Prayer: Father, life just goes so much better when we have Your blessing. May I seek Your approval first before moving ahead. Amen.
Reading: Joshua 8 key: vs. 1-2
Then Adonai said to Joshua: “Do not be afraid or dismayed. Take all the people of war with you and arise, go up to Ai. Behold, I have given the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land into your hand. Then you will do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king—except you will take its spoil and its cattle as plunder for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it.” TLV
Attention: I had the privilege of playing on a State-rated high school football team my senior year. One of the rules for the offense when we huddled, “No one but the quarterback talks.” All our offensive plays were given a two-digit number. The first digit corresponded to the player who would receive the ball and the second digit told us which place in the line the running back would be targeting to run through. The second number also told the linemen their blocking assignment.
So, all the quarterback needed to do was to give us a number like “32” which meant the running back, which was designated as the number three back, would get the ball handed to him and the two represented where in the line, he was to run too. The quarterback would then tell us the snap count number (when the ball was to be hiked by the center) and launch the play.
I remember the coach saying, “Every play is designed to score a touchdown,” if every blocking assignment is successful. Obviously, every play does not score a touchdown, because the defensive player may beat his blocker to the ball carrier.
In today’s reading, Adonai tells Joshua success in battle is guaranteed because “I have given the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land into your hand.” All they had to do was to go and take possession. They were to do to Ai what they had done to Jericho. Only, there was one change to the plan, they were to “take its spoil and its cattle as plunder for yourselves.” How were they to accomplish this command? You are to: “Set an ambush for the city behind it.”
When God huddled with Joshua, he listened, and God gave the instructions and sent them out to fulfill His plan. Notice, that when they did it God’s way, not even one of the “valiant warriors” fell. The city was easily taken and burned to the ground.
Notice that the first thing Joshua did after conquering Ai, was to build an altar and worship “Adonai, God of Israel, on Mount Ebal,” and he also read the Torah. Joshua also wrote out the Torah on uncut stones. All his actions were the instruction given him by Moses. He did this “in order to bless the people of Israel.”
Action: I choose to listen for God’s voice and instruction and follow His plan.
Yield: I choose to yield to God’s instructions and commands.
Engage: I choose to engage with God in ordering my life.
Relationship: I choose to stay in close relationship with Adonai.
Prayer: Father, I choose today to listen to Your voice through Joshua and the scriptures. His example of obedience encourages me to do the same. Amen.
Memory Verse: Deuteronomy 30:19-20
“I call the heavens and the earth to witness about you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life so that you and your descendants may live, by loving Adonai your God, listening to His voice, and clinging to Him. For He is your life and the length of your days, that you may dwell on the land that Adonai swore to your fathers—to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob—to give them.
Music Video: Anna Golden—Changing Me https://youtu.be/QY9OxjlLRAQ
Remember, “Abide in Yeshua, today!”