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Today we're talking through the Book of Joshua chapters 7 through 9.

What's going on in these chapters, Scott?

All right.

Well, we're coming off the Battle of Jericho from chapter 6, and that was the first, you know, battle Israel experience of the promised land, though, as we saw, they didn't actually do any fighting. They just marched around the city. And the Ark of the Covenant we talked about that was carried around the city as well, was showing that, hey, God is the one who provided this victory. God is the one who caused the walls to collapse.

And as I said yesterday, this showed that the Israelites said their success on the battlefield was not due to numbers or superior fighting skills, but ultimately God himself and their fidelity to him.

Most of today's chapters are about the next battle, the battle of AI, which the Israelites do need to take up arms

for, but things go a bit differently than they do in Jericho here.

Yeah, walk us through what happens in this battle.

So after Jericho's fall, God had commanded some of Jericho's items to be set apart that is

used for his purposes. A man named Aiken, though, took some as personal

plunder, and this disobedience causes Israel to fall in their first battle with the people of AI.

And God tells Joshua this happened because Israel violated his covenants. And only after the

community stones Aiken are things made right.

And they're actually able to achieve a victory over the city, the city of AI.

So it's a similar lesson to the Battle of Jericho, only now stated very negatively

that if the Israelites are disobedience to God, they will not succeed in battle.

So you've got these two victories now,

one that Israelites fought in, one they didn't. That make the same point that God alone can give

them the victory, and that they alone, they only won't flourish in this land if they're obedience

to God. And this is further stressed by this covenant renewal ceremony you see at Mount Ebal.

And, you know, it's helpful to remember a couple of chapters in Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 11 and 27, where Moses told the Israelites that when they get into the lands, they were to gather at Mount

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