{"id":12912,"date":"2020-12-04T21:00:05","date_gmt":"2020-12-05T04:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/joshua_6_15-27-copy\/"},"modified":"2020-11-29T21:14:13","modified_gmt":"2020-11-30T04:14:13","slug":"joshua_7_1-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/joshua_7_1-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Rely on God in the Little Things"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joshua 7:1-9 \u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Joshua 7:1-9.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Joshua 7:1-6 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But 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\u00a0LORD’s anger burned against Israel.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Now 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.
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When 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.”
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So about three thousand men went up; but they were routed by the men of Ai,
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0who killed about thirty-six of them. They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes. At this the hearts of the people melted and became like water.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown to the ground before the ark of the\u00a0LORD, remaining there till evening. The elders of Israel did the same, and sprinkled dust on their heads.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-6:\u00a0\u00a0Riding the wave of their great victory at Jericho, Joshua uses the same strategy when attacking the next city, Ai.\u00a0Joshua first sends spies to spy out Ai.\u00a0\u00a0Based on the spies\u2019 report about Ai\u2019s small population, Joshua decides not to send so many troops to Ai (v3).\u00a0\u00a0However, Joshua\u2019s army is routed by the small town of Ai.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s the first defeat Israel has experienced under Joshua\u2019s leadership.\u00a0\u00a0The defeat leads Joshua and Israel\u2019s elders to humble themselves before God.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?<\/p>\n

One could argue that Joshua\u2019s approach to attacking Ai lacked one thing: prior to the attack on Ai, at least on paper there didn\u2019t seem to be much communication between Joshua and the Lord concerning what to do with Ai.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s almost as if Joshua just assumed that he knew what to do and relied on his previous experience and smarts to get the job done.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s a reminder that even\u00a0when we face challenges that don\u2019t seem that big to us, we still want to rely on the Lord and keep the lines of communication with Him open<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0With God, all things are possible.\u00a0\u00a0Apart from God we can do nothing.<\/p>\n

Joshua 7:7-9 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And Joshua said, “Ah, Sovereign\u00a0LORD, why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan!
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0O Lord, what can I say, now that Israel has been routed by its enemies?
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The Canaanites and the other people of the country will hear about this and they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth. What then will you do for your own great name?”<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 7-9:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0After the discouraging defeat at Ai, Joshua was asking God questions, but they were only questions of complaint. At least in these verses Joshua wasn\u2019t seeking to understand where he and his army went wrong.\u00a0\u00a0Rather Joshua was more just sulking and panicking.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0When you\u2019ve experienced disappointment, it is good to go to God and pour out your heart. But\u00a0when things don\u2019t go your way, don\u2019t just go to God with your complaints and fears. Go to God with a humble and teachable heart<\/strong>, seeking to understand what God wants to teach you through the situation.<\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, whether the challenge I am facing seems big or small in my eyes, may I always rely on You and Your wisdom, not my own.\u00a0\u00a0When things don\u2019t go my way, may I not come to You only with my complaints and fears, but with a humble and teachable heart as well. In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Joshua 7:1-9.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Joshua 7:1-6 (NIV)\u00a0
\n1\u00a0\u00a0But 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\u00a0LORD’s anger burned against Israel.\u00a0
\n2\u00a0\u00a0Now 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.\u00a0
\n3\u00a0\u00a0When 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.”\u00a0……<\/p>\n

On verses 1-6:\u00a0\u00a0Riding the wave of their great victory at Jericho, Joshua uses the same strategy when attacking the next city, Ai.\u00a0Joshua first sends spies to spy out Ai.\u00a0\u00a0Based on the spies\u2019 report about Ai\u2019s small population, Joshua decides not to send so many troops to Ai (v3).\u00a0\u00a0However, Joshua\u2019s army is routed by the small town of Ai.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s the first defeat Israel has experienced under Joshua\u2019s leadership.\u00a0\u00a0The defeat leads Joshua and Israel\u2019s elders to humble themselves before God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12914,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12912"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12913,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12912\/revisions\/12913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}