To take Ai and the Amorites, after Israel's Defeat by Ai
Strategies of the Battle
The Lord Directs /Commands the battle after Israel's intense and deep repentance and supplication. Victory is promised.
The City is to be taken like Jericho
The spoil is to be taken this time {a reward}
An ambush behind the City is to be laid [2]
Siege is laid by night [3]
This time, Joshua commands a siege by 30,000 men: not 3000/(10x).
Joshua commands his men to 'lie in wait' against the City and behind the City.
When the people of the City see Israel come near, they chase out after the
Israelites, who feign fleeing. v 5-6
5000 men set in ambush on west side of Ai
At morning, Joshua numbers the people and sets encampment.
Joshua lead Israel into the plain at night, Men of Ai rise early to battle.
Israel feigns being beaten and feigns fleeing in the wilderness [14-15]
As the inhabitants of Ai rush out of the City, the Israelite ambush takes the city from the surround. They are then commanded to burn the City so that the Ai-ites cannot return.
Place of the Battle
City of Ai Ambush is between Bethel and Ai on the West side
of Ai
Intelligence
The Intelligence was first gathered at the Defeat by Ai: misinformation was gathered and they thought there were only 3000. Their knowledge this time came from experience of the first battle, and obedience to God's direction.
Results of the Battle
As the men chase out after Israel, they leave the door open. As soon as the men of Ai are out, the ambush from the west and the men from the north take the city, destroy and burn it. Smoke of city 'reaches to heaven' and as men of Ai seek to return to the defensed City, they discover Israel has taken it and they flee in the wilderness where they are devoured. Men of Ai are slain.
King of Ai taken alive. [25]
12,000 of Ai killed.
Ai was burned.
King of Ai hung on tree. Body laid at the Gates where a heap of stones was left.
Reward
All the spoil taken as commanded .
Spiritual Implications
Israel builds an altar [8:30]
Israel goes this time in obedience to God and wins
Because Israel purged the "accursed thing' (see defeat at Ai) they are given the total spoil of Ai. (The babylonish spoil was forbidden)
Total victory given with little or no loss of Israeli life mentioned. Obedience is better than sacrifice.
Implications for Faith
Wait for Lord's timing and direction: victory assured.
Cleverness with a God-given idea (the ambush & burning of the City) resulted in Israel taking the City completely and destroying Ai's inhabitants.
Total victory often involves taking down the head of a stronghold whether it be a King or a stronghold of sin.
Cross-references & Other Critical Facts
1Ai was one of the 'Royal' Cities of Canaan [Open Bible]meaning that the defeat thereof was more than the defeat of the city alone, but of surrounding areas: take one take all. Later at the time of Ezra, Israel rebuilds and inhabits. The name Ai means "ruin"
The intent was to take Ai, but they failed. It followed the incident of Achan, when an 'accursed thing' [idol] was taken as spoil against direction.
Strategies of the Battle
Joshua sends men up to Ai from Jericho, :
The men are instructed to view the land, to see the viability of battle.
Place of the Battle
Ai, beside Bethaven, on east side of Bethel. 7:2
Intelligence
The Men from Jericho return to Joshua, claiming Ai can be taken, because they think there are not many. Joshua advised to send up only a few men, 2-3,000.
Results of the Battle
Israel fails miserably. They flee before Ai. 7:4
Ai smites Israel: kills @36 men.
Chases them from the gate unto Sehbarim, continues to 'smite'.
Reward
one, they are defeated.
They are overwhelmingly demoralized.
Joshua and elders of Israel fall on knees in repentance & supplication.7:7-10
Spiritual Implications
The implications here are many"
To begin with: Israel had hidden a false god [idol] in their Camp via Achan (7:1) and that was not remedied.
Secondly, this is one of the few battles where even Joshua appears to make the decision to enter battle based solely upon the 'natural': there is not any supplication before the battle: decision to enter battle is made totally on "intelligence" which ends up being fatally flawed.
Because for relying totally on natural-decision-making; 1)
Joshua sends too few into battle
Whether God was with them or not, there was no supplication for his aid.
Implications for Faith
When Joshua and his men lose this demoralizing battle, Joshua turns in intense prayer with the elders of Israel BEFORE THE ARK, until 'eventide'.(7:6)
When clothes are rent in Israel, there is serious repentance, it is a sign of
sorrow. Joshua's fear is that God has brought them over Jordan to be slaughtered, and that they may be humiliated in front of their enemies, the Canaanites.; Joshua's assessment is that they should have been content.
God's response to the Prayer: He admonishes Israel for:
a)Transgressed God's covenant (v11)
b)taken the accursed thing
c)stolen and dissembled (for their own greed).
They were accursed, because they partook of the cursed thing. In order for God to be with them again, they had to remove the cursed thing from among them.
He instructs Joshua to sanctify the people [13] and to take away the accursed thing.
The Lord requires the complete erasure and purging by fire of the accursed thing and the one who has brought it into the camp. Achan from the family of the Zarhites {v 17]. is found to have taken riches from babylonish spoil which was forbidden, and hidden them.[21] Achan and his family, the accursed things and all his worldly possessions were stoned and burned, completely destroyed, so Israel was purged of the 'disease' that caused them to fail in battle. We are required as believers to: 1. Remove what is unholy from our lives and sanctify ourselves 2). Only face battles and struggles according to the will and seeking of God and 3)upon failures, immediately turn to the Lord, seeking guidance, obeying immediately and purging from our lives and presence that which quenches the Holy Spirit.
Cross-references & Other Critical Facts
1Place of the Stoning named "Valley of Achor" the valley of suffering or sorrow, which is mentioned again
in Hosea: it figures in the battles of the end, in Armaggedon at Meggido, when
the Valley of Achor, the suffering of Israel, turns to the place of hope. (Isaiah 65:
Achor, a place for herds to lie down, a place of peace.) Hosea 2:15 ["And I will
give her her vineyardss from thence and the valley of Achor for a door of hope;
and she shall sing there, as in the days of her outh, and as in the day when she
came up out of the land of Egypt." It is where [16, the Lord is called 'husband'
in an endearing way [ishi] instead of just master and Lord. If the purging of the
accursed things of the world from the believers life and Israel's life seems harsh
and cruel, the destiny of the believer without the LORD as husband, without the
perfect communion with God in Heaven is far more severe and cruel.
To take Jericho; the most formidable stronghold in Canaan.
Strategies of the Battle
Israel encamped across Jordan. God dried up the Jordan so the army could pass over, beginning
with the Priests. 4:18.
Spies sent out, hid in the house of Rahab on the Wall
For 6 days, they encompassed the City of Jericho once, by God's Command 6:2
The priests went before the Ark with trumpets of ram's horns 6:3
On the 7th day, the City was compassed 7 times; the Priests blew the trumpets: 6:3
Upon the trumpet sound, the entire people made a shout, and "the walls came tumbling down"; they
were to then rush the City.
Place of the Battle
The battle starts across the Jordan with the encampment of Israel. It continues
across the Plains of Jericho, and then at Jericho proper.
Intelligence
This history presents one of the premiere examples of early Israeli 'intelligence'. Joshua sends
out spies to Jericho early, which later becomes impossible to penetrate because when they see the Hebrew
encampment, the gates are shut up and no one is to go in or out.[6:1] The spies are hidden by Rahab, who
was summoned by the King of Jericho to produce the men, but she claims that while the men did come to her,
she did not know who they were. (She hides them.) In exchange for her secrecy, her and her family are
promised protection, and in the end, they are the inhabitants who are kept safe. She ends up in the genea
logy of the Messiah. Matthew 1:4 The spies return
with word to Joshua, safe and unharmed.
Results of the Battle
The Children of Israel move as follows: The Priests carrying the Ark, walk to the foot of the Jordan
and the ground dries up, allowing safe passage. After the priests, the troops move over. After the 6 days of
surrounding Jericho in a march, and after the trumpet sound and shout of the Seventh Day, The walls of Jericho
crumble. One of the singularly greatest acts of faith and God's power in the Old Testament.
Reward
The City of Jericho is totally taken, the inhabitants are destroyed except for the House of Rahab
The gold, silver, iron and brass are taken into the treasury of the Lord (6:19) but no other spoil is to be
touched, it is declared "accursed".
Spiritual Implications
With Gideon's remarkable war against the Amalekites with only 300 men, this War stands alone as one
of the Greatest acts of Faith of the new Generation of Israelites which took Canaan, the land their fathers
and forefathers had been promised. Swords,fire and human power did not bring down the Walls of Jericho,
God's Might and Faith did. Israel had to be obedient in a very unusual endeavor: encircling a city,
shouting and blowing ram's horns is not a traditional means of military strategy. The "unusual"
means was totally rooted in the trust of a new generation in the power of a God who fed them in the
desert as they grew up, and gave them victory after victory under Moses and then Joshua. With
the taking of Jericho, Canaan, was a foregone conclusion. While battles remained to be fought, the
evidence of the Abrahamic Covenant of the Land made manifest.
Implications for Faith
A generation trained in the Lord, having seen God work, from the beginning will fair better than those first in the World
Obedience to God even when the very unusual is asked, and the ability to put human pride and reason aside, will bring corollary, magnificent
victories and establish God's plan.
Once the greatest stronghold of a goal is taken, the rest may require struggle, but the victory is set.
The dry ground in the River Jordan dried as the Priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant, touched the water
with their feet: the presence of God makes a way where there is none: this is a parallel to the Great Dry Ground
of the Red Sea Pass when Israel stood up and left Egypt.
Cross-references & Other Critical Facts
1Rahab is the progenitor of Boaz, who begets Jesse, who begets David. There are parallels to this
battle in the battle of Gideon against the Amalekites, as a remnant surrounds the enemies, breaks jars, shouts and shine lights.
Also, in the next events, some of the spoil of Babylon actually is taken by Achan: this causes a defeat at Ai (see above)
To the Next Tables1Notes and Research by E. Best footnotes and references
available upon request. orignal design by Brendan Best (c)1999
