The Cursing Tree, part 2

So Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolate place to this day. He hung the king of Ai on a tree and left him there until evening. At sunset, Joshua ordered them to take his body from the tree and throw it down at the entrance of the city gate. And they raised a large pile of rocks over it, which remains to this day. (Joshua 8:28-29)

When Israel crossed the Jordan River to take possession of the Promised Land under Joshua’s leadership, they had to drive out the previous inhabitants. Israel was called to fight a holy war, a unique moment in history. The Canaanites were under God’s righteous judgment and had to be removed from the land. This holy war was a precursor of the believer’s battle for spiritual growth, in which sin is under God’s judgment and must be removed from the believer’s life. (Holy war is not a model for any of the ethnic and religious fighting that is now taking place in the Middle East.)

One of the first places to be confronted was the small town of Ai. Please note that it’s Ai, not AI. In 2024 we may need to clarify that Ai was a city, not artificial intelligence. Although Ai was small, it proved to be a stumbling block for Israel. As a result of Achan’s sin, the Israelites were thwarted in their first attempt to take the city. God disciplined the nation of Israel for their sin and delivered Ai into their hands. Everyone in the city was killed, even the women and children. This is hard for us to understand, but it’s a question we will have to leave for another day.

The king of Ai was taken captive. Joshua executed him and hung his body on a tree, demonstrating that this defeated king – along with the people he had ruled, all dead – were under God’s curse. Here is the first recorded use of the cursing tree. Divine judgment had fallen upon the people and their king. The city was burned and never rebuilt. Joshua followed the regulations God issued in Deuteronomy 21:22-23 and took down the king’s body at sunset.

In the New Testament, sin would again be defeated at the cursing tree. The cross is where sin died under a curse in the form of Jesus (cf. Gal. 3:13).

 

The Cursing Tree, part 1

If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not desecrate the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. (Deuteronomy 21:22-23 NIV84)

Not all stories are happy tales, even stories about trees. The trees of the Bible we’ve encountered to this point have provided beauty, food, vocation, testing, shelter, shade, deliverance, landmarks, and by the providence of God, even sweet water in a desert for a company of complainers. 

Now we come to a sad story about trees. Cruel and godless peoples have used trees for torture and punishment, at least as far back as Israel’s exodus from Egypt in the second millennium B.C. Victims were hanged, impaled, or tied to trees until they died. Often their bodies were left on the trees to decay or to be eaten by insects and birds of prey.

Sadly, capital punishment was necessary under Old Testament law because human life, created in the image of God, is sacred. But the sanctify of life also meant that bodies were not to be abused after death. The corpse must be buried on the day of death. Executioners were not allowed to display the bodies of their victims to terrorize or oppress other people.

Generally, the Israelites did not execute their criminals by hanging them on a tree like the nations around them. Instead, they stoned those guilty of capital crimes, which ensured immediate burial. Criminals executed on a tree like pagans were cursed by God. The tree used as an instrument for death was a cursing tree, an oppressive system of terror. A recent revision changed “tree” to “pole” in our newer NIV Bibles, but it’s the normal Hebrew word for tree, in this case, a cursing tree. But even that curse had a limit. The victim’s body must be taken down on the day of execution so that the land would not be desecrated from a decaying human body which had been created in the image of God.

The passage which regulated this tree (Deut. 21:22-23) contained a hint of things to come. Surprisingly, the cursing tree also will appear in the New Testament. But first, we’ll see it in action when Israel entered the land of Canaan. That’s next time.