Joshua 7:4 “So there went up thither of the people about three thousand men: and they fled before the men of Ai.”
This is the first retreat and the first setback for the people of Israel on this journey.
God gave them the land and then knocked down every obstacle in their path. Now, in tiny Ai – a place where they only needed 3,000 fighting men – they were turned back.
If you don’t know the story, read verse 1 in this chapeter. There was sin in the camp.
Achan is identified as the guilty one. He has taken possessions from Jericho that God commanded them to destroy.
Sin always takes us farther than we want to go and costs us more than we want to pay. And sin is rarely personal – impacting only the sinner.
This sin had already cost Israel 36 men and it was about to cost Achan, dearly.
Perhaps we are like Achan, we don’t take our sin seriously enough?
We think we can “get away with it” or hide it well enough that no one will find out.
But we don’t know what consequences that sin can set in motion. We can choose our sin, but we can’t choose what happens next.
If Achan had an opportunity to do it again, he would take disobedience very seriously.
Joshua 7:4 “So there went up thither of the people about three thousand men: and they fled before the men of Ai.”