_THE CAPTURE OF AI._
JOSHUA viii. 1-29.
Joshua, having dealt faithfully with the case of Achan, whose sin had
intercepted the favour of God, is again encouraged, and directed to
renew, but more carefully, his attack on Ai. That word is addressed to
him which has always such significance when coming from the Divine
lips--"Fear not." How much of our misery arises from fear! How many a
beating heart, how many a shaking nerve, how many a sleepless night
have come, not from evil experienced, but from evil apprehended! To
save one from the apprehension of evil is sometimes more important, as
it is usually far more difficult, than to save one from evil itself.
An affectionate father finds that one of his most needed services to
his children is to allay their fears. Never is he doing them a greater
kindness than when he uses his larger experience of life to assure
them, in some anxiety, that there is no cause for fear. Our heavenly
Father finds much occasion for a similar course. He has indeed got a
very timid family. It is most interesting to mark how the Bible is
studded with "fear nots," from Genesis to Revelation; from that early
word to Abraham--"Fear not, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great
reward"--to that most comforting assurance to the beloved disciple,
"Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am He that liveth, and was
dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of
hades and of death." If only God's children could hear Him uttering
that one word, from how much anxiety and misery would it set them
free!
Virtually the command to Joshua is to "try again." Success, though
denied to the first effort, often comes to the next, or at least to a
subsequent one. Even apart from spiritual considerations, it is those
who try oftenest who succeed best. There is little good in a man who
abandons an undertaking simply because he has tried once and failed.
Who does not recall in this connection the story of Alfred the Great?
Or of Robert the Bruce watching the spider in the barn that at last
reached the roof after sixteen failures? Or, looking to what has a
more immediate bearing on the kingdom of God, who has not admired the
perseverance of Livingstone, undaunted by fever and famine, and the
ferocity of savage chiefs; unmoved by his longings for home and dreams
of plenty and comfort that mocked him when he awoke to physical
wretchedness and want? Such perseverance gives a man the stamp of true
nobility; we are almost tempted to fall down and worship. If failure
be humiliating, it is redeemed by the very act and attitude of
perseverance, and the self-denial and scorn of ease which it involves.
In the Christian warfare no man is promised victory at the first. "Let
us not be weary in welldoing, for in due season we shall reap if we
faint not."
To Christian men especially, failure brings very valuable lessons.
There is always something to be learned from it. In our first attempt
we were too self-confident. We went too carelessly about the matter,
and did not sufficiently realize the need of Divine support. Never was
there a servant of God who learned more from his failures than St.
Peter. Nothing could have been more humiliating than his
thrice-repeated denial of his Lord. But when Peter came to himself, he
saw on what a bruised reed he had been leaning when he said, "Though I
should die with Thee yet will I not deny Thee." How miserably
misplaced that self-confidence had been! But it had the effect of
startling him, of showing him his danger, and of leading him to lift
up his eyes to the hills from whence came his help. It might have
seemed a risky, nay reckless thing for our Lord to commit the task of
steering His infant Church over the stormy seas of her first voyage to
a man who, six weeks before, had proved so weak and treacherous. But
Peter was a genuine man, and it was that first failure that afterwards
made him so strong. It is no longer Peter, but Christ in Peter that
directs the movement. And thus it came to pass that, during the
critical period of the Church's birth, no carnal drawback diminished
his strength or diluted his faith; all his natural rapidity of
movement, all his natural outspokenness, boldness, and directness were
brought to bear without abatement on the advancement of the young
cause. He conducted himself during this most delicate and vital period
with a nobility beyond all praise. He took the ship out into the open
sea amid raging storms without touching a single rock. And it was all
owing to the fact that by God's grace he profited by his failure!
In the case of Joshua and his people, one of the chief lessons derived
from their failure before Ai was the evil of covering sin. Alas, this
policy is the cause of failures innumerable in the spiritual life! In
numberless ways it interrupts Divine fellowship, withdraws the Divine
blessing, and grieves the Holy Spirit. We have not courage to cut off
a right hand and pluck out a right eye. We leave besetting sins in a
corner of our hearts, instead of trying to exterminate them, and
determining not to allow them a foothold there. The acknowledgment of
sin, the giving up of all leniency towards it, the determination, by
God's grace, to be done with it, always go before true revivals,
before a true return of God to us in all His graciousness and power.
Rather, we should say, they are the beginning of revival. In Israel of
old the land had to be purged of every vestige of idolatry under
Hezekiah and other godly kings, before the light of God's countenance
was again lifted upon it. "To this man will I look, even to him that
is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at My word."
Joshua is instructed to go up again against Ai, but in order to
interest and encourage the people, he resorts to a new plan of attack.
A stratagem is to be put in operation. An ambuscade is to be stationed
on the west side of the city, while the main body of the assaulting
force is to approach it, as formerly, from the east. There is some
obscurity and apparent confusion in the narrative, confined, however,
to one point, the number composing the ambuscade and the main body
respectively. Some error in the text appears to have crept in. From
the statement in ver. 3 we might suppose that the men who were to lie
in ambush amounted to thirty thousand; but in ver. 12 it is expressly
stated that only five thousand were employed in this way. There can be
little doubt (though it is not according to the letter of the
narrative) that the whole force employed amounted to thirty thousand,
and that, of these, five thousand formed the ambush. Indeed, in such a
valley, it would not have been possible for thirty thousand men to
conceal themselves so as to be invisible from the city. It would
appear (ver. 17) that the people of Bethel had left their own village
and gone into Ai. Bethel, as we have said, was situated higher up; in
fact, it was on the very ridge of the plateau of Western Palestine. It
must have been but a little place, and its people seem to have deemed
it better to join those of Ai, knowing that if the Israelites were
repulsed from the lower city, the upper was safe.
The _ruse_ was that the ambush should be concealed behind the city;
that Ai, as before, should be attacked from the east by the main body
of troops; that on receiving the onslaught from the city they should
seem to be defeated as before; that Joshua, probably standing on some
commanding height, should give a signal to the men in ambush by
raising his spear; whereupon these men should rush down on the now
deserted place and set it on fire. On seeing the flames, the pursuers
would naturally turn and rush back to extinguish them; then the main
body of Israel would turn likewise, and thus the enemy would be caught
as in a trap from which there was no escape, and fall a victim to the
two sections of Israel.
To plots of this kind, the main objection in a strategical sense lies
in the risk of detection. For the five thousand who went to station
themselves in the west it was a somewhat perilous thing to separate
themselves from the host, and place themselves in the heart of enemies
both in front and in rear. It needed strong faith to expose themselves
in such a situation. Suppose they had been detected as they went
stealing along past Ai in the darkness of the night; suppose they had
come on some house or hamlet, and wakened the people, so that the
alarm should have been carried to Ai, what would have been the result?
It was well for Israel that no such mishap occurred, and that they
were able in silence to reach a place where they might lie concealed.
The ground is so broken by rocks and ravines that this would not have
been very difficult; the people of Ai suspected nothing; probably the
force on the east were at pains, by camp-fires and otherwise, to
engage their attention, and whenever that force began to move, as if
for the attack, every eye in the city would be fixed intently upon it.
The plot was entirely successful; everything fell out precisely as
Joshua had desired. A terrible slaughter of the men of Ai took place,
caught as they were on the east of the city between the two sections
of Joshua's troops, for the Israelites gave no quarter either to age
or sex. The whole number of the slain amounted to twelve thousand, and
that probably included the people of Bethel too. We see from this what
an insignificant place Ai must have been, and how very humiliating was
the defeat it inflicted at first. With reference to the spoil of the
city, the rigid law prescribed at Jericho was not repeated; the people
got it for themselves. Jericho was an exceptional case; it was the
firstfruits of the conquest, therefore holy to the Lord. If Achan had
but waited a little, he would have had his share of the spoil of Ai or
some other place. He would have got legitimately what he purloined
unlawfully. In the slaughter, the king, or chief of the place,
suffered a more ignominious doom than his soldiers; instead of being
slain with the sword, he was hanged, and his body was exposed on a
tree till sunset. Joshua did not want some drops of Oriental blood;
he had the stern pleasure of the Eastern warrior in humbling those who
were highest in honour. What remained of the city was burned; it
continued thereafter a heap of ruins, with a great cairn of stones at
its gate, erected over the dead body of the king.
We see that already light begins to be thrown on what at the time must
have seemed the very severe and rigid order about the spoil of
Jericho. Although Achan was the only offender, he was probably far
from being the only complainer on that occasion. Many another
Israelite with a covetous heart must have felt bitterly that it was
very hard to be prevented from taking even an atom to oneself. "Were
not our fathers allowed to spoil the Egyptians--why, then, should we
be absolutely prevented from having a share of the spoil of Jericho?"
It might have been enough to answer that God claimed the firstfruits
of the land for Himself. Or to say that God designed at the very
entrance of His people into Canaan to show that they were not a
tumultuous rabble, rushing greedily on all they could lay their hands
on, but a well-trained, well-mannered family, in whom self-restraint
was one of the noblest virtues. But to all this it might have been
added, that the people's day was not far off. It is not God's method
to muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And so to all who rush
tumultuously upon the good things of this life, He says, "Seek first
the kingdom of heaven and His righteousness, and all these things
shall be added unto you." Let God arrange the order in which His gifts
are distributed. Never hurry Providence, as Sarah did when she gave
Hagar to Abraham. Sarah had good cause to repent of her impetuosity;
it brought her many a bitter hour. Whereas God was really kinder to
her than she had thought, and in due time He gave her Isaac, not the
son of the bondwoman, but her own.
A question has been raised respecting the legitimacy of the stratagem
employed by Joshua in order to capture Ai. Was it right to deceive the
people; to pretend to be defeated while in reality he was only
executing a _ruse_, and thus draw on the poor men of Ai to a terrible
death? Calvin and other commentators make short work of this
objection. If war is lawful, stratagem is lawful. Stratagem indeed, as
war used to be conducted, was a principal part of it; and even now the
term "strategic," derived from it, is often used to denote operations
designed for a different purpose from that which at first appears. It
is needless to discuss here the lawfulness of war, for the Israelites
were waging war at the express command of the Almighty. And if it be
said that when once you allow the principle that it is lawful in war
to mislead the enemy, you virtually allow perfidy, inasmuch as it
would be lawful for you, after pledging your word under a flag of
truce, to disregard your promise, the answer to that is, that to
mislead in such circumstances would be infamous. A distinction is to
be drawn between acts where the enemy has no right to expect that you
will make known your intention, and acts where they have such a right.
In the ordinary run of strategic movements, you are under no
obligation to tell the foe what you are about. It is part of their
business to watch you, to scrutinize your every movement, and in spite
of appearances to divine your real purpose. If they are too careless
to watch, or too stupid to discern between a professed and a real
plan, they must bear the consequences. But when a flag of truce is
displayed, when a meeting takes place under its protection, and when
conditions are agreed to on both sides, the case is very different.
The enemy is entitled now to expect that you will not mislead them.
Your word of honour has been passed to that effect. And to disregard
that pledge, and deem it smart to mislead thereby, is a proceeding
worthy only of the most barbarous, the most perfidious, the most
shameless of men.
Thus far we may defend the usages of war; but at best it is a
barbarous mode of operations. Very memorable was the observation of
the Duke of Wellington, that next to the calamity of suffering a
defeat was that of gaining a victory. To look over a great
battle-field, fresh from the clash of arms; to survey the trampled
crops, the ruined houses, the universal desolation; to gaze on all the
manly forms lying cold in death, and the many besides wounded,
bleeding, groaning, perhaps dying; to think of the illimitable
treasure that has been lavished on this work of destruction and the
comforts of which it has robbed the countries engaged; to remember in
what a multitude of cases, death must carry desolation and anguish to
the poor widow, and turn the remainder of life into a lonely
pilgrimage, is enough surely to rob war of the glory associated with
it, and to make good the position that on the part of civilized and
Christian men it should only be the last desperate resort, after every
other means of effecting its object has failed. We are not forgetful
of the manly self-sacrifice of those who expose themselves so readily
to the risk of mutilation and death, wherever the rulers of their
country require it, for it is the redeeming feature of war that it
brings out so much of this high patriotic devotion; but surely they
are right who deem arbitration the better method of settling national
differences; who call for a great disarmament of the European
nations, and would put a stop to the attitude of every great country
shaking its fist in the face of its neighbours. What has become of the
prophecy "They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their
spears into pruning hooks"? Or the beautiful vision of Milton on the
birth of the Saviour?--
"No war, or battle's sound
Was heard the world around;
The idle spear and shield were high uphung;
The hookèd chariot stood
Unstained with hostile blood,
The trumpet spake not to the armèd throng;
And kings sat still with awful eye
As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by."
One lesson comes to us with pre-eminent force from the operations of
war. The activity displayed by every good commander is a splendid
example for all of us in spiritual warfare. "Joshua arose"; "Joshua
lodged that night among the people"; "Joshua rose up early in the
morning"; "Joshua went that night into the middle of the valley";
"Joshua drew not his hand back wherewith he stretched out the spear,
until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai." Such
expressions show how intensely in earnest he was, how unsparing of
himself, how vigilant and indefatigable in all that bore upon his
enterprise. And generally we still see that, wherever military
expeditions are undertaken, they are pushed forward with untiring
energy, and the sinews of war are supplied in unstinted abundance,
whatever grumbling there may be afterwards when the bill comes to be
paid. Has the Christian Church ever girded herself for the great
enterprise of conquering the world for Christ with the same zeal and
determination? What are all the sums of money contributed for
Christian missions, compared to those spent annually on military and
naval forces, and multiplied indefinitely when active war goes on!
Alas, this question brings out but one result of a painful
comparison--the contrast between the ardour with which secular results
are pursued by secular men, and spiritual results by spiritual men.
Let the rumour spread that gold or diamonds have been found at some
remote region of the globe, what multitudes flock to them in the hope
of possessing themselves of a share of the spoil! Not even the
prospect of spending many days and nights in barbarism, amid the
misery of dirt and heat and insects, and with company so rude and
rough and reckless that they have hardly the appearance of humanity,
can overcome the impetuous desire to possess themselves of the
precious material, and come home rich. What crowds rush in when the
prospectus of a profitable brewery promises an abundant dividend,
earned too often by the manufactory of drunkards! What eager eyes scan
the advertisements that tell you that if persons bearing a certain
name, or related to one of that name, would apply at a certain
address, they would hear of something to their advantage! Once we knew
of a young man who had not even seen such an advertisement, but had
been told that it had appeared. There was a vague tradition in his
family that in certain circumstances a property would fall to them.
The mere rumour that an advertisement had appeared in which he was
interested set him to institute a search for it. He procured a file of
the _Times_ newspaper, reaching over a series of years, and eagerly
scanned its advertisements. Failing to find there what he was in
search of, he procured sets of other daily newspapers and subjected
them to the same process. And thus he went on and on in his unwearied
search, till first he lost his situation, then he lost his reason, and
then he lost his life. What will men not do to obtain a corruptible
crown? Could it be supposed from _our_ attitude and ardour that we are
striving for the incorruptible? Could it be thought that the riches
which we are striving to accumulate are not those which moth and rust
do corrupt, but the treasures that endure for evermore? Surely "it is
high time for us to awake out of sleep." Surely we ought to lay to
heart that "the things which are seen are temporal, but the things
which are not seen are eternal." Memorable are the poet's words
respecting the great objects of human desire:--
"The cloud-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve:
And like this unsubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind."