Victory at Ai (Part C)

Grace does not destroy the law of Moses. It gives birth to what the law was meant to do.

It's convict men and then provide a means to save them, which of course he is the fulfillment of. And when you come across Christians who put Moses before Christ, you have a problem every time. They destroy grace. They make religion oppressive. It's just, I don't want to be a Christian if that's it. They'll squash you.

People become their victims. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Joshua.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Joshua chapter 7. Today, Pastor Rick will continue teaching through Joshua chapter 8 and his message called Victory at Ai. Verse 20, And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and behold, the smoke of the city ascended to heaven, so they had no power to flee this way or that way. And the people who had fled to the wilderness turned back on the pursuers. So those who drew these troops out, the Jews that drew them out, acting like they were retreating, well, they were retreating, but it was a feint, now turned back around and are attacking those from Ai, joining up with Joshua's other forces. So they're literally in a bad spot, the people from Ai. And so they had no power, verse 20, to flee this way or that way.

The people who had fled to the wilderness turned back on the pursuers. Now when Joshua and all Israel, verse 21, saw that the ambush had taken the city and that the smoke of the city ascended, they turned back and struck down the men of Ai. Verse 22, there's a lot happening here. Can you not see yourself part of this?

Well, if you say no, I can't, so my imagination is on other things. Well, but you can see yourself fighting your flesh. Verse 22, then the others came out of the city against them, so they were caught in the midst of Israel, some on this side, some on that side, and they struck them down so that they let none of them remain or escape.

Well, this was brutal. It was a bloodbath. It was less a massacre and more of a judgment, this whole campaign of taking the promised land. Israel's diversion force again turned back, joining the main force, and they wiped out the army. Verse 23, but the king of Ai they took alive and brought him to Joshua, verse 34, and it came to pass when Israel had made an end of slaying all the inhabitants of Ai in the field in the wilderness where they pursued them, and when they all had fallen by the edge of the sword until they were consumed, that all the Israelites returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword. Verse 25, so it was that all who fell that day, both men and women, were 12,000 and all the people of Ai.

Bethel, of course, is just bundled into that, Ai being the principal city, and the writer doesn't keep mentioning Bethel. Of course, the naysayers will come along and say, oh, this is so brutal. It's like, grow up, man.

This is life. This is so easy to shoot that argument down, but they usually don't stay for the answers. Verse 26, for Joshua did not draw back his hand with which he stretched out the spear until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. Sort of Moses-esque like when Moses held up his arms praying, and there Aaron and the man named Hur holding his arms up, while Joshua was then on the battlefield doing the actual fighting, and here Joshua has the spear out as God told him to hold it out, and he keeps it out. And, of course, when his right hand gets tied, he just puts the spear in the other hand, just lets the other one rest.

All right, let's go back to this. This large force of 30,000 probably made quick work of this operation with their swords. Now, during the Gulf War in 1990, you might, some of you may recall the highway, the highway of death, I think it was called, yeah. For those of you who don't know, the Iraqi army under Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Well, the coalition forces led by the United States drove them out.

And when they were coming to drive them out, the Iraqi army retreated back to Iraq from Kuwait along this highway number 80. And the coalition forces bombed them to smithereens. And, of course, the journalists were there with their little cameras, taking as many pictures of the burnt carcasses as they could, and that brought up this mock pity in some foolish people.

Oh, it was so horrible, you shouldn't have done that. These people were monsters who they didn't murder, they mutilated and maimed and molested. These were not troops in retreat, these were criminals in uniforms with the strength of an army. And they were judged and destroyed.

This is a similar situation. These people here were spiritual and moral reprobates, and God said concerning the Canaanites, I have had enough. He had given them centuries to correct their ways, and they did not.

Judgment fell, and the Jews were the ones that brought it. And sin has a wicked fruit, and the gospel message is that you can find a place in heaven where there is no more sin if you receive the invitation, of course. So no mercy is shown to them, and no mercy is to be shown to our flesh. There's no redeeming feature about our carnal nature. Just say, yeah, but, you know, no, no I don't, because the Spirit is superior. And when we are on our best behavior, we are on our best behavior.

It's simple enough. So Joshua, a thorough commander, obedient as a servant of God, verse 27, only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took as booty for themselves, according to the word of Yahweh, which he commanded Joshua. So Joshua, verse 28, burned Ai and made a heap over it forever, a desolation to this day.

The word is tel in the Hebrew. It's ruins, it means ruins, and so it's a play on the words Ai and the heap, a play on the two words in the Hebrew for ruins. Verse 29, and the king of Ai, he hanged on a tree until evening, and as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take the corpse down from the tree, rest it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raise over it a heap of stones that remains to this day.

Well, of course, the location of Ai is just a giant mound, and who knows what's underneath it, and I believe if archaeologists ever excavate it, they'll discover a pile of stones over what would have been a body, maybe even a skeleton. Anyway, who knows what's going to happen with that, but that's how the story ends. Joshua is compliant with God's word concerning wrongdoers. When they're hung on a tree, they're not to stay there overnight. They're to be brought down, and so he does that even to the king of Ai, and we know there are connections to the cross and the Lord not being on it overnight, but that would take up another 40 minutes. Verse 30, Now Joshua built an altar to Yahweh God of Israel in Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of Yahweh had commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones over which no man has wielded an iron tool, and they offered on it burnt offerings to Yahweh and sacrificed peace offerings. So there, Joshua built an altar, and he now joins a group of great believers set in the scripture to have built an altar. Noah built an altar. Abraham built an altar. Moses built an altar. Isaac, you know, so, and here we read, and Joshua built an altar.

Well, there were some scoundrels that did too, but that's another story. This Mount Ebal is about a little under 25 miles from this battlefield. So they head north where Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal are, and there's a lot of lessons here. You say, why Mount Ebal? Why did they not go to Mount Gerizim? Because Moses commanded, when you get into the Promised Land, you're going to split the tribes in two, one will go up Mount Gerizim, one will go up Mount Ebal, and facing each other, you will recite into the valley the blessings from Mount Gerizim and the curses from Mount Ebal.

And this is what they're now doing. So of the two mountains, why don't they choose the mountain of blessings? Mount Gerizim, why did they go up Ebal? Because the curses, the curses were associated with the altar. The altar is for those under the curse. That's, that's what's happening there.

So I don't know if I confuse you because it can be a lot if it's new information. The curses were read from Ebal, not Gerizim. That's where the altar was put because the altar is for those under the curse. Our altar is Jesus Christ. Our sacrifice on the altar is Jesus Christ.

He consumes both of them. He takes the whole thing, the whole burnt offering, it all belongs to him. And so we read, as Moses the servant of Yahweh had commanded the children of Israel, there it is, that gallant, you know, Moses the servant of God. So many of us, we, to say I'm a servant of God, it's just hard to say that. Jesus said that you're, you know, to say it this way, you are unprofitable servants because next to a holy God who can really serve him. And yet we do serve him and we are rewarded for our service. It's kind of humbling.

It's what I'm trying to get out. To read, Moses the servant of Yahweh, it should stand out to us as it is written in the book of the law of Moses. Of course it's God's law but Moses is the law giver. So the altar that they built, it expressed belief in God. That's when you put an altar, you say I believe in God but I also believe I need God because I'm a sinner and I'm a created being. It speaks also of submitting to him. For the Jewish believer it says I built an altar because I need him. I believe in him and I'm submitted to him.

But probably most importantly it says I desire him. See that's the example Abraham left behind. God does not always have to say to Abraham, how about building me an altar? Abraham did because he loved God, he wanted to, he was God's friend. And so the altar on Mount Ebal, the place of the curse, is saying these things to God in the presence of the curse, in the presence of sin and everything that's wrong. You're saying I believe you, I need you, I submit to you and I want you.

It's nothing else like it. It continues in verse 31, an altar of whole stones over which no man has wielded an iron tool. This is according to the law in Exodus chapter 20. The Jewish temple itself when it was finally built by Solomon, the whole thing was treated as an altar in this regard.

1 Kings 6 verse 7, and the temple when it was being built was built with stone finished at the quarry so that no hammer or chisel or iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built. Well that ties right into Exodus 20 verse 25. So in the Jews, you know, this is God's house, but it's an altar, it's a place where we say to God, we believe, we need, submit and want you. That separates the believer from everybody else. Jesus, as I mentioned, he is our altar, he is our place of propitiation. The cross of Christ, we who come to the cross for forgiveness, we recite the same thing, we believe, we need, we submit, we love you. No matter what happens, the iron tools, however, were reserved for our altar. That hammer and those spikes that went into the limbs of the body of Christ, there's a separation of meanings.

That was for us, he became a curse. He became a violation of God's word because he took upon himself our sin as though it were his sins. So the altar is the cross that speaks of Christ. This is what the writer to the Hebrews was trying to point out to them.

Well, we move forward to verse 32, and there we read, And there in the presence of the children of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written. And so the word of God is so central to all the victories. This will explain that the absence of the word of God was central to all the defeats in the book of Judges, which abound just everywhere in the book of Judges. The next generation came along, they weren't interested in mom and dad's religion, and they began to drift further and further away until they became these spiritual monstrosities roaming around the promised land. Israel was to be saturated with the word of God because it contributed to the defeat of the flesh. And that's why it's in this chapter.

It's not random. Joshua doesn't say, well, we whooped Jai with God's plan and the sword. End of story.

He does not do that. He says there must be sacrifice, there must be worship to God now, there must be the exaltation of his word. And so there's this long 25-mile trek, and we don't know how many of them. We'll be told that the men, women, and children are all there. It's a national thing, not a church service, it's a national event. And they trek up to Mount Gerizim, and there they have this festival of worship before the Lord in the land that still has to be subdued. Before the land was subdued, they were worshiping God and conducting their spiritual practices as we do before we are raptured. We, you know, occupy until I come, Jesus said. Do business until I come. You've got work to do until I come for you through rapture or through death.

You have work to do. Verse 33, well, just to review 32, there in the presence of the children of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written. There's several ways he could have done that, could have plastered over the stones and inscribed.

There's a lot of ways, but he did it. Verse 33, and he probably left out the narratives and just adhered to the commandments of God. I mean, if you read the law of Moses, much of it is a narrative.

It's a story being told. Well, he probably leaves that part out, but what he does put in is, Thus saith the Lord, Thou shall not, and then all the commandments that were necessary. Verse 33, And all Israel, with their elders and officers and judges, stood on either side of the ark before the priests of Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, the stranger as well as he who was born among them.

Pause there. That would be Rahab. She would be in that group, not the only one, but they were treated equally in worship, half of them, it continues, were in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of Yahweh had commanded before that they should bless the people of Israel. So, of course, they're not going to take all the family members and children up the mountain, but they have them in front of the mountains, and you can read Deuteronomy 27, 28 to get the original order from Moses. So it was God's intention to bless the Jews in their conquest, and the blessings were subject to obedience, and that is still the case, and if they turned their backs on God, the blessings would be withdrawn or withheld, as we will find in the book of Judges, not for every single person. There were those in the book of Judges that still loved the Lord.

Boaz is one, for example, and, of course, Ruth. So this principle explains all of Israel's history, why she suffered what she did in the book of Judges. The people would turn on God. They would be oppressed by the Midianites or whatever other people were in the region.

They would call out to God. He would send a judge or a deliverer, and then they would come back to God, and then they would leave him again, and the psychologists with each generation just kept going until finally, of course, the kings came, who were super judges, if you will, and then they failed. The Syrians and Babylonians were used by God as instruments of judgment on God's people. They were taken into captivity and, of course, suffered greatly until finally in 70 AD, and the Romans struck heavy blows on Jerusalem, a few revolts after that, until finally the Romans just pushed them out completely, and the Jews were without a nation for 2,000 years, and yet God has brought them back to their land just as the Bible has said, which is amazing. There's just nothing like that anywhere in history, and that should all... When you feel like the devil's causing you to doubt the Bible, just point to Israel.

How do you account for that, Dufus? This is only one way. God's Word is true. So the Samaritans, which were a blend of mixed peoples with the Jews, they retained some of Judaism and they mixed in other religions with it. The Jews considered them, of course, idolaters. They would walk around Samaria to get to northern Israel.

They felt the land was so defiled. Well, Jesus, of course, He walks through Samaria because He has an appointment with the woman at the well. She doesn't know it. And He gets to the well, and there they enter into discussion on religion. And she says about Mount Gerizim, not Ebal where the curses were dispatched, but Gerizim where the blessings were spoken, she said, Our fathers worship on this mountain, but you Jews worship on Zion in Jerusalem.

And Jesus responded, The hour is coming, and now is, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. And, of course, He proceeded to just dismantle her, not brutally, but spiritually, and she and the whole city is saved. It's an incredible story.

You'll see these Samaritans up in heaven. I mean, it's just because of that one moment. Here was a woman that had so many busted-up romances in her life, nobody, everybody knew who she was. One thing they knew she was not, and that was a liar. They knew she was not a liar. And so when she goes back to the village, and she said, Come see this man that told me everything about me, and you know these things about me.

And they said, Well, if she's saying this, it's got to be something. And they all prayed out, and there they get Jesus to stay with them for a couple of days. Amazing story. Well, anyway, that's all connected. Jesus was, a little leaven leavens a lump. The Samaritans were leavened people, and they twisted the religion of the Jews, landing on Mount Gerizim. Jesus took note of it. He deals with it and saves souls in the process.

It says here at the bottom of verse 33, The stranger as well as the one born among you, as I mentioned Rahab and her family would have been in that number, verse 34. And afterward, He read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings, according to all that is written in the law. Well, again, grace does not destroy the law of Moses.

It gives birth to what the law was meant to do, was convict men, and then provide a means to save them, which, of course, he is the fulfillment of. And when you come across Christians who put Moses before Christ, you have a problem every time. They destroy grace. They make religion oppressive. It's just, I don't want to be a Christian if that's it. They'll squash you.

People become their victims. They're self-righteous, and they're judgmental, and it's their way or no way on things that Jesus didn't even say. Jesus said there's one commandment that won't be forgiven, but the legalistic mind says, no, there's about 500 of them, and I know them because I wrote them. You see, you can't wear your hair this way. You can't wear shoes that way. You can't preach with a turtleneck on. This is everything that's wrong with you. It's just, I mean, I have convictions, things I don't like. I don't think any human being should ever eat okra before God. But that's my conviction.

I don't lay that on anybody else. Maybe I should. Okay.

I like to play. I know we have okra lovers here just to prove how gracious we are. Verse 35.

And there was not a word of all that Moses had commanded, which Joshua did, not read before all the assembly of Israel with the women, the little ones, and the strangers who were living among them. Well, let me just get back to the okra thing. I'm not going to pick on okra-ites anymore. Banana-ites are next.

If you like bananas, you're going down. It's not good for you. I'm just telling you.

All right. There was not a word of Moses, not a word that he commanded. See, that's the critical that he commanded, I think, leaving out the narrative, because it just would have been overwhelming, which Joshua did not read before the assembly of Israel. The women were there, the children, the strangers.

This was a national event, and a very beautiful story. Thanks for tuning in to Cross-Reference Radio for this study in the book of Joshua. Cross-Reference is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville in Virginia. If you're interested in more information about this ministry, please visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com.

You'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick available there. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. By doing so, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross-Reference Radio. Just search for Cross-Reference Radio in iTunes, Google Play Music, or your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Joshua, right here on Cross-Reference Radio.