Joshua 8:3–8 (ESV) — 3 So Joshua and all the fighting men arose to go up to
Ai. And Joshua chose 30,000 mighty men of valor and sent them out by night. 4 And he commanded them, “Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the
city, behind it. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you remain ready.
5 And I and all the people who are with me will
approach the city. And when they come out against us just as before, we shall
flee before them. 6 And they will come out after us, until we have drawn
them away from the city. For they will say, ‘They are fleeing from us, just as
before.’ So we will flee before them. 7 Then you shall rise
up from the ambush and seize the city, for the Lord your God will give it into
your hand. 8 And as soon as you have taken the city, you shall
set the city on fire. You shall do according to the word of the Lord. See, I
have commanded you.”
NOTE: This victory is not as miraculous as Jericho.
It combines good military art and a little trickery. God allows the people the
spoil and the livestock but not the homes. This city is also burned to the
ground. God has promised them to live in homes that they did not build and to
eat from fields they have not sown, but in their first two victories, there are
no homes yet. There is much work to do. The combined forces of the Canaanites
probably outnumber Israel, and the Canaanites also possessed cavalry. Later in
Israel's history, they would fall behind in technology, although it is not
clear at this point that has happened, except for the cavalry. Usually, a
nation requires a decisive advantage in size or technology to defeat an enemy.
In many wargames that I have played, three to one is usually a good
rule-of-thumb. "Even" battles just cause large losses for both sides.
So far, Israel's losses have been negligible while defeating thousands of
soldiers. The reason for their success is their decisive advantage--GOD! They
will continue onto victory as long as they remain faithful to his commands.
There is a principle here for us as well. Victory happens as we remain faithful
to God's will for our life. It is not all at once, as we will soon find out
that Israel did not completely defeat the Canaanites all at once, it took time.
And even after the major armies are destroyed, it would take time for the
individual tribes to fulfill their responsibilities to take the rest of the
land.
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