Tanak Foundations-Concepts in Joshua-Chapter 7 and 8

Josh 7.1-26 tells us the story of Achan (troubler) and why Israel was put to flight by the men of Ai. This will teach the concept of “communal responsibility.”

v 1…But the sons of Israel acted unfaithfully in regard to the things under the ban, for Achan (troubler) the son of Carmi (my vineyard), the son of Zabdi (my gift), from the tribe of Judah (praise), took some of the things under the ban, therefore the anger of the Lord burned against the sons of Israel.

v 2…Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai (heap) which is near Beth-aven, east of Bethel (house of God, alluding to the fact that the house of the heap is away from, east, of the house of God), and said to them, “Go up and spy out the land.” So the men went up and spied out Ai.

v 3…And they returned to Joshua and said to him, “Do not let all the people go up; only about two or three thousand men need to go up to Ai; do not make all the people toil up there (carrying their tents, armor, weapons, provisions, eyt), for they are few (but there were 12,000-Josh 8.25).”

v 4…So about three thousand men from the people went up there, but they fled from the men of Ai (God had removed his covering and their courage fled also).

v 5…And the men of Ai struck down about thirty-six of their men (a sign of God’s rebuke), and pursued them from the gate as far as Shebarim (“the breaches”; alludes to breaches of sin in our spiritual walk), and struck them down on the descent, so the hearts of the people melted and became as water.

v 6…Then Joshua tore his clothes (alluding to a tear in the garments of righteousness) and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until the evening, both he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads (in mourning).

v 7…And Joshua said (he had no power before their enemies), “Alas, O Lord God, why didst thou ever bring this people over the Jordan, only to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites (generic term for all seven nations), to destroy us? If only we had been willing (content) to dwell beyond the Jordan (the east side)!

v 8…Oh Lord, what can I say (to comfort the people) since Israel has turned their backs on their enemies (Joshua is confounded by what has happened).

v 9…For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of it (that Ai defeated Israel), and they will surround us and cut off our name from the earth. And what wilt thou do for thy great name (Yehovah’s glory and reputation was involved in the salvation of the people and his promises)?”

v 10…So the Lord said to Joshua, “Rise up! Why is it that you have fallen on your face (distressed and dejected; something else besides prayer needs to be done?

v 11…Israel has sinned (not just one man-a little leaven leaves the whole lump-1 Cor 5.6) and they have transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. And they have taken some of the things under the ban (cherem) and have both stolen and deceived (they received from the Egyptians all they needed, but Achan was not content with what God gave) Moreover, they have also put them among their own things.

v 12…Therefore the sons of Israel cannot stand before their enemies, they turn their backs before their enemies, for they have become accursed. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy the things under thenban from your midst.

v 13…Rise up! Consecrate the people and say, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, for thus the Lord, the God of Israel, has said, “There are things under the ban in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you have removed the things under the ban from your midst.”

v 14…In the morning then you shall come near (to Joshua, the elders, the Mishkan where they were gathered) by your tribes. And it shall be that the tribe which the Lord takes by lot (Prov 16.33) shall come near by their families, and the family which the Lord takes shall come near by households, and the household which the Lord takes shall come neasr man by man.

v 15…And it shall be that the one who is taken with the things under the ban shall be burned with fire (after he is stoned-v 25), he and all that belongs to him, because he has transgressed the covenant of the Lord, and beause he has committed a disgraceful thing in Israel.’ “

v 16…So Joshua arose early in the morning and brought Israel near by tribes, and the tribe of Judah was taken.

v 17…And he brought the family of Judah near, and he took the family of Zerahites (Gen 38.30-one of the twins of Judah and Tamar); and he brought the family of the Zerahites near man by man, and Zabdi was taken.

v 18…And he brought the household near man by man; and Achan, son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah from the tribe of Judah, was taken.

v 19…Then Joshua said to Achan, “My son (treating him respectfully), I implore you, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and praise to him (for his all-knowing justice), and tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me.”

v 20…So Achan answered Joshua and said, “Truly, I have sinned against the Lord, the God of Israel, and this is what I did.

v 21…When I saw among the spoil a beautiful mantle from Shinar (Babylon, alluding to the false righteousness af the Babylonian religion) and two hundred shekels of silver and a bar of gold fifty shekels in weight, then I coveted them and took them, and behold, they are concealed in the earth inside my tent with the silver underneath it.”

v 22…So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent; and behold, it was concealed in his tent with the silver underneath it (what shall it profit a man…Mark 8.36).

v 23…And they took them from inside the tent and brought them to Joshua and to all the sons of Israel (elders and heads), and they poured them out (laid them out) before the Lord (nothing will be hidden-Matt 10.26).

v 24…Then Joshua and all Israel with them, took Achan (toubler) the son of Zerah, the silver, the mantle, the bar of gold, his sons and daughters (as witnesses), his oxen and all that belonged to him, and they brought them up to valley of Achor (it got its name from Achan-v 26).

v 25…And Joshua said, “Why have you troubled us (a Hebrew word play)? The Lord will trouble you this day.” And all Israel stoned him with stones, and they burned him with fire after they had stoned him with stones (in Josh 22.20 it says that Achan did not perish alone in his iniquity. Since you cannot punish innocent people in Deut 24.16, this refers to the 36 men who died at Ai because of Achan’s iniquity).

v 26…And they raised over him a heap of stones that stands to this day, and the Lord turned from the fierceness of his anger. Therefore the name of that place has been called the valley of Achor (grief) to this day (his name is “Achar” in 1 Chr 2.7 as a sign of disapproval).

Josh 8.1-35 tells us that Joshua turns his attention to Ai again because the relationship has been restored; Joshua builds an altar on Mount Ebal and wrote the Torah on it.

v 1…Now the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not fear or be dismayed. Take all the people of war with you (about 500,000 men of war) and arise, go up to Ai, see, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land (they will be annihilated; this battle is a picture of the coming destruction of the world’s system).”

v 2…And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king (burn the city and kill the king); you shall take only its spoil and its cattle as plunder for yourselves Set an ambush for the city behind it (on the west side).

v 3…So Joshua arose with all the people of war to go up to Ai, and Joshua chose 30,000 men, valiant warriors, and sent them out at night (to bypass the army and opass the city undetected).

v 4…And he commanded them, saying, “See, you are going to ambush the city from behind it. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready (we need to wait on the Lord’s timing and be patient).

v 5…Then I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. And it will come about when they come out to meet us as at the first (like they did the first time), that we will flee before them (like the three thousand did).

v 6…And they will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city, for they will say, ‘They are fleeing before us as at the first.’ So we will flee before them.

v 7…And you shall arise from your ambush and take possession of the city, for the Lord your God will deliver it into your hand.

v 8…Then it will be when you have seized the city that you shall set the city on fire. You shall do it according to the word of the Lord (to plunder and destroy it). See, I have commanded you (delivered to you what the Lord has said).”

v 9…So Joshua sent them away, and they went to the place of ambush and remained between Bethel (house of God) and Ai (heap of ruins) on the west side of Ai (west is the spiritual position of faith for every believer, we are between the house of God and a heap of ruins to the east in the dark of the Olam Ha Zeh, this present hostile world).

v 10…Now Joshua rose early in the morning and mustered the people, and he went up with the elders of Israel before the people to Ai.

v 11…Then all the people of war who were with him went up and drew near and arrived in front of the city, and camped on the north side side of Ai (the direction of intellect). Now there was a valley (a wadi) between him and Ai.

v 12…And he took about 5000 men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city (possibly Wadi Sheban).

v 13…So they stationed the people, all the army that was on the north side of the city, and its rear guard (“achev” or “heel” and a form of Jacob; the liers in wait).

v 14…And it came about when the king of Ai saw it, that the men of the city hurried and and rose up early and went out to meet Israel in battle, he and all his people at the appointed place (before the city) before the desert plain. But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city (in the wadi to the west; Satan didn’t know that there was an ambush against him either).

v 15…And Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness (it appeared that Yeshua was defeated also).

v 16…And all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and they pursued Joshua, and were drawn away from the city.

v 17…So not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who had not gone out after Israel, and they left the city unguarded and pursued Israel.

v 18…Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it in to your hand (the signal for the ambush).” So Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city.

v 19…And the men in ambush rose quickly from their place, and when he had stretched out his hand, they ran and entered the city and captured it, and they quickly set the city on fire.

v 20…When the men of Ai turned back and looked, behold (see), the smoke of the city ascended to the sky, and they had no place to flee this way or that, for the people who had been fleeing to the wilderness turned against the pursuers.

v 21…When Joshua and all Israel saw that the men in ambush had captured the city and that the smoke of the city ascended, they turned back, and slew the men of Ai.

v 22…And the others came out from the city to encounter them, so that they were trapped in the midst of Israel (in the middle), some on tis side and some on that side, and they slew them until no one was left of thise who survived or escaped.

v 23…But they took alive the king of Ai and brought him to Joshua (Ha Satan will be brought before Yeshua and bound (Rev 20.1-3).

v 24…Now it came about when Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field in the wilderness where they pursued them, and all of them were fallen by the edge of the sword until they were destroyed (a type of the unbelievers when Yeshua comes), then all Israel returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword).

v 25…And all who fell that day, both men and women, were 12,000-all the people of Ai.

v 26…For Joshua did not withdraw his hand with which he stretched out the javelin until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai (not one word of Scripture will go unfulfilled).

v 27…Israel took only the cattle and the spoil of that city as plunder for themselves, according to the word of the Lord which he had commanded Joshua (Israel will inherit the wealth of the nations).

v 28…So Joshua burned Ai (a heap) and made it a heap forever (a word play), a desolation until this day.

v 29…And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening (as a sign to the other kings in Canaan); and at sunset Joshua gave the command and they took his body down from the tree (in obedience to the command in Deut 21.23 that the land might not be defiled), and threw it at the entrance of the city gate (the gate was the place of city government and it had ended) and raised over it a great heap (what Ai means) of stones that stands to this day.

v 30…Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, in Mount Ebal (about 25 miles away from Ai; Joshua may have led Israel past the fortress of Shechem, and was in friendly hands at the time, or Josephus says it was probably years later when the Mishkan was at Shiloh and at the end of the campaign in Canaan),

v 31…just as Moses the servant of of the Lord had commanded (in Deut 27.1-10) the sons of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of uncut stones (God’s work), on which no man had wielded a tool (not by man’s works); and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, and sacrificed peace offerings (Mount Ebal is associated with the curses and that is where the altar was needed).

v 32…And he wrote there on the stones (not on the altar but on other stones set up there and plastered over) a copy of the law of Moses which he had written (not oral), in the presence of the sons of Israel (some have said that he did not write the whole book of the law, but some form of it, like the Ten Commandments or the blessings and curses).

v 33…And all Israel with their elders and officers and their judges were standing on both sides of the ark before the Levitical priests who had carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, the stranger as well as the native. Half of them stood in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded at first to bless the people of Israel (Deut 27.12).

v 34…Then afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that he had written in the book of the law (possibly Deut 27.1-26 and 28.1-68; renewing the covenant).

v 35…There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read (no hint of an oral law here) before all the assembly of Israel with the women and the little ones and the strangers who were walking (in the Torah as it applied to them) among them (Ger ha Holechim).

As we can see, Joshua is a type of the warrior Messiah (Isa 63.1-6; Rev 19.11-21). Israel has come out of Egypt (the world/sin), crossed the Red Sea (our immersion into the Messiah), gone into the wilderness (the world), crossed the Jordan (death), and entered the Canaan (the promises in a hostile world).

Posted in All Teachings, Articles, Idioms, Phrases and Concepts, Prophecy/Eschatology, The Festivals of the Lord, The Tanak, Tying into the New Testament

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*