8 Now the Lord said to Joshua: "Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed; take all the people of war with you, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land. 2 And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king. Only its spoil and its cattle you shall take as booty for yourselves. Lay an ambush for the city behind it."
When the children of Israel came across the Jordan the hearts of people in the land melted and they lost their spirit. They in essence had no courage or determination about them; they were ruled by fear. Then, when sin entered the camp of Israel, the hearts of the Jews melted and they were overcome with fear. The people in the land found courage and defeated Israel, chasing them away. Now, sin has been dealt with in the camp. So, once again, God encourages them to not be ruled by fear but to trust Him. Just like Jericho, God gave them victory and announces it as if it were already done.
Ai means a heap of ruins; (root = to bend; to twist; to distort; to act perversely; to subvert; sin; to contort with pain as in a woman giving birth).
The children of God, when in good standing with Him, are a tool in His hand. He doesn't set them apart (sanctify) them by separating them from the Ai's of the world. But they are sanctified for God's purpose and engage the world. There is a lesson here for a Christian, we are to be about the business of the Father in this world. We don't receive the promise and sit idly by while waiting for His return. Get to work brothers and sisters.
The directions of God change here. After the defeat is completed they could have the spoil and its cattle. This makes the sin of Achan even more profound, all he had to do was wait on the Lord.
3 So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up against Ai; and Joshua chose thirty thousand mighty men of valor and sent them away by night. 4 And he commanded them, saying: "Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready. 5 Then I and all the people who are with me will approach the city; and it will come about, when they come out against us as at the first, that we shall flee before them. 6 For they will come out after us till we have drawn them from the city, for they will say, 'They are fleeing before us as at the first.' Therefore we will flee before them. 7 Then you shall rise from the ambush and seize the city, for the Lord your God will deliver it into your hand. 8 And it will be, when you have taken the city, that you shall set the city on fire. According to the commandment of the Lord you shall do. See, I have commanded you."
Israel's first victory of Jericho led to pride and underestimating their enemy. This led to their defeat. In this first defeat AI would now fall to the same human error, they would underestimate God's people. They would easily fall into this trap of leaving the city since they had already chased them away once. Isn't it fascinating how God even uses our prior mistakes and sin?
9 Joshua therefore sent them out; and they went to lie in ambush, and stayed between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai; but Joshua lodged that night among the people.
This a picture in which we find our selves. Bethel means 'house of God' while Ai means a heap of ruins, sin, perversity, etc. God's people find themselves camped right between the two and preparing for war. It would be easy to forget that victory had already been declared by the Lord.
10 Then Joshua rose up early in the morning and mustered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai. 11 And all the people of war who were with him went up and drew near; and they came before the city and camped on the north side of Ai. Now a valley lay between them and Ai. 12 So he took about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city. 13 And when they had set the people, all the army that was on the north of the city, and its rear guard on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley.
14 Now it happened, when the king of Ai saw it, that the men of the city hurried and rose early and went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at an appointed place before the plain. But he did not know that there was an 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 So all the people who were in Ai were called together to pursue them. And they pursued Joshua and were drawn away from the city. 17 There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel. So they left the city open and pursued Israel.
The people of Ai and their king were defeated before they started, yet look at their confidence. They are trusting in what their eyes see and their ways of war. They confidence is weak and misplaced and will fail them.
We can see the same thing every day in this world; people trusting in money, power, fame, and on and on. It will all let them down. They are already dead in their sins, already defeated, and don't know it.
18 Then the Lord said to Joshua, "Stretch out the spear that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand." And Joshua stretched out the spear that was in his hand toward the city. 19 So those in ambush arose quickly out of their place; they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand, and they entered the city and took it, and hurried 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 to heaven. So they had no power to flee this way or that way, and the people who had fled to the wilderness turned back on the pursuers.
21 Now when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that the smoke of the city ascended, they turned back and struck down the men of Ai. Read also Revelation 19:1-3 22 Then the others came out of the city against them; so they were caught in the midst of Israel, some on this side and some on that side. And they struck them down, so that they let none of them remain or escape. 23 But the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him to Joshua.
It seems the king of Jericho was killed in the 'utter destruction' that was instructed by the Lord. They were told to do the same as they did in Jericho, yet the king is brought alive 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 where they pursued them, and when they all had fallen by the edge of the sword until they were consumed, that all the Israelites returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword. 25 So it was that all who fell that day, both men and women, were twelve thousand-all the people of Ai. 26 For Joshua did not draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. 27 Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took as booty for themselves, according to the word of the Lord which He had commanded Joshua. 28 So Joshua burned Ai and made it a heap forever, a desolation to this day. 29 And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until evening. And as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his corpse down from the tree, cast it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raise over it a great heap of stones that remains to this day.
The curse was on display. This king of this trash heap was judged, put on display and then buried at the gate of his heap. A memorial is raised to king of Ai. It's a memorial of unbelief and a system apart from God. It is unbelief and sin. This burned out city where all the inhabitants are dead is the culmination of what was already a reality. They were dead in their sin, living in a trash heap and calling it home.
30 Now Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal, 31 as Moses the servant of the Lord had 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 has wielded an iron tool." And they offered on it burnt offerings to the Lord, and sacrificed peace offerings.
This is quite a contrast to the heap of defeated Ai. The sins of Ai were also paid, by their own death and by their own blood. Now the sins of Israel would be dealt with by sacrive. The blood shed is a picture of Jesus and the people would worship God.
32 And there, in the presence of the children of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written. 33 Then all Israel, with their elders and officers and judges, stood on either side of the ark before the priests, the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, the stranger as well as he who was born among them. Half of them were in front of Mount Gerizim (Mount of blessing) and half of them in front of Mount Ebal (Mount of confusion, barrenness), 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 had commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, with the women, the little ones, and the strangers who were living among them.
The names of the places are provocative. Half were in front of the mount of blessing while the other half in front of the mount of confusion. It may be just a picture of different spiritual maturity among the people of God. Not everyone as equal in depth and understanding of what was going on. Yet, all heard the word of God; all heard the law in its entirety. And all would grow in the presence of God and His people.
©2015 Doug Ford
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