'More Grace!'
- Sep 5, 2025
- 6 min read
We’ve come to the end of the Joshua series. I do hope you’ve been encouraged.
We started in May and some of my opening comments were taken from Joshua 1:9 - "Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
Joshua 8:1 has similar comments!
You can face the biggest challenges in the world, and with God you have no reason to fear. Romans 8 tell us, "If God is for us, who can be against us? He did not spare His own son, but gave him up for us all. Will he not also along with him, graciously, give us all things.. nothing can separate you from his love."
If we read the story from Joshua 6:18 to the end of Joshua 7, you will note the word “trouble.” In Joshua 6:18 it says, make “the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it.” Trouble then overshadows Joshua 7. Joshua said in 7:25, “Why have you brought this trouble on us? The Lord will bring trouble on you today.”
It’s been said the victory at Jericho was an object lesson to the Canaanites, whereas the defeat at Ai was an object lesson to the Israelites.
Alan Redpath wrote there were “Three reasons for defeat at Ai: self-confidence, prayerlessness, and disobedience. Can it be that a Christian who has entered into a new experience of God and claimed by faith the victory of Christ has been disillusioned and defeated? And can it be that the reason for this is that he has been confident in himself, has not prayed, or has been disobedient to God?”
So sad to read that following the act of obedience by Israel, with God’s help securing victory over Jericho, that this was quickly followed by the tragedy of disobedience - enter Achan!
Joshua 7:1 - "But, the Israelites were unfaithful." The word ‘unfaithful’ means to act under cover, to deal secretly. All sin is serious but there are secret sins that are particularly offensive to God and whose consequences are very severe.
So, Joshua shows us an appropriate response to God’s wrath - repentance. He tore his clothes and fell on his face before the ark of the covenant.
He had no idea, specifically, what Israel had done, but he knew something had happened. Joshua’s response is polar opposite to that of Achan. Achan was worried about getting caught; Joshua was worried about getting right!
May God make clear where we are out of step with His will today. Then... experience His grace! Where there’s great sin, there’s always greater grace (Rom 5:20).
You may be asking, can there be life beyond this sin? Can my world be rebuilt? Do I have any value? Can I be useful again? My answer always is yes, in Christ alone.
If you are reading this and have never received Christ’s forgiveness and His love, I encourage you to do so now. Just stop and confess to Him where you are. The Bible says that, “If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
That is what grace is all about: a marvellous, forgiving, healing grace that says all things can be made new. The power to mend broken lives and set us on our feet again is found in Jesus. The cross is the only way through from sin.
D.A. Carson says, “If you want to see God’s wrath, look at the cross. If you want to see God’s love, look at the cross.”
Rather than overlooking sin, God focused His wrath for our sin on Jesus on the cross. Christ taking God’s wrath for us. The CROSS is where wrath and love come together.
There can’t be true victory again without rooting out sin!
Joshua challenges Achan in verse 19, "Tell me what you have done." The following verses record ‘Achan’s syndrome' - I saw, I coveted, I took and I hid it. This was the cause of the trouble for Achan, his family and the rest of Israel.
I had to stop for a while when reading these verses at the end of chapter 7.
I ended up asking myself, ‘What do I have that belongs to God?’ In one sense everything we have belongs to Him, but there are possibly areas of our lives, gifts, talents that have not been fully handed to Him, or more to the point, we've kept for ourself! BUT, pardon is possible today!
You are the voice of hope, The anchor of my soul.
Where there seems to be no way, You make it possible.
You are the Prince of Peace, Amidst adversity;
My lips will shout for joy;
“God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, He will save us from God’s condemnation.” (Rom 5:8-9).
Remember, “there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1). Forgiveness is complete forgiveness. As an old hymn records, "Ruined Sinners to reclaim – Hallelujah what a Saviour!"
The word "Ai" means "a heap of ruins." That is a good way to describe our flesh life. The first mention of this city is in Genesis 12:8; 13:3. Abraham pitched his tent "between Bethel and Ai." "Bethel" means, "The house of God."
I wonder how many today have pitched their life somewhere between the house of God and a heap of ruins? You can either live in a place of victory and blessing, or you can live in a place of defeat and misery.
Perhaps you are afraid, given up, and have ended up hiding the conflict in your life because you think there’s no way back!! My dear friends, there’s always ‘more grace.’
There’s still a life of fulness and meaning for you, even though you’ve spent so much time between the house of God and a heap of ruins!
Warren Wiersbe once said, "When you surrender to the Lord, no defeat is permanent and no mistake is beyond remedy. Even the 'Valley of Trouble' can become a 'door of hope.'”
Allow your relationship with the Lord to be restored today? Spread your life out before the Lord (v23). Then see hope and grace come - “Then the Lord turned from his fierce anger” (v26).
Joshua had to finally close the door to Achan’s sin so the new door of hope could be opened (ch 8). Take heart today, we have a word of promise (v1c). “I have given” was God’s promise again (see 6:2) and Joshua’s guarantee of victory, that is, as long as he obeyed the instructions of the Lord. “God never made a promise that was too good to be true,” said evangelist D. L. Moody, but every promise must be claimed by faith.
The call today is to put your hope and your trust in God, seek God, honour God, glorify God. Nothing else!
Don’t forget, Joshua 7's Valley of Trouble (Achor) is a recall of God’s judgment on sin. Yet, judgment is not the last word in this valley. Hosea 2:15 says, "And there I will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope."
Wonderfully, Hosea points to a new covenant that God will bring about. The place where Achan is buried will become a “door of hope.” How? By means of Christ redeeming God’s people from the penalty of their sin.
The Message says, “I’ll turn Heartbreak Valley into Acres of Hope.” Isn’t this a wonderful thought today?
I believe God is saying that in that place of trouble, which once represented sin, HOPE can flourish again. Father God would cause the experience of trouble to be swallowed up in hope.
Joshua 8 is God's response to Israel's abuse of grace and their subsequent repentance. What is His response? ‘More grace!’
There’s more grace and freedom to be found in Him than you ever thought possible.
James 4:6: “But he gives us more grace.”
There’s a lot of pain, but a lot more healing;
There's a lot of trouble but a lot more peace.
There's a lot of hate but a lot more loving;
There's a lot of sin but a lot more grace
Oh, outrageous grace oh outrageous grace
James MacDonald writes, “Revival always begins with God reaching down to us—not in a trickle of blessing, but in a deluge of Himself that covers our past and welcomes us to begin again.”
I do hope you’ll know God’s calling upon you to ‘begin again’ today.
There’s always ‘MORE GRACE’.
I have wrestled with things in this blog over the past 2 weeks, more so in the last. Previous sin and wonder if I need to share this with a trusted friend in Jesus, doubts about how do I know if I am doing things in my strength and not with God, can I hear God’s voice - that is something I have doubts about frequently, but He reminds me I do. Then there are times I feel joyful and then comes the feeling g of being in the desert, and that is not a good place.
Today I finish my holiday and I have been blessed to have lovely views and benches like those Harry has here. Just…