We're slowly going through Joshua 8, and what wonderful musical background to this passage. Joshua 8, beginning to read at verse 9. Joshua therefore sent them out and they went to lie in ambush and stayed between Bethel and Ai on the west side of Ai. But Joshua lodged that night among the people. Then Joshua rose up early in the morning and mustered the people and went up, he and the elders of Israel before the people to Ai. And all the people of war who were with him went up and drew near and they came before the city and camped on the north side of Ai. Now a valley lay between them and Ai. So he took about 5,000 men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai on the west side of the city. And when they had set the people, all the army that was on the north of the city and its rear guard on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley." Amen. Father, we thank you for this portion of your Word and this passage. This whole chapter has ministered to us, and we pray that you would continue to use this Word to minister into the hearts of each one here, to sanctify us, to draw us, and make us more and more conformed to the image of Christ. We love you. We bless you. We continue to worship you as we respond to your Word. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, before we dive into this section, I want to address the controversy of the location of AI and do it with a little bit more information than I did last time. Because without it, it would be super easy to get confused on what's happening in any given verse. And I've given a map as well as an elevation diagram to help you get kind of a picture in your heads as I'm describing things of what's happening throughout this sermon. And I have over 200 commentaries on this book, and wow, when you read through them, there is a lot of confusion in the commentaries themselves. And let me give you a list of some of the things that commentators differ on, or have said that they can't figure out. Where is AI? There are four different views. Where is Bethel? Where is Bethaven? How many soldiers were in the army? Believe it or not, there are even conservative, so-called conservative, I don't consider them conservative, but so-called conservative evangelical commentaries that have a hard time believing that the numbers that are given in the book of Numbers and in this book could possibly be right. And some of them have reduced the number down to a tenth of what the Bible actually states is there. How many ambush groups were there? Was there one or two? And if there was only one, which is wrong, then they have to try to reconcile how many soldiers were used for the ambush. And you've got to do some pretty creative exegesis in order to be able to do that. For example, how do you reconcile the 30,000 that are in the ambush in verse 3 and the 5,000 that are in the ambush in verse 12? You read the commentaries, they're all over the map on how to do that. There are some even evangelical commentaries who say, well, maybe that was a copyist mistake. They don't have any evidence in the manuscripts that that was the case. And so maybe I originally said 5,000, somehow it got corrupted to say 30,000. I'm sorry, that's not exegesis. That is a problem. There are others who have said, well, maybe the word for thousand in the Hebrew elf could mean it's a leader over a thousand. And so all that went there were 30 leaders. And so they formed kind of a SWAT team. But it still doesn't reconcile with the 5,000. And so some say, well, maybe they headed up the 5,000. And some say, I don't know. We don't know how to reconcile this. If there were two ambush groups, which I believe there were, why were there 5,000 in one and 30,000 in the other? Did they have different tasks? I believe they did. And more importantly, where did they hang out? That's a very good reason for the high numbers. Was there one or two valleys, and what was the location of that valley or valleys? What days did the two ambush groups move to their locations? How did they do that without even being noticed by the cities? I mean, these are the kind of questions that have puzzled many great minds over the years. Where did Joshua go in the last sentence of verse 13? And why did he go there? Was that a different valley than the valley where the ambush group is located? How could the 30,000 who were hiding see Joshua's javelin signal that they're supposed to now go attack Ai? How could they see him without Ai and Bethel, the two enemy cities, being able to see the 30,000? How is that even possible? Well, we'll see. It's very, very possible. And these are the kinds of questions I think Christians need to be able to answer, but which most commentaries provide almost zero answer to. And there are more questions. Why was AI in league with Bethel and not in league with the much closer city of Beth-Avon? Okay, what was the location of the plane that is mentioned in verse 14? On some theories, there isn't any plane in front of the city. How could there be egress for each ambush group, and more importantly, the massive army? How in the world was it able to march through the terrain, given each identity that people have given of the city of Ai? Was there really viable egress? And if not, how does the commentary try to reconcile it, or do they even bother? Is there a difference between the location of this Ai and the mentions of Ai in Genesis? Some people say, yes, it was a different city. I say, no, they're one in the same city. What about all the references to locations in this chapter, like behind the city, in verse four, or not very far from the city, or east, north, west? I mean, those are simple location indicators that completely contradict some of the theories that are out there. Is there evidence of burning and burial at the suggested location? And if not, how do they reconcile it? And how on earth can all of these things be reconciled with archaeology, the topography of the area, elevation maps, the dating of the destruction of various cities, et cetera? As David Howard points out, if Et-Tel is the site of AI, which most archaeologists still hold on to, they claim it is, then the biblical record is hopelessly mistaken, he says. Now, of course, liberal archaeologists have no problem saying that the Bible could be mistaken. They have a hard time saying that they're mistaken, but Bible, yeah, they could believe that. What is sad is that many evangelical commentaries have gone along with establishment archaeology in order to become academically respectable. And it has forced them to either mess up or, more frequently, they just ignore the problems and don't comment on them in the chapter. Now, thankfully, evangelicals began to be fed up with the mess and started looking for alternative sites. Albright and other establishment archaeologists told them, you're on a wild goose chase, don't even bother. They really tried hard to talk them out of doing it. And sadly, even though these evangelical archaeologists had very good intentions and goals, they still hadn't learned Christ's lesson that Scripture is the key of knowledge, as Jesus worded it in Luke 11, verse 52. It's the key that opens the door to knowledge in every area of life. Archaeology included. Okay, but because they didn't start with Scripture, they still came up short-handed and they did two more digs and wasted tons of money and years of time. Well, finally, a group of Christians decided, why don't we just let the Bible alone decide where it is? look at all of the clues, plot it out on a paper, and then go dig wherever it says we should dig. You know, they were being presuppositional about it. And they came up with 11 clues that we looked at last time. And when they went to where the Bible pointed and started digging, they discovered a perfect match, AI without question, is the modern location of Khirbet al-Muqatir. Anyway, things were such a mess that when I began studying the book of Joshua, I decided not even to take their word for it, even though it looked very positive. And so I did an inductive study from Genesis all the way through. Any reference to AI or any of the other cities or the plains or the ridges And I came up with 21 points that I've listed at the back of the second page. Don't read it during the sermon, or you're going to miss out a lot of stuff, because we're going to be going really fast through a lot of this. You can read it later. It's just for extra information, right? But those were a perfect match, every one of them, with the Kiribati el-Muqatir location. And suddenly 19 conundrums that have puzzled commentators for years are 100% resolved, reveal a beautiful war strategy. And I want to look at the war strategy, but I've gone through this exercise. It may seem like, why are we spending all this time? I've gone through this exercise to show how important it is to always start with the Bible. This is called biblical presuppositionalism, right? You start with the Bible. You're not going to regret it. But let's go on to the war strategy. In verses 1 through 8, we saw the process of making plans based on the revealed will of God and clearly communicating those plans. There was other things we saw as well. Verse 9 begins with a therefore followed by actions. It indicates a transition from making plans to implementing plans. Now I debated whether to even put this in as a separate point because the whole sermon is supposed to be about implementing plans, right? But I have seen too many people who come up with beautiful, very complicated, artistic, beautiful plans. and they sit on a shelf gathering dust. There is something missing that's kept them from implementing the plan. So I'm starting with the obvious, but it needs to be stated. There's an old saying that good intentions don't move mountains, bulldozers do. Or another way of saying it is that plans are useless unless we are willing to carry out the plans. This is one of the reasons that I encourage the men that I meet with, that I mentor, to not only make yearly plans and weekly plans, but every day to start with a five-minute PEP meeting with God. PEP stands for prayer, evaluation, planning. And I think most of us can afford five minutes at the beginning of the workday. Anyway, during the evaluation portion of that five minutes, I ask myself questions like this. Did I do what I planned yesterday? Did I get it done on time? And if not, what were the obstacles to getting my plan done? And how can I avoid those kinds of obstacles happening once again? And then I go ahead and I start planning this day that has actually been planned the week before, but again, just seeing if it needs to be retooled. Anyway, it's a way of keeping our planning honest, and I think we do need to be honest with our planning. Planning without good implementation is not good enough. It's true in civil government, like Joshua led, it's true in everyday life. Now the next phrase indicates that Joshua didn't do everything by himself, and neither should we. Division of labor is at the heart of biblical civics, biblical capitalism, body life in the church, and even in our families. And let's look at, first of all, how it was applied to military. Verse nine, Joshua therefore sent them out and they went to lie in ambush and stayed between Bethel and Ai on the west side of Ai, and these were not the only ones that were sent out. In verse three, which refers to the previous night, it says Joshua chose 30,000 mighty men of valor, sent them away by night. Now there's been a lot of confusion in the commentaries on how to reconcile who went where and why. And so if you take a look at the image, the first image in your outline, I want to walk you through that map. Verse 1 says that Joshua brought all the men of war with him, and the previous chapter indicates where, from the Valley of Achor. Now the Valley of Achor would be to the right, to the east of your map. It's going to be off of the map. And you see the blue line coming in, and it represents a massive army of several hundred thousand. Now, there were a lot of deaths in numbers, but there was a lot of growth of new young people as well, so there's debate. Some people think as much as 600,000. But if they followed the route that I have laid out, they would have had no problem marching toward their staging point. But let's begin with the first split off from the army in verses three through four. If you look at the map, you'll see that the army of several hundred thousand divided into two parts. Blue line on the bottom represents the night movement of the 30,000 man ambush group. that's mentioned in verses three through four. They traveled under cover of darkness, straight west. Then they entered the Wadi Shaban. That's a very deep valley at the southerly point, just under the map. They marched north through that deep valley into a place just southwest of Ai. Now Ai's gate faced northeast, so where they camped was literally behind the city, just as the text indicates, and it was in a spot that was just perfect for rushing past the east side of the city into the gate once everyone left the city. But in the meantime, they hid. That valley was a perfect hiding spot for those soldiers. Now, if you look at the elevation map, that's the image right underneath the first map, you'll see that those 30,000 soldiers could not be seen by anyone on the walls of Ai, which is modern day Khirbet al-Muqatir. And if I had put into that a similar drawing for Bethel, which would take you to the left-hand side of the image beyond it, you would notice that they could not be seen by anyone in the city of Bethel, which is modern-day Elbira. Now back to the right-hand side of the map where the blue line divides. When daylight came, the bulk of the army traveled north and then west and then camped on the north side of the ridge located to the modern-day Jebel Abu Ammar. Verse 11 shows the time that they arrived there, and that ridge would have nicely hidden their presence until they crested it. Now that night, there would be another group splitting off from the main army. Verse 12 says it was composed of 5,000 men. Joshua sent this ambush group to silently travel southwest into the same valley that the previous 30,000 soldiers were in, but they're entering now from the north side of the valley, right? North entrance. Again, it's a perfect hiding spot for those men, and they were going to be the first defense against any soldiers from Bethel. in the Green Arrow who try to run up that highway to help out AI. And so they're covering the backside of the 30,000 who are going to be entering the city. They will stop the Bethel soldiers on the west side of the city to let the 30,000 do their business. But we're back to where they were hiding. In the meantime, they're hiding. The diagonal yellow letters near the top that are referencing Joshua 8.13b show Joshua going down from the ridge into the shallow valley known as Wadi el-Ghaya. Some people think he went into the valley to kind of scope out the territory. I guess that's possible, but it was nighttime. I really doubt that was the purpose. I think he was getting away from his army to a quiet place to pray. In any case, he rejoins his men. So you see an arrow, yellow arrow coming down and then you can see a yellow arrow going back up. He rejoins his men the next morning on the high ridge where he'll be able to see all of the action and the whole area, be able to be seen and to signal directions to his three contingents of soldiers as needed. And so back to the main army at the top of the map. That morning, the main army that is camped on the north side of the Jebel Abu Amr Ridge comes over the ridge in verse 13 and is spotted by the king of Ai in verse 14. Well, this sudden appearance keeps the whole attention of the cities of Bethel and Ai on this huge army of several hundred thousand men that's moving down the ridge, through the valley, and onto the plain in front of the city, front of Ai. That'd be very, very concerning to those two cities. And that concern would keep them focused on the main army rather than behind them and the ambushers that are in the valley, right? No gate on the backside of the city. The gate faces the Israelite army. So the tactics really are great. The men of Ai, represented by the second green arrow, second from the left green arrow, come out of the city to engage the main army. And the army retreats, just like they did in chapter 7, in a downhill run toward the quarries near modern dire Dibuan. Now, that fake retreat that looks just like the retreat that they engaged in in chapter 7 encourages all the men of Ai to leave the city to pursue them, leaving the city exposed to the ambush group. And likewise, all the men of Bethel, First Green Arrow, who have been watching, race up the ancient highway, perhaps hoping to join in the pursuit, but they are stopped by the 5,000 men who had been in hiding in the north part of that valley. and who have run up to the highway. They block any access of the Bethel soldiers to Ai. But just before that, as soon as Joshua sees the perfect time to do a reversal, he signals with his javelin toward Ai, and the 30,000 men stationed in the deep valley, labeled Wadi Shaban, dash out of their hiding place into the city, setting it on fire. And as soon as their work in the city is done, they either branch off to the left, to the west to join the 5,000 and holding off the army from Bethel, or they go to the right and they chase after the pursuers who are pursuing the main army, right? So that means that once the main army does a U-turn at Joshua's signal, the soldiers of Ai are caught between two units and they are decimated. So just from the map, I think you can see it is a brilliant war strategy. So enough on the big picture. I wanted you to see what the big picture looked like, right? Hopefully you have that clearly in your mind. But in terms of application, Just as there was a division of labor in the army, with the movements of the various forces, each having their own assignment, implementing your plans often requires division of labor. And each person, it's important to see this, each person is important in God's overall strategy. Now back then, those like who were under 20 years of age, who were able to hold weapons, they're protecting the women, the children, and the baggage. They're just as important as the people who are endangering their lives in the war right here. Here's how Paul worded it in 1 Corinthians 12. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as he pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now, indeed, there are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary." So he is saying that every member of the church is important to God's purposes. Not all the members have the giftings to be leaders. Not all have the gifting to be administrators. Not all are equally good with EQ, you know, and welcoming people in. Not everybody is equally good at hospitality. But when the whole church, every part functions in the area of their strengths, the body as a whole has success. And Pat Lencioni has some remarkable resources for church and family in focusing on what he calls your genius areas and your strong areas, and not putting all your focus into the weak areas, what he calls the areas of frustration. And I'd really encourage you to at least examine that website. It's workinggenius.com. Now let's just think of the division of labor that you guys are familiar with. People don't realize how many members work week after week behind the scenes and without them our church would not function very well. Do you know who sets up the communion elements every Sunday and who washes the cups and puts things away? We don't take that labor for granted. Even children and young people are involved. Do you know who opens and closes the church? Likewise, there's an enormous amount of work that goes into making music. Each of the members on the music team spends a lot of work. And Kathy, if you saw the amount of work that she puts in, I think you would be amazed because her goal is to make each person on that team succeed in what they are doing and to make sure that there aren't any mistakes. There's a lot of behind-the-scenes work that is done organizing church activities, cleaning up after lunch, a host of other things. God made the body of Christ to work together. We need each other's gifts. So don't think you can do it all by yourself and don't think somebody else is going to be doing it all by themselves. Implementing plans requires division of labor. Well, the same is true in the family. When you are implementing your plans for the upkeep of your house or your yard or your garden, each child can have a part to play. And just as Joshua, you know, was keenly observing everything that was going on and signaling directions and corrections that needed to be made, you know, mom can be overseeing what's going on in the household projects and be making corrections as they are needed. And dads, you need to express appreciation for the invisible division of labor that your wife engages in. There are certain time-consuming jobs that routinely fall to women, a lot of times they don't even get credit for, it's not seen as housework, such as planning the social calendar. That takes a lot of time. Or buying birthday gifts, changing diapers, bathing the kids, cooking, cleaning laundry, making sure doctor's appointments aren't missed, supervising the writing of thank you cards to people. That takes time. Teaching the kids good manners. There's emotional work of comforting a child or maybe bringing rebuke to a naughty child. That kind of work matters. And if your wife was to die, you will all of a sudden wonder, how on earth did all of this work get done? Well, begin appreciating it before she has to die, OK? Without her having to die. So how do we become more efficient in this division of labor? There's a lot more that could be said, but I'm just going to give you a bird's eye perspective. Experts say that there are at least five steps that you need to take. First, inventory what resources you have and who is doing what. Inventory is essential. Joshua was definitely engaged in inventory. Second, observe who is actually pulling their weight and who needs to have a little bit of leadership nudging. Joshua was on the ridge. He was observing. Third, communicate with each member of the family about what's going well, what could work better. Fourth, constantly express gratitude for each person's part. And fifth, encourage more and more ownership of a task as the children mature, including actually some of the planning. Why would you include children in some of the planning as they get older? It's because they're going to have their own families. They need to be taught how to plan as well, right? And so, we're gonna see later in this book, Joshua was a master at all five of those things. And today I'm just introducing them, so don't worry if you didn't get them all down. But the next principle that I see is that a leader spends time among the people who are doing the work. You cannot do the five things that I have just mentioned without spending time with those that you are responsible for. Even though I've given you an overview of that whole day, let's just go back to the second part of verse nine. It says, but Joshua lodged that night among the people. Now, obviously, it wasn't the only time that he was among the people. A leader can't lead effectively from afar. He must know his people, and Jesus, who is typified, we've seen all through this book, Joshua's a type of Jesus. Jesus, who is typified by Joshua, spent time with the people. Pastors who only teach and don't spend time getting to know the people are not imitating Christ's shepherding. Dads, you're shepherds. This means spending time with your family, getting to know the weak points and the strong points and the gifts and the insecurities and problems and the aspirations of each of your family members. It means teaching and inspiring, spending time with those that you lead. It's a simple point, but it's a needed one. The next point that I see is promptness and initiative on the part of Joshua. Verse 10 says, then Joshua rose up early in the morning. Now, obviously, there were strategic reasons for rising up early in the morning, so I don't wanna make too much of this point. Strategically, they didn't want the city's men to command the field, and so they needed to get there first, or they wouldn't be able to flee in the right direction. They'd be fleeing back up the hill. Now, they wanna flee, in the right direction. So there is a strategic reason for getting up early, but it's just a fact that Joshua was a man who got going early. In chapter 3 verse 1 it says, then Joshua rose early in the morning. Chapter 6 verse 12, Joshua rose early in the morning. And you see similar language six times in the first eight chapters. He didn't allow the day to get ahead of him. Implementing a plan means seizing the hour and making the most of it. And I think it'd be worthwhile if all of us learned a little bit about time management. Time management is an essential in implementing a plan. The next principle of implementing a plan is seen in the next phrase in verse 10. and mustered the people. Now, the Hebrew word for mustered, pakod, refers to more than simply mustering. Mustering itself is an important part of implementing a plan, but the Hebrew word gives nuances of what kind of mustering that Joshua was engaged in. Hebrew word pakod has nuances of urging or inspiring, instruction, entrusting people with something. There's a little bit of the idea of galvanizing, inspiring, charging with a vision. Those of you who watched Mel Gibson's movie, The Patriot, may remember Benjamin Martin rallying the troops. It was more than just mustering. It was inspiring, galvanizing people back into action. But this point and the next point, that we'll deal with in a little bit, really belong together. Benjamin Martin didn't galvanize just by telling people what to do. He joined them, as did the other leaders. I'll admit that galvanizing is not one of my Pat Lencioni genius points or strong points. If you know the system, you know that he describes six things that you need in order to get a project from beginning to end. You've got a person that he calls Wonder. It's just a person who loves investigation and research, and he's got lots of questions. And then there's the eye of Widget. That's a person who says, oh, that gives me an idea. And he's got amazing ideas to take this project forward. And then you've got, because not every idea is a good idea, you've got to have a discerner who could discern what's a good idea, what's a bad idea, what are the consequences of the different directions that we go. And then you've got what he calls an enabler. I call it the gift of helps. And then you've got a galvanizer who can motivate, pull people and resources together. And you need a person with tenacity who can take the project through to completion. That's a very simplistic explanation. I think you get the point. And he points out that everyone usually has two working geniuses that energize you when you do them, and two areas of strength. You're good at it, doesn't necessarily energize you. And two areas that you're very weak in, you still need to work on them, but he says they're areas of frustration. Well, my admission is galvanizing is one of my two areas of frustration. That's why you need more than me on the leadership team. It's a difficult area for me. We all have to do it to some degree, but it's not my strong point. But from my research, what I've read, people who are strong in this department have at least five things that characterize them. First, they inspire engagement rather than guilting people into engagement. One of the trainers in Pat Lencioni's organization said, these people, he's referring to galvanizers, these people rally motivate and provoke people to action around an idea or initiative. And I think we dads need to learn to inspire more than we guilt. It's really a part of emotional leadership. A second, they set clarity about the team's vision and goals and take them from theoretical to concrete. Here's what we're going to do. And I think that's what's implied in the Hebrew here, is Joshua's telling them, here's what we're going to do. Because that word, pachode, has the ideas of instruction and giving clarity. that's embedded in the word, and that should characterize us dads more and more, even if galvanizing is an area of weakness and frustration. We don't abandon galvanizing simply because it's not our strong suit. Third, they make it safe for people to fail when they are truly trying. So, if people are given plenty of opportunity to try and succeed, they're sometimes going to fail. But when they know it's safe to fail, when they're truly doing their best, they're going to be motivated to try. Fourth, galvanizers seem to be able to have fun with the people that they lead and be real. Well, I actually don't see that on the surface in this chapter at all. But there can be a camaraderie that happens, you know, even in the thick of battle. You see the movie A Band of Brothers. There is that kind of relationship that can happen, and you certainly see it later in the book, and you see it par excellence in the life of David. He was a galvanizer big time. And then fifth, though galvanizers can be tough, they also highly value kindness. Now with the brutality you see in this chapter, you might wonder if Joshua had an ounce of kindness in his body. Well, let me tell you, he was just kind to the right people, okay? Anyway, I'm no expert on galvanizing, but if this is the meaning of that Hebrew word, pakod, for muster, it's at least something that we can somewhat grow in. Anyway, at a minimum, we dads need to learn how to muster the troops. The next principle I see here is that leaders encourage other leaders to lead. Now, this is similar to division of labor, but it's more than that. It's being secure enough in your own leadership that you don't have to prove that you can do it all. It is letting other leaders succeed in what they do and do that better than the way we would do it. to be able to shine in what they're leading in. And you see it. David was brilliant at this. Joshua was later in the book. It's just hinted at here. Verse 10 ends by saying, and went up, he and the elders of Israel before the people to Ai. So he recognized the leaders. He acknowledged the leaders in front of others. He's not the only one who's up front and center. Leaders encourage other leaders to lead. But in verses 11 through 13, and throughout this book, you can see that Joshua was a brilliant organizer. Good organization is essential for implementing the plan. It takes some administrative skills. It also takes some discernment. takes an ability to take in the big picture and vision as well. And by the way, don't assume that just because people are messy that they're not good organizers. There's different ways to organize. And so don't be judgmental of people who are messy on their desks. Some people are so organized, everybody knows it, because they've got a place for everything. Everything's in its place. Their spots just look truly tidy. But hey, there are some people that are that way that don't get anything done. So it's good if you could do that and be an effective leader. But some people have their organization in their heads. Their environment might look like a mess, but they have the information well organized in their heads. For example, they know exactly where to pull that needed piece of paper out of that messy pile of papers, OK? And I see both of those kinds of organization in this chapter. The point is, Some type of organization is needed to implement any plan. An organization enables a person to be more productive, it reduces stress, it helps to minimize risks. And though the rest of the book talks a lot about other facets of organization, especially as he divides up the land, I only see three exemplifications of organization here. First, there was the organization of the main army in the first part of verse 11 and the first part of verse 13. Verse 11 says, and all the people of war who were with him went up and drew near, and they came before the city and camped on the north side of Ai. Verse 13 repeats that thought. When they had set the people, all the army that was on the north of the city. Now it takes a lot to organize an army, and I can guarantee you that Joshua did not do it by himself. There were officers, there was a chain of command that kept them organized in camp, kept them organized in the battlefield. And in this particular case, Joshua wanted the enemy, Ai, to see the whole Israelite army so that their focus would be on them and not on the ambush people behind them. So he's arranging things so that the enemy sees what Joshua wants the enemy to see, and they don't see what Joshua does not want them to see. This all takes organization. But next comes organization of space. And I already gave the overview of how Joshua had the entire space organized to produce a perfect trap. Now, next week, we're going to be looking at the trap and all that's involved in that. There's a lot of lessons that we can learn from that. But first, he has to implement his preparations for that trap. He took advantage of spatial resources to the max. Let me list out some of those spatial resources. Valleys, ridges, plain, direction the city faced, location of Bethel and relationship to AI, naturally occurring gap. that kept Beth Avon from joining the fray, even though they were much closer to AI, they were kind of kept out. And all through history, they've kind of been in a separate department. They were, at this time, part of the Northern Confederation, not part of the Southern Confederation. And then there was the slope away from AI to the quarries. I mean, these things all factored into Joshua's plan. Now, there are differences of view on how far north the army camped, but it's my studied view based on the fact that the king of Ai did not notice the army until the next day, verse 14, that they camped just north of the ridge out of sight and they came over the ridge the next day into sight. Verse 11 ends with another thought related to space. Now a valley lay between them and Ai. Now that's introduced Because the night before the battle, Joshua goes into that shallow valley of Wadi el-Gaya by himself. And it's another reason why I don't think that there was any army visible. Otherwise, Bethel and Ai probably would have sent out scouts throughout the valley. It would not have been safe for him to go into there. But another reason for mentioning this valley is it shows that initially there was some space between the two opposing forces that enabled some time to lapse. Verse 13 mentions the city really being sandwiched between two ambush groups on the southwest, army on the northeast. It was only when Joshua was satisfied that things were in place that he went down into the valley to pray. And so Joshua organized space and the physical resources all around him. And my question to you is this, how well do you do at analyzing space? whether it's for security purposes, managing children, growing vegetables more efficiently, or whatever. Physical space can aid or hinder the implementation of our plans. And some of us, I think, need to study administration and organizational techniques and buy tools that will help us in that. The scripture calls for us to do our best at organizing. Some people are gonna be better than others, but I think at least we need to do our own best. Now the third thing that Joshua organized was the backup resources, the 5,000 soldiers in verse 12 who would keep the soldiers of Bethel from being able to stream up there to defend Ai, and the 30,000 who would burn the city and then would trap Ai's soldiers once they were done with setting the city on fire. Now it's pretty obvious from the second image in your outlines that Joshua couldn't actually see. This is one of the objections people bring up. They would not have been able to see Joshua when he's giving that signal that's mentioned later on. He calls them the rear guard. They're a backup for any contingency. So how do they see the signal? Though the text says nothing about a scout, it seems that someone had to be peeking his head over the crest of the hill to see where Joshua would be able to give them the signal. So I don't see any problem there. Based on topography, this was a perfect setup. Both AI and Bethel can see Joshua and the main army, but they can't see the ambush. But where Joshua is positioned, he can easily communicate with both ambush groups, at least if there's one or two scouts. So, that's his organization. Now, let's apply this to ourselves. Do we make adequate use of the people and space resources that we have in our home? Rather than wishing we had more space and more resources, do we make adequate use of the people and space resources that we already have? How organized are we? If someone were to ask you about the strengths and weaknesses of space and people resources, would you be able to outline them? Now obviously all of us can get better at these things, but I think they're worth thinking about. By the way, there are people who would never preach this stuff from the pulpit. They say, that's not spiritual. And I beg to differ. If it's in the Bible, we need to preach it. It's a gnostic view of spirituality. They say, let's focus on the gospel. And I say, the gospel applies as far as the curse is found. Is there a curse on your organization? Okay, the gospel is going to correct that. It goes far as the curse is found. 2 Peter 1.3 says that he has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Not just godliness, but all things that pertain to life and godliness. 1 Corinthians 6.3 says, do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life. And there are many, many other scriptures that indicate that Christ's kingdom is interested in all of life and only Gnostics ignore the physical and focus exclusively on the invisible. And that's why the scripture teaches so much about leadership, planning, math, organization, many other things. Now this section ends by saying that despite the critical importance of our planning, organization, and attempts to begin to implement our plans, we must seek God's face if our implementation is to succeed. Uh-oh, here it comes again. Gary and I never tire of reminding you that we need to pray. We are not going to succeed in even the simplest things and being transformational if we do not have God's blessing resting upon it. And that's what I think Joshua did when he went down into the valley. I believe the people on the ridge were praying their hearts out too. Verse 13 says, and when they had set the people, all the army that was on the north of the city and its rear guard on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley. Now there were no soldiers in that valley. He had it to himself. It was the perfect spot to recommit his ways to acknowledging that without God he could not accomplish this, but I think also worshipfully thanking God that he could do anything God called him to do if God would bless it. And so hopefully verses one through eight have encouraged you to plan more and to be better about communicating your plans with your family. And hopefully these verses have inspired you to be better at implementing a plan every single day, and I hope that our wrestling with the text and with archaeology has inspired you to value starting with the Scripture. We must be presuppositional in every area of life. The Bible is the key of knowledge. It provides keys to planning, leadership, archaeology, math, science, and every other endeavor. So here is my encouragement. May we be people of the book, people of prayer, people of planning, and people of action. Amen. Father, I thank You that even the administrative, the organizational sections of Your Word are sections that were designed for our improvement, our growth. And I pray that each of us, wherever we may be, would continue to improve in the area of the implementation of the plans that You've laid upon our hearts. I pray that You would bless and encourage this people as they wrestle with Your Word. In Jesus' name, amen.