Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 24
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IMMERSE
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KINGDOMS
8:1-21
Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid or discouraged. Take all
your fighting men and attack Ai, for I have given you the king of Ai, his
people, his town, and his land. You will destroy them as you destroyed Jer
icho and its king. But this time you may keep the plunder and the livestock
for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the town.”
So Joshua and all the fighting men set out to attack Ai. Joshua chose
30,000 of his best warriors and sent them out at night with these orders:
“Hide in ambush close behind the town and be ready for action. When
our main army attacks, the men of Ai will come out to fight as they did
before, and we will run away from them. We will let them chase us until
we have drawn them away from the town. For they will say, ‘The Israelites
are running away from us as they did before.’ Then, while we are running
from them, you will jump up from your ambush and take possession of
the town, for the Lord your God will give it to you. Set the town on fire,
as the Lord has commanded. You have your orders.”
So they left and went to the place of ambush between Bethel and the
west side of Ai. But Joshua remained among the people in the camp that
night. Early the next morning Joshua roused his men and started toward
Ai, accompanied by the elders of Israel. All the fighting men who were
with Joshua marched in front of the town and camped on the north side of
Ai, with a valley between them and the town. That night Joshua sent about
5,000 men to lie in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the
town. So they stationed the main army north of the town and the ambush
west of the town. Joshua himself spent that night in the valley.
When the king of Ai saw the Israelites across the valley, he and all his
army hurried out early in the morning and attacked the Israelites at a place
overlooking the Jordan Valley. But he didn’t realize there was an ambush
behind the town. Joshua and the Israelite army fled toward the wilderness
as though they were badly beaten. Then all the men in the town were
called out to chase after them. In this way, they were lured away from the
town. There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who did not chase after the
Israelites, and the town was left wide open.
Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Point the spear in your hand toward Ai,
for I will hand the town over to you.” Joshua did as he was commanded.
As soon as Joshua gave this signal, all the men in ambush jumped up from
their position and poured into the town. They quickly captured it and set
it on fire.
When the men of Ai looked behind them, smoke from the town was
filling the sky, and they had nowhere to go. For the Israelites who had fled
in the direction of the wilderness now turned on their pursuers. When
Joshua and all the other Israelites saw that the ambush had succeeded and
that smoke was rising from the town, they turned and attacked the men