Joshua 8
McGeeCHAPTER 8THEME: Victory at Ai; Joshua reads the blessings and cursingsAs we have seen in chapter 7, Israel suffered an ignoble defeat at the little city of Ai, and the reason for the defeat was sin in the camp. Now the sin has been dealt with, and God is prepared to give Israel the victory.
Joshua 8:1
VICTORY AT AINotice that God says to take all the men of war when they go against Ai. As we have said, Ai represents the flesh. The flesh is the greatest enemy you have, and you need all the resources you have to get the victory.
Joshua 8:2
You will recall that at the battle of Jericho they were not to take any of the prey or the spoil for themselves. But here God tells them to take what they want. Why the difference? Well, we now know that in Jericho social diseases were running rampant. Joshua didn’t know about disease germs, but God did. Note that God tells Joshua to take Ai by ambush.
Joshua 8:3
As we read on, we see that the strategy worked just as Joshua planned, and the city of Ai fell easily into the hands of Israel. Because Ai represents the flesh, we learn from this episode great spiritual lessons. First of all there must be a recognition of the enemy and his potential. We must realize that the greatest enemy you and I have is ourselves. I hear folk saying, “The devil made me do it.” Well, he didn’t. It is that flesh of yours which is responsible. Second, we must examine very carefully the reasons for our defeats. Primarily the reason for defeat is our dependence upon our own ability. You remember that the spies said to Joshua, “You will need only about two or three thousand men to overcome little Ai.” And we think the flesh will be easy to overcome. We depend on ourselves to do it. We will have to come to the same place to which Paul came when he cried, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom_7:24). My friend, you and I cannot control the flesh. Only the Spirit of God can do that. The tragedy is that thousands are trying to control and eradicate it in their own strength. You might as well take a gallon of French perfume out to the barnyard, pour it on a pile of manure, and expect to make it into a sand pile in which your children might play. You cannot improve and control this thing we know as the flesh or the sin nature. God says you cannot. Only the Holy Spirit can control it. Christ died not only that you might have salvation, but He died that this sin nature might be dealt with. “…God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom_8:3). This simply means that when Christ came to this earth, He not only died for your sins that you might have salvation, but He died to bring into judgment this old sin nature. Otherwise God could not touch us with a forty-foot pole, because we are evil. Christ died because I have a sin nature and you have a sin nature. The Holy Spirit could not touch us until Christ had paid that penalty. When the penalty was paid, and our sin nature was condemned, then the Holy Spirit could and did come into our lives and bring victory out of defeat.
As Paul expressed it, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Gal_2:20). The flesh, like Ai, will defeat us unless we are depending upon the power of the Holy Spirit to win the victory.
Joshua 8:30
JOSHUA READS THE BLESSINGS AND CURSINGSWe find that after the victory at Ai, Joshua built an altar unto the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal. Then the Israelites did what Moses had commanded, and Joshua read the blessings and cursings (see Deu_11:26-32).
Joshua 8:34
Note that the entire Law of Moses was read. They did not read just a part of it; they read all of it. This was to be the law of the land, and it was time for Israel to be reminded of the conditions of God’s covenant with her.