Life: Move Beyond Failure

• The Bible Studies for Life lesson for June 28 focuses on Joshua 7:13-15, 19-21, 25-26; 8:1.

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• The Bible Studies for Life lesson for June 28 focuses on Joshua 7:13-15, 19-21, 25-26; 8:1.

“Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). It is easy to misplace confidence in God with confidence in ourselves when we have experienced a significant victory in our lives. Our initial expressions of thanksgiving to God for his blessing and grace soon can give way to thinking we have accomplished this feat in our own strength. Inevitably, the Lord then brings correction to our lives, causing us again say: “Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57).

Victory and the destruction of a city

Joshua 6 says when the walls of Jericho collapsed, the Israelite army “charged straight in, and they took the city.” The victorious Israelite army “devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys (6:20, 21). The word “devotion” in this context is interesting. It means things and people are given over to the Lord by destroying them (see also Deuteronomy 13:12-18). This scene of destruction is difficult to reconcile with our knowledge of God as love. Why would a loving God demand the destruction of men, women and children? 

Jim Denison, founder of the Denison Forum on Truth and Culture, offers some explanations:

  • The Canaanites “lived in wicked rebellion against the will and purposes of God. The Lord had predicted Abraham’s descendants would claim the land when ‘the sin of the Amorites’ reached its ‘full measure’ (Genesis 15:16). This ‘full measure’ of sin was attained by the Canaanites in the generation leading to the Jewish conquest. … Those who were conquered by Joshua and his armies were not innocent victims, but wicked sinners who received the judgments their transgressions had warranted.”
  • Ancient tribal cultures like the Canaanites of Jericho practiced blood retribution. This practice “required the Jewish armies to destroy not only the soldiers of their enemies, but their families as well. So long as one member of a family remained, that person was bound by cultural law to attempt retribution against the enemies of his people. Such unrest and hostility would have persisted throughout the nation’s history, with no possibility of peace in the land. What appears to be genocide actually was the way wars typically were prosecuted.” 

Denison concludes, God’s “purposes are fulfilled in different ways at different times in redemptive history. Justice required retribution against the sinful Canaanite civilization. And his salvation plan required a purified nation through whom he could bring the Messiah of all mankind. When Christ came, Joshua’s leadership of conflict and conquest was fulfilled.” Scripture must be interpreted within its cultural context to help us understand it more fully. 

A mountaintop experience 

The conquest of Jericho was a spiritual high for the Israelites. Recalling the commands of the Lord, Joshua said God would curse anyone who tried to rebuild the city. Scripture tells us the “Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout the land.” The mountaintop experience was short-lived, however. Although “all the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into his treasury” the seemingly invincible Israelites were “unfaithful in regard to the devoted things” (Joshua 6:19, 7:1). Not all the silver and gold made it to the treasury. The temptation was too great for Achan, who gave in to greed and took some of the treasure for himself. 

This disobedience resulted in a humiliating defeat in a subsequent battle for the city of Ai. 


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Devastated by this loss, Joshua cried to the Lord, “Why did you ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us?” (Joshua 7:7). God replied: “Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions” (Joshua 7:11). Then, God told Joshua the Israelites were to present themselves, tribe by tribe, and then family by family, to the Lord until Achan’s sin was revealed. When Joshua confronted Achan with his sin, Achan confessed to coveting the extravagant plunder of the battle and hiding some of it in the ground inside his tent. He was then stoned to death, and his body was burned.

However, this massive moral failure, on the heels of miraculous victory, did not leave the Israelites permanently defeated. God gave them another chance. He told Joshua: “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land” (Joshua 8:1). The Israelite army thoroughly defeated the men of Ai, and the city was burned to the ground. To celebrate the victory, Joshua built an altar to the Lord, sacrificed burnt offerings, and read the “Book of the Law” to the “whole assembly of Israel, including the woman and children, and the aliens who lived among them” (Joshua 8:35).

This account of brutal battle as God strengthens and purifies his chosen people can be difficult to apply to our lives in the 21st century. However, we can know the progression from failure to repentance to reconciliation to victory is available to all Christ followers. When we fail to follow God’s way in our lives, no matter how devastating it may be, God, through the new covenant fulfilled by Jesus Christ, offers us forgiveness and the healing grace to move forward in victory.  


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