Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Joshua 8

Snatching Victory from the Jaws of Defeat

  1. A New Start: Joshua 8:1-2
  2. a New Strategy: Joshua 8:3-13
  3. a New Success: Joshua 8:14-29
  4. a New Commitment: Joshua 8:30-35

Henry Ford: "A mistake is an opportunity to begin again, more intelligently."

One purpose of this chapter is to encourage us that even when we mess up, if we confess our mistake (sin), He forgives us and we can now get back on track to following His will and His plan. Our way usually ends in defeat; God’s way always ends in victory. And God begins to lay out the battle plan for Ai.

Ai is a type of the flesh. The word "Ai" means "a heap of ruins." That is a good way to describe this flesh in which we live. The first mention of this city is found in the book of Genesis in connection with the life of Abraham, Genesis 12:8; 13:3. The Bible tells us that Abraham pitched his tent "between Bethel and Ai." Now, the name "Bethel" means, "The house of God." Many, if not most, Christians have pitched their tents somewhere between the house of God and a heap of ruins? Do you see the connection? You can either live in a place of victory and blessing, or you can live in a place of defeat and misery. You can either have a Bethel kind of life or an Ai experience, which is up to you!

There was no record of prayer in the matter concerning the first attack of Ai. Joshua appears to give the orders to send out only a few thousand men based on the assessment of the spies that went out to search out the city. Here we see that God’s instructions to Joshua were to send out the all the people of war. If he had prayed and not simply made a rash decision based on the intelligence information from the spies, the outcome would have been much different. Would Joshua learn from his mistake? We will get the answer in chapter 9 when another mistake is made by making a decision based on outward appearances apart from prayer. This teaches us that we must commit all of our ways to God in prayer and be open and dependent upon His leading rather than to trust in the methods He has used in the past.

(1) Then the Lord said to Joshua, “*Do not be afraid or discouraged. Take all your fighting men and attack **Ai, for ***I have given you the king of Ai, his people, his
town, and his land.

  • *Do not be afraid or discouraged:
    • After we have sinned, the Devil loves to whisper in our ear, “You messed up big time and God can never use you again.” It is at just such a moment in Joshua’s life, following the humiliating defeat, God specifically reminded Joshua of his promise. I am sure that morale in the camp was at an all time low and Joshua was never more insecure of himself as a leader. It is reassuring to understand that God does not permanently withdraw His blessings when we fail Him.
    • God is saying, "Don't be paralyzed by your fear or by your past failures. Trust me for the victory. Joshua, get back on your feet and do it right this time!" Now, God once again tells Joshua not to be afraid or discouraged!
    • It is often the most difficult to /regain lost ground such as Ai. When we have failed at some point in our Christian lives, we need to know how to get back on track.
    • "No matter what mistakes we may make, the worst mistake of all is not to try again; for the 'victorious Christian life is a series of new beginings'" - Alexander Whyte.
    • Joshua 1:9: This is my command - be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
    • Psalm 37:23-24: The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.
  • **Ai: The place of defeat would soon become the place of victory. Beloved, we all have Ai’s in our lives. But when we turn fully to God, those places of humiliation and defeat can become
    places of victory and blessing.
  • ***I have given you: Now that Joshua is taking God's orders instead of heeding the advice of his "spies" and God is in control as with Jericho, God tells him that He will give Ai to Joshua. Notice it's in present tense, not future tense.
    • The Commander of the Lord's Army is emphasizing that success will only occur when Israel is following God's orders and plan.
    • How often have we taken a path not consistent with God's plan for us? And, how often have we failed as a result? And, how often have we recovered from our mistake and succeeded once we got back on God's plan for our life? Thank God He doesn't give up on us the way we would!

(2) You will destroy them *as you destroyed Jericho and its king. But this time **you may keep the plunder and the livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the town.”

  • *as you destroyed Jericho: The words, “as you destroyed Jericho” reminds us that victory at Ai would not only be as complete as that at Jericho, but that as with Jericho, it would come by the power of God regardless of the strategy used. God wants our places of defeat turned into places of victory. We are not to live with defeat or accept it as the norm for the Christian life. But as always, victory comes through faith in God’s presence and provision.
  • **you may keep the plunder: If Achan had just waited, he could have shared in the spoils! Do you know why they couldn't keep the plunder in Jericho but could in Ai?

(3) So Joshua and all the fighting men set out to attack Ai. Joshua chose 30,000 of his best warriors and sent them out at night

(4) with these orders: “Hide in ambush close behind the town and be ready for action.

(5) When our main army attacks, the men of Ai will come out to fight as they did before, and we will run away from them.

(6) We will let them chase us until we have drawn them away from the town. For they will say, ‘The Israelites are running away from us as they did before.’ Then, while we are running from them,

(7) you will jump up from your ambush and take possession of the town, for the Lord your God will give it to you.

(8) Set the town on fire, as the Lord has commanded. You have your orders.”

  • Probably, this means that they should kindle a signal fire in the city, but not to burn the town down - because the spoils of the city were to be divided among the people. Had they at this time set fire to the city itself, all the property would have been consumed before the rest could have come in killed everyone and taken the plunder.

(9) So they left and went to the place of ambush between Bethel and the west side of Ai. But Joshua remained among the people in the camp that night.

(10) Early the next morning Joshua roused his men and started toward Ai, accompanied by the elders of Israel.

(11) All the fighting men who were with Joshua marched in front of the town and camped on the north side of Ai, with a valley between them and the town.

(12) That night Joshua sent 5,000 men to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the town.

  • These 5,000 men appear to be positioned between Bethel and Ai in case the army from Bethel sought to attack the Israelites army.

(13) So they stationed the main army north of the town and the ambush west of the town. Joshua himself spent that night in the valley.

(14) When the king of Ai saw the Israelites across the valley, he and all his army hurried out early in the morning and attacked the Israelites at a place overlooking the Jordan Valley. But he didn’t realize there was an ambush behind the town.

(15) Joshua and the Israelite army fled toward the wilderness as though they were badly beaten.

(16) Then all the men in the town were called out to chase after them. In this way, they were lured away from the town.

(17) There was not a man left in Ai or *Bethel who did not chase after the Israelites, and the town was left wide open.

  • *Bethel:
    • Bethel’s king is listed as killed by Joshua’s forces in Joshua 12:16, but no record is given of a direct attack on the city. The reason may be that Bethel's power was broken at the time of Ai’s defeat. It was only logical for Bethel to join in assisting Ai against an enemy which it could expect would confront it next.

    • From Judges 1:24, we find that Bethel was then a walled city, in the hands of the Canaanites, and was taken by the house of Joseph.
      • Judges 1:22-26: The descendants of Joseph attacked the town of Bethel, and the Lord was with them. They sent men to scout out Bethel (formerly known as Luz). They confronted a man coming out of the town and said to him, “Show us a way into the town, and we will have mercy on you.” So he showed them a way in, and they killed everyone in the town except that man and his family. Later the man moved to the land of the Hittites, where he built a town. He named it Luz, which is its name to this day.

(18) Then the *Lord said to Joshua, “Point the **spear in your hand toward Ai, for I will hand the town over to you.” Joshua did as he was commanded.

  • *Lord: The Commander of the Lord's army is still giving Joshua orders for the battle.
  • **spear in your hand:
    • Exodus 14:16: Pick up your staff and raise your hand over the sea. Divide the water so the Israelites can walk through the middle of the sea on dry ground.
    • Exodus 17:9: Moses commanded Joshua, “Choose some men to go out and fight the army of Amalek for us. Tomorrow, I will stand at the top of the hill, holding the staff of God in my hand.”

(19) As soon as Joshua gave this signal, all the men in ambush jumped up from their position and poured into the town. They quickly captured it and set it on fire.

(20) When the men of Ai looked behind them, smoke from the town was filling the sky, and they had nowhere to go. For the Israelites who had fled in the direction of the wilderness now turned on their pursuers.

(21) When Joshua and all the other Israelites saw that the ambush had succeeded and that smoke was rising from the town, they turned and attacked the men of Ai.

(22) Meanwhile, the Israelites who were inside the town came out and attacked the enemy from the rear. So the men of Ai were caught in the middle, with Israelite fighters on both sides. Israel attacked them, and not a single person survived or escaped.

(23) Only the king of Ai was taken alive and brought to Joshua.

(24) When the Israelite army finished chasing and killing all the men of Ai in the open fields, they went back and finished off everyone inside.

(25) So the entire population of Ai, including men and women, was wiped out that day - 12,000 in all.

  • Numbers 33:51-56: “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel: When you cross the Jordan River into the land of Canaan, you must drive out all the people living there. You must destroy all their carved and molten images and demolish all their pagan shrines. Take possession of the land and settle in it, because I have given it to you to occupy. You must distribute the land among the clans by sacred lot and in proportion to their size. A larger portion of land will be allotted to each of the larger clans, and a smaller portion will be allotted to each of the smaller clans. The decision of the sacred lot is final. In this way, the portions of land will be divided among your ancestral tribes. But if you fail to drive out the people who live in the land, those who remain will be like splinters in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will harass you in the land where you live. And I will do to you what I had planned to do to them.”
  • Deuteronomy 7:1-5: “When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are about to enter and occupy, he will clear away many nations ahead of you: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. These seven nations are greater and more numerous than you. When the Lord your God hands these nations over to you and you conquer them, you must completely destroy them. Make no treaties with them and show them no mercy. You must not intermarry with them. Do not let your daughters and sons marry their sons and daughters, for they will lead your children away from me to worship other gods. Then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and he will quickly destroy you. This is what you must do. You must break down their pagan altars and shatter their sacred pillars. Cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols.
  • Had Israel done so, all would have been well; but Israel did not. Many Canaanites were allowed to remain, and Israel suffered the effects of their influence. This was the danger that God wanted to avoid. Many of the people accepted the worship of Baal rather than YHWH. Baal was believed to be the god of rainfall and good crops. No doubt, the Canaanites advised their new farming neighbors that technical skill was not enough to insure a good harvest, but that worship of Baal was still more important.

(26) For Joshua kept holding out his spear until everyone who had lived in Ai was completely destroyed.

(27) Only the livestock and the treasures of the town were not destroyed, for the Israelites kept these as plunder for themselves, as the Lord had commanded Joshua.

(28) So Joshua burned the town of *Ai, and it became a permanent mound of ruins, desolate to this very day.

  • *Ai means "destruction" or a "heap of ruins."

(29) Joshua *impaled the king of Ai on a sharpened pole and left him there until evening. At sunset the Israelites took down the body, as Joshua commanded, and threw it in front of the town gate. They piled a great heap of stones over him that can still be seen **today.

  • *impaled: hung on a tree in most translations.
    • Hanged, probably after being killed as had been the kings of the Amorites per Joshua 10:26.
    • What’s going on here? What’s going on here needs to be understood in terms of what Moses had written back in the Book of Deuteronomy. That anyone taken by capital offense could be hung on a tree until nightfall. That was the law as a kind of deterrent. You may say it’s pretty barbaric. Yes, it is barbaric. What’s going on here? What are we to make of this? The king is a representative who now finds himself under the curse of God. And you can’t read this story without being reminded of another who was hung upon a tree - upon a cross - outside the walls of Jerusalem. They took Jesus just as they took this king. Jesus who had never done any wrong. Jesus who had never sinned. Jesus who had never uttered a cross word. They took Him and they crucified Him. They nailed Him to a Roman cross. They put nails in His hands and His feet and they propped Him up in the air. They put a crown of thorns upon His head. They mocked Him; they spat in His face. There was a cry that was heard from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”, uttering the opening words of Psalm 22.
    • Deuteronomy 21:22-23: “If someone has committed a crime worthy of death and is executed and hung on a tree, the body must not remain hanging from the tree overnight. You must bury the body that same day, for anyone who is hung is cursed in the sight of God. In this way, you will prevent the defilement of the land the Lord your God is giving you as your special possession.
  • **today: Joshua wrote this book at the end of his career, so at the time he was writing, these things were still existing: these piles of stones, and all that were left in various areas, they were still there to the day of Joshua’s death.

(30) Then Joshua built an *altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, on **Mount Ebal.

  • After the victory at Ai, Joshua did what seemed to be foolish humanly and militarily-speaking (30-31). To us, it would seem best to immediately pursue the military campaign and move quickly ahead to capture and take control of the central sector of the land. But no, Joshua led the Israelites 20 miles north on a spiritual pilgrimage to Shechem for a special time of worship - joined now by everybody. Why? Moses had commanded it (Deuteronomy 27:1-8) because of what this event would stand for in the lives of the Israelites. Again this illustrates the principle of first priorities: our capacity in life is always dependent on our spiritual capacity and orientation to the plan of God. Many Christians continually face defeat in their walk because they fail to take time to get alone with the Lord and reflect on Him and to put on their spiritual armor.
  • One mountain is called Gerazim and then to the north of it, Mount Ebal. They’re still there.  One is going to be called a mountain of blessing and another one is going to be called a mountain of cursing. All the people are camped together at the base in the valley. Half of them are on one side; half of them are on the other, and in between is the Ark of the Covenant and the Levitical priests representing the presence of God. On the top of Mount Ebal - the mountain that represents cursing, there’s an altar that’s built made out of uncut plastered stone.
  • So far, Israel’s experience is an illustration of their whole history, and the spiritual history of many Christians:
    1. Obedience followed by victory.
    2. Victory followed by blessing.
    3. Blessing followed by pride and disobedience.
    4. Disobedience followed by defeat.
    5. Defeat followed by judgment.
    6. Judgment followed by repentance.
    7. Repentance followed by obedience.
    8. Obedience followed by victory, and the cycle
      continues.

  • *altar:
    • Archaeologists may have actually found this (or a similar)
      revealed sizable remains of a large altar, built of unhewn stones. The altar was ascended by a sloping ramp. Numerous animal bones were scattered on the pavement of the courtyard that surrounded the altar. It was erected on Mt. Ebal (the mountain from which the curses were to be read), rather than on Mt. Gerizim, (the mountain where the blessings were read). Why is this significant? I believe it shows that the altar is for sinners. The ruins of the altar are laid out in a rectangle that measures 25 by 30 feet. The walls of the nine-foot-high structure of uncut stones and rocks are filled with ash, dirt, stones, and bones. Over 4,000 bones were found in the fill, all of them bones of the sacrificial animals called for in Moses' law. Evident, too, is the ramp up to the altar that was used by the priests, as stipulated by Exodus. One discovery at the site seems to tie everything together. It is an Egyptian scarab that was probably among the spoils the Bible says Israel took with them from Egypt.
    • It is interesting that a thousand years later the Samaritans built their altar on Gerizim, not Ebal. So when the woman of Samaria told Jesus, “you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place of worship, while we Samaritans claim it is here at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?,” she was pointing to Gerizim (John 4:20). Jesus responded by turning her away from that mountain to himself and his coming sacrifice. The chief characteristic of the Samaritans of that day and of our day is self-righteousness. The Samaritans would not come to God as sinners, confessing their need of a cleansing, substitutionary sacrifice. They came as righteous people.
  • **Mount Ebal: About 20 miles north of Ai, near Shechem.
    • Jacob’s well lies at the mouth of the valley. The width of the valley is about a third of a mile; though the summits of the two mountains, in the lap of which it lies, are two miles apart. Where the two mountains face each other and touch most closely, with a green valley of five hundred yards between, each is hollowed out, and the limestone stratum is broken into a succession of ledges with the, appearance of a series of regular benches. Thus, a natural amphitheater is formed, capable of containing a vast audience of people; and the acoustic properties are so perfect in that dry and rainless air, that Tristram speaks of two of his party taking up positions on the opposite mountains, reciting the Ten Commandments, and hearing each other perfectly.
    • Shechem is where Isaac had dug the well years earlier and where Abraham had first built the altar when he came into the land. The modern city of Nablus is there. One of the Amarna letters indicate that the prince of Gezer and the prince of Shechem surrendered to Joshua during the conquest of the land: “See the actions taken by Milkilu, the prince of Gezer, and the sons of Labayu, the princes of Shechem, who have handed over the land to the Hapiru.”
    • Israel’s conquest of this northern, central region where Shechem was a principal city is not described in Scripture. The biblical account speaks of the Israelites being able to move north to it, apparently without difficulty, but does not explain how this was possible.
    • Genesis 12:6-7: Abram traveled through the land as far as Shechem. There he set up camp beside the oak of Moreh. At that time, the area was inhabited by Canaanites. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your descendants.” And Abram built an altar there and dedicated it to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
    • Genesis 33:18-20: Later, having traveled all the way from Paddan-aram, Jacob arrived safely at the town of Shechem, in the land of Canaan. There he set up camp outside the town. Jacob bought the plot of land where he camped from the family of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for 100 pieces of silver. And there he built an altar and named it El-Elohe-Israel.
      • El-Elohe-Israel: God, the God of Israel

(31) He followed the commands that Moses the Lord’s servant had written in the Book of Instruction: “Make me an altar from stones that are *uncut and have not been shaped with iron tools.” Then on the altar they presented **burnt offerings and ***peace offerings to the Lord.

  • *uncut:
    • Exodus 20:25: If you use stones to build my altar, use only natural, uncut stones. Do not shape the stones with a tool, for that would make the altar unfit for holy use.
    • 1 Kings 6:7: The stones used in the construction of the Temple were finished at the quarry, so there was no sound of hammer, ax, or any other iron tool at the building site.
  • **burnt offerings:
    • They offered on the altar the burnt offerings, which were the offerings of consecration to God. It was known as a sweet-savor offering. The burnt offering was an offering of, “God, we’re consecrating ourselves to you.” “It was an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord” (Leviticus 1). In the burnt offering, the entire offering was consumed by fire from the altar - symbolic of the duty of God’s people to present themselves completely - without reserve - to God.
    • This was to pay for sin.
  • ***peace offerings:
    • The peace offering - which was consumed only in part by the fire from the altar - the other part was eaten by the offerers - symbolic that God’s people had fellowship and communion with God. And then they sacrificed peace offerings, which were offerings of fellowship. The peace offering was, “God, we recognize You as our LORD; we want to live in fellowship with You.”

(32) And as the *Israelites watched, Joshua copied onto the stones of the altar the **instructions Moses had given them.

  • *Israelites:
    • Gathered in this huge amphitheater are 2 million people.
    • The purpose of the service of worship is to glorify God - not to be "entertained" by music and be made to feel good by a "preacher" or "priest".
  • **instructions:
    • mishneh torath, the repetition of the law; that is, a copy of the blessings and curses, as commanded by Moses; not necessarily a copy of the 10 commandments or the book of Deuteronomy.
    • In this act of obedience, we see Joshua as a man of the Book, obeying the command of Joshua 1:8. We also see Israel as a people of the Book ordering their lives after God's Word.
    • Deuteronomy 27:1-8: Then Moses and the leaders of Israel gave this charge to the people: “Obey all these commands that I am giving you today. When you cross the Jordan River and enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, set up some large stones and coat them with plaster. Write this whole body of instruction on them when you cross the river to enter the land the Lord your God is giving you - a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you. When you cross the Jordan, set up these stones at Mount Ebal and
      coat them with plaster, as I am commanding you today. “Then build an altar there to the Lord your God, using natural, uncut stones. You must not shape the stones with an iron tool. Build the altar of uncut stones, and use it to offer burnt offerings to the Lord your God.

(33) Then all the Israelites - foreigners and native-born alike - along with the elders, officers, and judges, were divided into two groups. One group stood in front of Mount Gerizim, the other in front of Mount Ebal. Each group faced the other, and between them stood the Levitical priests carrying the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant. This was all done according to the commands that Moses, the servant of the Lord, had previously given for blessing the people of Israel.

  • Deuteronomy 27:11-13: That same day Moses also gave this charge to the people: “When you cross the Jordan River, the tribes of Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin must stand on Mount Gerizim to proclaim a blessing over the people. And the tribes of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali must stand on Mount Ebal to proclaim a curse.
  • James Boice writes: "The Mountains, which are about three thousand feet above sea level or one thousand feet above the valley between them, are quite barren. The valley is often green, and at one place where the mountains come close together there is a natural amphitheater. F. B. Meyer describes it as a place where the mountains are hollowed out “and the limestone stratum is broken into a succession of ledges ‘so as to present the appearance of a series of regular benches.’” It is “a natural amphitheater … capable of containing a vast audience of people.” This amphitheater was the people’s destination, and it was here that they camped out for the ceremony." - Boice, Joshua: We Will Serve the Lord, Revell, New Jersey, 1989, p. 89.

  • Above image is from www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-altar-of-joshua-ceremony-at-shechem.jpg

  • Above image is from www.truthnet.org/biblicalarcheology/6/conquestcanaan.htm

(34) Joshua then read to them all the blessings and curses Moses had written in the Book of Instruction.

(35) Every word of every command that Moses had ever given was read to the entire assembly of Israel, including the women and children and the foreigners who lived among them.

NOTES:

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