God of the Second Chance, Is Never, Needy, or Greedy, Joshua 8:2

 

Joshua 8:2

And thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didst unto Jericho and her king: only the spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves: lay thee an ambush for the city behind it.

 

Right in the middle of verse two, God says: …only the spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves…

It’s almost like an afterthought, right in the middle of His battle plan. Between, directives about what to do with the king, and how to set up an ambush; Oh, by the way, you can keep all the loot, to boot.

So, they get to keep all the stuff for themselves.

Wait. What? Wasn’t that, what got Achan in trouble? Isn’t that why God was ticked? Why He was no longer with them? Why they lost at Ai? Why Joshua and friends had tears in their eyes and dirt on their heads? Why three dozen soldiers were dead?

Yes. No. Well kind of.

God isn’t greedy or needy. He doesn’t need stuff. That’s not why the plunder at Jericho was set aside, devoted to Him.

Remember, the best commentary of the Bible, is the Bible, and context is king.

In context, Jericho is the first city conquered in the Promise Land. Thus, it represents, the firstfruit.

Speaking of firstfruit. Leviticus 23:14 tells us:

No grain was to be harvested at all until the firstfruits offering was brought to the Lord.

It’s a matter of principle, not pattern.

For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. Romans 11:16.

 

Consider the skyscraper that developed a large crack on the roof.

The building manager paced back and forth, staring at the crack, or at his watch. Finally, he snatched up his phone. “Where are you! I’ve been waiting! What! Why? Never mind. Don’t move. I’ll be right there!”

Once the huffing, puffing, red faced manager found the engineer, on the bottom floor, in the parking garage, he shouted, “What you doing down here!? To see the crack, we need to be on the roof!”

The engineer nodded, “Maybe so, but to see the solution, we need to be down here, looking at the foundation.”

If the foundation is flawed, the rest of the structure will be unstable. 

Jericho, was the precedent setting foundation for the rest of the Promise Land conquest. Thus, it needed to be solely, and holy, devoted, to the Lord. Without compromise. So, the foundation was solid, the trajectory, flawless.

A similar event happened in the New Testament (Acts 5:1-11).

The Church was in its infancy.

Ananias & Saphira sold some land, and gave money from the sale, to the Church.

That sounds nice and good, right?

It was. Until they lied about it. They said they gave all the money from the sale. However, they held back some for themselves. Which, would’ve been fine. They didn’t need to give it all. They didn’t even need to give any. The land and the money were theirs to do with, whatever they wanted.

The problem was, they tried to deceive, not just the apostles, or the Church, but the Holy Spirit.

And when they were confronted about it, they dropped over dead.

Now, obviously, not everyone who lies about how much they give the Church, drops over dead (or there'd be lots of dead folks around tax time).

This, like Jericho, was the precedent setting foundation for the Church. Thus, it needed to be without compromise. So, the foundation was solid, the trajectory, flawless.

God takes firstfruits, seriously.

This principle goes all the way back to the firstfruits in the Bible; the Garden of Eden. They could have everything, but that one. Don’t touch that one fruit on that one tree.

The Christmas story reflects the firstfruit principle when baby Jesus was taken to the temple for dedication, as required by the law of Moses regarding the firstborn. (Luke 2:23; Exodus13:2; Numbers 13:3).

In a way, you might say, children are like firstfruits. Jesus said, it’d be better to have a millstone tied around your neck and thrown into the sea, than to harm one of these little ones. Matthew 18:6.

Far too many people get all mixed up, thinking God wants their stuff. The idea comes from, greedy, needy, preachers who do, want their stuff.

But that’s not God. He wants something much, much, much, more valuable. He wants our love, our heart. That is priceless.

When He has that, from us; we have everything we need, from Him.

Jesus says it like this:

“Seek first, the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things will be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33.

 

Let’s pray,

Lord Jesus, thank You for second chances. Thank You, for this chance, right here and now, to give You our love, our heart, our life. With that, You have our trust; we rely on You alone, to provide our every need.

We love You, forever and ever, amen.  

 

This is part two of our, God of the Second Chance series, with Joshua chapter eight:

1.      God doesn’t hold a grudge

2.      God isn’t greedy or needy

Next, Lord willing we’ll conclude with:

3.      God always has a plan

Remember, we love you.

Most importantly, Jesus loves you.

How can we pray for you?

pray4measap@aol.com