Tbe Cbildren's Daily

Bible Study Guide

Blessings andCurrses
SUNDAY

hardly believe what happened. How

did they feel? Verses 5, 6.
(('-T-rhe God of Israel knocked
Joshua had forgotten something
I do*., Jericho's strong walls!" very, very important. He had forgotYou can be sure that the news ten to ask God if their plan was l/ls
spread quickly to all the cities in plan. And it wasn't! If Joshua had
Canaan. Now, zo one felt safe. But asked, God would have told him
there was one big problem. The Isra- that there was a serious problem that
elites, and even Joshua, were forget- needed to be fixed first.
God loved His people. But they
ting that it was really Godwho had
won the battle. There was no way needed to understand how importhat they could have done what God tant it was to trust Him, and to obey
exactly everything He told them to
did there for them.
Now, Joshua decided that they do. Then, He could bless them.
Satan was doing his best to spoil
would take the city ofAi next, and
he sent spies to check it out. \7hen God's wonderful plans for His
the spies came back, they told Joshua people to be safe and happy. But
that the city was so small he didn't could they follow Satan's plans and
need to send more than two or three God's plans at the same time?
\X/hat could Joshua and the
thousand soldiers to destroy it. So
that's what Joshua did. Read Joshua Israelites do now? \7e'll learn more
tomorrow.
7:3,4.
As the soldiers marched off to Ai, Thinh: Does Jesus still uant us to
no one was worried. Everyone felt talh to Him about the things ute
sure the that Israelite army would plan? If we do tltat, can ue trust
have another victory. But their Him to be uith u.s, no matter uhat
feelings soon changed. They could happens?

MONDAY
/\

i had won, and Israel had

lost.

AJoshua and the other leaders

could hardly believe what had happened. Do you remember how terrible they felt? Joshua 7:6.
Joshua even began to wonder if
the Israelites should have just stayed
on the other side of the Jordan River.
Verse 7.

miracle to help them. Besides, He

had prouen that they were to destroy
Jericho. He had even knocked the
walls down for them.
'X/hat was the real reason that
Joshua and the elders felt so sad?
Joshua truly loved Jesus with all his
heart. He wanted everyone to know
about how wonderful and powerful
God is. But he was sure that losing
the battle at Ai had spoiled that.
Now, the Canaanites would think
that God couldn't be trusted, and
that He wasn't so powerful after all.
Verses 8, 9.
Of course Jesus loved Joshua;
and He knew how Joshua and the
elders were feeling. But now, they
needed to Bet busy. There was a
serious problem that they needed
to take care of,
\What had happened? Why had
Israel lost the battle with Ai? Verses

How could Joshua think like that? 10-13.

God Himself had told them to cross Thinh: Do ue need to talh to Jesus
the river, and He had done a great about all our plans? Of course! He

a curse on themselves and on the

whole camp of Israel. Read Joshua
6:18, 19.
Achan had disobeyed. \7hen
*be gure your sin
the Israelite soldiers got back to the
camp, Achan hurried to his tent.
will find you o,)1."
"Quick! Close the tent! \7here's
Nurnbero 32223
the shovel? Hurry!" \7hen Achan
showed his family the things that
he had stolen from Jeriis interested; and we need Him to cho, they, they probably
help us all the time. Read Proaerbs had a hard time keep3:6. That's a utonderful promise, ing quiet. Gold! Silver!
isn't it?
And a beautiful dress that
had come all the way from
Babylon! The children and

MyMamoryYcrw

TUESDAY

/\ chan looked around. No one

A*rr watching! Quickly, he hid
something out of sight.
\7ho was Achan? He was an
Israelite soldier from the tribe of
\With the other soldiers, he
Judah.
had marched over the tumbled down
walls and into Jericho that day when
the wicked peopl.e there had all been
destroyed-all except Rahab and her
family.
God had told the Israelites that
Jericho was to be totally burnedthe houses, the palaces, the temples,
and all the beautiful things in them.
Euerything! The things that could
not be destroyed with fire would be
given as a special offering to God.
Anyone who gave in to the temptation to steal anything would bring

Jesus told Joshua just

what to do.
First, they were to bring the names
of all the tribes before God. God
would show them the right one.
Next, they would bring the names
of each head family in that tribe.
Again, God would show them the
right one. Then, they would bring
the names of each of the families
under the head family. God would
show them the family in which the
guilty person lived.
This way, God would give the
guilty person several chances to confess and ask for forgiveness. But if
no one confessed, God would finally
Mrs. Achan must have show them the name of the very
been delighted.
person who was guilty.
Can you imagine how anxiously
Quickly, they dug a
hole, wrapped and put the each tribe was listening? Finally, the
things in it, and probably tribe that God chose was announced.
covered it with a mat. They \Which was it? Joshua 7:16.
were richlAnd no one knew about
Achan belonged to that tribe!
their secret. Really? Read Irsalnr Next, God chose the head family.
139: 1-4.
You can be sure the whole tribe of
Think: Hou many things can lou Judah was listening. Verse 17.
thinle of that rue can learnfrom our
Achan belonged to that head
story so far? IVhat didJoshaaforget? family! Now, they were going to
Which Happiness Rules had Achan check each family. Again, God
disobeyed?
showed them the right one. rVhat
happened next? Verses 18, 19.
Achan was caught! He still wasn't
really sorry; but he had to admit
-"r*'he Israelites had lost the battle at what he had done, and that it was
.i Ai. And noq Joshua knerv why. wrong. He knew that his sin had
But how would they find out who caused the death of 36 soldiers. And
was to blame?
now, he and his family had to die,
too.
Achan's parents had not taught
I
him
to respect and obey God's Hapt
piness Rules as they should have.
Neither had Achan taught his children as he should have. How sad!
Moses had warned the children of
Israel about disobeying. \Mhat Moses

.WEDNESDAY

ffi

fi

said came true,

didnt it? Read Num-

berc32:23.
Tbinh: Are you glad that 1oar ?arents donl let you "get by" with being
naughty? Tbey truly loue you! And
u)e Are learning that our sins hurt us,
and they usually hurt other people,
too,

THURSDAY

Shechem
located in the middle
of dangerous enemies.
But Joshua reminded
them that when they
were obeying God,
they were safe. And

u.tyon.was relieved.
people were
sad about Achan and
what he did, but they
were thankful that
God could bless them
again. Now, what did

f,

I-rThe

Jesus tell them to

Joshua 8:1,2.

they were. Not

person bothered them

as they traveled there.
At Shechem, there
was a beautiful valley

do?

\What is an ambush?

between two hills.

One hill was Gerizim,
which Moses said was
to be called the mount
of blessing. The other
was Ebal, to be called

It's really just another

way ro say that they
were to plan to hide so
they could surprise the
enemy. Part of the Isra-

elite army would hide

behind the city where
no one could see them.
The rest would be with
Joshua in front of the
city.
Do you think the
people in Ai were afraid
this time? Probably not. They were
sure that they would win again.
During the night, part of the Israelite army went quietly to the place
where they were to hide. Joshua himself stayed with the rest of the army.
Early in the morning, the king ofAi
saw that the Israelites were coming
up to his city to fight again. So he
and his soldiers went rushing out
to stop them. He probably thought
they would drive the Israelites away
again. Read verses 14-17.
"\7atch me," Joshua had told the
men who were hiding. "\(/hen I stop
and point my spear toward Ai, that
will be the sign for you to run from
where you are hiding and take the
city"! At just the right moment, what
happened? Verses 18-21.

This time, the Captain of the

Lord's host, Jesus, was right there
with them. And they won the battle.
And this time, God had told them
that they could keep some of the
things that had belonged to the
people of Ai. Do you remember what
those things were? Verse 2.

one

the mount of

curses.

Six tribes stood by one

and six by the other.

After Joshua read

the blessings for obedience, the tribes on
Gerizim said Amen.
Think: Euerything uerut better tltis And after he read the curses for distime. Why?
obedience, the tribes on Ebal said
the same.
On Mount Ebal, Joshua had built
alarge altar for sacrifices to remind
Th. children of Israel had been the people that even though they
I living in tents for a long, long deserved the curses for disobeying,
time. Now, they wanted to get if they were sorry, Jesus could gladly
settled in real homes, so they were forgive them because of God's woneager to keep driving out the many derful plan to save us from Satan.
enemies that were still in the beauti- Thinh: That traly w*s rtn irnportant
ful land of Canaan. But Joshua told meeting, utasn't it? The people were
them that before fighting anymore, reminded of the wonderful blessthere was to be a very important ings God uould giue them rf they
meeting.
obeyed the Happiness Rules. They
Twice before he had died, Moses also hneu the terrible things that
had told Joshua about that special would happen if He couldn't blex
meeting he was to have with the thern because they were choosing
Israelites. He told him just what he to obey Satan. Read the beautiful
was to do and say. And everyone was
uords Moses urote in Deuteronomy
to attend. Everyone? Yes! Mothers, 30:11-20.
fathers, and children. The meeting
was to be at Shechem.
FURTHER STUDY
The people knew about Shechem.
That was where Abraham had built
Joshua 7,8; Patriarc/ts and
his first altar. It was one of the places
Prophets, pp. 493-504; The
where their forefather Jacob had
Bible Story, vol. 3, pp.92-95.
lived. How exciting!

FRIDAY

Trouble in Hilde's Barn-part 2

by Yvonne Durst

Vonnie is telling a story about her neighbor

Hilda, an old lady who lived alone on her farm.
One snowy winter morning, Vonnie felt that
she must visit Hilda at once. She found her in
the barn, all bent over, holding a wrench in
her hand.

barn. \7e scooped,

pushed, and swept
on one side; then we
moved the cattle to
the clean side, and
we scooped, and
pushed, and swept

on the other

((TJilda,

what happened?" I asked. Then I realized

I Ithat was a silly question. There was dirty very
smelly water all over the lower part of the barn. The
barn floor had fooded during the night, and Hilda was
trying to turn off the water.
The cows had a special container for water that was
something like a hrge cup attached to a pipe. \Mhen
a cow wanted a drink, it pushed its nose into the cup;
that made water run into the cup as it drank. During
the night, when one of the cows got a drink, water
somehow kept running after the cow took its nose
out of the cup. Because the water kept flowing
all niglit long, the floor was now flooded, and little
old Hilda was trying to stop the fow of water. It was
easy to see that she needed help.
"I'm so embarrassed for you to help me," Hilda
apologized. "It's going to be a big, smelly job getting all
this water out of here. Itt full of manure and chicken
droppings."
I told her not to worry, and that I was glad I could
help.
After the water was turned ofl I helped Hilda move
the cows to one side of the barn. Then, I climbed
the rickety ladder to the
top part of the barn, and
dropped bales of hay down
into a wheelbarrow. Then,
I lowered btrckets full of
grain. The cattle and the
chickens were very glad
to have their breakfast at
last.

Next, came the messy

job of scooping, pushing,

and sweeping the water

and manure out of the

side.

Finally, the whole floor was clean again. \What a job!

Back at the house, we cleaned and dried the dogs;
and then we cleaned ourselves, and put on dry clothes.
How good it felt!
As we enjoyed some delicious, hot soup, Hilda asked,
"\Vhy did you come just when you did? I had been in
the barn for only a few minutes when you got there. I
was sure that it would take all day for me to clean up
the mess."
I told her how strongly I felt that
I must go visit her. "I think your
guardian angel told my guardian angel that you needed help," I
explained, smiling.
.;..
Hilda smiled, too. "l think that
is just what happened," she agreed.
"lt helps me remember that even though
I'm an old lady who can't stand straight anymore, Jesus
loves me as much as He always has; and He is still
taking care of me."
Hilda was right. And I told her that I was very glad
that I had obeyed the message God sent to me that
morning.
I decided that it's important to always be willing to
do what Jesus wants, even if it means doing a dirty job,
like helping a dear old lady clean a flood of dirty, smelly
water out of her barn! What do you think?
.

(Concluded)

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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the NKJV