Have you ever wrestled to make sense of something you have read in the Bible? I have.

Jesus walking on water, an axe floating on water, the sun standing still for an entire day; the Bible is filled with images that can be very difficult for people to wrap their minds around. This passage has one of those images.

You really wonder sometimes when you read through Scriptures, don’t you. I mean, why has God been so patient with us over the centuries when over and over again we disobey and thumb our noses at him. Chapter 7 of Joshua begins with a tragically familiar phrase, “But the Israelites acted unfaithfully . . .” It was a simple task they had been given. After the city was taken through a miracle of God, they were to put the treasures of the city into the ‘Lord’s House.’ It was symbolically a way of reflecting their understanding that God had been with them.

This part of the story begins with a ‘buck up’ speech from God! It does not take long for Joshua to find out the truth about what is really going on. The people of God have disobeyed the source of their life and their power. They broke their covenant with God. God has not left them – they have left God.

The tragedy of this story as it unfolds is that people closest to Joshua are just as disobedient as many of the others.

Try to find a sermon or bible study on this passage. Google it! You will find it almost impossible. Nobody wants to preach it simply because the harsh brutality of those times is reflected once again. The consequences and defeat are final. A city is destroyed and a whole people annihilated by the Israelites. Once again for some of you, this offends your modern sensibilities. But you shouldn’t be surprised. We live in brutal times.

A number of years ago there was a television show called The “A” Team. In the show there was always a moment where the characters at the end of the show would smile and say, “I love it when a plan comes together.” This is what is happening in chapter 8 of Joshua. God has told them exactly how they are to attack Ai. It would be an ambush and the people of God would win.

Yet one powerful theme is played throughout this chapter.

Think back on the times in which God has moved in your life. Those special moments in which God was specially present. A particular time challenge or need where God ‘showed up’ and there was nothing that you could do but say thank you. God brings those moments into our life as touchstones. They become desperately important when you may at other times be feeling his absence. They are like a memory to remind you that God is there.

It’s natural to hum God Save the King when Psalm 20 is read. The prayer – written by King David for King David – was offered up so often at the outset of battles that it became a national anthem. It expresses the petitions of Israel’s soldiers and citizens, who ask God to grant victory to their king.

Psalm 20 places certain demands on present-day readers. It asks us to examine, first, how we respond to crises.