Joshua: All In Passage: Joshua 8:1-35 Calvary Baptist Church Sunday, January 14, 2018 Pastor Ben Marshall

Key Goals: (Know) We know that God desires us to be all in for Him. (Feel) We feel a compelling desire to go all in for God. (Do) We will go all in for God.

Welcome Have you ever been in a conversation with someone, but you were slightly distracted? For whatever reason, you were not fully invested in the conversation—you had your phone out, or happened to be checking your email or Facebook status, or the TV was on next to you, or you were in a hurry, or you just didn’t really want to be part of the conversation. But then, all of a sudden, there is this awkward silence and you realize the person you were talking to is waiting on a response… Yeah, I’ve never been there either. Just kidding. It happens probably too often to me.

It seems to take a lot for us to be all in for something. We have to actually want something, or want what it can give us. We tend to be all in for things like our favorite football team, favorite coffee shop, favorite brand of technology (obviously Apple is the best), and things like that. We become great evangelists and preachers for what we are passionate about. There’s something different when it comes to how we approach spiritual matters. We feel awkward talking about them, almost ashamed that we read the Bible and learned something or went to church and heard something that transformed our lives. We often don’t share these things with people. Yet that’s exactly what God wants! God truly desires for us to be all in for Him. He wants us to fully know Him and fully pursue Him with all of ourselves. Matthew 6:21 reminds us that Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be and 6:33 says Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need (NLT). God wants our all-in delight to be in Him, so we keep our priorities in the right place. Anything else is idolatry: putting something in the rightful place of God.

Relationships are damaged when we aren’t all in. The relationship you have with the person you weren’t all in with in conversation was damaged because you weren’t fully there. The same happens in our relationship with God. When we aren’t all in, we aren’t going to experience the fullness of God and all His promises. If we aren’t all in, we are going to miss pieces of who He is. We will know the cultural understanding of God, but not the biblical truth of the attributes, character, and nature of God. Our purpose today is that we would all feel an overwhelming, compelling desire to go all in for God, to pursue Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. Give God all of yourself, not just the pieces you are willing to let go of.

Word As we approach Joshua 8 today, we are going to see all of the Israelites were all in. They believed God, trusted His command, and followed Him fully. Let that be true of us as well.

RENEWED PERSPECTIVE Things are different now, as we leave Joshua 7 and begin chapter 8. Last week we saw the holiness and righteousness of God demanding that sin be dealt with. God takes sin seriously, so should we. Joshua 8:1–21 begins with a transition: And the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not fear and do not be dismayed. Take all the fighting men with you, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, his city, and his land. 2 And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king. Only its spoil and its livestock you

1 All Scripture quotations from ESV unless otherwise noted. shall take as plunder for yourselves. Lay an ambush against the city, behind it.” The sin of Achan had been dealt with and God reminded the Israelites they did not need to be afraid or dismayed. There is something familiar here… “do not fear and do not be dismayed…” God told Joshua this in 1:9. He had been commanded to be strong and courageous so he should not be frightened or dismayed. Why? For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.

Israel must have been afraid, because God focused first on dispelling their fear as He gave them the battle plan for Ai. God’s counsel and battle strategy for Ai wasn’t asked for in Joshua 7, but here God gave His strategy. The thing is, Israel should not have had any problem with Ai. They defeated Jericho with its massive walls and here was little Ai. If this were simply a historical account of a battle, Israel should not have had a problem with Ai. The reason they were defeated is because the story was not about Israel and their military prowess or might. This was all about God, His holiness, and His plan. The whole Bible is all about God, His glory, and how He interacts with His creation—extending more mercy and grace than we can even fathom!

The Israelites followed their own strategy at the beginning of chapter 7 instead of seeking God’s plan. Here, though, we see God commanded them and had already given Ai into their hands. Notice, too, as they prepared for battle, they didn’t just send a contingent of soldiers, but all of Israel. There is repetition throughout this chapter, and really the entire book, of “all.” God told them to take all the fighting men with you, and God had already won the battle. He gave them specific instructions to follow and a specific battle plan that would be successful here.

The Israelites approached Jericho with one “battle” strategy and Ai with a different strategy. The similarity was God: without Him they would be unsuccessful, but if they followed His Word and depended on Him for the battle, they would be victorious. Sometimes the battle strategy and approach need to be different, but the one uncompromising reality in our daily spiritual battles is all-in dependence on God and all-in submission to the Bible, the Word of God.

We need to stop trying to win the battle on our own. Whatever your struggle, temptation, or battle— alcohol, adultery, lust, addiction, broken relationships, a wayward child, loneliness, depression, anxiety, or anything else—stop trying to be victorious on your own. You cannot be victorious without Christ. He doesn’t just deal with a symptom, but goes to the root cause. He heals you, restores you, forgives you, brings mercy and grace and truth into every situation, and makes you into a new creation. He transforms your heart and mind. He changes your identity from what you do to Whose you are. You are not labeled as addict, alcoholic, abused, adulterer, unwanted; you are a son or daughter of the Risen Savior, the King of kings and Lord of lords. You are a co-heir with Jesus Christ, inheriting all of the goodness and greatness of our Heavenly Father. The battle is won by and through Jesus Christ in whom we must find our identity if we are going to live in victory. Remember, disciples of Jesus Christ don’t fight for victory, but, instead, fight from victory.

THE BATTLE PLAN Joshua 8:3–9 So Joshua and all the fighting men arose to go up to Ai. And Joshua chose 30,000 mighty men of valor and sent them out by night. 4 And he commanded them, “Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind it. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you remain ready. 5 And I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. And when they come out against us just as before, we shall flee before them. 6 And they will come out after us, until we have drawn them away from the city. For they will say, ‘They are fleeing from us, just as before.’ So we will flee before them. 7 Then you shall rise up from the ambush and seize the city, for the Lord your God will give it into your hand. 8 And as soon as you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire. You shall do according to the word of the Lord. See, I have commanded you.” 9 So Joshua sent them out. And they went to the place of ambush and lay between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai, but Joshua spent that night among the people.

God told them to lay an ambush and that this time the spoil will be theirs to take. Joshua and ALL the fighting men began to prepare for the battle. Joshua went into more detail about the ambush and how they would draw the men of Ai out of the city. They approached and fought like they had the first time, but this time they would flee as part of the plan. Then the ambush would happen and the Israelites would take the city and God would get the glory.

All through the description of this battle plan is the repeated focus on God’s plan and God’s Word. Verse 7 tells the ambushing force that the LORD your God will give it into your hand and when they had taken the city they were to do according to the word of the LORD. Again, it’s not about the battle but about the LORD who gave the victory. The Israelites focused on who was fighting for them not what they were doing to fight.

PREPARATION & AMBUSH Joshua 8:10–17 Joshua arose early in the morning and mustered the people and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai. 11 And all the fighting men who were with him went up and drew near before the city and encamped on the north side of Ai, with a ravine between them and Ai. 12 He took about 5,000 men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. 13 So they stationed the forces, the main encampment that was north of the city and its rear guard west of the city. But Joshua spent that night in the valley. 14 And as soon as the king of Ai saw this, he and all his people, the men of the city, hurried and went out early to the appointed place toward the Arabah to meet Israel in battle. But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city. 15 And Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten before them and fled in the direction of the wilderness. 16 So all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and as they pursued Joshua they were drawn away from the city. 17 Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel. They left the city open and pursued Israel.

Just like the final day of marching around Jericho, Joshua woke up early in the morning and prepared for battle that day. He set the ambush, brought the main military force to Ai, and followed God’s battle plan. Joshua retreated and all the men of Ai and Bethel—not a man was left in Ai or Bethel—pursued them, which left the city vulnerable to the ambush, just like they planned.

VICTORY & PLUNDER Joshua 8:18–29 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.” And Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city. 19 And the men in the ambush rose quickly out of their place, and as soon as he had stretched out his hand, they ran and entered the city and captured it. And they hurried to set the city on fire. 20 So when the men of Ai looked back, behold, the smoke of the city went up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that, for the people who fled to the wilderness turned back against the pursuers. 21 And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city, and that the smoke of the city went up, then they turned back and struck down the men of Ai. 22 And the others came out from the city against them, so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side. And Israel struck them down, until there was left none that survived or escaped. 23 But the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him near to Joshua. 24 When Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the open wilderness where they pursued them, and all of them to the very last had fallen by the edge of the sword, all Israel returned to Ai and struck it down with the edge of the sword. 25 And all who fell that day, both men and women, were 12,000, all the people of Ai. 26 But Joshua did not draw back his hand with which he stretched out the javelin until he had devoted all the inhabitants of Ai to destruction. 27 Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took as their plunder, according to the word of the Lord that he commanded Joshua. 28 So Joshua burned Ai and made it forever a heap of ruins, as it is to this day. 29 And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. And at sunset Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city and raised over it a great heap of stones, which stands there to this day.

Joshua raised the javelin, and kept it raised until all of Ai had been destroyed. This was to show that God won the battle, not the Israelites. The ambush worked, the people of Ai were destroyed and the city was burned. There was left none that survived or escaped. The way they dealt with the king here was evidently what they had done with the king of Jericho as well. It is interesting to note the similarity between how they treated the king of Ai and how they treated Achan. Both were killed and covered with stones—literally raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day (7:26). “This makes the point clearly that God would not favor his own people when they blatantly disobeyed any more than he would favor wicked Canaanites; Achan was expelled from Israel and treated as a Canaanite.”2

ALL IN WITH THE LAW Joshua 8:30–35 At that time Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal, 31 just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the people of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, “an altar of uncut stones, upon which no man has wielded an iron tool.” And they offered on it burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings. 32 And there, in the presence of the people of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written. 33 And all Israel, sojourner as well as native born, with their elders and officers and their judges, stood on opposite sides of the ark before the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded at the first, to bless the people of Israel. 34 And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law. 35 There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who lived among them.

After the battle, their second in the land of Canaan, it appears the Israelites traveled some distance away to worship and refocus their hearts. It was possibly a journey of some twenty miles or so from their battle in Ai and Bethel. “After the sin of Achan and the defeat of Ai, the nation again needed a ceremonial reminder of its relationship with God… Israel had violated the Lord’s covenant (7:11, 15), and it was now more fitting than ever that the nation reaffirm that covenant.”3 The location was important for the history and future of the Israelites. It was on Mount Ebal that Moses had commanded the Israelites to build an altar when they entered the land (Deut. 27:4-5). According to Deuteronomy 11:26-32 and 27:12-13, the twelve tribes were supposed to stand between these mountains, six facing each mountain, for the pronouncement of blessings and curses in connection with renewing the covenant.4

Joshua made an altar, wrote a copy of the Law, and read it to the entire nation. There is a repeated theme of following the commands of God received through Moses in this section. Four different times (8:31 (two times), 33, 35) the Israelites did something because it was in accordance with Moses’ commands. The burnt offerings were made as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the people. It was literally a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the LORD (Leviticus 1:9) that would be accepted…to make atonement (Leviticus 1:4). The

2 Howard, D. M., Jr. (1998). Joshua (Vol. 5, p. 212). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers. 3 Howard, 213. 4 Howard, 214. peace offerings were also called thanksgiving offerings and were joyful offerings eaten by the ones giving them. Celebration and fellowship with God and others was the real purpose behind this offering.5

Beginning in verse 33 we see the unity of the nation and the all-in commitment to the Word of God. All Israel was gathered; Joshua read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law; Joshua didn’t leave a word out of all that Moses commanded. Every person listened to the entire Book of the Law and nothing was left out. All of Israel was all in for all of God’s Word.

Wrap Up Last week we saw that God takes sin seriously, and so should we. This week we see that God wants His people to be all in. He doesn’t want pieces of us. He doesn’t want some of us. He doesn’t want us to follow just a part of the Word of God. He wants all of us to follow all of His Word. Here is where the hard work really begins. Where would you say your heart is? Psalm 139:23-24 is a great passage to help examine that. We are good at justifying our sin and letting ourselves off the hook. Psalm 139:23-24 puts the focus on God examining us and then us needing to do the hard work of accepting what God points out and repenting from it. 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life. (NLT)

Walk Away Where are you holding back? What parts of your life are offensive to God? What do you need to repent and turn from? Allow God to examine your heart and test your thoughts. Then do something about it. Give over to Him what you’re holding back. Confess, repent, and seek accountability and forgiveness from others if necessary. Are you willing to go all in for God? It is a process, not a one-time decision. You have to make this decision new every day, and usually multiple times throughout the day. When faced with temptation, we have to answer the question: Am I going to go all in for God and say no to temptation or am I going to be all in for myself and say yes to temptation?

© Calvary Baptist Church of Holland Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to use and reproduce this material in any format for spiritual, non-commercial purposes. We only ask that you do not alter the content in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. Please include the following statement on any distributed material: by Ben Marshall. © Calvary Baptist Church of Holland.

5 Howard, 215.