It has been said that the “human race accomplished its single greatest technological achievement of all time”¹ on this day thirty-nine years ago when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon (and eventually brought back to earth forty-six pounds of lunar rocks). Others might scoff at the thought of walking on the moon as being the single greatest technological achievement of all time when they consider the personal computer, cell phone, or internet having a much greater impact on their day-to-day lives. Determining what is most important is a challenging task, and finding agreement on what really matters can prove even more challenging.

Determining what is most important in our own lives is a task we face every day. Some days it’s harder to convince yourselves that prayer is more important than a few extra minutes of sleep or that meditating on the Scripture is more crucial than sitting down to an afternoon snack. Trying to look through all the busyness of life to see what is matters most is simply a challenge all of us face.

That same challenge faces us as we look at Joshua 7-8, our text for this morning. Someone could state accurately that Joshua 7-8 is about an army that sends a few men to defeat a city of people, are beaten, then come back with more men and a much greater military strategy and end up wiping out everyone in the city. And, as I’ve said, that would be accurate. But describing this text this way misses what is most important in these chapters. Joshua 7-8 was not written by men divinely inspired so that we might learn great military strategy. These chapters were written so that we might stop and realize what is more important than military strategy, how much money we have in our bank accounts, how much education we have, or how prestigious of a role we play in this world. These chapters were written so that we might understand what matters most in life. And, perhaps surprisingly, it mentions nothing about a number of things we might be tempted to value and says much about sin, exposing sin, dealing with sin, how God deals with those who sin, and obedience to the Word of God. It addresses issues that perhaps we aren’t given merely to drift into thinking about, but are issues that we need to ponder.

So, as we look at these two chapters this morning, I don’t want us to get bogged down in the details of the fight itself between Israel and Ai. Rather, I want us to look at this text and see what it says to us concerning the issues of sin and obedience. My hope this morning is that we might sit before this text like you might sit in a dentist chair when you’ve come to the dentist fearing you might have a cavity.

By that, I don’t mean you should prop your feet up and lean back in your chair. Rather, if your like me, going to the dentist is a time of vulnerability. Sitting in the dentist chair is an awkward experience in which you sit patiently and uncomfortably, exposing areas in your mouth that typically you don’t let anyone see, hoping that the dentist’s careful probing will find nothing bad, and yet knowing that if he does, it’ll be okay. The dentist finding something bad will simply mean that it can be addressed, you can be handed your new toothbrush, and you can move on with life better than before. It’s something that no one necessarily wants to rush to do, but if you’ll go to the dentist periodically, it’ll be good for you.

That’s how I picture Joshua 7-8 being for us this morning. The text points out a few things that will hurt us, but if we’ll sit and allow the text to continue to do it’s work, I think we’ll be glad that we’ve held this Word before us this morning, we’ll be encouraged, and we’ll be able to move forward in a way that is honoring to God.

So, with that said, let’s turn to the text, and right off the bat we see that Joshua 7-8 deals with sin. The first verse of chapter 7 tells us that this is the main issue in these chapters. It’s not about poor military strategy or clever military strategy. It’s about sin. Verse 1 reads, “But the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things, for Achan the son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things. And the anger of the LORD burned against the people of Israel.”

The setting given to us for these chapters is that there’s a serious issue that’s surfaced as the Israelites seek to take the promised land, and the issue is that they have sin. They have broken faith, and the anger of God is burning against them.

Joshua does not know this, however. So, he sends some spies to Ai, they come back saying just a few people can handle the city, Joshua sends about 3,000 men, and the men come back defeated (about thirty-six of them having been killed). And, all of the sudden, Joshua is greatly concerned. He begins to cry out to the Lord and question him when the Lord tells him to get up. God reveals to him, “Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them; they have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings. Therefore the people of Israel cannot stand before their enemies. They turn their backs before their enemies, because they have become devoted for destruction. I will be with you no more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you” (7:11-12).

Then the Lord instructs Joshua to cast lots, and he will reveal to him the one who has transgressed the covenant. Eventually, it is revealed that Achan has sinned, taking for himself what the Lord instructed them to destroy and hiding them under the tent. Therefore, after finding them the people take Achan, all his possessions, his family, nad all his animals and stone them and burn them. Then they raise a great heap of stones over them as a reminder of what has occurred.

Now, I want to stop at this point in the story to bring up the first point I want us to see in this text. And it is this: our sin as individuals affects the whole

Our sin as individuals affects the whole

Notice the language of the text. Verse 1 tells us that the “people of Israel broke faith.” In verse 11, God tells Joshua “Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant …” But eventually, we find out that it is one man, Achan. And when his sin is exposed, he declares, “Truly I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel” (v. 20).

Do we see what’s happening here? For one of the people to sin means that there is sin among the people. One man sins, but all the people are affected. One man sins, and thirty-six of his brothers die for it.

Now, some might rightly point out that this application doesn’t hold for us today. After all, this is the Old Covenant, and one of the promises of the new covenant is that each man would die for his own sins, not for the sins of another. In Jeremiah 31, Jeremiah is declaring as the mouthpiece of God what God is going to do in the future, under a new covenant. He tells the people that God is going to relate to them in a different way than he has before. And he says in Jeremiah 31:29-30, “In those days they shall no longer say: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ But everyone shall die for his own sin. Each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.”

So, one of the blessings we have in this day is that we do not face God’s judgment because the sins of another. We cannot blame our standing before God on another. We are personally responsible for our own sin and our own judgment.

However, this does not mean that my sin affects only me and that your sin affects only you. And the reason this is the case is because of how God has put his church together. Each one of us has been placed by God in this local church to fulfill a role. And according to Ephesians 4, when each part works properly, the whole body is built up. Therefore, though there is a difference between Achan and Israel and us, there is a similarity as well. And it is this, your sin and my sin affects everyone here. Therefore, giving yourself over to sin is not only bad for you, it is selfish in regard to your brothers and sisters.

Let me use this opportunity to promote a vision for how we as your pastors understand why Cornerstone Community Church exists, what we’re doing, what is our goal. Here’s how we understand this church. We are a group of common people who have linked our arms together on a journey to a distant city, and we want to make sure everyone reaches that goal, that city. Everything we do goes into reaching that goal.

As I stand to preach this morning, I pray that God uses this to aid you so that you might grow and press on even more faithfully in the journey. The reason we take as much as an hour and a half on Sunday nights to hear people’s requests, joys, and struggles is because we feel that we desperately need to know these things if we are going to help everyone with whom we have linked arms reach that city. We need to know your struggles with sin so that we might exhort you and pray for you. We need to know your joys and victories so that we might be encouraged. This is why your sin affects me and mine affects you. It is because as a member of this church my goal isn’t simply to make sure I reach the goal of hearing, “Well done.” It’s not even that my family reaches that goal. It’s that all of us reach that goal. That’s how God has designed the church. And it’s my prayer that we’ll all begin to think of what we’re doing as a church in those terms so that our love for one another will be another deterrent to sin, that we’ll labor knowing we’re laboring for something far loftier than simply our own growth, and that we’ll do what is necessary to see that all of us reach the goal of being complete in Christ.

This is another reason why exercising church discipline is so crucial. We remove someone from the church if necessary for the sake of their own soul and because of our love for the whole. Paul reminds us that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. And this is also why we remove someone in soberness and with tears, because we are saying that there is one who has joined us, and tragically it appears that unless this drastic move is made, they will not reach the goal.

Joshua 7-8 reminds us of the seriousness of sin by reminding us that the sin of each individual of God’s people affects the whole. But there is more this text reminds us. Second, we see that it is crucial that we address our sin and not just try to move on.

We must address our sin and not ignore it and move forward

God tells Joshua clearly in verse 12, “I will be with you no more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you.” When Joshua realizes that there’s sin, God doesn’t say, “Oh good. Now you see it. Let’s go on.” No, God says that it must be dealt with. They had to destroy the items that were stolen before they could go on and conquer Ai.

We must address our sin so that we might move forward in obedience. But there is a gracious element here that I don’t want us to miss. Just as the dentist points out a cavity on your tooth not so that he can delight in hearing that drill again but to ensure that your tooth can be protected and healthy, so God graciously exposes our sin so that we might see it, repent, and walk in obedience.

This past week in our church it seems that God has graciously been exposing our sin. Lili and I didn’t get back into town until after the corporate prayer service this past Sunday. But I’ve talked to multiple people who have told me what a blessing it was. And many of them share that they were convicted about growing weary in doing good. Specifically, there was a time when they prayed diligently to lost family members and labored with such hope. Then, the hope seemed to fade as time went by and only hardness of heart increased. Then their prayers decreased and ultimately became a thing of the past. And now, they sit, hopeless and prayerless. The reason we are exhorted not to grow weary in doing good is because it is a fight not to grow weary in doing good.

Yet something miraculous happened this Sunday night. Instead of giving many of us in the church over to that sin, God broke through the hardness and deception of sin. And the reports I’ve received said that it was a very slow and quiet night until one person’s heart was moved to confess, and then God used that to convict many of us.

Then, on Wednesday night, again God brought great conviction to us as we sat and listened to John Piper. And many of us were convicted that we have not given ourselves to learning, knowing, and meditating on the Word of God as we should have. And both of those events are signs of God’s grace to us and love for us.

Consider this well – God could have given us over to that sin and allowed sins hardness and deception to take hold of us so that we would have no desire to repent of it. That could have happened. That’s one way God shows his judgment toward men according to Romans 1. But he didn’t. He exposed our sin even as years earlier he graciously exposed to Joshua the sin of Israel.

So, this morning, yes, you must deal with your sin. Do not just ignore your sin and try to move forward. Consider it. Then repent. But rejoice in the fact that you can. Repent because by God’s grace, you can. God exposing your sin this morning is his demonstration of love for you as an individual and his love for this church. We serve a good God.

We also see in this text that God takes people who have sinned and uses them.

God takes people who have sinned and uses them for his glory

As mentioned at the start of the service, our text does not end at the end of chapter 7. Rather, after destroying Achan and all that belonged to him, the Lord speaks to Joshua and tells him to take the men and go up again to Ai. About 30,000 men set out to set an ambush against the city. Then, about 5,000 of them came against the city, acted defeated, and turned their backs as before. But this time, as all the men left Ai, the 30,000 went into the city, set fire to it, and attacked the men of Ai from behind so that now Israel had the people enclosed. They destroyed the city, only taking the livestock and the spoil as the Lord commanded.

This is a great end for Israel. But don’t miss that this is a great end for Israel. The very people about whom 7:1 tells us they broke faith with the Lord, they are the ones that get the land in chapter 8. In addition, in 7:7-8, it appears that Joshua’s complaint to the Lord sounds familiar. Joshua says “Alas, O LORD God, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all, to give us into the hands of the Amorites, to destroy us? Would that we had been content to dwell beyond the Jordan! O LORD, what can I say when Israel has turned their backs before their enemies.”

Now, I think at this point Joshua should have said something like, “God, you are faithful. You keep your promises? You said we’d get the land. So, what is it that has led to our defeat at Ai?” Instead, his words sound like Israel’s cry in Numbers 14:2-3 after they decide they will not be able to take the promised land. There, they said, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness. Why is the LORD bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? . . . Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?”

It seems impossible to me not to see the similarities in these cries. And Israel got just what they wanted. They died in the wilderness instead of going into the promised land. Joshua, on the other hand leads the army to take the land victoriously.

What does this teach us? It reminds us that those God uses are not those who do not sin or do not deserve his judgment. We all sin and all deserve his judgment. Rather, God takes people who have sinned, points out their sin, brings them from it, and uses them to bring him honor and to do them good. So, this morning, if you say, ‘Yes, but I’ve lost so much time because of my sin” or “Yes, but I’ve sinned so greatly,” then realize that the only reason God is exposing your sin this morning is because he wants to bring you to repent of it, and then he wants to use you. God knows he can use you to honor him from this point forward; otherwise he would just give you over to your sin. So, graciously, we are reminded that God uses people who have sinned to serve him and honor him. Thankfully, he even uses people who sin to lead his people; otherwise you would not have any pastors.

Finally, chapter 8 ends in an odd way. After the battle, Joshua gathers the people and reads to them all the words of the law, including the blessings that come through obedience and the curses that come because of sin. Why does the text end this way? I think it’s because in these two chapters about military battle which are telling us about something far more important than the details of the battle, the text ends reminding us that the most important task we take up from this day forward is simply obeying God’s Word.

Obedience to the Word of God is our most important task

Just as it was more important for Joshua and the others to obey God’s Word than to figure out how to defeat the next city, so obeying God’s Word is more important than a hundred other things you feel are so important right now. Israel wasn’t defeated at Ai because of a bad military decision. They were defeated because they had sinned and needed to obey.

In the same way, do not be deceived this morning into believing the lie that there are more important things going on in your life than stopping, repenting of your sin, and starting to obey God’s commands. Those other things Satan clouds your minds with and tempts you to fill your time with are less important. Rather, you need to obey.

After all, God uses people who have sinned so that they might walk forward in obedience to him. As testimony to that, sometime after this text, God was addressing Israel he made reference again to the valley of Achor. Now, what is that? Joshua 7:26 says that the place where Achan and his family were stoned and covered with stones was named the Valley of Achor, which means the valley of trouble. But this isn’t the only time this comes up. Rather, in Hosea 2, as God tells Israel that he is going to bring them back to himself though they have prostituted themselves, he says in 2:14-15, “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.”

As we repent today, God will take our lives, much of which we have wasted in sin and redeem them, use them, and take what looked to be a valley of trouble and turn it into a door of hope. He will use us though we have sinned. And the reason he is able to do so is also hinted at in Joshua 8.

Near the end of the military victory, we read that the king of Ai was spared – for a while. Ultimately, though he was killed and hanged from a tree. Why? It is because this was a reminder that this king and his people were under the curse of God according to Deuteronomy 21:23. Ai was destroyed because they were wicked (Deut. 9:4) and were judged by God.

However, we who deserve the same judgment can rejoice and be used of God today because Galatians 3:13 tells us, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.’” And we rejoice that in our place he bore our curse as he was hanged on a tree outside Jerusalem so that we might not have to face God’s wrath.

So, this morning, as we come to the table, let us come rejoicing. Let our hearts and minds delight in the sense of a song I heard this past year. It begins:

I don’t deserve to be Your servant
And how much less to be Your child
Anger and wrath, sure condemnation
Should be my portion, my just reward
Never have seen it, never will know it
Your loving kindness enfolds my life²

Amen. What a blessing that we who have sinned can sing this song and be used of God. Let’s delight in this as we come to the table.

¹See http://history.nasa.gov/ap11ann/introduction.htm.

²“Always Forgiven,” words and music by Jon Ryan. For lyrics and to purchase, go to http://www.sovereigngracestore.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=M4130-06-51.

A VALLEY OF TROUBLE AND A DOOR OF HOPE