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| | From:  base301 (Original Message) | Sent: 6/17/2002 2:55 AM |
Bible Study �?Joshua 5 of 12 Studies "The power of God’s Promises" Study 5: Defeat, Confession and Victory . 1. Think of a time when you failed at something. How did you feel, and why? Success can lead to complacency. We fell confident, in control, optimistic �?then suddenly the bottom drops out of our lives. Israel had tasted success. They had entered the Promised Land, they had won an important battle, and God was obviously with them. Conquering the city Ai would be a piece of cake! But their confidence collapsed when they attacked the city and were routed. What had gone wrong? Had God failed them? Why hadn’t God kept His Promise? 2. Read Joshua 7. Imagine trudging back to camp with the defeated Israelites (vv.1-5). What would have been going through their mind? 3. What are Joshua’s concerns after this defeat (vv.6-9)? 4. How do God’s concerns differ from Joshua’s (vv.10-15)? 5. If you had been Achan, how would you have felt as your tribe, your clan, your family, and finally you yourself were presented before God (vv.14-22)? 6. Why don’t most of us experience a similar horror over the realization of our own sins? 7. Joshua urged Achan to "give glory to the Lord" by admitting his crime (v.19). How does confession glorify God? 8. Joshua stated that Achan was being stoned because he had brought disaster on the Israelites (v.25). Thirty-six Israelite warriors had already died because of Achan’s sin. How might our sins affect others? 9. Read Joshua 8: How did the second attack on Ai differ from the first (vv.1-29)? What was the Lord’s involvement in each of the two battles? 10. If you had been an Israelite, what thoughts would have come to mind each time you saw the rock piles mentioned in 7:26 and 8:29? 11. Why did Joshua build the altar on Mount Ebal (vv. 30-31)? 12. What impact would the reading of the law have had on the Israelites (vv.32-35)? 13. What reminders can help keep us from sinning? |
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| | | From: redda | Sent: 6/17/2002 6:11 AM |
| 1. Think of a time when you failed at something. How did you feel, and why? Success can lead to complacency. We fell confident, in control, optimistic �?then suddenly the bottom drops out of our lives. I want to comment on this part of the study…a time when I felt, confident, in control, which led me to complacency. All seemed right in my world, then suddenly the bottom dropped out. The storm hit my life in full force! I suddenly found myself in a battle like I had never faced before. I lost confidence in all that I had “thought�?I knew. I realized that the enemy had attacked my home and I was not ready for the battle!! I was not prayed up, studied up, and filled-up, with the word of God. I found that I was dressed in civilian (fleshly) clothes; I had laid my Armor of God, and all of my weapons aside. I (like the men in battle) had not followed the instructions of the lord. But think God! once the sin was reviled to me, it was dealt with and forgiven. Thank God the stones (which was used to stone (Achan) where replaced with the Rock (Jesus).... so what is my point?? Disobedience and Complacency can be deadly!! Complacency can be deadly!! |
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Yes Rebba, I agree. I believe all of us get comfortable in our lives and many of us don't like change unless it will be pleasing to ourselves. Then with comfort, I believe the selfishness takes a lead. I believe that is when we tend to get lax in our lives and start slowing down where God is concerned if we allow our daily activities to control us instead of us controlling them. He has done so much for us that we just tend to expect He will always be there, and He will, but we tend to stop meeting him half way because we get lazy and too comfortable. That's when the devil likes to attack. He is a backstabber, he wants to sneak up on us and get us when we are most comfortable. Ultimately we are the one who puts the limit on what God can and will do for us. God has no limit for his Blessings, only we are the ones who causes the limitations. Malachi 3:10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and PROVE ME now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and POUR YOU OUT A BLESSING, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. Deut 1:1 If you fully OBEY the Lord your God and carefully FOLLOW ALL HIS COMMANDS I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God
Deut. 28:8 The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. WOW! He not only said he would do it, but He would Command it be done! Praise the Lord...
Deut. 28:12 The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow.
When Achan coveted He basically withheld from God what was rightfully HIS, just as we many times withhold from God. As a result, not only was Achan held accountable, but his family was punished too. Many of us do it in our tithes or our worldly pleasures. We must examine ourselves and see what the one thing is that we covet and make the decision to put God first and it second. Until we do this, we will never be able to conquer or win our battles and our Blessings will be limited or as the scripture says our Blessings can become cursed. Malachi 2:2
If you do not listen, and if you do not set your heart to honor my name," says the Lord Almighty, "I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not set your heart to honor me. Therefore: Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.
Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.
Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
praise him with tambourine and dancing,
praise him with the strings and flute,
praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.
Let EVERYTHING that has breath praise the Lord |
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| | | From: etta | Sent: 6/18/2002 7:05 AM |
13. What reminders can help keep us from sinning? When there is sin in the (camp) our home, heart, or life, we are under a curse. Joshua 7:13 “There is an accursed thing in your midst, O Israel; you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you.�?/STRONG> This teaching is to remind us that when there are sins, in our life we cannot stand in the battles of life. In Lamentations 3:40-41 “Let us search out and examine our ways, and turn back to the Lord; Let us lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven.�?Let our prayer be as David’s was in (Psalms, 139:23-24) “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.�?God is faithful to forgive us!! And set us upright to do battle with the enemy of our souls. So “having done all to stand, let us stand�?(Ephesians, 6: 13) |
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| | | From: base301 | Sent: 6/18/2002 7:17 AM |
Praise God!! Shout Saints, Shout!!!! This just proves that God's power is unspeakable and FULL of Glory!! And what did God say the price (wages) of sin is?? DEATH! You see, I don't think that the Israelites gave it a second thought about their sinful ways, when they left to go to the Promised Land. I believe that all they were thinking was "Boy! God has given us a new place to live," never considering what they would have to pay for it! And there are so many people still, these days the same way! They think 'Oh, I can do this little sin once, it want hurt anything,' But no! that is not the way it works friends. God said if we want to make it to the Promise Land and live for ever , then we must obey Him and keep His commandments! And if we don't?, what will happen? He will bring you DOWN!! There is no getting around it, you will be defeated! WOW!! Now let me go on before this turns into 5 pages...the purpose of this study 5, is to make us consider the seriousness and consequences of SIN! In the Middle-Eastern culture, tearing one's clothes (v.6) was a sign of mourning or anguish. Joshua accuses the Lord of failing Israel and jeopardizing his reputation. Feeling defeated, Joshua complains to God and falls to the ground with his face scrubbing in the sand, ( I love this v.10), 'And the Lord said unto Joshua, "Geeet up! Why are you lying on the ground like this?" ( LOL, Ain't that just like a loving Father, when his son is throwing a fit?). Then the Lord silences Joshua's complaining with just three little words, "Israel has Sinned"(v.11). Plan and simple!! The sin of one man evidently resulted in the guilt of the entire nation! By confessing his crime, Achan was admitting that he had failed the Israelites, not Joshua! You see? In confession, we glorify God by acknowledging that he is the one who is correct, that he is the one who is just in making the rules, and that it is OUR duty to OBEY what HE Commands. Another reason for Achan's execution was that the Israelites regarded sin as a contagious disease. They family may have been included in the punishment because of their complicity in the crime. Certainly Achan could not have hidden the articles in the family tent without them knowing it! Now, Joshua's actions in verses 30-35 were in Obedience to the detailed commands Moses gave Israel in Deuteronomy 27-28. You may want to read these chapters for background information. Thank ya'll for listening and for the great replies!! I think Lisa is going to post to our study tomorrow . God Bless All...Betty |
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| | | From: base301 | Sent: 6/18/2002 9:10 AM |
Testing # 2, if this had been the real thing,,you would have been raptured |
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