2Meanwhile, Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-aven to the east of Bethel, and told them, “Go up and spy out the land.” So the men went up and spied out Ai.
3On returning to Joshua, they reported, “There is no need to send all the people; two or three thousand men are enough to go up and attack Ai. Since the people of Ai are so few, you need not wear out all our people there.”
“Israel’s success depended on their own state of being conquered by God; Achan’s rebellion showed that in that respect, they were not conquered by Him – and therefore open to defeat.” (Guzik)
Reliance: dependence, trust in.
Joshua and the Israelites didn’t put their reliance in the Lord, they instead put it into man’s. The Lord wasn’t with them because of the sin in the camp. But if they had put their reliance, dependence and trust in the Lord they would have first sought His direction. And if they sought His direction they would have found out there was a problem!
When we had decided to relocate and move we put our reliance, dependence, trust in the Lord. And when we were looking for a new home we had developed a two page list of homes to view. They were all a bust for one reason or another. Our realtor suggested another area, so off I went. The third home I looked at my heart sang and the Lord confirmed, this was it. I made an offer but it was rejected so I walked away from it. A week later my realtor called and said he believes my walking away convicted the owner back into reality. We completed the purchase and decided to sell our home of twenty nine years the following spring. We began sorting and packing and prepared the house. We figured it would take six months to sell but had a contract in 56 hours! The Lord said, move NOW! Turns our some friends from church purchased it and had been looking for a year but their realtor said their dream home didn’t exist. Amazing how the Lord works, isn’t it?
Do you place your reliance, dependence, trust in the Lord?
Blessings
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