We are going to read this morning from the Brick Testament. Rather than read the full text in chapters 7 and 8 this will give us the story.

The Brick Testament is found on the internet http://www.thebricktestament.com/ . This is a good place for you to take the children or grandchildren to learn the stories that are so important for the people of God whether Jew or Christian.

 

So what do we know about Ai? Very little outside of the Bible. It can either mean a ruin and is Archeologists think it to have been a 1200 year old ruin at the time, or it could mean a heap of stones. It could be a wooden town, hence why it burned well. A summer satellite town from Hebron used to provide shelter and protection from farmers who retreat to Hebron in the winter. The spies assessed that it would need 2-3000 troops and Joshua was careful, he sent 3000.

What happened was a complete surprise to everybody. It was a disaster. The ignominy of defeat, the grieving for the dead, the fear of the consequences.  Why? Well the writer of the scroll tells us in verse 1. This is serious stuff, but Joshua and the rest of Israel were not aware of it. They were simply getting on with the invasion plan. Ai was the Dardenelles or Dieppe raid or the of the campaign.

So what does Joshua do?

He bows down before God. Maybe this is where the problem lay. He had assumed that God fought for them at Jericho so he had to get on with the smaller places.  Maybe we suffer that way. We pray about the big decision but the small decisions, well, they are not important enough for God. WRONG! Anyway better late than never, Joshua bows down. And then others join him. The leadership, instead of seeing an opportunity to unseat Joshua and grab power for themselves, join him on their knees. This is not the normal way of prayer by the way. We know they stood with hands held up in prayer. This was humbling before God, this was desperate times and they knelt down , they were begging. 

How does he begin? “Sovereign Lord” Pause a moment and reflect on those two words. “Sovereign” – you are in charge God. “Lord” I acknowledge your sovereignty.

Why? That is the question we often bring to God. And it is the right place to bring it. So long as you have recognised the Sovereign Lord. Otherwise it is a complaint against his and his character.

What purpose? The defeat makes the whole campaign a dead end. If they can’t defeat Ai what will happen when they take on Hebron or the other key strategic places. And what about the other nations. Apparently according to postal records in Egypt there was an Egyptian observation post north of Jerusalem.

So the news of their defeat would be in Egypt in a matter of days. So it bad news for Israel, as everybody sees the opportunity to annihilate them. It is also, in Joshua’s view, bad news for God.

And that is where Joshua brings his prayer, “What then will you do for your own great name?” He knows that what matters is not him and his nation but that God has chosen to reveal himself through Israel and this did not look good for God.

   God replies. First stand up instead of bow down. God has business to do.

 Israel has sinned. Not one person in Israel but Israel. In God’s view community matters. We are not just a load of individuals we are the body of Christ. And is one sins, we all are tainted. If one is rebellious, the body is weakened. This is the sober message for today. Your sin and my sin, is bad news for this community of Christians and ultimately to the whole body of Christ. Sin is not a side issue, it is the issue.

 I commanded . “They have violated my covenant which I commanded them to keep.”  This is a serious dispute. Israel is dependant on God for its life and yet it turns its back on the God. Violating a covenant is not a light thing. And their joy and peace depended on them being in a right relationship with God. You can’t complain on God not helping you when you are ignoring his commands.

  Now we get to specifics. The destruction of Jericho required that everything was either killed or burned or if it could not be killed or burned it was to be handed over to the treasury. In that destruction a culture was wiped out with all its beauty and knowledge and history. But that was the point, its beauty, knowledge and history was bound up in idolatry. And preserving our heritage means we preserve the sins of the past and add to them.  So they had to go. And except for one robe, 200 shekels of silver, 50 shekels of gold it was destroyed or devoted to God. Sin is that bad, one sin by one man out of 600 000. God does not like it.

 Now it would be nice to think that this was an Old Testament phenomenon but it is not.     There is a similar incident in the New Testament. In this case is was pretending to be more generous than they were. The judgement was the same. Death. And if Israel does not remove the sin, it will be infected by it and suffer the same judgement as Achan.

  What God calls for is not a witch hunt but consecration.  He will expose the sin. Our concern is to our holiness, our, detachment from sin. This is the same as Jesus challenge the Jews with Let him that is without sin, cast the first stone. We are saved sinners not some sort of elite. But most of all

 Remove the devoted thing. Whether it is your good luck charms, or pornographic material, or shopping catalogues or sports memorabilia, TV or whatever was devoted to sin in your life. Get rid of it. Destroy it. It will not stop your hankering after it but it reduces your dependence on it. Best of all, if removing it drives you to depend on Jesus.

 

This is a grim reminder that sin should not be taken lightly. And we pause to examine ourselves today as to the sin in our lives. Sin that cripples our relationship with Jesus, sin that ruins our witness of his saving power, sin which messes up our relationships with one another. Sin which brings down the body of Christ into disrepute. Confess it to the Father, remove the artefacts that are associated with it, repent and seek the Holy Spirit to bring the ability to resist temptation in the future.

 

 Having dealt with the sin, God now turns to the next step. And it is in essence the same message that I talked about two weeks ago.

 Do not be afraid( of a repeat disaster); Do not be discouraged (by the setback)

 I have delivered them into your hands

. Then we have a God-given strategy to use the disaster to their advantage. So the retreating troops lure the Ai military  into the trap. And God gets the victory.

 The next step is significant. They all head off to Mount Ebal to renew the covenant. Having learnt their lesson over the devoted thing, Joshua takes them to the place of blessing and cursing. We who truly repent need to be reminded that by the grace of God we repentant sinners have great blessing in Christ.  True repentance leads to forgiveness and a restored relationship and God wants to bless his children and spend time with them. Enjoy God today. Be at the Communion and spend time reflecting on all the blessings that we have in Christ.

 I believe the message for this morning can be summarised in these 4 phrases.

•         Remove items “devoted to destruction” – what are you going to do about sin?

•         Return to dependence on God – be filled with his Holy Spirit

•         Sovereign Lord – let his person fill your mind and heart

•         Your name. It his name that must be honoured by us.