BETWEEN
BETHEL AND AI: HOUSE OF GOD AND HEAP OF RUIN
August 26, 2012
MF Blume
Joshua 8:1-9 KJV And the LORD said unto Joshua, Fear not, neither
be thou dismayed: take all the people of war with thee, and arise, go
up to Ai: see, I have given into thy hand the king of Ai, and his
people, and his city, and his land: (2) And thou shalt do
to Ai and her king as thou didst unto Jericho and her king: only the
spoil thereof, and the cattle thereof, shall ye take for a prey unto
yourselves: lay thee an ambush for the city behind it. (3)
So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up against Ai: and
Joshua chose out thirty thousand mighty men of valour, and sent them
away by night. (4) And he commanded them, saying, Behold,
ye shall lie in wait against the city, even behind the city: go not
very far from the city, but be ye all ready: (5) And I, and
all the people that are with me, will approach unto the city: and it
shall come to pass, when they come out against us, as at the first,
that we will flee before them, (6) (For they will come out
after us) till we have drawn them from the city; for they will say,
They flee before us, as at the first: therefore we will flee before
them. (7) Then ye shall rise up from the ambush, and seize
upon the city: for the LORD your God will deliver it into your
hand. (8) And it shall be, when ye have taken the city,
that ye shall set the city on fire: according to the commandment of the
LORD shall ye do. See, I have commanded you. (9) Joshua
therefore sent them forth: and they went to lie in ambush, and abode
between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai: but Joshua lodged that
night among the people.
Ai was the second city that Israel confronted when they entered the
promised land.
· God was taking them city after city to take
the land and posses it for themselves.
We have been studying about walking after the Spirit, and explained
that entrance into Canaan after having walked in the wilderness for 40
years due to disobedience and doubt, stands for a transition.
· We cease walking after the flesh and begin
walking after the Spirit.
· The fleshliness of the people’s
parents 39 years before, when they doubted God could give them the
promised land had to be gone now.
· That’s why the very walls that they
feared were marched around for 6 days while they were commanded to say
nothing.
· It was words of doubt due to seeing the
walls that caused their defeat 39 years earlier.
Jericho was take down by the power of God, Himself.
· It was such a contrast of themselves not
walking after the flesh that God commanded them to not speak for six
days as they marched once around the city each day, and then march
seven times the seventh day and shout when God said shout.
· No Israelite was responsible for taking the
walls down.
· GOD DID IT.
God commanded Israel something particular.
Joshua 6:18-19 KJV And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the
accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the
accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble
it. (19) But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass
and iron, are consecrated unto the LORD: they shall come into the
treasury of the LORD.
This was the FIRST CITY TO CONQUER and God demanded the spoils of this
first city go to Him alone and not the people.
God remarked about this when he directed Israel to take the second city
Ai.
Joshua 8:2 KJV And thou shalt do to Ai and her king as thou didst
unto Jericho and her king: only the spoil thereof, and the cattle
thereof, shall ye take for a prey unto yourselves: lay thee an ambush
for the city behind it.
God keeps the firstfruits.
· But what happened?
Joshua 7:1 KJV But the children of Israel committed a trespass in
the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the
son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing: and
the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel.
Joshua 7:5 KJV And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty and
six men: for they chased them from before the gate even unto Shebarim,
and smote them in the going down: wherefore the hearts of the people
melted, and became as water.
God would not bless Israel because one of the men did the very thing
God distinctly said to not do.
· Take some spoil for himself.
· They could have all the spoil from all the
other remaining cities, but not the first one.
Joshua wondered why they were defeated and questioned God, and God
informed him to get off his face in prayer and realize someone amongst
them sinned.
· The sinner was Achan and Israel dealt with
Achan.
Israel, in effect, walked AFTER THE FLESH AGAIN, after having conquered
Jericho successfully.
· After dealing with Achan and getting back on
track, we read of the directions to take Ai.
· Joshua put some men behind AI in hiding.
· Joshua and some other men would approach the
Ai from the front and cause the armies of Ai to come out against
them.
· When Joshua saw the army coming, he took his
men and pretended to flee away.
· This drew out all the men from the city.
Joshua 8:16-17 KJV And all the people that were in Ai were called
together to pursue after them: and they pursued after Joshua, and were
drawn away from the city. (17) And there was not a man left
in Ai or Bethel, that went not out after Israel: and they left the city
open, and pursued after Israel.
Then Joshua turned around to face the army and lifted his spear and
pointed it to Ai.
· That gave the signal to the men BEHIND Ai to
enter the city and burn it with fire.
Joshua 8:18-23 KJV And the LORD said unto Joshua, Stretch out the
spear that is in thy hand toward Ai; for I will give it into thine
hand. And Joshua stretched out the spear that he had in his hand toward
the city. (19) And the ambush arose quickly out of their
place, and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand: and they
entered into the city, and took it, and hasted and set the city on
fire. (20) And when the men of Ai looked behind them, they
saw, and, behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they
had no power to flee this way or that way: and the people that fled to
the wilderness turned back upon the pursuers. (21) And when
Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that
the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again, and slew the
men of Ai. (22) And the other issued out of the city
against them; so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side,
and some on that side: and they smote them, so that they let none of
them remain or escape. (23) And the king of Ai they took
alive, and brought him to Joshua.
Joshua 8:26 KJV For Joshua drew not his hand back, wherewith he
stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed all the
inhabitants of Ai.
Joshua 8:29 KJV And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree until
eventide: and as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they
should take his carcase down from the tree, and cast it at the entering
of the gate of the city, and raise thereon a great heap of stones, that
remaineth unto this day.
Notice they HANGED THE KING ON THE TREE.
· Spiritually interpret that to mean WE
CONQUER OUR ENEMY BY THE CROSS!
The location where the MEN IN AMBUSH was behind Ai was said to be
BETWEEN BETHEL AND AI.
Joshua 8:9 KJV Joshua therefore sent them forth: and they went to
lie in ambush, and abode between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai:
but Joshua lodged that night among the people.
Something very special happened here generations before.
· And it gives us more insight on what it is
to WALK AFTER THE SPIRIT.
· Israel GOT BACK ON TRACK when these men hid
between BETHEL AND AI.
· They returned to TRUSTING GOD and HIS WORD
BY FAITH.
· The walk after the Spirit is a walk by FAITH.
· Someone else got back on track AT THE VERY
SAME LOCATION.
· In fact that someone else was THE FATHER OF
THE FAITHFUL – ABRAHAM.
Genesis 12 is where ABRAM was first called by God to leave his home and
family and WALK BY FAITH.
Abraham was the one WHO WALKED BY FAITH.
Romans 4:12 KJV And the father of circumcision to them who are
not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that
faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.
We are talking about WALKING AFTER THE SPIRIT.
After God called him to walk by faith, Abram entered the land of Canaan.
· He built an altar in Genesis 12:7 after God
appeared to him and told him He was giving Abram and his seed that very
land.
· He went from there to a location between
BETHEL AND AI.
Genesis 12:8 KJV And he removed from thence unto a mountain on
the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west,
and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and
called upon the name of the LORD.
Notice he called on the name of the Lord there.
This was first mentioned in Genesis 4.
Genesis 4:25-26 KJV And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a
son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me
another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. (26) And to
Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos:
then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.
After Cain killed Abel and Cain was banished from Eden to the land of
Nod where his descendants began building the foundations of the world
– arts, business, invention – Eve had another child named
Seth instead of Abel.
· And I can imagine the HUMILITY of Seth in
knowing he was boron instead of Abel, as SETH MEANS SUBSTITUTED,
and how if it was not for his brothers/ death he would not be there, he
called his boy’s name ENOS – which means MORTAL and FRAIL
MAN.
· It was due to man’s frail mortality
that Seth was substituted for Abel.
· Through Seth would come the Messiah.
· And in that state of humility, while
Cain’s people independently of God and so proudly worked
invention, the arts and business, ENOS’s PEOPLE HUMBLY CALL ON
THE NAME OF THE LORD.
· They built the foundations for the
kingdom of GOD!
Abram shows that same humility and dependency upon God.
But …
Genesis 12:10 KJV And there was a famine in the land: and Abram
went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in
the land.
FOOD became an issue, like it did with Adam and Eve, and Abram WENT
DOWN IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE.
· He went to Egypt with his wife and nephew
Lot, and HALF LIFE to Pharaoh about her, not trusting God, for fear
Pharaoh would kill him and take her for wife.
· Pharaoh took Sarai, as wife and God’s
wrath came on the man and told him it was Abram’s wife.
· Pharaoh rebuked Abram for it and sent him
away.
· ABRAM GOT OFF TRACK in unbelief wand trying
to handle things HIS WAY, which is walking after the flesh.
· He returned to the point where he got
offtrack.
Genesis 13:1-3 KJV And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his
wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south.
(2) And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in
gold. (3) And he went on his journeys from the south even
to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning,
between Bethel and Hai;
To the place where HIS TENT WAS AT THE BEGINNING.
Hebrews 11:9 KJV By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as
in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the
heirs with him of the same promise:
He walked by FAITH when he dwelt in tents.
· He left his tent fort EGYPT.
· He left his calling on the name of the Lord.
· But he returned to it after he got offtrack.
Israel got offtrack when Achan sinned.
· They no longer walked by faith after the
Spirit.
· But when that was dealt with and they got
back ontrack, it is no coincidence they had men between Bethel and Ai,
the same location where Abram returned to God after living in doubt,
and from that vantage point conquered the city they failed to conquer
earlier.
It is interesting to know the meaning of the names of these two cities.
· Bethel and Ai.
· HOUSE OF GOD and HEAP OF RUINS.
· Now these cities were not named as such when
Abram was there.
· They were named PROLEPTICALLY – in
anticipation.
· It was not until JACOB called the place
BETHEL and Israel conquered Ai and put it under stones to name it after
the stone heap, HEAP OF RUIN.
So BETWEEN THE HOUSE OF GOD and A HEAP OF RUIN, we either get offtrack
or get back ontrack.
· The HOUSE OF GOD is what getting back on
track indicates.
· The HEAP OF RUIN is the opposite instead of
there being stones built up a house of God, BETHEL, the stones are in a
pile of rubble and ruins due to FLESHLY WALKING.
The walk after the flesh will only lead you to a heap of ruin.
Walking after the Spirit takes you to the HOUSE OF GOD!
