Battle of Jericho / The Sin of Achan (Joshua Chapters 6 - 7)

Moore's Corner Church

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So turn in your Bibles to Joshua chapter 6. Joshua chapter 6, we'll look at chapter 6 and 7 tonight.

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This is one of the most well -known stories in the Old Testament. Of course, this is the battle of Jericho.

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So, so far in the book of Joshua, we've seen several things, but just to go back to chapter 1 for a moment.

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In chapter 1, the Lord tells Joshua, be strong and very courageous that you may observe to do according to all that the law which

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Moses my servant commanded you. You remember he says, do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left that you may prosper wherever you go.

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So that's important to point out for this study tonight, because in order for Joshua and Israel to be successful they couldn't turn to the left, they couldn't turn to the right.

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In order for them to be successful, they had to do exactly what God told them to do.

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So this was the covenant agreement that you know by now, obey and be blessed, disobey and be cursed.

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And because they've been walking by faith up until this point, God's been working in miraculous ways.

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We know how this battle turns out. They win, the walls come down.

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However, something happens right afterwards or something happens in the battle that brings reproach upon the nation.

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So we're just going to follow along with the video, just chapter 6, 1 through 8 for now, and then we'll take a look at an overview of chapter 7 as well.

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So let's listen along, Joshua 6, 1 through 8. Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel.

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None went out and none came in. And the Lord said to Joshua, See, I have given

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Jericho into your hand, its king and the mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city, all you men of war.

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You shall go all around the city once. This you shall do six days.

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And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams horns before the ark.

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But the seventh day, you shall march around the city seven times and the priests shall blow the trumpets.

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It shall come to pass when they make a long blast with the rams horn. And when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout.

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Then the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, every man straight before him.

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Then Joshua, the son of Nun, called the priests and said to them, Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams horns before the ark of the

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Lord. And he said to the people, Proceed, and march around the city, and let him who is armed advance before the ark of the

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Lord. So it was, when Joshua had spoken to the people, that the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams horns before the

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Lord advanced and blew the trumpets, and the ark of the covenant of the

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Lord followed them. Joshua chapter 6 verse 1 says, Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel.

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None went out and none came in. So we read last week, remember how the people of the land, it said their hearts melted.

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So the people are absolutely terrified. So they have this city that's a walled city.

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They shut the gate. Nobody's allowed in. Nobody can get out. And one commentator said this about the walls of Jericho, says that the city was fortified by a double ring of walls, the outer six foot thick and the inner wall 12 foot thick.

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So this is essentially impossible to get through. So because of this,

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Israel really, all they had to do is wait this out. If they just surrounded the city and waited, what could they do?

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Right. And that was a common military tactic of the day. Just just wait.

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It might take a few months, but eventually everybody in the city would die or they would give up.

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But they didn't want to do that. Maybe for several reasons. The Lord didn't tell them to do that. That's the main thing.

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But remember they made a promise to Rahab. So it was absolutely essential that they keep their word and that Rahab and her family is spared.

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So that's just one thing we can take away from this story, that they make sure to spare

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Rahab. They keep their word because they made a vow before God. And this is just another reminder that Christians should always not just keep their vows, because some

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Christians don't believe we should make vows, but let our yes be yes and our no, no. Amen. All right, let's keep our word.

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So these are this story and the walls of Jericho. This is, um, who's heard a sermon on this?

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Has anyone ever heard of a sermon? Usually this is what you get in Sunday school, right?

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Can I get a witness from the Sunday from the junior church and Sunday school teachers? This is standard for for little kids.

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But really it's an important lesson that adults should learn as well and hear about.

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These walls were legendary. No way Israel could knock them down, but for the Lord this is not a problem.

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You might find this interesting, just a little information about the city of Jericho. Some of the remains, they're still there, or at least they were up until the last century in 1930 or through 1936.

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One archaeologist conducted excavations at the site, and according to him, he discovered remains of what he described as a network of collapsed walls that they dated back to about 1400

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BC. Is that the correct time period? Right, you just think of Moses living around 1500

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BC, so that's about the right time. So the point is, this isn't just a children's story.

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This isn't just, you know, once upon a time there was this city, and that's the way a lot of people think about stories you tell to kids, that it's like a fairy tale.

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Of course this isn't. This historical account is just as true, just as reliable as what you learned about the

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American Revolution or the Civil War. Actually, I would say it's far more reliable than the history you've learned about those wars and other history.

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So the Bible is the most historical or the most accurate of all historical writings.

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The scholars won't admit that, and Marcus isn't here, otherwise he would admonish me for calling them scholars.

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That kind of gets under his skin. The scholars, quote -unquote, they can't admit that because as soon as you acknowledge that the

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Bible is real history, as soon as people start believing that, then they might believe the spiritual things in the

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Bible. And of course that's something the atheists cannot abide. But I digress.

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So just as there's this battle between Israel and the city of Jericho, there's also this battle going on right now over truth.

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Okay, verse 2. And the Lord said to Joshua, see, I have given Jericho into your hand.

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It's king and the mighty men of valor. How does

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Joshua know this? Who's talking to Joshua? Yeah, and we talked about that, that God does communicate.

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From here on out, he is going to communicate to the high priest, to Joshua. But remember, there's no chapter divisions in the original text.

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So if you think about it, chapter 5 and chapter 6, there really is no...

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And when the Bible was written, when Joshua was written, there is no chapter 5, there is no chapter 6.

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So the story is just flowing from the last part. And who is Joshua talking to?

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The commander of the Lord's army. So it appears that Joshua is still talking to the pre -incarnate

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Christ. So I believe it is Christ present on earth, giving

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Joshua these instructions about what to do to the city of Jericho. So Israel follows the instructions and God, of course, miraculously gives them another victory.

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So far, God is testing his people. And would you say their faith is strong right now?

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It is. Everything's going well, and it's easy to have strong faith when things are going well.

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That helps. So they have faith to enter the land. These are some of the tests that have been going along.

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Chapter 2, they encounter Rahab. They make this promise with her. In chapter 3,

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God works a miracle through Joshua so that Israel could cross the Jordan River on dry ground.

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The river was stopped up. Similar to Moses parting the Red Sea. Chapter 5, once they're in the land, the test we talked about last week is that all of the men had to be circumcised.

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So 40 years and under, this is basically their fighting army.

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They're all going to be sitting ducks for multiple days, if not a week or two, which is the worst possible scenario you can imagine.

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It puts them at great risk, but they trust in God. So when he tells them to do it, they don't think about it.

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They just do it. So Israel's faith is very strong, and they're keeping covenant.

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God is telling them, do this. They do it. Circumcise all the soldiers.

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Okay, they do it. So far, so good. And now in this chapter, we see another command where the

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Lord tells them, you're going to take this fortified city, and you're going to do it by marching around it once a day.

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And then on the seventh day, you know, you march around seven times and blow the trumpet and shout. And the walls,

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I mean, this sounds absolutely, well, what does it sound like?

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Yeah, this is crazy. How are the walls going to come down by us marching? See, it doesn't matter.

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There's no, there's really is no logic to it. It's a matter of God telling them this amazing thing, and they believe it.

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It's kind of like with us when we open up the book of Moses, and it says that God just spoke and the universe and the heavens and the earth were created just by him speaking.

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There's no logic there. There's no, you can't test it or anything like that. It's just a matter of faith.

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But this is what faith is. You believe what God says, even if it doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense to you at the time.

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I'm sure you did that with your children. You would tell them something when they were little, and they would want to know why, and they'd have all these questions.

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But as far as you go, you just trust me. Do what I say. That's the way

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God is with us. We have all these questions and wonder, but it doesn't matter. Do what

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I say. That's what's important. So they do it. They go in.

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They take the city. That's the plan. But a warning is given. Before they march around, there's this warning.

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It's another test. Look at verse 18.

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It says, and you by all means abstain from the accursed things, lest you become accursed when you take of the accursed things and make the camp of Israel a curse and trouble it.

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But all the silver and gold and vessels of bronze and iron are consecrated to who?

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You know, another term for consecrate is to set apart.

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So all the gold, all the things that they would normally be tempted with. I'm gonna take this for myself.

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He says, no, this all belongs to the Lord. It's consecrated to the Lord. They shall come into the treasury of the

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Lord. So there's this one man, Achan, and we read about him in the next chapter, chapter 7.

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What does he do? He defies this command by God. And because God keeps his word, okay, the

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Israelites and mankind doesn't always keep their word. God always keeps his word. And because God said, if you do this, a curse will come upon you.

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And what does he do? Yeah, he, he steals some of the, the silver and gold for himself.

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We'll look at that in a minute. All right, look at verses 20 and 21. So the people are going to take the city says, so the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets and it happened when the people heard the sound of the trumpet and the people shouted with a great shout that the wall fell down flat.

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Then the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city and they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and donkey with the edge of the sword.

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And of course the only exception was who? Rahab. Look at verse 25 and Joshua spared

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Rahab the harlot, her father's household, and all that she had. So she dwells in Israel to this day because she hid the messenger whom

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Joshua sent to spy out Jericho. All right, so as we've already mentioned back in our study of chapter two, uh, that Rahab, uh, not only when this was written, she lived in Israel to that day.

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And in the future, what do we learn about Rahab? She ends up within, she's mentioned in the gospel of Matthew as what she's mentioned in the genealogy of Christ, which it mentions mostly the men, but there are a couple of women that are mentioned.

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Rahab is one and the other is Ruth. Two women that were not even ethnic

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Israelites, which is just shows God's mercy, that God actually loved non -Israelites too, even, even back then.

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So it, even then it was, it was more about the faith and the bloodline was very important, but faith was the most important thing.

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All right, and then the chapter ends with verse 27. So the Lord was with Joshua and his fame spread throughout all the country.

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So we call this the battle of Jericho, but I don't know, honestly, I don't know how much of a battle it was.

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I mean, the way you read it, the walls came down. Who knows how many people that killed could have fallen on a bunch of the soldiers, but they go in, it seems like they take the city very easily.

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Is that how you read it? I know that's how it seems to me. Okay, now before we go to the next chapter and the sin of Achan and what that brings upon the nation, what do

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I always try to do when going through these Old Testament books? Application.

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Okay, good. I don't have an application for you quite yet. That'll come at the end. Yeah, how does this point to Christ?

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Where is Christ in the story? Where is the gospel being pictured? Because the whole

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Old Testament is about Christ. Yes, Larry. Parallel passage, 1

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Thessalonians 4. 16, the

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Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout and the trump of God shall sound.

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Okay, I like it. That didn't occur to me. Yeah, when Jesus comes back in the clouds, there's gonna be a trumpet, there's gonna be a shout.

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Will any walls come down? Could be.

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Good, I like that. All right, so where is the gospel?

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Where is Christ? We talked about last week the commander of the Lord's army. So if that is a

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Christophany, then it's actually the Son of God in human form on earth, directly talking.

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So we don't even have to look for Christ in some sort of foreshadow or type or something like that.

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Christ is actually there, present on the earth, talking with Joshua. So you don't even really have to look all that hard to find him, right?

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Okay, so there's Christ in Joshua chapters 5 and 6. What about the gospel, though?

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I believe the gospel is pictured in chapter 6 in the salvation of Rahab and her family.

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Remember how they identify Rahab's house? How do they know where she lives? Because she hangs the scarlet cord out the window.

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And the scarlet or red color symbolizes the blood of Christ. So her home was, we could say, under the protection of the blood.

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That's a symbolism. In Jericho, you could see as like a picture of the world. God's wrath is upon the city of Jericho, just like God's wrath is upon this world.

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It abides upon all those who do not believe. That's what the scripture says.

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So you have the destruction of the city of Jericho, a picture of the world, but there's a small group of people that receive salvation.

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And why does Rahab receive salvation? Because she was such a good woman who lived an upstanding life?

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No, it's the exact opposite. She was saved because she had faith in the

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God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So I think you see a picture of the gospel in here as well.

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Hebrews 1131 says, By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe when she had received the spies with peace.

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All right, now let's go to chapter 7. Any questions or comments before we move on? All right.

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Chapter 7 verse 1, it says, But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things.

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For Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah, took some of the accursed things.

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So the anger of the Lord burned against the children of Israel.

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Now I know some people might say, well this isn't fair. This is just one guy and God's anger is burning against the whole nation.

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This is a pretty common thing throughout the scripture where God views things as people acting as like a representative.

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Or maybe a little leaven leavens the whole lump. So even this one person could bring this reproach upon the whole nation.

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Did anyone think that? It's like this seems, of course I'm always reluctant because I know when

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I think this is unfair and God does it, I know that I'm the one who's wrong because God is always just in what he does.

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But somebody might have thought that. Now does

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Israel, do they know? Does Joshua know that this happened? Does anybody know? I think

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Achan's family probably knows based on the way it's handled. So I suspect his family knows what he did and they're all just kind of keeping it quiet.

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But as far as Joshua goes, they have no earthly idea. They've won this great battle at Jericho and now they're going in to fight another battle against Ai.

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They're gonna attack Ai and look at verses four and five. So the spies go out, check it out.

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They come back and they said, Joshua, this is gonna be a piece of cake. So about 3 ,000 men, it says, went up from there, from the people, but they fled before the men of Ai.

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And the men of Ai struck down about 36 men for they chased them from before the gate as far as Seborim and struck them down on the descent.

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Therefore the hearts of the people melted and became like water. Now who's heart is melting now?

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Yeah, Israel's heart is melting. All of their confidence is gone.

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They won this battle against Jericho, but now Ai, which this should have been a like a speed bump.

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Jericho is difficult. That's a miraculous thing that they won. But Ai, this should have been very simple and yet they get routed.

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It's like they have no chance. Now they're running. So what happened? Look at verse seven.

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Now we see Joshua, this man of faith. Have we seen anything negative about Joshua up until this point going through Exodus or Numbers?

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I don't think we've seen or heard anything negative about Joshua. But now Joshua is starting to say some things that we've heard before.

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What does he say? Look at verse seven. And Joshua said, Alas, Lord God, why have you brought this people over the

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Jordan at all? To deliver us into the hands of the Amorites? To destroy us?

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Does that sound familiar? God, why did you even bring us here just to kill us?

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Well, what does that tell you? Joshua might be a type of Christ, but he's still a man. Well, no doubt they're feeling good.

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God is with us. Another miracle happened. We are undefeatable.

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Is that a word? Yeah. Well, they're not thinking like that anymore.

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So the Lord tells Joshua, basically, get up. We're going to fix this. And here's what happened.

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God tells him what took place. Somebody disobeyed my commands. That's why you lost.

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And they discover, make a long story short. They discovered that it was this man. They kind of break it down.

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Okay, here's the tribe. Here's the family. Here's they narrow it down to this man, Akin.

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What did Akin do? He coveted the silver and gold, and he hid it all under his tent.

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So kind of assume that his wife and kids are probably, probably new.

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So what did Akin do? He saw it. He coveted it. He took it, and then he concealed it.

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And this, this is the way sin almost always works. He sees something.

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Now there's, that's innocent enough. Like you see things. It's hard not to see things. That's innocent.

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But then he coveted that. That's where the sin was. And then, then you act upon it.

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And then once you act upon it, you know you did something wrong, but now you're going to cover it up so that nobody else finds out.

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And then it starts to affect other people. So the key would be the application for us is do thou shalt not covet.

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That seems like the least of all the 10 commandments. That seems like the least serious offense coveting.

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But coveting, if you think about it, I like to call it the gateway sin. The sin of coveting leads to almost every other sin.

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So in order for Israel to be blessed to gain the victories, what has to happen?

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This has to be dealt with, right? Akin has to be removed from the camp and not just sent out on a, this is a permanent vacation.

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So Akin, all that belonged to him, including his family, it was all destroyed because as long as there was this accursed thing in the camp, it was like a festering wound, uh, and needed to be dealt with.

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And if it isn't the nation of Israel cannot be blessed as long as there is this issue.

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So in conclusion, what would be the application? What would be the spiritual takeaway?

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I think we should all ask ourselves, do we have, spiritually speaking, do we have an

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Akin in the camp? Are God's blessings being withheld from us?

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Whether on a personal level, family level, in someone's home, or maybe within, within a church.

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Um, I think it's worth asking, do we have, I'm not talking necessarily about a person, but something, a thing, a behavior, something we're not dealing with.

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Do we have an Akin in the camp? Uh, is there something in our life that we, we know we need to deal with or we're just not dealing with it.

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And because we're not dealing with it, God's blessings are not being poured down upon us. Uh, are we being led by our desires?

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All right. That was Akin's problem. He saw something in his desire, got the best of him.

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So are we being led by our desires as opposed to being led by the

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Holy spirit? Is there something we're allowing in our home that shouldn't be there? Is there something that we're turning a blind eye to?

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And God wants to bless us, but he can't or he won't until we purge the

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Akin from the camp. So it's something to think about. It's something to pray about because God, he's going to bless

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Israel. He's going to give them the land. He's going to, uh, give them the blessings, the land flowing with milk and honey, but they first need to deal with this.

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So if there's anything that we need to deal with, uh, let's look at it, let's pray about it.

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And if God shows us something, what are we going to do? Follow him, do what he asked, purge the