Ai and I / Part 2

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Unless noted otherwise, all Scripture references are from the New Scofield Reference Bible.

Now Joshua underestimated the strength of Ai. When he made his first attack with just a small force, he met with a crushing defeat and had to flee; some of the soldiers were killed in battle. To flee in defeat was a great disgrace for God‟s soldiers. However, he made a second attempt and was successful in taking Ai.

When you read in the Book of Joshua about this ancient battle over a little city years ago, it probably means nothing to you today. But God has put great spiritual truths here for us, and the Holy Spirit can make this real and living to you as you read it.
Let me set down here that Ai and I have something in common. We have something that is quite similar. There are three "musts" that are revealed in this incident, and they must be in your experience and mine if we are going to lay hold of the spiritual blessings and gain a victory over the flesh.

1 – There must be a recognition of the enemy and his potential.
2 – There must be an examination of the reasons for defeat by the enemy.
3 – We must look carefully at the resources provided by God with which to
overcome the enemy.

First of all, we must have a recognition of the potential of the enemy. And here we want to look at Joshua 7:2, 3:

And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Bethaven, on the east side of Bethel, and spake unto them, saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai. And they returned to Joshua, and said unto him, Let not all the people go up; but let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai; and make not all the people to labour thither; for they are but few.

My, what a false estimation! You see, these people were basking in the warm sunlight of the first flush of victory. They were dreaming because they had overcome Jericho. But they forgot something that was very important. They forgot that they did not fight at Jericho. They forgot that the victory was not theirs – the victory was God‟s. They got possession, but God got the victory. They had forgotten that.

Let us notice what happened at Ai:

So there went up thither of the people about three thousand men: and they fled before the men of Ai. And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty and six men: for they chased them from before the gate even unto Shebarim, and smote them in the going down: wherefore the hearts of the people melted, and became as water. (Joshua 7:4, 5)

Now the General Staff of Joshua was guilty of military stupidity. The top brass of the Pentagon back in Jericho had blundered. It was an awful mistake, but it will be best for you and me not to point the finger of criticism back yonder at Joshua. Our enemy defeats us in the same ways today because we fail to recognize or acknowledge him and do not give him credit for the potential he has.

Who is This Enemy?

It is the flesh – the fellow who lives in our body. The flesh is called sarx in the New Testament – that is the Greek word for it. The word "flesh" is used approximately 393 times in the Scriptures and is used always in one or two connections. It is sometimes used to speak of that which is physical. To be very frank, when it speaks of flesh it often means nothing more than the meat on the bones. That is all. And when it is used in that sense, it always carries a note of weakness. For instance, Isaiah said, "All flesh is as grass." Grass is weak, and the use of the word refers to the meat on the bones. Then the psalmist says this: "He [God] remembered that they were but flesh." They were just weak human beings, and he is speaking of the flesh.

It is of interest to note that our word "sarcoma" which is an awful thing in the flesh, has its root in this Greek word sarx. We also get our word "sarcasm" from this same word. Originally sarcasm meant "to tear the flesh." Therefore sarx in one sense means physical flesh.
However, most of the time, especially in the New Testament, sarx is used in a moral and ethical sense. It is used in speaking of this old Adamic nature which we have. This nature which is sometimes called the "carnal man" or the "old man" is labeled correctly when it is called "the flesh."

You have that "old nature" – I have it, all of us have it. There is not a person who does not have this nature which is known as "the flesh." It is the old Adamic nature. Are you prepared to look at it now and to identify it, to recognize it, to call it by name as we spotlight it? Not many Christians are willing to do this. Let me say here that the "flesh" is evil by nature. And at this point we want to turn again to the Scriptures.

In Romans 7 Paul says,

For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not.…I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I of myself with the mind, indeed, serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. (Romans 7:18, 25 AMERICAN STANDARD VERSION)

Has this been your experience – is this flesh of yours inclined to sin? Some wag has said, "Everything I like is either illegal, immoral or fattening." Do you know why his statement is true? It is because this old nature is just that kind of nature – it is evil. And we all have it.
Goethe, the great philosopher, said: "I have never read of any crime committed but that I, too, might have committed it." Samuel Johnson, the brilliant literary light in England during the eighteenth century, made the statement: "Every man knows that of himself which he dares not tell his dearest friend."

You and I have an old nature. Are you willing to label and recognize it? Do you know that you have it today and that it is contrary to God? The old nature is in rebellion against God. Take, for instance, your own case. Perhaps you go to church only on special days – Easter, Mother‟s Day, Christmas – for you do not like to go to church every Sunday. That is the old nature in rebellion against God.

Let us look at this old nature through the words of Scripture,

Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. (Romans 3:20)

God has no notion of salvaging the old nature. He has no program by which it can be remodeled for use by Him. He has no program for it at all! It is condemned, my friend, as we shall see in a moment. Christ condemned it on the cross. Since God will not use the old nature, it is necessary to have a new nature that comes from God.

Turn once again to the Epistle to the Romans:

Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:7, 8)

In your old nature you can never please God. Paul said to the Corinthians, "That no flesh should glory before God" (1 Corinthians 1:29, AMERICAN STANDARD VERSION). God does not even like it when the flesh lifts up itself and boasts in itself. God says that no flesh is to glory in His presence at all. It is an atrocious thing.

Do you want to know what the flesh does? Well, the works of the flesh are enumerated in Galatians 5:19-21, and the words are the ugliest to be found anywhere. If you have not looked at your morning paper, you might pick it up and there you will see what the flesh does. The accounts written up in the paper will include the following list from Galatians: "…adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings…" Could there be uglier words? Yet that is what the flesh is capable of doing, and that is what the flesh does today. Remember, you and I were born with it. David said, "In sin did my mother conceive me."

Our Lord said, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." It will always be flesh. Unless a little child is reared in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, he will turn his back on God.
Count de Maistre of France, a wonderful child of God and known in that country as one of its greatest Christians, left us this statement: "I do not know what the heart of a villain might be, I only know the heart of a virtuous man, and that is frightful."

What about you at this moment? Are you willing to admit that you have that kind of nature? Are you willing to admit that your old nature has the potential to absolutely wreck your Christian life and destroy you? Until you are willing to admit this, you cannot go out to battle, for you will meet with defeat as did Joshua at Ai.

There are two basic reasons for defeat at the hands of the enemy, and it is well to have these in mind. We return to the record in Joshua:

And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads. And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord God, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side of Jordan! (Joshua 7:6, 7)

They encountered a shameful, ignoble and humiliating defeat – so much so that it crushed Joshua and he cried out in agony of his soul that he wished they had never crossed over Jordan.

Why were they defeated? Well, here are the reasons, and what a lesson lays in them for us today! They failed first of all because they were depending upon their own ability and forces. Actually, they were no match for the men of Ai. Ai was much smarter and Ai was much stronger. Certainly the children of Israel could never have overcome Ai in their own strength – never!

Today the flesh can dominate and destroy you – you cannot get the victory over it on your own. How sad it is to hear a man who has been overcome by alcohol say, "Now I am going to get a grip on myself; I will quit drinking, and I will be all right from now on." How have you made out when you‟ve tried to overcome the flesh in your own strength? You know you did not win.

What do we learn as we read the eighth chapter of Joshua? At Jericho we learned about depending on God‟s strength. As Paul said,

I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. (Philippians 4:13)

At Ai we learn about our weakness, for the Lord said, "… without me ye can do nothing" (John 15:5). If there was any man who could have lived with the flesh by overcoming himself, it was the apostle Paul. As a Pharisee he had a discipline back of him that would put us modern-day Christians to shame. What a discipline he had! Paul tried to live the Christian life, but he finally reached the place where he said,

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Romans 7:24)

It is a losing struggle, my friend, if we depend upon our own strength.

The second reason the Israelites were defeated at Ai was due to a defection in their own camp – you must note this. Joshua went before the Lord and stayed there all day. He wept bitterly and sobbed and put on sackcloth and ashes. Finally, after bearing with this, the Lord grew weary of it –

And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel hath sinned… . (Joshua 7:10, 11)

The Lord as much as said,

"Cut out this whining and fretting before Me."

Perhaps you have wearied the Lord in some way. There are many times when prayer is of no avail. You are just wasting your time. How many times have you and I gone to the Lord and said, "O Lord, why have You let this thing happen to me?" And we have remained before Him blubbering like a baby, yet knowing all the time that there was something in our lives with which we were refusing to deal. Here we find that God is saying to us through His words to Joshua, "Get up off your knees and get up on your feet. I do not want to hear you until you deal with that thing in your life."

Then God said further,

…There is an accursed thing in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you. (Joshua 7:13)