Commentary - Joshua 7:1-5

Bird's-eye view

Joshua chapter 7 is a bucket of ice water after the warm glow of chapter 6. Israel has just witnessed a stupendous miracle at Jericho, a victory won not by military might but by faithful, albeit strange, obedience. The walls came down. The city was devoted to the Lord. And now, immediately on the heels of this great triumph, we are confronted with a jarring defeat. The reason for this whiplash is a foundational lesson in covenant theology. The central issue here is not a tactical misstep or a failure of intelligence, but rather a breach of faith. One man's secret sin becomes the entire nation's public shame and defeat. This passage hammers home the doctrine of corporate solidarity. Israel is not a collection of individuals who happen to have the same passport; they are a covenant body, and the health of the whole is affected by the sin of a single member. Achan's sin was not a private matter, and the consequences demonstrate that God deals with His people as a federal whole.

The narrative arc is simple and brutal: from the pinnacle of faith-fueled victory to the valley of humiliating defeat. The cause is stated plainly from the outset: unfaithfulness regarding the "devoted things." This sin, hidden from Joshua, was not hidden from God. The subsequent defeat at Ai serves as God's severe mercy, exposing the corruption within the camp that would have been far more destructive had it been allowed to fester. The melted hearts of the Israelites are a mirror image of the melted hearts of the Canaanites just one chapter before, showing how sin reverses the blessings of God's covenant and brings the curses upon His own people.

Outline

Commentary

1 But the sons of Israel acted unfaithfully in regard to the things devoted to destruction. Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, from the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things; therefore the anger of Yahweh burned against the sons of Israel.

The chapter opens with a massive theological conjunction: "But." This word slams the brakes on the victory parade of chapter 6. The celebration is over. The first thing to notice is who acted unfaithfully. It was "the sons of Israel." The modern, individualistic mindset wants to cry foul here. Achan was the one who sinned, so why is the whole nation implicated? This is because God deals with His people covenantally. When a father of a household sins, he brings trouble on his whole house. When a king sins, he brings trouble on his whole nation. And when one member of the covenant community of Israel sins in this way, the whole body is polluted. Achan sinned, but Israel trespassed. This is the principle of corporate solidarity. We are not our own; we belong to one another in the body. The sin of one can and does affect the many.

The sin itself concerned the "devoted things," the herem. This was not simply booty or plunder. The spoil of Jericho was the firstfruits of the conquest, and as such, it belonged entirely to God. To take from it was not just theft; it was sacrilege. It was robbing God's altar. Achan saw a beautiful Babylonian garment, some silver, and a wedge of gold, and his covetousness got the better of him. He took what belonged exclusively to Yahweh. The genealogy is listed here to emphasize that this was not some fringe character; he was from the noble tribe of Judah. Sin can arise from the very heart of the covenant people. And the result is immediate and severe: "the anger of Yahweh burned against the sons of Israel." Note again, His anger is not directed solely at Achan in his tent, but against the entire nation that Achan represented and defiled.

2 Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-aven, east of Bethel, and said to them, “Go up and spy out the land.” So the men went up and spied out Ai.

Joshua proceeds with what appears to be sound military practice. He is not sitting on his laurels. He sends out spies, just as he had done with Jericho. On the surface, this is prudent leadership. However, there is a glaring omission. Before the battle of Jericho, Joshua had a direct encounter with the commander of the Lord's army. God gave specific, albeit peculiar, instructions for the battle. Here, there is no mention of Joshua inquiring of the Lord. After a spectacular, God-given victory, it is a common temptation to begin relying on the methods that "worked" last time, forgetting the God who made them work. There is a subtle shift from radical dependence on God to confident self-reliance. The machinery of conquest is moving, but the power source has been disconnected because of the sin in the camp.

3 Then they returned to Joshua and said to him, “Do not have all the people go up; only about two or three thousand men need go up to strike down Ai; do not have all the people toil up there, for they are few.”

The spies return with a report that is dripping with worldly wisdom. Their assessment is pragmatic and logical. Ai is a small town, "they are few." So, let's be efficient. Why trouble the whole army? Let's not make everyone "toil." This is the language of human efficiency, not humble faith. They are calculating based on what they can see, based on their own strength relative to the enemy's. They had just seen God topple a fortress with marching and shouting, and their first instinct now is to trust the numbers. Their advice is to scale the operation down to match the perceived threat. This is a classic example of leaning on one's own understanding. The problem wasn't their math; the problem was their assumption that God's blessing was automatic. They had forgotten that their victory depended not on the size of the enemy, but on the presence of God.

4 So about three thousand men from the people went up there, but they fled from the men of Ai.

Acting on the spies' confident report, Joshua sends about three thousand men. The number was more than adequate according to their human calculations. But the result is a complete reversal of what happened at Jericho. The "but" in this verse is the collision of human presumption with divine reality. The warriors of Israel, who had just been invincible, now turn tail and flee. The men of Ai, who should have been terrified, are emboldened. Why? Because God was not with Israel. When God is with His people, one can chase a thousand. When He is not, the odds are irrelevant. A small contingent of Ai's men is more than enough to rout a detachment of God's chosen people when they are operating under His judgment.

5 And the men of Ai struck down about thirty-six of their men and pursued them from the gate as far as Shebarim and struck them down on the descent, so the hearts of the people melted and became as water.

The defeat is not just a strategic retreat; it is a humiliating rout. Thirty-six men are killed. In the grand scheme of ancient warfare, this is a small number. But for Israel, it was catastrophic. At Jericho, they had taken a fortified city without a single combat casualty. Now, against a small village, they lose three dozen men. The loss of life was the outward sign of the inward spiritual reality: God's favor had been withdrawn. The pursuit underscores the totality of the defeat. But the most telling phrase is the last one: "the hearts of the people melted and became as water." This is the very language Rahab used to describe the effect Israel was having on the Canaanites (Josh. 2:11). Because of sin in the camp, the covenant curse of fear, which was supposed to be upon their enemies, had now fallen upon them. Sin doesn't just stall our progress; it reverses our blessings. The very terror they were meant to inspire was now consuming them.

Key Issues

Beginning: The Achan in All of Us

It is tempting to read this story and cast Achan as the sole villain, the one bad apple that spoiled the bunch. But this would be to miss the point entirely. The story of Achan is the story of Israel, and it is the story of the church. We are all born with a covetous heart, a desire to take for ourselves what rightly belongs to God. The things of the world, the Babylonian garment, the silver, the gold, shimmer and call to us, promising satisfaction if we will just take them and hide them in our tent. Achan's sin was not an anomaly; it was a manifestation of the universal human rebellion against God's total claim on all things. Before we can rightly understand the judgment that falls on Israel, we must first recognize the Achan that lurks within our own hearts, the secret treason that prefers the trinkets of the world to the favor of God.

Corporate Solidarity

The modern Western mind is fiercely individualistic. My choices are my own, my sins are my own, and my consequences are my own. This is not a biblical mindset. The Bible teaches from Genesis to Revelation that humanity is bound together in federal or corporate structures. We see this first in Adam, whose sin plunged the entire human race into ruin (Rom. 5:12). We see it here in Achan, whose sin brought defeat upon the entire nation of Israel. And most gloriously, we see it in Christ, the second Adam, whose righteousness is imputed to all who are united to Him by faith (Rom. 5:19).

Achan's sin defiled the entire camp because Israel was one covenant body. They had one covenant Lord, and a sin against that Lord by one member was an offense committed by the body. This is why the New Testament warns the church so strongly about tolerating sin in her midst. A little leaven leavens the whole lump (1 Cor. 5:6). When one member suffers, all suffer. When one member sins and it is not dealt with, the whole body becomes sick. This is a hard lesson, but a necessary one. We are responsible not only for our own holiness, but for the purity of the entire church.

Key Words

Herem, "Devoted to Destruction"

The Hebrew word herem refers to that which is devoted or dedicated to God, usually by means of destruction. It is a step beyond a normal offering. It is something removed from common use and consecrated to God in an irrevocable way. In the context of the conquest, the cities and their contents under the ban of herem were to be utterly destroyed as a sacrifice of judgment against the wickedness of the Canaanites and as a recognition that the spoils of this holy war belonged to God alone. To take something that was herem, as Achan did, was to commit sacrilege. It was to steal directly from God's treasury and to treat as common what God had declared holy.

Application

The progression from Jericho to Ai is a stark warning for the church in every age. Great spiritual victory is often followed by the temptation to presumption. After a great work of God in our midst, we can subtly begin to trust in our strategies, our programs, and our own strength, forgetting the Lord who gave the victory. We send out our spies, make our pragmatic calculations, and march out in our own strength, only to find ourselves routed by an enemy we thought was insignificant.

This passage forces us to ask hard questions. Is there a hidden Achan in the camp? Is there unconfessed sin, whether individual or corporate, that is causing God to withhold His blessing? The defeat at Ai was a severe mercy from God. It stopped Israel in its tracks and forced a painful but necessary self-examination. It is better to be defeated and driven to repentance than to march on in a state of self-deceived "success" while God's anger burns against us. We must learn to see our failures and defeats not as reasons for despair, but as God's loving call to search the camp, to confess our sins, and to return to a state of radical dependence upon Him. For it is only when the camp is clean that the Lord of Hosts will once again go out with our armies.