“When all the kings on the west side of the Yarden in the hills, in the Sh’felah and all along the shore of the Great Sea that fronts the L’vanon — the Hitti, Emori, Kena‘ani, P’rizi, Hivi and Y’vusi — heard what had happened, they joined forces to fight together against Y’hoshua and Israel.“-Joshua 9:1-2
From the opening verses of Joshua Chapter 9, notice Israel is suddenly facing a new reality.
Recall that earlier God promised Israel their enemies would flee from them once attacked and that the hearts of all the Canaanite rulers would melt before them in fear.
Yet, here at the beginning of Joshua Chapter 9, we’re being presented with a situation that outright contradicts that promise.
We’re told that several Canaanite city-states decided to unite their forces to battle against Israel.
The names of these city-states are the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perrizites, Hivites, and the Jebusites.
Now the big question is…
…why is this happening?
Is God not making good on His promise that the hearts of all the Canaanites would melt before them?
The answer lies in Israel’s defeat when they first attacked the city of Ai.
Notice the part where it says all the Canaanite Kings “heard what happened”.
What is this referring to?
It’s referring to Israel’s defeat at Ai.
Do you remember how all this came about?
Recall that Achan stole God’s holy property (the war booty that was under the ban) and as a result God did not give Israel the victory when they attacked the city of Ai.
In fact, this was the first time Israel had been defeated since they crossed over the Jordan River to attack Canaan.
Fortunately, after their defeat, Israel confessed and did the right thing.
They identified the bad apple among them (Achan) and took care of him per God’s instructions.
In response, God forgave them and gave them a fairly easy victory the second time they attacked Ai.
However, moving forward, it appears like Israel’s war with the Canaanites was not going to be a walk in the park as God had originally promised.
What an incredible lesson here for us!
Yes, God had forgiven Israel and had restored His relationship with His people but it doesn’t mean all consequences connected to Achan’s sin that had already been set into motion just magically disappeared overnight.
In this case, there was no erasing the fact that Israel had been defeated when they first attacked Ai.
You had best believe ALL of the surrounding Canaanite nation-states heard about it and when they did, they probably said to themselves…
…”Well, well, well, it looks like the Hebrew God isn’t as strong as we thought He was. Maybe if we band our forces together, we might just stand a chance against these Israelites invading our land”.
So that’s exactly what they did.
They banded together and now Israel would have to face a new reality they wouldn’t have had to face had Achan not sinned.
And that’s the lesson for us as well folks.
God may have forgiven you for some sin you committed in the past and your relationship with Him may be fully restored.
However, more often than not, the consequences of those sins will linger on and may stay with us our entire lifetimes until we give up these fleshly shells to be with our Father in heaven.
The takeaway is don’t have a flippant attitude towards sin thinking you can sin today and easily be forgiven tomorrow.
While that may be true, do you really want to pay the consequences?
Consequences that could last a whole lifetime?
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