A very good evening to you or afternoon. Allow me to just read to you a small passage from the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah 17:5- “Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the LORD. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and he shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited.

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit.”. Before we begin, let us pray.

“O Lord, You have said in Your Word blessed is the man who delights in Your Law. He meditates on it day and night. Help us now. Bless us now as we meditate on Your Word, in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.”

Now many years ago, Charles Dickens wrote this novel “A Tale of Two Cities”, and actually that was the title that I wanted to give to my sermon for today. But he took it already, so I chose something else. But as I read this chapter (chapter 8 of Joshua), I can feel the narrator pointing our attention to something over here. It is truly a tale of two halves, a book of contrasts and comparisons. He’s really pointing to us one side of the story, and then the other side of the story. It’s a tale of two cities. Two people, two different attitudes, two leaders, two outcomes, two mountains, two options. And it’s asking us for a response. What would you do? What will you choose?

And if we were to take a step back really essentially, the whole book of Joshua can be seen that way as well. It is a book where God fulfils His promise. He keeps His promise made to His people in giving them the land. And at the end of the book of Joshua, that’s what it says in the final chapter. God says I have given you this land for which you did not labour. You didn’t earn it, so I give this to you. What is your response? Joshua said: “As for me and my family, we will serve the LORD”. What is your response? Obedience leads to blessing; disobedience cursing. And so let us spend some time now looking at this story. I have three points. The first two points just comparing the two halves, and the final point asking us for a response.

So under our first heading: the prosperity of God’s people. The prosperity of God’s people. Look with me at verse 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.”. Now let us not be too quick to pass this and to miss something over here. You sense a difference here in the previous chapter. God’s Word is here again. God’s Word is with them again. You recall just one chapter earlier where they did things without God’s Word, God’s guidance. And this right here is already what I mean by prosperity. This is blessing. When you have the Word of God guiding you, telling you what to do, that is blessing.

Let’s not be too quick to take that for granted. Sometimes we feel that oh one day if the government were to confiscate all the Bibles, we don’t have to read Bible anymore. Hooray! It’s not blessing. That is a form of judgement when God’s Word is no longer present with you; when you do not have the Word of God. But here in just the first verse, we see a big difference. Now they are not doing things alone. Previously they were deciding for themselves. These people, they are very few. Let us send three thousand. Now God is telling them what to do. He comforts them. He turned from His wrath, His anger. Before this He says, do not be afraid. God’s Word gives them encouragement. He says I’ve given you this place, this king, this city. God’s Word gives them promises.

God’s Word gives them instruction on what to do, how to achieve victory, and this itself already is a big difference. God’s people have God’s Word. Verse 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.”. And so God’s Word is here. The people of course must respond. They must listen to His Word of course. And now He says: “Lay an ambush for the city behind it.”. The previous chapter was tragedy; now it is strategy. This is the strategy. The keyword is ‘ambush’. It’s interesting to note here that God is not limited, confined to a certain method. Previously bringing the walls down of Jericho, the next subsequent war is totally different strategy. He’s not limited.

And for us, we just need to trust that His way is the way to victory. And for this episode, the way to victory is ambush. This is God’s people prospering now with God’s Word telling them what to do. And so they respond. Joshua of course relayed the message to the people, and they took thirty-thousand men, send them away by night. Tells them to lie in ambush in verse 4. And in verse 5 he tells us: “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.”. It is amazing here.

Verse 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.”. And so here is a little bit of elaboration of how this ambush is going to work. They’re gonna act as bait. They’re gonna draw the enemy out. And why do I say this is amazing? It’s because Joshua says with so much confidence what his enemies will do. See, God’s Word has come to him. That is prosperity. And God’s people respond with trusting. You see how he is fully confident. He even knows what is going to happen, how the people will respond. It’s one thing to have a strategy, a plan; it’s another thing to be so confident that your plan will work, that your enemy will fall for that bait.

And so God’s people, their trust is not in themselves. Their trust now is in God. Verse 7: “Then you shall rise from the ambush and seize the city, for the LORD your God will deliver it into your hand.”. They are so confident in this plan because this is God’s plan. Of course, it will work. “And it shall be, when you have taken the city, that you shall set it on fire.” Now Israel, these people. They have experienced enough to know what happens when they obey, and they experienced the horrors of disobedience as well. And so you can be sure that as they have received instruction once again from God, they will obey “according to the commandment of the LORD you shall do. See, I have commanded you.” And this is really my first heading: blessing.

One side of the story we see blessing. We see a people whose attitude towards war is very different. Their trust is in God. They have the Word of God guiding them. They fully trust that this plan will work, and they obeyed. They respond now in obedience. As this story progresses, we will see that they obeyed fully. Now let us also look at verses 9 to 13 and see a little bit of the I would call this “the beauty of the plan” because in the elaboration we see the setup. And in this setup, some of us may be a little bit confused as you were to read it carefully from verses 9 to 13. Some may be a little bit confused. There’s some people over here (thirty thousand) they brought, and then there’s a five thousand in between Bethel and Ai.

So what’s going on here? Are there two groups? Are there three groups? Is it thirty thousand? Is it five thousand? What is it? Well after a little bit of comparison and studying, I find that this is the most satisfactory view. And so let me explain what I believe is the setup like. Right so imagine I over here that I’m the city of Ai. And you at home watching, you’re right in front of me, you’re in my north. You are Joshua and his people. Now the ambush (thirty thousand) is behind me, ready in my blind spot. I can’t see them. To my left (which is on your right) is the city of Bethel. And so in between Ai and Bethel another five thousand there.

And so I believe this is the setup. Thirty thousand for ambush, five thousand in between Bethel and Ai, and the rest right in front which is Joshua and the people. And why I say this further elaboration- this further elaborates the beauty of the plan is because not only they have a plan to ambush (and this is an effective plan), it’s not brute force go inside and then we lose half of our people and we emerge with victory. No, this is an effective plan, and there is even a countermeasure just in case they have a backup plan. And so we have ambush, we have strategy, we’re going to lead them out. But just in case you’re a good friend Bethel wants to come and help, we also got people to settle that, handle that.

And so this plan is complete. It is whole. We even have a plan for what if this happened and what if that happened. And so this is the plan, and this is the first group we see here in this war. On one side we have the people of God who have the Word of God, who tells them what to do, and they’re trusting in His plan, obeying every step. Now I understand that even in my heading alone the prosperity of God’s people, some of us may be a bit distracted with the word ‘prosperity’. Sometimes we think oh, what kind of a message is this, prosperity message? And sometimes I have that struggle as well. And so let me sidetrack a little bit. How do we interpret this and apply this?

When we think about application; when we find in this book of Joshua the constant repetition of obey and you will be blessed. In chapter 1 God said you obey and you’ll prosper. You will have success. Don’t we hear that message a lot? Prosperity. But what is our definition of prosperity? It is true that when we obey we will prosper. But let us not misapply this and start to say that: Oh, when I obey God, God’s gonna bless me. And so yesterday I was a good guy, and so today I have an interview and God’s gonna bless me in this. Oh no I did something wrong, I told a lie. And so later the weather is going to be bad for me and I’m going to have to cancel my plans. Is that how we see it? I obey and God bless me and prosper me?

Isn’t that exactly what the world thinks of prosperity? How can we be having the same definitions? Now Chinese New Year is coming. Prosperity non-stop. And what do we people do during this festival? Wish each other. What does it mean in our wishes? My Mandarin is not so good, but I think it means congratulations, I hope you get rich. That’s what we’re telling everybody. Here’s some money. Here’s some money. Congratulations! Here’s some money. I hope you get rich, and you hope I get rich. That is our definition of prosperity. But is that what I mean when I say prosperity of God’s people? Now the prophet Jeremiah, let us borrow some of his words. When he talked about blessed is the man whose trust is in the LORD, he will prosper. There is blessing when you trust God.

But what kind of blessing are we talking about here? Well, how about we answer this question: What is blessing, what is prosperity like to a tree? Jeremiah says when his leaves are green; when he stands strong when the sun is bearing down on it; when he continues to bear fruit, not stopping? Well, that is prosperity for a tree. Now, what is prosperity for these people who are at war? Well, they can only be thinking of one thing: Winning the war. There is prosperity for these people. Take note that these people were not going about that daily business doing their own things, yeah. Having their own, building their house, fixing their roof, doing their farming, and then God tells them oh if you bless Me I will bless you or if you obey Me I will prosper you.

No, it was while they were doing His work. He gave them a work to do. And while doing that work, God says: You obey Me and you will be blessed. You will prosper. You’ll have success. And so instead of misapplying this, let us read it in its context. He’s saying that you will prosper as I commission you to do My work. And so we Christians should have a very different view of prosperity. If you want a health and wealth gospel, there is. It is out there, you can find it for yourself. But it is not our idea of prosperity. It’s not the world’s definition. It is a fallen, twisted definition of prosperity. But not for us. Prosperity for us is knowing God, growing in holiness, in knowing Him like Enoch walking before God, like Abraham being God’s friend. That is prosperity for us.

One doesn’t need to go all the way back too far into history to think about prosperity. What is prosperity like for God’s people? You only need to think back to the 18th century, and we enjoyed the history lessons that we get on Saturdays. And in the 18th century, you want to know what is prosperity? That is prosperity when twenty-five thousand people can flock to one site to hear a man preach sound doctrine. He’s not tickling their ears, preaching things they want to hear. They’re preaching the Word of God, and twenty-five thousand want to hear it.

That is called prosperity, revival, great awakening. That is our idea of prosperity. Like these people doing the work of God, and God is promising them some prosperity. So also we. Are we even doing the work of God? Are we involved in this work as God says here: Take all the people of war with you, no one left behind? Who’s resting? Who’s relaxing? And when you think about that era of prosperity for the church, you remember those names: John Wesley, the holy club. A man of God who cares about holiness. Jonathan Edwards, doing the work of God. George Whitefield, preaching “you must be born again”.

Now, these are the ways of God. And so we have prosperity here when a man of God does the work of God using the ways of God. And you can be sure that they will prosper. And so in some application to this first heading, this first point of the prosperity of God’s people, we perhaps can ask ourselves: Are we people of God doing the work of God, using the ways of God like these people here (people of God, Israel), doing the work of God here in driving out the enemies, using the ways of God as He instructed them? Now let us take a look at the opposite of prosperity. Our second heading is the calamity of God’s enemies.

Now in just a few short verses over here from verse 14 to 17, we see the exact opposite. I want you to see what cannot be seen over here. And what cannot be seen is the presence of the Word of God. These people, they do not care what God has to say. God’s Word is not here to instruct them nor give them guidance or counsel. There is no Word of God, and that itself is cursings. It is terrible. It is a terrible thing when God’s Word is absent. And this nation (this city of Ai), God’s enemies, they are a picture of the people of this world today because they are there and God’s work of the gospel is progressing. But they are there standing in opposition.

As we preach a message of the kingdom to them that God is your rightful ruler, they are there opposing that rule. They are there rejecting that rule, and that itself is calamity. They do not have the Word of God. And so see what happens to them. “Now it happened, when the king of Ai saw it, that the men of the city hurried and rose early and went out against Israel to battle, he and all his people, at an appointed place before the plain.” And so once again remember that setup, and they got excited. This is Ai, Joshua’s people is right in front of me on my north, there’s a valley in between. And as soon as they saw Joshua, they say come on look at them. We’ve beaten them before. Let’s go round two. And they got excited here.

Everybody wanted a piece of action. Everybody go oh everybody who wants to beat them up, now is your chance to be on the winning side for once. Were they overconfident? No. I’d rather use a different word for them. They were “falsely confident”. These are people who oppose the work of God. And because they at first had a bit of success (remember they beaten them once before in chapter 7). Just because they had a bit of success in opposing God’s work, they are confident. But they are falsely confident. They have no reason to be confident. And truly that is what we see in this world today when people oppose the work of God. They seem successful at first.

When you think of nations like Pakistan or North Korea or China and they want to stop God’s work. They want to persecute the Christians. They perhaps have some success. Yay, we did it. I don’t see any Christians all around (because all underground). They can’t see any Christians. And so they’re happy. They’re confident. If they come again, we’re going to beat them again. But they are falsely confident. They have no reason to be confident. They are not on the winning side. You see when God is against you, even the good decisions or even the legitimate decisions you make end up being the wrong decisions. And this time, it was a wrong decision. They saw Israel, they got excited, they went out. Not only were they falsely confident, they were foolish. That’s the only word I can think of to describe them- ‘fools’.

They’re supposed to act as soldiers. They’re supposed to be vigilant. Where got such thing as soldiers oh let’s… nobody left behind; the whole base left open. They were fools in this sense. They were fooled by the trap. Now verse 15 gives you a bit of room for imagination over here because it says: “And Joshua and all Israel made as if they were beaten before them”. The ESV says: “they pretended to be beaten”. Now how does that even work? In fact, I’ll like to call this group right in front of me the “soap opera group”, putting on a show. Oh no, my armour is too heavy. Let us run back. Let’s retreat. And hopefully, the nation of Ai doesn’t catch us because if they did, we would probably lose very fast.

And so they were putting on a show there. And the nation of Ai fell for it like some kind of Looney Tunes cartoon like that. The bad guy always falls for it, whether it’s dynamite or TNT or a bomb or a saw. Whatever it is, they always fall for it. And right here they were not thinking like soldiers. They were not having any backup plan. No, look at verse 17: “not a man left in Ai or Bethel”. So much for their backup plan. They always had some kind of strategy. If I ever get under attack, you help me. And if you’re under attack, I help you. No. Ai, Bethel, everybody go. Everybody. They left their city open. Yet another description of this world, the enemies of God. They feel confident. They have their security in few things.

Oh, I’m safe. I know I’m secure. My friend has my back. My neighbour is helping me out. But no, they are vulnerable. They left the city open. Today people find security in things that cannot give security. But one last thing, and this is the big one. You can sense that the narrator is just keeping us, giving us a little bit of information here and there, adding a little bit of sentences here and there to show us the calamity of God’s enemies. And look once again at verse 14 (the last sentence there). The king of Ai, “But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.”. They had no idea danger was behind them. They hadn’t the faintest idea what struck them. Today, that’s exactly the people of this world. They oppose God.

They are happy because they seem successful. But they have no idea the danger that is just waiting for them, ambush behind him. No idea. And so judgement came. Verse 18: “Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Stretch out the spear that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand.”. That is exactly what Joshua did. And so the ambush began. The soap opera team is running away, pretending. Bethel and Ai chased after them, and now they are in the valley. And what happened suddenly? Wah, what’s that smell? Burning smell. Where’s the burning coming from? And they looked behind them. Their city was in smoke. Now they’re in trouble.

How much regret must they be feeling now? How foolish were we? Why didn’t we leave at least one person behind so that if he was there to ring the bell and sound the alarm, we could still probably win this war? But no. If only we did this; if only we did that. They’re full of regret now, but it’s too late. There’s nowhere to turn to. They’re surrounded. Their city is behind being burned, and suddenly this soap opera team who is acting like they’re gonna lose suddenly become strong soldiers again. And now they turn against them. And the ambush from behind, they come out and now they are surrounding these people. There is no escape.

Verse 22: “The others came out of the city against them; so that they were caught in the midst of Israel, some on this side, some on that side. And they struck them down, they let none of them remain or escape.”. A swift end to a wicked nation like the rich fool who said: “Let me eat and drink and enjoy my life”. He had no idea death was so near. That night he died. The king of Ai would not in his wildest dreams have guessed that that day was his final day, and none of them remained. All of them taken down, the king of Ai captured. And the whole time, you can see in verse 25 twelve thousand of them died. And the whole time Joshua did not draw back his hand. He stretched out his spear.

And as long as his people could see that spear, they remember only one thing: God is now on our side. That spear reminded them God’s promise that I will give it into your hand. And so as long as the spear was up, they fought and fought and fought until the entire nation of Ai was destroyed. They obeyed. They obeyed everything. Verse 27, they’re allowed to keep the livestock and the spoil. This time they were allowed to do that. And so they obeyed, “according to the word of the LORD which He had commanded Joshua. And so Joshua burned Ai and made it a heap forever, a desolation to this day.”. Very often a procedure done to every nation that they were pronouncing judgement on. And so that is the end, the calamity. The calamity of God’s enemies.

Before I move on, let me just point your attention to the leaders of these two armies. What does a leader do? Obviously, a leader leads. It’s more important to ask where is your leader leading you towards? God’s people had Joshua, God’s appointed leader, and he led them to victory. Ai had their leader as well, the king of Ai. He led them to destruction. Verse 29, the king of Ai represented these people. And what was done to him? It is significant. He was “hanged on a tree until evening. And as soon as the sun was down, Joshua commanded that they should take his corpse down from the tree, cast it at the entrance of the gate of the city, raise over it a great heap of stones that remains to this day.”.

It is symbolic here. It is important to know this in Deuteronomy 21:23, it says you hang the person on the tree, but don’t leave him there overnight. He will defile the whole land. Why? Because cursed is everyone who hangs on the tree. The king of Ai was cursed. He represented the people of Ai. They were all under curse. And so there we have it. The prosperity of God’s people; the calamity of God’s enemies. You must choose. You must choose a side. For lack of a better word, I just went with this: the necessity. Our third heading is the necessity of choosing. You must choose. Nobody can stay in the middle. Nobody can say I don’t want to be part of this. No, we have to choose. Even by not choosing, you have already chosen a side.

Now what we have in the ending of this chapter is further obedience because Moses, suddenly his name appears five times in these six verses. Moses gave them instructions what were they to do when they did enter the land; when they took the land and they have taken the central part of the land. And so now that they’re at that land, Moses gave them specific instructions what to do. So you can of course read more about it in Deuteronomy 11 and 27. Indeed those two chapters talk about it, but I’ll just describe to you very quickly. Now they built an altar to worship God. They acknowledged that He was the one who helped them of course. But then they had the Law written down on stone. And all Israel, they gathered together and the Levitical priests were there on this setup.

There were two mountains. So they will split into two- six tribes here on Mount Gerizim; six tribes here on Mount Ebal as Moses commanded. So they did. And verse 34: “Afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law.”. He read everything. And if you were to go home and study a bit of Deuteronomy 27, it was some kind of a ceremony. When they read out the blessing on Mount Gerizim; the cursings on Mount Ebal and the people will be responding to each law that was read. And so it went something like this: Blessed is he whose LORD is Yahweh, the only God, and they will say amen. Blessed is he who obeys, and they will say amen.

But cursed is he who dishonours his father and mother, and they will say amen. Amen, amen, amen, showing that they agree. They agree to all of these laws. They agree that they’re under the rule of God. God’s Law represents His rule over them. They obey. They want to obey. Now as we look at this picture over here, this is actually what is going on each time we open the Word of God. Each time the word is preached to you, each time you hear the teachings of God’s Word, this is what’s going on. The laws, the requirements of God are read out to you one after another. And so what is your response? Remember you must choose. You must respond. What is your response? Can you like this nation of Israel say: Amen, amen, amen?

If the law is read out to you: “Cursed is the one who commits adultery”, will you say amen or will you disagree? The Law of God won’t change. It’s written in stone. What will change is you. Don’t try and change the law. All you can do is respond to the law. Will you say amen? If they say cursed is he who gossips and tells lies, will you say amen? Cursed is he who commits adultery or sins with his eyes, who look upon the woman and lusts, will you say amen? Cursed is he who covets his neighbour’s things, will you say amen? Cursed is he who is not content with what he has, who envies his neighbour, who is jealous of others, who complains against God, will you say amen?

That is what is set before us here- Mount Gerizim on one side; Mount Ebal on the other. Will you obey because blessings is over here? But if you were to disobey, you go to the other side. Mount Gerizim or Mount Ebal, which will you choose? Now I must conclude here. Now we know after reading this story and of course, we understand (hopefully we understand) this story, but we know when we understand the Law of God, when we understand what the Law of God really means, we know that nobody can be on Mount Gerizim. None of us are on Mount Gerizim. As soon as you were born into this world, by default you were a son of Adam. Just like the nation of Ai were under the king of Ai, under a curse.

You and I, we were born into this world under Adam, and he was under a curse. We all are under a curse. We don’t get to choose actually. We are all on Mount Ebal. We have sinned, we are guilty, and we deserve the full cursings that were pronounced on Mount Ebal. On one side there’s only one man. Mount Gerizim, only one person is there- our Lord Jesus Christ, the greater Joshua. He alone is standing there. Why? Because He alone can say amen to all these laws. He alone kept all these laws. He alone can obey all the laws. And so He alone deserves the full blessings on Mount Gerizim.

But He tells us: How about you come over? How about you come over to Mount Gerizim and enjoy the blessings which My obedience earned, and I would go there on Mount Ebal and take the curses that belong to you? What a great exchange. And so Augustus Toplady pens these words. He says: “The terrors of Law and of God (which is terrible) with me can have nothing to do”. Why? “My Saviour’s obedience and blood hide all my transgressions from view”. Blessings and cursings, which will you choose? Let us close.

“O God our Lord, by Your mighty arm You have given Your people a land. You are a God who keeps His covenant, who is faithful. But so often we are not. And because of our foolishness, of our unfaithfulness, we have chosen cursing upon ourselves. We pray this day that You’ll be merciful to us all and may we put our confidence, our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone can take our place and take curses while we enjoy eternal life because of His obedience. We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.”

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.