Grace for the Second Try Text: Joshua 8:1-2
Introduction: The Anatomy of Failure and the Grammar of Grace
We come now to a pivotal moment in the conquest of Canaan. Israel is smarting. They are not just smarting; they are humiliated. They have just been routed by the men of Ai, a tiny little city-state that should have been a footnote. Thirty-six men are dead, the hearts of the people have melted and become like water, and Joshua has his face in the dirt before the Ark of the Covenant. The momentum of the Jericho victory, that stunning, supernatural triumph, has evaporated. And why? Because of sin in the camp. Because Achan, one man, coveted what was devoted to the Lord and took it. His sin, though private, had devastating public consequences.
We live in an age that despises this kind of corporate responsibility. Our culture is built on the sandy foundation of radical individualism. My choices are my own, my sins are my own, and they affect no one but me. This is a damnable lie. The story of Achan and Ai is a thunderous refutation of this entire worldview. We are covenantal creatures. We are bound together. The sin of a father affects his children. The sin of a ruler affects his people. The sin of one man in the army of Israel brought defeat and shame upon the entire nation. And the judgment on Achan and his household was swift and terrible. The "troubler" of Israel was removed.
But that is the backstory. That is the necessary context for our text today. Because after the judgment, after the sin has been dealt with, what comes next? Does God say, "You failed. It's over. I'll find another people"? No. He speaks a word of pure, unadulterated grace. He comes to a fearful and dismayed Joshua, a leader who just saw his men chased down a hill like frightened goats, and He says, "Get up. We're going again." This is the gospel in the heart of the Old Testament. Our God is a God of the second chance, but it is not a second chance based on our renewed resolve or our promises to do better. It is a second chance based entirely on His sovereign grace and His unshakeable covenant promises.
The first attempt at Ai was a disaster born of presumption and hidden sin. The second attempt will be a victory born of grace and explicit obedience. And in this, we see the pattern for our own lives. We fail. We sin. We face the consequences. But for those in Christ, failure is never the final word. The final word is always grace.
The Text
Now Yahweh said to Joshua, “Do not fear or be dismayed. Take all the people of war with you and arise, go up to Ai; see, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land. So you shall do to Ai and its king just as you did to Jericho and its king; you shall take only its spoil and its cattle as plunder for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it.”
(Joshua 8:1-2 LSB)
The Divine Antidote to Fear (v. 1a)
We begin with God's direct address to His humbled servant.
"Now Yahweh said to Joshua, 'Do not fear or be dismayed.'" (Joshua 8:1a)
These are the first words God speaks after the Achan catastrophe has been dealt with. And what are they? They are words of comfort and command. "Do not fear or be dismayed." This is not a suggestion. It is an imperative. God commands our emotions. He doesn't just tell us what to do; He tells us how to be. Fear is a sin when it contradicts a direct promise from God. Joshua and the people had every natural reason to be afraid. They had just been defeated. Their confidence was shattered. But God's command is the ultimate reality, and it overrides our feelings and our circumstances.
Why should Joshua not fear? Because God is about to give him a promise. Fear and faith are antithetical. Fear looks at the size of the enemy, the sting of past defeat, and the weakness of our own resources. Faith looks at the character and the promise of God. God does not offer Joshua cheap psychological encouragement. He doesn't say, "Think positive thoughts." He gives him a rock-solid, objective word to stand on. This is crucial for us. When we are battling fear and discouragement, the solution is not to look inward for more courage. The solution is to look outward to the promises of God in His Word. Our feelings are fickle; His Word is eternal.
The command is twofold: do not fear, and do not be dismayed. Fear is the anticipation of a future evil. Dismay is the shock and confusion that comes when that evil has arrived. Israel was suffering from both. They were afraid of going back to Ai, and they were dismayed by their recent failure. God's word addresses both. Don't worry about what might happen, and don't be paralyzed by what has happened. I am with you. This is the constant refrain of God to His people throughout Scripture.
The Promise and the Plan (v. 1b-2)
God follows the command with a promise and a strategy.
"Take all the people of war with you and arise, go up to Ai; see, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land. So you shall do to Ai and its king just as you did to Jericho and its king; you shall take only its spoil and its cattle as plunder for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it." (Joshua 8:1b-2 LSB)
Notice the glorious grammar of sovereign grace. "See, I have given..." It is in the past tense. From God's perspective, the victory is already accomplished. He is not saying, "If you fight hard, you might win." He is saying, "I have already handed them over to you. Now go and take possession of what is yours." This is the essence of fighting the good fight of faith. We do not fight for victory; we fight from victory. Christ has already conquered sin, death, and the devil. He has given them into our hand. Our task is to arise, go up, and enforce the victory that He has already won.
But this victory requires obedience. God gives the strategy. This time, there will be no presumption. The first time, the spies had arrogantly said, "Do not make all the people toil up there, for they are few." They relied on their own assessment. This time, God says, "Take all the people of war." Everyone is involved. And He gives them a specific military tactic: "Set an ambush for the city behind it." God is not against using means. He is not against military strategy and human effort. The victory at Jericho was entirely supernatural to show that the battle belongs to the Lord. The victory at Ai uses clever tactics to show that we are called to be wise and obedient co-laborers with God. Faith is not passivity. Faith is active, strategic obedience to the commands of God.
Then comes a significant change in the rules of engagement. "You shall take only its spoil and its cattle as plunder for yourselves." This is a stunning reversal from the command at Jericho, where everything was devoted to destruction. Why the change? At Jericho, the firstfruits of the conquest, everything had to be given to God. It was a sign that all of Canaan belonged to Him. But now, having acknowledged His total ownership through the firstfruits offering of Jericho, God graciously provides for His people from the spoils of their enemies. This is a profound principle. When we honor God with the firstfruits of our lives, our time, our income, He then opens the windows of heaven and provides for us in abundance.
This provision of plunder is an act of grace. It is a tangible sign that the curse brought on by Achan's sin has been removed. Achan coveted the plunder that was forbidden and brought death on himself and his family. Now, the whole nation is freely given the plunder that was once forbidden, as a sign of their restoration to fellowship and favor. God is not a cosmic killjoy. He delights in blessing His obedient children.
From Defeat to Dominion
This passage is a beautiful portrait of covenantal restoration. Israel sinned grievously in the matter of Achan. They broke faith. And the consequence was defeat, death, and dismay. But the story doesn't end there. Because the covenant is not ultimately dependent on Israel's faithfulness, but on God's.
First, the sin had to be judged. It had to be exposed and purged from the community with radical severity. We cannot trifle with sin and expect God's blessing. This is a hard lesson, but a necessary one. Cheap grace that papers over unrepentant sin is no grace at all. It is a license for further failure.
Second, after the judgment, God initiates the restoration. He is the one who speaks first. He comes to His fearful people and gives them a word of command and promise. He doesn't wait for us to get our act together. He comes to us in our weakness and calls us to get up and follow Him.
Third, the restoration involves a call to obedient action. Grace is not an excuse for laziness. It is the fuel for effort. "Arise, go up to Ai." God gives the victory, but Israel must fight the battle. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone. It is a faith that works, a faith that fights, a faith that obeys the detailed instructions of our commanding officer.
The Greater Joshua
As always, we must see how this points us to our Lord Jesus, the greater Joshua. The name Joshua is the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek name Jesus. Both mean "Yahweh saves." The first Joshua led God's people into a temporary, earthly rest that was conditioned on their obedience. Our Jesus leads His people into an eternal, heavenly rest that is secured by His perfect obedience.
Like Israel, we often fail. We are confronted by our own personal "Ai," a sin or a trial that exposes our weakness and presumption. We suffer defeat, and our hearts melt within us. We fall on our faces and wonder if God has abandoned us. And in those moments, we must remember that our sin, all of it, was dealt with far more severely than Achan's was. It was placed on our substitute, Jesus Christ, at the cross. He became the "troubler" for us, so that we might be brought back into fellowship with God.
And because our sin has been judged at the cross, the Father speaks the same word to us that He spoke to Joshua. "Do not fear or be dismayed." Why? "See, I have given into your hand" your enemy. Sin, death, Satan, the world, all of it has been conquered by the resurrection of Jesus. The victory is already won. He has already secured the plunder, the spoils of His victory, which are forgiveness, righteousness, adoption, and eternal life. And He gives them freely to us.
Our task, then, is to believe the promise and obey the strategy. We are to get up from the dust of our failures and, by His grace, re-engage the battle. We are to use the means of grace He has provided, the Word, prayer, fellowship, and the sacraments, as we fight against the remnants of sin in our lives and advance the kingdom in the world. We do not fight in our own strength, but in the strength of the one who has already given us the victory. The first Joshua failed at times. The second Joshua, our Jesus, never fails. And because we are in Him, our ultimate victory is just as certain as Israel's was on that second march to Ai.