The book of Joshua is a
book full of Christ. Its very name, “Joshua”, is the Hebrew form of
the Greek name “Jesus”, meaning
Saviour, and Joshua himself is a type, a picture, of Jesus. Hence Joshua
and the events of his life point us in various ways to the person and work
of Christ.
Joshua followed Moses, as
Christ and His grace follow Moses and the law, in the work of God in a
convicted sinner. It was Joshua who brought the children of
Israel over the river
Jordan into the promised land, and
it is Christ who brings His people through the rivers of death into
everlasting life in Him. Joshua fought many battles and, by the Lord’s
strength, obtained many victories for the Israelites as they conquered the
various cities in Canaan. Christ too fights battles on
behalf of His people, and in the most momentous battle of all time which
was waged at the cross He too was completely victorious, utterly
destroying all His enemies, every foe, and all opposition, bringing in a
perfect salvation, a complete justification and everlasting life for all
those for whom He died and shed His blood.
In
the siege of Jericho when the children of
Israel marched silently around the
city walls for seven days we see a wonderful picture of the power of God
in the Gospel. The horns which the priests blew were ram’s horns pointing
figuratively to the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, and the power of God, as
symbolised by the horn, which is the Gospel. It was by the sounding of
that Gospel, spiritually speaking, that the walls fell down flat.
Israel used no carnal weapons of
warfare to bring those great walls down - they had no need to. God’s power
to save through the Gospel is greater than any power of man or of his
making (2 Corinthians 10:4).
In
the eighth chapter of Joshua however, we read of another battle, another
siege, which although maybe not as well known as the siege of Jericho,
nevertheless still powerfully pictures the cross of Christ, and the
tremendous battle waged there between good and evil.
We
read here how Joshua and his men were sent by God to ambush the city of
Ai. Some of the men lay in wait
outside the city on the west side (Joshua 8:2-12) whilst during the night
Joshua descended into the midst of the valley (Joshua 8:13). When the king of Ai and his
men saw this they arose early and went out to fight Joshua and his men.
But Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten
and fled into the wilderness causing the king of Ai and all his men to
pursue after them. Not one man of Ai was left in the city! It was left
wide open. On seeing Joshua raise his spear towards the city, the
Israelites who lay in wait ambushed the city from behind and burnt it with
fire (Joshua 8:14-19).
The
men of Ai found themselves in the wilderness, outside the city, helplessly
surrounded by Israelites on all sides. The Israelites slew them all,
leaving not one man alive, except the king of Ai.
Israel then returned to the city,
slew all the remaining inhabitants, and took the cattle and all the
spoils. Ai was destroyed – it was a total and an overwhelming victory
(Joshua 8:20-28).
Symbolically the king of Ai
was then hung on a tree and buried under a great heap of stones (Joshua
8:29). Finally, Joshua built an
altar to the LORD, offered up burnt offerings, sacrificed peace offerings,
and wrote upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses which was then read
out to all the congregation of Israel (Joshua
8:30-35).
In
this article I’d like to draw attention to several points drawn from this
siege of Ai and how it directs our gaze to the victory which Christ
wrought on the cross, outside the city of
Jerusalem, as He suffered and died in
the place of sinners.
[I
would also draw the reader’s attention to the twelfth chapter of
Revelation which allegorically pictures many truths in a passage which has
some parallels with what is shown spiritually and symbolically in Joshua
chapter 8.]
1. “PERFECT
LOVE CASTETH OUT FEAR…”
“There
is no fear in love; but perfect lovecastethoutfear” (1 John 4:18).
The
chapter starts with these words of encouragement from the LORD to His
servant Joshua: “Fear not, neither be dismayed”.
Faced
with such fearsome enemies all around them in the
land of
Canaan, enemies which far outweighed
them in number, this is just what Joshua and the Israelites needed to
hear. Fear of the great forces arrayed against them could easily have
overcome the children of Israel. But that the LORD was with
them, that He loved His people, that He would fight for them, and that the
victory would be theirs, was just what Joshua and
Israel needed to know to cast out
their fears. And it is just what all the people of God throughout history
need to know – what encouragement there is in knowing that we have a God
and a Saviour who has said “I will never leave thee, nor
forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5), who fights our
battles for us, who is our strength in times of weakness. How the perfect
love of God shed abroad in the hearts of his people casts out all fear.
Surely, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)
But
Joshua, the battles he fought and the fears he felt, point us to another,
a much greater “Saviour”, even
Jesus Christ the Lord. What a battle there lay before Christ as He
approached the hour when He would be betrayed and given up to be sentenced
to death upon a cross. How terrible were the foes set against Him. Satan,
the prince of this world, the prince of darkness, knew that his moment was
come. Now he thought to destroy the Son of God, to bring all his forces of
evil to bear upon the “Sun of Righteousness”, to pour out all his malice and fury against the Lord’s
Anointed - to bring Him to nought.
But
as Christ entered into His agonies of soul in the
garden of
Gethsemane
He anticipated far greater
sufferings than any which the Evil One could bring to bear upon Him. That
which He feared most, which He knew lay before Him, was the drinking of
the cup of God’s wrath against the sins of His people; being made sin on
the cross in their stead, bearing their sins in His own body on the tree,
being bruised, beaten and battered by His own Father under the outpouring
of His righteous anger and wrath against sin. But most of all being
forsaken of His Father, separated from the One in whose breast He had
always laid, cast into an eternity of Hell within His own soul for the
sins of all the elect. What a prospect! What a battle! What a cup to
drink!
Yet
in this most dark, this most fearsome of hours, Christ willingly submitted
His will to the will of His Father (Luke 22:42). His love for His Father,
His love for all those whom the Father had given unto Him and the love
which He knew His Father had for Him, enabled Him to bear the agony, and
to face the coming ordeal. For that love was no ordinary love - it was
perfect love, “which casteth out fear”. The perfect trust which Jesus had in the Father’s will and His
promise, His absolute faith that all the sins of the elect would be borne
away by His sacrifice in death - and that on the third day He surely would
be raised again from the dead, conquering every foe, every enemy, all
opposition - caused Him to set His face like a flint towards the cross,
not turning aside from the great task which lay before Him. Despite all
outward appearances, despite the fact that His Father would forsake Him
during those hours on the cross when He was made sin, Christ still knew
that all would be accomplished according to the Father’s will; all would
be finished, all would be perfected – a complete deliverance and salvation
of all God’s people would be wrought - to the glory of His grace, for
evermore!
And
so in Christ’s great torments and fears, God comforted Him: “And
there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him” (Luke 22:43).
The
help Jesus needed came from God, from heaven - not from man. The disciples
slept whilst Jesus was in agony in Gethsemane, their tiredness, the
weakness of their flesh overcoming them. But Jesus, like Joshua before
Him, received the help He needed - direct from God.
2. THE
PROMISE OF VICTORY
“Who
is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the
LORD mighty in battle”
(Psalm 24:8).
The
LORD gave Israel a promise that victory would
be theirs - “I have given into thy hand the king of Ai,
and his people, and his city, and his land”
(Joshua 8:1) - and so it would turn out to be. The king and men of Ai were
to be totally defeated and completely destroyed,
Israel taking their cattle and the
spoils, for the LORD was with them.
The
Lord Jesus also knew that His death on the cross for His people would
result in total victory over Satan and all his forces (Psalm 110). In
dying in the place of sinners Christ would satisfy the full justice of
God’s Law, yet at the same time show mercy to a great multitude. The Law
with which Satan accused God’s people, which was the strength of sin,
would be completely met and satisfied - not in them, but in another - the
Substitute.
When
Jesus died all His people had their sins justly punished and taken away -
they were washed from head to toe in Christ’s blood, shed on their behalf.
All Satan’s powers of accusation were stripped from him - he was utterly
spoiled, totally defeated, completely destroyed. He had nothing in Christ
with which to find fault, and nothing in God’s elect. Christ spoiled
Satan, delivering all His people from his evil grasp. Christ’s victory was
complete and triumphant (1 Corinthians 15:54-57).
[See
Revelation 12, especially verses 7-11.]
“When
a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: But
when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh
from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his
spoils”
(Luke 11:21-22).
3. “THE
MIDST OF THE VALLEY” Joshua
8:13.
“Yea,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for
thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me”
(Psalm 23:4).
Outside
the city, in the night, Joshua went into the midst of the valley. In this
we see pictured the descent of Christ from the heights of glory into the
darkness, the night of this world, made a little lower than the angels for
the suffering of death (Hebrews 2:9), taking the form of a servant, made
in the likeness of men. Christ, the Son of God, humbled Himself by taking
human nature into perfect union with His divine nature and person, so that
He might suffer and die in the place of sinful men. He came as the light
of men into the darkness of a fallen world to redeem a people, to deliver
them from sin, death and the powers of darkness, that they might have
life, eternal life, in Him, and be raised to glory with Him in the last
day.
Christ
came as the light which shone in darkness, and the darkness comprehended
it not (John 1:5). He came from such great heights of glory to such great
depths of humility among dark, fallen, sinful mankind. Yet His greatest
descent was yet to come. His pathway through His life in this world was
always set towards one destination - the cross. At the cross Jesus, the
Saviour, reached the lowest point of His descent into the valley. Here He
would suffer in death for His people (Acts 8:33).
Here He “who knew no sin was made sin” for them that they might be “made
the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
When Jesus was “made sin” and the earth became as night for three hours,
the light of the Sun of Righteousness being veiled because of the sin
which He bore, truly Jesus, Joshua, the Saviour “went that
night into the midst of the valley”.
“The
people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell
in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the
light shined”
(Isaiah 9:2).
“Let
this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the
form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made
himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and
was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he
humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross” (Philippians
2:5-8).
4. “WITHOUT
THE CAMP” Hebrews
13:13.
Notice where the battle of Ai
was fought - not in the city; not in the camp; but outside the city, “without
the camp”, in the valley
- out in the wilderness. The men of Ai came out of the city to fight
Joshua and his men. Why? Because Joshua’s appearance in the valley gave
the impression of defeat and it drew the men of Ai out to pursue
after him and his men.
Likewise we read in Hebrews
that “Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with
his own blood, suffered without the gate” as
typified by the carcasses of the beasts, sacrificed under the Law of
Moses, which were burnt without the camp. Jesus was crucified, not in the
city of Jerusalem, but outside, with two
malefactors. Just as lepers were considered unclean and kept outside the
camp, so Christ was treated as unclean. Like a common criminal He was
taken outside the city to be executed. Jerusalem, that great city centred
upon the temple, in which the Jews practised their religion and prided
themselves on being God’s chosen people, proud of their heritage, their
law and their priesthood, had rejected Christ and handed Him over to the
Roman authorities to crucify Him. That was where their enlightenment in
religion in its merely outward form took them - “He came
unto his own, and his own received him not” (John 1:11).
Outside the camp is where
Jesus suffered. Outside the camp of man’s forms of religion, rejected and
despised of men. This, like Joshua in the valley, gave the impression of
defeat - yet resulted in the salvation of a countless multitude (1 Samuel
16:7). Christ died for a people who sought Him not, a people at enmity
with God, who deserved nothing but condemnation, a people who were sinners
- “I
will have mercy, and not
sacrifice: for I am not
come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance”
(Matthew 9:13). He died for them while they
were yet sinners (Romans 5:8-10) - while they were enemies He reconciled
them (Colossians 1:21-22). These people God draws
by grace irresistibly to the Saviour, outside the camp. These died when He
died, and these rose when He rose, victorious from the grave.
“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I
will in no wise cast out”
(John 6:37), “No man can
come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him
up at the last day” (John 6:44).
“Let us go forth therefore
unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here we have no
continuing city, but we seek one to come” (Hebrews 13:13-14).
[Compare also Revelation 12,
especially verses 4-6.]
5. “THEIR
SINS AND THEIR INIQUITIES WILL I REMEMBER NO MORE” Hebrews 8:12.
Outside the camp, in the midst
of battle, the men of Ai found they had Israelites on every side.
Israel’s enemies were surrounded,
and come the end of the day not one was left alive. The victory over Ai
was complete and overwhelming.
Likewise Christ’s victory over
sin and all the enemies of God and God’s people at the cross was total.
Christ took away all the sins of His people in His body on the tree. Not
one sin, not one blemish was left. It was a finished work. All the elect
of God died with Christ when He died. Their flesh was crucified with Him -
every sin was taken away - and having died they rose again with Christ in
His resurrection, in the power of an everlasting life (Galatians 2:19-20,
Galatians 6:14).
“I
have blottedout, as a thick cloud, thy
transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have
redeemed thee”
(Isaiah 44:22).
6.
“THE ACCUSER OF (THE) BRETHREN
CAST DOWN”Revelation 12:10.
The
king of Ai is figurative of Satan, the Devil, the “prince
of this world”. Since Satan
as the Serpent deceived Eve and, by her, caused Adam and all mankind to
fall into sin, the consequence of which was death, he has maintained a
power and a dominion over this world. All men are sinners and all come
under his dominion and deadly influence (Ephesians
2:1-3).
Yet
there is one who is greater than Satan, who came in to this world to
deliver His people from Satan’s grip. As the king of Ai and his men
battled with Joshua and Israel, so spiritually Satan and his forces fought
against Jesus and tried to overcome Him at the cross [compare Revelation
12:7]. But as Joshua defeated Ai and its king, hanging him
on a tree, so too
Jesus turned Satan’s opposition around, disarmed him, and ensured his
ultimate defeat.
The
hanging of the king of Ai on the tree graphically points us to the cross.
Though Christ hung on the cross - on the tree - it was ultimately Satan’s
downfall. The cross destroyed Satan. The cross sealed his fate. Satan, the
Devil, like the handwriting of ordinances which he so ferociously used to
accuse the saints day and night (Revelation 12:10), was effectively nailed to,
and hung on, the cross and taken out of the way (Colossians
2:14-15). Christ’s ‘heel’ was
bruised - leaving five scars in His glorified body - but the Serpent’s
head was crushed! (Genesis 3:15) Thus, Christ, victorious over all His
foes, rose from the dead, having spoiled principalities and
powers!
“Forasamuch then as the
children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the
power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through the
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage”
(Hebrews 2:14-15).
7. “YE
ARE NOT UNDER LAW BUT UNDER GRACE” Romans 6:14.
After
hanging him on a tree, when the sun was down Joshua had the carcase of the
king taken down, cast at the entering of the city and buried under a great
heap of stones, which, it is written, “remaineth unto this
day”.
What
does this picture? Well, we have seen how the king is figurative of Satan,
the Accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10). Also, stones speak of the
Law of God which was engraven in stones (2 Corinthians 3:7), and which
often demanded the stoning of those who transgressed it (Numbers
15:32-36). As the Accuser Satan
stands, as it were, in the Court of God as the Prosecutor. He takes the
Law of God and uses it to accuse God’s people of their sins. He seeks to
cast stones of condemnation at them. And he is right - they have sinned,
they have broken God’s law. What a prosecutor he is - he knows the law
intimately. He knows what is required of man before a Holy God - a perfect
and a continual righteousness.
But
what Satan didn’t expect, what he didn’t reckon on, what utterly destroyed
his case, was the work of Christ at the cross. What defeated him was the
work of the Substitute. Here was God’s answer to Satan’s accusations. A lawful answer. A just answer. For God would be “just
and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Romans 3:26). Christ stood in the place of
sinners taking the just punishment against their sin in His own body. He
met all the law’s penal demands against the sins of the elect, answered
every charge, every sentence. The law demanded death and that is what it
got. Christ died in the place of the sinner - the Just for the unjust.
God’s law could require no more - all its demands had been
met.
Jesus
having paid the price for sin, having cast sin clean out of sight for all
His people, had taken the accuser’s strongest weapon - the Law - and
turned it right around against him.
Satan
was destroyed. The stones of the very law he sought to hurl at God’s elect
fell upon his own head, burying him in the earth, under a great heap “which
remaineth unto this day”.
Yes, the stone of the law buried Satan, yet that stone could not keep
Christ in the tomb. The stone of Christ’s tomb (figurative of the law
being answered) was rolled aside and Christ and all His people rose
triumphant from the grave. The victory was “Joshua’s”.
“Blottingout the handwriting of
ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it
out of the way, nailing
it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a
shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it”
(Colossians 2:14-15).
8. “GRACE
SHALL REIGN THROUGH RIGHTEOUSNESS” Romans 5:21.
Having defeated Ai, slain all
its inhabitants, spoiled the city, and hung its king, after a magnificent
victory, Joshua set up an altar to the LORD, made sacrifices upon it,
wrote upon it all the words of the law of Moses and read that out in the
hearing of all the congregation of Israel. Hence the people were reminded
of the covenant made between God and His earthly people, symbolic of that
New Covenant which would be established in Christ for His heavenly
people.
So
Christ having finished the work of redemption upon the cross, having
destroyed Satan, sin, death and hell, having spoiled Satan’s city,
throwing out the “prince of this world” to reassert Christ’s rights of absolute dominion over His
creation and His people, having risen from the dead and ascended into
glory to sit on the right hand of God the Father; Jesus, the Saviour,
established the New Covenant, the everlasting covenant, in perfect
righteousness, and took of His shed blood, sprinkling it upon the mercy
seat in the Holiest of Holies in heaven above.
“But now hath he obtained a
more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better
covenant, which was established upon better promises” (Hebrews
8:6).
“Then said he, Lo, I come to
do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the
second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the
body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every high priest standeth daily
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never
take away sins:
But this man, after he had
offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of
God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool.
For by one offering he hath
perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Hebrews
10:9-14).
What
a Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ is! What a covenant He established! Jesus
is the mediator of this covenant, the priest and the sacrifice. He offered
Himself as the one, perfect, sacrifice for sins, never to be repeated. A
sacrifice so complete, so acceptable to God the Father that it completely
atoned for all the sins of God’s people, paid the ransom price, redeemed
every one of the elect, made peace with God and brought in everlasting
righteousness and eternal life. And it was all done out of free and
sovereign grace, freely bestowed to undeserving sinners, at such a cost to
the Saviour. Praise His Holy Name!
When
we consider the wondrous work of salvation which the Saviour wrought on
the cross for His people how thankful we should be that Jesus feared not
to go“that night into
the midst of the valley”!
