By Tom Thomas –
“If a house is divided against itself, it cannot stand.” Mk 3:25
Moses’ leading of the chosen people was exemplary. On Joshua’s turn to lead the people to the Promised Land, we see some missteps. Indeed, there was a long transition period for Joshua to assimilate the leadership qualities of Moses. There were many instances similar to the experiences of each other which they faced.
Yet, in the first episode of defeat that Joshua faced, regarding the Conquest of Ai, we find a defeated and dejected Joshua complaining to the Lord. This situation comes after the great victory in Jericho that Joshua led, achieving almost the impossible, including having the entire chosen people cross the mighty Jordan River in its full flow.
Josh 7:6-9 gives details of Joshua’s despondency. “Why have you brought these people across the Jordan, at all… to destroy us?” It is significant that the first word in Joshua Chapter 7 starts with ‘But”. The first verse contains the reason for the initial defeat of the Chosen People at Ai.
Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, had secretly kept one of the forbidden items from Jericho, when they were supposed to have destroyed everything except for Rahab the harlot and her family.
The important lesson to draw from this is that even one man’s disobedience and covetousness can affect the course of the entire outcome of an event. This was pointed out by the Lord to Joshua in subsequent parts of Josh 7:10-16 and what was needed to be done for redemption. The offending person and his family and all he owned were to have been found out and rooted out or destroyed completely. This strikes one as a rather harsh punishment, considering that Achan ultimately did confess ( Josh 7: 20-21 “ .. I saw… I coveted..” We can compare this analogy to that of sin of a particular nature which prevents us from reaching that state of Grace, it needs to be rooted out completely, there is no other way. However, could we consider this incident as a failure in leadership of Joshua, in not having 100% of his team completely follow the directions in the conquest of Jericho?
Sin cannot be hidden and will be uncovered ultimately. Numerous Scriptural verses tell us this. One such verse is Jer 16:17-18 “For my eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from my presence, nor is their iniquity concealed from my sight.” On reading through Josh 7:16-26 we read that Achan was ultimately found out as the person who had committed the sin and his entire family was destroyed. The subsequent conquest of Ai by Joshua and his team as described in Chapter 8 was successful because they wholly and completely followed the Lord.
We are all leaders in some form or the other. It is wise to learn from these incidents in the Bible that in achieving an objective, we (and this means every member of the team) need to commit ourselves wholeheartedly to the Direction of the Lord as revealed to the Leader and follow that without any deviation. Then victory will be truly ours as the Lord will be with us in our battles.
“Do not fear or dismayed……for the battle is not yours, but God’s (2Chro. 20:15)