Obedience By Ambush: The Art of Holy War Text: Joshua 8:3-9
Introduction: The Aftermath of a Purge
We come now to the second attempt on Ai. The first attempt, as you recall, was a miserable failure. Israel was routed, thirty six men were killed, and the hearts of the people melted and became like water. And why? Because there was sin in the camp. Achan, in his covetousness, had taken of the accursed thing from Jericho, and in so doing, he made the entire nation of Israel accursed. God's holiness is not a trifle. His commands are not suggestions. When God dedicates a city to destruction, you do not get to treat it like a divine garage sale.
So, before there could be victory, there had to be a purge. The sin had to be dealt with, and it was dealt with in a terrible and severe way in the Valley of Achor. Achan and his household were stoned and burned. This was not vindictive cruelty; it was covenantal surgery. The cancer had to be cut out for the body to live. And now, with the sin judged and the camp cleansed, God speaks to Joshua again. The fellowship is restored. The pipeline of divine blessing is unclogged. And God's first words to Joshua are, "Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed."
This is where our story picks up. Israel is back on a war footing, but it is a chastened, wiser Israel. They had learned the hard way that victory does not depend on the size of their army or the cleverness of their strategy, but on the presence of God. And the presence of God depends on their obedience. But notice what happens next. God does not tell them to simply march around Ai seven times and blow trumpets. The victory at Jericho was a unique object lesson in God's raw, miraculous power. Now, at Ai, God commands them to use strategy. He commands them to use military cunning. He commands them, in short, to use deception.
This is a crucial lesson for the church militant. We are engaged in a long war, a spiritual conquest. And we must learn that there are times for the Jericho method, where we simply stand and watch God work, and there are times for the Ai method, where we are commanded to rise up, plan, work, and fight, using the minds and abilities God has given us. Faith is not passivity. Faith is active, strategic, and sometimes, wonderfully sneaky obedience.
The Text
So Joshua rose 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.
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.
Then I and all the people who are with me will come near the city. And it will be that when they come out to meet us as at the first, we will flee before them.
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.
And you shall rise from your ambush and take possession of the city, for Yahweh your God will give it into your hand.
Then it will be that when you have seized the city, that you shall set the city on fire. You shall do it according to the word of Yahweh. See, I have commanded you.”
So Joshua sent them away, and they went to the place of ambush and remained between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai; but Joshua spent that night among the people.
(Joshua 8:3-9 LSB)
God's Strategy, Joshua's Obedience (v. 3-4)
We begin with Joshua's immediate and decisive action.
"So Joshua rose 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. 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." (Joshua 8:3-4)
The first thing to notice is the contrast with the previous chapter. Last time, Joshua sent a small contingent of three thousand men based on the flawed intelligence of his spies. This time, he takes "all the people of war." This is not about military necessity; it is about covenantal participation. The whole nation had been implicated in Achan's sin, the whole nation had participated in the judgment, and now the whole nation would participate in the victory. This is corporate solidarity.
But from this large force, he selects an elite group of 30,000 "valiant warriors." God's sovereignty does not eliminate human responsibility or the wisdom of using your best men for a critical task. He sends them out "at night." This is classic military maneuvering. It is practical, it is wise, and it is commanded by God. God is the Lord of Hosts, the ultimate general, and He is not above using tactics that any human general would recognize as sound.
The command is for an ambush. This is a military ruse, a stratagem. It is a form of deception. And this is where some well-meaning but confused pietists get themselves into a knot. They see the Ninth Commandment, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor," and they flatten it out to mean you can never deceive anyone under any circumstances. But this is a profound misreading of Scripture. The key word is "neighbor." The prohibition is against lying that destroys the peace and trust necessary for covenant community. But the men of Ai are not Israel's neighbors in this sense. They are enemies of God, under His divine sentence of judgment. In a state of declared war, deception is not only permissible; it is a weapon. All warfare is based on deception. To pretend otherwise is to tie your own hands behind your back while the enemy is coming at you with a sword. God Himself commanded this deception, which settles the matter.
The Feigned Retreat (v. 5-6)
Next, Joshua lays out the central part of the stratagem: the feigned retreat.
"Then I and all the people who are with me will come near the city. And it will be that when they come out to meet us as at the first, we will flee before them. 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." (Joshua 8:5-6 LSB)
The plan is brilliant because it uses the enemy's own arrogance against them. The men of Ai had already tasted victory against Israel. Their confidence was high. Joshua knows they will be thinking, "Here come those Israelites again. We beat them once, we'll beat them again." Their past success becomes the bait in God's trap. Joshua's plan is to confirm their bias. He will make them think history is repeating itself. "They are fleeing before us as at the first."
This is a beautiful picture of how God works in the world. He often uses the enemy's pride as the very mechanism of their downfall. Haman builds a gallows for Mordecai and ends up swinging on it himself. Pharaoh hardens his heart and is drowned in the sea. The rulers of this age, in their wicked pride, crucified the Lord of glory, thinking they had won, only to find that the cross was the very instrument of their defeat. God's wisdom makes the enemy's strength into a fatal weakness.
Notice also the humility this required of Joshua and the main army. They had to be willing to look like they were losing. They had to flee before their enemies, to endure the shame of a second retreat, in order for the plan to work. This is a lesson for us. Sometimes in our spiritual battles, the path to victory looks like defeat. It looks like turning the other cheek, like blessing those who curse you, like being slandered and rejoicing. The world sees weakness, but God is setting a trap for the devil.
The Divine Guarantee and the Final Command (v. 7-8)
Joshua then turns his attention back to the ambush force, giving them their cue and their commission.
"And you shall rise from your ambush and take possession of the city, for Yahweh your God will give it into your hand. Then it will be that when you have seized the city, that you shall set the city on fire. You shall do it according to the word of Yahweh. See, I have commanded you." (Joshua 8:7-8 LSB)
Here is the heart of the matter. The strategy is sound, the men are valiant, but the victory is from the Lord. "For Yahweh your God will give it into your hand." This is the foundation of all Christian warfare. Our confidence is not in our tactics, but in God's promise. We plan, we work, we fight, but we do so in complete dependence on Him who gives the victory. The strategy is the instrument; God's power is the cause.
Their task upon seizing the city is twofold: take possession and set it on fire. The fire is a symbol of God's judgment. This is not wanton destruction; it is the execution of a divine sentence. The Canaanites' iniquity was full, and the time for judgment had come. Israel was God's instrument, His holy executioner. And they were to do it "according to the word of Yahweh." This is the bookend to the whole command. The strategy came from God, the power comes from God, and the execution must be according to the explicit instructions of God. There is no room for freelancing in a holy war.
Joshua concludes with a leader's charge: "See, I have commanded you." He is God's delegated authority. He received the command from God, and he is now binding his men to it. This is the nature of all legitimate authority. It is received and delegated. A leader does not invent the mission; he receives it and then leads his people in obediently carrying it out.
Faithful Execution (v. 9)
The passage concludes with the quiet, faithful execution of the first phase of the plan.
"So Joshua sent them away, and they went to the place of ambush and remained between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai; but Joshua spent that night among the people." (Joshua 8:9 LSB)
The thirty thousand men do exactly as they are told. They go. They wait. They remain. This is the unseen, unglamorous part of obedience. It is the long, dark night of waiting for the battle to begin. It requires patience, discipline, and trust. They are hidden, out of sight, but they are precisely where God, through Joshua, told them to be.
And where is Joshua? He "spent that night among the people." This is a beautiful detail of leadership. He sent his elite force on a dangerous mission, but he did not retire to a command tent far from the action. He remained with the main body of troops, the ones who would have to perform the feigned retreat. He is with them in their anxiety, sharing their lot. He is a true shepherd of his people, leading from the front, but also dwelling among them. He is a type, a foreshadowing, of the greater Joshua, our Lord Jesus, who did not send us on a mission from a safe distance, but pitched His tent among us, becoming one of us, to lead us in the great conquest of sin and death.
Conclusion: The Wisdom of God in Our Warfare
So what do we take from this? First, we learn that God's methods are varied. He is not a predictable, one-trick God. He used a miracle at Jericho and a military stratagem at Ai. We must be careful not to put God in a box, demanding that He work in our lives today exactly as He did yesterday. We must listen for His specific commands for our specific battles.
Second, we see that genuine faith is not opposed to careful planning and the use of our God-given intelligence. Faith is not a blind leap in the dark; it is obediently stepping where God has commanded, using the means He has provided. Whether it is in our evangelism, our cultural engagement, or our personal sanctification, we are to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
Finally, this entire account is a picture of the gospel. Like Israel after Achan's sin, we were defeated, under the curse, and without hope. But God, in His mercy, dealt with the sin. The greater Joshua, Jesus, took the full judgment for our sin upon Himself. He was ambushed by the powers of darkness at the cross. It looked like a total defeat. He was cut off from the land of the living. But it was a feigned retreat. On the third day, He rose from the ambush of the grave and took possession of the enemy's stronghold, death itself. He has conquered, and He has given us the victory.
And now He commands us, His valiant warriors, to go forth. He has given us our strategy in His Word. He has promised that He will give the enemy into our hands. Our task is to obey. To rise up, to go out, sometimes in the dark, and to trust that the Captain of our salvation has a perfect plan. He has won the war, and He calls us to the glorious task of mopping up, of taking possession of the territory that is already His, "according to the word of Yahweh."