Joshua 8:1-35

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Joshua 8:1-35

“And the LORD said unto Joshua, Fear not, neither be thou dismayed: take all the people of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai: see, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land: 2 And thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didst unto Jericho and her king: only the spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves: lay thee an ambush for the city behind it. 3 So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up against Ai: and Joshua chose out thirty thousand mighty men of valour, and sent them away by night. 4 And he commanded them, saying, Behold, ye shall lie in wait against the city: go not very far from the city, but be ye ready: 5 And I, and all the people that are with me, will approach unto the city: and it shall come to pass, when they come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee before them, 6 (for they will come out after us) till we have drawn them from the city; for they will say, They flee before us, as at the first: therefore we will flee before them. 7 Then ye shall rise up from the ambush, and seize upon the city: for the LORD your God will deliver it into your hand. 8 And it shall be, when ye have taken the city, that ye shall set the city on fire: according to the commandment of the LORD shall ye do. See, I have commanded you. 9 Joshua therefore sent them forth: and they went to lie in ambush, and abode between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai: but Joshua lodged that night among the people. 10 And Joshua rose up early in the morning, and numbered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people of Ai. 11 And all the people, even the people of war that were with him, went up, and drew nigh, and came before the city, and pitched on the north side of Ai: now there was a valley between them and Ai. 12 And he took about five thousand men, and set them to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city. 13 And when they had set the people, even all the host that was on the north of the city, and their liers in wait on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley. 14 And it came to pass, when the king of Ai saw it, that they hasted and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at a time appointed, before the plain; but wist not that there were liers in ambush against him behind the city. 15 And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness. 16 And all the people that were in Ai were called together to pursue after them: and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city. 17 And there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel, that went not out after Israel: and they left the city open, and pursued after Israel. 18 And the LORD said unto Joshua, Stretch out the spear that is in thy hand toward Ai; for I will give it into thine hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear that he had in his hand toward the city. 19 And the ambush arose quickly out of their place, and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand: and they entered the city, and took it, and hasted to set the city on fire. 20 And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and, behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that way: and the people that fled to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers. 21 And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again, and slew the men of Ai. 22 And the other issued out of the city against them; so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side: and they smote them, so that they let none of them remain or escape. 23 And the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him to Joshua. 24 And it came to pass, when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness wherein they chased them, and when they were fallen on the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all the Israelites returned unto Ai, and smote it with the edge of the sword. 25 And so it was, that all that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai. 26 For Joshua drew not his hand back, wherewith he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. 27 Only the cattle and the spoil of that city Israel took for a prey unto themselves, according unto the word of the LORD which he commanded Joshua. 28 And Joshua burnt Ai, and made it an heap for ever, even a desolation unto this day. 29 And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until eventide: and as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his carcase down from the tree, and cast it at the entering of the gate of the city, and raise thereon a great heap of stones, that remaineth unto this day. 30 Then Joshua built an altar unto the LORD God of Israel in mount Ebal, 31 as Moses the servant of the LORD God commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones, over which no man hath lifted up any iron; and they offered thereon burnt offerings unto the LORD, and sacrificed peace offerings. 32 And he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel. 33 And all Israel, and their elders, and officers, and their judges, stood on this side the ark and on that side before the priests the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, as well as the stranger, as he that was born among them; half of them over against mount Gerizim, and half of them over against mount Ebal; as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel. 34 And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law. 35 There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women, and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them.”

Introduction

[audio version: https://resources.ccphilly.org/detail.asp?TopicID=&Teaching=WED619]

“Chapter 8, begins by saying “And the LORD said,” it’s a great consolation after the beginning of last week’s study that said “But,” the children of Israel starting the wrong way. Ah, we followed that last week, supernatural victory, Jericho, marching around, the walls falling down, God granting as it were the most difficult task, and yielding it to the most supernatural solution, so that the children of Israel would realize that the battle belongs to the LORD, all of it really was his. And again, telling them though, everything in Jericho, that it would be the firstfruits, it was like the tithe as it were of the land, in a sense, that everything in Jericho was devoted or under the ban, it all belonged to him, nobody was to touch it. And of course we saw the problem with Achan, how he took some of the gold and the silver and a Babylonian garment, and he hid it in his tent. Because there was sin in in the camp, things were not able to move forward. Because there was sin in the camp God’s blessing couldn’t be there, because there was sin in the camp, they were in for a rude awakening. They didn’t pray, they sent out spies, they came back to Joshua, said ‘Joshua, we don’t have to take the whole army, just set us up with three or four thousand guys, we’ll go up, take Ai, it’s a little city, no problem,’ and they fled before the men of Ai, 36 of them were slaughtered, again, the only military fatalities in the entire Book of Joshua, those 36. And there, of course, they come back, Joshua falls on his face and starts to seek the LORD, the LORD says to Joshua ‘Get up, stop praying, start moving, we got sin in the camp, here I want you to deal with it, bring the nation before me, first by tribe, the twelve tribes, and then by families, and then houses, and then by man,’ and of course it falls out that Achan, and then he finally confesses, that he had done this thing. And after he confessed it, they come down to the valley of Achor, and there him and his sons and daughters, it doesn’t mention his wife, are stoned, and then burned, and the name of the place, then, the Valley of Achor, the Valley of Trouble. I am sorry that I didn’t mention last week, because several of you asked, Deuteronomy 24, verse 16 says that a father should not suffer for the sins of his children, or children for the sins of their fathers, so as we read there that it was Achan and his children, those are adult children, not his toddlers, ah, these were older young adults, that evidently had been involved in the sin with Achan, because there’s no mention of his wife being stoned, they had been part of the process. And in ancient Israel, by the time you were 12, 13, they considered you able to reason in regards to the things of God, that’s when the Bar Mitsvah or Bat Mitsvah would take place. Evidently they were involved in the crime, they were involved in sinning, rebellion against the LORD, transgression, ah, they were stoned. We ended looking at the fact that we have a better Joshua [Yeshua haMeschiach, in Hebrew, Jesus the Messiah] than that Joshua. Joshua took him to the Valley of Achor, they were stoned with stones, they were burned then with fire, then a heap of stones was put over them. But our Joshua, Jesus, the same name [Yeshua], is the one who says to us, ‘When we sin, we stand aside, and we let them stone me in your place. You stand aside, and I will be placed as your substitute, my blood will be shed for you,’ we have a better Joshua. So we cited a verse in Hosea, and a verse from Isaiah, that says, it talks about the Valley of Achor becoming a place of blessing, and Hosea says the Valley of Achor will become a door of hope, that was through the better Joshua, certainly.

The Lesson Of Achan

As we come to the 8^th chapter, now we have Joshua, with the right attitude again, before the LORD, yes, Achan had sinned, but they had gone presumptuously, without praying, part of the lesson that Joshua as a leader learns through the book. It says “And the LORD said unto Joshua, Fear not, neither be thou dismayed:” that’s a wonderful thing to hear, because in the last chapter, they were afraid, they fell before the LORD. Isn’t it good to hear after failure, the Lord says “fear not nor be dismayed,” that’s a wonderful thing when he stoops down to tell us to lift up our heads, to seek him again. Notice he says this, “Fear not, neither be thou dismayed: take all the people of war with thee, and arise, go up to Ai: see, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his people, and his city, and his land:” (verse 1) So it’s a very interesting set of circumstances now, ‘Go up to Ai, take all the people, not three thousand, you were presumptuous, so take the entire army,’ and we’re going to see what the LORD does here, with this small city. They take the entire army, and God is going to give them this city now by ambush. He’s going to lay out a whole battle-plan, very complex, he’s going to tell them ‘You need to do this, and you need to do that.’ You’re thinking ‘This is Ai, it’s a small city, can’t we march around it twice and the walls will fall down? It’s not as big as Jericho,’ and the LORD’s going to do it a completely different way. He’s going to have them, instead of marching around the city in broad daylight, he’s going to have them go up at night, he’s going to have them go up with a battle plan to form an ambush, he’s going to do this in a completely different way. He’s going to use the entire army. It’s very interesting to see what God does in this circumstance, and no doubt as we go through this, there are certain lessons. He says in verse 2, “Thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didst unto Jericho and her king: only the spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves: lay thee an ambush for the city behind it.” Now, very interesting, he says ‘I want you to go up,’ if Achan had waited, all that he wanted, all that he laid his hand on could have been his. Here it is, if he’d just waited two or three days. If Achan hadn’t sinned, who knows whether the first advance against Ai would have been successful, if Achan hadn’t sinned, he’d still be alive, and within several days, God would be saying ‘The prey is yours, the spoil is yours, you go up now and help yourself,’ and he’d have had everything he wanted and his life. How often does God say to us, ‘Look, there are certain things that are mine, not yours, they’re devoted, they belong to me, I’ll determine what you do with them.’ Sexuality is something that belongs to the Lord, he invented it, he says ‘it’s devoted to me, this is how it’s used, it’s the context of how it’s used in, it’s used within marriage,’ God says ‘I know the purpose of it, this is what it’s for, this is how it is enjoyed, this is how it is sacred, this is where it belongs, it’s not yours it’s mine, it’s devoted to me.’ How often do people want to touch something that is devoted to the Lord. The Lord says ‘Your sobriety, that’s not yours, it’s mine, I want you to be sober, and vigilant, of a sober mind, I want you to be aware of what’s going on around you, I’m going to fill you with my Holy Spirit, your intellect, your mind, your heart should be keen, it should be functioning, it should be sensitive to the things going on around you, it should be discerning, your sobriety belongs to me, it doesn’t belong to you.’ [Comment: now Calvary Chapels teach against any drinking of alcohol, but their pastors know that the Bible allows drinking of alcohol in extreme moderation, which if one adheres to, does not go against what he just said here.] And there are just certain things in our lives where the Lord says ‘Those are mine.’ Look, it’s so important, as we raise our children, they aren’t ours. I hear people say ‘These are mine,’ (sometimes you feel, ‘I’m glad, too…) but they’re not, they’re on loan, and one day we’re going to stand before him and give an account for them, he loaned them to us, they’re devoted, there’s a rule-book on how we’re to raise them and nurture them and what the standards are supposed to be, and it doesn’t matter when they say ‘Well everybody else is doing it,’ it doesn’t matter, because everybody else isn’t going to heaven when they die, and everybody else don’t have this Book, and everybody else ain’t entrusted to me. One day I’m going to stand before God, and he’s going to ask me about the stewardship that I exercised in your life. So there are certain things, look, they’re his, there’s a way that he wants them to function, if we do it the way he says, we’re blessed. If Achan had listened to that, in two or three days, he would have been alive, his children would have been alive, and everything he wanted would have been in his hands. God says ‘In this battle now, you take the prey, you take the spoils, it all belongs to you.’ It’s just sometimes we’re desperate, aren’t we? I watch sometimes, single people in our church, they’re hunting, not all of them, some of them. But some of them have a license, you know, out for buck, you know, ‘I want a six-pointer, doesn’t matter whether I’m using a bow or buckshot, I’m gonna get me a man, you know. And of course, there’s only wierdo’s in the church, so I have to go out and get involved with an almost-Christian man, so then I can finish evangelizing him as we date, and then he’ll be wonderful in the church [been there, done that, let me tell you it doesn’t end well], I have this whole plan.’ And God’s saying ‘No, that’s not the way it happens,’ ‘But God, this is the way I’m going to do this.’ Believe me, you’re going to be talking to God after you get married too, about your husband. Even if he’s a Christian husband, you talk to God before you are married, but after you’re married you’re still talking to God about the man you married, even though he’s a believer, so do it the right way. Don’t laugh ladies, because husbands are talking to God about you, too. I talk to God about Kathy sometimes, ‘Lord, she’s asking this question, and I want to give the right answer, Lord, please, I really do, I’ve got the code almost broken, and I know a right answer here is going to go a long way…if I give the wrong answer, for days it’s going to be a certain situation, and I don’t want to give the wrong answer, I want to give the right answer Lord, will you please help me…’ So, do it his way, do it his way. Because anything he gives to us ends up to be a blessing, we don’t regret it. We do it his way. He says ‘When you go up this time to this city, everything there is going to belong to you, all of the spoil will be yours.’ They don’t have to take one step beyond God’s will now, to enjoy the prey, the spoil of battle. Look, God’s not gonna rip us off. For you and I as New Testament believers, Paul gives us the logic of the cross, ‘How will he, who withheld not his only Son, how shall he not also give us all things freely?’ The logic of the cross says, if God has given his best for us already, he’s not going to gyp us in regards to a job or a husband or a mortgage or a whatever, if God has given us his best, which was his Son, and did not withhold him, because he loved us, and I can’t imagine the sacrifice of that, I can’t imagine what that was for a Father to do that, and he could have stopped the process anywhere along the line, because he was sovereign and almighty, and he watched it go forward, beating by beating, step by step, nail by nail, thorn by thorn, and remained silent, and restrained himself because he loved us. And if you apply that logic, he’s not going to rip us off, he’s not gonna rip us off. And in the end, he’s got the best for us. I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, and he died twice before, he’s a funny guy, so when you talk to him, and you say ‘What’s the worst that can happen?’ Well people say ‘The worst that could happen is you could die.’ He says, ‘No the worst that could happen is you could live, trust me, I’ve been there twice already,’ and he was talking to me the other day, he was talking to me about Mary Barry, and he said ‘Joe, it’s just not fair,’ because his wife had just died, ‘I’m going to ask the Lord,’ and I said, ‘Steven, when you get to heaven you’re going to know everything,’ he said, ‘That’s right, I’ve been there twice,’ and he said, ‘Joe, it’s just the light, and it was just a tremendous peace, and his voice, and he just,’ I could tell, he was overwhelmed by emotion, you know, he’s had a heart transplant, been there twice, ‘That’s right, I forgot, I’ve been there twice.’ How can you forget that? And he’s saved the best for last, when we have communion here and we enjoy ourselves, we ain’t seen nothing yet. What will it be like to stand around his throne with Spurgeon and Whitfield and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and an innumerable company of angels and multitudes and multitudes, and Robie, and Celeste and my dad and our loved ones, and what will it be like to be there, in that incredible reunion? he’s saved the best for last. Whatever joy we have as we worship together, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Just wait. You know, it’s like the Queen of Sheba said to Solomon, ‘The half hath not been told me,’ well the one millionth hath not been told us. Wait till we see. So, God would never rip us off on anything. Sometimes we want to step across those lines. Now when something’s devoted, when he says ‘This is mine, this is how I want this to work, this is the context that it works in, this is why I created it, this is why I invented it, this is what I want you to do with it, this is how I want you to trust me,’ we can trust him, we can trust him. And Achan, it doesn’t say Achan was lost, he just took the hard way around the barn, you know. [Comment: Calvary Chapels, like most Sunday-observing Christian denominations, believe that if you die without accepting Jesus Christ into your life, you go to ever-burning hell, which is a doctrine coming out of Catholicism, most definitely not a good source for accurate Biblical doctrinal teachings. As seen by Pastor Joe’s comment, they also sort of believe that those ancient Israelites had salvation, i.e. the Holy Spirit in them, they not wanting to believe everyone in the Old Testament period of history before the time of Christ is in some kind of ever-burning hell. But Moses clearly had shown in Numbers 11 that all the Israelites didn’t have God’s Holy Spirit in them, and Moses as recorded in Numbers 11 had told Joshua that he wished all of Israel had God’s Spirit, which they of course didn’t (as seen by Moses’ remarks to Joshua). The question of what happens to the “unsaved dead” for most Christian denominations is an unresolved mystery. There are various beliefs held by differing denominations. This link explores some of those beliefs, see: https://unityinchrist.com/plaintruth/battle.htm] If he [Achan] had just waited.

The LORD Is Going To Take Israel’s Failure And Turn It Into Victory

Now, God says ‘All of the spoils are yours.’ “So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up against Ai: and Joshua chose out thirty thousand mighty men of valour, and sent them away by night.” (verse 3) that’s different than 3,000, isn’t it. Now it’s 15 miles from Gilgal to Ai, that’s a long hike at night, but these are mighty men of valour, and 30,000 of them. “And he commanded them, saying, Behold, ye shall lie in wait against the city, even behind the city: go not very far from the city, but be ye all ready:” (verse 4) So they’re going to go up and around the city to the western side, “go not very far from the city, but be ye all ready.” Though Ai is a less formidable task than Jericho, there’s much more preparation here. ‘I want you to go, this is what I want you to do,’ “And I, and all the people that are with me, will approach unto the city: and it shall come to pass, as at the first, that we will flee before them, (for they will come out after us) till we have drawn them from the city; for they will say, They flee before us, as at the first: therefore we will flee before them. Then ye shall rise up from the ambush, and seize upon the city: for the LORD your God will deliver it into your hand. And it shall be, when ye have taken the city, that ye shall set the city on fire: according to the commandment of the LORD shall ye do. See, I have commanded you.” (verses 5-8) So, very interesting process, God is saying, ‘Look, you went up there before, when you shouldn’t have gone up, and it was a train-wreck, it all happened the wrong way. But what I’m gonna do now, is I’m going to use your failure.’ You see, that’s what redemption is, isn’t it. You know, our Lord is a redeemer, he’s a reconciler, he’s a restorer, he specializes in it. He’s going to take their failure, and he’s going to use it now, and turn it into victory. Joshua says ‘I want you to go up like you did before, I want you 30,000 guys to go hide behind the city, I’m going to come up in front of it like the same way we did before, and when they see us, they’re going to think ‘We’re going to go out and do the same thing to them we did to them before,’ and when we start to run, and they follow us away from the city, then you guys get in the city, take the city, set it on fire.’ Isn’t that interesting? As at the first, how gracious God is. What if they hadn’t failed? What would the battle plan be then? God is taking their failure, he’s redeeming it, he’s going to use it. Look, you know no one has ever loved us the way he loves us, so we all struggle. We get paralyzed by discouragement, when we’ve failed, we’ve done some…and particularly as Christians, when we fail or we sin, we feel terrible because we know we’ve sinned against Light, that we’ve known better. Then sometimes what happens is, through discouragement and condemnation, there’s never any more progress, and that’s a shame, that’s a shame. And there’s something here for us to learn. God will take our failures, and he’ll use them, if we’ll be obedient, if we’ll rededicate ourselves to him. So sometimes we have a discouragement from failure, and sometimes it’s the fear of the future, ‘Should I do this again? I tried it before.’ Listen, it’s very interesting, God says clearly ‘This is what I want you to do, and I want you to go up in front of that city, as you did the first time,’ only this time there’s no sin in the camp. This time they’ve sought the LORD, this time they’ve heard his voice, this time it’s under his instruction, ‘and I want you to go up there, and they’re going to come out against you like they did before.’ Again, I don’t know what the plan would have been if they hadn’t failed. ‘And when they come out against you, then the 30,000 guys that are behind, you come out, you come into the city and set it on fire.’ Look, I think of Abraham, turning away from the drought and going down to Egypt, shouldn’t have gone there, it was a failure. But it says when they returned, him and Lot were overloaded with gold and silver. I’d like to see what that feels like just for one day. Now Abraham, it never made a difference to him because he was always the man of the tent and the altar, he never built a mansion, overloaded. And God used that to separate, God took his failure and used it to separate him from Lot, and start a remarkable set of circumstances. God used the failure of Joseph’s older brothers, as they put him in the pit, and he turned it around and preserved the nation and preserved the whole Middle Eastern world, because God was able to use their failure the Messiah came into the world, and here we are this evening. God used the failure of Samson when he repented before the LORD, and he used his blindness, his hair began to grow again, and they mocked him, they weren’t afraid of him, and he said to the boy ‘Put my hands between the pillars, let me feel them,’ he used his failure. And that’s who we serve, we serve this remarkable redeemer, that can work redemption in our families, in our shortcomings. He takes this situation, and he says ‘This is what I want you to do, and then you come and you burn the city, as I have commanded.’ You know, it’s a much more complex plan than Jericho, walk around, the walls will fall down, it’s very interesting that God would decide to do something else here. You know, I just read today, Wiersby said, Henry Ford, who started Ford Motor Company, said “A mistake is an opportunity to begin again, only more intelligently.” I wish he were around for the bailout now, watching on TV, because he’d say ‘No, you don’t have to bail us out, a mistake is an opportunity to begin again, only more intelligently.’ Ah, he’d be excited by this mistake, this is a whopper, so that was his perspective. [this must be around the time of the real estate blowout that Bush-2 brought about in 2008, and then in 2009 Barak Obama was trying to bail us out of with a stimulus package, which kind of worked, looking back. Now as a result of the corona virus pandemic and severe economic recession due to it, President Biden has passed another whopper of a stimulus package. They both kind of worked, but put the United States in serious debt, we’ll see where that takes us.]

Layout Of The Battle Plan Against Ai

Verse 9 says, “Joshua therefore sent them forth: and they went to lie in ambush, and abode between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai: but Joshua lodged that night among the people.” Good commander, staying with his troops. “And Joshua rose up early in the morning, and numbered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people of Ai. And all of the people, even the people of war that were with him, went up, and drew nigh, and came before the city, and pitched on the north side of Ai: now there was a valley between them and Ai. And he took about five thousand men, and set them to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city. And when they had set the people, even all the host that was on the north of the city, and their liers in wait on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley.” (verses 9-13) So, a remarkable plan, you had Bethel on one side, Joshua wants to make sure that while they’re undertaking the siege and the battle of Ai, that those of Bethel don’t come out and fight them, so he hides 5,000 men on that side, he puts 30,000 men behind Ai on the west, on the higher ground, behind the rocks and all, and then he waits till night, and in the night he moves down into the valley, because there is a valley between where he is and the front gate of Ai, and he moves within view. A very remarkable set of circumstances. You know, I remember Arnold Schwarzkopf in the Persian Gulf 1 War, had this camouflaged Bible he kept right by his nightstand on the field of battle, and somebody asked him about it once, and he said “Some of the greatest battle plans that we have are written in the Bible.” Some of the greatest commanders, some of the greatest generals, some of the greatest battle plans undertaken, he said, are in this book. When we were at the old building, there was this interesting man that came for awhile, his name was Marty, so he said, I don’t know if that was really his name. We have interesting people that go through here (all kinds of interesting people). This guy was one of ten men that the government brought out of retirement to put together scenarios, computer scenarios of World War III, he was a computer genius, and he hung out with an interesting group of guys and was always in the war room, and he told me they had taken all of the battles described in the Bible, all of them, and fed them into the computer, because they felt that as World War III began to precipitate, that the epicenter of it might be the Middle East, because of the way things are going. Isn’t that interesting? It’s just a little bit of free information to cheer you up there. Joshua sets this remarkable battle plan into action, as God had given him instruction.

The Battle Of Ai

Verse 14 says “It came to pass, when the king of Ai saw it, that they hasted and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at a time appointed, before the plain; but he wist [knew] not that there were liers in ambush against him behind the city. And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness. And all the people that were in Ai were called together to pursue after them: and they pursued after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.” (verses 14-16) and notice here in verse 17, “There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel, that went not out after Israel: and they left the city open, and pursued after Israel.” just verse 17 tells us that, about Bethel, evidently the 5,000 that were near Bethel hid themselves well enough, that when the men came out of Bethel to pursue after Joshua, they also, it seems, must have held their place. “There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel, that went not out after Israel: and they left the city open, and pursued after Israel. And the LORD said unto Joshua, Stretch out the spear that is in thy hand toward Ai; for I will give it into thine hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear that he had in his hand toward the city. And the ambush arose quickly out of their place, and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand: and they entered into the city, and took it, and hasted and set the city on fire.” (verses 17-19) Now, it sounds like an interesting and familiar picture, doesn’t it? Joshua is holding up a spear, that must have been a signal, or he must have told them “I’ll give you a signal.” He holds up the spear, as he holds up the spear, God gives them victory in the city. And of course it’s a picture of Exodus chapter 17, when Israel had gone to battle against Amalek, and Moses stood on top of the mountain, the hill, and God told him to hold up his staff, and it says as long as he held up his staff, Joshua was the commander in the chief of the army down in the valley fighting Amalek, as long as his staff was held up, they had victory and they pushed Amalek back. As Moses’ hands were tired and his arm was let down, then Amalek would begin to get the victory, so Aaron and Hur went up and they held up Moses’ arms all day, and there was a great victory. Joshua, of course, not knowing at that point he was in battle 101, it was a mandatory course, it was not an elective, that he was being prepared and trained in ignorance, as most of us are. Sometimes, you know, we determine to do something in regards to learning and sharpening our sword, and preparing ourselves, and we should do that, to study, to show ourselves approved, a workman of God, a workwoman of God, that we need not be ashamed. But the truth is, there are things that happen in our lives, as we’re going through them, we are unaware to what degree God is going to take that, and use it at some point in the future for some tremendous thing. And here is Joshua, he must have thought ‘I know this scene, get two guys over to help me, I remember how this goes,’ I’m sure he had some Aaron and Hur with them, and as he held up that spear towards Ai, the troops began to flood out of their positions of ambush, and they came and they set the city on fire. I’m assuming they did the same to Bethel. “And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and, behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that way: and the people that fled to the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers.” (verse 20) So what happens now, as they look back, they realize they’re in trouble, the city’s burning, and as the 30,000 burn the city, then they begin to advance on the rear of the army from Ai, and Joshua and his troops turn around and come back, and they get them in the middle, and they’re caught there, and it’s not within them to run, they have no power, they’re just disheartened, they have no way to turn. “And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again, and slew the men of Ai. And the other issued out of the city against them; so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side: and they smote them, so that they let none of them remain or escape.” (verses 21-22) those who had burned the city now are coming from behind, “so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side: and they smote them, so that they let none of them remain or escape. And the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him to Joshua. And it came to pass, when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness wherein they chased them, and when they were fallen on the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, that all the Israelites returned to Ai, and smote it with the edge of the sword. And so it was, that all that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai.” (verses 22-26) Now look, this never ever, and it sounds difficult, it’s never the slaughter of innocent individuals, it is God using the nation of Israel as his rod of judgment against a wicked and evil society. You have to understand, when you read the Book of Revelation, when you finally come to chapter 16, and you have the battle of Armageddon, you have the bowls, the vials of God’s wrath being poured out, the angels and saints are saying ‘thou art just, O Lord, in what you’re doing. They shed the blood of the saints of those you sent unto them, now you have given them blood to drink, they wanted blood, now you’re giving them blood.’ You know, it seems so difficult, but God will judge again, not by the calendar, he measures time morally, and he said to Abraham in Genesis 15:16 ‘The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet come a full.’ God waited over 400 years before he brought this judgment. This people refused and refused and refused. A prostitute on the wall turned and was saved, and her family, God’s grace was there. But they rebelled, and they refused, and again, you read about some of the practices and habits of these people, they were a wicked and evil society, and God in his sovereignty he uses the children of Israel as his rod of judgment against them. [Comment: And again, the Body of Christ in general is not really sure about the fate of “the unsaved dead.” There is room, looking at certain doctrinal interpretations for Ezekiel 37:1-14 and Revelation 20:11-13 coupled together, when interpreted literally and not figuratively, that “the unsaved dead” will have their chance for salvation. Again, beliefs in this area are secondary to the Gospel of Salvation. For some of those interpretations, see https://unityinchrist.com/plaintruth/battle.htm] “For Joshua” verse 26, “drew not his hand back, wherewith he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.” so he held it up a long time, that spear. “Only the cattle and the spoil of that city Israel took for a prey unto themselves, according unto the word of the LORD which he commanded Joshua. And Joshua burnt Ai, and made it an heap for ever; even a desolation unto this day.” (verses 26-28) By the way, as they excavate in Israel, today, this is one of the sites that still kind of evades them, that they’re having trouble finding and identifying. Ai was so completely destroyed, you know, they surmise on a site or two, but there is no certainty even today in their excavations, Ai was so completely destroyed. And it says in verse 29, “And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until eventide: and as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his carcase down from the tree, and cast it at the entering of the gate of the city, and raise thereon a great heap of stones, that remaineth unto this day.” Deuteronomy gave them instruction in regard to not let it go on longer than that. Very interesting, the king, finally, of Ai, the other throne that had been exalted against the One Throne, ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before me.’ We need to make sure in our defeats and our victories, you know, Achan was defeated because there was some other throne that he honoured more than the throne of Jehovah God, there was some other king, and it was greed no doubt in his own mind. That was a lordship problem as it were, so often our problems are lordship problems. When we want Jesus to be fire insurance, we don’t want to go to hell, but sometimes we don’t really want him to be Lord, all of us in this room. Sometimes there, those circumstances arise, where emotion or desire, anger, different things, and those are powerful things, but when victory finally comes, when we come back to our senses, when we realize if we do this his way it’s so much different. And he finally says, if you take that other throne, you take that other king, you destroy it, you destroy it, so important. And I imagine as they pile up those stones on the king of Ai and the city behind him is smoldering and broken down, the blessing of God must be a great sense to the armies of Israel again, they must realize ‘We’re back in his favour again,’ and in some ways there was a wonderful thing about all this, no doubt.

Israel Lives Between Two Mountains--The Mount Of Blessings And The Mount Of Cursings

Now look, verse 30 is an interesting verse. At the end of all of this victory, these things, and it seems again like a strange military move, it says “Then Joshua built and altar unto the LORD God of Israel in mount Ebal,” (verse 30) So evidently he takes the army, the children of Israel, he makes a 30 mile trek now, from Ai to Shechem, and he’s there where Abraham first came into the land, he’s there between mount Gerizim and mount Ebal. It’s a highland there, it’s beautiful, I’ve been there. Mount Gerizim is green, it’s a beautiful mountain, mount Ebal is a barren, rocky mountain, it’s interesting to see. Now Ebal is the place of cursing, mount Gerizim is the place of blessing. And if you remember, in Deuteronomy 27, Moses said to the children of Israel, ‘When you come into the land, I want you to go to Shechem, I want you to go to this valley, and I want you to put certain of the tribes on mount Gerizim, those basically of Racial and Leah, except Benjamin, and one of the other ones, there’s 12 of them, and then on mount Ebal, the mount of curses, those were all the children of Bilhah and Zilpha, except Reuben and one of the other ones there, ‘and I want you to stand there, and I want you to pronounce the blessings of God on mount Gerizim, and as you do that, all of those that stand there will scream “Amen!”, yes, that’s the way it is, that’s the way it should be. And then on the other mountain I want you to pronounce all of the curses, and as you do that, all of the tribes that are there will say “Amen!” that’s right, if we do this, turn away, if we do these things. I want you to understand, as you come into the land, I want you to understand,’ I want YOU to understand, and God wants me to understand, that if we we’re to enter into the blessings that he has for us, if we we’re to enter into his blessing, if we would walk with his blessing, it HAS TO BE because we agree with him relative to his Word, to his Law. Not that we’re under the Law, that that is the point here. [Law & Grace is a tough subject to understand for the New Testament believer, there is a sort of tension between Law & Grace, and the believer’s responsibility to obey the Law, and God’s grace which he extends to us, which was not really extended to the Old Testament Israelite. For more on this subject, see https://unityinchrist.com/whatisgrace/whatisgraceintro.htm] But that was the point here, it was the Word of God. And what he says, ‘even when you get in the land, it will be this simple, these are the things that surround my blessing, and there’s simple instruction from my Word, and if you do those things, the blessing of God will be on your life. If you turn away in rebellion and sin,’ we’re thankful in the New Testament that God chastens the son that he loves, and no chastening is pleasant, but it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. If we’re not chastened, it’s because we don’t belong to him. I hope you’ve noticed since you got saved, you know if you’re God’s kid you can’t get away anything anymore. Sometimes it’s a bummer, isn’t it? But it’s always a good thing in the final analysis. Before you were saved, you would do something, and you’d just get away with it, just get away with it. You get saved, you can’t get away with anything anymore. Things change, all the rules change, one battle ends, and a new war begins when you get saved. It’s just crazy. And he says here, ‘When you go into the land, I want you to understand, it’s this simple, there’s this valley between these two mountains, one of them relative to blessings, one of them relative to cursings, I want the whole nation to hear it, I want it to reverberate there, I want it to reverberate in your hearts, I want everybody to agree with it.’ After this battle at Ai, instead of sharpening swords, instead of getting ready for the next battle, they go up to the high ground, basically that divides the whole land, and they’re going to go there, they’re going to build an altar, they’re going to expose themselves again, but Joshua is reminded again that the Captain of the LORD’s host is going before them, the One he had met in the plains of Gilgal with a drawn sword. And he’s realized the difference, when you go to Ai without him, no human effort is enough. When you go to Ai with the Captain of the LORD’s host going before you, there’s nothing then that could stand in your way. And what they’re going to see here, what they’re going to be reminded of, is mount Ebal, look it says, “Then Joshua built an altar unto the LORD God of Israel in mount Ebal,” (verse 30) mount Ebal is the mount of cursing. And it’s just God’s grace, there’s no altar on mount Gerizim, that’s the mountain of blessing. The altar is on the mountain of cursing. And that’s where the blood was shed, and Israel is reminded, that in our failures, in our sin, in our transgression, there is still grace, there’s still sacrifice. It says they’re going to sacrifice burnt offerings and fellowship offerings there, they’re going to reconsecrate their lives, they’re going to have fellowship with the LORD there. Look, it’s a very interesting lesson for you and I, because if you’re anything like me, when I fail, or I get myself in a mess, I’m consecrating myself, I’m wanting fellowship, desperate men do desperate things. How often, after we have a great experience with the Lord, and a great victory, and a great blessing, do we run then, and with the same fervor and say ‘Lord, here I am, I’m just as dependent on you tomorrow for victory as I was before…’ because we think ‘OK, I got victory 101 down now, I’m ready for victory 102,’ no, you’re right back where you started, you’re just as dependent on him for the next victory, and the interesting picture here is, after Ai, he takes them into the center of the land, and they all remember ‘Yes, yes, yes, we failed, but God didn’t destroy us,’ and they offer consecrating offerings, burnt offerings, they reconsecrate themselves. It says they offer peace offerings, fellowship offerings, to break fellowship with the LORD, the priest would take the shoulder, and they would eat part of it, and part of it would be offered to the LORD, there’s all of this offering going on, there’s all of these burnt offerings. This is not a wise military move, but they’re not afraid. They’re in the middle of the land, and for the first time, in Canaan, the One True God is being openly worshipped in defiance of the pagan nation, Jehovah-God, the One True God is being worshipped, his Word is being proclaimed, the smoke of sacrifices are rising, consecration, burnt offerings, peace offerings, what a remarkable, remarkable picture this is. They make this 30 mile journey, it’s in the area of Nablus today, for some of you who’ve been to Israel with us, we won’t get there this time, there’s a little bit of tension there for some reason now, but we’ve been there before…it’s just got a great view, on a clear day you can see up to the Sea of Galilee, you can see down to the Dead Sea, you can see all of the Jordan Valley, the Jordan, it’s just a remarkable view of the whole land, where Abraham came in, the children of Israel crossed in. What a remarkable picture, you can see Gilead, where Elijah was from, you can see the Jarmuk Valley, and the Israeli guides will say “In Ezekiel 38, that’s where the Russians are gonna come,” and I said to him, “and you guys must have loaded up that valley,” and he said “Shhh” and just continued the tour. It’s just very interesting, to them it is both a historic and prophetic land, and they believe very much, some of them, the things that the Scripture has to say, so. [see https://unityinchrist.com/ezek/Ezekiel%20pt3-2.htm and scroll to the paragraph heading Ezekiel chapters 38-39, Eastern Alliance of Nations Attacks Millennial Kingdom of Israel and read from there to the end to see this prophecy as it’s going to occur, as a lot of scholars are starting to realize, some time after the return of Jesus Christ, not before it, as many used to believe.] He goes now 30 miles, uphill to mount Ebal, builds an altar there, a picture of God’s grace, and “as Moses the servant of the LORD commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones, over which no man hath lifted up any iron; and they offered thereon burnt offerings unto the LORD, and sacrificed peace offerings.” (verse 31) peace offerings, fellowship offerings, what an incredible scene this is. “And he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel.” (verse 32) So, look, we’re not sure how long they’re there, on mount Ebal they build an altar, that’s with rough stones, no cut stones, no steps, no nothing, that’s a picture of the fact that the blood would be shed, the altar is an altar of God, no human energy can add to it at all. You know, Christ said ‘Tutelisti’ when he died, ‘it is finished,’ nobody can add to that, nobody can add to it. But then they put up another pile of stones, and evidently that was plastered, it’s not the altar, and then it says Joshua wrote the law of the LORD. Now, some feel only the Ten Commandments, it would seem at least it has to be Deuteronomy chapter at least 5 through 26 or 28, at least. Ah, you know, they may have been there for a number of days, worshipping, sacrificing. I don’t know what all the inhabitants of Canaan are thinking during this time. But it seems Joshua writes the entire book of Deuteronomy on this plastered surface up on mount Ebal, somewhere in proximity to the altar that they built there. He wrote a copy, it says, of the law of Moses, “And he wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel.” (verse 32) They didn’t have printing presses, they didn’t have a Bible or a Scroll like we do today, but between Ebal and Gerizim there’s a place for them to reflect on the Word of God. “And all Israel, and their elders, and officers, and their judges, stood on this side of the ark and on that side before the priests the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, as well as the stranger, as he that was born among them; half of them over against mount Gerizim,” which is on the south side “and half of them over against mount Ebal;” which is on the north, “as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel.” (verse 33) (by the way, that’s the last time the ark is mentioned in the Book of Joshua.) What an interesting picture this is, Shechem between these two mountains. Now he takes and writes the whole Book of Deuteronomy, and it says, “And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law.” (verse 34) certainly that’s the Blessings and Cursings that are strictly stated there in Deuteronomy (chapter 28, which also mirrors Leviticus 26), and you know you have these two mountains with the ark between them, the priests and so forth, and the ark, the presence of God, viewed from both sides, the Blessings shouted out on mount Gerizim, and the whole nation saying “Amen!”, the Curses being shouted out on my Ebal, where there’s smoke of a sacrifice ascending, and everybody saying “Amen.”

You And I Stand Between Two Mountains--One Mountain Is Called Calvary, Golgotha--The Other One Is Called Olivet

He said “There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women, and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them.” (verse 35) Now this is a long service. But I don’t have any idea, I don’t have the idea that any of the moms are going ‘Come on, Joshua, the kids are acting up,’ because I just think the whole nation, when you are, there are things that bring a nation to sobriety. There are things that wake us up, but our memories are short, aren’t they. I think of how crowded we were after 9/11, for four or five months, people we hadn’t seen since the Persian Gulf crisis were back in church, just to make sure we were still here and that the Rapture didn’t happen. But how quickly we forget, how quickly we forget. But when a nation is in crisis, this is not a long service to them, they’re there with the wives, the children, all of them, and the whole Law is read aloud, no doubt it reverberated between these two mountains, and the children of Israel were there. Now look, you and I stand between two mountains tonight, one mountain’s called Calvary, Golgotha, and the other one is called Olivet, and it says when Christ returns he’s going to touch down there and that mountain is going to split in half, half to the north, half to the south, that’s where the church stands, between two mountains. Do we really live there, the one mountain has the altar on it, where his blood was shed to pay for our sins…All of this is making me think about Israel, one of the great things about the trip to Israel is you stand there and you look at Golgotha, and you think ‘2,000 years ago, before I was ever born, all of my sins were borne and paid for, all of them carried, washed, paid for.’ And we’re between that mountain, and as it were the Mount of Olives, the coming of the Messiah to set up his Kingdom, you and I returning with him, it says (cf. Zechariah 14:1-15). “Behold I saw the Lord coming with ten thousands of his saints,” (Jude) Is that where we really live? Or are we caught in a fog of everything that’s going on around us? It’s hard, isn’t it. We are washed, and overexposed to news, to cell phones, to Smart Phones, to Iphones, to nose phones, to ear phones, we are constantly bathed in more information than any generation ever before us. Sometimes I think ‘What was it like for a guy to go out and plow in the field all day, and never get a phone call, on a cell phone?’ It must have been wonderful, ‘Lord, there’s a blue sky, there’s birds, I’m sweating, there’s dirt, this is wonderful Lord, I’m going to pick the dirt up and smell the dirt, Lord, this is wonderful.’ You know, what it must have been like to go home, the sun goes down, you don’t watch David Letterman because you don’t have a television, you go to sleep, because you’re tired, you worked all day, you wake up early. How different, how different. But we’re here now, he’s chosen us for such a time as this, that’s remarkable. But we too are between two mountains, live there please, live there. Remember, the price is paid, we’re justified, sanctified and glorified. God sees us from all three of those positions because he is the One who was, and Is, and Is to Come. Because he is the One who was, he sees us justified, because he’s the One who is, he sees us sanctified, because he’s the One who is to come, he sees us glorified. But we are in that journey [because he’s in the process of sanctifying us]. For you and I, and pray for me, look, the real politic, the real Kingdom, the real King, it has to weigh more in our hearts than the things that are around us. When we make a decision, nobody’s going to be screaming Curses on one side and the Blessings on the other, because we’re in fellowship with him, he’s taken our heart of stone, he’s given us a heart of flesh, he speaks to us (cf. Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 8:6-13), but in any position, at any given time, you say ‘Lord, I know this is what you want, but,’ don’t do that. I go AWOL once in awhile, ten, fifteen minutes, that’s my tops, I’m back again, ‘I lost my mind, Lord, forgive me that, was gone for ten minutes, I’m back.’ Don’t do that. We have an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away, it’s reserved in heaven for us, who by faith lay hold on those things. We’re waiting for our Lord to come, whom though you haven’t seen, you love, joy unspeakable, full of glory, he’s coming. And what promises, what he brings with him, how incredible, the things that are ahead of us. If you have failed, don’t let discouragement destroy you, he can take your failures and set them aside and redeem them, and use them, and turn them into victories. Let him take those things, listen to what he says, do it a way that he says to do it, not the way you thought to do it, because in your doing and in my doing we fail. When we yield he doesn’t cut us off, he doesn’t run us off. Even on mount Ebal, the mount of cursing, there’s an altar with blood on it there, the price has been paid. And even in our failures, the lesson of Ai, he can turn it around, he can reconstruct it, he can make it work to his benefit and our benefit. Don’t be defeated, the righteous person gets up seven times and goes forward. If we confess our sins he’s faithful and just to forgive us, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He’s a God of grace, he’s a redeemer, a reconciler and a restorer. I encourage you this evening, let that be real in your heart. We’re living between Golgotha and Olivet, what a place and what a time to be alive. Let’s stand, and let’s pray…chapter 9, chapter 9’s a great chapter, just read ahead, if we’re in heaven you can ask Joshua about it, but if we’re not we’ll study it here, it is a great, great chapter, compromise, if you’ve compromised you wonder what to do, how do I deal with this? It breaks the whole issue down in an incredible, incredible picture, so I encourage you just to come and let’s go through that together…[transcript of a connective expository sermon on Joshua 8:1-35, given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116]