Marcus Mecum - Joshua's Javelin
Joshua 8, let's look at verse 18 "Then the Lord said to Joshua, 'hold out toward Ai the javelin that is in your hand, for into your hand I will deliver the city'. So Joshua held out toward the city the javelin that was in his hand". Let's drop down to verse 26, "For Joshua did not draw back the hand that held out his javelin until he had destroyed all who lived in Ai". I wanna talk to you today about, "Joshua's javelin". Joshua's javelin. And really, the power of a focused life is what I wanna get to. The importance of being focused. The story that we just read is on the heels of two miraculous victories that Israel had experienced. But the story we're reading, they're facing a humiliating defeat.
So they had just watched God supernaturally part the Jordan river. They had just marched around the mighty city of Jericho, and with a great shout they watched the insurmountable walls crumble and fall. But now those victories are a distant memory. The city of Ai, with only a handful of people, the Bible says, "Struck down thousands of Israel's fighting men". The Bible says, "Israel's hearts melted in fear and became like water". So, now doubt is plaguing their mind. They've lost confidence. They're saying things like, "We should have never tried to do something greater. We should never have tried to believe we could be something more".
And Joshua, the leader of this nation is a puddle on the floor. Israel's seal team sixth leader is in the fetal position, heartbroken and his confidence is shattered. Have you ever been there? I have. Where I've watched the Jordan river part in one area of my life, almost with ease. And then another area, I've watched just the walls of something insurmountable, crumble with minimal effort. But then there's these small things, these insignificant areas that I just can't seem to get a grip on. Victory is all around, but there's an area of defeat that keeps getting the best of you, that's your Ai. It has your number, it's a small thing, but it's caused a big wound.
So, how do you get back up after a humiliating defeat? After the failure, after the loss. Maybe after the relapse, or the betrayal, or after you gave something your very best, but you came up empty. God asked Joshua, he's in this place, he's devastated. But in an insensitive way, God says, "Why are you on your face? Why are you down on the ground so broken, so shattered, stand up. If you'll stand up, I'll show you why you keep turning your back and running. If you'll stand up, I'll show you how to conquer that thing which has conquered you". And so, Joshua finds the strength to wipe his tears. He pulls himself up as a broken man. And God gives him a gift, it's a very valuable gift. Everyone in here can have this gift.
The Bible says, "You're to desire all spiritual gifts". And we think prophecy, or we think healing, or we think some supernatural, miraculous gift. But here, it's a different type of gift. But you and i, if we can find the courage to unwrap it, we can find purpose in any defeat. It's wrapped up in that pain. It's wrapped up in that defeat. It's wrapped up in that disappointment. And it's wrapped up in that discouragement. And God tells Joshua what the gift is in chapter 7 verse 13. He says, "Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow". Everybody say, "Consecrate". One more time say, "Consecrate". That's a big word. Maybe you've heard the word salvation. And a lot of people stop at salvation. They got their ticket to heaven, but they stopped. Then you've got justification, justification is "Just as I've never sinned".
So, a lot of people are saved, but they don't understand that they've been justified. Which means just as though you've never sinned. When God looks at you, he looks at you, in the exact same way he looks at Jesus. He sees you as perfect, because it's not you that presents you to God. It's Jesus that presents you to God and he's covered you just as if you've never sinned. But a lot of people tremble, coming in the confidence, into God's presence. They don't have any confidence. But what God wants from us is we're his sons and we're his daughters. Open the pantry, get in and grab some bread. Open the refrigerator, pop open a drink of water, or whatever you wanna drink.
You know, he just wants you to realize that he don't see you like you see you. He sees you as his sons and his daughters. I got sanctification. Sanctification is the process of being perfected. In other words, you don't saved and get everything right, there's some steps. The way that it's best pictured is Israel leaves Egypt. But there's the process through the wilderness that they have to walk out for 40 years, that's sanctification. It's how God is getting Egypt out of them. They're out of Egypt, but God's getting Egypt out of them, justification, sanctification. And now we have this word consecration, consecration.
What's this about? It means devotion, separation, and it means prayer and fasting for a sacred purpose. And it's a remarkable gift. It's separating your life from the distractions, for a spiritual purpose. And the Bible says that Israel understood consecration. They consecrated themselves before they crossed the Jordan river. They had consecrated themselves for seven days when they marched around the great city of Jericho and those walls came down. But this time in Ai, there was no consecration. The spies told Joshua. They didn't need to consecrate. They didn't need to go all in. They didn't need to be extreme this time because Ai wasn't a big deal, it was just a small insignificant area. Why weary the whole army over a small area so insignificant? And the result was, "They turn their backs, they ran in fear and their hearts melted like water".
So, we never outgrow our need for consecration. We never outgrow our need for devotion, for the consecrated things. And so, the Bible goes on to say that the issue was not Ai, it wasn't the greatness of Ai, it was not the strength of Ai, the issues was within Israel. The Bible says, "They had buried the devoted things, the consecrated things within Israel". You maybe remember the story, they had just conquered Jericho and God said, "Jericho's mine". It's the first, so they gave God the very, very first. But Achan went in and he took the devoted things, and he buried those devoted things. And so, he was devoted, but he was self-devoted. And his name means troubler. Because he troubled, not just his own life, not just his own family, but that trouble actually impacted the entire nation of Israel.
And so, this teaches us our greatest trouble does not lie out there somewhere, it lies within. It's right here. I don't need to worry about the trouble out there as much as I need to be worried about the trouble that my own self will, my own self-devotion. My own selfishness produces. Self-will is the mother of all sin. Being consumed with self is a recipe for defeat. And so, Joshua goes with some of the leaders, they grab a shovel, I'm painting it a little bit in detail. They dig up the devoted things that Achan had buried. So, you have to dig deep to find devotion and consecration in your life. It's spiritually back-breaking labor. But if you'll get the shovel, and if you'll start digging, and dig up those things that maybe you've buried.
Dig up that prayer life, dig up that time that you spend with God and open up his word. You gotta dig up consecration. You gotta dig up the devotion, because it's a gift and God's given it to you. But sometimes we have this way of burying it. And not only does it mean that it's prayer and fasting, but it goes one step further. And devotion means, tender-hearted, dedicated, zealous and passionate. So, it's not just that we're to dig up prayer, we're to also dig up a passion for prayer. We're not just to dig up the things that we've let go of, we're to be passionate about these things, zealous about God's word. Zealous about his house.
So, Joshua, he dug up the devoted things, he got his passion back. And then he turned and buried the troubler. So today, some remarkable gifts that God has given us had been buried. They're there, they've been given to us, God has given us access to them, but they've been buried. And so, what consecration does, is it allows you to go back and dig those things up that maybe you've let go of. And at the same time you take these other things. Because many times what's happened is we've allowed something else to take their place, and now it's troubling you. Now, your passions are troubled passions.
Now your passions are, and that's the thing about the world, is the world's gonna require just as much devotion as God does. The world's gonna require just as much passion, and just as much attention, and just as much sacrifice. But a lot of times what happens is, we allow the consecrated, devoted things to be buried. And then we allow all these other distractions in our life. And so, what Joshua does, is he digs up the devoted things and he buries the troubler. He buries the thing that's trying to rob him of giving God devotion. The next thing that happens is, God says to Joshua, "I want you to take a javelin in your hand and point it towards Ai".
I love this because, a great picture for you and I of consecration is this javelin, that Joshua has. And so, God turns the gift of consecration into a weapon of destruction. It's important that you realize that God does not want you and I to be at peace with things he's at war with. The Bible says, "For this reason, the Son of God was manifest, that he might destroy the works of the devil," not play around with him. And so, Joshua's consecration turns into Joshua's javelin. When you consecrate yourself in fasting and in prayer, it becomes a powerful weapon in your life. Again, Joshua's consecration turned into his javelin. A javelin speaks of focus, it speaks of being sharp, it speaks of being clear, it speaks of direction and focus.
And we learn that the mind can only focus on one thing at a time. The mind can't focus on multiple things. The mind in the way that it works best, the way God designed it, is to focus. And so, if I focus on self, I can't focus on God. If I focus on my weakness, I can't focus on God's greatness. And so, Joshua's javelin is learning to focus on one thing. Set your eyes on it. Put your hand to it, focus your mind on it. Learn that the bridge from intention to action is called focus. And nothing will bring focus like consecration. Nothing focuses you like prayer and fasting. You and I are a tri-union being, body, soul and spirit. It's the way that God made us, and fasting and prayer involves all three. It's not just spiritual, you feel it in your body, you feel it in your mind, you feel it in your soul.
But when you pull all three together, being disciplined and using that discipline it's like a javelin focus. What you do physically, God said, "I'll do it spiritually". Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit? "I present my body as a living sacrifice," not my spirit, my body, "As a living sacrifice, which is holy," watch this, "And acceptable". And the Bible says, "It's my reasonable service". It's not unreasonable, to give God 21 days. It's not unreasonable to say, "I give you my body, my soul and my spirit". And so, Joshua holds up that javelin, and he points it, and he focuses it.
We live in a day with more distractions than any other time in history. We all have this distraction right now with us in this room. 24/7 it's in our hand. Goes to church with us, goes to work with us, goes to bed with us, goes to the bathroom with us. This thing we call a phone can be a great distraction. What's interesting is, if I have this distraction in my hand, I can't really grab this javelin. I mean, it kinda, sometimes a little bit but, you know, if I try to, "I tried the prayer and fasting thing for about two three days, you know, I just, I don't have any time. I don't have any time to read the Bible. I don't have no time. You don't know how much time I have. You know, I don't have any time. Have any time to do anything".
It's because you can't have this in your hand, and this in your hand at the same time. You gotta set this down and pick this up. And you gotta focus it. Your brain craves distraction. Every time you pick up this phone, a hit of dopamine is sent into your body. Same thing that happens when you eat chocolate, praise God. Same thing that hits your body when you have sex, praise God. If you're married. If you're not, get a javelin focus. So it's not that we crave distraction, it's that our mind rewards us with distraction. So, the result is, we're constantly redlined, overstimulated, and we cannot focus. They say it takes eight days away from being overstimulated to rest and to come down.
So, we don't need to do more to get a javelin focus, we need to do less. And consecration disconnects us from the distractions of this world. It's not a technology problem, it's that our brains crave distractions. Maybe you just wanna turn it off for one hour a day, and put it in another room. Maybe it's that you wanna take one day a week and say, "I'm taking a sabbath from my phone". Maybe it's at a certain time at night you put it away. Or when you wake up in the morning, you make sure that it doesn't get ahold of you.
Because it's always, always calling you. Always saying, "Are you bored? Are you tired? Do you not have anything to do? Here I am, I'll tell you how to feel. I'll tell you how to think. I'll tell you to be angry. I'll tell you to be sad. I'll tell you to be fearful. I'll tell you to be worried. I'll tell you who to hate. I'll tell you, I'll tell you, I'll tell you, I'll tell you". "Ah! Why can't I focus"? The goal is to abstain for a spiritual purpose. It's about direction, it's about clarity, it's about a javelin-like focus. Focus is about saying, "No," to the distractions because I've gotta hit my target, and I'll never hit my target without focus.
Joshua's javelin accomplish three things, number one, "It inspired others to focus". The Bible says that, "Israel would get their marching orders from Joshua's javelin". So, they would know when to move, they would know which direction to go, they would know things like timing. If they're in the heat of the battle, and they're maybe being overwhelmed, and they're confused in the chaos. If they can look and find Joshua's javelin, then they would know exactly what to do.
And so, Joshua's javelin gave Israel their marching orders. If you want to regain your focus, then you have to find something to look to. And prayer and fasting, and consecration, is what you and I look to if we're in a distracting time of our life. If we've been in a distracted season. If we've allowed other things to enter our life and bury the devoted consecrated things, we have to go into this time to get refocused. And if you'll focus, it'll inspire others to focus. In acts 16, Paul and Silas are on their way to a place of prayer, and a demon-possessed girl starts to distract them. And the Bible says, "Paul turns around and he cast that demon out of her, 'cause it was just annoying them".
Just an annoying little devil. Just an annoying little thing. So, the devil will send every possible distraction he can when you get focused. When you're on your way to the place of prayer. When you're on your way to the devoted things in life. When you're on your way to consecration, he'll send everything he possibly can. But consecration shuts up the distracting voices, and gives you a javelin focus. 1 Timothy 4:13, "Focus on reading the scriptures to the church encouraging the believers". Did you see it? When you begin to get in the word, it encourages others to get in the word. My focus inspires others focus.
Number two, "Joshua's focus involved God in his area of defeat". He said, "Hold out the javelin toward Ai, point it towards your defeat". Many times, we think that's a negative thing. No, it's not negative to point. Listen, your focus at an area that you have become weakened, the Bible says, "What's negative is when you focus a log in someone else's eye, and you never deal with the spec in your own eye". It's about focus. I have to focus on the areas in my life that are failing, no matter how small or how insignificant. And the bile says, "Because Joshua grabbed that javelin and he got focused, God came into the problem, God came into the defeat, and God supernaturally delivered them".
And your focus does the same thing, it invites God in to the defeat. It invites God in to deliver you from the area that has become weakened. That's why the Bible says, "If you'll confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive it". It's not about, "Oh, I'm a sinner". No, it's just about coming to the point where you say, "I'm not right in this area. I'm missing the Mark in this area, and I gotta focus in on it". Confess that it's not right. Confess that I'm off. Confess that I'm missing it. And say, "Okay God". And when I focus on it, he's faithful and just to get involved in it and forgive me, cleanse me, strengthen me. Give me his grace so I don't keep getting stuck in the same thing for year, after year, after year.
Where do you need to see victory? Put it before you. Write it down. Give God a target, because God likes partnering with his creation. He doesn't have to, but he likes to. He use his angels. He doesn't have to use angels, but he likes partnering with his creation. He partnered with Mary to bring his son into the earth. He didn't have to, but God likes partnering with his creation. He gets glory out of partnering with you and with me. So, you focus your fast. You focus it in an area of weakness, and God gets involved.
Number three, "Joshua's focus overwhelmed the enemy's distractions". Verse 26, we read it, "Joshua did not draw back the hand that held the javelin, until," everybody say "Until... he had destroyed Ai". Most of our problems are a result of broken focus. "We just try, it didn't work. Ah, it didn't work". Because we're experts at distraction. We practice distraction 16 hours a day, seven days a week. So, we wonder why we're professionals at being distracted. It's the law of practice. Anything you practice, good or bad, you become great at it. It's something you have to get your mind to and not draw back. Because focus is the only thing you really have control over. And you'll never get focus, until you open the gift of consecration. You gotta open it up.