But the children of Israel committed unfaithfulness in that which had been brought under the curse Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed thing; and the anger of Jehovah was kindled against the children of Israel.
Jericho has just fallen. This verse opens the story of Israel's defeat at Ai, and it names the cause before a single soldier marches. One man took what God had claimed for Himself. Yet the verse says Israel broke faith, and God's anger burned against the whole nation.
The order is deliberate. Before telling anything that happened at Ai, God lets the reader in on what Israel did not yet know.
In God's record of what happened before Ai, He lifts the veil before He reports a single step Israel took. He does this so that the reader of His word will not miss His thoughts about the sin in the camp. His finger points out the evil hidden inside Israel long before they found it. If they had been walking with humility, they would have sought God before the battle. He would have shown them that evil was among them.
One man's name appears, traced back three generations — then the anger falls on the whole nation. Commentators explain this by God's presence among them.
The anger of the LORD burned against — whom? Achan only? His household, his family, or his tribe? No — "against the people of Israel"! The evil involved the whole assembly. How could that be? God's presence made the whole assembly one. It bound them together so that the sin of the one involved them all. It was one assembly, and so it was impossible for anyone to take independent ground.
The obvious objection is that most of Israel knew nothing about it.
The people might have said: Does that concern us? How could we have known about a hidden thing, and not knowing it, how are we responsible? To all that we reply that God always has the unity of His people before His eyes. He considers each person a member of one whole, responsible for the others. The suffering and sin of one is the suffering and sin of all. If that is true of Israel, how much more of us, the church of God — one body joined by the Holy Spirit to the Head in heaven.
The spoil of Jericho was not simply off limits; it had an owner.
Faith makes no compromise with the world, and receives and takes nothing from it. God forbids the people to touch the spoil of Jericho; it is accursed. The LORD can claim these things and glorify Himself by them. They belong to Him, not to the people of Israel. Israel may touch them only to put them into "the treasury of the house of the Lord."
As theft it was petty. Against God's command at that moment it was something else.
At another time this would have been simply a case of petty theft or looting. Now it was flat defiance of God's authority. If it went without stern punishment, the evil would no doubt grow. The conquering Israelites were carrying out a solemn mission of divine judgment; instead they would become a mob of vile raiders.
Achan's own later account gives the stages, and one writer traces them back to the first sin.
He began where we all begin, where the first man began: "I saw." Genesis 3:6 says the same of the woman: "When the woman saw." His eyes were the way into his heart, but no sentry stood on watch. Through the eyes the accursed thing takes hold of the heart and stirs it to lust: "I coveted them." "Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin": "I took them."
God's name rested on this people, so a victory at Ai would have said something false about Him.
There was holiness too. That holiness made it impossible for Him to give the approval of His presence where evil went unjudged. How could there be victory with an accursed thing in the camp? Impossible! Israel must judge the evil, or the LORD must judge Israel. Giving them a victory at Ai would have brought reproach and dishonour on the One whose name they bore.
Achan took the spoil in the hour of victory, and defeat came next.
There are secrets of defeat just as there are secrets of victory. The believer's chief danger lies in victory. The soul wins it in real dependence upon God. Then, if it becomes taken up with the results, it is happy to take some credit for itself — and the next defeat dates from that moment.
- Hidden — one tent hid the sin, and the nation knew nothing. God names it in verse 1, before the battle report. He sees everything among His people.
- Shared — God lived among them and they were one, so the sin of one man became the sin of all. Nobody in that camp could stand on independent ground.
- Stolen — the devoted spoil belonged to the LORD's treasury. Taking it was not petty theft but open defiance of His authority.
- Seen — Achan's own words trace the path all sin takes: I saw, I coveted, I took — the same road as the first sin in Eden.
- Stopped — God's holiness could not give victory while the accursed thing stayed. Israel must judge the evil, or God must judge Israel. Progress waited on that.
And Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth-Aven, on the east side of Bethel, and spoke to them, saying, Go up and spy out the country. And the men went up and spied out Ai.
Jericho has fallen, and Joshua's next move looks like plain good sense: he sends scouts to look over a small town called Ai. Commentators point to what the verse leaves out — no word from God, no return to Gilgal — right before Israel's first defeat in the land.
Sending scouts was not foolish. Judged by a higher standard, it still falls short.
It was prudent according to man to send spies, but it is not so very good to go out exploring the land like this.
What the record leaves out is the point. Commentators treat the silence about prayer as the failure itself. They trace it to the small size of the target.
We do not read at this time of any seeking the Lord; we do not hear of prayer to ask counsel from the Lord about what they were to do. From all the facts I am sure that here the children of Israel failed in this. A little place seemed not to need God's power, wisdom, and guidance as much as a great one did… Joshua does not ask the Lord how matters stood, or whether His holy eyes had seen something that offended Him. He is all for action. Now, where there is activity before men, there is special need of drawing near to God beforehand. For one step taken tends to involve many more, and there is danger.
Joshua had sent spies once before, into Jericho. The repeat is what exposes the change.
Notice the case of Joshua: "Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai" (v. 2). He repeats what he had done in Joshua 2:1 about the land and Jericho. Then it was the path of God, but now the very same act becomes a merely human move of the flesh. The spies had come back from scouting Jericho and said, "Truly the Lord has given all the land into our hands." So what need was there to send more messengers? It was to some degree a lack of dependence on God, a confidence in human means.
The verse names the starting point, and that detail carries weight. Writers note that Israel did not go back to Gilgal, the place of self-judgment. They tie that to the sin still hidden in the camp.
Notice, they had not returned to Gilgal after the defeat of Jericho. If they had taken time to go back to Gilgal, the place of self-judgment, the Lord would likely have revealed to them that sin was in the camp. But we do not even read that Joshua enquired of God about attacking Ai… Are we any more capable of a small thing than a large thing? No! If God is not in it, the small as well as the large will defeat us.
One writer goes further, to what this cost Joshua himself.
Moreover, Joshua sent them "from Jericho." That is not the true starting point. He forgets Gilgal, where they learned what the flesh is… Joshua had found in the victory a chance to trust the flesh… The Joshua who pictured Christ disappears, and Joshua the man takes his place.
One writer explains why this failure comes after a victory, not before it.
There are secrets of defeat as there are secrets of victory, and the believer's chief danger lies in victory. The soul may win it in real dependence on God, and then dwell on the results. If it does, it willingly credits something to itself, and the next defeat dates from that moment.
The verse pins Ai between two landmarks, and writers read those names as a comment on the town.
Next we hear of Ai. It is beside Beth-aven, the "house of vanity," and in front of Bethel, the "house of God." In Abram's time, when he first comes into the land, Bethel and Ai lie on either side of him. So they stand opposed to one another. Ai shows plainly what it is by what it joins itself to and what it stands against, and the stamp of the world is clearly on it.
Israel read Ai's own name and drew the wrong conclusion.
Israel looked at Ai as contemptible. Its name — "a heap of ruins" — suggests it was not like Jericho, a mighty fortified city… If we truly recognise God as our only strength, we depend on Him as much for the small enemies as for the great. Do we not know in practice how little enemies bring about great defeats?
- Small. A little place seemed not to need God's power, wisdom and guidance as much as a great one did. That assumption came first.
- Same. Sending spies was God's path at Jericho. The same act toward Ai became a merely human move, because what drove it had changed.
- Skipped. They set out from Jericho, not Gilgal. If they had gone back to that place of self-judgment, the Lord would likely have shown them the sin in the camp.
- Success. The believer's greatest danger lies in victory. The next defeat starts the moment the soul takes credit for it.
- Stamp. Ai stands beside the "house of vanity" and opposite the "house of God." The mark of the world is on it, and small enemies bring great defeats.
And they returned to Joshua, and said to him, Let not all the people go up; let about two or three thousand men go up and smite Ai; make not all the people to toil thither, for they are few.
Israel has just watched Jericho fall without a battle. Now scouts come back from the next town with a plan of their own. A small force will do, they say, because the people of Ai are few. The advice sounds sensible. It leads straight to Israel's first defeat in the land. So what went wrong, and when?
The chapter is full of activity and empty of prayer. Notice what is missing before the plan is even formed.
At this point we do not read of anyone seeking the Lord. We do not hear of prayer asking the Lord's counsel about what they should do. From all the facts I am sure that the children of Israel failed here. A little place seemed not to need God's power, wisdom, and guidance as much as a great one... Joshua does not ask the Lord how matters stand. He does not ask whether His holy eyes have seen something that offended Him. He is all for action. Now, where there is activity before men, there is special need of drawing near to God beforehand. For one step taken tends to involve many more, and there is danger.
They had also skipped a place. After Jericho they never went back to the camp at Gilgal.
Notice, they had not returned to Gilgal after the defeat of Jericho. Gilgal was the place of self-judgment. If they had taken the time to go back there, the Lord would likely have shown them that sin was in the camp. But we do not even read that Joshua enquired of God about attacking Ai.
The scouts' reason is a headcount. The very name of the town encouraged them to think little of it, and that estimate is the tell.
Israel looked at Ai as contemptible. Its name — "a heap of ruins" — suggests that it was not like Jericho, a city mighty and fortified. Had it been a powerful place, Israel might have sought God about its overthrow. But the spies said, "Do not make the whole people toil up there, for they are few." Those words show confidence in their own strength instead of trust in God for Ai's destruction. If we truly recognise God as our only strength, we depend on Him as much for the small enemies as for the great ones. Do we not know in practice how little enemies cause great defeats?
Their success became the trap.
The trouble was that success had given them confidence. This is always a snare. They say, Ai is a little city. It is not worth all of us going up; a few are enough. And they are beaten.
The scouts had misjudged the men of Ai. That mistake is only the surface of the problem.
The men of Ai were as brave as they were wicked. The popular idea that bad men are cowards is not always true... The immediate cause was that the invaders under-estimated their enemies. They sent a small detachment to do work that the whole nation should have taken on (Joshua 7:3; Joshua 8:1). But the remote cause was something far more serious.
When Ai is finally taken, God's instruction reverses the scouts' words point for point.
What a different battle from the one Israel had first proposed against the "heap of ruins," Ai! They had said, "Do not make the whole people toil up there." The Lord said, "Take all the fighting men with you." So as the thousands of Israel rose to battle, each soldier had to remember this: no one may make light of small foes, for Israel's strength and courage came from the LORD alone. And toil up there all Israel did — some in the ambush, others at the front. When we make errors carelessly and sin deliberately in our service, God uses toil and hard work to drive home the lessons we neglected.
after-note: DELETE-IGNORE
The final numbers show the cost of the shortcut.
In Joshua 7 the spies had reported, "Let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai, for they are few." Now it takes about thirty thousand chosen mighty men of valour. What a humiliation, and how it lowered Israel in their own estimation!
- Prayerless. The record shows no prayer before the plan — a small town seemed not to need God's guidance the way a great one did.
- Unjudged. They never went back to Gilgal, the place of self-judgment, where the sin in the camp would likely have come to light.
- Underrated. Counting the enemy as "few" measured Ai against Israel instead of trusting God. Little enemies cause great defeats.
- Snared. Jericho's success bred the confidence that says a few of us are enough — and that confidence is always a trap.
- Corrected. God's later order, "Take all the fighting men with you," overturned "Do not make the whole people toil up there." Thirty thousand went where three thousand had seemed enough.
And there went up thither of the people about three thousand men, but they fled before the men of Ai.
Israel had just watched Jericho's walls fall. Now a small town looked like an easy afternoon's work, and three thousand men marched up — and ran.
The plan was not reckless. It was a calculation — and that was the trouble.
Here is self-confidence instead of dependence on the Lord. They looked at how strong the town was compared with themselves. It was a judgment of the flesh, reasoning from appearances, which is never safe for the believer... At Jericho the high walls made them feel, and forced them to admit, that only the power of God could bring the city down. There they found His strength made perfect in their weakness. God had been their whole trust. Now it was in their eyes a simple matter of comparing Ai's resources with their own. So the easy victory God had given them at Jericho became a snare.
The mistake had two halves.
They underestimated the courage of the men of Ai. They overestimated their own strength without the ark of God, without the power and blessing of God. So the men of Israel lost the battle. They ran from their enemies and came back to the camp at Gilgal in shame and confusion.
The three thousand went up in good spirits.
Israel went on, not knowing that their sin had separated them from God. Their chosen three thousand were sure of success. But they fled before the men of Ai, who chased them from the gate and struck them down. Their courage was built on self-confidence, and it collapsed.
God's verdict refuses to isolate the guilty man.
"Israel has sinned!" God does not say, One man has sinned — find him out. No; it is the six hundred thousand of Israel, because Israel is one nation... "Israel has sinned;" that is the reason why they could not get the victory... God cannot go on with unjudged evil. Weakness is no hindrance, wickedness is.
The losses were few, but the collapse went right through the nation.
They are laid low. Strength and energy fail them. Fear takes hold of their souls, because their courage had been of the flesh. They were so proud of their earlier victory. Now they sink to the level of the Amorites, whose "hearts melted" when they heard of the crossing of the Jordan. This was a sad but necessary experience, because they had forgotten Gilgal. Satan sets out to teach them, through the bitterness of defeat, how much strength they really have and how much they can trust the flesh.
The danger came where the task looked small.
The greater city, Jericho, has been overcome, and they think little of Ai. If we have judged the world as a whole, it may seem a small thing to overcome it in detail, in the little things where it still meets us on our path. Just here, and perhaps for that very reason, we may suffer unexpected defeat. Israel's force of two or three thousand turns and runs from the men of Ai, who strike them on the way down — we are always apt to be struck on the way down.
Blessing did not make the fall softer. It made it worse.
Achan, by taking the forbidden thing, defiles the whole camp. For Joshua, the blessing itself becomes the occasion for leaving the place of dependence... He gives himself up to an empty confidence. In the conflict in the heavenly places, if a man is not with God, he only falls harder. It was more serious to be beaten in Canaan than in the wilderness.
The defeat is not the end of the story.
God at times sets aside men He once used; they go on with their work as before, but win no victories... The story of Ai unveils the cause — hidden evil is in the camp. Then these same servants rise again. After a time of defeat they become vessels of power with God and with men once more. The story of Ai again lets us into the secret: they have been before God, and have humbled themselves.
- Snare: The win at Jericho became a trap. They measured the enemy instead of depending on God — "reasoning from appearances, which is never safe for the believer."
- Cause: Hidden, unjudged sin emptied Israel of strength, not the size of Ai. "Weakness is no hindrance, wickedness is."
- Reach: God names the sin of one man as the sin of the whole nation, so the whole nation must deal with it.
- Result: Courage that was only human collapsed. Hearts that had melted in Canaan's cities now melted in Israel.
- Recovery: Defeat drives them to God. The hidden evil comes to light, they humble themselves, and power returns.
And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty-six men; and they pursued them from before the gate to Shebarim, and smote them on the descent. Then the hearts of the people melted, and became as water.
Israel had just watched Jericho's walls fall without a fight. Now they run from a far smaller town, thirty-six men die, and a whole nation loses its nerve — why are they now weaker than their enemies?
The defeat did not begin at Ai. It began in the mood that followed Jericho, when success made asking God seem unnecessary.
Joshua 7 lays open the principles of God's government, or His ways among His people who are in conflict. Victory leads to negligence. The work is thought easy. After a display of God's power there is a kind of confidence which is really only self-confidence, because it neglects God. What proves this is that God is not consulted. Ai was only a small city. Two or three thousand men could easily take it. They went up and viewed the country, but God was forgotten... Suppose they had taken counsel of the LORD. Either He would have given no answer, because of the thing under His ban, or He would have made its presence known. But they did not seek His counsel; they went forward, and they were defeated.
They measured their own numbers against the town's. At Jericho the walls had left no room for that calculation.
They looked at the comparative strength of the town. This was a judgment of the flesh, reasoning from appearances, which for the believer is never safe... At Jericho the high walls of that city made them feel, and forced them to admit, that nothing but the power of God could bring it down. There they found His strength made perfect in their weakness. God was their whole trust; but now it was in their eyes only a question of comparing the resources of Ai with their own. So the easy victory God had given them at Jericho became a snare.
Melting hearts had been the mark of the Canaanites. Now the same words describe Israel.
It was no longer the hearts of the Canaanites melting; no longer their kings who became as water; but Israel. What are we without God? It is healthy that we should feel it. Our only boast is in what He is, not only to us, but with us. They did not have God with them; they were utter weakness.
One man had taken what God had banned. The whole nation lost the battle.
The whole assembly was involved in the evil. How was this? The Divine Presence gave a unity to the whole assembly; it bound them together in such a way that all were involved in the sin of the one... The sin of each was the sin of all, because God was among them, and He could not approve unjudged evil. The whole congregation was involved, and had to clear itself of the evil before the LORD could lead it on to victory. Had He allowed them to triumph at Ai, it would have suggested that He was indifferent to the sin of His people.
Defeat can come exactly where the enemy looks least impressive.
Jericho the greater has been overcome: they think little of Ai; if the world has been judged as a whole, it may seem a small thing to overcome it in detail, in the little things in which it still meets us in our path. Just here, and perhaps for that very reason, we may suffer unexpected defeat. Israel's detachment of two or three thousand turn their backs before the men of Ai. The men of Ai strike them on the descent — we are always liable to be struck on the way down. They inflict a loss of thirty-six men, a number which, though small, plainly speaks of the government of God (3 x 12) against them. In this there is hope, however, for those who know Him.
Defeat tempts people to wish they had never set out at all.
Before we are too hard on Israel, let us recognise that this is the language of many hearts today. Put to flight by the adversary and so humbled, we think, "We wish we had never taken heavenly ground at all. Let us get out of it as soon as we can." Some do. Some do in heart. But the LORD said to Joshua, "Get up! Why have you fallen on your face? Israel has sinned"... In the mercy of God that sin was brought out into the open. It was confessed, dealt with drastically, judged and put away. Ai then became the second city of victory in Israel's triumphant march through the promised land.
- Neglect. The trouble started with a victory, not a battle. Success bred a confidence that never asked God.
- Measurement. They measured Ai against their own numbers. Jericho's walls had made that reasoning impossible.
- Reversal. Hearts melting like water had been the Canaanites' mark. Without God, Israel became what its enemies had been.
- Unity. God's presence bound them into one. One man's sin became the whole nation's defeat, because a victory would have implied God overlooks evil.
- Recovery. The loss of thirty-six was discipline, not abandonment. Once the sin was put away, Ai became the next city taken.
And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of Jehovah until the evening, he and the elders of Israel, and threw dust upon their heads.
Israel has just lost a battle at the small town of Ai — a shock after the victory at Jericho. Joshua tears his clothes and goes down in the dust. Commentators read that day closely: the place he went was right, but not everything he said there was.
The first thing to note is where Joshua went with the disaster. He did not call a council of war; he went straight to God's presence and stayed there.
What did Joshua do? He did the right thing. He went to the LORD about it. He cast himself down before the ark until evening. There with the elders of Israel, he put dust on his head, and lamented before the Lord. I use that word deliberately, because it is often said that Joshua confessed before the Lord. I do not think he did confess. He did not, like Daniel, say, "We have sinned."
Commentators differ. A writer quoted below calls the same scene confession.
The words "before the ark of the LORD" carry weight. Joshua had gone into battle at Ai without seeking counsel there.
Joshua, as the leader and commander of the people, failed to take counsel. He did not ask by the ark, or through Eleazar, at whose word they were to go out and come in, both he and all the congregation. Under this double failure of Achan and Ai, Joshua tore his clothes and fell on his face — and note where: before the ark of the LORD.
Joshua was not the only one in the dust. The elders went down with him.
That memorable day began in the pride of self-confidence. But it ends with torn clothes in the dust before God. That is a merciful provision of grace, for if it did not end there, where else could it end? There restoration begins, and there only. He and all the elders of Israel put dust on their heads; the whole company confessed and humbled itself. The same is true now. Restoration can only come after confession, whether for the individual believer or the assembly.
God's later reply — "why have you fallen on your face?" — is aimed at one small word. It is not lying down that God objects to, but lying down like that.
How had Joshua been lying on his face? "Thus" — despairing, and in effect laying the cause of Israel's defeat on God. To lie on the face before God is the only true attitude a believer can take in a time of shame and dishonour. To take up any other is only to add the sin of pride to the thing that caused the defeat. True humiliation before God is our only "door of hope" for blessing in a day of distress. But to lie "thus" — not judging ourselves, but blaming God — is not humility.
Why did God let Israel lose? One writer points not to a lack of power in God, but to His holiness.
Joshua did not see, did not understand, that it was the very glory of that "great name" which made the defeat at Ai necessary, just as it had won the victory at Jericho. But there were other elements in that glory besides power. There was holiness too. That holiness made it impossible for Him to give the approval of His presence where evil went unjudged... Israel must judge the evil, or the LORD must judge Israel.
Because the trouble was a hidden sin, prayer alone could not fix it. Someone had to go and find it.
When there is known evil in our hearts or in the assembly, our first responsibility is to judge it, not to pray for forgiveness... And yet Satan often deceives the Lord's people when evil comes to light. He suggests through one person or another, "Let us pray about it." We must confess our sins, but even then only as we seek grace and strength to deal with the evil and to separate ourselves from it.
Another writer sets the two moments side by side.
There is a time for lying on the face, and there is a time for standing on our feet; a time for devout prostration, and a time for decided action. The instructed soul will know the time for each.
- Fall. Defeat drove Joshua to the ground before God. That was the right instinct, and the only place where restoration begins.
- Ark. He fell before the ark he had not consulted before attacking Ai. He had skipped God's guidance, and now he grieved at that very place.
- Dust. The elders shared the torn clothes and the dust. The leaders owned the shame together, instead of loading it onto one man.
- Words. The posture was right, but the words were wrong. He blamed God instead of judging himself, and blaming God is not humility.
- Rise. God's holiness, not His weakness, caused the defeat. So the answer was to stand up and remove the evil. There is a time to lie down, and a time to act.
And Joshua said, Alas, Lord Jehovah, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over the Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? Oh that we had been content and had remained beyond the Jordan!
After Jericho fell, one Israelite secretly kept goods God had banned, and the men of Ai then routed the small force Joshua sent against them. Joshua lay on his face before the ark until evening, then prayed the words of this verse — blaming God for the defeat and wishing the crossing of the Jordan undone.
Joshua went to God at once. What he told Him was another matter:
Though Joshua took the right attitude, he said the wrong thing. He put the blame for the defeat on the Lord! He said, "Alas, O Lord GOD, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all, to give us into the hands of the Amorites, to destroy us?" What language! The Lord had done nothing of the sort. He did not bring the people over the Jordan to destroy them. Destroying the descendants of Abraham was not His work. Neither was it His will that Ai should triumph over His redeemed people.
The same writer turns this on the reader. What Joshua said aloud, we often keep hidden:
Do we not sometimes go astray in a similar way? In daily life, trials and sorrows and impossible obstacles come again and again. At such times the heart may whisper, like Joshua, Why has the Lord done this? Why does He allow this? ... Secretly, in the heart, even in the place of worship, our deepest thought may be this: God is a hard Master, and He is not doing His best for us.
Israel attacked Ai without asking God first. One commentator links the complaint in this verse to that failure:
What are we without God? It is healthy that we should feel it. Our only boast is in what He is, not only to us, but with us. They had not God with them; they were utter weakness... They had failed in not seeking direction from God. "Would that we had been content to dwell beyond the Jordan!" There was complaining, and perhaps a reproach, aimed at the One they thought had failed them.
The second half of the verse looks backwards. Crossing the Jordan was God's own doing, and it is the one thing Joshua now regrets:
Joshua's godly soul recognises the worth of the ark, but he does not know what to do. Ignoring the accursed thing, he pours out regrets — not regrets about what he has done, not about what the people have done, but, sadly, about what God had done when He brought them over the Jordan! "Would that we had been content to dwell beyond the Jordan!" he said. How plainly these words show what the human heart is! This blessed place is the only one Joshua would gladly have avoided.
Joshua assumed God had turned against Israel. The reverse was true:
Joshua did not see, did not understand, that it was the very glory of God's own "great name" which made the defeat at Ai necessary. That same glory had won the victory at Jericho. But there were other elements in that glory besides power. There was holiness. That holiness made it impossible for Him to lend the approval of His presence where there was unjudged evil. Joshua should have concluded that there was something wrong in the condition of the people. He ought to have known that the hindrance was with Israel, and not with the Lord.
Joshua's prayer ends better than it begins. Its last question is about God's own name:
We can always plead with Him on the ground of His own name; and whenever we do, our plea is irresistible. It was so with Joshua. After the sin of Achan, the men of Ai struck the Israelites down. Joshua tore his clothes, fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord, and pleaded with God. The whole weight of his cry came out at last in one question: "And what will you do for your great name?" Rising to that height, the answer came at once.
God's reply does not let Joshua stay on the ground. Grief alone was not enough:
Joshua is exactly in the position he ought not to be in. The Lord said to him, "Get up! Why have you fallen on your face?" Humbling himself over his lack of power was not the only thing to be done: it was time to act... Joshua had to act; the accursed thing had to be put away from among them.
- Defeat. Israel lost at Ai because they moved without asking God, not because God failed them.
- Diagnosis. Joshua blamed God. But the hindrance was with Israel: God's holiness would not back them while evil went unjudged.
- Regret. He wishes he had stayed beyond the Jordan. That wish would undo what God had done: the blessed place is the one he would have avoided.
- Plea. The prayer only lands when it reaches God's great name, and on that ground the answer came at once.
- Action. Lying on his face was not enough; God told him to get up and remove the evil from the camp.
Ah Lord! what shall I say after Israel have turned their backs before their enemies?
Joshua's army has just fled from the small town of Ai, and the leader who watched Jericho fall is now face down in the dust. His cry raises the hardest question after any defeat: who is to blame?
Joshua's instinct was sound. He took the trouble straight to God. But what he said there was another matter.
He did the right thing. He went to the Lord about it. He cast himself down before the ark until evening. There with the elders of Israel, he put dust on his head, and lamented before the Lord. I use that word deliberately, because it is often said that Joshua confessed before the Lord. I do not think he did confess. He did not, like Daniel, say, "We have sinned."
The difference matters. Joshua was the leader in charge, yet he sent the blame elsewhere.
How do we put the case? Do we pray as if the Lord had done it? Or do we take the blame to ourselves? Joshua did not take a particle of blame to himself for Ai. Yet he was the responsible chief in Israel. He made the mistake of blaming God for what had taken place. He was at first far from viewing the defeat as God viewed it, and had to learn the truth.
This was Joshua's first setback after an unbroken run of success. That is why it hit him so hard.
Joshua was little prepared for any setback. Blessing and success had followed him like a rising tide, and now he is in agony. He must learn for the first time how much man may fail in scenes of the fullest blessing. The more blessing and truth a heart knows and enjoys, the greater the dismay that defeat brings, when that heart is true to the glory of God.
Joshua did not know the cause of the defeat. He already had enough light to work it out.
Knowing God, he should have concluded that God would not let defeat overtake His people unless there had been some grievous departure from Him. He should have searched for the hidden evil, instead of reproaching the Lord. Prayer will never make up for neglected action; it leads to action.
Listen to the order of his words: what comes first in his mind, and what comes last. One writer sets Joshua beside Moses, and the contrast is not flattering.
The tone of his prayer shows weakness. First it is Israel, the name of Israel, that fills his thoughts. Then it is the Canaanites, the world: they will hear of it and cut off Israel's name from the earth. Only at the very end does he ask, "And what will You do for Your great name?" Moses had no need, like Joshua, to recover lost communion. He could pray for the people, and God heard him.
Even so, the prayer ends in the right place. That is where God breaks in with an answer.
Real sorrow and shame of heart before God were at work in him; I do not deny that. But patience had not yet had its perfect work in his soul. Then he says, "And what will You do for Your great name?" There at least he was right, and there God answers — "The LORD said to Joshua, 'Get up! Why have you fallen on your face? Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them; they have taken some of the devoted things.'"
Joshua assumed that Israel losing made God look small. The answer turns that around: God's name was the reason for the loss, not its victim.
Their defeat and slaughter came because of His great name. To all appearances the defeat of God's people denied the greatness of their God's name. But God sets His glory above appearances. His name is greater than His people's successes. His character is bound up in His name. His army, His Israel, had sinned. To the spiritual understanding one truth is clear: the honour of the great name of the Lord demands purity and humility in His people, cost what it may.
So why did God not simply hand them the win?
God's glory includes holiness, and that holiness made it impossible for Him to give the backing of His presence where evil went unjudged. Israel must judge the evil, or the Lord must judge Israel. To have given them a victory at Ai would have been a reproach and a dishonour to the One whose name they bore.
- Right place. Joshua took the disaster straight to God. That instinct was right; his words were not.
- Wrong verdict. He blamed God and took no blame himself, though he was the leader. He lamented, but he never said, "We have sinned."
- Wrong order. Israel's name came first in his prayer, the Canaanites second, God's great name last.
- Right ending. The moment he touched God's name, God answered — and the answer was "Israel has sinned," not "I have failed you."
- Right reason. That great name demanded the defeat. God's holiness will not back an army with unjudged evil in it.
When the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear [of it], they will surround us, and cut off our name from the earth. And what wilt thou do unto thy great name?
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And Jehovah said to Joshua, Rise up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?
Israel has just been beaten by the men of Ai, and Joshua is lying face-down before God in mourning. God's reply is not comfort but a command to stand up. The reason points past the enemy to the camp itself.
The rebuke is not aimed at humility itself, but at the way Joshua was lying there. Older translations read "why do you lie thus upon your face," and one writer puts the whole weight of the verse on that word "thus."
The Lord's answer to His servant is again a lesson. How had Joshua been lying on his face? "Like this" — in despair, and in effect laying the cause of Israel's defeat on God. In a season of shame and dishonour, lying on your face before God is the only true attitude a believer can take. To pretend to any other only adds the sin of pride to whatever caused the defeat. "Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you" (James 4:10). True humbling before God is our only "door of hope" (Hosea 2:15) for blessing in a day of distress. But to lie there like this is not humility. It refuses to judge ourselves and blames God instead.
Joshua's despair rested on a wrong assumption about who was at fault.
God had been faithful to Israel, but Israel had not been faithful to God… Whenever we find ourselves under the power of our enemies, we must be sure to charge the fault on ourselves, and not on God… Joshua ought to have known what had defeated them: sin in Israel, not any change in God.
God interrupts Joshua's prayer. One writer draws a rule from that for handling known evil.
When there is known evil in our hearts or in the assembly, our first responsibility is to judge it, not to pray for forgiveness… And yet how often does Satan deceive the Lord's people in a time of open evil! Through one person or another he suggests, "Let us pray about it." We certainly should confess our sins. But even then we do so only to seek grace and strength to deal with the evil and to separate ourselves from it.
God does not name Achan here. He names the nation. One writer links that to how much God had just given Israel.
But notice, it is not Achan, it is not only the wrongdoer, but Israel… The greater the blessing of God to His people, the greater their responsibility. So now they were all identified with God. Someone among them had dared to sin against God, and He will make them feel it, so that they purge themselves from it… The worst evil disappears before the power of redemption. But a person may count some evil very small. If he holds on to it, or overlooks it, it later becomes a source of vast weakness in the presence of Satan.
The stolen goods were modest. The seriousness lay elsewhere.
Achan had disobeyed God and broken His express covenant… No doubt there was a vast amount of valuable treasure in Jericho. Achan took only a small fraction of it. But this act of disobedience happened at the taking of the very first of the many cities of Canaan. And it was the act of a responsible man in Israel. All must now learn how serious it is to ignore the word of Jehovah their Saviour. They must learn too that the sin of one man may spread through a whole community.
The order of humbling and acting is not fixed.
Humbling himself for his lack of power was not the only thing to do: it was time to act. We find the opposite in Judges 20. There Israel should have humbled themselves first and then acted… Joshua had to act. He had to put away from among them the thing under God's curse.
Israel's discipline cost them time.
If we do not judge ourselves, the Lord will judge us, so that He does not condemn us with the world… The sin and judgment of Miriam once delayed Israel's progress through the wilderness. The sin and judgment of Achan must now delay Israel's progress through the land. But it is only delay. Discipline does not cancel grace; it only maintains holiness. The valley of Achor is a door of hope (Hosea 2:15).
- Cause — The defeat at Ai came from sin inside the camp, not from any change in God. We charge the fault to ourselves.
- Posture — Lying face-down is the right attitude in a day of shame. But despair that blames God is not humility.
- Priority — Where we know of evil, we judge it first, before praying for forgiveness. "Let us pray about it" can become a way of dodging the issue.
- Scope — God said "Israel has sinned," not "Achan." One man's small theft touched the whole nation. Greater blessing means greater responsibility.
- Outcome — Joshua had to get up and remove the evil. The discipline delayed Israel, but it never cancelled grace. The Valley of Achor became a door of hope.
Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them, and they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it among their stuff.
God answers Joshua's cry about the defeat at Ai by naming the cause, and the cause is not the enemy but the camp itself. One man buried treasure under his tent, yet God charges a whole nation.
The verse never names Achan. God's words fix the offence on the plural "they."
The whole congregation is held responsible for the evil. "A little leaven leavens the whole lump." Unbelief may ask how all are involved in the sin of one. But the Word of God settles the question — "Israel has sinned" — "they have taken" — "they have stolen" — "they have lied." The assembly was one: one in privilege, one in responsibility. As such, the sin of one was the sin of all, and all were called to clear themselves thoroughly by putting away the accursed thing from among them.
(Older translations read "the accursed thing" where the ESV has "the devoted things.")
If God charged only the doer, no one else would have a stake in dealing with the wrong.
Can we not see the wisdom of God in holding those associated with evil as responsible as the ones who do it? What guarantee would there be that evil would ever be judged? The whole company of Christians would be defiled by the presence of unjudged sin, because of the false tenderness or indifference of some.
This shared accountability was new. It came with the blessing God had just given them.
But notice, it is not Achan, it is not only the wrongdoer, but Israel. There was no such identification before the crossing of the Jordan. The principle of an evil thing affecting the camp was always true, but now it is made far more precise and definite. The greater the blessing of God to His people, the greater their responsibility.
The theft itself was small. The verse puts the weight on a broken covenant.
Where was the enormity of this sin? Achan had disobeyed God and broken His express covenant. The command was that all the perishable goods in Jericho should be burned with fire, and the silver and the gold devoted to Him in His treasury. But Achan disregarded this command. No doubt there was a vast amount of valuable treasure in Jericho, and Achan took only a small fraction of the whole. But this act of disobedience happened at the conquest of the very first of the many cities of Canaan. And it was the act of a responsible man in Israel. All must now learn how serious it is to ignore the word of Jehovah their Saviour, and that the sin of one man may leaven a community.
The charge comes in stages: he took, he stole, he lied, he hid the goods among his own things. That last step, the hiding, shows up again in the early days of the church.
In the early days of Israel's history in Canaan, as in the early days of Christianity, we find God quick to judge evil among His people. He brought the secret sins of those who seemed to be for Him out into the light. Ananias and Sapphira, like Achan, "lied." But God is not deceived. It is for us to open our eyes to our own actions, and to seek to see ourselves as God sees us... Our secret sins are all bare in the light of His face. "All are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account." Lying will sooner or later be shouted from the housetops.
Defeat did not mean God had failed His people. His own holiness required it.
There were other elements in that glory besides power. There was holiness. That holiness made it impossible for Him to give the approval of His presence where evil went unjudged... The same grace that had given them victory at Jericho would have given it at Ai, if things had been right. But they were not right, and so defeat, not victory, was the order of the day. How could there be victory with an accursed thing in the camp? Impossible! Israel must judge the evil, or Jehovah must judge Israel.
The man who caused the trouble already knew where it was.
When Israel turned their backs at Ai, Achan was not expected to search the tents of his brothers for the cause. It was under his feet in his own tent, where he himself had put it. Depend upon it, the cause of the blight on the gatherings of believers at home and abroad is locked up in your heart and mine. There can be no revival of vitality and power until secret sins are brought to the light and judged individually before the Lord.
- Hidden. One man hid the loot under his tent, and no one else knew — yet God named the offence Israel's.
- Shared. The people were one in privilege and in responsibility. So the sin of one was the sin of all, and all had to clear it out.
- Weighed. The weight lay not in the price of the goods, but in a broken covenant at the very first city.
- Blocked. God's holiness would not back unjudged evil. The grace that took Jericho withheld victory at Ai.
- Searched. The remedy starts under your own floor, not in your neighbour's tent — secret sin brought to light before God.
And the children of Israel shall not be able to stand before their enemies they shall turn their backs before their enemies, for they have made themselves accursed. I will no more be with you, except ye destroy the accursed thing from your midst.
God's answer to Joshua's grief is not comfort but diagnosis. The defeat at Ai has a cause, and the cause is inside the camp. One man's theft brought down a whole army and cost Israel the presence of God. The verse ends with the one condition that would bring that presence back. (Older translations call these "the accursed thing," and the writers quoted below use that older wording.)
Only Achan took the plunder, yet the whole nation cannot stand. One writer traces this to what made Israel one body — God living among them:
The whole assembly was involved in the evil. How was this? The divine presence gave a unity to the whole assembly; it bound them all together in such a way that all were involved in the sin of the one. It was one assembly, and so it was impossible for anyone to take independent ground. The sin of each was the sin of all, because God was in their midst, and He could not countenance unjudged evil. The congregation had to clear itself of the evil before the Lord could lead it to victory. Had He allowed them to triumph at Ai, it would have argued that He was indifferent to the sin of His people.
The obvious objection is that nobody else knew. Another writer answers it, and carries the principle on to the church:
The people might have said: Does that concern us? How could we have known about a hidden thing, and not having known it, how are we responsible? To all that we reply that God always has the unity of His people before His eyes. He sees each person as part of one whole, responsible for the others. The suffering and sin of one is the suffering and sin of all. If that is true of Israel, how much more of us, the church of God — one body united by the Holy Spirit to the Head in heaven.
The thing that defeated an army began as a look. One commentator walks through Achan's own account of it:
He had followed his natural inclinations; he began where we all begin, where the first man began. "I saw." His eyes were the way into his heart, but there was no sentinel to watch. It is through the eyes that the accursed thing takes possession of the heart and provokes it to lust: "I coveted them." "Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin": "I took them." The fine Babylonian garment could feed the pride of life. The silver and gold could satisfy every craving. They became Achan's prey — or rather, they made him their prey.
"I will be with you no more" is not God abandoning a weak people:
If the Lord is present to give victory over His enemies, He is also present to discipline His people. "Israel has sinned!" God does not say, One man has sinned — find him out. No; it is the six hundred thousand of Israel, because Israel is one nation. God cannot go on with unjudged evil. Weakness is no hindrance, wickedness is. Can God lend the sanction of His presence to evil? Never! If we are God's dwelling place, we must be holy.
The last clause is the door left open. It ties the outcome of every future battle to one thing:
Yet God also showed a way of escape. In the same verse He goes on to say, "neither will I be with you any more, except you destroy the accursed from among you." The outcome of Israel's battles depended on whether God could be with them, and this could only be so if they removed from among themselves what was cursed. Hidden and unjudged sin is the death knell to spiritual victory.
Notice the direction of the command: Israel is not told to leave, but to clear itself.
Separation from evil is always God's principle of action. If we are on God's ground, we separate by putting away the evil. If we are not on God's ground, we separate by coming out of the evil. Achan's sin brought defilement on Israel, and the Lord said, "I will be with you no more, unless you destroy the devoted things from among you." This is the first kind of separation. Israel was on God's ground, and the true principle was not to go out of Israel, but to put away the evil from it.
The valley where Achan was judged did not stay a byword for shame. Later prophets reached for it as an encouragement:
Where evil exists, judging it is the only way anyone can enter into the forgiveness and favour of God. So Hosea says that the valley of Achan (Achor) shall be a "door of hope," and she (Israel) shall sing there. And Isaiah says, "The valley of Achor shall be a place for the herds to lie down in." Hope shines nowhere so brightly as on the spot where sin has been judged. No place gives a sinner rest like the foot of the cross.
- Presence unites. God dwelling in the camp made Israel one, so the sin of one became the sin of all — no one could stand on independent ground.
- Presence exposes. God is present to give victory over His enemies, and present to discipline His people; His nearness both wins battles and finds sin.
- Presence withholds. Defeat at Ai was not weakness but wickedness. A victory with Achan in the camp would have said God is indifferent to evil.
- Presence stays on one condition. "Unless you destroy the devoted things" — Israel must clear the evil out from within, not walk away from it.
- Presence turns Achor into hope. Judge the sin, and blessing begins; the valley of Achan became a door of hope.