H.  Capturing the city of Ai (chapter 8).

1.       Second attack on the city of Ai.

 a.      God instructed Joshua to attack Ai once more and promised that they would be victorious.

 b.      Instructed them on how to fight the battle: 1) Do as they did to the king of Jericho; 2) Take their plunder and livestock for themselves; 3) Have all the people of war go to battle; 4) Lay an ambush for the city behind it.

 c.      Joshua acted as instructed, and prepared for the war cautiously and vigilantly.

 d.      Selected 30,000 men; 5000 lay in ambush between Bethel and Ai.

 e.      Joshua set up camp outside the city and pretended to escape. The people of Ai chased after them. The soldiers ambushed them, then attacked and burnt down the city.

 f.       Captured the city of Ai; all the people were killed, their possessions and cattle were taken as booty.

2.       Reasons for the victory.

 a.      Sin was removed (7:12-13, 25).

 b.      Went to war according to the promise of God, relied on God to obtain victory.

 c.      Mobilization of the soldiers.

 d.      Set up ambush according to God’s instructions (cf. Prov 20:18, 21:30, 31).

 e.      The people of Ai were proud and arrogant (Prov 18:12).

3.       Built the altar and read the laws.

 f.       Built an altar on MountEbal, offered burnt offerings and peace offerings (Deut 11:26-30, 27:1-8).

 g.      Wrote a copy of the Book of the Law on the stone.

(a)     The mountains of Ebal and Gerizim are located respectively north and south of the city of Shechem.

 h.      The Israelites stood on two sides of the ark of covenant, Joshua blessed them.

 i.        Read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursing, according to all that was written in the Book of the Law.

(a)     There was not a word that was left out.