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In Joshua 8
● remember the last time the children of Israel had met the men of Ai their hearts “melted” (Joshua 7:5) and Joshua tore his clothes, fell face down before the ark of the covenant, threw dust on his head and said “Alas” (7:6-7), surely showing some fear and dismay,
● notice now (8:1) the familiar direct instruction not to fear or be dismayed, showing that with the hard handling of Achan’s sin God had ended the hindrance to conquest, tutored the people in the utter seriousness of “devoted … to destruction” (26), and reasserted that Joshua is his man,
● see in Joshua raising his lance (18, 19, 26) a resemblance to Moses raising his staff and hands in Exodus 14 and 17, respectively, showing once more that God is working through his appointed man,
● register God’s commands- “take … Arise … go up” (1)- and the stretching out of the list of God’s gifts to Joshua and to his people- “the king of Ai, and his people, his city, and his land” (1), showing the pairing of God’s gifts with the actions he appoints for Joshua and his people,
● see Joshua taking charge, surveying and selecting places, positions, and elevations, and then executing his plan (3-22),
● ponder the significance of Joshua’s location on the two successive nights, one “with the people” (9) and one “in the valley” (13) with no mention of company,
● remember that Joshua’s actions were taken “according to the word of the Lord” (27),
● wonder if the hanging of the king and taking his body to be buried under a pile of stones “which stands there to this day” (29) should call to mind another king hanged on a tree, entombed in the rock behind a stone but about whom it is said, “He is not here; he has risen” (Luke 24:6), and
● understand the importance of the immediacy- “at that time” (30)- of Joshua building an altar “just as Moses” (31) had, so that the people could present offerings and sacrifices and so that Joshua could write the words that Moses wrote and read them as well: “all the words” (34, 35) to “all Israel” (33, 35), even the sojourners.
Thank you,

Randy Tumlinson