JOSHUA 8
In this chapter the elements of unfaithfulness have been judged. God cannot go on with His people while unfaithfulness is unjudged, but when the elements of unfaithfulness are judged God can resume His place with Israel and say, “Fear not, neither be dismayed”. That is based on the unsparing judgment of unfaithfulness.
[p. 43] It is very striking that the ark never goes into battle again after Jericho. I think it gives the overthrow of Jericho a very important and distinctive place: that is, Jericho stands in opposition to Christ as the ark. We might say the battle there was between the ark and Jericho. The seven days were an educational period; the people had to go repeatedly round Jericho, and take account of its fortifications, the strength of the city and the height of it; and to take account of it in company with the ark, moving with the ark and listening all the time to the priestly trumpets. They went before the ark just as trumpeters go before the king or some great personage. The children of Israel listened to that for seven days, and at the end of that time they had faith enough to bring down the walls of Jericho. In that time they had so learned the power of Christ that all the strength of the world as opposed to Christ must come down.
At Ai, on the other hand, they sought to rely on their own strength. They had to learn their own weakness. The day of triumph had hardly passed before they exposed their own weakness, showing that, like the saints of today, they had not learned their lesson. The first lesson in the land is Jericho, the second is Ai. These two cities are the only two where the detail is given, because they cover the whole conflict for the inheritance. After Ai, Joshua begins formally to take possession of the land, building an altar and setting up the law, pronouncing everything which Moses commanded. It is the formal assumption of the land. Every question was settled. If we learn the lessons of Jericho and Ai there will be no fear of us. In Jericho it is a question of the ark, a question of the introduction of the will of God in Christ. God has introduced Christ into this scene of lawlessness and insubjection, and He will cause every whit of lawlessness and insubjection to fall before the One who came into this world to do His will. That is the way He secures all His rights. The great lesson of Jericho is the securing the rights of Jehovah. Nothing at Jericho is secured for the people; everything is for Jehovah. When we come to Ai it is another question; it is a question of the portion of His people. Those are the two questions which cover everything. If all that is due to God is secured, and all that God has designed to bestow on His people is secured, we have everything covered. All the spoil of Jericho is for Jehovah, and all the spoil of Ai is for His people. The ark secured everything [p. 44] in the rights of God for the pleasure of God. Then the outstretched javelin is the Spirit of the Lord; the power at Ai is in the Spirit.
It is obvious that there are two great questions connected with Jericho and Ai. The first question is what is due to God. It is due to God that His will should prevail, and Christ came in as the ark with God’s law written in His heart — “Lo, I come to do thy will”. He brings God’s will in, and when God’s will comes in the creature will must fall — the two cannot go on. It is our privilege to see the Jericho system levelled with the ground now by the power of the ark. After Jericho it is not the ark; it is the people of God and the men of war. Now the question of spiritual condition in the saints is raised.
If things are dependent on the spiritual state in the people of God, there is something that the enemy can work on, and he works by introducing elements of unfaithfulness. The first human element to be introduced in the book is in the spies saying, “Let not all the people go up; let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai”, chapter 7:3 Flow commendable it sounds to the brethren! The people had to learn to disallow that sectarian spirit which introduced a principle fatal to the constitution of Israel. However nice it might sound, it was a sectarian principle, a spirit independent of Israel, a sectional movement. The people had to learn to disallow that. No doubt we have all noticed how insistent the Spirit is over and over again in saying, “Joshua and all Israel with him”. That is, the people had to learn to disallow what was sectional and independent; they had to learn that all Israel must move with Joshua. People might say, Do not let all the people toil there, it is only a little local trouble, only a small affair. But if it is conflict for the inheritance, it is the business of all Israel, and there is nothing local about it. Every conflict in relation to the inheritance is the business of all Israel: if God raises a question at any place which has reference to the inheritance in any shape or form, it is not a local question, it is a universal question; and all Israel must realise that they have to participate in the conflict. It affects the whole assembly, and the whole assembly will be, and is, identified with the fighting in that place.
We see here that, the moment the thing is transferred to the people, there is weakness. As long as it was the ark and the enemy, there was no question, but, the moment it ceases to [p. 45] be the ark and the enemy, it becomes the men of war and the enemy, and we have elements of weakness at once. It is like Paul’s address to the Ephesian elders. In the fast part we have the ark of the covenant. He speaks of his ministry, repentance towards God, faith in our Lord Jesus, the gospel of the grace of God, and the whole counsel of God. That is all on the divine side and there is no element of weakness there; all is introduced in divine power in connection with the ark. But then Paul says, “after my departure” — that is another story. Now it is a question of the condition of those who will be left as men of war.
The base of operations was Gilgal, and there had been no return to or going up from there. If they had gone back to Gilgal, speaking typically, they would not have introduced any element of human expediency; they would not have said that two or three thousand was enough.
The stratagem in chapter 8, however, was not a matter of human expediency; it was God’s suggestion. Jehovah Himself said, “Lay an ambush”. They had become free now and had learnt to judge human elements; they disallowed the principle on which they had acted before, and they are in obedience here to the word of Jehovah. God Himself is the One who plans the campaign; they have only to carry out the plan of campaign as given to them by Jehovah. Human expediency and unfaithfulness, and what is sectional which loses sight of all Israel, are dreadful to God. They went into conflict in a sectional way, two or three thousand, but God says, Take with you all the people of war. We should understand that we cannot hold aloof from or stand out of any spiritual conflict. There is a great disposition to do so; we know the principle of neutrality has been formally declared among the people of God; it has been set up as a principle. It is spiritual wickedness; it is monstrous to think that the people of God are not to move together in the conflict. We should say that all the people of God are to move together in the enjoyment of privilege; if we do, we must move together in conflict. If any conflict arises that has any bearing on the inheritance, every man in Israel must be in it.
The element of unfaithfulness caused great distress to Joshua; the absence of Jehovah’s support distressed him greatly, and he lay on his face. He had to learn that some unfaithfulness had come in which characterised all Israel.
[p. 46] A principle of unfaithfulness affecting one individual, if not judged, contaminates all Israel, so that even a spiritual element is hindered. No amount of good will neutralise an element of evil. The evil must be judged, and, as soon as it is, God can go on with His people; if it is not judged, He cannot go on with them. However many devoted and spiritual men there may be, if an element of evil is unjudged, God cannot go on with His people. It is a searching exercise, and shows the character of divine holiness. Joshua was equal to the situation here, and in the chapter before when he got the mind of God. The action of God was restrained, and Joshua, representing the people as led by the Spirit of Christ, has to go through deep exercise, and he and all the people have to judge these unfaithful elements. They have to take Achan and his house and his ill-gotten gains and burn them with fire and put a heap of stones on them. Then God can resume complacent relations with His people and tell them how victory is to be got over Ai. They had to learn defeat; and the first thing that contributed to it was that they underestimated the power of the enemy. When we get out of communion we always think less of the work and power of the enemy than we ought to. It is very important to take a proper estimate of the enemy, and it is the mark of a good general to rightly estimate the enemy he has to do with. Paul did not underestimate the foe; he speaks of high things, strongholds, and imaginations that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God, and in Ephesians 5 he speaks about universal lords of darkness, principalities and authorities. He clothes the enemy with titles of impressive dignity. It was the same with the Lord. In reading the Psalms that are personal to Christ we see that He never underestimated His enemies. In His reference to His adversaries, those who hated Him, all these Psalms show what a just estimate He had of the power of the enemy.
Human power is absolutely futile; it can do nothing. The smallest bit of the enemy’s power is too much for me. Ai was a tiny place, but it was too much for them. If we think we are a match for the enemy’s power we shall be defeated. Nothing will meet the enemy’s power but the work of God in His people and the action of His Spirit — those are the two lessons of Ai. The work of God in His people is the ambush, and the action of the Spirit of Christ publicly is the stretching out of the javelin; and the two answer one to the other.
[p. 47] Satan can imitate light; he shows himself an angel of light, but he cannot imitate life. He cannot imitate what is wrought of God in the souls of His people; everything in conflict depends on that — that is the ambush behind the city. God meets the enemy in a way that he never expected — by His work in the souls of His people. That always baffles the enemy. Light does not baffle him; often the greatest adversaries of the truth are those who have light. Joshua represents the Spirit of Christ. Jehovah’s word was, “Set an ambush”, and Joshua obeys Him. He arose and took all the people of war, and he chose thirty thousand valiant men. The suggestion is that God hides what He does from the enemy; He works secretly in a way that the enemy does not suspect. I believe that represents the work of God in the souls of His people which the enemy never anticipated. It is expression in life, what is vitally wrought. Job had to meet the power of the enemy, but the enemy found elements in Job that he never expected to find. The ambush was there, something wrought of God, hidden from the enemy. Satan says, Do this and that and Job will curse you — he did not take account of the work of God in Job’s soul.
It is a blessed thing when elements of unfaithfulness are so judged that God can energise His work in His people. His work is always there, but God is not always able to energise it so that it becomes effective against the enemy. The thirty thousand and five thousand valiant men are typical of those in whom the work of God is energised. This ambush is set behind the city; it is something which the adversaries cannot follow; they are not aware of it. When Joshua stretches out his javelin, the two work together; the moment he stretched out his javelin they rose up. What is wrought of God in His people always answers to any public token which the Spirit may give at any moment. I think that Joshua stretching out the javelin towards Ai indicates the public token. “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall raise up a standard against him”, Isaiah 59:19. There is a public token in the outstretched javelin that was never let down until every one of the inhabitants of Ai were gone. There was something here which was at work to hinder the people of God from enjoying their God-given portion. All the spoil of Ai was to be for the people; all the spoil of Jericho was for God — God’s portion comes first. In Ai it was a question of the people’s portion; it represents the whole system of spiritual wickedness which stands up to prevent the people of God from enjoying the house of God, its wealth, its food, and its privileges. Bethel and Ai go together. Ai means a heap, and it sets forth the whole heap of things which prevent the people of God from enjoying things. Bethel is the house of God. The two go together, and both are united in this particular part of the conflict. Ai gives the negative side and Bethel the positive side, because it has to do with the portion of the people of God. Joshua said, All the spoil of Ai is for you. The epistle to the Galatians is like Ai; great spiritual forces are at work to rob the people of God of their God-given portion. It is met by the work of God in the souls of His people. Paul says, “I have confidence in you through the Lord”. He had confidence that there was a divine work in them. The epistle is like Joshua holding out the javelin. Galatians is a very militant epistle. The work of God answers there to the testimony given, to the holding out of the javelin.
The troubler has to bear his guilt and be destroyed.
The character of Jehovah’s land was vindicated in the burial of the king of Ai. God had given a commandment that, if a man was hanged, his body was not to be left there all night. It was to be taken down before sunset; the land was not to be defiled, for it was Jehovah’s land. The taking down of the king of Ai and burying him signified that the land was Jehovah’s and had to be preserved from defilement, so that God might be worshipped there and honoured in the testimony of His people.
If God gets what is due to Him in the spoil of Jericho and the people get their portion in the spoil of Ai, the whole object of heavenly warfare is secured. The result comes out in the latter portion of this chapter 8; that is, the people are seen in their true place Godward and manward. They are seen as worshippers now; they have been warriors up to this point. At Jericho and Ai they are warriors, but at mount Ebal they become worshippers, and that is the result of spiritual victories.
There seems to be a kind of moral link between the stones in the earlier chapter and the stones here. We have seen the stones of memorial in Gilgal and in Jordan representing all the people of God, but here we have stones put together as an altar. We are not told here that there were twelve stones, but we know that, when Elijah built his altar, he was careful to [p. 49] have twelve stones. The stones represent the people of God viewed from the standpoint of divine purpose and calling, and they are viewed in this type as set together in view of worship. The stones in this book represent the people of God as after the order of Christ by divine calling and constitution; they are not humanly formed; no human tool has anything to do with their formation. They are whole stones, viewed as purely the product of the work of God. The altar here suggests the people of God put together in view of the service of God, in view of the burnt offering and the peace offering, which would be worship. The stones being built together as the altar suggest the saints as divinely set together so that they can become the means by which God is served in relation to Christ, for the burnt offering and the peace offering speak of Christ.
The enemy is overthrown so that God may have a worshipping people, and a people who are a large and fair copy of His own blessed will so that everybody can see it just as they saw it in Christ. So here the ark is brought in, and not only the ark — Christ personally — but a people who stand on this side and that side of the ark, a people morally identified with Christ so that what was true in Christ becomes true in them. What a beautiful spectacle in the land — an altar and a large and legibly written copy of the law! This is a type of what will be brought about in Israel. God will write His law in their hearts and minds; and, if it is written in the inward parts of a man, it will be expressed to his outward parts.
This incident closes the chapter, bringing the matter to a divine conclusion. Jericho has been overthrown; there is nothing left to challenge the rights of God, and Ai has been overthrown — there has been nothing left to challenge the blessing of His people. Now what is the result? There is an altar, a people identified with the ark; and there is an immense tablet on which the law is written very plainly.
It is interesting that the altar was set up on mount Ebal whence the curses came. In Deuteronomy we only have the curses; we are told of six tribes cursing and six blessing, but when we come to the detail of it we only have the curses. That suggests to me that, if we can say Amen to the curses, the blessings will be all right. If we are in harmony with the judgment of God in connection with everything displeasing to Him, there is no fear of us; the blessings will be all right.
[p. 50] We cannot say Amen to the curses and miss the blessings; the blessings practically depend on our saying Amen to the curses. Everything that is under the curse with God is to be under the curse with us; and if we are in that position there is no question at all about the enjoyment of the blessings.
In John 3 we accept the condemnation of the man after the flesh in the lifting up of the brazen serpent — that clears the ground so that there can be spirit and truth in the soul, and worship flows out of it. Worship is more an attitude and appreciation of Christ; they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and according to Deuteronomy 27 they ate together and rejoiced before Jehovah. It is a blessed scene, not only of worship but of fellowship. The burnt offering speaks of Christ as the ground of acceptance with God; we come before God in the joy of that, we are identified with the acceptability of Christ, so that we can speak of Christ to the blessed God out of spirit and truth. On the other hand our fellowship is formed, we can eat together and have common thoughts of Christ, so that the worship Godward and the fellowship of one another go together. If there is no worship there is no fellowship. It is a wonderful picture — the altar set up in the land and the people standing on both sides identified with the ark. It is a profound delight to God to see His people unified in appreciation of Christ: it springs from God’s pleasure and goes back to Him.
Joshua “wrote there on the stones a copy of the law of Moses which he had written before the children of Israel”. The law is written on this great public tablet big enough for the whole law to be written very plainly. If the people of God were set together according to the mind of God they would be a fair copy of everything that is in the will of God; people would be able to look at them and see that will written practically and livingly on them. I suppose the two things balance each other — in proportion as we have altar character Godward we shall have this stone character manward. If we have divine worship and divine fellowship on the one hand, there is public testimony on the other; it covers the whole position. Towards God worship, among ourselves fellowship, and towards man testimony.
What is in the Bible is to be in the saints; there is no living witness until it is in the saints. Moses wrote the law in a book [p. 51] as a witness against the children of Israel, as we read in Deuteronomy 31. That is the solemn thing today; the Bible is a divine witness against God’s people, because what is written in the book is not written in them. What a terrible thing that the book of God should become a solemn, divine witness against the people of God! God’s thought was not that, but that His people should be a legible copy of what was written in the book — that is the copy that men take account of. Men do not care much for the Bible, but they would be greatly affected if they saw the Bible livingly in the people of God; that would move them, and they would begin to think that there was something in it after all.
Then there was the reading of the law, which is very important. “All Israel and their elders, and their officers and judges, stood on this side and on that side of the ark before the priests the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, as well the stranger as the home-born Israelite; half of them toward Mount Gerizim, and the other half of them toward Mount Ebal; as Moses the servant of Jehovah had commanded, that they should bless the people of Israel, in the beginning. And afterwards he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua read not before the whole congregation of Israel, and the women, and the children, and the strangers that lived among them”. We have a company now, the whole assembly, including the women and children, viewed as in such a state that every word that had been written could be read in their hearing. They were in correspondence with the blessing and in correspondence with the curses. It says that there was not a word that Joshua did not read. I fancy there are a great many words that we do not read. There are things we pass over because we are not prepared for them; we are not prepared to listen to that particular word. Responsibility is connected with hearing — “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear”, Matthew 11: 15. When we hear we come under responsibility and it is solemn.
Writing in Scripture is connected with what God does in the souls of His people. He says, “I will put my law in their hearts, and in their minds will I write them”. Paul says to the Corinthians, “Ye are manifested to be Christ’s epistle ministered [p. 52] by us, written, not with ink, but the Spirit of the living God; not on stone tables, but on fleshy tables of the heart”. The writing is what God does, but the reading is connected with our responsibility. If God speaks I am responsible to hear, and God expects His people, when they hear, to say Amen.