“THE BOOK OF JOSHUA ~ a Type & Shadow” A-042 (04-13-22) Joshua 8:24-29
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Joshua 8:24 (New English Translation) says, “When Israel had finished killing all the men {Heb. residents} of Ai who had chased them toward the wilderness (they all fell by the sword), all Israel returned to Ai and put the sword to it.”
● Since I am talking about the “wandering thoughts within the mind,” this is where many times each of us has felt as if we were in a wilderness experience, where our own battle with unrenewed thinking is dealt with. Now, while this is a common modern view of what many go through, still we can learn to walk in our created victor and never know defeat. But if we do, and if we find the need to “repent” about anything we have done or experienced, “repentance” is defined as to change the way one thinks, and therefore, we are able to stop repeating the same things over and over again, while expecting a different result each time.
● Joshua 8:25-26 (NET) says, “25 So 12,000 men and women died {Heb. fell} that day, including all the men of Ai. 26 Joshua kept holding out his curved sword until Israel had annihilated all who lived in Ai.”
● When your mind of unrenewed thinking rebels again the truth you are embracing, you can “cast down those arguments” within and through focused prayer and meditation you can “bring every thought” into submission to “obey the Christ-mind” within. Giving up, quitting, and accepting defeat are never an option since you were created in the image and likeness of your Creator, to rule over all that He has created.
● Joshua 8:27 (NET) says, “But Israel did plunder the cattle and the goods of the city, in keeping with the LORD’s orders {Heb. message, or word} to Joshua.”
● I am a firm believer in following the instructions or directions I receive from the Lord. Joshua followed God’s instructions, and blessings flowed as the Lord had promised. The difference for us is that we are blessed because of Father’s eternal covenant with His creation, and not based on our performance.
● Joshua 8:28 (NET) says, “Joshua burned Ai {ʿay, īēē} and made it a permanently uninhabited mound (it remains that way to this very day).”
● From a translator’s note (tn) it says that the Hebrew would read, “and made it a permanent mound, a desolation, to this day.” In other words, the place in which the city of Ai {ʿay, īēē} stood, is no longer inhabitable for any people to live there.
● Joshua 8:29 (NET) “He hung the king of Ai on a tree, leaving him exposed until evening {Heb. on a tree until evening}. At sunset Joshua ordered that his corpse be taken down from the tree. They threw it down at the entrance of the city gate and erected over it a large pile of stones (it remains to this very day).”
● A study note (sn) says, For the legal background of this action, see Deuteronomy 21:22-23, which I think is an Old Testament example of capital punishment, even though we are looking at all things in scripture through the proper interpretive lens of God’s love.
● Joshua 8:29 stated that “They threw it {the king’s body} down at the entrance of the city gate and erected over it a large pile of stones (it remains to this very day).”
● We can see through many examples of how the children of Israel placed “remembrances” around them and for other people who would look at where they had been. But what we can use here as a type and shadow is that when we fight those battles in our thinking and we overcome, instantly a “remembrance” manifests in your mind to remind you of one more step toward the “renewing of your mind” toward the full, and complete manifestation of the same mind that was in Christ Jesus, also being or manifesting within you.
● I hope you were enlightened and inspired to “dig deep into the well of Father’s mind within” as you watch this video lesson!