The enemy completely destroyed. So Joshua burned Ai and made it a rubbish heap forever, a desolation until this day. Jos 8:28
INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD TESTAMENT
INTRODUCTION
Though there are evident traces of the hand of an editing scribe, probably Ezra, there are many indications that the substance of this book was written while the events were still recent. There is therefore no good reason for doubting that the book in its original form was written by Joshua, as Jewish tradition alleges.
This book is to the Old Testament what the Acts of the Apostles is to the New. The name “Joshua” is equivalent to Jesus, and means “he shall save,” Heb_4:8. The Jericho of the early Church was Jerusalem, which they compassed through ten days of prayer as Israel compassed Jericho in seven days of marching. At Pentecost the walls of prejudice fell flat. Ananias and Sapphira were the Achan of the first days. The victories of the Church at Samaria, Antioch and elsewhere recall the conquests of Joshua. And the failure of the Church to go forward to the conquest of the nations finds a bitter parallel in the story of Israel’s apathy toward driving out the Canaanites.
Possessing the Promised Land
II. THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN, Joshua 6-12
2. Achan and Ai, Jos_7:1-26; Jos_8:1-29
14. How was defeat now turned into victory?
THE FALL OF AI
Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Reach out with the spear that is in your hand [and point it] toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.” So Joshua reached out with the spear in his hand [and pointed it] toward the city.
The [men in] ambush emerged quickly from their [hiding] place, and when Joshua stretched out his hand they ran and entered the city and captured it, and quickly set the city on fire.
When the men of Ai turned back and looked, behold, the smoke of the city was ascending toward the sky, and they had no opportunity to run this way or that way. Then the people who had been running to the wilderness turned back toward the pursuers.
When Joshua and all Israel saw that the [men in] ambush had taken the city and that the smoke of the city was ascending, they turned back and struck down the men of Ai.
Then the others came out of the city to confront the men of Ai [as they returned], so that they were trapped in the midst of Israel, some on this side and some on that side; then Israel struck them until none of them survived or escaped.
But they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.
When Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field in the wilderness where they pursued them, and they had all fallen by the edge of the sword until they were destroyed, then all Israel returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword.
And all who fell that day, both men and women, were twelve thousand, all the people of Ai.
For Joshua did not withdraw his hand with which he stretched out the spear until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai.
Israel took only the livestock and the spoil of that city as plunder for themselves, according to the word of the LORD which He had commanded Joshua.
Jos 8:28 forever, a desolation until this day.
hanged [the body of] the king of Ai on a tree [leaving it there] until evening; at sunset Joshua gave a command and they took the body down from the tree and dumped it at the entrance of the city gate, and piled a great heap of stones over it that stands to this day.
Comments by
F.B.Meyer
On
Joshua 8:18-29
THE ENEMY COMPLETELY DESTROYED
Joshua’s preparations were skillfully made, and in that very place where Israel had been so disastrously defeated they scored a great victory and took large spoil, especially cattle, which they drove in triumph to the camp at Gilgal.
Taught by Christ’s gentle spirit, we turn our eyes away from the doom that befell the entire population. In those days notions of God’s justice were not tempered by knowledge of His mercy. But the Bible records the slow growth of even the religious leaders of the race in the true knowledge of God, Act_26:9.
Be of good cheer, you that have been repeatedly overwhelmed by your strong enemies! Your failure arises from some hidden evil lurking in your soul! Put that away! Cast it out as a cancer! Where you were defeated you shall be more than conqueror, through the grace of Christ.
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