71 Then the People of Israel violated the holy curse. Achan son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah, took some of the cursed things. God became angry with the People of Israel. 2 Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai (The Ruin), which is near Beth Aven just east of Bethel. He instructed them, "Go up and spy out the land." The men went up and spied out Ai. 3 They returned to Joshua and reported, "Don't bother sending a lot of people - two or three thousand men are enough to defeat Ai. Don't wear out the whole army; there aren't that many people there." 4 So three thousand men went up - and then fled in defeat before the men of Ai! 5 The men of Ai killed thirty-six - chased them from the city gate as far as The Quarries, killing them at the descent. The heart of the people sank, all spirit knocked out of them.
6 Joshua ripped his clothes and fell on his face to the ground before the Chest of God, he and the leaders throwing dirt on their heads, prostrate until evening. 7 Joshua said, "Oh, oh, oh . . . Master, God. Why did you insist on bringing this people across the Jordan? To make us victims of the Amorites? To wipe us out? Why didn't we just settle down on the east side of the Jordan? 8 Oh, Master, what can I say after this, after Israel has been run off by its enemies? 9 When the Canaanites and all the others living here get wind of this, they'll gang up on us and make short work of us - and then how will you keep up your reputation?"
10 God said to Joshua, "Get up. Why are you groveling? 11 Israel has sinned: They've broken the covenant I commanded them; they've taken forbidden plunder - stolen and then covered up the theft, squirreling it away with their own stuff. 12 The People of Israel can no longer look their enemies in the eye - they themselves are plunder. I can't continue with you if you don't rid yourselves of the cursed things. 13 "So get started. Purify the people. Tell them: Get ready for tomorrow by purifying yourselves. For this is what God, the God of Israel, says: There are cursed things in the camp. You won't be able to face your enemies until you have gotten rid of these cursed things. 14 "First thing in the morning you will be called up by tribes. The tribe God names will come up clan by clan; the clan God names will come up family by family; and the family God names will come up man by man. 15 The person found with the cursed things will be burned, he and everything he has, because he broke God's covenant and did this despicable thing in Israel."
16 Joshua was up at the crack of dawn and called Israel up tribe by tribe. The tribe of Judah was singled out. 17 Then he called up the clans and singled out the Zerahites. He called up the Zerahite families and singled out the Zabdi family. 18 He called up the family members one by one and singled out Achan son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah. 19 Joshua spoke to Achan, "My son, give glory to God, the God of Israel. Make your confession to him. Tell me what you did. Don't keep back anything from me." 20 Achan answered Joshua, "It's true. I sinned against God, the God of Israel. This is how I did it. 21 In the plunder I spotted a beautiful Shinar robe, two hundred shekels of silver, and a fifty-shekel bar of gold, and I coveted and took them. They are buried in my tent with the silver at the bottom." 22 Joshua sent off messengers. They ran to the tent. And there it was, buried in the tent with the silver at the bottom. 23 They took the stuff from the tent and brought it to Joshua and to all the People of Israel and spread it out before God. 24 Joshua took Achan son of Zerah, took the silver, the robe, the gold bar, his sons and daughters, his ox, donkey, sheep, and tent - everything connected with him. All Israel was there. They led them off to the Valley of Achor (Trouble Valley). 25 Joshua said, "Why have you troubled us? God will now trouble you. Today!" And all Israel stoned him - burned him with fire and stoned him with stones. 26 They piled a huge pile of stones over him. It's still there. Only then did God turn from his hot anger. That's how the place came to be called Trouble Valley right up to the present time.
81 God said to Joshua, "Don't be timid and don't so much as hesitate. Take all your soldiers with you and go back to Ai. I have turned the king of Ai over to you - his people, his city, and his land. 2 "Do to Ai and its king what you did to Jericho and its king. Only this time you may plunder its stuff and cattle to your heart's content. Set an ambush behind the city."
3 Joshua and all his soldiers got ready to march on Ai. Joshua chose thirty thousand men, tough, seasoned fighters, and sent them off at night 4 with these orders: "Look sharp now. Lie in ambush behind the city. Get as close as you can. Stay alert. 5 I and the troops with me will approach the city head-on. When they come out to meet us just as before, we'll turn and run. 6 They'll come after us, leaving the city. As we are off and running, they'll say, 'They're running away just like the first time.' 7 That's your signal to spring from your ambush and take the city. God, your God, will hand it to you on a platter. 8 Once you have the city, burn it down. God says it, you do it. Go to it. I've given you your orders." 9 Joshua sent them off. They set their ambush and waited between Bethel and Ai, just west of Ai. Joshua spent the night with the people. 10 Joshua was up early in the morning and mustered his army. He and the leaders of Israel led the troops to Ai. 11 The whole army, fighting men all, marched right up within sight of the city and set camp on the north side of Ai. There was a valley between them and Ai. 12 He had taken about five thousand men and put them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, west of the city. 13 They were all deployed, the main army to the north of the city and the ambush to the west. Joshua spent the night in the valley. 14 So it happened that when the king of Ai saw all this, the men of the city lost no time; they were out of there at the crack of dawn to join Israel in battle, the king and his troops, at a field en route to the Arabah. The king didn't know of the ambush set against him behind the city. 15 Joshua and all Israel let themselves be chased; they ran toward the wilderness. 16 Everybody in the city was called to the chase. They pursued Joshua and were led away from the city. 17 There wasn't a soul left in Ai or Bethel who wasn't out there chasing after Israel. The city was left empty and undefended as they were chasing Israel down. 18 Then God spoke to Joshua: "Stretch out the javelin in your hand toward Ai - I'm giving it to you." Joshua stretched out the javelin in his hand toward Ai. 19 At the signal the men in ambush sprang to their feet, ran to the city, took it, and quickly had it up in flames. 20 The men of Ai looked back and, oh! saw the city going up in smoke. They found themselves trapped with nowhere to run. 21 The army on the run toward the wilderness did an about-face - Joshua and all Israel, seeing that the ambush had taken the city, saw it going up in smoke, turned and attacked the men of Ai. 22 Then the men in the ambush poured out of the city. The men of Ai were caught in the middle with Israelites on both sides - a real massacre. And not a single survivor.
23 Except for the king of Ai; they took him alive and brought him to Joshua. 24 When it was all over, Israel had killed everyone in Ai, whether in the fields or in the wilderness where they had chased them. When the killing was complete, the Israelites returned to Ai and completed the devastation. 25 The death toll that day came to 12,000 men and women - everyone in Ai. 26 Joshua didn't lower his outstretched javelin until the sacred destruction of Ai and all its people was completed. 27 Israel did get to take the livestock and loot left in the city; God's instructions to Joshua allowed for that. 28 Joshua burned Ai to the ground. A "heap" of nothing forever, a "no-place" - go see for yourself. 29 He hanged the king of Ai from a tree. At evening, with the sun going down, Joshua ordered the corpse cut down. They dumped it at the entrance to the city and piled it high with stones - you can go see that also.
30 Then Joshua built an altar to the God of Israel on Mount Ebal. 31 He built it following the instructions of Moses the servant of God to the People of Israel and written in the Book of The Revelation of Moses, an altar of whole stones that hadn't been chiseled or shaped by an iron tool. On it they offered to God Whole-Burnt-Offerings and sacrificed Peace-Offerings. 32 He also wrote out a copy of The Revelation of Moses on the stones. He wrote it with the People of Israel looking on. 33 All Israel was there, foreigners and citizens alike, with their elders, officers, and judges, standing on opposite sides of the Chest, facing the Levitical priests who carry God's Covenant Chest. Half of the people stood with their backs to Mount Gerizim and half with their backs to Mount Ebal to bless the People of Israel, just as Moses the servant of God had instructed earlier. 34 After that, he read out everything written in The Revelation, the Blessing and the Curse, everything in the Book of The Revelation. 35 There wasn't a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua didn't read to the entire congregation - men, women, children, and foreigners who had been with them on the journey.
91 All the kings west of the Jordan in the hills and foothills and along the Mediterranean seacoast north toward Lebanon - the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, Girgashites, and Jebusites - got the news. 2 They came together in a coalition to fight against Joshua and Israel under a single command.
3 The people of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai 4 and cooked up a ruse. They posed as travelers: their donkeys loaded with patched sacks and mended wineskins, 5 threadbare sandals on their feet, tattered clothes on their bodies, nothing but dry crusts and crumbs for food. 6 They came to Joshua at Gilgal and spoke to the men of Israel, "We've come from a far-off country; make a covenant with us." 7 The men of Israel said to these Hivites, "How do we know you aren't local people? How could we then make a covenant with you?" 8 They said to Joshua, "We'll be your servants." Joshua said, "Who are you now? Where did you come from?" 9 They said, "From a far-off country, very far away. Your servants came because we'd heard such great things about God, your God - all those things he did in Egypt! 10 And the two Amorite kings across the Jordan, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan, who ruled in Ashtaroth! 11 Our leaders and everybody else in our country told us, 'Pack up some food for the road and go meet them. Tell them, We're your servants; make a covenant with us.' 12 "This bread was warm from the oven when we packed it and left to come and see you. Now look at it - crusts and crumbs. 13 And our cracked and mended wineskins, good as new when we filled them. And our clothes and sandals, in tatters from the long, hard traveling." 14 The men of Israel looked them over and accepted the evidence. But they didn't ask God about it.
15 So Joshua made peace with them and formalized it with a covenant to guarantee their lives. The leaders of the congregation swore to it. 16 And then, three days after making this covenant, they learned that they were next-door neighbors who had been living there all along! 17 The People of Israel broke camp and set out; three days later they reached their towns - Gibeon, Kephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath Jearim. 18 But the People of Israel didn't attack them; the leaders of the congregation had given their word before the God of Israel. But the congregation was up in arms over their leaders. 19 The leaders were united in their response to the congregation: "We promised them in the presence of the God of Israel. We can't lay a hand on them now. 20 But we can do this: We will let them live so we don't get blamed for breaking our promise." 21 Then the leaders continued, "We'll let them live, but they will be woodcutters and water carriers for the entire congregation." And that's what happened; the leaders' promise was kept.
22 But Joshua called the Gibeonites together and said, "Why did you lie to us, telling us, 'We live far, far away from you,' when you're our next-door neighbors? 23 For that you are cursed. From now on it's menial labor for you - woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God." 24 They answered Joshua, "We got the message loud and clear that God, your God, commanded through his servant Moses: to give you the whole country and destroy everyone living in it. We were terrified because of you; that's why we did this. 25 That's it. We're at your mercy. Whatever you decide is right for us, do it." 26 And that's what they did. Joshua delivered them from the power of the People of Israel so they didn't kill them. 27 But he made them woodcutters and water carriers for the congregation and for the Altar of God at the place God chooses. They still are.
21 Meanwhile, the congregation waiting for Zachariah was getting restless, wondering what was keeping him so long in the sanctuary. 22 When he came out and couldn't speak, they knew he had seen a vision. He continued speechless and had to use sign language with the people. 23 When the course of his priestly assignment was completed, he went back home.[ 24 It wasn't long before his wife, Elizabeth, conceived. She went off by herself for five months, relishing her pregnancy. 25 "So, this is how God acts to remedy my unfortunate condition!" she said.
26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to the Galilean village of Nazareth 27 to a virgin engaged to be married to a man descended from David. His name was Joseph, and the virgin's name, Mary. 28 Upon entering, Gabriel greeted her: Good morning! You're beautiful with God's beauty, Beautiful inside and out! God be with you. 29 She was thoroughly shaken, wondering what was behind a greeting like that. 30 But the angel assured her, "Mary, you have nothing to fear. God has a surprise for you: 31 You will become pregnant and give birth to a son and call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great, be called 'Son of the Highest.' The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David; 33 He will rule Jacob's house forever - no end, ever, to his kingdom." 34 Mary said to the angel, "But how? I've never slept with a man." 35 The angel answered, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Highest hover over you; Therefore, the child you bring to birth will be called Holy, Son of God. 36 "And did you know that your cousin Elizabeth conceived a son, old as she is? Everyone called her barren, and here she is six months' pregnant! 37 Nothing, you see, is impossible with God." 38 And Mary said, Yes, I see it all now: I'm the Lord's maid, ready to serve. Let it be with me just as you say. Then the angel left her. Blessed Among Women
(Read Luke 1:5-25)
The father and mother of John the Baptist were sinners as all are, and were justified and saved in the same way as others; but they were eminent for piety and integrity. They had no children, and it could not be expected that Elisabeth should have any in her old age. While Zacharias was burning incense in the temple, the whole multitude of the people were praying without. All the prayers we offer up to God, are acceptable and successful only by Christ's intercession in the temple of God above. We cannot expect an interest therein if we do not pray, and pray with our spirits, and are not earnest in prayer. Nor can we expect that the best of our prayers should gain acceptance, and bring an answer of peace, but through the mediation of Christ, who ever lives, making intercession. The prayers Zacharias often made, received an answer of peace. Prayers of faith are filed in heaven, and are not forgotten. Prayers made when we were young and entering into the world, may be answered when we are old and going out of the world. Mercies are doubly sweet that are given in answer to prayer. Zacharias shall have a son in his old age, who shall be instrumental in the conversion of many souls to God, and preparing them to receive the gospel of Christ. He shall go before Him with courage, zeal, holiness, and a mind dead to earthly interests and pleasures. The disobedient and rebellious would be brought back to the wisdom of their righteous forefathers, or rather, brought to attend to the wisdom of that Just One who was coming among them. Zacharias heard all that the angel said; but his unbelief spake. In striking him dumb, God dealt justly with him, because he had objected against God's word. We may admire the patience of God towards us. God dealt kindly with him, for thus he prevented his speaking any more distrustful, unbelieving words. Thus also God confirmed his faith. If by the rebukes we are under for our sin, we are brought to give the more credit to the word of God, we have no reason to complain. Even real believers are apt to dishonour God by unbelief; and their mouths are stopped in silence and confusion, when otherwise they would have been praising God with joy and gratitude. In God's gracious dealings with us we ought to observe his gracious regards to us. He has looked on us with compassion and favour, and therefore has thus dealt with us.
(Read Luke 1:26-38)
We have here an account of the mother of our Lord; though we are not to pray to her, yet we ought to praise God for her. Christ must be born miraculously. The angel's address means only, Hail, thou that art the especially chosen and favoured of the Most High, to attain the honour Jewish mothers have so long desired. This wondrous salutation and appearance troubled Mary. The angel then assured her that she had found favour with God, and would become the mother of a son whose name she should call Jesus, the Son of the Highest, one in a nature and perfection with the Lord God. JESUS! the name that refreshes the fainting spirits of humbled sinners; sweet to speak and sweet to hear, Jesus, a Saviour! We know not his riches and our own poverty, therefore we run not to him; we perceive not that we are lost and perishing, therefore a Saviour is a word of little relish. Were we convinced of the huge mass of guilt that lies upon us, and the wrath that hangs over us for it, ready to fall upon us, it would be our continual thought, Is the Saviour mine? And that we might find him so, we should trample on all that hinders our way to him. Mary's reply to the angel was the language of faith and humble admiration, and she asked no sign for the confirming her faith. Without controversy, great was the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh, 1 Timothy 3:16. Christ's human nature must be produced so, as it was fit that should be which was to be taken into union with the Divine nature. And we must, as Mary here, guide our desires by the word of God. In all conflicts, let us remember that with God nothing is impossible; and as we read and hear his promises, let us turn them into prayers, Behold the willing servant of the Lord; let it be unto me according to thy word.
