Driven by God's Word

Good morning, Redeemer. If you don't know me, my name is Jason. I think I do know most of you, but summer has been a time where we're here and then we're not here, and then we get a few new faces with us.

And so, if you're new with us, a special welcome to you today. We're glad you're here. Excuse our mess in the foyer. We're hoping that that project just keeps moving right along.

It keeps moving, just maybe not at the speed that we would hope, but it's getting done, and we're very grateful for the work that's going and for your support for that project, all of those things.

But today, I'm not up here to talk construction updates. I'm here to share God's Word. And so, let me invite you to the book of Joshua. If you've got a Bible, find the book of Joshua. You'll find it toward the front.

Book of Joshua. I think it's book number six. And we are marching our way through. We're actually up to chapter eight today. Chapter eight. And digging into Joshua eight is going to require us to be at least a little bit familiar with what happened in chapter seven.

And so, I'm not going to talk about all that again. We talked about that last week. But if you want to catch up on a sermon online, suffice it to say, it was a bit of a disaster.

A major defeat for these otherwise invincible Israelites who are backed by their truly invincible God. They were crushed at the hands of smallish AI. Not artificial intelligence AI, but we talked about it as an artificial impediment.

They should not have been an impediment, but they were. It was a crazy loss. And yet, that chapter spelled out the reason why. Sin in the camp, quite literally.

A man named Achan, son of Carmi, took some of the devoted things. The Lord had granted a miraculous victory at mighty Jericho, made the walls literally fall down, but the instructions were no pillage. No pillage this time.

What wasn't burned was to be devoted to the Lord's treasury. And yet, Achan couldn't resist, could he? He couldn't resist about seven and a half pounds of silver and gold and a nice looking Babylonian robe.

And he took it and he hid it beneath his tent and he and his family suffered the consequences. Well, Achan, that incident is over. There's a big pile of stones to remind everybody about that.

But we still have the city of Ai. We call it city. It's really a smallish outpost, like a fort. It's still there. And they're probably feeling pretty good about themselves after whipping up on some Israelites who were supposed to be invincible.

Everybody else is afraid of the Israelites. That's where our chapter is as we open in verse 1. So follow along with me and I'm going to read the whole chapter for us, beginning in verse 1.

And the Lord said to Joshua, Do not fear and do not be dismayed. Take all of the fighting men with you and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai and his people, his city, and his land.

And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king. Only its spoil and its livestock you shall take as plunder for yourselves.

Lay an ambush against the city behind it. So Joshua and all the fighting men arose to go up to Ai. And Joshua chose 30,000 mighty men of valor and sent them out by night.

And he commanded them, Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city behind it. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you remain ready.

And I and the people, all the people who are with me, will approach the city. And when they come out just as before, we shall flee before them.

And they will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city. For they will say, They're fleeing from us just as before. So we will all flee before them.

Then you shall rise up from the ambush and seize the city. For the Lord your God will give it into your hand. And as soon as you have taken the city, you shall set it on fire.

You shall do according to the word of the Lord. See, I have commanded you. So Joshua sent them out. And they went to the place of ambush and lay between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai.

But Joshua spent the night among the people. Joshua rose early in the morning and mustered the people and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people of Ai.

And all the fighting men who were with him went up and drew near before the city and encamped on the north side of Ai, with a ravine between them and Ai.

He took about 5,000 men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai to the west of the city. So they stationed the forces. The main encampment was north of the city and its rear guard west of the city.

But Joshua spent the night in the valley. And as soon as the king of Ai saw this, he and all his people, the men of the city, hurried and went out early to the appointed place, toward the Arabah, to meet Israel in battle.

But he did not know that there was an ambush against the city behind the city. And Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten before them and fled in the direction of the wilderness.

So all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them. And as they pursued Joshua, they were drawn away from the city. Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel.

They left the city open and pursued Israel. Then the Lord said to Joshua, Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.

And Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city. And the men in the ambush rose quickly out of their place. And as soon as he had stretched out his hand, the men, they ran and entered the city and captured it.

And they hurried to set the city on fire. So when the men of Ai looked back, behold, the smoke of the city went up to heaven. And they had no power to flee this way or that.

For the people who fled to the wilderness turned back against the pursuers. And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city, and the smoke of the city went up, Then they turned back and struck down the men of Ai.

And the others came out from the city against them. So they were in the midst of Israel. Some on this side and some on that side. And Israel struck them down until there was left none that survived or escaped.

But the king of Ai they took alive and brought him near to Joshua. When Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the open wilderness where they pursued them, and all of them to the very last had fallen by the edge of the sword, all Israel returned to Ai and struck it down with the edge of the sword.

And all who fell that day, both men and women, were twelve thousand, all the people of Ai. But Joshua did not draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the javelin, until he had devoted all the inhabitants of Ai to destruction.

Only the livestock and spoil of that city Israel took as their plunder, according to the word of the Lord that he commanded Joshua. So Joshua burned Ai and made it forever a heap of ruins as it is to this day.

And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. And at sunset Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree, and threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised over it a great heap of stones, which stands there to this day.

At that time Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal, just as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded the people of Israel, as it is written in the book of the Law of Moses, an altar of uncut stones upon which no man has wielded an iron tool.

And they offered on it burnt offerings to the Lord, and sacrificed peace offerings. And there in the presence of the people of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the Law of Moses, which he had written.

And all Israel, sojourner as well as native-born, with their elders and officers and their judges, stood on opposite sides of the ark, before the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim, and half of them in front of Mount Ebal,

just as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded at the first to bless the people of Israel. And afterward, he read all the words of the Law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the Law.

There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who lived among them.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to hear it proclaimed today. We pray that you would be with us, that you would make my words clear.

Lord, we thank you for those that can't be with us today. We pray for Tom Underwood in the hospital. We pray for Bill Fox as he recovers. And Lord, for others that we may not even know are dealing with things.

We pray that you would be with them. Father, let us as a people grow because of what we hear. And may we not simply hear it with the hearing of the ears, but let us put it into action.

And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

How quickly the Lord's disposition toward his people has changed. Do you remember how the last chapter closed? It talked about the burning anger of the Lord, the wrath of God.

And here, what does he say in verse 1? Do not fear, Joshua, and do not be dismayed. Take all the fighting men with you. Arise and go up to Ai.

God's anger is no longer burning against Israel. The last verse of chapter 7 says that he turned from his fierce anger. And that's because atonement for the sin has been made.

And so it's on with the task now. On with the conquest. See, the Lord says to Joshua, like it's already done. I have given into your hand this king of Ai and his people in the city.

Now that he's again with Israel, it's like the victory is guaranteed. God is an invincible God. No one can stop him or his people when he's with them.

Only while he did it miraculously back in Jericho, I mean, the Israelites didn't have to do too much. They just kind of walked in over the stones, climbed up into the city, and took care of the people who were still alive.

Here at Ai, it's going to be quite different. It's going to be a military operation. God is going to work through his people instrumentally.

And it will involve a classic military tactic. It's called a pincer movement. A coordinated attack where you close in on your enemy's position from two different directions surrounding your enemy.

And the way Israel is going to go about accomplishing this is by means of a ruse. A couple ways they are going to fool the men of Ai. One will be through an ambush, and the other will be through a fake fleeing away as if you're scared.

Verses 3-9 give us the preparations. It's going to be this combined fighting force of 30,000 men. 30,000 mighty men of valor. What that means is Joshua's not taking, you know, the young 17-year-old kids or the 48-year-old men that are a little past their prime.

Sorry, 48-year-old guys. We are. And I'm older than that. He's taking the best, the most experienced fighters for this. And he's sending them out by night.

This is going to be a night off. This is, remember, a world where there is not electricity. There's no night vision for them. No, not even any flashlights.

So this is a pretty big deal. This is a pretty gutsy move. And from the details that we get a little later down in verse 12, we learn that Joshua divides this force of 30,000.

It's going to be 5,000 of these guys hiding under cover of night west of the city, stationed between Ai and much larger metropolitan Bethel.

You know, it's not just the battle of Ai here today. There are times in the narrative when we read it, it sounds like it's just Ai. But if you pay close attention, you know that it's Bethel too.

And what we think is that Ai was a military outpost, like a fort that was meant to guard bigger Bethel. So, the remaining 25,000 of the 30, they're going to stay out in the valley, so that when the king of Ai wakes up the next morning, this is what he's going to see.

He will look out and see the 25,000 Israelites and think, that's it, this is their approach, just like before. And Israel is banking on that.

They are banking on that, because they're going to play the ruse on Ai. Let them think it's going to be exactly like it was the first time. As a matter of fact, the whole plan is predicated on Ai and Israel acting just like they did in the first matchup.

And if you remember what happened a chapter ago, what happened in the first matchup? Well, Ai came out and Israel ran. And they were struck down.

They were pursued. And Ai is going to think Israel is here to try it with just a larger force a second time. But here's the real plan. Joshua reveals it in verse 5.

Our ambush force is going to be hiding close to the city, and they're going to stay hidden until, until I give the signal. And once those of us in the valley make ourselves known and get the king of Ai to come out and square off against us, they're going to want to be over and done with us.

They're going to send every last man after us. And they're going to chase us, and we're going to let them. But listen, you spec ops 5,000 ambush guys, this is where you come in.

Because once all their forces are drawn away from the city by us, once everybody's out, I want you to go in. We're going to tuck tail intentionally and run, verse 6.

We're going to make them think that we're fleeing from them just as before. Let them taunt us. Let them chase us. We'll even act all discombobulated and scared and make it seem like we're fleeing into the wilderness again.

Verse 7, Then you shall rise up from the ambush and seize the city. Because God's going to give it into your hand. So the Lord's instructions are seize the city, and then what he says they have to do right away is set it on fire, set it ablaze.

Verses 10 to 13. We come here, don't get confused. This is basically what the Hebrew does a lot. It retells things. It's a retelling of the basic plan.

Again, Joshua and his elders, they're going to do their part. They're going to march out into the valley. The main encampment will be in front of the king of Ai's eyes as he wakes up the next morning, and the ambush will be hiding to the west.

And we see in verse 14 that it works. It works like a charm. Take a look. As soon as the king of Ai saw this, he and all his people, the men of the city, hurried and went out early to the appointed place toward the Ereba.

The Ereba is just the whole Jordan Valley. You can see from the map behind me, there's a lot of mountains in this region, and there's this lush river valley, and this is where they're going to meet up and fight.

Does anybody from Ai know about the ambush or see the guys or detect anything? No, they don't. They take the bait. The funny thing is that Ai sends out soldiers too.

And the men of Ai, I'm sorry, Bethel. Bethel sends out soldiers to join Ai as well. And those men of Bethel would have to walk basically real close to where the ambush is hiding.

But they don't detect it either. And we learn in verse 15 that the Israelites do a pretty good job of acting. You know, you wonder, like, are they really acting?

You know, I mean, they're really good at this getting scared and fleeing. I mean, they lost 36 men the first time. Maybe they're not all acting.

But they do. And it works. In verse 17, the narrator is very clear. There is not a fighting man left in either Ai or Bethel who's not out pursuing Israel.

Again, they want to be done with them. Verse 18 comes. It's the moment for the signal. And now the Lord tells Joshua, Stretch out that javelin that's in your hand.

Stretch it out toward Ai. Because I'm about to give this city into your hand. Now, I don't know. You know, this is, again, you can tell from some of the maps and things.

It's a big region. There's distance. You know, I don't know if everybody can actually see Joshua. Maybe some of us imagine like a Lord of the Rings kind of beacon system.

But they didn't do it with fire. They would have done it with a javelin. However the signal gets there, it gets there. And the 5,000 ambush guys in verse 19, they see the signal and they rise quickly out of their place.

And they bolt right into Ai and they capture it. Right away, they do what Joshua said. Set it a fire. That's going to be important because that's the second signal.

The smoke. The smoke is going to be seen. And that will let everybody, both sides out there, the pursuers and the pursued, know that something has happened in Ai.

I think about this sometimes. You know, you've got to wonder, like, who's the first soldier of Ai that catches sight over his shoulder of the smoke in the air?

You know, who's the guy that first realizes, my city is burning? We think we have the advantage. We think they're freaked out and running and we're going to strike them down again.

And actually, they've taken our city. Well, somehow or another word goes out among Ai's ranks. We read in verse 20 that when the men of Ai looked back, behold, the smoke of the city went up to heaven and they had no power to flee this way or that because Israel now has them boxed in.

Because the pseudo-fleeing army of actors that are running scared, it's just an act. They're not scared. They're prepared. They've come to fight.

And they stop running and they turn around and the pursuers, the pursued, become pursuers themselves. But even as Ai tries to retreat back into the safety of their city, guess who's coming out of it?

Guess who controls it? It's our 5,000 Israelite ambush guys. And so we read that Israel struck them down until there was left none that survived or escaped, either outside the city or inside the city.

The only one taken alive is the king of Ai and not for long. The Israelites finished the job in verses 24 and 25 where we read that not an inhabitant of Ai is left, all according to the word of the Lord, all according to God's command.

This is a holy war. But unlike back at Jericho, something different about this time, and as we noted last week, if only Achan had waited, this time the Lord is going to allow his people to take some of the plunder, the spoil of the city,

namely the livestock. Israel's permitted to take the livestock, the provisions. And very timely. Because, again, there's no more manna for food.

And they're out on a military expedition.

But as for Ai itself, Joshua burns the place to the ground. We're told that he made it forever, a heap of ruins, which even by the day of our narrator is still standing as a heap of ruins.

And that's very intentional because it's a message. It's a warning. And as for the king of Ai himself, he too is executed, same as the king of Jericho.

And we're told that his body is hanged on a tree until evening. They say that exposing a body like this was not just seen as a humiliation, but it was also a warning.

As Deuteronomy 21 says, though, Israel was not allowed to leave people up there to rot, leave them unburied, unburied, you know, for weeks at a time or however long it took for the wildlife to pick the body away.

Israel was commanded, by sunset, you've got to take that body down and bury it. And that's what they do. They bury the king. I mean, I guess it's a funeral.

They throw him in front of the city gate or what was left of it. And they pile a heap of great stones over it. Again, as a warning, the king's fate is the same as Achan's.

Both have been devoted to destruction. But you know what's interesting? As we come to the very end of the chapter, there's now like this unexpected turn that happens in the final chapter.

And you may not realize it at first reading, but there's a bit of a distance between the battle scene at Ai and what proceeds to happen or play out at Mount Ebel and Mount Gerizim.

So here they are. They're fresh, the people are, fresh off their victories over a couple of major cities, Jericho, Ai, and Bethel. And Joshua suddenly decides it's time to lead not just the men, the fighting men, but the whole camp of Israel

20 miles north into Canaanite territory. Straight through the heart of Canaan. Hostile territory for sure. Is this a little risky? I don't know.

Maybe, maybe not. I mean, the people have their reputation restored. They are now the people to be feared again. And why are they doing this?

Why have they come out here? And why right now? Just when the conquest seems like it's really heating up. Well, the reason for their travel connects to their history and to a command that was given many, many years earlier.

A command given back in Deuteronomy, in fact. The place where they are between the two mountain peaks of Ebol and Gerizim, I'm sorry, is called Shechem.

Shechem is actually the place that their forefathers knew quite well. For starters, it was the spot, the location where God met Abraham. And in Genesis 12, originally made his promise.

It's also a place where Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, another forefather, arrived safely back home after he had to flee what would be the promised land, his home, and eventually reconciled with his brother Esau.

Right after that, where does he arrive safely back home? Right here in this spot, at Shechem. Please understand, this is a holy place. This is a special place for the Israelites.

And that's why God commanded them in Deuteronomy 27, that once you guys enter the promised land, you are to go to this very place for a very special purpose.

I want to share with you the instructions God gave back in Deuteronomy 27, verses 4 through 8. Listen to what he says. And when you have crossed over the Jordan, you shall set up these stones concerning which I command you today on Mount Ebol, and you shall plaster them with plaster.

Deuteronomy 27:4–8

And there you shall build an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones. You shall wield no iron tool on them. You shall build an altar to the Lord your God of uncut stones.

And you shall offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God. And you shall sacrifice peace offerings, and shall eat there. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God.

And you shall write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly. This is what's happening right now. Joshua is leading the people of Israel, Abraham's seed, right to this very place in obedience to the command of God.

And right here at this sacred site on Mount Ebol, Joshua now builds the altar that was prescribed. No cut stones. You couldn't wield a tool on them and fashion or shape the stones.

All according to what God commanded. He goes on to lead the people in what God commanded in terms of the rituals they were to celebrate. The ceremony with the burnt offerings that the smoke goes up to God.

The whole animal is burnt. With what's called the peace offering, which were fellowship offerings. It was a meal that they could all share in like a potluck dinner.

And there, we read in verse 32 of our chapter in Joshua, there, in the presence of Israel, Joshua, their leader, wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written.

A couple things that are interesting to us. Number one, Joshua apparently had his own copy of the law. And that shouldn't surprise us because the law itself prescribed that future kings that would come for Israel, each one would have to make their own personal copy of the law.

Remember, there's no PDFs. There's no copy machines. You want a copy, you've got to make a copy. And God wanted each king to have to write it all out.

And although Joshua's not their king, he is their leader. And apparently he's already done this. The other thing I'll draw attention to is how many stones is it going to take?

Have you seen the law of Moses? That's a lot of stones. Now they're going to be plastered, so it's not like the Ten Commandments style carving onto them.

But that's a lot of stones. This is probably a pretty significant memorial. More like a wall of plastered stones upon which the law is going to be written.

And it's all the people. Verse 33 is very clear on that. It's everybody that calls themselves part of this nation of Israel. That means Rahab and her family are here.

It's the sojourners as well as the native-born. It's the elders and the officers and the judges. And then in the very last verse, we read about how it's also like, you know, men and women and little kids.

All the little ones are here too. All the people. A massive assembly. And also in accordance with Deuteronomy, the assembly is divided into two groups.

Now Deuteronomy is more specific. Deuteronomy said that it's six tribes on this side and six tribes on that side. Two mountains. Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim.

Mount Gerizim is a symbol of the blessings and Mount Ebal is a symbol of the curses. And the people were told this so that they could look out from these mountains on which they stood, seeing all of the promised land and basically be reminded, if we obey God and if we honor His law, we live in blessing.

We have this land. But this other mountain, Mount Ebal, says that if we don't, we're under God's curse and we lose it all.

And there Joshua goes on to start writing and he writes out all the words of the law. I have no idea how long it took, especially when you're writing on plastered stones, probably a while.

But not only does he write the words of the law, he also reads them out loud too. We actually read in verse 35 that Joshua reads all of these words.

It's not a summary. It's not like, here's an outline. Every last word we read that there was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua didn't read before the entire assembly of Israel.

Can you imagine if we kept the kids in here, the little ones, and I read Deuteronomy all the way through, Leviticus all the way through? That's what they did.

Again, kind of an interesting turn here at the end of our chapter. We go from a strategic military ambush that leads to a route of what appears to be a couple of cities to what one scholar describes as almost like a commercial break.

Right? Is that what the last paragraph is? You know when you're watching that big action movie on one of your streaming services and you get to a really good part and the action starts and then the screen goes blank and you get to watch 60 seconds of ads.

Even the ones you pay for now. And you say, let's get back to the action. I've got to wait for this. All right. Is that what this is? No. I don't think so.

I think what we're seeing here is actually part of a key theme in this entire chapter. A theme that I would submit to you holds the whole chapter together.

From the call to take AI to the plan for how to do it to the details about how they're supposed to destroy the city and execute its king to the covenant renewal that's happening on Mount Ebal.

There's really one thing that drives everything happening here and it's the word of God. What the Lord says. That's really our main theme today.

The Lord's word drives everything. It drives the charge for Joshua in verse 1 to get back up, get on conquest, go to AI. It drives the plan involving all the soldiers in the two groups.

God's word drives all the action, the ambush, the fake fleeing of Israel's larger force. You know, the Lord's word even drives the precise moment Joshua raises his javelin to signal.

It drives who lives and who dies. God's word drives what plunder can be taken and even what happens to an evil king's body and for how long.

Again, the Lord's word says it comes down at sunset. God's word is also what drives this whole nation to trek 20 miles into the heart of Canaan, hostile territory, to essentially have a worship service at Mount Ebal.

And his word drives everything, every ritual that Israel engages in out there in what can only be described as a powerful ceremony of recommitment.

God's word drives everything today. So that leads me to a question that I would like to ask all of us. If it's true that we are now God's people today in the new covenant, I'd ask you what's driving you?

What's driving us? Is it still God's word? The question I want to ask you this morning is does God's word drive your life? But also more to the point what does it mean?

What does it mean for our lives to be driven by God's word? So that's the question I want to start with. And I think the answer starts in the heart.

Because that's the seat of what drives us as people. You know, I'm often reminded of this verse from Proverbs. I'm going to share a couple verses from Proverbs.

But first this one. Proverbs 16.1. Listen to this. To humans belong the plans of the heart. But from the Lord comes the proper answer of the tongue.

In other words, I think what the verse is saying is we like to make a lot of plans, but what we really need is the Lord's direction. Don't you like to make your own plans?

I know I do. That's my default. My default is to do my own thing and do it my way. We plan our steps, don't we? We plan our days. We have planners.

Some of us still write in them. Others of us have finally moved to the golden age of the electronic calendar. We plan our week, we plan our month, we plan our lives.

But from Joshua chapter 7, not this chapter but the one before, we know that this can sometimes get us into trouble. After all, from that very same chapter in Proverbs, I also want to read this verse to you.

Joshua 7 · chapter mention

Proverbs chapter 16 verse 25. There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death. Achan's heart. Remember the guy that's now under all the stones, he and his whole family?

Proverbs 16:25

Achan's heart, what he thought would be right for him, or maybe today we'd say his truth, was that it would be fine for him to take some of the devoted things.

But he found out where that led. And this is why God was taking charge of this stunned nation here at the beginning of Joshua chapter 8, getting his people back on track, back on mission, back on the conquest, driving them

Joshua 8 · chapter mention

with his word at every step. So back to that question, what does it mean for our lives to be driven by God's word? I think our passage actually offers some answers to this question.

It shows us what it means for our lives to be driven by God's word, starting with this first answer. Number one, it means it will drive our plans.

Drive our plans.

As verse one opens in this chapter, if you don't read any further, and you're just parked here at chapter 8 verse 0, does Israel have a plan?

Do they know what they're doing next?

No, they're reeling from the whole Achan debacle. They're wondering if God is still with them. They're worried that they're sitting ducks in the promised land.

They're scared, nervous, that if that can happen, we lose 36 people with little old AI, what's it going to be when we come up against a Canaanite superpower?

And they're coming. By the way, they're coming.

It took the Lord coming to Joshua. And the Lord came to the man with a plan. The Lord had a plan. Hidden ambush, larger force who's really good at acting, a signal, a turn, the sacking and burning of a city, smoke rising, a pincer movement that traps the

enemy so you can finish them. The plans, all from the Lord, all given by the Lord, and all blessed by the Lord. So what about the plans? That you've got.

Do you have plans in life right now? Maybe some of us are thinking about school, we've got plans, you know, we're getting things ready, school starts this week, or next week, or I don't know when.

Maybe you've got plans for a new step in your career if you're working. Maybe you have plans for your family, plans for a relationship you're in.

I'm asking you, are you allowing God's word to drive your plans? Or would God's word drive you to change your plans? Maybe abandon your plans?

We want God's word to drive our plans, because when it does, we see fruit. We see blessing. We see provision. You know, scholars have noted that the fact that they're able to take some plunder from Ai is going to prove pretty helpful when they've got a 20-mile

trek further into the mountains, and they're supposed to have a whole bunch of animals to offer the Lord and have a fellowship meal with. So that the taking of Ai was a provision for the Lord's people.

When God's word drives your plans, well, I want to read something from the Psalms. Listen to this in Psalm 37 verses 4 through 6. The psalmist says, Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalms 37:4–6

Commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him, and He will do this. He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.

Letting our lives be driven by God's word means it will drive our plans. That's the first answer, but there's also a second one as to what it means to have our lives driven by God's word.

Number two, it means our trust and faithful obedience. Our trust and faithful obedience. Even when it seems risky or uncertain.

Again, I look at Israel here and maybe I'm the crazy guy that thinks about these things, I often think, how would I have fared in the ancient world?

Why be dead? Because I'm not that big and I can't see. I wear contacts and reading glasses. So I'm no good as an archer. I'm not good up against a big guy in a one-on-one fight.

I'm dead. But just for the sake of fun, imagine I'm an Israelite soldier back then. And I don't get to be one of the ambush guys. Maybe I'm one of the 25,000 down in the valley with Joshua.

And I'm told that when they come at me, I have to turn around and run. You know, am I going to take an arrow in the back? Am I going to be okay?

There are the 5,000 spec ops guys too. I mean, they're hiding and there's only 5,000 of them. What are they thinking? Is this ambush going to work?

Are we going to be discovered by the men of Bethel when they pass before us to get to Ai?

What if all the fighting men don't leave the city like Joshua says they're going to? What if there's still a significant force inside when we run in there?

Trust. The people have to trust and be faithful. I mean, they had to put their trust in action and put it, you know, in action with their own two feet.

They had to faithfully obey all the instructions they were given and jump in to action at and only at the precise moment Joshua raised the javelin.

I wonder where you need to trust right now.

I don't know if you're fighting a battle metaphorically, spiritually, or just facing a decision. What path, what plan has the Lord laid out before you that seems a little risky to follow, a little perilous maybe?

maybe it's for some of us a question of finances. Am I going to make enough money? If I let God's word drive how I use and steward my finances, am I going to be okay?

Or maybe it's a life decision like looking for a spouse. If I keep God's word in the driver's seat in this area of my life and select only the kind of spouse that will be equally yoked, am I going to find one?

Are my kids going to turn out okay if I let God's word drive how I parent them? Remember, if we're going to allow our lives and plans to be driven by God's word, it is going to call for our trust and our faithful obedience.

And finally, let me leave you with one final, one last observation from our story in answer to the question of what does it mean to have our lives driven by God's word?

Number three, it means our reflection and recommitment. Reflection and recommitment. You know, there's a lot of that in this chapter. Every time you turn around, there's some pile of stone somewhere that's supposed to mean something.

Or a body temporarily hanging from a tree that's supposed to serve as a warning. You know what that meant? That meant, seeing the king of Ai on a tree meant judgment.

It meant that God judges sin. It meant that God meted out his judgment on a wicked king.

They were also to reflect on the fact that God says, yes, now to taking some spoil and livestock. And again, how convenient with a 20-mile trek in front of them off into the mountains of Canaan.

And even those two mountains that they're heading toward, that they go out there to, Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, they're heading to this place of very special significance that would be familiar to them from God's law.

Deuteronomy 27, the blessings and curses, the blessings of Gerizim, if you live by my word, if you're driven by my word, blessing, the curses of evil, if you do your own thing and abandon my word.

And what was at the center of all this reflection? God's very word itself. That's the featured player once they're out there at Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim.

It's the word of God. That's what's being written on all those plastered stones. That's what's being memorialized in that very spot. They are reflecting on the promises once made in this very location to their great forefather Abraham.

Promises and blessings for a nation and this land that they are now realizing as the people of Israel are high enough. They say Ebal is 2,600 feet in height and Gerizim is 2,800 feet in height.

So they're literally able to look out and see most of the promised land.

How about you? If you're going to have God's word drive your life and your plans, are you going to reflect on it? Are you going to listen to it?

And meditate on it? It's going to take your commitment. And if you're anything like me, you're recommitment because we break our commitments.

And we have to recommit. Now, of course, we don't have to do any of these animal sacrifices anymore. And we know that's because we've had a one-time, once-for-all sacrifice in a perfect land on our behalf.

And we also know that it's not a warning of judgment on an evil king who's hanging on a tree that we need to reflect on. No. We have the good news of judgment absorbed by a good and perfect king who also was hung on a tree.

Was it a signal of judgment, the cross? Yes. Yes. But it was a signal that God had judged sin in His own Son who was there in our place. He judged the good and perfect king in our place so that every time we now gather, like

we're doing right now, an echo of what was happening at Mount Ebal, and every time we have worship and celebrate and fellowship and praise and hear the words of God read to us and proclaim to our gathered assembly with regular faces, with new faces, with men and women, yes, with children, even

our little ones. We make a fresh recommitment.

So today I hope you've been able to see a helpful picture of what it means to have your life driven by God's Word. Because it's going to mean that it drives your plans.

And it's going to mean that it drives you to trust and faithfully obey what the Lord has for you. And it means that we will reflect on His Word and we will recommit ourselves to our God.

Let me ask you if you would stand with me. And I want to pray for us as the worship team comes. Father in heaven, you are a good and perfect God.

And you sent us your Son, the good and perfect King, the better Joshua, the better Moses, the better David, Jesus Christ. We thank you for his life, his sinlessness that he could go, that he

could be the perfect sacrifice that you require. We thank you that he took the judgment on our behalf. Lord, he was the living Word and you've also left us with your written Word, Lord.

And so this morning will you help us set our lives, set the course of our lives according to your Word. Wherever it is in a particular place that we find it hard, that we find it a struggle, that we are scared or unsure, Father, I pray that you would minister to us grace and by your Spirit you

would challenge us and beckon us to come, to submit, to put all of our life in your hands, to live according to your Word, to let our lives be driven by it.

Jesus, we thank you. Holy Spirit, we thank you for your infilling and empowering. We know that you are with us and we pray all these things in the name of our Savior, in Jesus' name.

Amen.