Chapter 6:26-7:2
Joshua pronounced a curse from God upon any one who should rebuild Jericho. He should pay for his sin in the deaths of his firstborn and youngest son. Years later, in an evil day, during the reign of the wicked king Ahab, His, a native of Bethel, dared to rebuild Jericho, only to have the curse fulfilled which God pronounced by Joshua long before.
But there is a solemn word for us in this. May we not be found building again those things which by the grace of God we have destroyed (Gal. 2:1818For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. (Galatians 2:18)). The cross is that by which we have been crucified to the world and the world to us. May we seek grace to go on with the Lord and not turn again to things of the flesh and of the world from which He died to deliver us.
“So the Lord was with Joshua; and his fame was noised throughout all the country.” God is here looking through Joshua on to Christ-the true Joshua. Because of His perfect obedience and mighty victory at the cross “God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name” (Phil. 2:99Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: (Philippians 2:9)); and in a soon-coming day all heaven and earth will be filled with His glory.
We now come to a very solemn and humbling lesson to be learned in Israel’s humiliating defeat at Ai. The taking of Jericho was the key to the whole land of Canaan. Implicit obedience to the Lord’s command was called for if Israel was to triumph over and drive out their enemies.
God had said just before Jericho fell, “Keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it.” The silver and the gold were to be put into the treasury of the Lord, but Israel were to take none for themselves. However, a man named Achan, a prince in Israel, in direct disobedience to the express command of the Lord, saw “a goodly Babylonish garment and a wedge of gold,” and took them and hid them in his tent.
“And the anger of the Lord was kindled against the children of Israel,” for all Israel were charged with the “trespass in the accursed thing.” They were flushed with the pride of their success at Jericho, and had already declined spiritually before the Lord. Their pride hindered the discovery of the sin. Achan, the troubler, was representative of the people, for the sin of one was the sin of all. God could not go with them as long as sin remained unaccounted for in the camp and what Israel could not spiritually discern, God must bring to light through chastening by means of a most humiliating defeat at the hands of their enemies.
“And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai,... saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed AL” It does not appear that they sought the Lord first in the matter. They seemed to forget that He was Captain of His host, and they did not ask Him what they should do. They did not wait for Him to tell them how to conquer Ai.
The result was that Israel’s self-confidence ended in a disastrous defeat at Ai, “wherefore the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.” May we learn from this not to trust in ourselves, but to seek the Lord’s help and guidance in all things, the little as well as the great, for we have no might of our own. If we go in our own strength, the enemy always proves too strong for us.
ML-07/17/1977