You are listening to a year in the Bible with daily grace. Today, we're talking through
the book of Joshua, chapters seven through nine. What's going on in these chapters, Scott?
All right. Well, we're coming off the Battle of Jericho from chapter six, and that was
the first, you know, battle Israel experience of the Promised Land, though, as we saw, they
didn't actually do any fighting. They just march around the city. And the arc of the
covenant we talked about, I was carried around the city as well, which showing that, hey,
God is the one who provided this victory. God is the one who caused the walls to collapse.
And as I said yesterday, this show that the Israelites, their success on the battlefield
was not due to numbers or superior fighting skills, but ultimately, God himself and their
fidelity to him. Most of today's chapters are about the next battle, the battle of AI,
which the Israelites do need to take up arms for, but things go a bit differently than
they do in Jericho here. Yeah, walk us through what happens in this battle.
So after Jericho's fall, God had commanded some of Jericho's items to be set apart that
is used for his purposes. A man named Akin, though, took some as personal plunder in this disobedience
causes Israel to fall in their first battle with the people of AI. And God tells Joshua
this happened because Israel violated his covenants. And then only after the community
stones Akin are things made right and they're actually able to achieve a victory over the
city of the city of AI. So it's a similar lesson to the battle of Jericho, only now stated
very negatively that if the Israelites are disobedience to God, they will not succeed
in battle. So you got these two victories now. One, the Israelites fought in, one, they
did it. That makes the same point that God alone can give them the victory and that
they alone, they only won't flourish in this land if they're obedience to God. And
this is further stressed by this covenant renewal ceremony. You see at Mount Ebal.
And you know, it's helpful to remember a couple chapters in Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 11
and 27 were Moses told the Israelites that when they get into the lands, they're to gather
at Mount Gerazim and Mount Ebal and proclaim out loud all the blessings and curses of
this covenant. And they were to set up an altar on Mount Ebal and make sacrifices. So
the Israelites are carrying out these commandments from Deuteronomy and these chapters. They're
following through. Joshua sets up the altar. They offer burnt sacrifices to the Lord,
indicating their consecration to them. They offer fellowship offerings which reflect their
intimate relationship with God. And then I love Joshua, which is reads the law out loud
to the nation of Israel. Here's how long that took. It's just this giant worship service,
basically, in which they're reminded of who God is, what he's done for them. And again,
of the importance of obeying him and they commit themselves to doing so, to being obedient.
Yeah, I love that. Any other thoughts on these chapters? What do we take away?
I really love the study highlights the contrast between Akin and Rahab who we talked about
yesterday or a couple days ago. God brings judgment on this Israelite who was unfaithful. Yet
we see him extending mercy to a Gentile who is faithful. And it's just this beautiful
demonstration throughout scripture that God does not show partiality. God doesn't show
favoritism. And this is a wonderful illustration. God, again, welcomes all who will come to him
and faith. And Rahab's a great example of that. Yeah, I love how those two examples, we kind
of see them here in Joshua together and highlights that for us. That's really cool.
A cool takeaway that I have from this passage, we see in these chapters that the place where Akin
has stolen these items, that's a valley that's renamed the Valley of Acre or the Valley of Trouble.
But then if we look later in scripture, we have in Isaiah 65, 10, and in Hosea 215, two places where
it prophesies that because someone will come and change things, then there will be no longer
trouble in that valley. So that valley instead, it says in Isaiah 65, 10, will be made a place of
peace and rest. And in Hosea 215, we see that it says it will be made a place of hope. And so
here we have Akin's rebellion and sin and it's led to trouble. And but we're going to get to
these eventually as we go through the Bible. And here we have these two prophecies further that say,
hey, someone's going to come that's going to change that. That won't be a valley of trouble anymore.
It'll be a place of peace and rest and hope. And what an encouragement for us in our own sin,
because as much again as we can be judgy towards Akin, we talked about this. We are all centers
at times. And in Christ, we see this transformation of instead of trouble and place of that, we're
given peace and hope and rest. And so praise the Lord for that amazing truth and that we get to
see that here. And we'll continue in Joshua. We're going to pick up Joshua 10 starting tomorrow.
