Victory - the plan, its execution and the aftermath
Text Joshua 8:1-29 Time 19 07 20 Place Childs Hill Baptist Church (Zoom)
I don't know if you ever look at those lists they produced - hundred best novels ever, fifty best novels, etc. Even though those who write those lists are often not at all interested in Christianity two novels you often see listed are Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan and Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. One list for example has them number one and two (probably because they are the oldest in the list). They say
1. The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678). A story of a man in search of truth told with the simple clarity and beauty of Bunyan’s prose make this the ultimate English classic.
2. Robinson Crusoe (1719) By the end of the 19th century, no book in English literary history had enjoyed more editions, spin-offs and translations. Crusoe’s world-famous novel is a complex literary confection, and it’s irresistible.
"Simple clarity and beauty"; "irresistible". They really are excellent well written books. The men who wrote them were both Christians and if you read the full editions properly you'll learn useful things about being a Christian. Chapter 6 of the latter begins
JULY 4. - In the morning I took the Bible; and beginning at the New Testament, I began seriously to read it, and imposed upon myself to read a while every morning and every night; not tying myself to the number of chapters, but long as my thoughts should engage me. It was not long after I set seriously to this work till I found my heart more deeply and sincerely affected with the wickedness of my past life. The impression of my dream revived; and the words, All these things have not brought thee to repentance, ran seriously through my thoughts. I was earnestly begging of God to give me repentance, when it happened providentially, the very day, that, reading the Scripture, I came to these words: He is exalted a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and to give remission. I threw down the book; and with my heart as well as my hands lifted up to heaven, in a kind of ecstasy of joy, I cried out aloud, Jesus, thou son of David! Jesus, thou exalted Prince and Saviour! give me repentance! This was the first time I could say, in the true sense of the words, that I prayed in all my life; for now I prayed with a sense of my condition, and a true Scripture view of hope, founded on the encouragement of the Word of God; and from this time, I may say, I began to hope that God would hear me.
I say all this because in coming this week to Joshua 8:1-29 and the eventual second victory in the campaign to take the Promised Land - the victory over Ai - we are coming to a well written story, one written with great skill.
As we've said, the reason for the ruthlessness against the Canaanites is that the Israelites were not only being given the Promised land but they were acting as God's instrument of justice against the wicked Canaanites, who, as we have said, were guilty of all manner of violence and depravity.
When we ask what we can learn from such a story today then we need to remind ourselves that we too as New Testament Christians are in a war - not under Joshua but under Jesus and not in a war against Canaanites and Amorites but against the world, the flesh and the devil. Our battle is entirely spiritual and so we employ spiritual weapons such as prayer and preaching and self-control rather than swords and shields and spears or guns and tanks and bombs for that matter.
So let's say three things about the victory of the Israelites under Joshua over the Canaanites at Ai.
1. Hear the victory plan explained
The chapter begins with the LORD speaking to Joshua. We are not told how the LORD manifested himself - whether he came again as the commander of the LORD's army or came in some other way we do not know. There are five things to notice.
1. Don't be afraid or discouraged
Then the LORD said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. This sounds a note sounded earlier on when Joshua is told (1:9) to Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; he is told do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.
Here Joshua is reassured afresh after the disaster following the sin of Achan in Chapter 7.
God speaks to us in similar terms today. You are facing battles. You are in a war. But don't get discouraged or be fearful even though you may have miserably failed in the past.
In Hebrews 13:5, 6 the writer says Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?"
As Paul puts it in Romans 8, If God is for us who can be against us?
2. Fight the good fight.
The LORD goes on Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. They had thought a reduced army might have been sufficient against Ai and may be it would have but at this point God wants to see the whole army fighting. In Gideon's time he would famously reduce the size of the army. God has various ways of showing his power. The point is that few or many, we need to be ready to fight.
As Paul says to Timothy ... pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called (1 Timothy 6:11, 12). Be ready and willing to fight and fight.
3. Know that God has aleady secured the victory
It goes on For I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land. You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, .... There is no doubt about this. Israel are going to win. Now, we do not know if we will win every battle, of course, but we do know that we will win the war. Victory is certain. It has already been secured for us in Jesus Christ.
Imagine playing football for a team and you know you are going to win. I don't think it would make you lazy and not try so hard. I think that in reality you would try all the harder as you would be sure all your efforts were likely to be successful.
We are in the position where we know we cannot lose in the end. Victory is certain. Don't forget that.
4. Sometimes there are rewards when a battle is won
After the battle of Jericho all the plunder was to be devoted to the Lord but this time they are told after Ai is defeated you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves. Sometimes God is very gracious.
5. There will always be a strategy of one sort or another
Joshua is also told how he is to secure defeat against Ai, the strategy. Against Jericho victory had been secured by a miracle and the people simply had to what they were told. Here it involves a more obvious human strategy. There will be differences from victory to victory. Even here it is the power of God that is crucial.
This victory was to involve setting an ambush behind the city. It is on this basis that Joshua and the whole army moved out to attack Ai. We are told how Joshua chose thirty thousand of his best fighting men and sent them out at night with orders to set an ambush behind the city. Joshua and others would then advance on the city, and when the men came out against them, as they did before, ... flee from them. By this means they would lure the people of Ai away from the city, as they would presume they were running away from the Israelites as they did before. At that point the others would rise up from ambush and take the city. Joshua adds The LORD your God will give it into your hand. When you have taken the city, set it on fire. Do what the LORD has commanded. See to it; you have my orders. So it is the LORD who will give them Ai but they need to use a strategy,
Again, it is the same today. Victory is in God's hands but that does not normally mean that we can sit and do nothing. We must use our skills - develop strategies, employ methods. It is that combination that makes the difference.
2. Consider the victory executed
From verse 9 we read of how the plan is executed. Joshua sends the men off to form the ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai and he spends the night with the people. Early the next morning Joshua muster(s) his army, and he and the leaders of Israel march... before them to Ai. The entire force that was with him march ... up and approach... the city and arrive... in front of it. They set up camp north of Ai, with the valley between them and the city.
Joshua has about five thousand men and set(s) them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. This presumably is a group taken from the 30,000 whose job was to burn Ai. So you have the main camp to the north of the city and the ambush probably in two sections to the west of it. That night Joshua goes into the valley. The king of Ai sees this and he and all the men of the city hurry out first thing to meet Israel in battle at a certain place overlooking the Arabah (the area to the south near the Dead Sea). Of course, he does not realise an ambush has been set up behind the city. Joshua and his men allow themselves be driven back before them, and they flee toward the wilderness. Everyone from Ai gives chase and so are lured away from the city. We read Not a man remained in Ai or Bethel who did not go after Israel. They left the city open and went in pursuit of Israel.
It is at this point that (18) the LORD says to Joshua, Hold out toward Ai the javelin that is in your hand, for into your hand I will deliver the city. Don't miss the emphasis again on the fact that it is the LORD who gives victory. So Joshua holds out the javelin towards the city.
19 As soon as he did this, the men in the ambush rose quickly from their position and rushed forward. They entered the city and captured it and quickly set it on fire. It is only then that the people of Ai look back and see the smoke of the city rising up into the sky. They suddenly realise what has happened but they have no chance to escape in any direction; as the Israelites who had been fleeing toward the wilderness had turned back against their pursuers. At that point Those in the ambush also come out of the city against them, so that they are caught in the middle, with Israelites on both sides. Israel cut them down, leaving them neither survivors nor fugitives
It is an exciting description and explains well how victory was won. I don't think it gives us much practical help as to how to go about our spiritual battles today except in that it gives us the general principle that we should not be afraid to look weak. It is through looking weak that this victory is won. It is their running away that fills their enemies with an over-confidence that is their undoing in the end.
I think that is in part what happened at the cross. Who put Christ to death? It was evil men who hated Jesus. They conspired together to bring about his death. It looked as though they had won a great victory. But they had not. The very opposite was true.
When we seek to live out a Christian life we need to learn what Paul learned - that when he was weak then he was strong. It is a strategy of apparent weakness that is most likely to win the day not one of self-confidence and a mere show of strength.
3. Take note of the victory won and the aftermath
In the final part of the chapter (verses 23-29) we read of the victory itself.
First, they take the king of Ai alive and he is brought him to Joshua. All the men of Ai are put to death wherever they are found - in the fields and in the wilderness where they had chased them. When everyone had been put to the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and killed those who were in it too. We are told (25) that Twelve thousand men and women fell that day - all the people of Ai. For Joshua did not draw back the hand that held out his javelin until he had destroyed all who lived in Ai. This total destruction was necessary, as we have said, because of the gross evil of the Canaanites.
In a similar way our sins must be put to death not merely returned to the back burner. Be ruthless with your sin.
Unlike with Jericho, this time Israel did carry off for themselves the livestock and plunder of this city, as the LORD had instructed Joshua.
28 So Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolate place to this day. The word Ai means ruin. We read that He impaled the body of the king of Ai on a pole and left it there until evening. The king was already dead but he was under God's curse and so was impaled on this pole so that all would see. All the more remarkable that in due time Christ himself would hang on a tree also, cursed by God in the place of sinners.
At sunset, Joshua ordered them to take the body from the pole and throw it down at the entrance of the city gate. One of the laws of Deuteronomy was that a body should not be left hanging over night. And they raised a large pile of rocks over it, which remains to this day. It was a reminder to all of the victory over Ai.
A day is coming when Christ will return and the victory will be complete. Every enemy will be judged and will burn forever in hell. Just a heap, as it were, will mark the place. We who are believers will enjoy the plunder on that day. Look forward to that day of victory and pray that God will hasten the day it arrives. Are you ready?
Two final things
1. As we noted Jericho was defeated in one way and Ai in another. it is important that we remember that while God has only one way of salvation yet he may use various methods to save someone. It is not always the same. An old Scots preacher used to imagine the blind man from Mark 8 and the one from John 9 discussing how it was when Jesus healed them and one asking how did it feel when he put the mud on your eyes and them then falling out. No need for such dissensions.
2. The way a disaster can turn to a victory. The very failure against Ai fed into the victory over Ai. God can do that. One writer gives the example of Alexander Whyte Scots preacher in the 19th century born of a single mother. Not a great way to start out in life but he was converted and became a faithful preacher of the gospel. Many such example. Be encouraged.
