Looking At Joshua 8

Looking at Joshua chapters seven and eight this morning and the concept of rebounding after defeat.

"And the LORD said to Joshua, 'Do not fear and do not be dismayed. Take all the fighting men with you, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, his city, and his land. And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king. Only its spoil and its livestock you shall take as plunder for yourselves. Lay an ambush against the city, behind it.' " Joshua 8:1-2 ESV

We have all suffered seeming defeats in life. Times where our motives were good but something was missing in our thinking or where we have taken something that belonged to God and misappropriated it... keeping it as our own.

God tells us the victory is still there waiting for us. It will require an ambush to take it.

"And the men in the ambush rose quickly out of their place, and as soon as he had stretched out his hand, they ran and entered the city and captured it. And they hurried to set the city on fire." Joshua 8:19 ESV

In the midst of my own thought life we set a trap. The majority of our forces are marshaled behind the city (30,000) with some out in front (5,000). This speaks to me of resolve. We must choose to live in finished work victory. The victory happens when I see the cross behind the situation and then the landmark is destroyed by fire so we can not revisit the defeat.

"And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law." Joshua 8:34 ESV

Now after the victory we are not taking what does not belong to us. Instead we return back to the objectivity of God's truth in preparation for what comes next.

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