I am finding that to preach about Jericho this Sunday I will have to pair it with the story of Ai also. I can’t just do one and not the other. This will naturally have to include the story of Achan so there is a lot to cover for Sunday. A couple of verses caught my eye as I was reading. 3:5 where Joshua says “the Lord will do amazing things among you” sounds like a great text to preach. But, also check out this:

13 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” 14 “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?” 15 The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so. Chapter 5

I get why Joshua would ask this question and it takes me by surprise. I expect the answer to be “I have been sent here to fight for you Joshua.” But the answer is “neither.” For all the triumphalism in Joshua to this point it sounds rather ominous. Maybe commander is saying that he does whatever the Lord commands and he has not been given a command except to show up. Is it helping to make the point that we better be very careful about assuming that God is on our side in any fight we get into. During the American Civil War both sides prayed to God asking for his support and assuming He was on their side.

We can see in this story of Jericho and Ai that we can easily go from victorious to defeated very easily. Then there is the story of Achan. How his act of taking what belonged to the Lord caused the defeat of the Israelite army. Sin in the camp effects everyone and not just the one who sinned.

I should keep this shorter than last time.

Here are some of the possibilities I see for Sunday:

God is fighting His own battle and not yours. Any victory we have is because we have aligned ourselves with His cause. The victory always belongs to the Lord. There was a certain cockiness that was shown at Ai that cost them dearly.

I wonder if Achan would have lived if after the announcement that something devoted to the Lord had been taken and during the day of consecration if he had just come forward and admitted it if he could have been forgiven. Making them go through the whole process of discovery sealed his fate. The sin of one effects all.

To see God do amazing things we are going to have to risk amazing things for God. We cannot play it safe in our lives and expect great things. Risk is necessary for a life of faith.

What possible lessons do you see? It may be tough this week narrowing it down.

I just can’t seem to do just Jericho without the follow up story of Ai. It seems too much like life as I have experienced it. A great victory followed by a tragedy because I can’t seem to follow through and consistently live as I should. I start thinking it’s all about me.

Barry