Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What's Worth More? | Historical Books | Joshua 7:1-9

Episode Date: January 14, 2025

What do you want to do more of this year? What do you want to do less of this year? How might these changes lead to dependence on God? Tanya shares how Joshua 7:1-9 encourages us to see that Jesus is more and other things are less. Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Joshua 7:1-9

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmuth. I love the way a good question can help us get to know one another better and perhaps even get to know ourselves a little better. So here's a two-part question to spur your thinking. What do you want to do more of this year? And what do you want to do less of this year? When I asked this question to friends and family answers range from watching, more movies and working less to being less critical at work and depending less on substances

to get us through difficult situations. Also, I noticed a common theme in answers. In the more category, a lot of responses reflected a desire to spend more time on activities that actually strengthen relationships and benefit our communities. It seems like we all value unity even if we don't always make get a priority. And in the last category, people generally mentioned attitudes, habits, or possessions that impede our growth in the more category. So, for example, less scrolling, less spending, less gossiping, less judging. There was a desire to turn away from external distractions and address the deeper desires or problems that are brewing within. And what stood out to me most was the recognition that doing less isn't something we can achieve on our own.

We need each other, and most importantly, we need Jesus. We need to lean into our deeper identity in Christ to let go of what we don't want to do. As a friend put it, we need to remember that Jesus is more so that other things can be, well, less. This principle is vividly illustrated in Joshua chapter 7, where we see how alignment with God's will is essential for living a life of holiness. Maybe that word holy trips you up like it does me, but God calls you. holds us to be holy and he makes us holy. We should be growing more and more discontent with unholliness as we become more like Jesus. The story reminds us that success can actually be a threat to growing in holiness because it can make us content with the way we are. Have you heard the phrase

success breeds contentment and contentment breeds failure? Well, the narrative in Joshua chapter seven begins just after a big success, just after Joshua's army has triumphed at Jericho. Have you experienced a big success or a big victory recently? It feels really good, doesn't it? So after this happened, God instructed them to dedicate all of the city's valuable items to him and then to destroy everything else. Joshua warn the people, when you're going through the city, keep away from the devoted things so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise, you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. So these were devoted things like cattle and goods used sometimes for family

use or even for idol worship. Initially, it seemed that the Israelite army and the people obeyed. But chapter 7 opens with a turning point. It says, but the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things. For Aiken, the same thing. The same thing. son of Carmai took some of the devoted things, and the anger of the Lord burned against the people of Israel. Now, this revelation shifts the story from celebration to tension. Aiken's disobedience, though seemingly minor, carried major consequences. It wasn't just about keeping something valuable. It was direct disobedience to God. Perhaps Aiken justified his actions to himself. This one time doesn't matter. My family can use this. I shouldn't let it go to waste. I deserve this.

I can control this. Now, as readers, we have the advantage of knowing what's coming. Israel, though, well, they're unaware of Aiken's sin, and they proceed to battle against AI with overconfidence. They underestimate the enemy. They disobey God again by sending only part of their army. And the results? Well, a humiliating defeat. A.I's forces chase Israel back. killing some of their men. The unfaithfulness of one individual affects the entire community. The literary structure of this story mirrors our own lives. We often think that our hidden sins are insignificant or isolated, but they ripple outward, impacting those around us. This story from Joshua reminds us of three key truths. Number one, corporate accountability. Though Aiken alone

stole the consecrated items, all of Israel was held accountable. our actions, even in private, do affect people around us. Number two, the ripple effect of sin. Aiken's justifications of his actions didn't just harm him. It endangered his entire nation. Similarly, our choices often have consequences that are actually far beyond our ability to control. And number three, God's serious about faithfulness.

Unfaithfulness isn't just about overt action. It's about attitudes and behaviors that prioritize our desires over gods. God's command to leave the devoted things untouched wasn't arbitrary. It was meant to protect Israel's devotion and worship. Now, after the defeat, Joshua seeks God's guidance, and God reveals the root of the problem, and Aiken's sin is exposed. You'll hear more about that tomorrow. The story ends with Aiken's punishment, a sobering reminder of the seriousness of disobedience.

yet it also underscores our need for someone greater than Joshua to save us. We need Jesus. When we become aware of our own failings, what should we do? Should we justify them, minimize them, or ignore them, or should we, as God often prompts, confront them head on? Oswald Chambers wrote, The sign that God is at work in us is that he corrupts confidence in our natural virtues, because they are not promises of what we are going to be. See our natural virtues, our intellect, our humor, our kindness, our patience.

They may look impressive on the surface, but they can mask deeper struggles, hidden habits, ongoing deceptions, doubts, and failures. God already knows what he's dealing with. He cracks our confidence in outward-facing virtues, so we can see the barrier standing between us and our true identity in him. As Paul wrote in Romans 12, I appeal to you, therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God,

which is your spiritual worship. Now, when I read that or when I hear that, living sacrifice, that's active and ongoing. That's just a constant posture of me giving over things that I'm holding on to and asking God to just keep refining me and just keep refining me and just keep being with my thinking and making my thoughts more in line with his. Paul goes on, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. See, even if everyone around me is telling me that it's okay, it doesn't mean that it is. He says by testing that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable

and perfect. One of the things in my less than category this year is just being on Instagram. I don't think Instagram is bad at all, but for me, It has just kind of told me some things that I don't really need to believe all the time about things that I should have or look or wear or do. What about you? Take a moment to ask God for increased awareness of the areas in your life that need is transforming power, if you will.

Ask him for renewed hope in his power, renewed security and his love, and renewed gratitude for his grace. Thank him for not leaving you as you are, but for breaking down barriers and drawing you closer to your God-given identity. Or maybe you could even just make a simpler and say, God, more of you, less of me. Thank you. Jesus and amen.