Watch Your Back

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Joshua 8:9-17.  Let’s go!

Joshua 8:9-17 (NIV) 
9  Then Joshua sent them off, and they went to the place of ambush and lay in wait between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai–but Joshua spent that night with the people. 
10  Early the next morning Joshua mustered his men, and he and the leaders of Israel marched before them to Ai. 
11  The entire force that was with him marched up and approached the city and arrived in front of it. They set up camp north of Ai, with the valley between them and the city. 
12  Joshua had taken about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. 
13  They had the soldiers take up their positions–all those in the camp to the north of the city and the ambush to the west of it. That night Joshua went into the valley. ……

On verses 9-17:  When the king of Ai saw that Joshua had stationed troops in front of the city, he hurried to meet them for battle (v14).  Then when Joshua’s men began to retreat (v15), King Ai told all his men to pursue them (v16), thus leaving the city of Ai open and vulnerable to attack from behind (v17).  Because the king of Ai was in a hurry, he made a rushed decision that exposed his city to attack.  Like a quarterback in football who gets sacked from behind, King Ai didn’t watch his back, and thus he didn’t see ambushers coming (v14).

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The God of Second Chances

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Joshua 8:1-8.  Let’s go!

Joshua 8:1-8 (NIV) 
1  Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land. 
2  You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city.” 
3  So Joshua and the whole army moved out to attack Ai. He chose thirty thousand of his best fighting men and sent them out at night 
4  with these orders: “Listen carefully. You are to set an ambush behind the city. Don’t go very far from it. All of you be on the alert. ……

On verses 1-8:  Joshua hears God’s command to go attack Ai once again.  Though Ai is a relatively small town, God commands Joshua to take his whole army with him to attack it (v1).  This time they would be allowed to take plunder with them (v2).  God also gives Joshua a new strategy for attacking Ai, which is to set an ambush (v2).  Joshua chooses his 30,000 best fighting men to be part of the ambush (v3).

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How to Avoid Coveting What Is Not Yours

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Joshua 7:19-26.  Let’s go!

Joshua 7:19 (NIV) 
19  Then Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory to the LORD, the God of Israel, and give him the praise. Tell me what you have done; do not hide it from me.”

On verse 19:  “Give glory to the Lord” was a Jewish way of saying, “Tell the truth”.  For another example, see John 9:24.   May we give glory to God by living lives of integrity.

Joshua 7:20-23 (NIV) 
20  Achan replied, “It is true! I have sinned against the LORD, the God of Israel. This is what I have done: 
21  When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.” 
22  So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent, and there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver underneath. 
23  They took the things from the tent, brought them to Joshua and all the Israelites and spread them out before the LORD.

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You Can’t Hide From God Forever

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Joshua 7:10-18.  Let’s go!

Joshua 7:10-18 (NIV) 
10  The LORD said to Joshua, “Stand up! What are you doing down on your face? 
11  Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions.
12  That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction. ……

On verses 10-18:  Earlier God had specifically commanded that the Israelites were not to take any loot from the city of Jericho for themselves (Joshua 6:18).  However, God tells Joshua that Israel violated God’s command by taking for themselves some of Jericho’s riches (v11).  Until this sin was confessed and dealt with, the Israelites could not be victorious in battle (v12).  So God tells Joshua to present all of Israel before Him and initiate a process by which Israel’s population would be widdled down tribe by tribe, clan by clan, family by family, until eventually they came to the man who was responsible for this sin.  They go through this process and find that Achan is chosen.

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Rely on God in the Little Things

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Joshua 7:1-9.  Let’s go!

Joshua 7:1-6 (NIV) 
1  But the Israelites acted unfaithfully in regard to the devoted things; Achan son of Carmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them. So the LORD’s anger burned against Israel. 
2  Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth Aven to the east of Bethel, and told them, “Go up and spy out the region.” So the men went up and spied out Ai. 
3  When they returned to Joshua, they said, “Not all the people will have to go up against Ai. Send two or three thousand men to take it and do not weary all the people, for only a few men are there.” ……

On verses 1-6:  Riding the wave of their great victory at Jericho, Joshua uses the same strategy when attacking the next city, Ai. Joshua first sends spies to spy out Ai.  Based on the spies’ report about Ai’s small population, Joshua decides not to send so many troops to Ai (v3).  However, Joshua’s army is routed by the small town of Ai.  It’s the first defeat Israel has experienced under Joshua’s leadership.  The defeat leads Joshua and Israel’s elders to humble themselves before God.

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Make Your Heart Jesus’ Hiding Place

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Joshua 6:15-27.  Let’s go!

Joshua 6:15-27 (NIV) 
15  On the seventh day, they got up at daybreak and marched around the city seven times in the same manner, except that on that day they circled the city seven times. 
16  The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the people, “Shout! For the LORD has given you the city! 
17  The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the LORD. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent. ……

On verses 15-27:  On the seventh day in accordance with God’s instructions, Joshua commands his army to march around the city of Jericho seven times and then, at the sound of a trumpet blast, to shout.  The army does so, and at their shouts the city walls of Jericho come down and the Israelite army charge in and take the city, sparing only Rahab the prostitute and her family “because she hid the men Joshua had sent as spies to Jericho” (v25).

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When God’s Way Doesn’t Make Sense to You

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Joshua 6:1-14.  Let’s go!

Joshua 6:1-14 (NIV) 
1  Now Jericho was tightly shut up because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in. 
2  Then the LORD said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. 
3  March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. 
4  Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets. ……

On verses 1-14:  Why would God tell Joshua and his army to do nothing except march around Jericho city once each day blowing trumpets until the seventh day? Was it a scare tactic meant to intimidate an already freaked out enemy, like a shark encircling its prey before it attacks? Wouldn’t Joshua and the Israelites eventually look a little foolish and be wasting resources, at the same time letting the people of Jericho take a good look at their army? It’s not clear why God commanded Israel to do this, or how marching around the city once each day would advance Israel’s cause. Yet Joshua did as the Lord commanded.

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Jesus Takes Away Your Reproach and Shame

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Joshua 5:9-15.  Let’s go!

Joshua 5:9 (NIV)
9  Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” So the place has been called Gilgal to this day. 

On verse 9:  After Joshua leads the Israelites to be circumcised in accordance with the Jewish law, why did God say to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you”?  To commemorate the place where God rolled away this “reproach of Egypt” from the Israelites, they call this place “Gilgal”, which means “roll away”.  But what is “the reproach of Egypt” anyway? 

Keep in mind that circumcision was the sign of God’s covenant with the Jewish people (Genesis 17:11).  Circumcision was a symbol that distinguished the Jewish people from their Egyptian masters and showed that they were God’s chosen people.  When Joshua had this new generation of Israelites circumcised, it was them returning back to God’s law, going back to being set apart and distinct from an unbelieving world, which Egypt represented.  So “the reproach of Egypt” may be a way of describing God’s disapproval of those who don’t trust and follow Him.  By leading a new generation of Israelites to once again honour circumcision, God was rolling away that reproach from this new generation. 

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Circumcised by Jesus

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Joshua 5:1-8.  Let’s go!

Joshua 5:1 (NIV) 
1  Now when all the Amorite kings west of the Jordan and all the Canaanite kings along the coast heard how the LORD had dried up the Jordan before the Israelites until we had crossed over, their hearts melted and they no longer had the courage to face the Israelites.

On verse 1:  Upon hearing about the past miracles God had performed for the Israelites, Israel’s enemies were very much intimidated.  Nevertheless, as we will see in the verses that follow, God would lead the Israelites through an important process internally before they would be ready to enter and conquer the promised land.

What can we learn from this?  God has a promised land for you to conquer.  That promised land is the dream God has placed in your heart, the destiny God made you for, the calling on your life.  But before you can take over your promised land successfully, God has an internal, private preparation process that He wants you to go through, one which people who know you from a distance will not be aware of.  Promotion in public is preceded by preparation in private. 

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God Is Never Too Early and Never Too Late

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Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Joshua 4:11-24.  We’ll include verse 10 in here too.  Let’s go!

Joshua 4:10-18 (NIV) 
10  Now the priests who carried the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything the LORD had commanded Joshua was done by the people, just as Moses had directed Joshua. The people hurried over,
11  and as soon as all of them had crossed, the ark of the LORD and the priests came to the other side while the people watched.
12  The men of Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed over, armed, in front of the Israelites, as Moses had directed them…….

On verses 10-18:  If I was one of the priests carrying the ark, and I had to remain standing in the middle of the Jordan River while everyone else is passing through, I would probably be more than a little nervous, thinking, “Can we go over already?  What if the river collapses on us and washes us away?”  But the priests stayed until all 40,000 Israelites crossed over the Jordan River (v13).  It wasn’t until all the soldiers crossed over that God gave the command for the priests to come out of the Jordan (v13-17), and the moment the priests stepped foot on the other side of the Jordan River the river waters returned to flood stage as before (v18).

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