Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:00]
Dr. Manny Arango
Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the Journey family. We used church candy for our new church plant the Garden, and the response blew me and my team away. At our new church plant the Garden, we ran simple invite ads through none other than church candy and hundreds of people responded. Seriously. People who had never even heard of us, who had never met me or heard me preach. They saw an ad on Facebook or Instagram. They showed up to a launch party or launch team training. Some of them have joined our team. Here's the best part. A good amount of them have started giving and tithing, which means the ads have paid for themselves. Our church plant is growing and it's because we chose the right partner. We didn't have to figure out marketing strategies or spend hours tinkering with ad settings. Church candy handled it all and it worked. You might not be planting a church, but if you're a pastor who wants to see more new faces on Sunday, and by the way, I've never met a pastor who doesn't want to see more new faces on Sunday. It's time to check them out. How about you go to churchcandy.com Manny and book a discovery call, Let their team show you what's possible when the right people hear about your church family. Welcome to day 137. Today we are in Joshua, chapter 7, 8, 9 and 10. We got four chapters of the Bible that we are going to be covering today. Let me go ahead and just give you kind of an overview, give you some context of where we're going to go. We got to talk about my man Achan. He is going to steal some of the devoted things and he going to have to die. And then we're going to go, we're going to talk about the city of AI. AI is how it's spelled. We're going to talk about the Gibeonites. Then we're going to talk about this moment where Joshua commands his son to stand still. So we got four chapters. We got four big events. We're going to talk about all of them. We get four stories. Honestly, by the end of this movement, the people of Israel will have taken possession of the major cities or like the strongest cities or the biggest strongholds of the land of Canaan. But let's kind of get into it. If you have not done the reading, you want to make sure that you go do the reading. All right? You want to get the reading done. If you have done the reading, you already know. I got context clues for you. I got nerdy nuggets for you. I got timeless truth. A timeless truth for you. And honestly, our, our context clue today is just where this fits in in the book. Okay? We are essentially right in the thick of the actual conquest. There's a action packed section of the book of Joshua and we're just going to kind of talk through those four things, Achan and I, which are really connected. The Gibeonites and the sun stand still miracle or the sun stand still moment. So let's talk about Achan. One of the things that I think is really, really difficult for western readers to understand is how the sin of one person is going to lead to the downfall of everyone. So chapter seven, verse one. Okay, Joshua, chapter seven, verse one, it says this. But the Israelites. The Israelites were unfaithful 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. Do you see the tension between one person did something wrong, an individual did something. But the text is gonna tell us, but the Israelites were unfaithful. Achan does this, but the Israelites are unfaithful. Now we. Now the narrator has told us this information, but it says this in verse 2. Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to AI, which is near Beth Avan Aven, to the east of Bethel and told them, go up and spy out the region. And so obviously they're gonna go down there and they're gonna lose. Okay, so first thing that we gotta kind of talk about, at no point does Joshua pray. This is. We're gonna start to see like a divide between Moses and Joshua. And not in a good way, not in like man. Joshua's really owning his own leadership style, man. Joshua's killing it. Now we're going to see this theme all throughout the Torah, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, where Moses inquires of the Lord. Moses asked the Lord, like, seriously, people will come up to Moses, ask him something. He's like, well, let me go, let me go consult with God about that. Joshua could have found out that God had not, was not going to give them victory at AI. He could have found that out. But there's no point where he prayed about this. So he sends an army down there. Verse 3. Not all the army will have to go up against AI. Send two or three thousand men to take it. And do not weary the whole army, for only a few people live there. So about 3,000 went up, and they were routed by the men of AI, who killed about 36 of them. They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes. And at this, the heart of the people melted in fear and became like water. Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell face down on the ground before the ark of the Lord, remaining there till evening. So I want to talk about the fear of the Lord. Okay, so what happens here is now he responds, this response, this tearing of his clothes, falling face down to the ground. This. This being prostrate before the ark of the Lord. This is actually how Joshua should have acted before this defeat. Had he done the work on the front end, there wouldn't be defeat on the back end. And so there's now gonna start. There's gonna be a theme, and we're gonna see it where Joshua's not really in the habit of, like, inquiring of the Lord God. Do we need to go up to AI? Is. Is AI the next city? No, actually, they're sin in the camp. Oh, there's sin in the camp. Like, there's not this intimacy or this communion with Joshua between Yahweh and Joshua that we saw with Yahweh and Moses and that we're going to see later with Yahweh and David. Okay, Consistently, you are going to see David. Inquiring of the Lord. Inquiring of the Lord. Inquiring of the Lord. Hey, the Philistines have just defeated us as ziklag. Lord, what are we. Are we gonna have victory? Yeah, you're gonna have victory. Go. Pursue them. Okay, cool. Like, I mean, there's just this dependence on wisdom from Yahweh, direction from Yahweh. Second, Joshua doesn't send the whole army. Now, this may seem like smart military strategy, but let's answer a question. Is smart military strategy the thing that's been winning battles for them? No, it was not smart military strategy that won the battle at Jericho. So why do we need smart military strategy now? Okay, the thing that won the battle at Jericho is obedience and dependence on Yahweh. Therefore, let's just stick with that game plan. So he has this military strategy, but really it's a lack of unity. God's Goal, God's desire. God's ideal was to keep the tribes together, fighting together, fighting side by side. So he sends a certain amount, kind of dividing the forces, and then we get a third mistake. So he doesn't really pray. He divides the troops. And then we're going to get some words. Okay, By Joshua, in verse seven, it's going to say, alas, sovereign Lord, why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan? To deliver us into the land, into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. He sounds a lot like this generation that came out of Egypt. Why'd you bring us out here? To kill us in the wilderness. These kinds of questions. If only we had been content to stay on the other side of the Jordan. Pardon your servant, Lord. What can I say? Now that Israel has been routed by its enemies, the 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? Here we go. Here's God's answer. Stand up. What are you doing? Down on your face. Just stand up. What are you. What are you doing? 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. This 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. Dang, Lord. So clearly God wants to answer. God has no problem talking to Joshua. God could have told this information to Joshua before he attempted to go take AI. So first issue, Joshua does not have a habit or a ritual of inquiring of the Lord. Number two, Joshua divides the army, which he's really not supposed to do. And number three, Joshua's out here complaining as if it ain't the people's fault. And then God answers, and it's like, well, bro, we could have had that information yesterday had you actually been in God's presence like you needed to. So three strikes in one story for Joshua. Okay, what do they do? They're going to use lots. They're going to figure out that it's Achan and Achan going to have to die. Okay, Achan is stoned. And then we get to chapter eight. Now, 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 hand, the king of AI, his people, his city and his land. He finally gets a green light. He gets a green light from the Lord and he's told specifically, take the whole army. Stay united, stay dependent on one another. Stay interdependent on one another. Stop leaning on your own understanding. You know too much and it's not helping. You just do what I'm telling you to do. Don't get ahead of yourself. Okay, so they're successful at I Next we're going to go all the way down to chapter nine. Ok? Now the kings west of the Jordan heard about these things and they want to create a. They want to kind of get a coalition together. They came together to wage war on Joshua and Israel. But when the people of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and AI, they resorted to a ruse. So here's what they're going to do. They are going to wear worn and patched up sandals on their feet, old clothes. All the bread of their food supply was dry and moldy. Okay? They're going to act like they're from far away and they're going to roll up on the Israelites like we're from a distant country. How about you make a treaty with us? The Israelites said to them, but perhaps you live near us. And they said, we are your servants. Look at our bread. It was fresh when we left, you know, but we've been walking for a long time. Okay, verse 14. The Israelites sampled their provisions, but did not inquire of the Lord. Then Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live. And the leaders of the assembly ratified it by oath. Three days after they made the treaty with the Gibeonites, the Israelites heard that they were neighbors living near them. So the Israelites set out and on the third day came to their cities and Gibeon, the big ones, Gibeon. But the Israelites did not attack them because the leaders of the assembly had sworn an oath to them. The whole assembly grumbled against the leaders, but all the leaders answered, we have given them our oath, okay? We cannot touch them, which is their right. This is the right decision to not attack them. Let them live. Why did you deceive us? Da, da, da. Okay, and now get this. Verse 27 of chapter 9. That day, Joshua made the Gibeonites woodcutters and water carriers for the assembly to provide for the needs of the altar of the Lord. Wait a second. Only Levite's supposed to be doing that. This is getting bad, guys. So Here we go. Strike two of not inquiring of the Lord. This is rough. You would think that Joshua would have learned his lesson with Achan and AI. Just ask God, man. Just ask God. But the Gibeonites roll up. No one asks God anything. No one inquires of the Lord. And at the end of the day, I can do a timeless truth just on this. God knows what's around the corner. We as humans can't see around the corner. We don't know. And I've personally made so many decisions without inquiring of the Lord and in my own mind thought, yeah, man, we conducted multiple rounds of interviews with that person. I think they're a good hire. And then all of a sudden you realize, man, I never really got a green light from God on that one. Ah, I think we missed it, okay. And it seemed great. The resume was right. The everything can be right, everything can be right, but you can't see around the corner. And we have an advantage over everybody else in that we talk to God and God wants to talk to us. And how many times do we not use the very advantage that we have at our disposal? Family, the wait is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos is out now and available everywhere. Books are sold. Literally. Today I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble or you can go to a Books A Million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy. If you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective, if you understand that the beauty of scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is going to be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy. Ted Day. All right, back to the episode. So this whole section is just so frustrating. So we get kind of like we're, we're, we're racking up some fails and then we get this iconic moment, okay, where the people. It says in chapter 10, verse 9, after an all night march from Gilgal, Joshua now has a battle, okay, that he's got a. They, they now have to fight a gibeon. They have to prove good on their promise to the Gibeonites. On the day that the Lord gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the Lord, in the presence of Israel, sun stand still over Gibeon, and you moon over the valley of Aijalon. So the sun stood still and the moon stopped to the nation avenged itself on its enemies. What I've always been intrigued by or impressed by is not Joshua's faith, but Joshua's lack of fatigue. They have marched all night, they have fought all day, and Joshua dare say, sun stand still. So I love that moment. That's not actually what the author is impressed by. He's not impressed by Joshua's stamina. He's not impressed by Joshua's faith. He's impressed by this. There's never been a day like it before or since. A day when the Lord listened to a human being. But actually that Hebrew word is obeyed a human being. Surely the Lord was fighting for Israel. That's actually the thing that I think the author wants us to take away. Not how impressive the miracle is, but how impressive it is that God would listen to humans. Which brings us to our timeless truth. After multiple failures and multiple failed moments of prayer, Joshua finally prays a prayer that breaks through the heavens, that catches the attention of God, and God answers in a miraculous way. And I think sometimes we can feel like we fail to pray so many times, and those failures can kind of become an avalanche. But God says, hey, your failures don't roll over every day, every moment, every chapter in life is a new moment to mark that from that moment on. With prayer, it doesn't matter how much you haven't prayed in the past. What matters is how much you've determined to pray now that I don't have to allow my pattern of not praying to remain a pattern of not praying, my pattern of not praying can always be stopped. And I can u turn, I can pivot, I can change, and I can become someone who begins to adopt a pattern of radical prayer. So no prayer about Achan or AI, which leads to destruction and death. No prayer about the Gibeonites, which is a massive fail. But then we get prayer when we get to chapter 10 and we get our sun stand still moment, and we put it in context of all these fails. I actually think that the moment of Joshua praying to God has so much more power when placed in context. Maybe you don't feel confident in your prayer life. Maybe you're saying, man, I can relate to Joshua not inquiring to the Lord about Achan. I can relate to Joshua not inquiring of the Lord about Gibeon. Then let me tell you something. If you relate to Joshua in those moments, then how about from this day forward, you relate to him in the sun, stand still moment? Because it's not like he had some great track record that led up to this moment of great prayer and great faith. He had a terrible track record and then made a decision that who I've been is not gonna be who I am today, that I'm gonna choose to actually act differently, to be different. And Joshua can make that decision. So can you, and so can I. And that's encouraging to me. All right, fam. I gave you context clues, gave you some nerdy nuggets, gave you a timeless truth that I really think is a good, good, solid challenge. And that's Joshua, chapter seven through ten. If you're on a streak, keep ongoing. I'm so, so, so, so proud of you. I hope that reading the Bible every day is radically transforming your life. If you are not on a streak, what you doing with your life? Come on, get on a streak. All you need is two days in a row and let's get the avalanche of a streak going. Let's do that. Let's turn the ship around. I promise you the Bible can breathe new breath into your lungs. I promise it can. I promise it will. All right, I'll see you right here tomorrow. As we embark on day 138, we keep trekking with another couple of chapters. I'm proud of you. I love you. See you tomorrow. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show at the bibledepartment.com and on Instagram hebibledepartment. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.