The Conquest of Canaan and the Kingdom of God (12) Battle with Ai

​“Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction. “Go, consecrate the people. Tell them, ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow; for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: There are devoted things among you, Israel. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove them.” (Jos 7:11-13)
 
We have talked about how we should live as people of God's kingdom through the story of the conquest of Canaan. Last Sunday, we looked at the story of how the Israelites conquered Jericho.
 
Jericho was a walled city. It wasn’t big, but there was no way to get into the city. Instead of calling the Israelites to destroy the gate with force, God gave them a command that made no sense by all human standards. God told them to march around the city in silence once a day for six days. God said that the walls would fall when they marched around the city seven times and shout after hearing the trumpet sound.
 
That’s it. No weapons. No military tactics. Just silent obedience. The victory didn’t come through power or logic. The Israelites won the battle against Jericho simply because they trusted God’s word and obeyed it. They didn’t question it. They didn’t argue. They didn’t complain. They simply walked in silence, possibly enduring mockery from the people of Jericho.
 
And in the end, they witnessed God do exactly what He said He would do. The walls of Jericho fell—not because of their strength, but because of their obedience and God's presence with them.
 
That’s the kind of faith and obedience we should have in order to live as people of the kingdom of God. Sometimes, God requires us to obey things we cannot understand. Sometimes, He requires us to trust in His plan even when nothing seems to be happening. God is pleased when we show this kind of faith and obedience because it demonstrates our complete trust in Him.
 
God is not impressed by how capable we are. He is looking for those who love His word, trust His plan, and are willing to obey His command, even when it seems foolish to the world.
 
So, if we want to live victoriously as God’s people in the world, we must learn to walk by faith and obedience, not by sight or strength. When we follow Him with sheer trust, we will see His power at work in ways we could never imagine.
 
The Battle with Ai
All right. That’s what we discussed last Sunday, and today I would like us to examine another battle: the battle against Ai. Ai was the smallest of the cities in the land of Canaan. But the Israelites were defeated in their first battle against them. It was their first and only defeat in the conquest of the land of Canaan. So, why did they lose? We find the reasons in Joshua 7.
 
1) Relying on God
The first reason is that they trusted in their own strength and ability and did not seek and rely on God. In Joshua 7:2 Josuah sent men from Jericho to Ai to spy out the city. When they returned, they said,
 
“Not all the army will have to go up against Ai. Send two or three thousand men to take it and do not weary the whole army, for only a few people live there.” (Jos 7:3)
 
They said that they would only need to go up with 2-3 thousand people to beat them because there were not many people living in Ai. But this report was misleading.
 
According to Joshua 8:25, there were 12,000 people living there at that time. If we consider only the adult men who could fight, the number would have been in the thousands. They also had the geographical advantage, so it was a clear error for the spies to think that the Israelites could easily defeat them with an army of two or three thousand men.
 
This misjudgement was caused by their arrogance. So far they had won a series of battles before crossing the Jordan River and also the battle against Jericho. Their victories didn’t come from their own strength or power. They won the battles because God was on their side, fought for them, and granted them victory.
 
However, they forgot God and took credit for their victories. This manifested in two ways. Firstly, they underestimated their enemies and overestimated themselves.  And secondly, they did not seek or rely on God.
 
They didn’t wait on Him. They didn't consult God about whether to go to battle against Ai, or how they should fight. They believed that they could easily conquer Ai through their own strength without God’s help. It was their pride that caused them to lose the battle against Ai. So, the defeat of Israel at Ai was not merely a military failure but a spiritual one.
 
We find here an important principle for us to keep in mind as people of God's kingdom. Since every battle ultimately belongs to God, victory in battle always requires His presence, as well as our complete obedience to His word and humility before our King.
 
No matter how strong we are, we cannot win even a small battle unless God is on our side. However, if God is with us, we can win any battle, no matter how weak we are or how powerful our enemies are.
 
When David fought Goliath, he said, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands… and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s” (1Sm 17:45-47)
 
David was extremely weak compared to Goliath. From a worldly perspective, he was in no position to defeat him. He was much smaller and weaker than Goliath and didn't have a good weapon. However, David went into the battle confident of his victory, not because of his physical abilities, armor, or weapons, but because he believed that God Almighty was with him. As a result, he was able to win the battle. It was God's presence with David that gave him the victory.
 
That is the mindset we must have to win every battle we are given as people of God's kingdom. We all face battles in our lives, whether they are big or small.
 
As we fight the battles, we must look to God, not to ourselves or our enemies. When we lift our eyes to the God who made the heavens and earth and look to Him for help, we will not fall into the trap of pride, overestimating ourselves and underestimating our enemies, and we will not lose confidence by underestimating ourselves and overestimating our enemies just like how the Israelites refused to go into the promised land because they thought they were too weak compared to the enemies in the land.
 
So, as people of the kingdom of God who’re called to fight the good fight of faith while building His kingdom on earth, we must continue to learn to listen to God humbly, obey Him faithfully, and walk with Him every day. Then we will see God fighting for us and giving us victory in every battle.
 
2) Hidden Sin
The second, more direct reason for the Israelites' loss to Ai was their hidden sin.
 
When God gave the Israelites victory in the battle against Jericho, there was one command He gave them. God said,
 
“The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord… Keep away from the devoted things, so that you will not bring about your own destruction by taking any of them. Otherwise you will make the camp of Israel liable to destruction and bring trouble on it. All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into his treasury.” (Jos 6:17-19)
 
God told them to give all the spoils of war from the battle against Jericho to Him. But this command was not fully obeyed. A man named Achan stole some of the things that were devoted to the Lord.
 
Joshua 7:1 says, “But the Israelites were unfaithful in regard to the devoted things; Achan… took some of them. So the Lord’s anger burned against Israel.” (Jos 7:1)
 
Here, the 'wrath of the LORD' was directed at all the people of Israel, not just Achan. Achan's sin was not just his own; it was the sin of all Israel.
 
We might ask how the offence of one man could affect the entire nation. We might say it's not fair. However, God sees Israel as an organic unity. They were a covenant community who had decided together to worship and follow the one God. Therefore, Achan's offence became the offence of all Israel. It is as if the pain of one part of the body is felt throughout the whole body.
 
This is the reason our repentance should extend to the sins of others in our community, as well as our own. This does not just refer to one church community, but can also encompass the wider denomination and even universal Christianity. This is because God has brought us all together as one body through the covenant blood of Jesus Christ.
 
At that time, one man, Achan, sinned, but God saw it as the sin of all Israel.
 
After the battle of Ai, Joshua asked God about the reason for their defeat, and God replied,
 
“Israel has sinned; they have violated my covenant, which I commanded them to keep. They have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen, they have lied, they have put them with their own possessions. That is why the Israelites cannot stand against their enemies; they turn their backs and run because they have been made liable to destruction. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy whatever among you is devoted to destruction… You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove them.” (Jos 7:11-13)
 
We can learn some important lessons about sin here. This passage describes two consequences of sin. First, sin makes us liable to destruction. Second, sin separates us from God. God said that He wouldn’t be with them unless they destroyed the devoted things. These two consequences are related to each other.
 
Because God is holy, He hates sin and sinners have no place before Him. This is why whenever we come to God, we must always examine ourselves to see if we have any hidden sins we’ve committed knowingly or unknowingly and remove them and repent.
 
Because sin is the greatest obstacle that blocks our relationship with God, if we allow it to remain in our lives, no matter how small it may seem to us, it prevents us from experiencing God's presence. And all that is left for a person whose relationship with God is severed is death and destruction.
 
We sin because we love it. Because we are born with a sinful nature, we are innately drawn to sin. The desires of our flesh keep pulling us in the direction of sin. As the apostle Paul said,
 
“I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me” (Rm 7:19-22)
 
So we must constantly remind ourselves of what it means to sin and its consequences in order to hate sin more and commit it less.
 
When God spoke of Achan's sin, He didn't just say that the Israelites had taken what belonged to God. He said that as a result, they had become objects of God’s wrath. God said,
 
“They have taken some of the devoted things… Therefore have become devoted for destruction” (Jos 7:11-12, ESV)
 
What we can see here is that when we commit sin, we also assimilate it into ourselves. We not only sin, but we become sin itself. This is why the Bible doesn't just say that Jesus bore our sins. It says that Jesus became sin itself.
 
Paul said, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us…” (2Co 5:21)
 
There is a big difference between sinning and becoming sin itself. Some people might want to sin because, as I said earlier, we sin because we love it, but no one wants to be sin itself. But from the biblical point of view, sinning and becoming sin are the same thing because when we sin, it means that we make ourselves slaves to it.
 
As the apostle Paul said, “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey - whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?... When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!... The wages of sin is death” (Rm 6:16, 20-21, 23)
 
So, the consequences of sin are far more devastating than we think, otherwise God would not have sent His Son Jesus Christ to earth to die on the cross. So if we don’t take our sins seriously, it means that we make the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who underwent all the mockery, suffering, and death on the cross to forgive us of our sins, cheap and meaningless.
 
Therefore, the most important battle we have to fight as God's people is the battle against our sin. The author of Hebrews said,
 
“In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood” (Heb 12:4)
 
It's not enough to say we struggle with sin. We must hate sin with all that we are and fight to the point of shedding our blood to keep from sinning because it has such enormously bad consequences in our lives and in our relationship with God. When we sin, we become sin and become enslaved to it and make ourselves subject to the curse and wrath of God. When we sin, God can’t be with us. We’ll lose our relationship with Him along with every blessing from Him, including eternal life.
 
When we don’t repent of our sins, we can’t experience God’s presence deeply. We’ll quench the Holy Spirit and become unable to win the battles we have to fight as God’s people. We will drift away from God’s mission and call to build His kingdom on earth and we’ll end up losing our faith and salvation.
 
That's why we need to fight against all our sins, whether big or small, and strive to eliminate them from our lives. In order for us to do so, God sent Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit to free us and help us.
 
If you really want to live as a person of the kingdom of God, you have to remove your sin from God, relying on the precious blood of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, because the kingdom is built on holiness.
 
The thing that scares me most about my ministry as a pastor is that I can do ministry without repentance of sin. It scares me to see fruit in ministry without a thorough conviction and remorse for sin.
 
We need to keep in mind that what matters to God is not what kind of ministry we do. His first concern is our holiness. Any ministry that is not built on holiness is meaningless, regardless of how it looks on the outside and how much fruit it bears. In fact, it’s very dangerous to see fruits of ministry without repentance because it can justify our sin.
 
I want to look back on our lives now based on God’s word. How is your relationship with God now? Is there a stumbling block between you and God that is frustrating you, causing you to stumble, falter, and fall? If there is, I want us to lay it down at the feet of our Lord right now.
 
Even though God is righteous and just and does not leave the guilty unpunished, He is also so merciful and abounding in love that He is slow to anger and forgives our sins and rebellion whenever we come to Him with confession and repentance. Repentance is always the way back. To set us free from sin and its consequences and to open the way for us to repent of our sins, God made His Son become sin on our behalf and had Him die on the cross.
 
Even though we can’t fight against sin and Satan on our own, we can live a victorious life through the power of the precious blood of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
 
Without God’s presence, we are powerless because our strength is found in dependence on Him. Without our King with us, we can’t win a single battle. So we need to crucify everything sinful in our lives to the cross of Jesus Christ so that we can experience God's presence more deeply and draw near to Him at all times.
 
I want every one of us to be filled with the power of the precious blood of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit so that we may live in the presence of God, winning every battle with His strength and building His kingdom on earth.
 
Let’s pray.
 
[Prayer]
Heavenly Father, thank You for reminding us of who You are and who we’ve become in You. We thank You for saving us from our sins and setting us apart for Your kingdom.
 
Now Lord, we come before You with humble hearts, recognizing that victory belongs to You alone. We ask for Your forgiveness for the times we have walked in pride without seeking You or listening to You, relied on our own strength, or kept sin secret.
 
Today, we turn back to You. Please cleanse us, expose what needs to be removed in our lives, heal what has been broken by our sin and disobedience, and restore what has been lost in our relationship with You.
 
Lord, we do not want to move forward without Your presence.  Be our strength in battle, our guide in every decision, and our King in every part of life. Teach us to walk in obedience and fight our battles under Your presence.
 
Let us be people of Your kingdom, holy and ready for Your purposes.
May Your Kingdom come, and may Your will be done in and through us.
 
In the precious name of Jesus, our victorious King, we pray.
Amen.
 
[Reflection Questions]
1) What are some of the battles you are fighting as a Christian right now? What do you think you need to be equipped with to win them?
 
2) How is your relationship with God nowadays? What are the things that keep you from living in the presence of God? How are you fighting your sin?