Joshua 8 – Study

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Josh 8:1-9

1 Then the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land. 2 You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city.’

3 So Joshua and the whole army moved out to attack Ai. He chose thirty thousand of his best fighting men and sent them out at night 4 with these orders: ‘Listen carefully. You are to set an ambush behind the city. Don’t go very far from it. All of you be on the alert. 5 I and all those with me will advance on the city, and when the men come out against us, as they did before, we will flee from them. 6 They will pursue us until we have lured them away from the city, for they will say, “They are running away from us as they did before.” So when we flee from them, 7 you are to rise up from ambush and take the city. The Lord your God will give it into your hand. 8 When you have taken the city, set it on fire. Do what the Lord has commanded. See to it; you have my orders.’

9 Then Joshua sent them off, and they went to the place of ambush and lay in wait between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai – but Joshua spent that night with the people.

A. Find out:

1. How did the Lord encourage Joshua? v.1
2. What was the similarity to and difference from Jericho? v.2
3. So who went to Ai? v.3a
4. What did he do with the 30,000? v.3b,4
5. What was the task of the main force? v.5,6
6. What were the 30,000 then to do? v.7,8

B. Think:

1. Why would Joshua need encouraging?
2. How does this strategy use what has happened before?

C. Comment:

     First we observe the Lord’s primary instruction – to destroy Ai. It is a heathen stronghold, and it is in the way of the chosen people. His instruction comes with the encouragement, “I have delivered them into your hands” i.e. I have decreed that it will be! They are to completely destroy Ai but this time they may take goods and livestock.

      Second, we observe the strategy given for taking Ai. One group is to hide behind the city and wait. The main group are to advance and then pretend to fall back in defeat. When the people of Ai come out and chase them, the first group are then to go in and take the city. This strategy capitalizes on what has gone before, the inhabitants of Ai will be confident and will not be surprised if Israel are beaten back. Their confidence will be their downfall.

    What this passage reminds us is:

1. God gives us a unique approach to every difficult situation, and
2. God’s wisdom is available if we would but ask for it (James 1:3).

    How often do we assume we can do it this way because we’ve “always done it that way”? How often do we neglect to seek for God’s wisdom?

D. Application?

1. God knows best about every situation (read Luke 5:5-8) and His wisdom of how to deal with every situation if available if we will ask.
2. Commit the day into the Lord’s hands and ask for His wisdom to know how to act in it.

Passage: Josh 8:10-19

10 Early the next morning Joshua mustered his army, and he and the leaders of Israel marched before them to Ai. 11 The entire force that was with him marched up and approached the city and arrived in front of it. They set up camp north of Ai, with the valley between them and the city. 12 Joshua had taken about five thousand men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city. 13 So the soldiers took up their positions – with the main camp to the north of the city and the ambush to the west of it. That night Joshua went into the valley.

14 When the king of Ai saw this, he and all the men of the city hurried out early in the morning to meet Israel in battle at a certain place overlooking the Arabah. But he did not know that an ambush had been set against him behind the city. 15 Joshua and all Israel let themselves be driven back before them, and they fled towards the wilderness. 16 All the men of Ai were called to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua and were lured away from the city. 17 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.

18 Then the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Hold out towards Ai the javelin that is in your hand, for into your hand I will deliver the city.’ So Joshua held out towards the city the javelin that was in his hand. 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.

A. Find out:

1. Who led the army this time? v.10
2. Where did they set up camp? v.11
3. Where had they sent 5000 men? v.12
4. Where did Joshua take his men in the night? v.13
5. Why were all the men of Ai called out? v.15,16
6. How did the ambush know when to move? v.18,19

B. Think:

1. How did Joshua completely commit himself to God’s plan?
2. How did the terrain of the land help provoke the king of Ai?
3. What lesson do the men of Ai give us?

C. Comment:

     God has given the strategy to take Ai and now they follow it with complete success. Joshua has sent a detachment out at night for the ambush (v.3). Apparently five thousand of them had been separated to the side (west) of Ai while the main detachment were behind (south) Ai, presumably so that they could still keep visual contact with each other around the city. Joshua sets his main force right in front of the city (north) and then provokes the king of Ai by going down into the valley before Ai. This means that the men of Ai can charge down on them with an even greater sense of confidence. Good thinking Joshua! So the men of Ai come out, Joshua retreats as instructed, the men of Ai all come out after them in over confidence (did you note the lesson?) and the ambush is released, and Ai is taken.

     We have here another clear lesson: God gives the strategy that will succeed, if we will seek Him. We then have to implement it and as we do He will give further wisdom over the small details of the plan. Success follows us as we move in faith, courage and boldness to accomplish the plans and purposes of God.

D. Application?

1. Big things or little, God still knows best!
2. Read the following verses: Psalm 37:5,6 / Proverbs 16:3 / Philippians 4:6,7

Passage: Josh 8:20-29

20 The men of Ai looked back and saw the smoke of the city rising up into the sky, but they had no chance to escape in any direction; the Israelites who had been fleeing towards the wilderness had turned back against their pursuers. 21 For when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city and that smoke was going up from the city, they turned round and attacked the men of Ai. 22 Those in the ambush also came out of the city against them, so that they were caught in the middle, with Israelites on both sides. Israel cut them down, leaving them neither survivors nor fugitives. 23 But they took the king of Ai alive and brought him to Joshua.

24 When Israel had finished killing all the men of Ai in the fields and in the wilderness where they had chased them, and when every one of them had been put to the sword, all the Israelites returned to Ai and killed those who were in it. 25 Twelve thousand men and women fell that day – all the people of Ai. 26 For Joshua did not draw back the hand that held out his javelin until he had destroyed all who lived in Ai. 27 But 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. 29 He impaled the body of the king of Ai on a pole and left it there until evening. At sunset, Joshua ordered them to take the body from the pole and throw it down at the entrance of the city gate. And they raised a large pile of rocks over it, which remains to this day.

A. Find out:

1. What did the men of Ai see? v.20
2. What had Israel ‘s army done when they saw it? v.21
3. Why were the men of Ai caught? v.22
4. How many people died that day? v.24,25
5. What did Israel save? v.27
6. What did they do with Ai? v.28

B. Think:

1. What effects do you think the “Achan affair” had on the Israelites as they went to war against Ai a second time?
2. What resulted?

C. Comment:

     Today, perhaps because of live TV coverage, we abhor war and destruction (although that doesn’t stop it happening!) and yet because we see it regularly on news bulletins it is something we almost take for granted. When therefore, we read of the total destruction of twelve thousand men, women and children by Israel, our first reaction may not be easy to cope with.

      First we need to remember some very basic facts to get it into perspective. Romans 1 reminds us that NO man has an excuse, God CAN be known through Creation. It also concludes that ALL men are therefore liable to God’s judgement because of willful sin. Note: ALL Men! It is God’s mercy and grace that allows men who will call on Him to be saved, through Jesus’ death.

     Now we have here in Canaan, various groups of pagan idol worshippers who sacrificed their children and committed other abominable practices that we would put alongside witchcraft today. These had the option of repenting or dying, and they chose dying, they chose opposition to the purposes of Almighty God. If we have horror at the destruction of Ai, let us also have horror for millions going to eternal destruction because they, in their foolishness, refuse to repent.

D. Application?

1. Consider people around you who don’t know the Lord and pray for them today.
2. Sin destroys!

Passage: Josh 8:30-35

30 Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, 31 as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the Israelites. He built it according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses – an altar of uncut stones, on which no iron tool had been used. On it they offered to the Lord burnt offerings and sacrificed fellowship offerings. 32 There, in the presence of the Israelites, Joshua wrote on stones a copy of the law of Moses. 33 All the Israelites, with their elders, officials and judges, were standing on both sides of the ark of the covenant of the Lord, facing the Levitical priests who carried it. Both the foreigners living among them and the native-born were there. Half of the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had formerly commanded when he gave instructions to bless the people of Israel.

34 Afterwards, Joshua read all the words of the law – the blessings and the curses – just as it is written in the Book of the Law. 35 There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read to the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children, and the foreigners who lived among them.

A. Find out:

1. What did Joshua now build? v.30
2. Where did he do it? v.30
3. How did he build it? v.31a
4. What did he do with it? v.31b
5. What did he next do? v.32
6. Where did the people stand? v.33
7. What did Joshua do? v.34,35

B. Think:

1. Read Deuteronomy 11:29 What is Joshua now doing?
2. What do you think is the point of this?
3. Read 2 Timothy 3:16,17

C. Comment:

     Having just overcome their second opposition in the land, Israel now pause as their reach Mount Ebal, to acknowledge the Lord and His Law. These two peaks clearly stood out and so Moses used them as markers to indicate Israel were well and truly in the land. Having arrived there, they were reminded of the blessings and the curses that God had placed before them. Mount Ebal was where the curses were read out and it was there that Joshua erected the altar and sacrificed to the Lord. Curses remind them of their failure and need for atonement, which is the purpose of the sacrifice.

     Between the two peaks is a natural amphitheater where it is possible to clearly hear words called out from both sides. Thus the Law was read in the hearing of the people, as if to remind them that this is God’s land, and they are to be careful to follow His Law. Reminders are needed again that God is THE Lord, the only one to be followed. He alone is the source of the Law and the provider of the means of salvation for all who fail it. Thus in the land they are careful to restate that. After great conquests, pause and remember, it’s the Lord!

D. Application?

1. We all fail. We all deserve to be cursed, but Jesus became a curse for us (Galatians 3:10 -14).
2. Thank the Lord for His salvation, Jesus.