Ch. 8 in JOSHUA: CONQUERING The ENEMY, INHERITING The LAND – Pt. One

INTRODUCTION: In the last section of the study on Chapter Seven we wrote the following:

“GOD is serious about obedience from His creatures. Because of the fact that He is Creator GOD, He owns everything: the sun, moon and stars, the planet Earth and all the universe, right down to the subatomic structures and everything in between! The fact that He owns it all, makes Him the Sovereign – or LORD, having the authority to do with His creation whatever He desires, answerable to no one but Himself. Since He is the Sovereign KING, with jurisdiction over all His domain – that is to say His “Kingdom” He writes the Laws. As the Law Maker, He is uniquely qualified to be the Judge Who enforces that Holy and Pure Law.

“Because we are a race of sinners, GOD is righteous in condemning all that offends His Law, as spiritual criminals. HOWEVER – GOD is just as much love as He is holy. While He is justified in condemning sin (“spiritual criminality”), He desires to save souls from that terrible eternal fate of separation from the only source of life, that is, Himself. So He has come as Savior, taking on humanity, thus becoming a member of our human family, and on our behalf took all of our sin and guilt worthiness, along with all punitive action from GOD the Father, we who by faith believe the GOSPEL are delivered from sin, death, judgment and hellfire.”

Check out the following four-part series that examines the Four Primary Offices of the LORD GOD.

And just as GOD judges righteously among His people Israel, He also judges the nations, like those that once dwelled in Canaan, and the people that lived in Ai… And even as the LORD gave them more than four centuries to repent – and they refused – He brought down judgment, using Israel, led by Joshua to do so.

JOSHUA 8:1-2
1 ¶ Now the LORD said to Joshua: "Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed; take all the people of war with you, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city, and his land. 2 "And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king. Only its spoil and its cattle you shall take as booty for yourselves. Lay an ambush for the city behind it.  

I think Israel fell in Chapter Seven for two reasons: As a result of such a decisive victory over Jericho, the warriors got a little too confident about themselves! It was the LORD’s victory, but I think they might have taken too much of the credit! All of a sudden, they’re experts on war and recommended that only a portion of the military go after the teeny town of Ai.

And then they failed to pray and seek the LORD on the matter. Had they prayed they would have had the proper perspective and a good deal of humility, and the LORD would have revealed the sin of Achan before one Israelite lifted their sword in battle! Had the matter of sin been taken care of, undoubtedly the LORD would have ensured their victory over Ai, just as He did with Jericho.

Now because they were still stinging after that catastrophic defeat, the LORD had to reassure Joshua and all Israel to “…not be afraid, nor be dismayed…” And notice that the LORD instructs Joshua to “…take ALL the people of war with you…” even though Ai wasn’t nearly the challenge that Jericho was!

Even as Israel had to have the entire military with Joshua – not just a section, so too the church needs ALL of the body of Christ in operation, participating in the work of GOD!

If you woke up one morning and your right arm was completely lifeless – paralyzed, cold, totally useless – you’d be in the ER as fast as possible! Having a paralyzed arm is not normal – it needs to get fixed! Yet how much of the body of Christ is spiritually paralyzed? They just sit there in the pews and watch the pastor preach and then go home and go on with their unchanged lives. And they themselves are not ministering in any capacity. But this is how the body of Christ is to operate:

EPHESIANS 4:16
from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love (See also COL 2:19).

If you are a born again disciple of Christ, thus a member of the body of Christ, GOD has you in the church for a purpose. If you belong to Christ, then like Himself, you are a servant of GOD. How are you serving the LORD and His body – His bride? What has GOD called you to?

If you are a Christian and married with children – THAT! is a very powerful ministry right there! And an absolutely essential one!

Who gave you that wife and those children, but GOD Himself? These are souls He has placed into your life, asking you to take care of them for Him. You are the steward over their lives; and where the children are concerned – they are the next generation of the church!

Are you pouring into their lives and hearts, lavishing them in the love of Jesus, discipling them in the Word? This job is too big for the pastor to equip them all on his own – he needs YOU as a partner for your family’s benefit. And then there is your in-house partner: are you forging a most powerful alliance with your wife as a godly couple, establishing a godly home?

Wives, how are you doing in your partnership with your husband, supporting and praying for him even as he takes the lead as the head of the house, and loves and serves you as Christ serves His own bride?

Are you single with no family obligations? Then what about doing some time on the mission field, preaching the Gospel to souls both far and wide?

Maybe due to physical limitations you can’t travel long distance – then what about some inner-city preaching?

Or maybe you’re very limited physically, maybe even house bound! Still, you can be involved in one of the most powerful ministries there is, and never even leave your home – or even your bed! I’m talking about being an intercessory prayer warrior. If you go to Play Store or it’s equivalent on your smartphone and look up and download “Operation World”, you will receive daily a nation to pray for, complete with all kinds of statistics to fuel your prayer fire!

Being the light of Christ wherever you go, whether to the workplace, to school, to some recreational activity, is something we are all called to. And yet, we see our world growing darker and darker as the years go by.

I’m thoroughly convinced that if we don’t take back our pulpits and return to a solid, uncompromising, bold preaching and teaching of the Word of GOD, if we don’t start taking our nation to prayer in a very serious, daily commitment, then we will have run out of any more of GOD’s “grace periods” and we will find ourselves in the midst of not “America the Free” but “America the Fallen” (article by pastor Shane Idleman). And freedom lost is seldom regained.

For more on this, check out the TTUF article, AT TWILIGHT’S LAST GLEAMING – The Former Then The Greater Beacon of Hope.

One last thing: please, please – keep your pastor(s) in prayer, because if things go the way I suspect that they might, they will be challenged like pastors have never before in our American history!

JOSHUA 8:3-5
3 So Joshua arose, and all the people of war, to go up against Ai; and Joshua chose thirty thousand mighty men of valor and sent them away by night. 4 And he commanded them, saying: "Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you be ready. 5 "Then I and all the people who are with me will approach the city; and it will come about, when they come out against us as at the first, that we shall flee before them.

Israel’s warfare against the demon-worshipping (DEUT 32:17; PSA 106:37), pagan-oriented, violent and diseased Canaanites is a type of the sort of spiritual warfare the church is involved with – or should be involved with, these days!

Whereas Israel had physical opponents to battle, flesh and blood enemies to take down, we the church certainly do not!

2 CORINTHIANS 10:4-5
4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,

EPHESIANS 6:12
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

But our warfare is just as vitally important – and even more so – than the physical battles that Israel fought against their enemies (which in and of themselves were undoubtedly empowered and directed by demonic forces).

We wrestle against Satan and his kingdom of darkness for the sake of our unsaved loved ones; for the sake of our wives and children, our entire household. We pray for our pastors, elders, church leadership that are marked targets by the kingdom of darkness – and the saints in general. We pray for our government officials (now in mid-terms of 2026) all the more so, because America has virtually turned blue overnight!

The Democratic Party has been overrun by Socialists. If you find that unbelievable, just look sometime at the list of objectives sought after by the proponents of Socialism and compare those with the objectives of Democrats.

Socialism’s primary objective is a Communist State, and Communism has never been a friend to Christianity. It’s very founder Karl Marx may well have been what one might consider a “closet Satanist” – that’s according to the little book by Richard Wurmbrand, Marx & Satan.

So rather than spend time and energy fighting these so-called Democrats – I’ll call them what they are, Socialists – let’s get to the root of the problem: those “principalities and powers” that are governing them. Those are the same demonic forces that are holding your loved ones captive in Satan’s P.O.W. camps. Does this anger you? Are you grieved that they are blind to the truth, resistant to the Gospel, mocking the Bible?

There is no discounting the work of the flesh in their lives, barring any sort of demonic influence, of course. But Satan and his kingdom are in fact, playing a major role in keeping lost souls in bondage!

And like Joshua was given battle plans by GOD, we the church of the LORD Jesus Christ have our own, received by the all-wise counsel of the Holy Scriptures:

EPHESIANS 6:13-20
13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; 18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints-- 19 and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

For the best guide on spiritual warfare that I’ve come across, after examining several of them, I believe you can find none better than Dr. Gregory Reid’s book WAR of the AGES.

I’ve conducted a four-part interview with the author, as well as a five-part book report on it. Note: each article in these two series has a link to the following article for your convenience.

Let’s make no mistake here! Satan is a master strategist! There is no way possible we can match him, let alone exceed him! That is why we must go into battle according to the wisdom and instruction of the Eternal GOD Who has anticipated every single move the enemy makes, long before he thinks of them! Since He has all power and knowledge – how can He be defeated by a relatively limited creature like Satan? That was a rhetorical question by the way!

Just as Joshua and the armies of Israel received instruction by GOD, so have we – in the full counsel of GOD’s Holy Revelation – the Sacred Scriptures! These instructions at times make little or even no sense to our human reasoning. Think about GOD’s command to circle around Jericho once for six days, then seven times on the seventh day, blow trumpets, holler – and those insurmountable, towering walls will come crashing down??

Don’t dismiss the counsels of GOD, even if it goes against every ounce of your reasoning and logic - He sees the Big Picture while we’re looking at things through a keyhole!

ISAIAH 55:8-9
8 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. 9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

JOSHUA 8:6-8
6 "For they will come out after us till we have drawn them from the city, for they will say, 'They are fleeing before us as at the first.' Therefore we will flee before them. 7 "Then you shall rise from the ambush and seize the city, for the LORD your God will deliver it into your hand. 8 "And it will be, when you have taken the city, that you shall set the city on fire. According to the commandment of the LORD you shall do. See, I have commanded you."

These strategies are not Joshua’s but GOD’s. So this general of the armies of Israel really wasn’t the ultimate leader in this war, the LORD was! So it is today with you, saint of GOD! You are not in the lead in the battles of life you face – or you shouldn’t be! We need to be humble enough to go before the LORD and say, “LORD, I don’t want to initiate a battle plan of my own against the forces arrayed against me – would You take the lead, go before me, prepare the way, and guide my path to victory? I need You, LORD”

King David understood this!

1 SAMUEL 17:42-47
42 And when the Philistine [this would be the 9’ tall giant, Goliath] looked about and saw David, he disdained him; for he was only a youth, ruddy and good-looking. 43 So the Philistine said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 And the Philistine said to David, "Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!" 45 Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the Name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 "This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. 47 "Then all this assembly shall know that the LORD does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the LORD'S, and He will give you into our hands."

This is a spiritual lesson that we must brand into our hearts and minds with the holy fire of GOD’s Truth! We cannot expect to win spiritual battles by physical means. Note that David acknowledged Goliath’s arsenal of weapons – sword, spear, javelin (and no doubt, armor and shield, and helmet, etc.) but David didn’t match Goliath weapon for weapon. He chose the spiritual weapon that cannot fail: “…I come to you in the Name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied”.

PHILIPPIANS 2:9-11
9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

THE ETERNAL VICTOR GLORIFIED 

He stepped into the shadows,

took the lowly servant’s place,

Laying down His crown of glory,

for a cross of deep disgrace.

He was broken, He was humbled,

obedient to the grave,

Giving up His life in mercy

so the ruined could be saved.

Therefore GOD has highly raised Him

to the highest throne above,

Crowning Him with Sovereign power,

vindicating perfect love.

And He gave to Him a title

that outshines the stars and sun,

The Name above all other names,

the High and Holy one!

So that at the name of Jesus,

every knee shall surely bow,

In the heights of highest heaven

and the earth below it now.

Even in the deepest darkness,

every creature down beneath,

Shall acknowledge Him in wonder,

pushing weapons in their sheaths.

Every tongue shall loud confess it,

Through the ages yet to be:

Jesus Christ is LORD of glory,

reigning for eternity!

To the Father’s praise and honor,

let the grand crescendo rise,

As the Name of names is lifted

through the earth and splitting skies.*

*Generated by GEMINI, revised by yours truly

I think we’ll end this study here and pick up next time from verses 9 to 12 and continue examining this Divinely-appointed warfare, Old Testament style!