The Lesson of Ai Joshua 7:1-5, NIV But the Israelites acted unfaithfully in regard to the devoted things; Achan son of Carmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them. So the LORD's anger burned against Israel. Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth Aven to the east of Bethel, and told them, “Go up and spy out the region.” So the men went up and spied out Ai. When they returned to Joshua, they said, “Not all the people will have to go up against Ai. Send two or three thousand men to take it and do not weary all the people, for only a few men are there.” So about three thousand men went up; but they were routed by the men of Ai who killed about thirty-six of them. They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries and struck them down on the slopes. At this the hearts of the people melted and became like water. I would like to share the grace of God under the title, “The Lesson of Ai,” based on Joshua 7:1-5. Please repeat after me, “The Lesson of Ai. The Lesson of Ai.” Things don’t always go well or smoothly in our lives. Just as we have sunny days and rainy days, unexpected trouble will also come to us from time to time. We sometimes fail. The Israelites crossed the Jordan River by God’s miracle. They obeyed God’s word and marched around Jericho once a day for six days and seven times on the seventh day. Then the walls of Jericho collapsed. They experienced God’s miracle. They became confident. They burst with pride when they were going to attack Ai, a small town about 16 kilometers northwest of Jericho. Since Ai was a small city with a population of about 12,000, the Israelites thought it would be easy to attack and conquer Ai. However, they failed in their attack. It was a shocking defeat. They had conquered Jericho without laying a hand on it, but they were routed by the men of Ai, such a small city. The Ai men chased and struck the Israelite soldiers and killed many of them. The Scripture says that the hearts of the people melted and became like water at this defeat. Why did they failure so miserably? I pray that we will listen to the voice of the Lord through the lesson of Ai. 1. Achan’s sin. First, I want to speak about Achan’s sin. The Israelites were defeated, because there was someone who violated God’s command. When God sent them to conquer Jericho, God prohibited them from taking anything for themselves from the city. Joshua 6:17 says, “The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the LORD.” However, Achan disobeyed God’s word and hid some treasure for himself. Joshua 7:1 says, “But the Israelites acted unfaithfully in regard to the devoted things; Achan son of Carmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them. So the LORD’s anger burned against Israel.” God was angry because of Achan’s sin. The sin of one person brought great suffering to all of the Israelites. It is like the sin that took root in all humankind because of Adam. Romans 5:12 says, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.” Romans 5:19 also says, “For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.” Each person is important to God. When each of us obeys God’s will, devoting ourselves to the Lord, He will bless us with His grace, blessings, and miracles. On the other hand, when one of us sins, turning against the Lord and disobeying Him, problems may arise in our homes, workplaces, and in the whole community. We must remember how important each person is. Achan coveted some treasure in the plunder, took it, and hid it. In Joshua 7:21, Achan said, “When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.” Achan stole a beautiful robe from Babylonia, and silver and gold, and hid them in the ground inside his tent. Since Babylonia was a highly developed country at that time, it produced beautiful robes. Achan became greedy when he looked at such a beautiful robe. He also took some silver and gold. Two hundred shekels of silver amounts to 2.3 kilograms, and fifty shekels of gold amounts to 575 grams. Greed itself was the problem. Colossians 3:5 says, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.” We must get rid of greed. Since Achan became greedy, he stole what was devoted to God and hid it. It brought God’s judgment on all of the Israelites. Something similar happened in the early Christian Church. According to the Book of Acts, Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, sold their possessions. I believe it was quite a lot. They must have felt regret, giving it all to God. So they took some of it to the apostle Peter, hiding the rest, and said, “This is all.” God judged them, and Ananias and Sapphira were killed on the spot. We must remember that God did not allow sin to enter into His plan to purify His Church. There is nothing we can hide from God. The word “Achan” contains the meaning “trouble”. Sin brings trouble to people. This is a characteristic of sin. Sin brings trouble not only to the sinner but also to the other people around him. In Joshua 7:25, Joshua said, “Why have you brought this trouble on us? The LORD will bring trouble on you today.” Why are we troubled and distressed? It is because of sin. When sin enters into our hearts, we will feel depressed. We will feel pain. We suffer and are in despair. Because of the sin of a single man, Achan, the Israelites were defeated by the men of Ai. They were deeply dismayed. Achan’s sin also brought judgment on his whole family as well. His family was taken to the Valley of Achor and was stoned there. Their possessions were burned. We must remember that the sin of a single person brought destruction on his family, causing great damage to his people. Sin should be cut off from the very beginning. Sin is habitual. When people sin, they are likely to sin again and again until they are trapped by it and until they are unable to come out of it. We must remember that even a trifle thing may cause a huge result. We have a Korean saying that a habit at the age of three will continue until the age of 80. There is another saying that a needle thief will make a cow thief. When we ignore small sin because it is small, it will become bigger and bigger to trap us, putting us into utter hopelessness. Therefore, we must condemn and get rid of sin. Find the Achan in your life, and stone it. Just as the Israelites burned all of Achan’s possessions, we must also burn all the remnants of Achan with the fire of the Holy Spirit. What kind of Achan do you have in your hearts? Do you have grudges, complaints, pride, or debauchery? I urge you to burn them all with the fire of the Holy Spirit. What is a Christian life? It is to live in accordance with the Word of the Lord. When we obey the Word of God, He will change our surroundings into a garden of blessings like the promised land of Canaan, flowing with milk and honey. 2. Joshua’s carelessness and pride. The second thing we have to remember is Joshua’s carelessness and pride. The Israelites were defeated in their battle with Ai, not only because Achan had sinned, but also because Joshua had been careless and proud. They did not listen to God when they sent their troops to Ai, quite different from what they had done at Jericho. Joshua sent spies and, based on the report of the spies, made a decision by himself to send the soldiers there. Joshua 7:3 says, “When they returned to Joshua, they said, ‘Not all the people will have to go up against Ai. Send two or three thousand men to take it and do not weary all the people, for only a few men are there.’” The spies reported, “Ai is a small city. Not all the people have to go up against it. Send two or three thousand men to take it. We will easily conquer it.” What did they do when they destroyed Jericho? They trusted in the Lord completely and absolutely. They listened to the word of God and obeyed. They got up early in the morning and marched around as God had told them. The Lord told them to march around Jericho for seven days and they obeyed. God told them to put the ark of the covenant ahead of them and they obeyed. God told them to march around the city seven times on the seventh day and to shout. They did exactly what they had been told to do. When they went up to Ai, however, there is no record in the Scripture about them listening to God’s word. There is no record about their prayer. There is no record about them getting up early, either. They were possessed by pride and thought lightly about Ai. They sent their men without trusting in God. As a result, they failed. Their failure partly resulted from their pride. Pride is a dreadful thing. Even though it was God who destroyed Jericho, they thought, “We conquered Jericho.” They intercepted God’s glory. They thought, “We can easily make Ai fall.” Pride is putting oneself in God’s place. Problems arise from pride, leading to destruction. Since the Israelites trusted in themselves instead of trusting in God, and since they followed their own ideas, they were bound to fail. We should not forget that it is we?not Ai?who will collapse from the moment we stop trusting in God. We are likely to become proud when we forget God’s grace. Even though everything is done due to God’s grace, after some great thing has been achieved, people tend to think that they did it. However, those who have deeply experienced God’s grace are not proud. When we come to know God’s grace intimately, we realize that everything came from God, thanks to His grace. We cannot accomplish anything by ourselves. When we earnestly seek God’s grace, becoming completely broken, we can dwell in the grace of God continuously. Paul the apostle was a great servant of the Lord. After experiencing the grace of God, however, he confessed that he was no better than the abnormally born and that he was the worst among all sinners. 1 Corinthians 15:8 says, “And last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.” 1 Timothy 1:15 says, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners?of whom I am the worst.” “I am the worst sinner,” said Paul the apostle. Since Paul had experienced the enormous grace of God, he was confessing, “I am the worst among all sinners. I thank the God for adopting me, such a worthless sinner, as His child and for appointing me as an apostle. Everything is according to His grace.” 1 Corinthians 15:10 says, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them?yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” Paul said that he was what he was by the grace of God. This shows a perfect example of humility. We must also confess, “By the grace of God I am what I am. Although I am weak and incapable, I thank the Lord that He has chosen me and helped me do some great things. I give glory to the Lord.” The lesson we get from Ai is that we need to be very careful when something goes well, when we have great success, or when we are enormously blessed. We need to be more careful when we prosper. We need to be more humble when our business goes smoothly and splendidly. Even though we attribute our success to God, we are apt to be delusional, thinking, “I am so smart to have such a successful business. I have done so well.” We are forgetting the grace of God, putting ourselves in God’s place. We must be very careful after we have finished a long term of fasting. We need to be careful when things go well or when we are promoted to a higher position. What are the tactics of the devil? His sliest tactic is to put pride in our minds when we are on top. 1 Corinthians 10:12 says, “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” It you think you are standing firm, be careful that you do not fall. We should be spiritually awake and humble ourselves, so that we will not put ourselves in God’s place. There are biblical characters that fell when they thought they stood firm. Samson was the most dramatic one. He was very strong. He was a Nazirite from birth. The Spirit of the Lord was upon him, and he gained victory in every battle with the Philistines. He killed a thousand Philistine men with a donkey’s jawbone. Then he became proud and careless. While he was sleeping on Delilah’s lap, a pagan woman, his head was shaved, his eyes were gouged out, and he was sent to grinding in the prison. Why did these things happen? It was because Samson was careless. When we are successful, when things go well, and when we prosper, we should remember it is time for us to humble ourselves and give thanks to the Lord. We must be broken and humble in order for God to use us. We have to remember that we are going to receive only failure and hopelessness if we neglect to pray or when we become proud. But if we pray, “Lord, forgive me. I have sinned,” repenting of our sins, God will give us a second chance. Joshua was careless after crossing the Jordan River and after destroying Jericho. The human mind is like a reed. We are likely to forget God’s grace when we are prosperous. Therefore, when we encounter trouble, we must examine ourselves and repent of our sins. I pray that you will stand before the Lord again with confidence after correcting yourselves. 3. A leader who prays to God. Third, I want to speak about a leader who prays to God. When Israel failed in their attack on Ai, they were so dismayed that their hearts melted and became like water. Then Joshua tore his clothes and prostrated himself before the ark of the covenant, repenting and praying. Joshua 7:6 says, “Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown to the ground before the ark of the LORD, remaining there till evening. The elders of Israel did the same, and sprinkled dust on their heads.” The Scripture says that Joshua fell facedown to the ground. By falling facedown to the ground before the Lord, Joshua prayed most earnestly and humbly. The Scripture says that they sprinkled dust on their heads. By sprinkling dust on their heads, they were confessing that they were nothing more than dust. They remained there, praying for a long time. I want you to fall facedown to the ground before the Lord. I want you to be broken and humble. And I want you to pray to the Lord for a long time?until you receive God’s answer. We must fall facedown to the ground before the Cross of our Lord Jesus when we have sinned, when we have failed, and when we are in trouble. We must cry out to the Lord and ask for His help, tearing our hearts and sprinkling dust on our heads. We must pray, “Lord, have mercy on me. I am like Achan. Forgive me, Lord.” There was a competent worker in a lumber company. He was an excellent employee with a promising future. One day, however, when he reported to work, he found a letter of termination of employment on his desk. He became furious. He could not believe how his company could let go of such a competent worker like himself without prior notice. Since he was so outrageously furious, he wanted to take revenge on the company and the CEO. He wanted to build another lumber company in front of his old company because he knew all about lumber, but he did not have enough money to do so. He tried to do something during the subsequent several months but failed. He lost all his possessions. He became hopeless. One day, he came home and said to his wife, “Honey, I am hopeless. I cannot live anymore. I will end my life. There is nothing I can do. I have lost everything.” His wife said, “There is one thing that you have not tried. Why don’t you kneel down and pray to God? Let us cry out to the Lord as a last effort.” Her words impressed him greatly. They knelt down before the Lord and prayed together. They repented of their sins. When they began to pray, the anger and hatred against his company and the CEO disappeared. He began to have new dreams. He stood up from hopelessness. He started a construction business and it went very well. He built a hotel and it was a huge success. He began building hotels throughout the US and all over the world. They are Holiday Inn Hotels. His name was Kemmons Wilson, founder of the hotel chain. By falling facedown before the Lord at the place of hopelessness, he stood up again miraculously, because the Lord helped him. When we are in trouble, it is time for us to fall facedown before the Lord. It is time for us to ask for God’s help. When we earnestly pray to God, He will hear our prayers and answer them. Hannah was sterile and prayed earnestly at the temple with tears for a child. God heard her prayers and gave Samuel to her. God blessed her with three more sons and two daughters. When Paul and Silas prayed in prison, suddenly there was a violent earthquake. At once, all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose. When Elijah prayed, it had not rained on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain. James 5:17-18 says, “Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.” God hears all our prayers and answers each and every one of them. He works wonders. He answers our prayers. He performs miracles. Whenever we fall facedown before the Lord, He attentively hears our prayers. Therefore, we must pray to God, repenting of our sins. Psalm 34:18 says, “The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” Jeremiah 33:3 says, “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” When we become broken and pray to God with repentance, God will give us a second chance. 4. God gives us a second chance. Finally, I want to speak about God who gives us a second chance. When Joshua prayed God spoke to him. Joshua 7:10 says, “The LORD said to Joshua, ‘Stand up! What are you doing down on your face?’ ” The Lord speaks to us when we are at the place of hopelessness. He says, “Rise up! I will be with you. I will show you a new way. I will make you prosper.” He speaks to us when we fall facedown in hopelessness, “Rise up from the place of hopelessness and sorrow.” Then God pointed out the sin of Israel. Joshua 7:11 says, “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.” Then the Lord told them to consecrate themselves and wait for the following day. Verse 13 says, “Go, consecrate the people. Tell them, ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow; for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: That which is devoted is among you, O Israel. You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove it.’ ” Here, ‘tomorrow’ means the future of victory, blessing, and miracles that God has prepared. What kind of trouble are you in? A tomorrow of great blessing is waiting for you. Do not despair. God tells us to consecrate ourselves in preparation for the tomorrow of God’s blessings. This is our first priority. We must get rid of the Achan in our lives. Only then can we have the tomorrow of God’s blessings. Do you have an Achan of greed, an Achan of unbelief, an Achan of grudges and complaints, or an Achan of debauchery? Get rid of all the Achans in your lives. The Lord says, “Repent and consecrate yourselves and wait for the tomorrow of blessing and miracles.” When we consecrate ourselves, repenting of our sins, the bright future of God’s blessing and miracles will open up for us. The Israelites stoned Achan and his family and burned all their possessions, obeying God’s word. Then God opened their tomorrow of miracles. Joshua 8:1-2 says, “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. 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.’ ” Before, they had been told not to keep the plunder from Jericho, but now they could carry off their plunder. This signifies that we must first devote something to God. We must first give tithe to God. We must first give thanks, joy, and our lives to God. Then God will add His blessings to what we already have. Never steal what belongs to God. Our obedience guarantees victory, miracles, and blessings for us. When Joshua obeyed God’s word, God blessed him with wonderful miracles and blessings. God taught him a military scheme of operation about how to attack Ai. Joshua 8:6-7 says, “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, you are to rise up from ambush and take the city. The LORD your God will give it into your hand.” I want you to trust in the Lord even with the smallest things. When we pray to God, listen to His Word, and act according to His Word, He will work among us. God commanded Joshua, and Joshua commanded the Israelites. They obeyed God’s word and conquered Ai. God gives us a second chance even when we fall facedown filled with failure and sin. One failure does not mean the end. It provides another beginning. The Lord works on us and pours His grace upon us when we come back to the Lord, repenting of our sins. The Lord says, “Put an end to your past failures, and start a new beginning. Rise up again.” What kind of trouble are you in? What kind of problems do you have? Repent, and rise up again. Challenge once more. There is no such thing as an eternal failure or eternal hopelessness in our lives, because the Lord Jesus Christ is our eternal hope. Peter was a fisherman. He had worked hard all night and had not caught anything. Jesus told him to put out into deep water, and Peter obeyed and let down the nets. Then he caught a large number of fish that filled both his boat and his friend’s. Peter’s failure turned out to be God’s blessing. When we become broken, obeying the Word of the Lord, the same miracles will happen to us today. I heard about Golestan Palace, a beautiful palace in Teheran. The walls of the palace entrance are decorated with pieces of glass, reflecting light in all directions in various colors when lit. However, the beauty of the palace illustrates a lesson in the failure of the broken glass. When they built the palace, they shipped the glass from France. The glass arrived, but much of it was shattered due to shipping mistakes. They were going to reorder the glass from France, but it was going to delay the construction considerably. One person had an idea, and he said, “Let us break the glass into small pieces and cover all the walls.” His suggestion was accepted. They covered the ceiling and walls with tiny pieces of glass. When they turned on the light, the glass pieces shone like precious jewels, and it made the palace more beautiful. The person who had the idea was only an apprentice. He used to work in a tailor shop, but he was participating in the construction of the palace as an apprentice. When he was working in the tailor shop, he used to put leftover pieces of fabric together to make various things, and they were beautiful. Inspired by the pieces of fabric, he made a suggestion to use the broken glass pieces to finish the beautiful palace. Their failure, because of the broken glass, brought about an even more beautiful result. There is no such thing as failure for Christians. Since Jesus has brought eternal victory through His death on the Cross, miracles and blessings will come to us when we march forward with faith in the Lord, even in the utmost despair or trouble. We can find many failures behind all success. We are competing in the World Baseball Classic games. We win some games and lose some. Babe Ruth was a genius baseball prayer. He made headlines in all the newspapers when he hit his 714th homerun. One reporter wrote, “He had 1330 strikeouts before setting a record of 714 homeruns.” He struck out twice as much as he hit homeruns. Even though he had many failures, he overcame them and achieved great success. Do not forget that Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony was composed when Beethoven was almost deaf. The seventh, eighth, and ninth symphonies were written when his hearing was seriously impaired. Joshua failed in his first attack on Ai, but he did not stop there because of one failure. The Israelites did not stop marching. They destroyed Ai during their second attack. Stone the Achan in your lives for a successful future. We must stone the sin of disobedience, pride, and unbelief. When we fall facedown before the Cross, repenting of our sins, and asking the Lord for His help, He will raise us up from the pile of failures and hopelessness. He will help us to destroy the Jericho and Ai that are standing before us. Do not give up. I urge you to march forward with faith, holding on to the Cross. Then victory will be yours. Let us pray. Our Father of infinite love, grace, and mercy, we give thanks to You. We have learned a lot through the failure of the Israelites at Ai. We have learned that we will have problems and failures when we do not listen to Your Word and when we do not pray, being careless and proud. Help us not to dwell in our failures even if we fail. Help us to repent of our sins with humility, stand up again, and open a new future of hope. Help us to cast out all our failures at the Cross and rise up again. Pour Your grace upon us so that we may march forward toward the future of Your glory. Help us attack and destroy the Ai ahead of us. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.