[Brother V]

Joshua 7-9

In today's Bible in a Year reading, we continue with the story of Joshua.

Today we get:

• Determining who took what
• The battle of Ai
• The Gibeon deception

Joshua 7

I won't tell you verse 1, we'll let it be a surprise for later. (for those of you who didn't click the link above)

2 And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Bethaven, on the east of Bethel, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai.

The men saw that Ai didn't have many people, and that a small force of about 2-3000 people could take it, especially considering how easily they routed the people in Jericho.

5 And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty and six men: for they chased them from before the gate even unto Shebarim, and smote them in the going down: wherefore the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.

The hebe's got their asses kicked! But why? How could they lose if God was with them.

Well, He wasn't.

So Joshua goes before God (the ark) and rents (tears) his clothes, and covered himself in dust (showing humility and despair).

7 And Joshua said, Alas, O LORD God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan!

Similar to before, why didn't we stay in Egypt? Why didn't we stay on the other side of the river? Why is life so hard? Why don't you love me?

9 For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name?

Oh, a little reverse psychology there by Joshua, telling God that letting the people die would just tarnish God's good name.

11 Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.

What the? When did this happen?

12 Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.

So someone took something from Jericho. Because of that, God decided He wouldn't be with the people in battle.

14 In the morning therefore ye shall be brought according to your tribes: and it shall be, that the tribe which the LORD taketh shall come according to the families thereof; and the family which the LORD shall take shall come by households; and the household which the LORD shall take shall come man by man.

15 And it shall be, that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath: because he hath transgressed the covenant of the LORD, and because he hath wrought folly in Israel.

So, how did they determine who took it. They cast lots. It started out they first cast lots for which tribe had taken the thing.

Out of the 12, it came up Judah.

Then they cast lots for the children of Judah.

It came up Zerah, the Zarhites.

Next they cast for the families of the Zarahites, it came up Zabdi. They finally cast lots for exactly which person in that group took the thing, and it came up Achan.

19 And Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make confession unto him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me.

It's not a good idea to stone somebody based solely on the casting of lots. Perhaps, Joshua could get a confession from him.

20 And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done:

21 When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.

Now you've gone and done it! You stole silver and gold, and we KNOW that the silver and gold was to go to the LORD's treasury. Wait, what else did you take? A babylonish garmnet? What the heck is that?

Ok, most people think that the story of Joshua takes place some time between the 15th to 12th century BC. If we look up Babylonian history, we see that Babylon was under foreign rule during this time. The Kassites from 1595–1185 BC took over the area. Heck, it wasn't even called Babylon, but Karanduniash. So how would a guy take a babylonish garment, when there was no Babylon?

22 So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran unto the tent; and, behold, it was hid in his tent, and the silver under it.

Yay, they found it.

24 And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of Achor.

Convenient of them to have a valley named for a guy who they were going to stone there.

25 And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? the LORD shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones.

Him, them, them. They stoned him, they burned them, after they stoned them. Who (and what) all did they stone?

Remember, Deuteronomy 24:16The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.

So why would there be a THEM?

Well, his family didn't go and report Achan for taking the stuff, so they were complicit in their silence. Therefore, they got the rocks too! PRAISE JESUS!!!

Joshua 8

1 And the LORD said unto Joshua, Fear not, neither be thou dismayed: take all the people of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai: see, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land:

You know, it's always best to probably just send everyone off to fight anyway, instead of only sending a few people. Overwhelming force is always better than a surgical strike, if you are trying to destroy a people.

So, Joshua sends 30,000 men to go hide behind the city (last time he only sent 2 -3,000 people, this time he sent 30k to hide for an ambush.) Then the main front of a few people will start to attack, and then run away scared. This will draw out all the men of Ai to go chase them down and kill them. When that happens, the 30,000 people will charge into the city and burn it down and kill everyone left there. Ain't gonna be no Rahab the harlot this time!

14 And it came to pass, when the king of Ai saw it, that they hasted and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at a time appointed, before the plain; but he wist not that there were liers in ambush against him behind the city.

Everything is going according to the plan...

15 And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.

Like clockwork!

16 And all the people that were in Ai were called together to pursue after them: and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.

17 And there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel, that went not out after Israel: and they left the city open, and pursued after Israel.

The city is ripe for the taking!

19 And the ambush arose quickly out of their place, and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand: and they entered into the city, and took it, and hasted and set the city on fire.

Whoo hoo!

20 And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and, behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that way: and the people that fled to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers.

21 And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again, and slew the men of Ai.

Yay! Ai slaw! Better than cole slaw!

22 And the other issued out of the city against them; so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side: and they smote them, so that they let none of them remain or escape.

That's the way to fight a war!

25 And so it was, that all that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai.

12,000 dead. That's sad. There were 30,000 people lieing in wait, more than half of them didn't even get to kill anybody.

27 Only the cattle and the spoil of that city Israel took for a prey unto themselves, according unto the word of the LORD which he commanded Joshua.

Spoils and cattle. Hopefully this time nobody took and anachronistic garment.

29 And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until eventide: and as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his carcase down from the tree, and cast it at the entering of the gate of the city, and raise thereon a great heap of stones, that remaineth unto this day.

Whenever you read "unto this day" it doesn't mean today, it means at the writing of this book of the Bible. It doesn't even mean 1611. It means about 1300 BC.

Then Joshua built the monument in Ebal, and read and wrote the law onto the monument.

Joshua 9

1 And it came to pass, when all the kings which were on this side Jordan, in the hills, and in the valleys, and in all the coasts of the great sea over against Lebanon, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard thereof;

2 That they gathered themselves together, to fight with Joshua and with Israel, with one accord.

The Lebanese, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites all ganged up together to take on the people of Israel.

The first AXIS of EVIL! LHACPHJ (for short).

3 And when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho and to Ai,

4 They did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up;

5 And old shoes and clouted upon their feet, and old garments upon them; and all the bread of their provision was dry and mouldy.

So the people of Gibeon dress up like they've just went on a long trip.

6 And they went to Joshua unto the camp at Gilgal, and said unto him, and to the men of Israel, We be come from a far country: now therefore make ye a league with us.

Make a deal... remind you of any verse?

Deuteronomy 7:2 And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:

I'm probably gonna reference that verse a lot in the next year.

So the men tell Joshua about their travel, and that they've heard about God, and they want to be servants, and not be killed (although they didn't know they were Hivites).

14 And the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the LORD.

God would have told them that they were bad people, but they didn't ask God.

15 And Joshua made peace with them, and made a league with them, to let them live: and the princes of the congregation sware unto them.

16 And it came to pass at the end of three days after they had made a league with them, that they heard that they were their neighbours, and that they dwelt among them.

Well, crap!

18 And the children of Israel smote them not, because the princes of the congregation had sworn unto them by the LORD God of Israel. And all the congregation murmured against the princes.

Wow, the people murmured, I find that hard to believe!

20 This we will do to them; we will even let them live, lest wrath be upon us, because of the oath which we sware unto them.

21 And the princes said unto them, Let them live; but let them be hewers of wood and drawers of water unto all the congregation; as the princes had promised them.

Apparently hewers of wood and drawers of water is a lowly task.

23 Now therefore ye are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being bondmen, and hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God.

Joshua has a tendency to repeat himself... ALOT, did I mention he repeats himself... ALOT?

26 And so did he unto them, and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, that they slew them not.

27 And Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of the LORD, even unto this day, in the place which he should choose.

I wonder, did he make them hewers of wood and drawers of water? Yes, yes he did. If in Deut. 7:2 they are commanded to show no mercy, do they still have to follow through with their promises?

So what have we learned today?

1. Divination is an effective tool for determining who steal a garment that won't be made for the next 600 years.
2. If at first you don't succeed, send 10 times as many people to destroy a city.
3. The first Axis of Evil, had a bunch of cowards who, for some reason, keep mouldy bread in their houses.

YIC
V

[Pastor Billy-Reuben]

Originally Posted by Brother V

So someone took something from Jericho. Because of that, God decided He wouldn't be with the people in battle.

It probably would have been nice of God to share this information with Joshua before the men of AI handed the Hebe's their asses. I suppose Joshua had better learn how to guess what kind of mood God is in before he heads into battle.

Originally Posted by Brother V

The Lebanese, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites all ganged up together to take on the people of Israel.

Except for the Lebanese, everyone in that list has good reason to be alarmed. In Joshua 3:10, God promised Joshua that the Israelites would utterly destroy those tribes. This alliance won't do them any good, of course, because God always fulfills His promises.

The Lebanese weren't in any danger, because they lived outside the promised land, but I don't suppose they had any way of knowing that. I wonder why the Girgashites didn't join this alliance. They were on God's list in Joshua 3:10, but they are missing from this Axis of Evil