Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Take the whole army with you, and go up and attack Ai. For I have delivered into your hands the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land. 2 You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set an ambush behind the city.”

3 So Joshua and the whole army moved out to attack Ai. He chose thirty thousand of his best fighting men and sent them out at night 4 with these orders: “Listen carefully. You are to set an ambush behind the city. Don’t go very far from it. All of you be on the alert. 5 I and all those with me will advance on the city, and when the men come out against us, as they did before, we will flee from them. 6 They will pursue us until we have lured them away from the city, for they will say, ‘They are running away from us as they did before.’ So when we flee from them, 7 you are to rise up from ambush and take the city. The Lord your God will give it into your hand. 8 When you have taken the city, set it on fire. Do what the Lord has commanded. See to it; you have my orders.” (NIV)

‘Never permit one failure to rob you of future victory. When God sees that we have obeyed His Word and sincerely dealt with sin, He comes with encouragement and guidance for the next step. It has been well said that the victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings. (See Ps.37:23-24.)

Had Achan waited, he could have taken all the spoils he desired, but he ran ahead of God and lost everything. (See Mt.6:33).’ Warren W. Wiersbe

As you will see, today’s reading takes in the first 29 verses, but I have printed only the first eight. But these give us the outline which will be ‘coloured in’ later in the chapter.

We see the mercy and goodness of God in that, once the people have truly repented, and put away the sin from the camp, they experience again the abundant blessing of God. Freshly chastened, they are spiritually sensitive to the Lord’s instructions, and as they obey Him they are again ‘winners’. Wiersbe points out that in this case it is the people of Ai who are presumptuous, to their own cost.

God’s strategy is not always identical. We need to hear His voice in each ‘fight’ we come to. But may we again recognise the futility of thinking we know best and of pursuing our own course.

‘The restrictions as to the spoil which had been in force and which had led to Achan’s undoing were now removed. God often tests us before allowing us to enjoy. Certain injunctions or prohibitions may be given to prove us; but are removed when our lesson is learned, Deuteronomy 8:2.’ F.B. Meyer