Read Through the Bible in a Year 2018 Day 71: Don't Get Cocky

Good evening, everyone!

So today I read Joshua 5-8.

And in today's reading, the Israelites see a stunning victory, followed by a tremendous defeat.

The victory is in Jericho.

You may know the story, or have heard the children's song.

Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, Jericho, Jericho.
Joshua fought the battle of Jericho, and the walls came tumblin' down.

So, God instructed Joshua to march the Israelites around the city once for six days, blowing the trumpets, but the people were to be completely silent.

Then, on the seventh day, they were to march around seven times, and on the final march, they were to shout and blow trumpets and horns.

And when they did, the walls fell flat. And the Israelites took the city.

Now, this may seem to be a strange way to take a city, but can you imagine what the people of Jericho must have thought? I can imagine that the city watch probably taunted them. Might even have thrown stuff at them.

And yet, every day, for seven days, the Israelites came back and marched.

And then the walls crumbled.

Amazing.

I love to read about the ways God shows His power.

So, that was the victory.

But what was the defeat?

Well, God instructed the Israelites to take only gold, silver, bronze, and iron out of the city. This was to be placed into the treasury of the Lord. The rest was to be burned.

Now, Achan took some of the things that belonged in God's temple and hid them in his tent.

But you can't hide anything from God. No matter how long you conceal it from people.

So, because Achan had disobeyed, when the Israelites went up to conquer Ai, they were forced to flee, and 32 of them were killed.

Because of Achan's sin, he was put to death.

And once the stolen items were returned to God's temple, the Israelites went up to Ai again, and this time took the city.

Now, this is an important lesson. When we sin, it is like courting death. We can't win victories when we are in the midst of sin. We have to repent and give God control again.

I found something else interesting, though.

When the spies went up to see Ai, they told Joshua that it would be easy, and that he should only send about 2,000 men.

And they lost. Badly.

But after Achan's sin was found out and dealt with, Joshua sent up a lot more men. 30,000 to be exact.

So, even though God was with them this time, Joshua carefully planned the battle, and sent more men up to take Ai.

This was also something I felt was important today.

Joshua got cocky.

He listened to the spies who said "Meh. We don't need that many men. They're puny."

And the Israelites lost. Big time.

Of course the moral of the story is that God wasn't with them because of the sin in their camp.

However, I want to make another point.

"Don't get cocky, kid." (I love Star Wars!)

We must plan our battles.

We can't just go in with a few resources and expect to win. We can't go off to battle with no training.

No matter how puny the Enemy appears to be, or how insignificant he is in the face of God's power, we can't get cocky. He has lots of tricks that he's developed over time.

And he will use all of them.

Don't go into battle unprepared.

Read God's Word, seek His counsel. Pray. Put on the full armor of God. Don't move outside of God's timing.

And don't get cocky.

I hope you'll join me tomorrow when I read Joshua 9-11.