A “servant of servants” Canaan was to be. It can’t be missed that Jesus took that very role for us! It was not only with Gibeon that Joshua had made a covenant, but also with their confederate cities of Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kirjath Jearim. These four formed a wall of defense just north and west […]
The Gibeonites decided to dress up in costumes because it was “Trick or Defeat” time. News of the supernatural destruction of Jericho and the taking of the twin cities of Bethel and Ai swept through Canaan. Receiving the devastating report, “the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite…gathered together to […]
When the other Joshua came here, He said God is still seeking those who worship in spirit and truth. Having taken Jericho, Ai, and Bethel, the children of Israel have effectively cut the land of Canaan in half. They control the high ground in the center of the country and the main road north and […]
Actually, they hanged Jesus, then slew Him, but Peter reverses the order, showing the awful historic link. For the first time, but not for the last, the Jewish nation deliberately put a Gentile king under the curse of God by hanging his body posthumously on a tree. “And the king of Ai he hanged on […]
Sometimes we can’t “fight the good fight” unless we’re willing to first “flee the good flight.” Israel now faces one of their biggest challenges—to head back up to Ai with the memory of their defeat in the Loss column. Gripping their hearts would be the questions: Is the Lord with us this time? Has He […]
Read More… from April 13, 2023 — Victory Through Seeming Defeat
Achan’s formula for spiritual failure: “I saw [them]…I coveted them and took them” (Jos 7:21). Abram had pitched between Bethel (meaning “God’s House”) and Ai (meaning “rubble”) many years before. In a sense, we all pitch our pilgrim tents there, and everything that comes through our hands is either built into God’s house or ends […]
It’s dangerous to presume on the Lord. He doesn’t like being taken for granted any more than we do. It doesn’t sound good when a chapter begins with “But.” “But the children of Israel committed a trespass regarding the accursed things, for Achan…of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed things; so the anger […]
Read More… from April 11, 2023 — What’s Next — Another Victory?
Very often, little lessons, the ones that we tend to miss, can be the most helpful in the long run. As we leave the smouldering ruins of Jericho, there are three brief lessons before we move on. Lesson #1, the curse on Jericho, the city who knew God wanted in and decided to try to […]
Read More… from April 10, 2023 — Life Lessons At The Ash Heap