GOD’S LOVE AND JUSTICE
Opening Prayer
Lord, the wise can learn from the mistakes of others.
Read JOSHUA 8:18–29
18 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Hold out toward Ai the javelin that is in your hand, for into your hand I will deliver the city.” So Joshua held out toward 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.
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 toward 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 it, they turned around 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[a] 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[b] 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.
Footnotes
a. Joshua 8:26 The Hebrew term refers to the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them.
b. Joshua 8:28 Ai means the ruin.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
‘It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God’ (Heb 10:31).
Think Further
For us today, this passage is a gruesome account of a massacre – not only of the army of Ai, but of ‘all who lived in Ai’ (26), presumably including women and children – and the capture and execution of the king. We need to understand the context and to remember that Joshua believes he is carrying out God’s instructions to destroy evil. David Jackman explains that ‘God’s wrath against sin is a facet of the perfect righteousness of his judgment, which requires the punishment of all evil that opposes itself to the holiness of the Creator of all’ (Jackman, p91). We also need to remember the context from the previous chapter, when God’s holiness required the death of Achan and threatened the withdrawal of God’s presence from Israel. The same holiness demands the wiping out of the evil of Ai.
Chapters 7 and 8 show Joshua’s leadership qualities. He falls before God in humility. He accepts God’s judgment. He receives God’s instructions and executes them. He leads the troops into battle. His javelin (18) recalls Moses and the staff of God (Exod 17:9–16), when Israel triumphed over the Amalekites at Rephidim, and confirms his status as a leader like Moses. Verse 27 is an ironic postscript on the events of chapters 7 and 8. Achan died because he unilaterally took some of the spoils for himself. How pointless was his sin: had he waited, he could have had all he wanted.
As we reflect further on the passage and what it means for us, perhaps we need to recognize that without passages like this ‘we might never fear sin’ (Dale R Davis, Joshua: No Falling Words, Christian Focus, 2000, p69) and be thankful that on ‘that Good Friday afternoon, and because He [Jesus] took our place, atoned for our sins, and carried our guilt we will not face the fate of the king of Ai, which is what we deserve’ (Jackman, p92–93).
Apply
‘The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom’ (Prov 9:10). How do we fear the Lord?
Closing prayer
Lord, the wicked flee before the righteous only because You are the Commander of the heavenly and the earthly army.
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