley of Achor [that is, the Valley of Trouble] to this day.
Sin brings judgment, and this is the teaching of the Scriptures from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation. Therefore, we must never take sin lightly because judgment is not the whole story. Sin does bring judgment, but God often graciously uses judgment to bring about change in us that enables Him to turn His judgments into blessing and hope.
Jeremiah 17:7 "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord."
Only trust in God motivates confident obedience in times of trouble. And when we are sure the circumstances are from God, we are enabled to declare our hope in Him and ask Him to deliver us from our sins and to take away the discipline that has followed.
We will end now with two encouraging promises, with no comment afterwards because I want to end on positive things.
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.
Psalm 37:3-4 Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.
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