Maintaining Covenants

After Isreal’s victory against Jericho, they decided to go to battle against a smaller city called Ai. Joshua sent men to spy out the land and they came back and told him that the people were few. They did not feel that the entire army needed to go against this city in battle. “So about three thousand men went up there from the people. And they fled before the men of Ai” (Joshua 7:4). The army of Isreal were surprised as they were attacked, thirty six of their men were killed and they were chased from the city. The hearts of the people were distressed and Joshua tore his clothes and fell on his face before the ark of the Lord. He had questions for God and asked why he had brought this defeat upon them. Joshua was worried that the other inhabitants would hear about their defeat and come out against them.

“The Lord said to Joshua, “Get up! Why have you fallen on your face” (Joshua 7:10)? He told Joshua that they had sinned, transgressed his covenant and taken some of the devoted things, had lied and stolen. Given Isreal’s state of rebellion, they could not stand before their enemies and needed to remove the accursed thing from among them. God commanded Joshua to consecrate the people and bring all of them together, so that they could be separated by tribes, clans and household to identify who had done wrong. Once God separated the person who had taken the devoted thing, he and everything that he had should be burnt by fire. When Joshua brought the people and separated the tribes, the lot fell on Achan, from the tribe of Judah.

“Then Joshua said to Achan, “My son, give glory to the Lord God of Israel and give praise to him. And tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me”” (Joshua 7:19). Achan confessed that he had stolen precious clothing, 200 shekels of silver and a bar of gold weighing 50 shekels. He had buried the items in his tent and when Joshua sent men to his tent, they found the items. Achan was taken with all of his possessions and his family, to the valley of Achor and he was stoned to death. They were then burned with fire and a heap of stones was placed over them. Once this was done, the anger of the Lord was turned from the people of Isreal. God then gave Joshua a strategy to defeat Ai, by drawing them away from their city and setting an ambush against them.

After their victory in Ai, Joshua built an altar, offered sacrifices and read the laws of Moses. He renewed the covenant between God and the people, before the ark of the Lord. It is possible that the victory which Isreal gained over Jericho, may have caused them to become slightly overconfident. I wonder if Joshua had spent time to seek God for a strategy against Ai, if he would have learnt about the accursed thing among them. Perhaps then he could have done the separation, consecration and cleansing before going into another battle. In that way, he would have spared the lives of his people and the defeat which they experienced. Nevertheless, once they lost, he sought the Lord and learnt what caused the defeat. He made restitution and then consecrated the people. After this, the people had victory and then renewed their covenant to the Lord.

“Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations” (Deuteronomy 7:9).

A.P.-Y.