Achan took some of the devoted things, thus disobeying the Lord's command. God's anger burned against Israel. The sin of one man brought trouble for the whole nation. We do not exist just as individuals. We often keen to isolate ourselves from others, particularly those we consider worthless and worthy of judgement. But we are a society. We are all affected by each other, we all affect one another. As has been said, no man is an island. This means we have to deal with sin.
Joshua did not know that this had happened, and made plans for the next conquest, Ai. Spies were again sent out. They brought back a confident report, and only a section of the army was sent against the city. However, the raid ended in disaster.
The mood of the people, and of Joshua, changed very quickly, from one of expectation of victory, to one of defeat. Joshua prostrated himself before the Lord, and wondered why the Lord had brought them to this land.
He then repents of crossing the Jordan. When things go wrong we can sometimes end up repenting of the wrong thing. The Lord had commanded them to cross the Jordan. When things get difficult we need to be very careful, for we will try and find the wrong reason for the failure.
The Lord tells Joshua to get up, and tells him the real reason for the problems. Joshua needed to take steps to address the real issue. So all the people were called together. Eventually Achan was identified as the culprit. Achan confessed his sin and was stoned by the people. They had to deal with the sin in their midst.
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