06-The Battle of Ai

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The Battle of Ai

The loss of 36 men at Ai had taken its toll on the Israelites. Now they need YHVH’s encouragement. Chapter 7 tells us that Joshua sent men and, from the report given by these men, Joshua decided to send 3,000 men to Ai, 36 of which died in battle. Nowhere in chapter 7 do we read that YHVH gave Joshua a signal to move forward with the battle of Ai. The scripture says:

Joshua 7:2  Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai,

Joshua made a mistake. YHVH did not tell Joshua to move forward into battle with Ai. Joshua just did that of his own volition. A good lesson for us to learn is that something might be wrong when YHVH stops speaking to us. When He is silent, it may be a sign that we need to repent of something. Joshua had no way to know what Achan had done, though. It wasn’t until after losing warriors in the battle that Joshua went to YHVH. It would have been better for Joshua to have prayed and consulted with YHVH through the High Priest’s Urim and Thummim about the battle. Thirty-six men might not have died if Joshua had come before YHVH in advance of the battle instead of sending out a scouting mission and relying on the reports of the men who scouted the city.

YHVH was silent before that battle, but now YHVH will speak with Joshua again.

In all the battles from here forward, Joshua will hear from YHVH. Joshua will be waiting to hear from YHVH, that’s why. From chapter 8 to the end of chapter 14, we will read how YHVH spoke to Joshua, and because of this, Israel will wipe the land clean of all the “ites” living in the cities which Israel attacked. We will even read how Joshua spoke to YHVH in chapter 10. Joshua, it seems will have learned his lesson about staying in touch with YHVH the commander of the heavenly host.

Nonetheless, even though Israel’s battles will continue to be successful, we will read of Joshua’s and the elder’s failure to consult with YHVH in one very important matter. That is for a future teaching.

From the beginning, even the best of leaders of Israel were tried and they failed sometimes. Yet, YHVH used Joshua for His purposes, elevated him and had mercy on him when he failed. We must learn from Joshua’s mistake of not paying attention to YHVH’s voice or knowing when we are not hearing His voice.

Now, Joshua will hear YHVH’s voice and YHVH’s voice will tell him to move forward into battle.

Joshua 8:1  Yahweh said to Joshua, “Don’t be afraid, and don’t be dismayed. Take all the warriors with you, and arise, go up to Ai. See, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, with his people, his city, and his land. 

Israel has no choice but to move forward with the battle of Ai. If they sit around too long, the “ites” of the land will muster and make allies and come after them. Also, YHVH now wants His people to forget Achan and his sin and move forward. Once sin has been repented of, we must move forward with our lives. It’s over. Just don’t do it again. Thus YHVH gives encouragement that HE will be in the battle. HE has given Ai into Israel’s hands.

Joshua 8:2  You shall do to Ai and her king as you did to Jericho and her king, except you shall take its goods and its livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city behind it.” 

Ai is not to be set aside for destruction as was Jericho. YHVH is a benevolent King. Jericho was to be accursed for Israel and set aside for YHVH who commanded the people of Jericho to be destroyed along with all their cattle, and that all the precious metal treasures were to go into YHVH’s storehouse and the city burned to the ground. The reasons for this were taught in “The Jubilee & The Fall Of Jericho – Part 2”. This time, however, the spoils of war belong to Israel.

Joshua 8:3  So Joshua arose, with all the warriors, to go up to Ai. Joshua chose thirty thousand men, the mighty men of valor, and sent them out by night. 

The command from YHVH in verse 1was for Joshua is to take all the warriors. This 30,000 men is a special forces unit set aside for the ambush which YHVH instructed in verse 2.

Joshua is setting an ambush for the city as YHVH instructed in verse 2 because he is now following the orders of YHVH of hosts who he met in person at the end of chapter 5. The details of the ambush will yet be revealed.

Joshua 8:4  He [Joshua] commanded them saying, “Behold, you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind the city. Don’t go very far from the city, but all of you be ready. 

Joshua commanded them from what he had heard from YHVH about the ambush. The scripture does not expressly say YHVH gave Joshua the details of “against” and “behind” the city. YHVH only told Joshua to set an ambush. We can safely assume that YHVH revealed the plan to Joshua, though. Sometimes scripture provides details and sometimes it doesn’t. Now, Joshua will explain to YHVH’s warriors how the ambush is to be done.

Joshua 8:5  I [Joshua] and all the people who are with me will approach the city. It shall happen, when they come out against us, as at the first, that we will flee before them. 

Notice that YHVH will have all the citizens of Israel in this battle. Remember, I spoke of how unique it was for all the Israelites to cross over the Jordan without the warriors having gone first to do the fighting. There was a recon mission with the 2 spies and then the crossing with all of the citizens of Israel. It was a very unique invasion smart to invade Canaan with all of the people in tow and not only the warriors to make the way. The Jordan crossing was the most unique invasion of a territory in all of earth’s history. No army has ever invaded another nation this same way. It’s just not done. Militaries battle militaries and, afterward, they bring the civilians who are waiting. Invasions just are not done with whole families coming along and participating.

And remember, after all of them crossed the Jordan, the stopped, performed circumcisions, memorialized Passover and Unleavened Bread for 7 days. That’s a really strange invasion! Any Canaanites hiding in the bushes watching this would have been confounded and they would not have known how many warriors were among the invading Israelite nation. This by itself put all the Canaanite kings on edge. The entire population of Canaan probably was not as big as the entire population of Israel. Watching 2 or 3 million people crossing the Jordan river in a dried gap of over 1 mile wide made by the priests carrying the ark and would have terrified the Canaanite kings!

Again, here will come all of the people, not just the warriors. Here was Joshua’s message to the Israelites: Joshua 8:1  Yahweh said to Joshua, “Don’t be afraid, and don’t be dismayed. Scripture tells us 365 times not to fear – don’t fear our enemies, don’t fear battles, don’t illness, don’t fear finances, don’t fear.

The antidote to fear is praise. But here, Joshua did not tell the people to praise YHVH while the warriors were out fighting the battle. Instead, Joshua took all the people into the battle. Let us be wise enough to know when we need to fight and when we need to praise. These are 2 physical activities that cannot be done at the same time, but what we can do is enter our battles with praise in our hearts and then do our singing and dancing and praising afterward.

Thus, Joshua explains:

Joshua 8:6  They [the people of Ai] will come out after us, until we have drawn them away from the city; for they will say, ‘They flee before us, like the first time.’ So we will flee before them, 

Joshua knows ahead of time what will happen. How can he know this for certain? How can he know the men of Ai will come after them and not use some other tactic? Because YHVH has foretold to Joshua everything about this battle. We will see Joshua’s actions and his courage in the battle which can only come from knowing ahead of time what will happen.

This is a spiritual principle that YHVH shares with his prophets the details of events.

Amos 3:7  Surely the Lord Yahweh will do nothing, unless he reveals his secret to his servants the prophets. 

Joshua was a military leader who had this prophecy from YHVH. I want to stop here and explain something about prophecies. Sometimes YHVH gives prophecies that have very far fulfillments. We see in the scriptures. The prophets have some part of their prophecies that are as yet unfulfilled. Those prophecies do not provide details. They describe conditions and situations to come but lack in details. It is only when there is a need to know, when the event is closing in on us Israelites, that YHVH begins to provide details.

We see this in the prophecy of Hosea 11:1.

Hos 11:1  “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. 

The context of Hosea’s speech is how YHVH called His son, Israel, out of Egypt, but later Yeshua’s return to Judea with Joseph and Mary was a future reference, a fulfillment of Hosea’s lament which was not a prophecy at all. This is an example also of history being prophecy but that is for another teaching.

The point is that YHVH does not give the nitty gritty details of how His prophecies will be fulfilled until it is time for the people to fulfill them. Up to now, all Joshua and Israel had was the reassurance that they would conquer Canaan. Now, with the battle of Ai, YHVH provides details to his prophecy so Joshua can tell the warriors exactly what to do and what will happen. YHVH shares information on a need to know basis. The practical application for us today is that we will know the details of our fleeing from the world to YHVH’s specified safe gathering place when we need to know. 

Also, here is another life lesson. The world, like Pharaoh in Egypt after the Israelites had departed and now the people of Ai, will think that a strategic withdrawal is weakness. Sometimes, in life’s battles, we have to withdraw just a bit to draw the enemy out against us where they will be exposed to the forces of YHVH who fights for us.

Joshua 8:7  and you shall rise up from the ambush, and take possession of the city; for Yahweh your God will deliver it into your hand. 
Joshua 8:8  It shall be, when you have seized the city, that you shall set the city on fire. You shall do this according to Yahweh’s word. Behold, I have commanded you.” 

Another lesson: Just do what YHVH says from the beginning to the end of a battle.

Joshua 8:9  Joshua sent them out; and they went to set up the ambush, and stayed between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai; but Joshua stayed among the people that night. 

Strategically, this west side ambush could have effectively pushed Ai back to the Jordan river where there would be no place to run. Israel had the advantage here. If Ai had fled to the east, and they did, they faced being hemmed in at the river. The desert was to the south. That’s all open area with nowhere to hide. Verse 11 tells us that Joshua took the Israelites to the north side of Ai. In other words, Ai was surrounded by warriors on the west, all the Israelites on the north, the river to the east and the desert to the south. There was no escape. Ai was defeated even before the battle commenced.

Joshua 8:10  Joshua rose up early in the morning, mustered the people, and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai. 

Another strategy in this battle was to keep the general population away from the battlefront, to keep them in hiding by presenting themselves with only Joshua and Israel’s elders. Elders can be, but are not always, old people. Elders are leaders regardless of age. We don’t know how many elders there were.

Why did Joshua leave the people and bring only the elders of Israel?

Deuteronomy 20:10  When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace to it. 
Deuteronomy 20:11  It shall be, if it makes you answer of peace, and opens to you, then it shall be, that all the people who are found therein shall become forced laborers to you, and shall serve you. 
Deuteronomy 20:12  If it will make no peace with you, but will make war against you, then you shall besiege it. 

When the people of Ai showed up to look out from the heights of their wall towers, what did they see? Joshua and a few elders of Israel, not an army as Ai was expecting. Verse 15 tells us that they pretended to be afraid of Ai’s warriors and, thus, retreated. This made Ai’s warriors think the Israelites were afraid which was a misdirection.

I have gotten a little ahead of the story. Let’s do a little retreat now and read what the scripture says.

Joshua 8:11  All the people, even the men of war who were with him, went up, and came near, and came before the city, and encamped on the north side of Ai. Now there was a valley between him and Ai. 
Joshua 8:12  He took about five thousand men, and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city. 
Joshua 8:13  So they set the people, that is, all the army who was on the north of the city, and their ambush on the west of the city; and Joshua went that night into the middle of the valley. 

Again, in verse 11, we see that all the people – warriors and civilians alike – are called YHVH’s army. We are His army. However, just as in any army, some are skilled for tasks that not everyone else is, such as the warriors that lie in the ambush. They are trained fighters.

A practical application of this battle for us in the end of days is this: All the people, man, woman and child, showing up with the warriors means everyone was willing to put themselves in danger for the Kingdom YHVH was building. They were willing to lay their lives on the line for their nation, Israel.

Joh 15:12  “This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you. 
Joh 15:13  Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 

The wars which the Israelites all participated in demonstrate the willingness to lay down their lives for all Israel. Everyone who wants Israel to be a nation has a stake it making it happen. The REAL test of Yeshua’s Warrior Bride will be THIS! We must be willing to put our lives on the line for each other. It isn’t the day to day testing that really challenges us. What challenges us is our willingness to die doing YHVH’s will.

Matthew 16:25  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake will find it.

Galatians6:1  Brothers, even if a man is caught in some fault, you who are spiritual must restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; looking to yourself so that you also aren’t tempted. 
Galatians6:2  Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 

And…

1 Thessalonians 5:12  But we beg you, brothers, to know those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, 
1 Thessalonians 5:13  and to respect and honor them in love for their work’s sake. Be at peace among yourselves. 
1 Thessalonians 5:14  We exhort you, brothers, admonish the disorderly, encourage the faint-hearted, support the weak, be patient toward all. 
1 Thessalonians 5:15  See that no one returns evil for evil to anyone, but always follow after that which is good, for one another, and for all. 

Friends, this is how the Kingdom of Yeshua is built. This is what sets it apart from all other nations and it is this, all of us giving our lives for each other, encouraging each other, being patient with each other and sticking together even though we may disagree with each other sometimes, that strengthens Yeshua’s Kingdom to continue on the earth and to be strong so nothing can prevail against it in all of its battles.

Joshua 8:14  When the king of Ai saw it, they hurried and rose up early, and the men of the city went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at the time appointed, before the Arabah; but he didn’t know that there was an ambush against him behind the city. 

Notice that, rather than see that Joshua and the elders were there to offer peace, the king of Ai and his warriors immediately went to battle.

There is another clue here that YHVH was leading this battle. YHVH knew ahead of time what Ai would do, but that didn’t stop Joshua and the elders from fulfilling the commandment to approach with an offer of peace. That phrase “at the time appointed” is the Hebrew word we use for the Feasts, the appointed times. The “appointed time” is ‘moed’, Strong’s H4150. Ai had an appointment with YHVH. Everything happened “at the appointed time”. Ai’s appointed time for destruction had come because Ai would not submit to YHVH through His army when they approached. Ai would not surrender to Yeshua YHVH’s Kingdom.

Joshua 8:15  Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them, and fled by the way of the wilderness. 

This is the misdirection used by YHVH.

Joshua 8:16  All the people who were in the city were called together to pursue after them. They pursued Joshua, and were drawn away from the city. 

Ah! All of Ai’s people, not just warriors, but all the people of Ai also appeared in this battle. This will happen again in the time of the Tribulation. All the people, not just the governments and militaries will be against us Israelites. The stakes will be high in the end of days just as they were for the city of Ai. The New World Order elites of the earth are not about to surrender to Yeshua YHVH.

The stakes were high for Israel at Ai and will be the same for Israel in the Tribulation. The Ai battle, i.e. the coming Tribulation war, will make or break or Israel’s conquest of the Promised Land. The conquest of the Promised Land and YHVH’s promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob on the line here! This is not just a battle. It will be a decisive battle, and our coming battles will be just as decisive.

In the Tribulation, our willingness to stand and fight (not just in physical battle, but also in the spiritual), will make or break Biblical Israel reentering into Yeshua’s 12-tribed Kingdom. We have read the end of the book and we know how it will turn out. However, the Israelites facing Ai did not have an “end of the book”. They simply stood for battle and allowed themselves to be made into a misdirection, a ploy to make the Israelites into a great big decoy while the people of Ai chased them just like what had happened to their fathers in the first generation at the Red Sea when Pharoah chased them.

In this battle, Jericho might have been a fluke. The enemy might now get to think Israel got lucky, but if Israel defeats Ai, then all Canaan will know what’s coming. We will learn about the reactions of the various Canaanite kings in the next teachings. However, if Israel falls to Ai, then Israel will be wiped out because all of Canaan’s kings will come together to fight Israel. That’s how high these stakes were for the Israelites at Ai and that’s how high the stakes will be for us in the end of days. The practical lesson for us is to listen to the commander of the army and do what He says even if it seems counterintuitive and outright wrong (like sending the old men, all the women and all the children onto the battlefield)!

Joshua 8:17  There was not a man left in Ai or Bethel who didn’t go out after Israel. They left the city open, and pursued Israel. 

So now, there is another population coming after the fleeing Israelites. Bethel’s citizenry are also out and joining the fray. All of Israel’s enemies will come to the fight, then and now.

Joshua 8:18  Yahweh said to Joshua, “Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.” Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city. 

“Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai” is reminiscent of Moses holding up his staff in the war with Amalekites in Exodus 17 when Joshua and Hur help up Moses’s arms holding his staff so that battle would go in Israel’s favor. Moses’s staff represented the Law of YHVH and YHVH’s Law will always win. Moses’s staff was also the “banner” for that first generation fighting the Amalekites. Joshua’s javelin is a “stand-in” for Moses’s staff and the banner encouraging this second generation.

Let me say something about the Amalekites in the end of days. They are still alive and scattered all over the earth among all the people. Their headquarters, we will find, is in the remnant of Persia, Iran, and that coalition with Iran – Iraq, Syria and Hezbollah – which is backed by Russia and China (because the Amalekites are in there, too). This Iranian coalition is the Kingdom of the North we read about in Daniel 11:40-45. They will attack the Middle East nations south of them and then will go out around the world attacking nations wherever they go. Remember Moses’s staff, the Law, and Joshua’s Javelin, both of which are the banners of YHVH to His people everywhere.

In Isaiah 49, the chapter on the end times restoration of Jacob and Israel, we read:

Isa 49:22  Thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and lift up my banner to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. 

Also:

Isaiah 62:10  Go through, go through the gates! Prepare the way of the people! Build up, build up the highway! Gather out the stones! Lift up a banner for the peoples.

Like Moses and Joshua, the banner of Yeshua will encourage our people as they return back to their Promised Land.

Joshua’s personal weapon pointing toward the city was the signal to rush in and take Ai.

Joshua 8:19  The ambush arose quickly out of their place, and they ran as soon as he had stretched out his hand, and entered into the city, and took it. They hurried and set the city on fire. 

They are doing what they did at Jericho which is what YHVH told them to do. These Israelites are now echad in their goals and activities. So must we be. It is hard to imagine us as echad because, right now, we are so much at odds with each other, but all of the 12 tribes will come together, we will all lay down our lives for each other, and in the process, all Israel will be delivered to the Promised Land.

Joshua 8:20  When the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw, and behold, the smoke of the city ascended up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that way. The people [the Israelites] who fled to the wilderness turned back on the pursuers. 
Joshua 8:21  When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again, and killed the men of Ai. 

The battle turns and the enemy is destroyed. Let’s think about Armageddon. Who will lead that battle? Yeshua, Joshua’s name sake! Just when it looks like all hope is lost, Yeshua will show up and destroy Israel’s enemies!

Joshua 8:22  The others came out of the city against them, so they were in the middle of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side. They [Israel] struck them, so that they let none of them remain or escape. 
Joshua 8:23  They captured the king of Ai alive, and brought him to Joshua. 
Joshua 8:24  When Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field, in the wilderness in which they pursued them, and they had all fallen by the edge of the sword, until they were consumed, all Israel returned to Ai, and struck it with the edge of the sword. 
Joshua 8:25  All that fell that day, both of men and women, were twelve thousand, even all the men of Ai. 
Joshua 8:26  For Joshua didn’t draw back his hand, with which he stretched out the javelin, until he had utterly destroyed all the inhabitants of Ai. 

Again we have a battle that is completed in just one day. As I have said before, YHVH’s battles are over in just a short time. They don’t drag on for weeks and months. The wars and battles of men do, though.

Joshua 8:27  Israel took for themselves only the livestock and the goods of that city, according to Yahweh’s word which he commanded Joshua. 

They learned the lesson of Achan and only took what YHVH authorized to be plunder for them. No Babylonian robes, folks. Nothing that YHVH sets aside as cursed.

Joshua 8:28  So Joshua burned Ai, and made it a heap forever, even a desolation, to this day. 

Ai is still a heap, a ruin. Ai is so gone, so destroyed, that Archeologists still are not sure where this city was though they are looking. YHVH’s Word is always true! Ai represents the total destruction of today’s New World Order, the United Nations and all the countries allied together against YHVH and His people right now, today.

Joshua 8:29  He hanged the king of Ai on a tree until the evening, and at sundown Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree, and threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city, and raised a great heap of stones on it that remains to this day. 

Deuteronomy 21:22  If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree;
Deuteronomy 21:23  his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day; for he who is hanged is accursed [qelalah, H7045] of God; that you don’t defile your land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance.

“Qelalah” means ‘vilification’. In other words, the hanged man is a villain. The Cambridge dictionary says a villain is “a bad person who harms other people or breaks the law”.

That is what Yeshua was accused of. He was a villain against the Temple leadership’s false doctrines. But a villain is something He never was.

The king of Ai was a villain, a breaker of YHVH’s Law, His Torah. Those who say YHVH’s Law does not apply to them need to read the Book of Joshua. The king of Jericho was hung, this king of Ai was hung and, later, 5 other kings will be hung for being villains, breakers of YHVH’s Torah!

But wait! Doesn’t His Torah apply only to Israel? No! His Law will be that which convicts people at the Great White Throne judgement! It applies to everyone whether they know it or not and whether they like it or not. These kings of Canaan were treated like the criminals against YHVH that they were and they were hung on the tree for their sins. Yeshua would later come and be hung on the tree so we don’t have to be! We were all villains against YHVH! Now we testify that our God and King gave His won life to save ours and we are free from this and all the other curses as long as we are obedient to His Law because that is the condition for being free from the curses that follow Israelites when they commit crimes, when the sin.

In fact, the very next part of this chapter is about doing what Moses said about doing the ritual at Mounts Gerizim and Ebal regarding all Israel accepting the full weight of the curses once they were inside the land. The battle of Ai has clinched their conquest and now it is time to swear to YHVH that they will accept all of His curses against Israel for disobedience, the very curses that Yeshua took on Himself.

But pay attention; Him doing that, Yeshua becoming cursed for Israel, doesn’t mean we will not personally suffer from the curses if we disobey YHVH. Those curses will catch up with us if we rebel against our King.

Joshua 8:30  Then Joshua built an altar to Yahweh, the God of Israel, on Mount Ebal, 
Joshua 8:31  as Moses the servant of Yahweh commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of uncut stones, on which no one had lifted up any iron. They offered burnt offerings on it to Yahweh and sacrificed peace offerings. 
Joshua 8:32  He wrote there on the stones a copy of Moses’ law, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel. 

Joshua is leading all Israel in the fulfillment of this commandment:

Deuteronomy 27:4  It shall be, when you have crossed over the Jordan, that you shall set up these stones, which I command you today, on Mount Ebal, and you shall coat them with plaster. 
Deuteronomy 27:5  There you shall build an altar to Yahweh your God, an altar of stones. You shall not use any iron tool on them. 
Deuteronomy 27:6  You shall build Yahweh your God’s altar of uncut stones. You shall offer burnt offerings on it to Yahweh your God. 
Deuteronomy 27:7  You shall sacrifice peace offerings, and shall eat there. You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God. 
Deuteronomy 27:8  You shall write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly.” 

The blessings did not need to be spoken at Mt. Ebal. The blessings are automatic because they come from YHVH’s mouth in exchange for our disobedience. We already agree with His blessings but we don’t want to agree with the curses, do we? YHVH forced His people to agree with the curses, see?

Joshua 8:33  All Israel, their elders and officers, and their judges, stood on both sides of the ark before the priests the Levites, who carried the ark of Yahweh’s covenant, the foreigner as well as the native; half of them in front of Mount Gerizim, and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of Yahweh had commanded at the first, that they should bless the people of Israel. 
Joshua 8:34  Afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the book of the law. 
Joshua 8:35  There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua didn’t read before all the assembly of Israel, with the women, the little ones, and the foreigners who were among them. 

This ceremony came 40 years after it should have, but it did come. All of us are now bound to be blessed for obedience and cursed for disobedience by YHVH Himself. Those words set forces in motion that will never change. The agreements by that generation they made with YHVH, is now incumbent on us. We are liable for all of our actions both before and after the cross.

The first generation at Mount Sinai bound all future generations in a covenant to YHVH as our King and to uphold our King’s Law. And now, this second generation is swearing and binding all future generation to these curses. No one gets out of this except through the love and blood of Yeshua whose body was broken for us and whose water and blood gushed forth on our behalf.

The battle of Ai and the binding of that and all future generations to accept the punishments for disobeying Israel’s King, Yeshua YHVH, are pivotal moments in the history of Israel and of the earth. The battles of Jericho and Ai set the patterns for our coming battles at the end of days.

May YHVH be blessed for His goodness and mercies that endure forever. May His Kingdom come and His will be done on the earth as it is in Heaven!