The Book of Joshua – Part 9, Joshua 8:1-35  “For we are saved by hope…”

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The Book of Joshua – Part 9, Joshua 8:1-35

“For we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope; for what anyone sees, why does he also hope for it? But if we hope for that which we do not see, then we wait for it with patience” – Rom 8:24-25

[Study Aired April 22, 2023]

In Joshua 1, Israel heartily agreed to do all that the Lord said to do and was spoken by Moses and Joshua. The miracles of the Jordan being held back and Jericho’s astonishing fall and capture emboldened Israel’s heart as all-powerful. Yet, it took only one man’s sin (Achan’s) to severely flatten the entire nation’s pride. Mercifully, the Lord had only 36 of Israel’s valiant men of war die for Achan’s crime of lusting and stealing the “accursed thing”. 6×6=36, a double (2 six’s) witness for the number 6 representing all mankind, who dramatically ascend to become the idol as depicted in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2.

Mat 24:15 Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place (whoever reads, let him understand).
Mat 24:16 Then let those in Judea flee into the mountains [to Christ and his Christ’s].
Mat 24:17 Let him on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house;
Mat 24:18 nor let him in the field turn back to take his clothes.

Achan’s sin is part of the Abomination of Desolation, the “accursed thing” sitting in his tent, the inner parts of his personal earthy temple. He precisely turned to bring into his house the accursed Babylonian cloak. Suppose that Joshua hadn’t dealt swiftly with the accursed thing; it would likely have emboldened Achan at some point to stroll through the Camp of Israel sporting his attire; the people no doubt would have likewise relaxed the word of God, and the leaven would have spread throughout all of Israel.

Ecc 8:10 And I have also seen the wicked buried and going away; and such as had acted rightly went from the holy place, and were forgotten in the city. This also is vanity.

Sometimes, to our dismay, wicked people seem to luxuriate in the wealth of their sins forever and eventually die of old age without reproof and get buried with fanfare. We, too, get buried spiritually and “forgotten in the city” since spiritual righteousness isn’t counted in Babylon as virtuous.

Ecc 8:11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the children of men is fully set in them to do evil.

If Achan’s sin wasn’t speedily disciplined, the tortuous path of the harlot Israel would have been outrageously prominent at the beginning of their chronicles rather than at their end.

Ecc 8:12 Though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and prolong his days, yet I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, because they fear before him;

What a blessing that understanding is! 

Achan is us after Christ’s death! We do exactly as Achan did with prolonged days in our sins. The difference is that Israel performed in the flesh; we spiritually “little by little” cast out the giants and children of our land since we are given to fear the Lord. Achan wasn’t afforded that mercy of repentance. If we think the Lord delays His coming (within) on a certain sin, we, too, can suffer a swift spiritual stoning.

Ecc 8:13 but it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days as a shadow, because he feareth not before God.

The Lord nipped Achan’s sin in its infancy to graphically etch in Israel’s heart not to partake of trifling sins and to utterly trust in the Lord for their needs and to fight their battles. In the fall of Ai, Israel is given easy wins over her enemies to build her faith in God. Knowing the end at the beginning, we know that successive wins over sin embolden pride and joyful internal celebrations that, in turn, often lead to slothfulness and spiritual fornication and whoredoms.

Luk 21:20 And when ye shall see Jerusalem [you and I] compassed with armies [false doctrines – like Achan’s], then know that the desolation [of our old man] thereof is nigh.

The Fall of Ai

Jos 8:1 And Jehovah said to Joshua, Do not fear, 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, and his people, and his city, and his land.
Jos 8:2 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 for a prize for yourselves. Lay an ambush for the city behind it. 
Jos 8:3 So Joshua and all the people of war arose to go up against Ai. And Joshua chose out thirty thousand men, mighty warriors, and sent them away by night. 
Jos 8:4 And he commanded them, saying, Behold, you will be an ambush against the city, behind the city. You shall not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready. 
Jos 8:5 And I, and all the people with me, shall go toward the city. And it shall be, when they come out against us, as at the first, we will flee before them,
Jos 8:6 (for they will come out after us) until we have drawn them out of the city. For they will say, They flee before us, even as at the first. And we will flee before them.
Jos 8:7 Then you shall rise up from the ambush, and seize on the city; for Jehovah your God will deliver it into your hand. 
Jos 8:8 And it shall be, when you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire, according to the command of Jehovah you shall do. See, I have commanded you. 
Jos 8:9 And Joshua sent them out. And they went to lie in ambush, and stayed between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai. But Joshua stayed that night among the people.
Jos 8:10 And Joshua rose up early in the morning and called up the people. And they went up, he and the elders of Israel, in the sight of the people of Ai. 
Jos 8:11 And all the people of war with him went up and drew near. And they came before the city, and pitched on the north side of Ai. And a valley was between them and Ai.
Jos 8:12 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.
Jos 8:13 And when they had set the people, all the army that was on the north of the city, and its rear ambush on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the middle of the valley. 
Jos 8:14 And it happened, when the king of Ai saw, they hurried and rose up early. And the men of the city went out to do battle against Israel, he and all his people, at the time appointed, before the plain. But he did not know that there were some lying in ambush against him behind the city. 
Jos 8:15 And Joshua and all Israel acted as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.
Jos 8:16 And all the people in Ai were called together to run after them. And they ran after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city. 
Jos 8:17 And there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel, who did not go after Israel. And they left the city open, and ran after Israel. 
Jos 8:18 And Jehovah said to Joshua, Stretch out the spear in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear in his hand toward the city. 
Jos 8:19 And the ambush arose quickly out of their place, and ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand. And they entered into the city, and took it, and hurried and set the city on fire. 
Jos 8:20 And the men of Ai looked behind them and saw. And, behold, the smoke of the city went up into the sky, and they had no power to flee this way or that way. And the people who fled to the wilderness turned back against the pursuers. 
Jos 8:21 And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city went up, then they turned again and killed the men of Ai.
Jos 8:22  And the others came out of the city against them. So they were in the middle of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side. And they struck them so that they let none of them remain or escape. 
Jos 8:23 And they took the king of Ai, and brought him alive to Joshua. 
Jos 8:24 And it happened, when Israel had made an end of killing all those who lived in Ai, in the field and in the wilderness where they chased them, and when they had all fallen on the edge of the sword until they were gone, all the Israelites returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword. 
Jos 8:25 And all who fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, all the men of Ai. 
Jos 8:26 For Joshua did not draw his hand back, with which he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the people of Ai. 
Jos 8:27 Only, Israel took the cattle and the spoil of that city for a prize for themselves, according to the Word of Jehovah which He commanded Joshua. 
Jos 8:28 And Joshua burned Ai, and made it a heap forever, a ruin to this day. 
Jos 8:29 And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. And as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his body down from the tree and throw it down at the entrance to the gate of the city, and raise on it a great heap of stones, to this day.

Joshua Renews the Covenant

Jos 8:30 Then Joshua built an altar to Jehovah, the God of Israel in Mount Ebal, 
Jos 8:31 as Moses the servant of Jehovah commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the book of the Law of Moses, an altar of whole stones over which no man has lifted any iron. And they offered on it burnt offerings to Jehovah, and sacrificed peace offerings.
Jos 8:32 And he wrote there on the stones a copy of the Law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the sons of Israel.
Jos 8:33 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 who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, the stranger as well as the homeborn among them, half of them over against Mount Gerizim, and half of them over against Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded before that they should bless all the people of Israel.
Jos 8:34 And afterward he read all the words of the Law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the Law. 
Jos 8:35 There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua did not read before all the congregation of Israel, with the women and the little ones, and the strangers that walked among them. 

The Study:

Jos 8:1 And Jehovah said to Joshua, Do not fear, 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, and his people, and his city, and his land.

Particularly for a babe in Christ, it is easy to be dismayed, and even for a long-time Christian, the trials can appear severe. Yet, the Lord will only permit Satan’s hand to try us in accordance with one’s God-given faith. When we first experience the fiery trials, our turmoil can be extreme and sometimes boils up additional filth embedded in the earth of our ‘tent’.

Isa 57:20 But the wicked are like the troubled sea, which cannot rest, and its waters cast up mire and dirt. (Eph 4:14-16 “… tossed to and fro carried about by every wind of doctrine…”; Psa 107:23-31 “… They who go down to the sea in ships, who do business in great waters…”)

However, the Lord’s people learn by experience to immutably trust Christ’s strength to afford an expectedly joyous end to their trials. In our spiritual infancy, the Lord gives us the triumph over our imagined most feared king, and we see that he is but Ai (H5857) – ‘a heap of ruins’ who never had any strength against us from the beginning. 

Eph 6:10 Finally, my brothers, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 
Eph 6:11 Put on the whole armor of God so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 
Eph 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the world’s rulers, of the darkness of this age, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Jos 8:2 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 for a prize for yourselves. Lay an ambush for the city behind it. 

No doubt Israel felt exasperated that they were permitted to keep the spoil and cattle this time, which seemed a cruel mockery to the now-dead Achan and his family had he just waited a few days.

Our lesson is to listen closely to what our Lord says, heed all His commands, and note the subtle spiritual differences. If He says something is “accursed”, then believe it. The “goodly Babylonish garment” is innocuous, as is unclean meat. Yet spiritually, it still represents our “accursed” self-righteous clothing. To wear it would give the appearance of evil and possibly offend our brother (1Th 5:24).

If we heed the trumpet blown within our city, that observation is the ambush we lay against our internal old man within.

Jos 8:3 So Joshua and all the people of war arose to go up against Ai. And Joshua chose out thirty thousand men, mighty warriors, and sent them away by night. 
Jos 8:4 And he commanded them, saying, Behold, you will be an ambush against the city, behind the city. You shall not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready. 

Typically we know that the multiple of three by ten (or 100 or 1,000) is the Lord teaching Israel physically, and us spiritually, that routing our land of the enemy is a process for the long-standing completion of becoming one in our Lord.

As the saying goes, “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer”. In kind, the ambushing of our enemies and not going very far from the evil city warns us to pay attention to the machinations of our spiritual enemies. These enemies of a deceitful heart in the darkness of our low spiritual points can conversely ambush us if we are not supported by the symbolic thirty-thousand multitude counselors in the Body of Christ (Jer 17:9; Gen 6:5; Mar 7:21-22). 

Jos 8:5 And I, and all the people with me, shall go toward the city. And it shall be, when they come out against us, as at the first, we will flee before them,
Jos 8:6 (for they will come out after us) until we have drawn them out of the city. For they will say, They flee before us, even as at the first. And we will flee before them. 
Jos 8:7 Then you shall rise up from the ambush, and seize on the city; for Jehovah your God will deliver it into your hand. 

Even though scripture says that Jehovah said such and such to Joshua, in all likelihood Joshua, as did many men and women of old, audibly heard the Lord. Today, our Lord speaks to us through His word and our thoughts, teachers, and brethren, echoing discernments. He is teaching Israel and us to first search our temple within, kill the accursed thing, and then go to war with the whole armour of Christ.

The battle is the Lord’s, even though in the flesh, under the Law, men were required to brutally kill the enemy. Spiritually we know that the Lord says vengeance is His; turn the other cheek, and that method today is our ambush; meanwhile, we look weak and silly before our enemies as we seem to run away.

1Co 1:27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
1Co 1:28 and God has chosen the base things of the world, and things which are despised, and things which are not, in order to bring to nothing things that are; 
1Co 1:29 so that no flesh should glory in His presence.
1Co 1:30 But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who of God is made to us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption; 
1Co 1:31 so that, according as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”

Joshua is a type of Christ staying in our midst as we look to Christ for direction and to win our battles. Our enemies will pursue us, but we wait for the Lord’s fiery intervention in the long night and defeat our enemies at dawn.

Deu 32:35 Vengeance and retribution belong to Me. Their foot shall slide in time, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come on them make haste. 
Deu 32:36 For Jehovah will bring His people justice; and He shall have compassion on His servants, for He sees that their power is gone, and only the imprisoned and abandoned remain.
Deu 32:37 And He shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted?
Deu 32:38 Who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up and help you; let it be your hiding place. 
Deu 32:39 See now that I, I am He, and there is no god with me. I kill, and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is no deliverer out of My hand.
Deu 32:40 For I lift up My hand to Heaven and say, I live forever! 
Deu 32:41 If I sharpen My glittering sword, and if My hand takes hold in judgment, I will give vengeance to My enemies and will reward those that hate Me. 
Deu 32:42 I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall devour flesh, with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the hairy scalp of the enemy. 
Deu 32:43 Rejoice, O, nations, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and will render vengeance to His foes and will be merciful to His land, to His people. 
Deu 32:44 And Moses came [being said by Moses before his death at the border of the Promised Land] and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun.

Rom 12:17 Repay no one evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men.
Rom 12:18 If it is possible, as far as is in you, being in peace with all men.
Rom 12:19 not avenging yourselves, beloved, but giving place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
Rom 12:20 Therefore if your enemy hungers, feed him. If he thirsts, give him drink. For in so doing you shall heap coals of fire on his head.
Rom 12:21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Jos 8:8 And it shall be, when you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire, according to the command of Jehovah you shall do. See, I have commanded you.
Jos 8:9 And Joshua sent them out. And they went to lie in ambush, and stayed between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai. But Joshua stayed that night among the people.
Jos 8:10 And Joshua rose up early in the morning and called up the people. And they went up, he and the elders of Israel, in the sight of the people of Ai.
Jos 8:11 And all the people of war with him went up and drew near. And they came before the city, and pitched on the north side of Ai. And a valley was between them and Ai.
Jos 8:12 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. 
Jos 8:13 And when they had set the people, all the army that was on the north of the city, and its rear ambush on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the middle of the valley. 
Jos 8:14 And it happened, when the king of Ai saw, they hurried and rose up early. And the men of the city went out to do battle against Israel, he and all his people, at the time appointed, before the plain. But he did not know that there were some lying in ambush against him behind the city.

The mighty warriors of Ai took the bait and launched a full-scale attack on Israel to the west, not knowing that massive judgment comes from the north. To Ai’s troop’s shock and horror, while out on the plain pursuing a pitiful fleeing band of Israelites, the ‘light’ of realisation from the east dashed all hope of returning to the safety of the city’s walls; they were surrounded!

Psalms 75 seems to contradict that judgment comes from the north, and the light of Christ comes from the east. King David, who wrote Psalms, was an unwitting prophet of spiritual understanding, as was Solomon in the Song of Solomon. Both men unconsciously forecast that the physical represents the spiritual, and in the case of Psalms 75, Christ is the judge regardless of the perfect compass allegory.

Psa 75:1 To the Chief Musician. Do not destroy. A Psalm of Asaph. A Song. To You, O God, we have given thanks, to You we have given thanks; for Your name is near, Your wonderful works declared.
Psa 75:2 When I take the appointed time, I will judge uprightly. 
Psa 75:3 The earth and all its people are melting away; I hold up its pillars. Selah. 
Psa 75:4 I said to the proud, Do not boast; and to the wicked, Do not lift up the horn; 
Psa 75:5 do not lift up your horn on high; nor speak with a stiff neck. 
Psa 75:6 For lifting up comes neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. 
Psa 75:7 But God is the judge; He puts down one and sets up another. 
Psa 75:8 For in the hand of Jehovah there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is fully mixed; and He pours out from it; but the dregs of it, all the wicked of the earth shall drain its dregs and drink. 
Psa 75:9 But I will declare forever; I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.
Psa 75:10 Also I will cut off all the horns of the wicked; but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up.

Conversely, when surrounded by our enemies and in dire straits, our trust in the Lord is precisely the same as when we, as Israel, were the aggressor against our enemies. In the same environment today as Christ’s Christs, we become the scorn of our Babylonian peers.

Of course, writing the Psalms as Solomon penned the Song of Solomon, David unwittingly prophesied spiritually. David below accurately speaks of Christ on the cross, and we fill up the same spiritual afflictions behind Christ’s flesh spiritually.

Psa 22:11 Be not far from Me; for trouble is near, for there is none to help. 
Psa 22:12 Many bulls have circled around Me; strong bulls Of Bashan have surrounded Me. 
Psa 22:13 They opened wide their mouths on Me, like a ripping and a roaring lion. 
Psa 22:14 I am poured out like water, and all My bones are spread apart; My heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of My bowels. 
Psa 22:15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and My tongue clings to My jaws; 
Psa 22:16 and You have brought Me into the dust of death. For dogs have circled around Me; the band of spoilers have hemmed Me in, piercers of My hands and My feet. 
Psa 22:17 I can count all My bones; they look and stare at Me. 
Psa 22:18 They divide My garments among them and cast lots for My clothing.
Psa 22:19 But You, O Jehovah, be not far from Me; O My strength, hurry to help Me!
Psa 22:20 Deliver My soul from the sword, My only one from the dog’s hand.
Psa 22:21 Save Me from the lion’s mouth; from the wild oxen’s horns. You have answered Me. 

Heb 12:1 Therefore since we also are surrounded with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily besets us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 
Heb 12:2 looking to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right of the throne of God.

Jos 8:15 And Joshua and all Israel acted as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness.
Jos 8:16 And all the people in Ai were called together to run after them. And they ran after Joshua, and were drawn away from the city. 
Jos 8:17 And there was not a man left in Ai or Bethel, who did not go after Israel. And they left the city open, and ran after Israel. 

Joshua and his armies in the above verses are a near-perfect replication of our daily fight against our spiritual enemies. Little do our Babylonian peers know that an ambush against our sins is set not by us but by Christ as we wait for His delivery while suffering derision. The leering world would like Christ’s Christs, with their coats of many colours, to fall in their sin and be like them. In the negative, the “silly women”:

Psa 35:19 Let not those who are my lying enemies rejoice over me, those who hate me without cause wink with the eye.
Psa 35:20 For they do not speak peace; but they think deceitful things against the quiet ones of the earth. 
Psa 35:21 And they widen their mouths against me; they say, Aha, aha! Our eyes have seen. 
Psa 35:22 You have seen, O Jehovah; do not keep silence; O Jehovah, do not be far from me. 
Psa 35:23 Stir up Yourself and awaken to my judgment, to my cause, my God and my Lord. 
Psa 35:24 Judge me, O Jehovah my God, according to Your righteousness; and do not let them rejoice over me. 

2Pe 3:3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 
2Pe 3:4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 

Pro 14:9 Fools make a mock at sin: but among the righteous there is favour.

Mat 20:18 Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, 
Mat 20:19 And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again.

Hos 7:11 Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria [an “ambush”].
Hos 7:12 When they shall go, I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven; I will chastise them, as their congregation hath heard.

Pro 7:6 For at the window of my house I looked through my casement, 
Pro 7:7 And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding, 
Pro 7:8 Passing through the street near her [a known harlot, or simply an overly sensual friend] corner; and he went the way to her house [it’s the semi-consciousness of an “ambush”].

Of course, you may read the entire account in Proverbs 7 about that young man, who is you and I, not alert enough to the “ambush” Satan has set by the Lord’s hands to see if we will obey His commands.

Not a man left in the heathen city of Ai who didn’t go out to fight Israel is synonymous with Christ and His Christs being scorned and attacked from all sides in Babylon, yet we know that nothing will prevail against God’s spirit. 

Psa 17:8  Keep me as the pupil, the daughter of the eye; hide me under the shadow of Your wings, 
Psa 17:9  from the face of the wicked who strip me. Those against my soul, My foes, encircle me. 
Psa 17:10 They are enclosed in their own fat; with their mouth they speak proudly, 
Psa 17:11 they have now hemmed in our steps, they have set their eyes to bow me to the earth, 
Psa 17:12 their likeness is like a lion that longs to tear, and like a young lion lurking in secret places. 
Psa 17:13 Arise, O Jehovah, disappoint him, bow him down; deliver my soul from the wicked by Your sword, 
Psa 17:14 from men by Your hand, O Jehovah, from men of the world whose portion is in this life, and whose belly You fill with Your treasure. They are satisfied with sons, and will leave their riches to their babes. 
Psa 17:15 As for me, I will behold Your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with Your image. 

Jas 4:6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. 
Jas 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 

Jos 8:18 And Jehovah said to Joshua, Stretch out the spear in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear in his hand toward the city. 

The term “stretch out”, a person’s hand, spear, or rod, is a distinct action repeated in scripture that denotes complete trust and faith in the Lord that He will do what He says based on the steadfast trust He has given us without assured evidence of the outcome.

Fledgling Israel’s entire experiences were for their growing faith in their Lord that He would follow through with His blessings if they did all He commanded.

Exo 3:20 And I will stretch out My hand and smite Egypt with all My wonders which I will do in the midst of it. And after that he will let you go.

Exo 8:16 And Jehovah said to Moses, Say to Aaron: Stretch out your rod, and strike the dust of the land, so that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt. 

Being saved by hope is only achieved by the fearful experience of repeatedly being surrounded by our enemies, knowing that we do not have the “accursed thing” hidden in our hearts. We need to categorically know we have a clean conscience before the battle. It’s like leaving the house an hour ago and wondering if you turned the iron off. With that certainty, we confidently and patiently wait for the command of the Lord’s raised spear to charge at our enemy for an assured outcome.

Jos 8:19 And the ambush arose quickly out of their place, and ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand. And they entered into the city, and took it, and hurried and set the city on fire. 

Once again, our Lord is our ambush and our spear.

1Sa 17:47 And all this multitude shall know that Jehovah does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is Jehovah’s, and He will give you [our enemies] into our hands.

Jos 8:20 And the men of Ai looked behind them and saw. And, behold, the smoke of the city went up into the sky, and they had no power to flee this way or that way. And the people who fled to the wilderness turned back against the pursuers. 

Just as Lot’s wife turned to see the smoke of the cities of the plain go up, she was turned into a pillar of salt and “had no power to flee this way or that way” (Gen 19:26). However, we strain forward into the battle knowing that our Lord goes before us as we forget our forgiven past failings. 

Php 3:13 My brothers, I do not count myself to have taken possession [of eternal life], but one thing I do, forgetting the things behind and reaching forward to the things before [as if through hope I have already attained the resurrection to life],
Php 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 

Jos 8:21 And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city went up, then they turned again and killed the men of Ai.
Jos 8:22  And the others came out of the city against them. So they were in the middle of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side. And they struck them so that they let none of them remain or escape.
Jos 8:23 And they took the king of Ai, and brought him alive to Joshua. 

Many years later, no doubt King Saul read the chronicles of Joshua’s audacious battle against Ai and, in all likelihood, carelessly employed the same battle rules with the Amalekites by keeping the valuable spoils, including King Agag. Joshua’s and Saul’s accounts of engaging the enemy are for our learning. Consistently throughout scripture, we are charged to precisely follow Christ’s word. If we are slothful in that service, we can expect an ambush.

1Jn 2:3 And by this we know that we have known Him, if we keep His commandments. 
1Jn 2:4 He who says, I have known Him, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
1Jn 2:5 But whoever keeps His Word, truly in this one the love of God is perfected. By this we know that we are in Him. 
1Jn 2:6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk even as He walked. 

Jos 8:24 And it happened, when Israel had made an end of killing all those who lived in Ai, in the field and in the wilderness where they chased them, and when they had all fallen on the edge of the sword until they were gone, all the Israelites returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword. 
Jos 8:25 And all who fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, all the men of Ai. 

Just as twelve thousand (number of foundation in darkness and light) enemies of Israel died, in a dual witness, it represents the entire world committed to death at the end of the one-thousand year rule of the rod of iron.

1Co 15:50 And I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption.

1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all will be made alive. 
1Co 15:23 But each in his own order: Christ the first-fruit, and afterward they who are Christ’s at His coming; 

Jos 8:26 For Joshua did not draw his hand back, with which he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the people of Ai. 
Jos 8:27 Only, Israel took the cattle and the spoil of that city for a prize for themselves, according to the Word of Jehovah which He commanded Joshua. 
Jos 8:28 And Joshua burned Ai, and made it a heap forever, a ruin to this day. 
Jos 8:29 And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. And as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his body down from the tree, throw it down at the entrance to the city gate, and raise on it a great heap of stones, to this day.

The king of Ai is us nailed to our cross as we daily fill up what is behind of Christ’s afflictions. We die and are buried under the great heap of stones that are our brothers and sisters in Christ heaped on Him, the foundational stone.

Deu 21:22 And if a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and if he is put to death and you hang him on a tree, 
Deu 21:23 his body shall not remain all night on the tree. But you shall surely bury him that day (for he that is hanged is accursed of God), so that your land may not be defiled, which Jehovah your God gives you for an inheritance.

The Elect of God is the first to spiritually die under Christ, our altar.

Rev 6:9 And when He had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held. 
Rev 6:10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, Until when, Master, holy and true, do You not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? 
Rev 6:11 And white robes were given to each one of them. And it was said to them that they should rest yet for a little time, until both their fellow servants and their brothers (those about to be killed as they were ) should have their number made complete

The king of Ai and the world are not cursed by staying hung on the tree overnight as a metaphor for being raised immortal in order of the resurrection to judgment for their dawning of righteousness. That process is depicted in “The Valley of Dry Bones” (Ezekiel 37). 

Joshua Renews the Covenant

Jos 8:30 Then Joshua built an altar to Jehovah, the God of Israel in Mount Ebal [Phon ‘ay-bawl’ meaning a stone or bare mountain], 
Jos 8:31 as Moses the servant of Jehovah commanded the sons of Israel, as it is written in the book of the Law of Moses, an altar of whole stones over which no man has lifted any iron. And they offered on it burnt offerings to Jehovah, and sacrificed peace offerings.

We are Christ’s workmanship of “whole [lively] stones”. The world has created, by their spiritual craftsmanship with iron tools, another Jesus for themselves in their own likeness; unwittingly the man of perdition.

Jos 8:32 And he wrote there on the stones a copy of the Law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the sons of Israel.

This is the third copy of the ‘Stone Tablets’ for a witness and completion of judgment against Israel.

Jos 8:33 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 who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, the stranger as well as the homeborn among them, half of them over against Mount Gerizim [H1630 – origin H1629 – to cut off; destroyed], and half of them over against Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded before that they should bless all the people of Israel. 
Jos 8:34 And afterward he read all the words of the Law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the Law. 

The division of Israel against the two mountains symbolises the coming division of Israel into two women, one from Mt Sinai and the other from the heavenly Jerusalem above. One is destroyed, the other (Christ) is a great (bare) stone mountain. The strangers in Israel’s midst represent the unclean of the world outside of the Camp who would come to represent everybody being acceptable to Christ and salvation as revealed to Peter (“get up and eat” [Acts 10:9-48]).

Jos 8:35 There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua did not read before all the congregation of Israel, with the women and the little ones, and the strangers that walked among them.

The stark account of Achan’s sin is immensely positive because he represents Christ’s Christs (plural). They have learned to keep all the commandments of their Lord as they weep between the porch and the altar in dying daily, thus renewing the covenant spiritually and thus saving their brothers. 

Joe 2:12 Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: 
Joe 2:13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. 
Joe 2:14 Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God? 
Joe 2:15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: 
Joe 2:16 Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, and those that suck the breasts: let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet. 
Joe 2:17 Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O LORD, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? 

Rom 8:22 And we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. 
Rom 8:23 And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the firstfruit of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, awaiting adoption, the redemption of our body. 
Rom 8:24 For we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope; for what anyone sees, why does he also hope for it? 
Rom 8:25 But if we hope for that which we do not see, then we wait for it with patience.

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