Joshua chapter 8 and verse 1. 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. 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. So Joshua rose and all the people
of war to go up against Ai. And Joshua chose out thirty thousand
mighty men of valor, and sent them away by night. 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. 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 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.' 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. And then just to turn over to
verse 28, and we read a couple of verses there, and it says
in verse 28, And Joshua burnt Ai, and made it an heap for ever,
even a desolation unto this day. 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 carcass 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. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. When I was younger, I used to
think that if we were able to get on a plane and go to the
city of Ai, or the country of Israel and the city of Ai, and
look at that ruin, that we might be able to see that big pile
of stones and think that underneath that pile of stones, that king's
body was still lying. I'm not entirely sure that would
be too accurate. I think when the scriptures tell
us that it remaineth unto this day. that it's probably meaning
that that pile of stones was still there when Joshua wrote
this account. So the battle took place, and
then Joshua wrote about the battle sometime afterwards, maybe a
number of years afterwards, and he was able to say, as he was
writing the history of these battles, that that pile of stones
is still there. And that, I think, is probably
the best way to interpret these words. But I want us to think
today about this victory at Ai. It wasn't the first time there
had been a battle at Ai. We remember that there had been
a battle and that the children of Israel had lost that battle,
they had run away, and God showed Joshua that the reason for that
was that he had left them because there was sin in the camp. You remember we spoke recently
about that man called Achan and about his judgement and about
his death. Now as soon as Achan's evil actions
had been dealt with, we come to the beginning of this chapter. And the Lord here tells Joshua
not to be afraid. The Lord tells Joshua that he
is going to give the city of Ai, where Israel had been defeated
and where the nation had been embarrassed, he was going to
give it into Joshua's hand. The king, the city, the land
and all that it contained. The reason for that was that
the sin that had been in Israel because of Achan had been removed
and the Lord was returning to have this peace with the children
of Israel. So he instructs Joshua concerning
Ai. The city was to be taken by means
of a ruse or what's called an ambush. And I looked up that
word ambush, and it actually has to do with hiding in bushes,
believe it or not. So here's a little bit of a clue
as to what was going to happen. The army of AI was to be tricked,
or deceived, we might say. It was to be enticed away from
the city. and then the city would be attacked
in a surprise attack from the children of Israel who were hiding
in ambush. It was a bold plan and the army
of Israel would have to be divided into separate parts in order
for this plan to work. It relied on the pride and on
the greed of Ai's king and his people. And what we would have
discovered if we had read through the whole chapter is that it
worked perfectly. Part of Joshua's army concealed
itself in the darkness close to Ai without being seen. The rest of the army was to approach
the city as they'd done the first time when they had been chased
away and the army of Ai would be tempted to leave the city
as they had done before, thinking that again they would cause Israel
to flee. See, Ai was on a hill, so it
was easy for the men of Ai to charge down the hill and to make
their enemies run away. That's what made the city so
strong. But that was exactly what Joshua
planned to do. Israel would run away on purpose
and the army of Ai would follow them and that would leave the
city empty and vulnerable. So that the hidden soldiers of
Israel could then break from their cover and rush into the
city. Joshua told them that when they
got inside they were to set some of the buildings, not the whole
city, but just some of the buildings on fire. And when the rest of
the children of Israel that were running away saw that the part
of the city was on fire, That would be their signal to turn
on the people of Ai. They would turn around, they
would face the opposing soldiers of Ai, and as it were, trap them
in the middle. The army of Israel on one side,
their city now in the possession of Joshua's soldiers, And when
the king of Ai turned around to flee back to his city, it
was already on fire. What we learn from this chapter
is that everything worked to plan. In fact, such was the self-confidence
of the men of Ai that no fighters at all stayed in the city. They
didn't even stop to close the gates behind them. They were
so eager to be chasing the children of Israel and probably to get
some of the loot, some of the possessions of the children of
Israel that they were able to overtake and kill, that their
greed, that their pride, that their indiscipline cost them
everything that they had. The whole population of the city
was put to the sword, just the same way as had happened at Jericho. And again, men and women and
children were slain. The army of Ai was totally destroyed. The king was taken and hanged
on a tree in public shame. And later, we learned he was
buried under a pile of rocks at the city entrance. The only
real difference that took place with respect to AI in contrast
to Jericho was that this time the Lord gave permission for
the people of Israel to take any valuables that they wished
from the city. And that's what they did. Everything
else was burned, leaving the city a pile of ruins and demonstrating
to all the cities and the nations of Canaan that the Lord had returned
to the side of his people. In the end of the chapter we
find that Joshua reads in the hearing of the children of Israel
the books of Moses and the people rededicate themselves to their
covenant with God and they express their gratitude for the victory
that he had given them. God was true and faithful to
his word, and Ai had been destroyed. This account teaches us some
interesting lessons, I think, and I'm just going to take a
minute or two to touch one or two of those and perhaps leave
some thoughts for us all. The first one I want to draw
your attention to is this, that this episode, this incident, following
so hard as it did on the trouble of Achan, shows that sin must
be dealt with before the Lord's help and blessing can be enjoyed. This incident in the history
of Israel shows how the Lord will not ignore sin, but requires
sin to be removed. Achan had to die because he sinned. And the Apostle Paul tells us
the wages of sin is death. We all are sinners by nature
and by the things that we do and by the things that we say
and God cannot and will not ignore our sin either. God knew that we are incapable
of living without sin, of living holy lives. So because of his
love for us, he formed a plan to redeem and to recover and
to restore the people he loved by sending someone to bear their
sin and die in their place. Achan had to die for his own
sin but God set up a plan. We call it the plan of redemption
because God redeemed his people from that judgment that they
were under by supplying a substitute in their place. And the person
God sent to accomplish this plan of redemption was God's own dear
son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Achan died because he was a guilty
person. He was the guilty one. But the
Lord Jesus Christ did no sin. Instead, he died the just for
the unjust to bring us to God. The Lord Jesus Christ was just,
we are unjust, but the Lord Jesus Christ died for the unjust to
bring us to God. Now we call the sacrifice that
the Lord Jesus Christ made, we call it the atonement. and atonement is just at one
meant. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
reconciled us to God by his death on the cross. God came back to
Joshua after Achan had been put away. And the Lord Jesus Christ,
by dying in our place, brought us together brought God and his
people together again because the Lord Jesus Christ made us
at one with him. We had been separated from God
by sin and Christ made us at one again by dying in our place. This was an act of love and mercy,
and we should never forget to thank the Lord for his goodness
towards us. When he could have demanded our
punishment, he forgave our sins in Jesus. So that's the first
thing that I want us to note as a picture, if you like, from
this story. But here's another thing that
the narrative teaches us. As soon as Achan's sin was judged,
God at once returned to help his people. And we noticed that
it was God who came to Joshua. God took the initiative. Joshua
was still afraid. Joshua didn't know whether that
would be enough. But God took away his fear. And this is a great promise for
all who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. God has said that he
accepts the sacrifice of his dear son and at once he blesses
those who don't deserve to be blessed. That didn't mean that
everything was going to be given to Israel on a plate. The city
would be theirs. God promised it. Just as the
land would be theirs. God promised that too. But they
were called to possess the city and to possess the land. They
had to go and get it. And when we trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ, God does not at once give us all the blessings
and all the glory. He knows what is good for us
and he knows how he wishes us to live and learn about him so
that we deepen our knowledge and our trust in him. The city would be given to Israel,
but they would still have to fight, they would still have
to join in the battle to possess it. And sometimes our lives feel
a little bit like a battle. But we should never imagine that
God has left us for that. When our sins are forgiven, they
are taken away forever. And yet every day that we live
in this world, the Lord teaches us more about ourself, and more
about himself. More about our weaknesses, and
our sin, and our flesh, and more about his love, and his mercy,
and his grace. Now maybe we would say, if God
was giving AI to Joshua, why did he still have to fight for
it? Because God ordains the end and
the means. He orders what he is going to
do and how he will do it. And he uses his people to accomplish
his purposes. As a believer, your life will
not always be easy. You will have battles to fight.
I think you already know that. But the Lord Jesus Christ says,
I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. And you can depend upon
that promise. And finally, here's my last thought
for you today. On this occasion, the Lord gave
the spoil to the people. The Lord had withheld the spoil,
all the riches, all the valuable stuff, all the animals and the
gold and the garments. He had withheld that at Jericho. But now the people are permitted
to take and enjoy the spoils of war. And I think there's an
important lesson here as well. The Lord was teaching the children
of Israel. He was teaching them that all
they had was from him. The good things in life that
the people desired to have and enjoy were God's to withhold
and God's to give. They were not the people's to
take. If God withholds something from
us, then we have to trust his wisdom and accept his will. And if God opens his hand and
gives us, then we are free to enjoy his goodness, but we do
not forget that it is God who gives and we take time to return
thanks. We read in verse 27, or no we
didn't, but we might have done, that the cattle and the spoil
of that city Israel took for a prey unto themselves according
unto the word of the Lord. The cattle and the spoil of that
city Israel took for a prey unto themselves according to the word
of the Lord. And I wonder if perhaps later
that night after the battle some of the people sat down to drink
the milk of the cattle that they took or to eat some of the meat
and the bread and the honey that they had taken from the city.
Perhaps they cooked in pots that they had taken from the homes. Perhaps they wore clothes that
they had taken from the people's wardrobes before everything was
burned. This the Lord permitted. The people were free to enjoy
the spoils. But I think before their meal,
they stopped. and paused and gave thanks to
God for allowing them to have it. In all things, let us remember
the Lord is wise and good. When he gives, he is good. When he takes away, he is good. Let us thank him accordingly. Amen.