Joshua 7:1,2 - The Israelites were unfaithful

7:1

Following the famous victory at Jericho, we come to the infamous defeat at Ai. The primary purpose of this narrative is set out in the first verse. “The Israelites were unfaithful”. Now, in fact only one man had been unfaithful, disobeying the order on not taking the devoted things. However, the “Lord’s anger burned against Israel”. So the whole nation was under judgement. Achan was the perpetrator, and his genealogy is listed in some detail. In the New Testament both Jesus and Paul make clear that human ancestry alone does not make a person a child of God, faith and obedience are what count. Here we have an example of that. Obedience matters.

7:2

We now come to see how the judgement, the Lord’s anger, works out. Joshua sent men to Ai to “spy out the region”. So it seems that Joshua is following a similar plan to that used in the case of Jericho. However, there is no record here of Joshua seeking the Lord. This is possibly an example of pride on his part, and a further example of pride will shortly follow. However, we must not forget that Achan’s sin is the crux of the matter. When sin enters in all sorts of things start to go wrong, and we start doing things in an ungodly way, or leaving God out of the equation. Ai may have been of possible strategic importance because of its geographical location.