Remove the title completely!
Contents
Remove it completely!
2007. 10. 21. / Jeon Hyo-sik
Text: Joshua 8:24-29
Introduction
When I got married, my parents gave me a bag of rice. Because there were only two people, even after a year had passed, the rice did not decrease at all. But the problem is that because the rice has been open for a long time, rice bedbugs have appeared. What is very strange is that some of the rice bedbugs are inside a grain of rice. It uses the rice as a protective shield and stays still in the rice as if it were hibernating. Anyway, there were so many rice bedbugs that I only caught paper bedbugs in one day. I thought it was done, so I thought I could eat it with confidence... This is why rice bedbugs appeared again. But at one point, I noticed that there were more bedbugs than the last time, and it was so disgusting as if the black rice was rotten. When rice bedbugs were caught, they should have been completely eradicated, but it seems that the number of rice bedbugs that were left behind without seeing the hidden rice bedbugs reproduced and became so numerous. It should have been completely removed, but it didn't, so it was damaged. There are things around us that need to be completely removed, but there were also things that the Israelites had to completely eliminate. Let's see what
Main subject
1. Ai Castle Battle
God called Joshua and explained the plan about how to fight the battle of Ai. The heart of the operation was an ambush. Ambush refers to hiding in order to attack enemies at random. That is, the military is divided into group A and group B. And group B secretly hides in a designated place, and group A goes out to fight the enemy. Group A pretends to lose after fighting hard. So group A runs away. At this time, the enemy will chase after the fleeing ally. At this time, group A attracts enemies to the place where group B is hiding. Then suddenly the hidden soldiers come out and rush towards the enemy. Then the enemy will fall into a trap, panic and lose. This operation is called 'Ambush operation'.
The operation command that God commanded Joshua was the 'Ambush operation'. In obedience to God's word, Joshua told him to remove some soldiers and hide behind the city of Ai. After that, Joshua stayed overnight, and early in the morning he took the rest of the army and went to the city of Ii. When King Ai sees the Israeli army, he goes out to the city and fights Israel with the confidence that he will be able to win again this time. King Ai had no idea that the Israelites were hiding behind the gates of the city. Then Joshua and all the Israelite soldiers were driven away by Ai's army, pretending to be retreating, and fled by the way of the wilderness. Ai's soldiers pursued the Israeli soldiers. And they followed the Israeli army with the gates open.
Then the Lord spoke to Joshua. "Put your spear toward the child. I will give the city to you." So Joshua held up his spear toward the city of Ai. Then the Israeli soldiers who were hiding behind the city of Ai saw Joshua with a spear and went into the city of Ai. The Israeli soldiers killed all the men and women in the city of Ai and took the looted loot. Then they set the castle on fire. When the people of Ai looked back, they saw smoke coming from their castle. The people of Ai who realized only then that the fire had started knew that this was a trap.
When the people of Ai tried to return to the city, the Israeli soldiers inside the city came out of the city and rushed towards the Ai city soldiers. The Israeli soldiers who pretended to run away also rushed towards the soldiers of Ai. Suddenly, the soldiers of Ai were surrounded by Israeli soldiers front and back. The Israelites struck and killed Ai until there were no men left. So none of the enemy soldiers survived. When all the people of Ai died, Joshua put down the spear he was holding. That is, Joshua held the spear until he killed all the Aiites. Then Joshua killed the king of Ai and hung it on a tree for everyone to see. When evening came, the king's body was taken down from the tree and burned.
character! We can ask some of these questions here. The most common word in verses 24 to 29 is the word killed. Why did Israel have to kill all the people of Ai without saving any? Couldn't we just kill the soldiers and leave the others as slaves? And how important is it to kill everyone, so do we keep saying that the Bible says we killed everyone? Also, why did Joshua hold the spear in his hand and hold up his hand until all the people of Ai were killed?
2. Two Questions
(1) Why did you kill them all?
First, why did you kill them all? Let's think about When the Israelites conquered the land of Canaan, the Canaanite culture was a very corrupt culture. When God commanded us to conquer the land of Canaan, it was because the sins of the land of Canaan were so severe. Let's say that the standard for God to endure the sins of the Canaanites is 100. So, let's say that if the number exceeds 100, God couldn't bear it and tried to destroy them all. The time when the Israelites entered the land of Canaan crossed the line of 100. So God wanted the Israelites to annihilate all the Canaanites. What will happen if we do not annihilate all the Canaanites?
What God wanted was to annihilate all the forces of sin in Canaan. It was killing everyone. Equally, what God wants us to do is to get rid of sin. It kills sin. It is the annihilation of sin. God can use us only when there is no sin, and when sin is removed, we can come before God. No matter how strong and stylish a vessel is, we will never use it unless it has been washed. The vessel must be washed clean Just like using the vessel, no matter how talented, good college, or smart, if a person is full of sins, God will never use him. Even if it is a foolish, feeble, or deficient person, if he is pure and clean, God uses him for God's work.
That is why we must always be sensitive to sin. Only when sin is felt as a sin can we know if we have sinned, and only then can we repent. Those who do not feel it is a sin to deceive people will continue to deceive because it is not a sin. Then, if you do not repent and continue to sin, God will never use you. We should pray to God, "Give me the sensitivity to tremble in the face of even the smallest sin."
(2) Why did you keep holding the spear?
Second, why did Joshua keep holding the spear until the war was over? Something like this has happened before. There was a time when people called Amalek attacked Israel while they were on their way from Egypt. Then Joshua went out to fight, and Moses prayed with his staff in his hand. When Moses' hand goes down, Israel loses, and when Moses' hand goes up, Israel wins. So Moses continued to raise his hands and pray, but afterward, it was too difficult, so Aaron and Hur sat him on a rock and supported him with their hands. So, in the end, Israel was victorious. Joshua saw it then and learned it. Moses' disciple is Joshua. Joshua's teacher was Moses. So Joshua does what he sees and learns now. Even if no one taught me, I learned by watching.
It is said that children learn from watching their parents. Previously, a 4-5 year old baby was talking with his brother, and his situation became unfavorable, and suddenly he continued to say "Noisy~~Noisy". Then, even when someone talks to you, they say, "It's noisy~~ It's noisy" Small things are cute, and where did you learn those words... But one day, I overheard the children's parents talking to each other by chance. But the husband tells his wife, "It's noisy~ Don't say nonsense." Hearing those words, I can see why the child repeats the word "noisy" over and over again. Learning by watching and learning like this is learning by itself without anyone teaching you.
Joshua simply learned from seeing Moses leaning toward God with his hands raised toward heaven. That is why, during the war, he also raised his hands and prayed for God's help until the battle was over, and he trusted in God. In other words, the fact that Joshua kept holding the spear in his hand was an expression of trusting in God and praying to God.
Joshua is now praying and relying on God to get rid of the sins of Canaan, and to get rid of the idols of Canaan. They are praying to God that they will be able to handle the task of removing all the sins of Canaan. That's it. We cannot take away our sins in our own strength. we are our
Power cannot kill our sins. We cannot become sin-sensitive in our own power. We must rely on God to always repent and live a sin-sensitive life to get rid of our sins. You must ask God for help. We can never do it in our own strength. It is to repent with the power God provides, and to become a pure person by killing sins with the power God gives.
conclusion
A boy was making a way to his favorite place. But there was a large log lying across the road. The boy tried to move the log with all his might, but the log did not move. Then his father asked the boy from behind. 'Why don't you use all your powers?' Then the boy looked at his father and said that he was using all his powers. Dad smiled and said: 'Didn't you ask me for help as a father?'
That's right. He didn't know that among all the powers this child had, there was his own, but also the power of his father. In fact, we say that we trust and rely on God with our mouths, but in real life, we try to live on our own. But we have God who is our strength. Therefore, just as Joshua raised his hand and depended on God to win the war against Ai, we too must depend on God to remove our sins and live a victorious life.