“The king of ‘Ai saw this, so the men in the city hurried out early in the morning to battle against Israel, he and all his people, at a meeting-place facing the ‘Aravah. But he was unaware that behind the city an ambush had been laid against him. Y’hoshua and all Israel made as if they had been defeated before them and ran off on the road to the desert. All the people in ‘Ai were summoned together to pursue them, so they chased Y’hoshua and were drawn away from the city. Not a man was left in ‘Ai or Beit-El who had not gone after Israel; pursuing Israel, they left the city wide open.”-Joshua 8:14-17
When you read verses 8-17 from Joshua Chapter 8, you’ll notice we’re provided a blow-by-blow and step-by-step description of what went down when Joshua attacked the city Ai.
What’s up with all of this inordinate amount of detail?
The reason for all the detail is because the Scriptures here want to make it clear to us that…
…what God told Joshua to do, HE DARN WELL DID…
…without missing one beat.
The Scriptures want to impress upon us that when we follow God’s commands, things will go well as opposed to the first failed attack on Ai when Joshua and his soldiers relied on their own fleshly strength and ideas.
And yes, it’s true that while the first attack was flawed from the outset because of the limited number of soldiers Joshua commissioned to get the job done, that wasn’t the real reason why Israel was defeated.
Nope, Israel failed because they were in a state of sin due to Achan’s theft of holy property.
It wouldn’t have mattered how superior Joshua’s military plans were, if things aren’t right with the Lord, things aren’t gonna go well.
And I’m telling you, if things aren’t going well in your life right now, Covid or no Covid (this article is being written in December 2020 during the global pandemic), I suspect it’s because there’s some area in your relationship with the Lord that needs fixing.
Got it?
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again.
When all efforts to move forward in your life don’t seem to be working out according to even your best laid out plans, the problem may NOT be the plan.
The problem could be in your relationship with the Lord.
You may be attempting to move forward while still in a state of sin as Israel was.
Or maybe you’re attempting to be a lone wolf and trying to strike out on your own in this world minus giving God the credit and the glory.
Either way, the first thing to do when things aren’t going well is to undergo some rigorous self-examination.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“Examine yourselves to see
whether you are in the faith;
test yourselves.
Do you not realize that
Messiah Yeshua is in you-
-unless, of course,
you fail the test?”
-2 Corinthians 13:5
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