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.