Here in Joshua chapter eight, I want to leave with you the verse one. And the Lord said unto Joshua, fear not, neither be thou dismayed. For all the people of, take all the people of war with thee and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given unto thy hand the king of Ai and his people and his city and his land. The great British preacher F.W. Boreham commented in one of his sermons that life, like war, is a series of mistakes, and he is not the best Christian nor the best general who makes the fewest false steps. Poor mediocrity may secure that, but he is the best who wins. the most splendid victories by the retrieval of his mistakes. This is what we're going to find in Joshua chapter eight, a reversal of fortunes. The children of Israel have been turned away by their enemy at Ai in chapter seven. Mistakes have been made and lessons have been learned. And now we're going to move from tragedy to triumph. in the will of the Lord. How thrilling are the words of Alexander White when he said that the victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings. A series of new beginnings. Joshua chapter eight is a new beginning for Joshua and the children of Israel. In chapter seven, because of one man's sin, namely Achan, The entire nation suffered a horrible and a humiliating defeat to the smallest city and the smallest army that they will ever face. And because of Achan's sin, the judgment of God had been revealed and his blessing had been removed. And now we come to chapter eight and we find that the people not only have repented of their sin, but they have dealt with it rather severely, and now God is in a position to be able to bless his people once again, as I said, turning tragedy into triumph. Now, this isn't going to be a victory such as they had against Jericho, where they would march around the walls and give a shout to see those city defenses falling flat. This time, the Lord says to Joshua that they're going to take the city of Ai by strategy. He's going to lead them in an ambush of the city. And as we have read the chapter, you will see that Joshua put some of his troops in the mountains behind the city, others lying in wait, and then a force to draw out the soldiers of Ai, lead them away from the city, and then attack them from all sides. the planning and the strategy worked perfectly. And it's important for us to recognize that it wasn't the skill of Joshua as a military commander that won the day, but rather it was the Lord who gave them the victory. A different plan of attack, no doubt, but the same God who secured the victory for them. And I think it's important to note that we don't try to restrict how God must work and say that it can only be done this way or that way. My old minister used to say that we ought to be careful not to put God in a box, that he can only work in one prescribed way. The master is more important than the methods that he uses. The work of God can be done in a number of valid ways, the important thing to recognize that it is God that does it and not we ourselves. So God's methods might change, but his principles never. So we want to look at this passage. I'm going to save you from any kind of analysis of military strategy, because that's really beyond my ability. I'd only be repeating what someone else had said. But I do want to leave with you some lessons that I think are clear from this passage that will be more beneficial to us than analyzing the ambushes that were put into place. The first thing I want you to notice and to remember is this, the waywardness that God pardoned. Chapter seven sees the children of Israel wayward, apart from the Lord, disobedient, and yet, When we get to chapter eight, we find that the Lord is ready to pardon them, ready to forgive them, to give them a new start and a fresh beginning. And I'm encouraged by that because I feel that it's part of the nature of God to forgive sin. And that's a wonderful thing to be able to stand up and to preach about, that God delights in forgiving sins. I know that there are many times and many people that think of God as being stern and unyielding and holding a grudge against them. But I'm here to tell you this afternoon that while you and I may hold grudges against one another, the Lord doesn't hold grudges. In fact, he tells us that if we confess our sins, that he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The Lord doesn't hold grudges. He doesn't say, well, you've sinned so many times that I'm not going to forgive you this time. I know that you've said sorry before, but this time I don't believe you. No, he says, confess your sins and I will forgive them. That's good news for us because no doubt on many occasions we have failed the Lord and we're tempted to think that perhaps God will have finished with us now, that we fail so often and so grievously that the Lord wouldn't possibly want us back, that he will have cast us off forever. Well, I'm here to tell you this afternoon that God is no more finished with you than he was with the children of Israel here in the book of Joshua, just because they've sinned. Just because his favor has been removed from them for a period of time, we notice that as soon as they repent and seek to get right again with God, that he restores the blessing to them. A God of new beginnings, a God of grace, a God of forgiveness. Our failures need not be fatal nor final. And so here in verse one of chapter eight, we read that God said to Josh, fear not, neither be thou dismayed. There's restoration with the Lord. And he's going to restore to them the blessings that they lost previously. He's saying to them, I'm going to give you another chance. I'm going to give you another day. Fear not, neither be thou dismayed. Take all the people of war with thee. Arise, go up to Ai. I have given unto thy hand the king, the people, and the city. I'm giving you another day, Joshua, another chance. I like what Paul wrote in Philippians 3 in verse 13. He says, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth onto those things which are before. Sometimes we just have to hand over the past failures to the Lord, rest in his forgiveness, and step forward into the promise of a new beginning. Forget the things that are behind. Forget your success at Jericho. Forget your defeat at Ai. Put those things out of your mind. leave them in the past, step into the new beginning with the Lord, there is yet a land out there to be conquered. And the same God who you failed previously, now wants to give you the victory this second time. We find that all through the scriptures, those that failed the Lord so grievously, that the Lord was able to restore and forgive. We might think of men like Samson, You remember how Samson, in his foolishness, had his hair cut at the devil's barber shop, lost all of his power and strength, and became easily overcame by his enemies and put into slavery, his eyes being put out. And yet as his hair began to grow again, he cried out onto the Lord to hear him one more time. And he became more victorious in his death than what he ever was in his life. We've got men like John Mark in the New Testament, who Paul had cast aside as being no longer useful to him in the ministry. He went back on his service for the Lord. He deserted the apostle and Paul said, well, that's it, I'm finished with them. That's John Mark and me done now. God gave John Mark a second chance. That young man went on to write the Gospel of Mark and became a mighty missionary for the Lord. But what about Peter? Simon Peter, who cursed and swore and denied that he even knew the Savior, only to be restored again by the Lord Jesus Christ and sent out to preach the Gospel. And there, the day of Pentecost, thousands were won to the Lord through the preaching of Peter. Aren't you glad that our God is a God of the second chance? And I want to tell you right now, this afternoon, that if you bring your sin to him, your faults and your failures to him, if you confess your sin to him, he will forgive you your sin. He will cleanse you from all unrighteousness, and you will find that he's the God of new beginnings. You'll get a new start. and we trust that we will learn from our lessons and serve him better in the days ahead of what we ever did in the days behind. Jeremiah reminds us in Lamentations 3 that it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. Because his compassions feel not, they are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness. Are you glad that God's compassions feel not? Aren't you glad that his mercies are new each morning? Aren't you glad that irrespective of what happened yesterday, how you failed him, how you disappointed him, how you faltered and stumbled and failed, that today, well, today is a day of new beginnings, a day of fresh starts. There's something wonderful about the nature and character of God. He judges the failure of the people in chapter seven, and he's willing to forgive that sin when it is confessed off and repented off and turned away from in chapter eight. He does not hold grudges. He is willing to forgive when we call upon him. We see something of the waywardness that he pardons. Now, what else can we see in this passage in chapter eight? skipping over a number of verses, to verse 24. It came to pass when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, and the wilderness wherein they chased them. And when they were all fallen on the edge of the sword until they were consumed, and all the Israelites returned unto Ai and smote it with the edge of the sword. So we see not only the waywardness that God pardons, the wickedness that he punishes. Notice what happened to Ai. Every single person was smoked with the edge of the sword. What a stark contrast we have here in the nature of God. His nature that we see that is ready to pardon sin where there is repentance compared and contrasted to the nature of God to punish sin where there is none, where there's no repentance. There's no contradiction here in the nature of God. If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin. But if we will not confess our sin, he is still faithful and just, but faithful and just to judge and to punish our sin. We need to learn about both of these aspects of the nature of God. The Apostle Paul speaks in the book of Romans, he says, behold, therefore, the goodness and the severity of God. The goodness and the severity willing to pardon and forgive those that confess and ready and willing to judge those who won't. The goodness and the severity. Sometimes men will preach only on the wrath of God in exclusion to his mercy. They refer to it as fire and brimstone preaching. It's as if they're ready to call down fire from heaven upon sin and sinners and pray that God would exercise his holy wrath upon those that do not know him, calling down judgment from on high. And then we have another set of preachers that know only to preach of the sweetness and the sugar and the honey and the syrup of God's love. That's all they talk about, the goodness of God and the gentleness of God. And the people never see that God is also a God of wrath who will judge sin and iniquity. And both of those approaches are terrible mistakes. We need to understand that God is neither just wrath and neither just love, that it is his nature to pardon where there is repentance and his nature to punish when we refuse the goodness and the severity. We see it exemplified for us here. The children of Israel were pardoned. The people of Ai were not. Now I know that some people think that what Joshua did to Ai was rather severe, but it wasn't Joshua that instigated this. Joshua was marching at the command of the Lord, that he was coming up against an ungodly and an unspeakably immoral people. We can't actually imagine just how wicked the Canaanite people were. What was actually happening here, God, like the great surgeon, is performing a surgery on the land. He's removing a cancerous growth from the human race. The Amalekites, who were part of the Canaanite people, delighted in oppressing those that were weaker than themselves. They engaged in wars of ambush. They attacked the rear of the train against the weak and the aged and the helpless. They would wait until their neighbours' crops were ready for harvest and then would invade his land, driving their herds before them, leaving the people weak and without food for the incoming year. They were especially cruel when they took captives at all they would hack off their limbs, gouge out their eyes. Women and children were driven ahead of them as slaves to be used. They burned cities. They destroyed objects of art and things that were sacred to the people of the land. And for hundreds of years, they had harassed and plagued the people of God. In their fights with Israel, they would mutilate the bodies of their captives. They would cut off parts of the men while they still were alive and would hurl their flesh into the sky as they jeered at Israel's God. The book of Deuteronomy tells us that they were demon worshipers, committed to abominations of all kinds, horrible occult practices. They sacrificed their children to the fire gods, such as Moloch and other false gods. These were a horrible, terrible people, and God had given them many, many years of space to repent, but no repentance was forthcoming. And we realize this then about the nature of God, that while he is quick to forgive those who call upon him and repent of their sins, when that wickedness remains unrepentant, he will punish it. And I want you to see both of those things here in Joshua chapter eight, because unless we see both God's willingness to pardon the repentant and his willingness to punish those that are unrepentant, then we don't see the whole picture of God. He delights in showing mercy. but he will by no means acquit the guilty. We see the waywardness that he pardons and the wickedness that he punishes. And then towards the end of the chapter, we see the worship that God prescribes. There in verse 30 and 31, we're told that Joshua built an altar onto the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal. As Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones over which no man hath lift up any iron. And they offered their own burnt offerings onto the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings. Once the city of Ai has been cleansed by fire, captured and claimed by Joshua and his soldiers, They then marched some 30 kilometers north to Mount Ebal near the city of Shechem, and there they erect an altar at which the people of God will worship. As they worshipped, their worship was directed in a large extent due to the victory that they had just won. They recognized that the victory belonged to the Lord. that it wasn't anything to do of human accomplishment, that the victory was given by heavenly assistance, that God had once again won the victory for his people. And they've erected this monument of stones in honor of the victory that God has given. This is actually the fourth monument that's been erected. The first was at Gilgal to commemorate their passage over Jordan. The second was in the valley of Achor, as they heaped the stones over Achan's body to cover his sin. The third set of stones was at the gate of Ai, commemorating God's faithfulness to his people. And now here at Mount Ebal, to remind them that their success was in obedience to God's word only. And we're told that Joshua built the altar with stones over which no man had left any iron, natural stones. No human workmanship was to be added to. These stones would represent a complete repudiation of any human effort or endeavor. In other words, it's a place where only the handiwork of God would be seen. This altar would be a place where the sacrifices would be made that would make them acceptable unto God and no human effort could do that. The sacrifice would be marred if there was some human involvement in it. We think of the words of the hymn by Toplady, nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. naked come to thee for dress, helpless look to thee for grace. Fall I to the fountain fly, wash me, Savior, or I die. When we look at the subject of salvation, it's not to see what man has done or what he has contributed, but what God has done for man. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he had saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. So every time when man seeks to get God in right relationship with himself, it's not on any merit of our own, it's all of mercy from God. It's not through gold, but by grace. It's not through our possessions, but by God's pardoning love. It's not by our works, it's by God's word. This altar at Ebel reminds us then of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the chief cornerstone. He's the stone upon which we build. Disavowed and rejected by the builders, but chosen by God. Joshua recognized He wants the entire nation to remember that this altar is one that God himself has appointed. Now, the altar has been built, the sacrifices are being made, the stones have been erected, and then something interesting happens. Joshua, in verse 32, wrote upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel. Then in verse 33, he splits the tribes in two, the priests, the elders, the officers, the judge, half of them over against Mount Gerizim, half of them over against Mount Ebal. Verse 34, he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings, according to all that was written in the book of the law. He read it all. Now, back in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 27 and chapter 28, Mount Ebal had been designated as the Mount of Cursings, and Mount Gerizim the Mount of Blessings. And according to those two chapters, that whenever the law of God was read, when the blessings were pronounced, the tribes that stood on Mount Gerizim would say their amen to the blessings, And when they read the curses of the law, the tribe standing on Mount Ebal would respond with their amen. So the area between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim was the place between blessings and cursings. It was a natural amphitheater. There Joshua stood reading the law clearly. pronouncing the blessings on one side saying amen, pronouncing the curses on the other side saying amen. They were admitting and acknowledging that they understood the law, its blessings and its cursings, that they accepted the responsibility of obeying it. with each amen that they uttered, they were acknowledging that they wanted to share in the conquest, but to do so, they had to submit to the law of God, to every part of it. Now, we are not saved by keeping the law. That's good news because none of us can keep the law perfectly. But the law is still the standard by which God judges everything. It's his standard for all of life. And this whole exercise was to remind them of the things that God would bless and the things that God would curse. And they were reaffirming their commitment to live by the word of God every day, to do the things that God approves of and to stay away from the things that he disapproves. Now as believers, we do not live under the curse of the law. The Lord Jesus bore the curse of the law while upon that cruel cross. However, that doesn't mean that we are exempt from keeping the law or following the demands of the law. The Lord Jesus said that he had not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. So the Lord Jesus fulfilled the ceremonial law, all of the offerings and sacrifices that pointed forward to his death. He fulfilled those things. He fulfilled the sacrificial laws. But he didn't come to destroy the moral law. It still stands. It's God's standard of righteousness. Therefore, when the Bible says, thou shalt not kill, It applies every bit as much to those of the Old Testament under the law as us in the New Testament under grace. God's word says, thou shall not commit adultery. It applies to those who've been saved as well as those who are not. And we're told not to take the name of the Lord in vain. It applies to those who've been set free from the law of sin, as well as those that are still under it. We have not been excused from the obligations of the law, only from its oppression. Blessing or cursing determined by our obedience to the law of God. Here's the lesson that I take away from that section. If we want to achieve the victory, if we want to be overcomers day by day, then we must learn to live by the word of God. If God says it, then we must do it. If God says don't do it, then we must avoid it. And if there's any doubt between the two, then leave it out until you're certain. Victory can be ours if we choose to worship God, to follow him, to obey his word. Blessings or curse, the choice is ours. We don't keep the law in order to earn anything from God. We keep the law because we love him. We want to live for him because he died for us. That's why the child of God is different than the world around. The law is our delight. It's not our means of salvation. It's our means of demonstrating our love to him. And for us, the laws of God are not a harsh set of commandments with which God seeks to spoil our fun. It's the boundaries, the standard of a life that seeks to honor God. And honoring God by keeping his commandments is the saint's way of saying that I love the Lord. If you love me, the Lord Jesus said, keep my commandments. We see in this passage then three great truths to take away with us. We see the pardon that God offers to those who were wayward, who in repentance and faith have sought forgiveness. He grants it every time. We also see his punishment of the wicked who refused to bow the knee before him. We see that there's a worship that God demands and prescribes from us an acknowledgement of the cursings and the blessings of His law and our amen to it, our desire to follow after Him. May the Lord take these few thoughts and bless them to our souls and cause us to walk in the victory that's found in Jesus Christ. And may we be obedient followers of the Lamb, not because we think that in keeping His law that salvation is to be found in it, but by keeping his law that we show our love to him who first loved us and gave his life to redeem us. May the Lord bless these thoughts to our hearts this afternoon. Amen.