Welcome to the Hackberry House of Chosun, where we study the word of God and pray for the persecuted church. My name is Bob. It is July 24, 2025. We're in the book of Joshua. I hope you'll get your Bible now. and turn with me to the book of Joshua in chapter seven. Joshua, chapter seven, verse six. Right before we get to that, we go to the Voice of the Martyrs. We're reading through the photo edition, which is a little difficult because it's mostly photos. Every year there's a photo edition. I do hope you'll contact the people at vom.org, voiceofthemartyrs.org, vom.org. and ask them to be put on the mailing list that you can receive your copy of this magazine, a magazine just like this, every month, free, postpaid, everything's, no commitment at all. But I'm sure that when you start reading about these people, you'll want to pray at least and make a commitment to them that way. We're talking about Sudan, even though it's the photo issue. It's photos in Sudan and incredibly beautiful pictures of the people and the situations there. You've really got to see this. I'll just read a couple paragraphs that are on this page today. Christians around the world are providing help to those who have fled to the Nuba Mountains. supplying great daily necessities and encouragement. There is a Richard Wurmbrand quote one person said, when they beat my feet, my mouth cried out. A frontline worker said that. The situation in Sudan is similar to that. We are the global church. When they are in pain, we are in pain. I think it's important to remember that, he said. Nyandinga is a Sudanese woman who has received aid from the global body of Christ. Since becoming separated from her husband, she's been living in a camp for internally displaced people, they're called IDP, in the Nuba Mountains. The attackers were raping girls and taking boys to go and train them as fighters, she said. That's why I decided, no, this situation will not allow me to stay here, and then I left. Nyandinga is helping care for 12 children, including her own. I'm looking at a picture. Nyandinga is not in this picture, but I'm looking at a picture of a beautiful woman with her little baby in arms and receiving help from somewhere. 1,200, 300 people standing around behind her. It's just a beautiful shot. You've got to get this for yourself. Father, I pray for the people of Sudan, not just the people, but your people, Lord, the ones who are suffering simply because they know you. They're suffering throughout the nation. throughout much of Africa, and yet your people continue to thrive, and I thank you for that. But I pray for your persecuted people, that they will continue to stay fast, hold on to Jesus Christ, love Him with all of their hearts, and receive from you the rewards for those kind of people. May we be that kind of people here, always willing to be a part of them. Though we are not suffering in that way here, we have the money to give to them and to help them. We have the prayers that we can give to them. Show us how to support your people, in Jesus' name, amen. And I need to say, every once in a while, Voice of the Martyrs in no way has been asking me to do what I'm doing. They've given me permission. They do not know what I do from day to day. I am not deliberately supporting them. That is, I am not being connected to them in any official way. This is just Bob, who was a part of Voice of the Martyrs for some time, one of their representatives, who learned to love Richard Wurmbrand, went to his nation in Romania many years ago. and it's just been a kind of a love thing ever since then. I don't defend every little thing that VOM does and says, but as myself and every other Christian worker that I've ever met, they are flawed people, and that's okay. God's people are being blessed by VOM, and I think you will be blessed if you get in touch with them. Well, enough of that. and we go to Joshua chapter seven. Israel has just crossed over into Jordan. What a wonderful victory at Jericho. And it just seems like they're on a roll when suddenly they're rolled back. I mean, really rolled back. They go to that next little village called Ai. In English, it's spelled capital A, small i, not the AI that you're hearing about all the time today. Little village of AI that they think they can just take easily and they are defeated. That's where we ended yesterday. And then Joshua, when he heard about this, tore his clothes. a sign of mourning and grief, fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until evening. He just stayed there. He was waiting to hear from God. He and the elders of Israel, and they put dust on their heads, and Joshua's, oh God, oh God, why did you do this? Why'd you bring us over here if you're just gonna deliver us into the hand of the Amorites? I don't get this. You've been promising, you know. You know how it is when you really think you've got a hold of God and you know the plan of God and you're ready to walk with God and suddenly it's not there. Something's wrong and you have to find out what it is. Oh Lord, what can I say? Israel has evidently turned their back. The Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land, they're gonna hear about this, Lord. Do something. They're going to surround us. They're going to cut off our name. He's getting really worried here. This is the mighty military commander, successor of Moses, Joshua. Sounding a lot like Moses here. Lord, what is going on? The Lord says to Joshua, get up. How about that? Get up, Joshua. Why are you on your face? This is not one of those deals where you have to convince me of something. You don't have to keep begging me. You guys have the problem, not me. I was on my way to be blessing you. Get up, Joshua. Let me tell you what's going on. Israel, verse 11, has sinned. That's why you lost. Israel has sinned. Does that apply to your church? Does that apply to you? The church, if somebody's sinning in your church, maybe it's you. That's why your church isn't moving forward. That's why souls aren't being saved. That's why there's no growth. That's why the people are still babies. That's why there's infantile disease among you. You just got the same old thing going on and on. Somebody's sinning, maybe, in your church or in your family. Sin stops things. That's right. They've sinned. They broke the covenant. They took some of the things that I told them not to take and they put them among their own thing. Somebody, one person in Israel and millions of Israel, one person has brought the whole nation to its knees. So that's why verse 12, they can't stand before their enemies. They turn their backs because they've become a curse. The whole nation of Jericho was a curse, the city that is, and all the materials inside of there were a curse. And when you took that accursed stuff into one of your tents, you put a curse on Israel. I will not be with you until you find who did it and destroy the things that they stole. Get up. He tells him again, get up. Get the people together. Tell them to wash their hands, clean their faces, get consecrated before me. Gather them together. and tell them that the Lord has said that there are things that have been cursed that are in your midst. You can't stand before your enemies until you remove that thing. In the morning, I want you to come near to me by your tribes. Again, with millions of people, I don't know how this was done. It could be representative people, the elders, whatever, from each tribe standing before Joshua. The tribe which the Lord takes by lot shall come near by families, and the family which the Lord shall..." Oh, this is going to be drama. This is going to be drama. God knows who the person is, could send that person right to Joshua right now, but this is a dramatic... moment for Israel. They're going to see, visually have an experience of God's pointing out sin in the camp. My, what if this happened in your church? or in your family where the person who's doing that secret sin was exposed, little bit by little bit. All right, everybody that's a man, stand up. Any man that's over 20, stay standing. Any man that, and go on and on until it narrows down to that one person who's causing all the trouble. It shall be that the one who is taken with the things under the band shall be burned with fire. Not just the stuff, but the man is going to be burned and everything that belongs to him. So, sure enough, he gets up next morning, verse 16, the Israelites come near, tribe by tribe, and God, when the tribe of Judah shows up, God says, stop, that's the tribe. somebody in that tribe. And you can imagine the huge sigh of relief from the other tribes. Oh, it's not us. Of course, the guy that did it, he knows. He knows. But you know, when somebody's being accused of something, you feel, I don't know, maybe it's kind of me. But now they know it's not them. Just like at the table, Judas was the one that was being singled out as the bad person, and the other disciples are saying, Lord, is it I? Guilt comes upon us when there's accusations like this in the air. Verse 17, Judah, come near. Come near to me family by family by family. And the family of the Zarahites is singled out. Now we're going to go man by man in that family. And the man, Zabdi, is taken. Zabdi brings his whole individual family now, man by man. And Achan, Achan, we found him out yesterday. The son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah. Spells it out very clearly here, verse 18. Joshua. says to Akan, my son, you better pray right now. You better give glory to God before you die, because you're going to die. Praise Him. Let Him know that you know that He is Almighty God and He knows everything. What did you do? We know what you did, but you're gonna confess it now before this congregation. What will it be, folks, on that day when Jesus comes and brings us before the bar? Some say we will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and therefore not before that white throne judgment. That would be fine with me, but what will happen at the judgment seat of Christ? Is that only rewards, or will there be some things exposed on that day that you were hoping would be hidden. You say, well, they're under the blood. Maybe if you confess them, definitely if you confess them, but I wonder what else will be brought out on that day. Maybe your reward will show what we all kind of suspected that there was sin in your life. You weren't living like you could have. Your reward is so low. There'll be some comparisons made on that day. I do believe it. Tell me what you did, don't hide it. So Akon said, I sinned, I sinned. I saw there in that pile of things in this one tent, oh, it was a beautiful mantle. I knew it was from Shinar, that's old Babylonia. I saw two hundred shekels of silver and a baller of gold. Fifty shekels, that's a lot of money. We've never had that much out in the wilderness, you know. So I wanted them, and I took them, and I buried them. in the dirt, inside my tent, underneath my tent, you'll see it, the silver and the gold are there too. So Joshua, to confirm the story, sent some messengers and they went over to the tent and sure enough, there was all that stuff. And they brought all the stuff and the money to Joshua and poured it out before the Lord. And Joshua took Achan, the silver, I thought they were gonna put all that in the treasury, no, watch this, the silver, the mantle, that Babylonian beauty, it was just so wonderful, he had to have it, the bar of gold, wait a minute, his sons, His daughters, were they implied? Well, it doesn't matter. It's your family. You're responsible. His oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, the whole tent, everything. And they brought them up to the valley of Achor. The valley of Achor. Achor in the Hebrew means trouble. The valley of trouble. Been there? Oh, I hope you never have to go there. Joshua said, why have you troubled us? The Lord will trouble you. They say, I think they named that valley that day. I'm not sure it was called that, Achor, trouble beforehand, but because of all the trouble this man had brought on Israel, they named that valley Achor. And all of Israel stoned them, not just Achan who did the deed, but everybody in his family was stoned with stones. And they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones. This is serious, folks. This is serious. They raised over him a great heap of stones. Another memorial, and Joshua who wrote it says it's still there. That memorial is there too. Oh, the one coming over Jordan, that pile of stones, that's there to remind of how wonderful God was and what he did, but this one's here too to remind people of how awful we are. And the Lord was okay again. He wasn't angry anymore. He had seen the sin taken out. There'll come a time when our angry God, He's angry with the sinner every day, folks. Don't let people deceive you about this. God is angry with sinners today. Oh, very angry. When Jesus is coming back, oh, oh, when he comes back, what a bloodbath there will be. I'm looking forward to the coming, okay, because you're one of his, but it's not going to be pleasant. You'll be caught up to meet him in the air if you're one of his, but on the earth, on the earth. Oh, it will be awful because our God is very angry. Just think how angry he was with this one man doing one thing. How angry do you think he is now with the accumulated sins, waywardness of countless millions, billions of people over the years and a judgment that must fall upon them. What will that be like? Oh, we're not appointed to wrath. Oh, we may go through, we will go through the tribulation, but we won't go through his wrath. And his wrath will be displayed when Jesus returns. That's what we're delivered from. You don't have to worry about that one. It's going to be awful. God doesn't play with sin. If you're not going to take the forgiveness that's offered you in Christ, then you're going to have to pay for it yourself somehow, if you could. And so the name of the place has been called the Valley of Achar to this day. Again, I think that's when they named it that. Wow, it's a serious thing, isn't it? To fall into the hands of the living God. I'm in chapter eight. The story goes on. We don't stop the story because of this one man, but we do pause just for a few to get this thing taken care of. But don't be afraid, Joshua. Take all the people, go up. This time you're going to Ai and you're going to be fine. I've given this king to you. I would have given him last time you were out if it hadn't been for Aiken. No, it's all yours, all his people, all of his city, all of his land, and you're going to do to Ai just what you did to Jericho. It's going to be a great day for you. And you shall take only its spoil and its cattle. This time you're killing all the people, but you do get to keep those other things alive. See how different it is? Every battle you fight with the Lord has different instructions. Be sure to listen when you're in the next battle, as you will be if you're a Christian, set an ambush for the city behind the city, an ambush. So Joshua rose with all the people of war to go up to Ai. And Joshua chose 30,000 men. Remember, they came yesterday with only about 3,000 or 4,000, I think it was. But these 30,000 are valiant men. And he sent them out at night. You get the picture? You guys, I want you to go out. AI is sleeping for the most part. You're going to go behind their city and just wait right there. Don't go far from the city, but be ready. Got it? Got it. So there they go. So then I, Joshua speaking still, and all the people who are with me, we will approach the city from the other side. You guys are in the back waiting. They don't know you're there. When they that is the people of AI, come out to meet us, we're gonna pretend like we're still afraid of them. We're gonna pretend like it was a couple days ago when they rushed out to get us, and they're gonna see us again, and they're gonna say, ha, these Israelites, they've got a bad reputation, but oh my, they're nothing, they're wimps. We'll take care of them in a minute. And so they're gonna come out and get us, they think. They'll come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city. So all the warriors, the whole military of AI, it's not that much, but everybody that can fight is now gonna be out of AI. And they'll be saying to themselves, they're running just like yesterday, so we will run too. We will run, we won't attack them. We're gonna run, and they're gonna chase us, and they'll all be out of the city. Then, You can get up from where you are, you guys in the back, and you go into the city and take possession of it, and the Lord will give it to you. And when you've seized the city, set it on fire. do what the Lord said. And they get to keep the animals, they'll keep them and get them out of there before the fire, but for now, it's burn the city. He sent them away. And they went to the place of ambush, and they remained between Bethel and Ai, Bethel being the name that they will give to that other town later. On the west side of Ai, they are, but Joshua spends the night among the people. And he gets up the next day, verse 10. Then, verse 11, all the people of war who were with him, Joshua, went up and drew near and arrived in front of the city, camped on the north side, took about 5,000 men. And he sent them in ambush, too, between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city. I'm sorry, that's not two, that's the original plan. So they stationed the people All the army, everything that we just said, Joshua just said was going to happen, it's happening now. He's putting this all up. And sure enough, verse 14, when Ai saw the people and that the men of the city hurried and rose up early and went out to meet Israel in battle, he and all his people, he chased them. He didn't know, of course, that there was these several thousand people on the other side of the city. Joshua, And all Israel, as planned, verse 15, pretended to be beaten, started running, and all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua. Not a man was left in Air Bethel, and none of the military is there. And the Lord said to Joshua, now, stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai. This is like the rod of Moses. The javelin's not going to hit anything. It's just going to be suspended there in the air in his hand. And the moment you stretch out that javelin, I'll give it to you." And so he stretched it out, and the men in ambush, that was their key, that was their signal, they got up, and when he had stretched out his hand, they ran and entered into the city, captured it, and set the city on fire as planned. And so the men of Ai, as they're chasing the Israelites on the other side of the city, they look back and, oh no, verse 20, there's smoke coming up, our city's on fire, and they didn't know what to do. So when Joshua, 21, saw that the men in ambush had captured the city and the smoke of the city was coming up, they turned back, stopped their running away, and they faced the Ai-ites, if I may call them that, and began killing them. The others came out from the city to encounter them so that they were trapped. in the middle of Israel. Some on this side, some on that side. The original ambush people, and when they were done burning the city, they came and joined the battle. So you got Ai trapped in between two Israelite armies. Oh man. And they killed them until no one was left of those who survived or escaped. Now the king of Ai, they did keep him alive for a moment and brought him to Joshua. And they went back to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword. Everybody who fell, men and women, 12,000 people, for Joshua did not withdraw his hand. He's still standing there with his javelin up in the air that whole time, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. They took the cattle, as we said, 28, so Joshua burned Ai, made it a heap forever. And there's this same note, a desolation, what? Until this day. Joshua's quite the historian here. He wants you to know that all over the land there, there are little reminders of the work of God among them. As far as that king of Ai who thought maybe he was going to be spared, no, they hanged him. on a tree until evening. There's something about keeping somebody on a tree after evening according to the law of Moses that we studied. You don't do that. So they took him off the tree and they buried him and raised over his body another great heap of stones. There it is again that stands to this day. So then Joshua built an altar. in Mount Ebal, just as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, an altar. 33. All Israel, with their elders and officers and their judges, were standing on both sides of the ark, the strangers as well as the native, and half of them stood in front of Mount Gerizim, half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had given command. And you remember the blessings and the curses that we read at the end of Deuteronomy? I believe this is the time when they actually were read again, because now they're in those places that they were told would be. I mean, there are two mountains that weren't over on the other side of Jordan, but here they are here. There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read. He read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curses. There it is, verse 34. According to all that is written in the book. And so what a meeting they had there. They're on their way. Jericho's done. AI took a little while, but AI is gone. Oh, there's a whole lot more. There's a whole lot more. And now we've got another reversal. Oh no, chapter nine will give us another reversal. And I think, I think I will stop there. Ask you to wait for next time. Anytime you want, just go ahead and read ahead and get ready for the lesson. But I think now that we're at the end of a chapter, that'll be a good place to break. But there is something else. It's going to be always a trick of the enemy trying to get Israel to stop their forward progress. And, well, we'll talk about it next time. Thank you so much, as always, for being here. I mean, if you weren't here, as I've said before, I'd be standing here alone, and I don't like that at all. So do come and bring a friend. And don't forget to go to, you can go to prisoneralert.com, you can go to icommittopray.com, those sites that will give you insight into the persecuted church. Go there, will you? If you have any questions about what we're doing here or where to go and do this and that on the site, just email me at bobdiakonas7, B-O-B-D-I-A-K-O-N-A-S, and the number seven at gmail.com. Well, the Lord willing again, we'll talk again real soon. Bye-bye.