Inasmuch as God ordered Joshua to plant an ambush in their rear, that is, to plant warriors in hiding to ambush the enemy, we can learn that such treachery is not unjustly carried out by those who wage a just war. Thus, a just man, if he wishes to undertake a just war, ought to think chiefly in these matters about nothing else than whether it is right for him to do so, for it is not lawful for everyone to wage war. However, once he has undertaken a just war, it makes no difference to the justice of the war whether he wins in open warfare or by treachery. However, those just wars ought to be defined as those which avenge injuries, if the tribe or state which is about to be sought in war, either neglected to punish a crime improperly committed by its own countrymen or neglected to repay what had been lost through those injuries. Moreover, without doubt that type of war is just which God commands, since there is no iniquity in him and he knows what ought to be done to each person. In this type of war the general of the army or the people themselves are not to be deemed so much the instigator of the war as much as its agent.

Joshua sent thirty thousand warriors to vanquish Ai. . . . We must consider whether every attempt at deception ought to be reckoned as a lie and, if so, whether a lie can be just, when someone who should be deceived is deceived. And if not even this kind of a lie is found to be just, we must still relate what transpired with the ambush to the truth with some other meaning.

At first, we were overcome because of sins, and those who were living in Ai destroyed very many of us. Ai means chaos. But we know chaos to be the place or habitation of opposing powers, of which the devil is the king and chief. Against him, as Jesus [Joshua] comes, he divides the people into two parts; he stations some in the front and others in the rear, so they may come behind the enemies unexpectedly. Consider if the first part is not about the people of whom he says, I came only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,^[1] and of whom the apostle says, But grace and peace to every person who does good, to the Jew first, then also to the Greek, that is, the later Gentile.^[2] Those are the people, therefore, who are stationed in the front and seem to flee with Jesus. But the people in back are the ones who are gathered from the nations and who come unexpectedly. For who expected the nations to be saved? They strike more keenly behind the adversaries, and thus both people together overthrow and conquer the throng of demons confined in the middle. HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 8.2.^[3]

Such was that army of Ai that Jesus [Joshua] instructed his soldiers to flee, and perhaps concerning these things he charged his disciples, saying, If they persecute you in this city, flee into another one; but if in that one also, flee into another.^[4] For he wants us to flee from enemies of this kind; he wants us to be put out of reach of this kind of evil. If we are able in the meantime to escape the contagions of these evils by fleeing, then, seeing the devotion and intention of our heart, all those holy powers—those perhaps about which the apostle Paul says, Are they not all ministering spirits sent into the ministry for the sake of those who will receive the inheritance of salvation?^[5]—who perhaps are holy angels who, seeing us exposed to pursuing demons, rise up against those who pursue us and, striking from behind, destroy them all. For Jesus is with those who are exposed to the ones pursuing, more than with those who follow after. And justly, because Jesus loves to be with those who flee fornication, those who flee pride, those who flee deceit, and those who flee falsehood.

You will read in the Holy Scriptures about the battles of the just ones, about the slaughter and carnage of murderers, and that the saints spare none of their deeply rooted enemies. If they do spare them, they are even charged with sin, just as Saul was charged because he had preserved the life of Agag king of Amalek.^[1] You should understand the wars of the just by the method I set forth above, that these wars are waged by them against sin. But how will the just ones endure if they reserve even a little bit of sin? Therefore, this is said of them: They did not leave behind even one who might be saved or might escape.

Do you perhaps not believe me that the battle is joined against our sin? Then believe Paul as he says, Not yet to the shedding of blood have you resisted against sin.^[2] Do you see that the fight proposed for you is against sin and that you must complete the battle even to the shedding of blood? Is it not evident that the divine Scripture indicates these things, even as it habitually says, Sanctify war,^[3] and, You will fight the battle of the Lord?^[4]

You see that these things that follow truly pertain more to the truth of a mystery than that of history. For it is not so much that a piece of land is forever uninhabitable, but that the place of demons will be uninhabitable when no one will sin and sin will not rule in anyone. Then the devil and his angels will be consigned to the eternal fire with our Lord Jesus Christ sitting as ruler and judge and saying to those who overcame before and afterwards, Come, blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom that was created for you by my Father.^[1] But to the others he will say, Go into the eternal fire that God prepared for the devil and his angels,^[2] until he takes care of every soul with the remedies he himself knows and all Israel may be saved.^[3]

Who do you think those whole stones are? The conscience of everyone knows who is whole, who is uncorrupted, unpolluted, unstained in flesh and in spirit. This is the one in whom iron has not been set, that is, who did not receive the fiery darts of the evil one, the darts of lust, but by the shield of faith quenched and repelled them;^[1] or the one who never assumed the iron of battle, the iron of war, the iron of strife, but was always peaceable, always calm and gentle, formed out of the humility of Christ. Those, therefore, are the living stones out of which Jesus our Lord constructed an altar from whole stones, in which iron had not been set, so that he might offer upon them whole burnt offerings and the sacrifice of salvation.

He wrote, in the way the son of Nun was able at that time, to depict the law upon the stones of the altar; and, to the extent he was capable, he dimly sketched types. Let us see, however, how our Jesus wrote Deuteronomy on living and whole stones.

Deuteronomy is called, so to speak, a second law. If therefore you wish to see how, after the first law was annulled, Jesus wrote the second law, hear him saying in the Gospel, It was said in former times: You shall not kill. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother is a murderer.^[1] And again, It was said in former times: You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, if anyone has looked upon a woman to desire her, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart.^[2] And, It was said in former times: You shall not swear falsely. But I say to you, do not swear at all.^[3] You see Deuteronomy, which Jesus wrote on living and whole stones; not on stone tablets, but on the fleshly tablets of the heart; not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God.^[4] HOMILIES ON JOSHUA 9.3.^[5]

Therefore our Lord Jesus does not need much time in order to write Deuteronomy, in order to set up the second law in the hearts of believers and imprint the law of the Spirit in the minds of those who are worthy to be chosen for the construction of the altar. For immediately when anyone believes in Jesus Christ, the law of the gospel is written down in that person’s heart and written down in the sight of the sons of Israel.

But how shall we ourselves apply this narration of history to mystic discernment so that we may make known who they are who go near Mount Gerizim and who they are who go near Mount Ebal?

As I myself see, there are two species of those who through faith hasten and go quickly toward salvation. One of them are those who, kindled by the longing for the promise of heaven, press forward with the greatest zeal and diligence so that not even the least happiness may pass them by. They have the desire not only to lay hold of blessings and to be made to have a share in the lot of the saints^[1] but also to station themselves in the sight of God and to be always with the Lord. There are others, however, who also reach toward salvation, but they are not inflamed so much by the love of blessings or by the desires for the promises. Instead their view is much more like this, as they say, It is enough for me not to go into Gehenna, it is enough for me not to be sent into eternal fire, it is enough for me not to be expelled ‘into outer darkness.’ ^[2]

Since there is such a variety of aims among individual ones of the faithful, it seems to me that what is designated in this place is this. The half who go near Mount Gerizim, those who have been chosen for blessings, indicate figuratively the ones who come to salvation not by fear of punishment but by desire of blessings and renewed promises. But the half who go near Mount Ebal, where curses were produced, indicate those others who, by fulfilling what was written in the law, attain salvation by fear of evil things and dread of torments.

I certainly think that whenever Moses is read to us and through the grace of the Lord the veil of the letter is removed^[1] and we begin to understand that the law is spiritual,^[2] then the Lord Jesus reads that law to us. . . . The law, which Paul names spiritual,^[3] is thus understood and Jesus himself is the one who recites these things in the ears of all the people, admonishing us that we not follow the letter that kills but that we hold fast the life-giving spirit.^[4]

Therefore, Jesus reads the law to us when he reveals the secret things of the law. For we who are of the catholic church do not reject the law of Moses, but we accept it if Jesus reads it to us. For thus we shall be able to understand the law correctly, if Jesus reads it to us, so that when he reads we may grasp his mind and understanding. Therefore, should we not think that he had understood this mind who said, And we have the mind of Christ, so that we may know those things that have been given to us by God, those things that also we speak?^[5] Also, those who were saying, Was not our heart burning within us, when he laid bare the Scriptures to us along the way?^[6] when beginning from the law of Moses up to the prophets he read all things to us and revealed those things that were written concerning him?^[7]

But also even women and infants and proselytes are joined to the church of the Lord. If we understand women and infants and proselytes separately and consider each of them to be as though a certain follower of the church—because in a great house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also wood and earthen^[1]—we say that to strong men, indeed strong food is delivered. This is clearly to those of whom the apostle says, Solid food is for the mature,^[2] out of whom he prepares for himself a church not having spot or wrinkle or anything of these.^[3] But those whom he sets apart by the name of women or infants or proselytes,^[4] let us understand them to be persons who still need milk or as though weak, since they are women, they feed upon vegetables.^[5] But if everyone together is accepted to be the church, the men, indeed, are understood to be those who, perfect among all these, know to stand armed against the wiles of the devil;^[6] but the women are those who do not yet produce from themselves the things that are useful, but from imitating the men and following their example. They are even said to have their head from them: For the head of a woman is man.^[7] But the infants will be those who with the faith newly received are nourished by the gospel milk. Proselytes seem to be the catechumens, or those who now are eager to be associated with the faith. Even John, perceiving similar things about these separate groups, writes and determines in his epistle which deeds are peculiar to which individual ages.^[8] . . .

For divine Scripture does not know how to make a separation of men and women according to sex. For indeed sex is no distinction in the presence of God, but a person is designated either a man or woman according to the diversity of spirit.