Joshua's Mulligan

March 9, 2014

Joshua:  Turning Obedience Into Blessing

Joshua 8:  “Joshua’s Mulligan”             NOTES NOT EDITED . . . AT LEAST NOT YET!

SIS—God’s mercy provides many “do-overs” in this life.

This week we are exploring the idea of “Holy Mulligans!”  A “mulligan” refers to a “second chance, or a do-over,” particularly in the sport of golf—if you consider golf a sport.  A mulligan in golf refers to a stroke that is replayed from the spot of the previous stroke without penalty, due to an errant shot made on the previous stroke (Wikipedia). In other words, a “second chance or a do-over.”  Competitive matches in golf strictly prohibit taking a mulligan.

A “Holy Mulligan” refers to God’s mercy providing a “second chance, or several do-overs.”  Since God is so gracious to give us second chances in life, “failure need not be fatal.”  That does not mean there are no consequences for our failure to discover and follow God’s plan for our lives.  Holy Mulligan’s only teach us that, as long as we are still on this side of the grave, we can always repent of our sins and get a second chance from God.

While studying for this sermon on recovering from failure in our lives, I came upon a heart-stirring story of a man who has received a second chance in life.  This man’s second chance did not come after a moral failure, however, but came after an act of extreme heroism.  Very few people—I’ve never heard of any—get a second chance after doing what Kyle Carpenter did.  As a 21-year-old lance corporal, he intentionally covered a grenade to save the life of his friend, Lance Cpl. Nicholas Eufrazio on Nov. 21, 2010, as the two Marines were standing guard on a rooftop in the Marjah district of Afghanistan's Helmand province. Both men survived the blast, but were badly wounded. Carpenter lost his right eye and most of his teeth, his jaw was shattered and his arm was broken in dozens of places.  For this act of heroism Carpenter, who is medically retired, received the Medal of Honor.  "I'm still here and kicking and I have all my limbs so you will never hear me complain," he said in a video interview.

As I said, Kyle Carpenter’s second chance did not follow any kind of failure, but it does remind us that as long as we are still “here and kicking” we can take a mulligan and start new and fresh in life.

After a dismal failure in the first attack of Ai (chapter 7), in which Achan as an individual and Israel as a nation felt the crushing blow of the consequences of sin, God gives Israel a “mulligan” in chapter 8.  Let’s read JOSHUA 8 together.

1.  Leave the Past IN the past (8:1a)

The Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid or discouraged.

By far, the Devil’s greatest weapon against a child of God is discouragement.  Focusing on the past will inevitably lead to discouragement.  Yesterday’s gone.  It ain’t never coming back. Wasting today trying to fix yesterday is like trying to dig a whole in a river.  Learn from your mistakes and move forward.  Dwelling on past failures will turn you into a “victim.” Dwelling on the future possibilities will make you a “victor.”  I’ll say more about that later.

I do not want to minimize the “trouble” Israel had just experienced in their failed attempt to capture Ai, and Achan’s misguided actions in touching the “devoted things” and hiding them in his tent.  These sinful actions and the failed attempt to capture Ai on Israel’s own terms had massive consequence, including the death of a whole family, and Israel was crushed by the army of Ai.  These events would naturally lead to “fear.”  Now, there is a “fear of God” that is healthy and a fear of God that is unhealthy.  A healthy fear of God recognizes Who God is:  the Holy, Omnipotent, Sovereign Creator of the Universe.  We should never become too “familiar” with God the Father to the extent that we see only His love and not His wrath.  We should fear displeasing God.  That is a healthy fear.

There is an unhealthy fear of God, also.  An unhealthy fear of God actually leads to disobedience because we become paralyzed by the possibility we will fail in our service to God.  This paralysis keeps us from obeying the clear command of God. One commentary points out that the phrase, “Do not be afraid,” occurs over seventy times in the O.T.  It occurs many times in the N.T. as well.  Most of the times “Fear not, or do not be afraid,” occurs in regard to “battle contexts,” like this one here in Joshua.  In other words, God recognizes that fear of failure leads to discouragement that leads to paralysis that leads to disobeying God’s clear commands to “go forth and subdue.”

You simply must “leave the past IN the past” or discouragement will paralyze you in the present.  As I said, you will develop a “victim mentality” and discouragement will become a prison for your soul.

Learn from the past and move forward.  I’m not suggesting you ignore your past sins.  I am suggesting you confess them and let God eliminate them so they cannot breed discouragement in your life.  The Bible says,

^{Ps. 103  12} As far as the east is from the west,
so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

The N.T. makes this clear also,

^{1Jn. 1:9}  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive  us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

There is a story that I read many years ago.  I’ve probably shared it before.  It is a true story.  Once we were in bondage Satan and sin. But Jesus set us free.

A story told by Paul Lee Tan illustrates the meaning of redemption. He said that when A.J. Gordon was pastor of a church in Boston, he met a young boy in front of the sanctuary carrying a rusty cage in which several birds fluttered nervously. Gordon inquired, "Son, where did you get those birds?" The boy replied, "I trapped them out in the field." "What are you going to do with them?" "I’m going to play with them, and then I guess 'll just feed them to an old cat we have at home." When Gordon offered to buy them, the lad exclaimed, "Mister, you don't want them, they're just little old wild birds and can't sing very well." Gordon replied, "I'll give you $2 for the cage and the birds." "Okay, it's a deal, but you're making a bad bargain."
The exchange was made and the boy went away whistling, happy with his shiny coins. Gordon walked around to the back of the church property, opened the door of the small wire coop, and let the struggling creatures soar into the blue.  The next Sunday he took the empty cage into the pulpit and used it to illustrate his sermon about Christ's coming to seek and to save the lost paying for them with His own precious blood. "That boy told me the birds were not songsters," said Gordon, "but when I released em and they winged their way heavenward, it seemed to me they were singing, Set free! Set Free! Set Free!"
You and I have been held captive to sin, but Christ has purchased our pardon and set us at liberty. When a person has this life-changing experience, he will want to sing, "Set free! Set free! Set Free!"

Discouragement is a huge, heavy chain that the Devil wraps around you.  Constantly reminding you of your sinful past is the lock the Devil uses to secure the chain.  Forgiveness is God’s key that unlocks your discouragement and removes the chains of guilt that keep you from “trying again.”  God never runs out of forgiveness.  As long as you are on this side of the grave, repentance will always bring you another mulligan.

2.  Make Changes—Don’t Make Excuses (8:1)

8:1 The Lord said to Joshua . . . Take the whole military force
with you and go attack Ai.

Contrast this strategy with the failed strategy of chapter 7:

³ After returning to Joshua they reported to him, “Don’t send all the people, but send about 2,000 or 3,000 men to attack Ai. Since the people of Ai are so few, don’t wear out all our people there.” ⁴ So about 3,000 men went up there, but they fled from the men of Ai.  ⁵ The men of Ai struck down about 36 of them and chased them from outside the gate to the quarries, striking them down on the descent. As a result, the people’s hearts melted and became like water.

So often, when we experience failure we start making excuses.  This tendency is a “genetic defect” we inherited from our first parents, Adam and Eve.  Remember what happened after God confronted Adam and Eve about their rebellious action in eating the forbidden fruit?  They both started making excuses.  Adam actually blamed God for giving him Eve and Eve blamed the snake (Gen. 312-13).  Playing the “blame game” is nothing more than an excuse to avoid taking responsibility for one’s actions.  Proverbs teaches us:

He who conceals his sins does not prosper,
but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

One of the most often recurring themes throughout the Bible is “excuse making.”  Fools make excuses, wise men make a difference.  The basic difference between a fool (KJV calls him a sluggard) is that a fool is “full of excuses.”  For example, twice in the Book of Proverbs a sluggard gives the same excuse for not working:

The slacker says, “There’s a lion outside!

I’ll be killed in the public square!”(22:13; 26:13).

Lions did apparently inhabit Palestine in the back country until the time of the Middle Ages.  The nature of this excuse is seen by all to be nonsensical.  While lions may have inhabited the countryside, they would not likely have fared well in the public square.  Even the best excuses (and this is not one of them) are simply that:  excuses.  As I said, you can either make excuses or you can make changes.  The first will lead to failure, the second will edge you closer to success.

Joshua did not make excuses—he made changes.  The second time around Joshua made significant changes. First of all, he listened to God’s Word, not man’s reports.  We do err greatly when we give more weight to the ideas of man rather than the decrees of God.  I know that it is often politically incorrect to speak God’s truth to man’s lies.  The world scoffs at the Bible teaching the world was created by God, much less does the world accept the world was created in six days.  When you throw out the truth of the first book of the Bible it erodes the foundation of every other passage in the Bible.  So, the first change you need to make is “what will be your foundation for truth?”  Is it the Word of God, or the word of men, regardless of whether the topic is gay marriage or taxes or anything else.

Second, Joshua made changes in his plans.  The first time Israel sent only a few thousand.  The second time, they adjusted their approach to conform to the Word of God and they sent “thirty thousand” (8:3).

Now, we must always “plan with an attitude of humility,” but planning is absolutely necessary to living an obedient, blessed life.  The Bible says,

^{Prov. 22:3} A shrewd person sees danger and hides himself,

but the naive keep right on going and suffer for it. (NET Bible)

God’s purposes will always trump our plans, and we should be eternally thankful that is the case.  Proverbs also teaches us:

So, the option is not to move forward with NO plan, but to move forward with a plan bathed in prayer and educated by experience with full trust that in the final analysis, God’s will always prevails.  Even a bad plan bathed in prayer and founded upon trust in God will lead to blessing in life.

Don’t make excuses for your failure—make changes in your life.

Israel also used what they had learned from their failed attempts to modify their second attempt.  There are few experiences in life that offer more fodder for success than our past failures.  Now, I said you had to leave the “past IN the past” but that does not mean you cannot, and should not learn from your mistakes. Joshua used Israel’s failure as a tool to build a more successful plan.

Think back to the failed plan in the first attempt at conquering Ai.

^7:5 The men of Ai struck down about 36 of them and chased them from outside the gate to the quarries,  striking them down on the descent.

Joshua used this experience to draw the men of Ai into a position where Israel could ambush and crush them.  As the majority of Israel’s forces lined the deep ravine lying in wait to ambush, Joshua took about the same number that had failed the first time and here’s what he did:

¹⁵ Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten back by them and fled toward the wilderness.  ¹⁶ Then all the troops of Ai were summoned to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were drawn away from the city. ¹⁷ Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel, leaving the city exposed while they pursued Israel. ¹⁸ Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Hold out the sword in your hand toward Ai, for I will hand the city over to you.” So Joshua held out his sword toward it. ¹⁹ When he held out his hand, the men in ambush rose quickly from their position. They ran, entered the city, captured it, and immediately set it on fire.

The first, failed encounter resulted in a horrible loss for Israel.  Joshua used what he learned to make changes in the battle plan that resulted in the entire ruin and plunder of Ai. 

Everyone in Ai was killed including both men and women (8:25).  This wholesale destruction has brought much criticism against the Bible by skeptics. God looks like a vengeful, merciless tyrant in these battles during the conquest of the Promised Land. This is no small problem for believers who know that God is not vengeful and is full of mercy.

I do not have time to give a thorough defense of God’s character in light of the bloody battles He Himself directed.  You must know that these battles during the conquest were specific to the time in which they happened.  God, Himself, directs these battles.  God alone determines who will live and who will die.  God does not share with us a justification for these acts beyond the fact that He, Himself, directs them.  Even if I took an hour or two to explain why God is justified in these acts, it would not likely make you anymore comfortable with the bloodshed.  Sin creates bloodshed, and only through the shedding of God’s own blood on the cross can this bloody mess of sin be rectified.  We must trust that God is just and merciful and these battles reflect His holy purposes.  A man is a fool who thinks he can sit in judgment over God.

What we need to do is learn from these battles.  Learn to leave our past IN the past and learn to make changes in not excuses for our lives.

3.  Invest Your Life in God for the Future (30-35)

Here’s a very important lesson to learn, especially for you young people.  Most of your life will be lived in the future.  Let me repeat that:  “Most of your life will be lived in the future.”  This life is to eternity what a grain of sand is all the sand on every beach throughout the entire world.  You need to learn to live for eternity, not live for the moment.  I need to repeat this again, also:  “We all need to live for eternity, not live for this moment.”  By the time you even recognize “this moment,” it is gone forever—quicker than the blink of an eye.  But, eternity never ends. 

What you did yesterday—is gone.  What you will do tomorrow—you may never have a tomorrow to do it in.  But, what you do in this life is an investment in blessings for the next life. 

One of the greatest baseball players of all time, and one of the most quoted, perhaps, is Yogi Berra.  His most often quoted aphorism is:  “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.”  Nearly everyone in America has heard that at least once.  But, perhaps the most significant quote attributed to the great catcher is this:  “I never said most of the things I said."

Well, that sort of says it all, doesn’t it.  Another great man who is quoted as saying all kinds of wise things is Albert Einstein.  He is often quoted as saying, “compound interest to be the most powerful force in the universe." A strange saying for a world-renown physicist, but, compound interest like physics has a lot to do with the power of mathematics.

Compounding interest is a incredible thing.  Here’s how it works.  If a person starts putting one quarter in a jar every day of every month beginning at age eighteen, by the time that person is 68 years old they will have a jar (or jars) with $4,500 dollars.  That’s just one quarter every day.  That’s a good sum of money.  Let’s try the same thing with “compounding interest” on that money.  Take the same quarter every day and put it into an investment at 10% interest compounded four times a year for the same fifty years and at the end your “jar” will have $124,707.50!  That’s “twenty-seven” times more money at the end using the same quarter per day—twenty-seven times!

That’s the magic and wonder of “compound interest.”  OK.  I’m not trying to become your financial advisor but I’m trying to make a point:  “invest your life with God for the future and it will pay an incredible—an eternal—dividend.  Holiness is like compound interest.  Look at how Joshua responded to the great success he and Israel experienced with the second chance God gave them:

³⁰ At that time Joshua built an altar on Mount Ebal  to the Lord, the God of Israel, ³¹ just as Moses the Lord’s servant had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the book of the law of Moses: an altar of uncut stones on which no iron tool has been used.  Then they offered burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed fellowship offerings on it.

This fulfills a commandment God made to Moses as the Israelites were ending forty years of wandering in hellish wilderness and were peering over into the Promised Land (Deu. 27:5).  Joshua remembered this commandment of the Lord and recognized that without God, our life will amount to nothing—and even less!  Joshua took time to “worship” God and to recommit all of Israel to a sacrificial service to the Creator. 

Do you want to get beyond the failures of your past?  Do you want to reap “compound blessings” throughout all eternity?  If you do, “invest your life with God!”  Nobody pays like God pays! 

Yahweh, Our God, is the Almighty God of the Mulligan.  As long as we are on this side of the grave, God offers us a “do-over, or a second chance.”  We need simply apply three simple steps to turn failure into success:  1) Keep the Past IN the Past; 2) Make Changes—Don’t Make Excuses; and most importantly, 3) Invest Your Life In God through sacrificial devotion.

We all make mistakes—usually often and sometimes really big ones.  We often swing the club of life and our ball ends up off the fare way and lost in the tall grass.  Failure, however, need not be fatal.  God will give us a mulligan, or a do-over.  But, we need to also realize that “success is never final.”  We need to live moment by moment, day by day in obedience to God, with the help of the Holy Spirit, as much as humanly possible.

You can begin again, right now.  God is waiting to hear from you.

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